Fueled by CBD product sales and Canada’s recent legalization of marijuana, the world’s cannabis market could total $14.9 billion in 2019, up 36% from 2018, according to a new report released Thursday.
On Wednesday, House lawmakers explored efforts to ease rules and boost small business owners in the legal cannabis industry. During the hearing before the House Committee, workers from the cannabis industry discussed the financial and legal obstacles they face while running their small businesses.
In the US, the largest increase in cannabis use was seen in the older adult population. And with medical cannabis reducing pain associated with work, researchers wonder if cannabis could postpone retirement plans and enhance the US labor supply. https://www.greenentrepreneur.com/article/335478
Benjamin Caplan, MDThere’s Growing Evidence Cannabis Helps Older Adults Keep Their Jobs for Years Longer
Despite a poll showing that the majority of New Yorkers support legalization, lawmakers could not agree on a handful of key components of the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA), thus deciding not to pass the bill.
Here, an excellent example of how valuable it is for scientific literature to be read critically and thoughtfully. When reporters read, or extract, or convey only partial conclusions, it is all-too-easy for consumers to absorb an incomplete, undigested message. As consumers of journalism, the public deserves a more knowledgeable understanding. Here (http://bit.ly/2KV0jeG), Forbes (Mike Adams) conveys an unfortunate lack of deep consideration in the reporting. Thankfully, a brief quote is conveyed by Dr. Koturbash, who “was quick to point out that the CBD products coming to market may not pose this particular risk” – but this stone-throw of even-handedness falls short to appropriately balance an article already dripping with misgivings and incomplete evaluation of the material at hand.
For a more layered view of the science, the word “gavage,” as was applied to the mice in the study, describes force-feeding animals with a tube down their throats, often taped to mouths which are then kept gaping open. This is meant to simulate the biological processes of eating (different from giving meds IV, for example.) There is no regard to the stress that this process causes the animals, as they are treated as though they are biological CBD-processing machines. In the days where many people are taking 10mg pills of CBD per day, the amounts of CBD that were force-fed to these animals in this study, if translated to humans, would be 4,305mg, 12,915mg, and 43,050mg over 10 days, or 17,220mg, 51,660mg, and 172,200mg in one-shot doses.) For reference, these days, most dispensaries sell CBD in doses of 10mg, 20mg, up to 2-300mg.)
In the study, the authors suggest that they allow animals to eat “ad libitum,” as if to convey that they are treated with a buffet. And yet, the animals being stuffed with 43,050mg (human equivalent) of CBD still lost weight, while others (given 172,200mg (human equivalent) had uneven weight distribution.) To any reader considering these values critically, it must seem absurd to make conclusions about the actions of CBD as what is causing these effects, as if the fact of over-stuffing itself has no impact at all.
An analogy to this study: If you add 17,000 cars (or 172,000!) to a tunnel on the way to the airport, and stuff each car full of way too many people, there might be problematic levels of concern inside that tunnel.
Let’s hope to see more even-handed consideration and reporting from Forbes, in the future.
Here, another study that shows very different results. Instead of overstuffing mice w/ unrealistic amounts, if one administers CBD at sensible doses in the same population of mice, it turns out that CBD could directly reduce alcohol drinking, improve healthy processes in the liver, and alcohol-related brain damage…
“CBD reduces alcohol-related steatosis & fibrosis in the liver by reducing lipid accumulation, stimulating autophagy, modulating inflammation, reducing oxidative stress, & by inducing death of activated hepatic stellate cells” This new study:
Another study with promising results for the use of cannabis to treat chronic pain and fibromyalgia-related symptoms. A large majority of participants reported improved sleep, depression-related symptoms, quality of life and over 20% stopped or reduced the dosage of opioids. https://prn.to/2KXUQUe
In a study of 661, 617 pregnant women, researchers found that cannabis use was significantly associated with an increased risk of preterm birth. But these findings may be limited due to other risk factors like tobacco, alcohol, and opioid use.
Medical Marijuana in the Pediatric Population With Epilepsy—What You Should Know
A recent review has discussed the known benefits of treating children who are suffering from epilepsy with cannabis-based medicine. Medical marijuana (MM) is a viable option for treating this population that comes with risks due to the high that comes from THC and its legal status as a Schedule 1 drug. The legal status is currently preventing larger scale research to be done so that physicians can better educate parents on how to care for a child taking MM.
Researchers published a literature review that investigates the relationship between cannabis and sleep. They examined six major sleeping disorders: insomnia, sleep apnea, REM behavior disorder, nightmares, sleep with chronic pain, and daytime sleepiness.
They found that THC might worsen daytime sleepiness and delayed onset of sleep; however, THC might help patients who suffer from sleep apnea and nightmares. Meanwhile, CBD might reduce daytime sleepiness and insomnia while increasing the total amount of sleep.
Especially in Colorado and Washington, people are taking note of teens’ use and access to potent marijuana, and many are concerned that there are not enough measures in place to prevent this. Newly legalized states should look into this before it becomes a national issue. https://wapo.st/2Fgmto9
Benjamin Caplan, MDHow to prevent inappropriate teen use?