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Here Is The One Way Marijuana Use Can Kill You

Trey Reckling
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Here Is The One Way Marijuana Use Can Kill You

Once upon a time, a human organ transplant was the stuff of science fiction. Today, it is an accepted miracle of modern medicine. When it comes to this subject however, marijuana use can kill you.

While the science has advanced at a rapid pace, the ethical challenge of deciding who can be eligible for organs and who to prioritize remains a challenge. Despite the fact that demand for lungs outpaces supply, cannabis smokers are often discounted as potential donors in a way that threatens the lives of patients.

In the United States, the Department of Health and Human Services develops requirements for the nation’s Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. When it comes to lung transplants, donors are evaluated based on age, smoking history and other criteria created more than 30 years ago.

Over a six-year period 302 subjects were examined, comparing the outcomes of those who received donated lungs from cannabis smokers versus non cannabis smokers. Variables, including 1 and 3 year survival ratings, were comparable between the two groups. A history of smoking cannabis didn’t seem to affect the outcomes. People were being saved regardless. 

Cannabis smokers are often disqualified to participate both as lung donors and recipients. They have been considered a greater risk because of a higher prevalence of developing lung infections. Because cannabis has long been the most commonly used illicit drug, this both reduces the potential pool of donors and people who may be helped.

Prejudice is not a new to the organ donation process. HIV was once widely regarded as a disqualifier for a patient seeking a transplant. Times changed and medicine improved. People with HIV began not just surviving longer but living and thriving. As a result, attitudes and restrictions changed and relaxed.

There are signs of shifting perceptions when it comes to other organs. A survey of doctors, surgeons and other heart transplant specialists from 26 countries found that 64.4 percent believed a patient using medical marijuana should not be disqualified for this single reason. Only 27.5 percent, supported allowing recreational marijuana users from being eligible donors. 

Arizona, California, Delaware,  Illinois, New Hampshire and Washington have laws that prohibit discrimination of organ transplant candidates based on authorized medical marijuana use. Recreational marijuana use does not have the same legal support and protection when it comes to organ transplants.

Researchers have concluded that expanding the donor pool could save more people. After all, one statistic is very clear: Those who received lungs from donors not considered to be prime candidates survived longer than those who failed to be matched and receive new lungs. To allow prejudice to rule over science is never a good answer, particularly when lives are at stake.

This Ancient Mayan Method Makes The Best Hot Chocolate Ever

Jillian Peterson
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This Ancient Mayan Method Makes The Best Hot Chocolate Ever

While everyone else is freaking out about their Pumpkin Spice Latte, a chocolatier in Antigua, Guatemala is using ancient Mayan techniques to produce a super rich hot chocolate. Some drinks take longer than a few minutes to make. And are well worth the wait.

The process takes four days to make and involves grinding roasted cacao beans on a traditional grinding stone called a metate. The technique is more than 3,000 years old. Originally, the cacao bean was used to make a ceremonial beverage. According to National Geographic:

The beans were roasted, ground, and brewed into a bitter hot chocolate drink that was used in religious ceremonies, buried in the tombs of dignitaries, and used to worship Ek Chuah, the Maya god of merchants and patron of cacao.

And as Mental Floss notes, the process still requires a ton of patience to make:

Once turned into 4-ounce chunks, the chocolate is cut into tablets on a special plant-based mat called a petate and divided in fourths, which can then be added into 90°F water. The temperature has to be just right to melt the chocolate to create a delicious Guatemalan hot chocolate.

The artisans at Chocolate D’ Taza, a fourth generation family business, add a mix of cinnamon, cardamom, and sugar to their chocolate.

National Geographic has the whole story:

 

Chainsaw-Wielding Nun Becomes Hero Florida Needs After Irma

Brendan Bures
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Chainsaw-Wielding Nun Becomes Hero Florida Needs After Irma

This might be the most badass nun we’ve ever seen. Following Hurricane Irma’s ravaging of South Florida, a massive cleanup undertaking was underway. Downed power lines and fallen trees covered the streets. And, well, not to bury the lede or anything but there was a chainsaw-wielding nun.

Sister Margaret Ann is her name and she was spotted by an off-duty Miami-Dade police officer, who posted video and images to the department’s Facebook. The department viewed the nun’s work as how Miami is coming together following the hurricane.

“Thank you Sister and all of our neighbors that are working together to get through this!” read the post.

Of course “chainsaw-wielding nun” makes headlines in today’s internet world and the story soon went viral. CNN interviewed Sister Margaret Ann, who responded graciously, stating she was trying to assist the community.

“There was a need, I had the means, so I wanted to help out,” she said.

The police officer who captured the video told the nun the police would soon take care of the debris, but she wasn’t having any of it.

“He said, ‘You know though, Sister, the police will do this.’ And I said ‘but it’s going to take them too long … it’s dangerous, people are going to get hurt here.’ ”

“We teach our students: Do what you can to help other people, don’t think of yourselves,” she also added. “That’s what I wanted to do.”

6 Reasons We’re Addicted To Pumpkin Spice Lattes

Amy Hansen
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6 Reasons We’re Addicted To Pumpkin Spice Lattes

There’s some actual science behind the reason we lose our collective mind when it’s pumpkin spice season. And they extend way past crisp autumnal vibes that hang in the air like a cloud of whipped cream sprinkled with cinnamon.  Well science has provide 6 reasons we’re addicted to pumpkin spice lattes.

1. Salt

Most likely, there’s salt in whatever pumpkin spice treat you’re enjoying. And when it’s layered with sugar, it’s downright addictive. Also, researchers believe it stimulates the brain much like cigarettes and hard drugs do. Make sure to hashtag #addict along with #psl and #pumpkinspiceyall next time you Insta.

RELATED: 9 Of The Best Pumpkin Beers In America

2. Sugar And Fat

This combo is even more powerful than sugar and salt. Sugar and fat not only boost your mood, but it sparks your appetite. You may want to rethink the whip atop your next PSL.

3. Emotions

It’s no secret that smells can trigger emotions and memories, and when you’re consuming spices related to holidays, you’ll likely recall some heart warming stories. Each sip of a PSL is like a trip down memory lane. Bonus: nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon are considered “brain healthy” seasonings that are beneficial to our memory, mood and pain relief.

4. Caffeine

Not only is it an addictive substance, nothing beats that first sip of coffee in the morning. The Mayo Clinic recommends no more than 400 mg a day. A grande Starbucks PSL only has 150 mg, but it can take as little as 100 mg per day to feel the effects of withdrawal symptoms.

5. Conformity

Wanting to fit in is a real thing. The association between PSL and a “basic bitch” isn’t coincidence.

RELATED: Pumpkin Spice Coffee Is Here And Summer Is Officially Over

6. FOMO

Pumpkin spice is exclusive to the fall. And things that are available for a limited time are automatically more appealing. There’s something called reactance theory that supports this: “According to the theory, when an individual’s freedom to engage in a specific behavior is threatened. the threatened behavior becomes more attractive.”

 

Are Kilos Of Legal Marijuana Being Diverted To Illegal States?

MJ News Network
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Are Kilos Of Legal Marijuana Being Diverted To Illegal States?

There is little evidence to substantiate claims that large quantities of cannabis produced legally in adult use states are being diverted to neighboring jurisdictions where the plant remains illegal, according to an analysis published online ahead of print in the Boston College Law Review.

A professor at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego argues, “As constructed, marijuana legalization laws make it unlikely that legally produced marijuana will be diverted to other states for sale.” This is because existing adult use regulatory laws place limits regarding the quantities of cannabis that may be legally grown and distributed, enforce oversight measures like ‘seed-to-sale’ tracking, and impose numerous regulatory fees that inflate production costs to a level that makes it difficult for legal providers to undercut black market retail prices.

The paper further argues that the ease at which marijuana may be readily obtained at relatively low cost, even in states where it remains illegal, is a disincentive to criminal entrepreneurs from smuggling legally produced cannabis from one state to another.

“This is not to say the impact of current state legalization laws on marijuana use in neighboring states is zero,” the author concludes. “But there is little reason to believe it is or will be ‘substantial.’ ”

Claims made by members of law enforcement that the imposition of adult use regulations are adversely impacting neighboring states have largely not been validated. In 2016, the Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit brought by Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning and Oklahoma Attorney General E. Scott Pruitt which was largely based on this claim.

Full text of the paper, “Marijuana legalization and nosy neighbor states,” is available online.

For more cannabis business coverage, visit the MJ News Network. 

The Truth About How CBD Can Help Fibromyalgia Patients

Kent Gruetzmacher
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The Truth About How CBD Can Help Fibromyalgia Patients

Fibromyalgia is a disease that doctors can only diagnose by way of its symptoms—its causes are unknown and there are no known physical tests (blood, hair, etc.) for its existence. Furthermore, there are no recognized cures for the disease, any medicines used to treat fibromyalgia are utilized only to improve the quality of life of patients.

Because it cannot be identified via physical testing, fibromyalgia patients often confuse the manifestation of the disease with others that share in like symptoms. These symptoms include: sore muscles, fatigue, joint pain, stiffness, drowsiness, anxiety, depression, and tingling in the extremities. For a vast majority of fibromyalgia sufferers, chronic pain is the most debilitating symptom of the disease and often times prompts one to visit the doctor for a diagnoses. To this end, fibromyalgia is often times confused with other chronic pain diseases such as arthritis, bursitis, and tendinitis. Only after careful examination can doctors correctly diagnose fibromyalgia.

A majority of research, mostly from personal trial and error, into the potential medical applications of medical marijuana concerning fibromyalgia has to do with chronic pain—with some patients treating other less traumatic symptoms such as anxiety. With this notion in mind, CBD is the predominant compound from the cannabis plant that fibromyalgia patients have used as a medication.

CBDs

Cannabis plants contain “more than 85 cannabinoids”—of these THC and CBD are the most famous and widely utilized in the burgeoning medical marijuana culture. CBD is isolated from both the traditional marijuana plant as well as the hemp plant and is characterized as non-psychoactive—meaning that it doesn’t get users “high”. Along this line of thought, hemp-derived CBD products are currently sold throughout the United States while marijuana-derived CBD products are only available at cannabis dispensaries in medically or recreationally sanctioned States. To bring it back to the medical side of the topic, there are countless reports of disease and pain stricken individuals claiming that CBD has helped quell and even cure their ailments. With almost a total lack of legitimate scientific research into CBD as medicine these “first-hand” reports comprise a majority of the current medical knowledge related to CBD.

CBD And Fibromyalgia: First-Hand Reports

There are a variety of reports on the internet concerning the efficacy of CBD as a treatment, which improves the quality of life, for fibromyalgia patients. According to one fibromyalgia blogger / patient who simply goes by “Donna,” CBD oil dramatically helps reduce her chronic pain—particularly in her lower extremities. Furthermore, according to the website titled Fibromyalgia Treating: “patients report that it [CBD] helps with chronic pain, sleep, endurance, anxiety, depression, inflammation, muscle spasms, overall mental health and well-being, mood, and more”. However, it should be noted that not all fibromyalgia patients report benefits from the use of CBD. With this notion in mind, it should be noted that all drugs react uniquely with individuals and the benefits as well as side-effects of these drugs manifest on a subjective basis. Therefore, CBD could prove to be a “wonder drug” for fibromyalgia patients but it seems this can only be verified on a case-by-case basis.

Check Out This Irish Bar Where You Can Crash After A Night Of Drinking

Jillian Peterson
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Check Out This Irish Bar Where You Can Crash After A Night Of Drinking

How amazing would it be if every bar offered a place for you to lay your head after a night of drinking? Way more comfortable than the sidewalk, no?

There is such place. In Ireland. But it’s really and Airbnb.

It’s called Conroy’s Old Bar and it bills itself as The World’s First Self-Catering Bar—  a converted home that used to be a functioning pub. It’s also known as The Pub With No Beer.

Sad face.

Yep. This bar is dry.

And on Conroy’s website, they make that clear:

On entering Conroy’s Old Bar you could be mistaken into thinking it’s business as usual…So much so, that we advise our guests to keep the chain on the door; otherwise you could find at the bar, unsuspecting passers by, who are looking for a pint of the black stuff !

They also are strict about leaving the place as you found it. Under their FAQ & RULES they stipulate that “Conroy’s Old Bar is 1st and foremost our home. It contains our belongings, some of which have sentimental memories attached to them. With this in mind, we expect ALL guests to treat Conroy’s Old Bar with the respect it deserves and LEAVE IT AS YOU FIND IT.”

But mostly, they just make the place sound amazing:

The bar area with its Liscannor stone floor, highly polished mahogany bar, bar pumps, optics and the original till, has discreetly hidden behind it the fully functioning kitchen, where you can rustle up your own “bar food”. One comment our guests make time and time again is how they love having “breakfast at the bar”. The bar area is also home to the dart board and the skittles game.

There is also a room that has been converted from an old cellar that’s retained its sloping floor “to aid the moving of the barrels and also it’s original beer barrel delivery door.”

The cost? A little more than $100 per night. About the same price as a night on the town.

Here’s a look inside:

Why Did Los Angeles Paint Its Streets White This Summer?

Brendan Bures
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Why Did Los Angeles Paint Its Streets White This Summer?

Here is something I’ve noticed living in Texas this summer: It’s really, really hot. In fact, the whole country has been experiencing record heat temperatures this summer, with Northwest havens like Portland reaching 109 degrees.

No state has been feeling the heat more than California, though. Multiple areas of the state have reached record highs this summer, and some scientists believe the temperatures are a result of climate change.

Wherever you politically stand on the issue, Los Angeles isn’t taking chances anymore. LA Mayor Eric Garcetti intends to reduce the average temperature of the city by 3 degrees Fahrenheit over the next 20 years.

See cities, particularly a sprawling metropolis like Los Angeles, can experience what’s called urban heat island. Due to the increased human activity packed tightly together, it tends to raise the overall temperature of a city. Things like large skyscrapers, reduced air flow from packed-in infrastructure, asphalt streets, and just more mouth-breathers play a factor. An easy way to think about it is the difference you feel wearing black jeans vs. khaki shorts on a hot day.

Cities therefore can be up to five degrees F hotter than its surrounding rural areas and on scorching summer days, that heat could prove lethal.

So Los Angeles is painting its streets in a gray-colored coating called CoolSeal. The paint reflects sun rays, and was originally used to keep spy planes cool while they rest on the tarmac. That way the spy plans don’t give off heat once again in the air, as satellite-mounted infrared cameras could otherwise detect them.

“We found that on average the area covered in CoolSeal is 10 degrees cooler than black asphalt on the same parking lot,” a city official told the Washington Post. “We thought it was really interesting. It’s almost like treated asphalt warms at a lower rate.”

City officials also stated that Los Angeles is the first city to make such an initiative. The cooled streets will also help Los Angeles residents with air conditioning bills that can skyrocket in the summer. However, the city intends to do much more to battle climate change moving forward.

“This is an urgent challenge, and it’s much bigger than one person,” Mayor Garcetti announced in a recent statement. “Climate change is a fact of life that people in Los Angeles and cities around the world live with every day.”

Netflix Introduces Binge Watching Mode So You Can Never Leave The House Again

Maria Loreto
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Netflix Introduces Binge Watching Mode So You Can Never Leave The House Again

It took Netflix a couple of years to really discover what they were meant to do. Once they uncovered the goldmine that is online streaming, they changed TV forever, including the way it’s made and consumed, leading to the creation of terms that we use and hear in our day to day lives like binge-watching. Seriously, it’s in the dictionary. 

During Netflix’s Hack Day, a yearly event where their employees present fresh ideas, the company discussed and introduced their latest binge-watching feature, which allows you to keep track of your shows and to see how much time it’ll take for you to complete the entirety of it, or maybe just a couple of seasons.

This feature is meant to help you organize your day and to make time for what’s truly important, which is watching even more TV. The down side of it is that it’ll also tell you how much time you’ve spent in front of a screen, binge watching like there’s no tomorrow. It’s not fun when Netflix tells you that you haven’t left your apartment for a couple of days. 

The binge mode feature will display timeline bars for their different shows, tracking your progress through the series, showing you all you’ve been through and how much you have left. This all sounds great for people who love to organize and manage their time, just remember to turn binge mode off when you have guests over. You don’t really want them to know how much time you spend on Netflix.

What You Need To Know: The Current Cannabis Concentrates Market

Kent Gruetzmacher
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What You Need To Know: The Current Cannabis Concentrates Market

As the legal cannabis market continues to grow and mature it brings with it new business trends and opportunities—no division of the cannabis-based products segment has experienced the sort of developments seen with marijuana concentrates. Looking at the U.S. cannabis industry as a whole, there are literally countless new businesses springing up offering oils, waxes, distillates, crumble, edibles, vaporizers, dab equipment, and extraction machines. There are a number or reasons for this expansive infusion of start-up companies into the market, but they mostly have to do with technological advancements and convenience.

Legal marijuana markets, whether medical or recreational, have opened the doors for tech companies to comfortably invest time and energy in the cannabis space. The confluence of modern cannabis culture and the tech industries has spawned a number of innovative technologies related to marijuana extracts. Not only have these innovations given rise to healthier, more regulated products like solvent free extracts, they have also lead to sheik, convenient “smoking” methods seen with today’s vape pens. These vape pens, generally used with concentrates, are easily utilized in public spaces and within homes without the nuisance of excessive smoke. Furthermore, with less product required to burn in order to achieve a healthy buzz, modern cannabis aficionados are turning to the vape pen and concentrate combination as the staple of their marijuana consumption.

It should be noted also that “dabbing” has become a massive trend in current marijuana culture—in this practice smokers use complex glass water pipes to take “bong-like” hits of cannabis concentrates. Dabbing is not for the novice marijuana consumer.

To gain some more insight into the current concentrates market, The Fresh Toast contacted Head Set, a frontrunner in marijuana business analysis and statistics. Head Set used the Washington State marketplace as a sample population for this study. Here is what they found:

Overview

Head Set’s findings represent data collected from POS systems in cannabis dispensaries around Washington State. However, they admit that these systems are not without error, concerning both human and mechanical data input and interpretation. Furthermore, this study wholly neglects any information concerning black market cannabis demographics and consumption. Nonetheless, both legal and black market marijuana consumerism often follow similar paths in both trends and pricing.

Total Market Share

A July 2017 sampling by Head Set appropriates the cannabis marketplace into several categories: flower, concentrates, pre-roll, vape pens, edible, beverage, tincture & sublingual, capsules, and topical. In these findings, flowers hold the market share with 57.9% of all sales while concentrates demand 11.7%. However, this findings are a bit misleading concerning concentrates as vape pens, edibles, beverages, tinctures, capsule, sublinguals, and topicals more often than not contain concentrates themselves. With this notion in mind, the actual amount of concentrates being purchased at dispensaries in WA State probably demands something closer to 30% of all sales. Moreover, in States where marijuana is still completely illegal the consumption of concentrate products is experiencing exponential growth, as the use of these cannabis products is generally far more discreet than traditional smoking methods.

Concentrates Market Trends

Perhaps the most informative element of Head Set’s findings is contained within the 11.7% of the market which they have dubbed as concentrates. This subsection presents specific forms of raw concentrates (not contained in other products) sold over the counter at dispensaries—highlighting the consumerist nuances of this sub-culture within a sub-culture. Head Set’s findings show that wax is the market leader with 60% of sales with shatter following in second with 12%. Following behind these two market staples are more novel forms of concentrates which are gaining in popularity like live resin, rosin, distillates, and RSO/WPE.

As far as market growth is concerned, the RSO/WPE category far exceeds any other form of concentrates with 768.7% spike in sales in the last year. Head Set attributes this growth to recent legalization of both products. RSO stands for Rick Simpson Oil while RSE is short for Whole Plant Extracts.

Sources

Kent Gruetzmacher M.F.A. is a Colorado based freelance writer and the Director of Business Development at Mac & Fulton Talent Partners (www.mandfconsultants.com), a recruiting firm dedicated to the indoor gardening and cannabis space. He is interested in utilizing his M.A. in the Humanities to critically explore the many cultural and business facets of this youthful, emergent industry by way of his entrepreneurial projects.

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