Mj news for 07/16/2015

[7greeneyes]

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_28487952/colorado-board-votes-no-allowing-medical-pot-ptsd

Colorado board votes no on allowing medical marijuana for PTSD​

The Colorado Board of Health voted 6-2 — amid shouts, hisses and boos from a packed house — not to add post-traumatic stress disorder to the medical conditions that can be treated under the state's medical marijuana program.

The board voted Wednesday against the recommendation of the state's chief medical officer.

A dozen of the veterans who testified said cannabis has saved their lives. Many said drugs legally prescribed to them for PTSD at veterans clinics or by other doctors — antidepressants, antipsychotics, opioids and others — nearly killed them or robbed them of quality of life.

"It is our brothers and sisters who are committing suicide every day. We know cannabis can help. We're not going to go away," said John Evans, director of Veterans 4 Freedoms.

"We've legalized it," Evans said. "We'll take the tax dollars from our tourists (for recreational marijuana) before we'll help our vets."

The president of the nine-member board, Tony Cappello, an epidemiologist, said he could not vote to approve pot's use for PTSD because scientific evidence does not support it. Most board members agreed that mountains of anecdotal evidence aren't enough. One board member was absent.

"I'm struggling with the science piece," board member Dr. Christopher Stanley said.

The American and Colorado psychiatric associations do not support it, said board member Dr. Ray Estacio, an internist at Denver Health and associate professor in medicine at the University of Colorado Denver.

But board member Joan Sowinski, an environmental and occupational health consultant, said the testimony from veterans and other PTSD sufferers was so persuasive — as was recent research about symptoms reduction — that she could support it. Jill Hunsaker-Ryan, an Eagle County commissioner, was the only other yes vote.

"Blood is on your hands," one audience member shouted after the board voted not to make Colorado the 10th state to allow medicinal marijuana use for PTSD.

The state's chief medical officer, Dr. Larry Wolk, director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, recommended the state add the condition. He suggested a provision that would cause the issue to be re-examined in four years, after two state-funded studies produced results.

Wolk said listing PTSD as a treatable condition would increase transparency and reveal actual usage, shedding light on its effectiveness and reinforcing a physician-patient relationship for many users.

Many veterans are self-medicating with recreational marijuana or using medical marijuana ostensibly as pain treatment, although it is really for PTSD, he said.

Currently allowed uses of marijuana include pain (93 percent of recommendations), cancer, epilepsy, glaucoma, muscles spasms, multiple sclerosis, severe nausea and wasting disease (cachexia).

Dr. Doris Gundersen, a psychiatrist who spoke at the meeting, said only 4 percent to 5 percent of the state's physicians recommend medical marijuana to patients. About 15 physicians make 75 percent of the recommendations, she said. The state has roughly 14,000 licensed doctors.

"Why are so few getting on board? (Because) there is a lack of quality evidence that it is safe and effective ... and does no harm," Gundersen said.

One of the state-funded medical marijuana investigators, Sue Sisley, who is looking at effects on veterans' PTSD, said federal policy on marijuana is a prime reason research is scant. It will take at least four years for her study, she said, because the team has been delayed in getting the study drug, still illegal under federal law, from the authorized supplier — the U.S. government.

A few of the roughly 30 public speakers noted that what patients want — not hard science — is driving demand for expanded medicinal uses of marijuana. That's not a bad thing, advocates said.

"It is very important patients become part of this discussion," said Teri Robnett, director of the Cannabis Patients Alliance and member of the state's advisory council. "Patients are getting enormous relief."

 

[7greeneyes]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...ve-a-marijuana-growing-competition-this-year/

D.C.’s State Fair will have a marijuana growing competition this year​

It’s been five months since marijuana was legalized in D.C., and now there’s a public opportunity to show off, if you’ve been letting that liberty take root.

The D.C. State Fair — a seemingly Pinterest-inspired event showcasing the culinary, artistic and agricultural talents of the District — is adding a marijuana-growing competition to its lineup of events this year. The “Best Bud” category now joins the fair’s growing list of competitions, which already includes the honey contest, the homebrew contest, the knit and crotchet contest, the funkiest-looking vegetable contest, the pickled food contest and more. The fair also added a pet parade for the first time this year.

“Now that it’s legal for residents of the District to grow their own plants, we wanted a way to highlight this new freedom while also showing off the agricultural talents of the District’s people,” Anna Tauzin, a board member and outreach director for the fair, wrote in an e-mail. The event is held each year in September. D.C. State Fair is a nonprofit run by residents.

Each submitted marijuana plant will be judged based on four categories, according to the competition forms:

1. Appearance: Is it well-manicured? Does it have Trichomes (sparkling crystals)?

2. Odor: What does it smell like? Does it have a sweet, spicy, or murky smell?

3. Touch: Is it sticky? Does the stem snap or bend?

4. Your Story: Did you grow your plant organically? Did you use artificial light, natural light, or a combination? Was the plant grown hydroponically or in soil? All of this information and anything else you would like the judges to know should be included in the Your Story category below in the registration from.
Participants must submit one small bud, about 1 to 2 grams, from their plant in a small Mason jar.

The buds, however, will not be judged on how effectively they can get someone high and what type of high they trigger. Judges will not be sampling them because, Tauzin said, the fair will be adhering to the law. and it’s still illegal to smoke marijuana in a public space. The D.C. State Fair will be held Sept. 12 at Shaw’s Old City Farm and Guild, a public space on the 900 block of Rhode Island Avenue NW.

The judges have not yet been selected, but Tauzin assures they will all be experts of the product. Adam Eidinger — the chair of the DC Cannabis Campaign who spearheaded efforts to legalize marijuana in the city — is the volunteer coordinator for the bud event.

D.C. isn’t the only place to try to showcase marijuana at its fair. The Denver County Fair added cannabis-themed competitions last year. But, it canceled the competitions and marijuana exhibits amid controversy this year: More than a dozen people said that they were unknowingly served chocolate infused with marijuana and sued, even though actual pot was prohibited on the premises. (The fair organizer, according to the AP, said marijuana was not dropped because of this incident, but because sales at marijuana-related vendors were slow.)

Entry forms for the “Best Bud” competition must be submitted by midnight Sept. 5, and participants will be capped at 50. The judging will begin, of course, at 4:20 p.m. the day of the fair.

And what will the winner of D.C.’s first sanctioned growing competition go home with? “A beautiful blue ribbon and lots of glory, but also likely some swag items from local businesses,” Tauzin said.

 

[7greeneyes]

http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-hawaii-medical-marijuana-20150716-story.html

Hawaii to start licensing medical marijuana dispensaries​

Fifteen years after Hawaii legalized medical marijuana, the state plans to begin licensing pot dispensaries.

Until now, Hawaii’s 13,000 qualified patients had to grow their own marijuana or buy it on the black market.

Gov. David Ige signed the measure Tuesday, along with an accompanying bill that bans discrimination against medical marijuana patients. Both laws went into effect Wednesday, but it will take months for the state to draft rules to implement the licensing law.

“The bill sets a timeline,” Ige in a statement. “We will make a good-faith effort to create a fair process that will help the people most in need.”

The state’s Department of Health will develop administrative rules, including licensing application criteria and regulations, for a medical marijuana dispensary system. Applications will be accepted beginning early next year.

Hawaii will license eight dispensaries, which can begin selling medical marijuana to registered patients by November 2016, according to the Department of Health. Those who apply for licenses must have lived in Hawaii for at least five years and have at least $1 million under their control, according to the law.

Paul Armentan, deputy director of the NORML Foundation, an advocacy group working to legalize marijuana, said the financial qualifications were part of a larger trend that effectively limits licenses to those with access to venture capital.

“Whether doing so will bring about the ideal applicants to serve the patient community remains to be seen,” he said.

But Armentan added that Hawaii’s new laws had closed a legal chasm.

“I think there’s growing recognition among lawmakers that this is just common sense,” he said. “If we can agree that cannabis is therapeutic for patients, it’s only logical that we agree that it’s regulated so that patients can readily access it on a secure and safe environment.”

Carl Bergquist, executive director of the Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii, said the measure was long overdue.

“I think it allows more and more patients to get a not-too-expensive medicine and a very effective one,” Bergquist said.

Medical marijuana is legal in California and 22 other states, as well as the District of Columbia.

 

[7greeneyes]

http://news10.com/2015/07/15/medical-marijuana-company-ready-to-start-growing/

Medical marijuana companies ready to start business in NY​

ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) – Medical marijuana companies are counting down the hours.

The New York State Department of Health is expected to award five licenses any day. Empire State Health Solutions wants to turn Fulton County’s old Tryon Center into its growing facility.

The company’s CEO, Dr. Kyle Kingsley, says they’re ready to grow plants next week. They have a sister company in Minnesota that just started dispensing medical marijuana on July 1.

Dr. Kingsley says one little girl stopped having seizures after just two weeks.

“We knew exactly what we were giving patients,” he said. “We knew the physiology behind it. As physicians we knew exactly how it should work, but until you actually see it change somebody’s life, it’s not as real.”

One big challenge for medical marijuana companies, though, is banking.

The federal government still considers marijuana an illegal drug, so many banks are passing on the half-billion dollar a year industry. As a result, medical marijuana tends to be a cash only business.

“In many cases, businesses are forced to hire guards with automatic weapons to pick up the cash and store it in a secret vault,” Fiorello Pharmaceuticals CEO Ari Hoffnung said.

Fiorello Pharmaceuticals considers themselves lucky. They are vying for a state license to open a growing facility in Glenville. On Wednesday, they announced a banking partnership with SEFCU.

“Without this banking relationship in place, imagine having to pay payroll for 100-plus employees in Glenville and Schenectady County in cash,” Hoffnung said.

SEFCU released the following statement on their partnership with Fiorello Pharmaceuticals:

“Cannabis for medical purposes is being widely used to help people who are suffering to dull pain, aid sleep, stimulate appetite, and also as an analgesic, an antiemetic, a bronchodilator, and an anti-inflammatory. We are excited to have Fiorello Pharmaceutical come to the Capital Region and are pleased to have the opportunity to be their banking partner and offer services to their employees. Like Novartis or Pfizer, the legal treatments Fiorello Pharmaceuticals will be introducing to the community will help many people who are suffering from major illnesses by making their pain more manageable. They have a solid management team with extensive experience across various sectors. The Capital Region continues to attract new and innovative companies and being able to expand in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries by having Fiorello Pharmaceutical come to the area will create a positive ripple effect.”

Fiorello said it also eliminates an extra step for patients. They do not have to go to an ATM for cash every time they need to pick up a prescription.

Dr. Kingsley said he found three banks – a national bank and two based in Minnesota – that would allow him to open deposit accounts and lines of credit.

The New York State DOH said they will award the five licenses by the end of July.

 

[7greeneyes]

http://time.com/3958768/medical-marijuana-research/

Senators Feinstein and Grassley: Break Down Barriers to Medical Marijuana Research​

Dianne Feinstein is the senior senator from California and co-chairman of the Caucus on International Narcotics Control. Chuck Grassley is the senior senator from Iowa and chairman of the Caucus on International Narcotics Control.

'We need to cut red tape and streamline the licensing and regulatory processes so research can move ahead'

Soon after her first birthday, Mallory Minahan began suffering from debilitating seizures. For a decade she suffered these attacks—a symptom of intractable epilepsy—as many as 30 or 40 times a month. Her parents, both medical professionals, were powerless to help.

After years of failed treatments, her parents decided to try cannabidiol oil in October 2013. This product is derived from the marijuana plant, administered orally, and has a very low level of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the component of marijuana that makes users high. According to Tom Minahan, Mallory’s father and an ER doctor in Colton, Calif., it took just 36 hours to see profound changes.

But the process hasn’t been easy. A one-month supply of cannabidiol oil, commonly referred to as CBD oil, can cost up to $2,500. Because CBD oil is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), there’s no guarantee that the formulation of each batch will be the same, or that each bottle actually contains CBD oil, rather than some other unknown substance.

In fact, the FDA recently sent warning letters to six companies marketing unapproved products that they claim contain CBD, but don’t. This is why Mallory’s parents are forced to spend up to $100 per bottle of oil if they want to have it tested to verify the contents. And even how much of the oil to administer was a mystery. Dr. Minahan and his wife, Carrin, arrived at the proper dosage for Mallory through trial and error.

This isn’t how modern medicine should work.

For Mallory, who wasn’t responding to any other treatments or medications, the results were spectacular. Her seizures have decreased by 90%. Yet CBD oil hasn’t been effective for everyone. Many questions remain about its long-term effects and how it interacts with other medications.

Simply put, we need to know more about CBD, and the only way to gain that knowledge is to remove barriers to research. Research will shed light on critical safety issues as well as how effective CBD oil is and the proper formulations and dosages for patients.

After hearing from constituents, we asked the Justice Department (DOJ) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in October 2014 to clarify their positions on CBD research and what it would take to ensure research could move forward. After some back-and-forth with the two departments, we’re pleased to report that both have taken significant steps to ensure that CBD research can proceed. The DOJ agreed to initiate what is known as an “eight-factor analysis” to definitively determine whether CBD has scientific and medical benefits, and if so the proper schedule for it.

Another key step was HHS’s decision that privately-funded researchers are no longer required to submit research proposals for additional review. It is also allowing Epidiolex, a purified form of CBD currently in clinical trials, to be administered to 400 children under a compassionate use program that allows sick patients to access medicines before they are approved by the FDA.

While these are important developments, they’re not enough. That’s why we held a hearing of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control last month to hear from experts on the subject.

We learned that the research process is still overly burdensome. We need to cut red tape and streamline the licensing and regulatory processes so research can move ahead. In addition, we must also find ways to ensure that researchers have access to the quantity and quality of marijuana that they need. Finally, we need to look at expanding compassionate access programs where possible, to benefit as many children as possible.

Patients like Mallory have helped draw attention to this issue. Now, the federal government should step up, continue to reduce research barriers and help the many patients who could benefit from this treatment.

 

[7greeneyes]

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-...the-cure-a-doctors-case-for-medical-marijuana

When Weed Is The Cure: A Doctor's Case for Medical Marijuana​

A year and a half ago, Dr. David Casarett did not take medical marijuana very seriously. "When I first started this project, I really thought of medical marijuana as a joke," he tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross.

But then the palliative care specialist began to look seriously into the issue, and his mind began to change: "I've come to realize there really are medical benefits to medical marijuana. ... For many of the patients I spoke with, medical marijuana is not a joke. It's not funny. It's a treatment that they've come to rely on."

While researching his new book, Stoned: A Doctor's Case for Medical Marijuana, Casarett examined the limited medical studies related to the drug's use, traveled to places where it is being used legally and tested it on himself. He also spoke to patients who had used the drug to treat a variety of ailments, including seizures, post-traumatic stress disorder and neuropathic pain.

The book lays out the case for marijuana's medicinal use — as well as for more research into the drug's long-term effects. "There's a fair amount of science behind it," Casarett says. "Those are medical benefits that people in the medical marijuana world — including advocates and patients — really take seriously."

Interview Highlights

On the use of medical marijuana to treat neuropathic pain

It turns out that some of the best evidence for medical marijuana is actually for what's called neuropathic pain, which is pain that's caused by the nerves themselves. So unlike pain that's caused by arthritis or sometimes some kinds of cancer in which the nerve endings of pain fibers are stimulated, which causes pain, neuropathic pain is caused by disruption of or damage to the nerves themselves. ... That kind of pain can be really, really difficult to treat. ... In my experience as a palliative care physician, it doesn't respond nearly as well as more traditional nociceptive pain does to drugs like morphine. So there really is a need to find newer, better treatments for neuropathic pain. And so there have been a lot of trials focusing on medical marijuana for neuropathic pain, because other alternatives for treatment are really pretty limited.

On his own experience using medical marijuana for back pain

I was really hoping for any form of relief whatsoever, even just a few hours of relief from those muscle spasms, and I found it. I found it though, at least for me, at the cost of most of the most common side effects of acute use of medical marijuana — confusion, hallucinations. I think — mostly because the dose I gave myself, being relatively unfamiliar with marijuana and very unfamiliar with the strength of what I managed to obtain — was really blindsided by some of the acute side effects like confusion and hallucinations, which I honestly should have expected, but didn't. ...

[I heard] air traffic controllers vectoring flights into and out of the Phoenix airport — those voices were coming from my living room, where there really weren't any air traffic controllers.

On the two main cannabinoids in medical marijuana

There are actually a lot of cannabinoids out there. There are dozens that are present naturally in medical marijuana, and there are probably over 100 synthetic cannabinoids, so there's actually a fairly large family of these cannabinoids, of which most we have no idea what they do at all. Many of the synthetics, for instance, have never been tested in humans. The two that we know the most about are THC [tetrahydrocannabinol] and CBD [cannabidiol]. ...

So THC is most important and most popular because it's the cannabinoid that is responsible for the high feeling of euphoria. ... CBD is a bit more of a mystery because it doesn't have any of those really obvious effects that THC does. We know a little bit about what it does, because we know where those receptors are. We know that CBD binds to receptors in the brain but not on neurons; it binds to receptors on something called microglial cells which are the cells that wrap around neurons and are responsible for some of the neuron's structure, holding them together. But they also have an immune function. They're sort of the brain's immune cells. ... CBD also binds to cells in the immune system, so CBD receptors are fairly common in lymph nodes and also in areas of the body where there's a lot of immune activity like the [gastrointestinal] tract.

On using medical marijuana but avoiding the high

That's already happening in a couple of ways. There are strains of marijuana that have been tested, dispensaries sell these; so you can go into a dispensary where marijuana is legal and ask for a strain that is a low-THC high-CBD strain, for instance, if you're really interested in those effects. ...

An anesthesiologist and a pain researcher I spent some time with, researching this book, is very interested in the use of marijuana to treat neuropathic pain. And he's becoming increasingly convinced that it might actually be CBD and not THC that's responsible for some of the benefits for neuropathic pain. And he's doing clinical trials that are involving lower and lower amounts of THC and higher and higher amounts of CBD, and seeing some of the same effects on pain. Which is interesting, because again, CBD doesn't cause that high, euphoric feeling, but if it has therapeutic benefits, there are enormous opportunities for figuring out how to use that appropriately and productively for those people — and there are a lot of them — who really don't want to feel high. They don't want any of that recreational marijuana feeling. They really just want relief of pain or nausea.

On the problem with eating medical marijuana

The problems with eating [marijuana] are twofold: One is the absorption time can be widely variable, so you and I might eat a square of marijuana-infused chocolate at the same time but — because of differences in the way that our GI tracts work, differences in the degree that our livers metabolize the main forms of cannabinoids that are occurring in medical marijuana (CBD and THC) — you may feel the effects within 15 minutes, [and] I may not feel those effects for an hour or more. Or I may never feel those effects, or vice versa.

Also, in general, it takes a long time — long in terms of half an hour to an hour — before people begin to feel the full effects. And a common problem that many first-time users experience is eating a brownie or a square of chocolate or a gummy bear, waiting for 15, 20 minutes, not feeling any effect. And so they try another one and another one and another one, all the while those doses are stacking up, so when they begin to feel an effect in an hour [or] hour and a half, they've taken too much. ... So it's fairly easy to get the active ingredients of medical marijuana by eating, but it takes some care and some timing and some familiarity with what you're doing, how you're doing it and what the concentrations of THC and CBD are in that gummy bear or that square of chocolate.

On how the war on drugs has affected medical marijuana research

There's no question that the war on drugs has set back medical marijuana research and cannabinoid research in general by probably decades. Marijuana in the United States is classified as a Schedule 1 substance, which is reserved for those substances like heroin that have significant risks, including the risk of addiction, but, in theory, [have] no medical benefits. And that categorization really has slowed down the process of research. It's been hard to get medical marijuana; it's been hard to do clinical trials; it has left a lot of patients essentially to their own devices.

 

[7greeneyes]

http://qz.com/453650/a-canadian-com...on-a-cannabis-detecting-breathalyzer-machine/

A Canadian company called Cannabix is working on a cannabis-detecting breathalyzer machine​

pic here: https://qzprod.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/cannabix-prototype-from-website.png?w=940

Legalizing marijuana isn’t just about dropping rules—it’s also about creating new ones. In the US, where over half of US states have now legalized some degree of pot use, one of those new rules requires setting a limit on marijuana intake while driving. That has drawn private tech companies, such as Vancouver’s Cannabix Technologies, to develop a breathalyzer that detects Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) levels of drivers for police officers to use at the roadside.

Cannabix’s device is in prototype, according to its website. Its founder, retired Canadian police officer Kal Malhi, says the device will be able to detect THC up to two hours after consumption, Reuters reports. Veteran breathalyzer maker Lifeloc—a Colorado-based company that already makes popular alcohol breathalyzers—is also working to develop a THC version of its product.

The first breathalyzer to hit the market will likely “be a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ for the presence of THC at the time of the test, and in that sense it won’t provide a quantitative evidential measure,” chief executive of Lifeloc Barry Knott told Reuters. Lifeloc sells its alcohol breathalyzers for $300-$400 a pop, but expects to sell the marijuana version for over $2,500.

A professor-PhD student duo at Washington State University are also in the research and laboratory phase of developing a similar technology, using ion mobile spectrometry, which is also used for explosive and chemical warfare detection.

Developing the technology beyond ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to read specific THC levels might be tricky, given that states already have different legal definitions of “too stoned to drive.” In Washington and Montana, for instance, it’s five nanograms per milliliter, reports Engadget, while in Pennsylvania, it’s one nanogram per milliliter. Nicholas Lovrich, a political scientist at Washington State University, told Reuters that these limits are more political than based on actual bodily effects.

 

[pcduck]

That is messed up