Search Results: medical-marijuana-patient (49)

To get around the guardrails surrounding marijuana research, Philadelphia’s Thomas Jefferson University wants to create a network of 100,000 medical marijuana patients in order to collect definitive information about the plant. Founded “to advance scientific understanding of medical marijuana and its derivatives” by providing evidence-based resources for patients and caregivers, the new mmj.org initiative is working to build the world’s largest database of patients.

Scientists hoping to research marijuana in a clinical setting currently have one option for specimens: the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which sources its marijuana plants from a single contractor at the University of Mississippi. Not only have those plants been criticized for their inferior quality, but the list of authorized marijuana research projects stuck using them is extremely short, with each requiring approval from the Drug Enforcement and Food and Drug administrations.

Target’s online store stopped selling hemp oil containing cannabidiol, a cannabis extract, on Thursday in the wake of concerns by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency about the products.

CW Hemp, makers of Charlotte’s Web high-cannabidiol (CBD), low-THC extract oil, announced Thursday morning that its products could be purchased through the retail giant’s website. The Phoenix New Times has the story.

Among those at the center of an unprecedented lawsuit filed against Attorney General Jeff Sessions over federal scheduling of marijuana is Alexis Bortell, eleven, who had to move with her family from Texas to the Colorado community of Larkspur in order to legally use medical cannabis, which has eliminated the epileptic seizures she regularly suffered. She represents a group of patients that her lawyer, Michael Hiller, describes as “medical marijuana refugees.”

The Massachusetts Supreme Court has ruled that a company acted improperly when it fired medical marijuana patient Cristina Barbuto after she tested positive for pot. The Colorado Supreme Court reached the opposite conclusion in an analogous 2015 case, determining that DISH had the right to dismiss paralyzed MMJ patient Brandon Coats following his own positive test for cannabis. And while the Barbuto finding won’t directly impact the Colorado case, Coats’s lawyer sees a trend toward granting more patient protections here and in other medical marijuana states.

Remember when 72 percent of Floridians voted to usher in a new era of open access to medical marijuana? That triumphant moment for medical weed was just in November, but for Florida patients this morning, it feels like a lifetime ago.

Late this past Friday, a bill to regulate the new weed industry imploded in Tallahassee. Then medical marijuana’s two biggest champions — über-lawyer John Morgan and United for Care campaign consultant Ben Pollara — viciously turned on each other in a spicy Twitter beef.

Now the fate of medical marijuana access lies in the hands of Gov. Rick Scott’s Department of Health, which has already signaled it will enact even more restrictive rules. The whole situation is likely to end up in court, meaning hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars will be wasted — and patients, in the meantime, still won’t have the easy access to marijuana that voters overwhelmingly backed in November.
HBO via YouTube17

HBO’s Last Week Tonight With John Oliver, which has become the go-to spot for what is essentially investigative comedy, devoted the lion’s share of its latest episode to a shredding of current federal marijuana laws. And among the stories Oliver used to illustrate his points were several from Colorado.

Central to Oliver’s thesis was the tale of Brandon Coats, whom we first introduced you to back in 2012. That year, as we’ve reported, Coats, a paralyzed medical marijuana patient fired by DISH for failing a drug test, filed a complaint over the issue in Arapahoe District Court. When he lost there, attorney Michael Evans took the case to the Colorado Court of Appeals, where jurists also rejected Coats’s argument. Evans, though, wasn’t ready to give up. He subsequently submitted what he described to us as a final document in an effort to get the Colorado Supreme Court to take on the matter — and in January 2014, the jurists agreed to do so.

The president-elect may not be a hardliner, but he’s surrounded himself with them.

Here’s your daily round-up of pot-news, excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek

The all-but-final Election Day tally is California, Massachusetts, Nevada and Maine legalized REC, whileFlorida, Arkansas, and North Dakota legalized MED.

Arizona rejected a REC measure. Montanans voted to allow a MED industry, though it remains contentious.

Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson (R), a legalization opponent and former DEA chief, said the process requires federal input. “It’s an example of the states innovating in a risky area, and certainly the states are leading on this, but we’re to a point that the federal government is going to have to readdress this,” he said. “This does not call for a state-by-state solution, it calls for … a national solution.”

This is an early indication that the cannabis industry will be harder for the Donald Trump administration to ignore than it was for the Obama administration.

Vice president elect Mike Pence (R) has replaced New Jersey Governor Chris Christie as head of Trump’s transition team. Both are known for their hardline stances against legalization, as is former New York City Mayor, Rudy Giuliani, a possible attorney general in the administration.

Several pieces speculate on what a Trump presidency means for legalization. Here are three:  The Cannabist, MJBiz, Reveal (Center for Investigative Reporting).

Drug Policy Alliance head Ethan Nadelmann said, “the federal government retains the power to hobble much of what we’ve accomplished…The progress we’ve made … will be very much at risk when Donald Trump enters the White House.”

Vivian Azer, a stock analyst with Cowen, predicts cannabis will be a low priority for Trump.

Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D.-Ore.), probably pot’s best friend in Congress, said he thinks the industry’s priorities for banking and tax reform could both pass a Republican Congress under President Trump.

 

The flag of New Mexico

It’s for her sick child.

The following is excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek. Get your free and confidential subscription at WeedWeek.net.

New Mexico mom Nicole Nuñez is suing the state over “arbitrary” supply limits. Nuñez’s eight month old daughter has a seizure disorder. A Michigan judge ruled that seedlings count as plants.

The four Colorado doctors suspended for overprescribing large plant counts will have to go through administrative hearings to try and get their licenses reinstated.  A judge tossed out a lawsuit they filed.

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