| Flickr.com/Alden Chadwick. |
Regular marijuana use can reduce the risk of developing diabetes, according to new research published in the American Journal of Medicine.
The study shows that marijuana users have better blood sugar control, lower levels of insulin and much thinner waistlines than non-users. All that despite the munchies.
If the state allows people to use medical marijuana, they should also allow those patients to drive so long as they aren’t impaired. That’s the gist of a law currently making its way through the Nevada legislature that would exempt medical marijuana patients from laws prohibiting drivers from having any marijuana – active or inactive – in their systems.
| Wikimedia.com |
| The bladder. |
All of what you take into your body comes out somewhere, and that somewhere is often in your urine. Gross thought, but it has some major health implications when it comes to carcinogens like cigarettes and other tobacco products that can increase your risk of bladder cancer.
But that doesn’t seem to be the case cannabis according to a recent Kaiser Permanente study in Los Angeles. In fact, the good herb might lower your risk of developing such problems.
An Illinois Senate committee voted 10-5 Wednesday to move House Bill 1 to the full Senate for a vote, despite a push from law enforcement to shut down the bill.
As it stands now, the bill creates a four-year pilot program would allow qualified patients and primary caregivers to purchase and possess up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana every two weeks from a state-regulated medical marijuana center.
| New Hampshire state house. |
Thanks to pressure from Gov. Maggie Hassan, a New Hampshire Senate health committee stripped provisions of proposed state medical marijuana laws allowing patents to cultivate their own supply. The committee also removed post-traumatic stress disorder from the list of qualifying conditions.
With the amendments, New Hampshire looks poised to join the 19 other states and Washington D.C. in allowing doctors to recommend medical cannabis to patients, who can legally possesses and use the herb.
| Wikipedia commons. |
Not that there isn’t already some amateur cannabis research going on in Arizona college dorm rooms and student houses, but as of today formal cannabis research is now allowed at universities across the Grand Canyon state.
Gov. Jan Brewer today gave her signature to a law allowing cannabis research at Arizona universities. Schools can now research cannabis so long as the university receives federal permission from the DEA.
The California Supreme Court unanimously ruled earlier today that cities and municipalities in that state can outright ban medical marijuana dispensaries.
The decision centers around the Inland Empire Patient’s Health and Wellness Center, which was shut down by the city last year after the city declared the dispensary a public nuisance. The court today ruled the city was within it’s legal rights to do it, opening the doors for all other cities in the state to ban medical marijuana shops if they want.
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Eleven Seattle-area medical marijuana shops were told to shut down by the Drug Enforcement Administration for being within 1,000 feet of schools. The letters take a similar tactic to one federal agents used in 2011 and 2012 in Washington and other states.
“The DEA enforces federal drug laws and these letters have nothing to do with any pending legislation or state law,” a DEA spokeswoman told the Seattle Times .
| Minnesota state house. |
Two identical medical marijuana bills were introduced to the Minnesota House and Senate today, opening the door for a serious discussion on allowing marijuana for approved medical conditions in that state.
The bills would not only allow patients to grow and possess cannabis, but it would also create a medical marijuana dispensary system regulated by the state health department. The law would also allow reciprocity with medical marijuana patients from other states so long as their license is current.
Maryland is set to be the 19th state to approve of a state medical marijuana program after Gov. Martin O’Malley announced earlier today that he would be signing the bill at a ceremony tomorrow.
While it sounds great – and no doubt will provide medical benefit to some patients – the program is arguably the strictest in the country and probably won’t start serving patients until at least 2016 according to the Marijuana Policy Project.