Every day millions of people battle with social and daily anxiety. It’s something more and more people are speaking up about, which is a strong and beautiful thing. Depression and anxiety is not to be ashamed of: It’s to be talked about.
Taking antidepressants is something I chose to do a few years ago, because medicine and therapy work. But I didn’t want to rely on pills such as Xanax for anxiety, so I looked elsewhere. The research in how marijuana affects mental health is extremely rare, but has picked up some traction recently as caretakers deal with troops suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. We know of the many benefits cannabis has in regard to physical health, but could it have the same effect on the brain?
One of the country’s most well-known think tanks is calling out United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions for his repressive attitude toward cannabis, particularly medical marijuana. On October 25, the Brookings Institution published an essay criticizing Sessions for his “biases on the issue, a division of opinion between him and the president he serves, and a federal government effort to stand in the way of the free conduct of research” with regard to growing medical marijuana for research purposes.
Growing and processing industrial hemp has become a big business as barriers break down in states with legalized cannabis. Now one Boulder laboratory is starting a study with a university agriculture program to learn more about desirable hemp genetics, much as that program has studied grapes for the wine industry.
One of the challenges of the campaign to legalize cannabis across the country is the lack of benchmark data that compares social-health issues before and after states legalize pot. Now the University of Colorado hopes to fill in some of those gaps with a long-term study on groups of test subjects with very similar makeups: twins.
Dear Stoner: I see hemp oil advertised in soap, lotions, etc. Is all of that the same as CBD oil? Sooo many oils…
Bella
Public opinion of cannabis has shifted rapidly over the past five years; since Coloradans voted to legalize recreational marijuana in November 2012, seven other states and Washington, D.C., have also voted to legalize cannabis for adult use. And the rest of the country apparently approves, according to a new Gallup poll that shows Americans favor legalization at a higher rate than ever before.
The effects of legalized cannabis on Colorado are still being debated, but the state’s top health official believes that we’ve been pretty responsible about this pot thing. Dr. Larry Wolk has been the chief medical officer and executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment since 2013, a period that includes the state’s implementation of regulated adult-use cannabis in 2014, and he’s confident enough about the process that he’s telling other states and even countries that not only has the sky not fallen in Colorado, but we’re actually doing all right.
I get a little spooked whenever I see a strain named after another drug. Ecstasy OG and Herijuana make me feel like I’m about to smoke something other than cannabis, and it’s never good to have a grimy state of mind when lighting up. LSD, however, conjures a different vision: The expanding psychedelic effects of the drug never really scared me, so maybe that’s why the strain named after it seemed more approachable than Herijuana. (If it was called “Acid,” that might be different story.)
A Navajo County judge’s recent ruling about medical-marijuana extracts could lead to popular dispensary products like vape cartridges and edibles being taken off the shelves…
The problem is that the law, which was approved narrowly by voters in 2010, includes a definition for marijuana and “any mixture or preparation thereof.” Yet Arizona’s criminal code on pot, written prior to 1960, defines both marijuana and a strange substance called “cannabis,” which comes from marijuana resin but apparently isn’t marijuana. It’s officially a “narcotic” under this old law, carrying a stiffer felony designation and penalties.
See the story in the Phoenix New Times.
As cannabis industry experts and commercialization opponents continue to warn about the big-tobacco takeover of legal pot, we know that at least one local operation doesn’t want any part of Philip Morris. “We don’t want to be Jim Beam; we’re Leopold,” explains Joe Patierno, general manager of Kush Concentrates.