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Doctors In Germany Are Getting Ready To Write Lots Of Marijuana Prescriptions

Sam Jones
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Doctors In Germany Are Getting Ready To Write Lots Of Marijuana Prescriptions

After passing a law in January for the legalization of prescription marijuana, doctors in Germany are beginning their first medical marijuana treatments for their patients.

Before the new legislation passed, according to Swedish outlet the Local, the only way patients could get access to medical marijuana was through an application process for the severely ill. Under that process, only about 1,000 people gained the medication they needed, and some died waiting.

Now, doctors are free to prescribe marijuana to their patients based on their need, especially for pain sufferers or health-threatening loss of appetite.

According to the Local:

Last year Germany imported 170 kilograms of cannabis for medical purposes, according to a government response to an inquiry from Die Linke (The Left Party), as reported by publishing group Funke Mediengruppe on Friday.

This was nearly double the amount imported the previous year at 92.8 kilograms, and nearly four times as much as in 2014. Germany will continue to import the marijuana it needs until the state can set up its own supervised production. Private producers could also apply for licenses.

Earlier this year, Germany’s Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices created a new agency to “oversee the cultivation of marijuana and the subsequent production of cannabis to be used medicinally.”

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Marijuana Growers Now Qualify For Energy Discounts In California

Al Olson
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Marijuana Growers Now Qualify For Energy Discounts In California

 

In a move that bring California marijuana production costs down significantly, the state’s largest public utility will allow marijuana growers the same discounts on energy that other farmers enjoy.

PG&E announced earlier this month that farmers are farmers. And when California voters approved the adult use of recreational cannabis in November, it would not discriminate against the fast-growing industry.

“Cannabis is a legal crop in our state, like almonds and tomatoes. Agricultural growers now will be eligible for the same rate and energy efficiency programs as farmers of other crops,” said Deborah Affonsa, vice president of customer service at PG&E.

Recreational marijuana cannot be sold in California until January 2018, but existing medical marijuana growers and future recreational marijuana growers will be eligible for PG&E’s agricultural energy rate, according to the utility.

In a statement, PG&E specified the qualifications:

PG&E customers are eligible for agricultural energy rates if they have received a permit from their local jurisdiction for the cultivation of cannabis and if 70 percent or more of the annual energy use on the meter is for agricultural end-uses such as growing crops, pumping water for agricultural irrigation or other uses that involve agricultural production for sale which do not change the form of the product. The agricultural energy rate applies to both customers who grow cannabis outdoors and those who grow indoors in commercial greenhouses.

Cannabis growing operations are energy-intensive. But PG&E’s policy change may actually help farmers become more energy efficient.

“We’ve met with representatives of the emerging legal cannabis industry and listened to their needs. We are here to help our customers make smart, efficient and affordable energy choices. Now that cannabis is in California’s future, our next step is to work with these new agricultural customers and make this industry as energy efficient as possible,” said Affonsa.

Hezekiah Allen, executive director of the California Growers Association, a trade group that represents cannabis farmers,welcomes the rate change.

“It’s another one of those reminders that we are making progress,” he said told the Press Democrat, a northern California newspaper.

 

According to Allen, the energy savings could be as much as 60 percent off a grower’s electrical bills.

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Watch This Guy Try To Chug A 500 Tic Tac ‘Smoothie’

Amy Hansen
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Watch This Guy Try To Chug A 500 Tic Tac ‘Smoothie’

Peter Czerwinski, better known as Furious Pete, is a competitive eater in Canada. He’s also going trough cancer treatment, which is why he has a shaved head in his recent videos. With a YouTube following of nearly four-million, he thought he’d give his subscribers a treat by attempting to overcome one of his toughest battles yet: drinking a mixture of water and 500 Tic Tacs.

Sounds easy, right?

Last May, Pete attempted to eat 1,000 Tic Tacs in five minutes, but it proved to be way more difficult than he had intended. He went back to the drawing board and decided he’d blend the rock hard candy to make it easy to digest (and more tooth friendly). Watch him go for round two:

Here’s Pete attempting his initial Tic Tac challenge. Choice quotes include: “I do not recommend doing this,” “This is not easy, not easy at all,” “I shouldn’t have had cereal before this,” “I was not prepared for this, whatsoever,” and “This is just stupid.”

Warning: If you hate swallowing pills, this might be hard for you to…swallow.

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Why Marijuana-Related Emergency Calls Are On The Rise In Washington

Al Olson
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Why Marijuana-Related Emergency Calls Are On The Rise In Washington

The Washington Poison Center released a report last week that, at first glance, sounded alarming: Marijuana-related emergency calls in the state are on the rise.

According to the report, there were 286 emergency calls to the center, related to cannabis. In 2015, the number was 265.

A look behind the numbers revealed an interesting story: The one-year jump can be attributed to those in the 20-29 age group. The number of teens seeking emergency treatment dropped.

“For me, what was surprising was to see the changing demographics,” Dr. Alexander Garrard, the Clinical Managing Director at the Washington Poison Center, told KOMO News.

“Millennials of today, especially here in Seattle, it’s a high-tech industry, there is a lot of stress involved and they be using some of those products to help alleviate stress after work,” said Dr. Garrard. “So just that’s one thought maybe about why we might be seeing it in this demographic.”

According to the report, 28 percent (or 73 incidents) involved marijuana-infused edibles. Another 16 percent (40 incidents) were calls reporting problems with concentrates or dabbing.

“Where we see the most serious clinical effects are with the hash oil products with the concentrates. … Dabbing is a very popular way to use it these days,” said Dr. Garrard.

Indeed, the use of concentrates is increasing and for many twentysomethings dabbing is becoming the go-to method for ingesting marijuana.

In Colorado, marijuana-related emergency room visits are down, according to a study released this year by the Retail Marijuana Public Health Advisory Committee. The oversight committee reported that overall use of cannabis remains unchanged, demonstrating that perhaps educational efforts are effective.

According to the report, the overall rate of emergency department visits with marijuana-related billing codes dropped 27 percent from 2014 to 2015 (2016 data is not available yet).

“I think that speaks to a learning effect,” said Mike Van Dyke, chief of Colorado’s Environmental Epidemiology, Occupational Health and Toxicology branch. “The public is really learning the message, if not from us, from their own experience.”

To be it in perspective, visits to the ER for alcohol intoxication in the U.S. have increased by more than 50 percent over the past decade, according to a 2016 report. From 2010 to 2011, there were 3.8 million ER visits related to alcohol intoxication. That’s up from about 2.4 million visits in the years 2001 to 2002, the study found.

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See It: Ohio Brewery Wants To Open World’s First Beer-Themed Hotel

Amy Hansen
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See It: Ohio Brewery Wants To Open World’s First Beer-Themed Hotel

How this is not already a thing is kind of mind boggling.

Ohio’s BrewDog is raising money to open the world’s first beer-themed hotel, which will be attached to it’s Columbus brewery.

The DogHouse will have 50 rooms (you can rent out the entire thing if you want to host a baller teambuilding day), lots of craft beer-infused beauty products, a spa heavy on beer treatments, a beer fridge in the shower (because there’s no better place to drink it), a beer tap in each room, hot tubs made with oak barrels (which they will fill with beer for you, what!!!), and a stocked mini bar filled with the best craft brews available.

According to their Indiegogo campaign, it’ll cost $6 million to complete The DogHouse and neighboring sour beer brewery. The money will enable BrewDog to fast track the opening, hopefully by mid-late 2018.

At press time, BrewDog has raised nearly $154,000, which is way past their $75,000 goal.

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Watch: Samuel L. Jackson and Jimmy Fallon Read Facebook Rants About Snack Foods

Amy Hansen
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Watch: Samuel L. Jackson and Jimmy Fallon Read Facebook Rants About Snack Foods

We live in a time when non-political Facebook rants are perceived as a breath of fresh air. Tapping into this cultural cue, Jimmy Fallon and Samuel L. Jackson took it upon themselves to re-enact some random Facebook rants about an issue that everyone has a strong opinion about: junk food. Specifically Girl Scout cookies and Pop Tarts.

Sam Jackson reveals that his love of Girl Scout cookies has deep roots; his mom was once the leader of a Brownies troop when he was growing up. His pig out cookie of choice? Shortbrea…zzzzzzzz. “Better than those Thin Mint things they used to sell,” he says, presumably sparking a ton of “seriously?” looks from the audience.

Jackson also riffs on milk.

You haven’t lived until you’ve heard him utter the phrase, “Stop milk shaming me, Mother Fucker!”

Also, Toaster Strudel vs. Pop Tarts is the new  Team Kimye vs. Team Swift.

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Those ‘Minority Report’ Computers Are Cool And About To Unleash Hell

Brendan Bures
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Those ‘Minority Report’ Computers Are Cool And About To Unleash Hell

Movies make everything seem possible: superheroes, talking dogs, love. Nowhere is this truer than when film eyes the future with all its possible tech and gadgets. It only seems so cool and simple to use. One of the primary examples: Minority Report and Tom Cruise whipping around a projected computer interface just by using his gloved hands. But according to College Humor, maybe we shouldn’t be so eager to produce and use computers that work that way.


This is of course is an imaginary computer. But the idea that tech takes cues from the sci-fi world is not. As ReCode points out, Minority Report, Ready Player One, and The Matrix frequently serve as references within AR and VR. When Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg created a home AI assistant that could adjust lights and toast bread, he named it after Tony Stark’s AI assistant—Jarvis.

So to all you tech producers and AR/VR kids, um, maybe stop watching so much science fiction? Things don’t work like that in the real world.

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Let’s Talk About How Emma Watson Takes Baths Every Day And Oils Her Nether Regions

Brendan Bures
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Let’s Talk About How Emma Watson Takes Baths Every Day And Oils Her Nether Regions

Who doesn’t have their private bathroom routines that seem strange to the outside world?

Emma Watson recently sat down with Into the Gloss to discuss her all-natural beauty routine. Detailing her inquisitive nature since childhood regarding makeup and how intimate and revealing peering into a person’s makeup bag can be, Watson didn’t hide anything went it came to her beauty regime.

That included taking care of her pubic hair. Stating “how in the Instagram era it’s so easy to edit your life so that it looks perfect,” Watson didn’t want to censor herself.

Via Into The Gloss:

There’s still so much shame around the things you do to get ready while you’ve got a towel wrapped around your head. It’s important to me not to edit that out. I’ve been bleaching my top lip since I was nine. I don’t do it very often, but I do it! There’s that, and I use Fur Oil. I’ll use that anywhere from the ends of my hair to my eyebrows to my pubic hair. It’s an amazing all-purpose product.

Watson also really, really likes baths. As she revealed to the website, she takes a bath every single day of her life. If she can squeeze in two to three baths, that’s “amazing.” Her reasoning rings solid as well:

Nothing terrible is going to happen in the bath, so I always find time for that. I’ll take phone conversations in the bath, anything.

Read more about Watson’s beauty routine over at Into the Gloss.

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Ed Sheeran Is An Unlikely Party Boy And Ladies’ Man, But Here We Are

Brendan Bures
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Ed Sheeran Is An Unlikely Party Boy And Ladies’ Man, But Here We Are

Ed Sheeran is an unlikely pop star. Not because of his talents or voice or anything of that nature. It’s solely to do with the doughy, red-headed appearance Sheeran delivered when coming onto the scene. He didn’t look like a pop star.

Appearances are deceiving, and Ed Sheeran parties harder and is more successful with ladies than most rock stars today (though, I guess that isn’t saying much). Rolling Stone ran an extensive profile on Sheeran this week that delved into Sheeran’s hard-drinking ways and more.

And damn does the boy like to drink. He ordered a five-shot tequila drink (with just one shot of passion fruit juice) in front of the reporter then ordered another. Here’s a section where Sir Elton John describes Sheeran’s partying style:

“He can be extremely naughty. It’s a good thing he didn’t appear in the same era as I did, otherwise we’d be up for three weeks together,” says Elton, who has been sober for almost 30 years. “He’s not a big druggy, but he likes a drink. He’s a lot of fun.”

One of the more revealing tidbits involved when Sheeran ran with Taylor Swift’s crew, a time the Rolling Stone reporter called “his most romantically prolific period.” Much of these relationships would eventually spill into Sheeran’s superstar-making record X, though him and Swift remained strictly in the friend zone, despite TMZ reports.

Here’s Sheeran on that romantically prolific time:

Taylor’s world is celebrity. I was this 22-year-old awkward British kid going on tour with the biggest artist in America, who has all these famous mates. It was very easy. … I would often find myself in situations just kind of waking up and looking over and being like, ‘How the fuck did that happen? ‘

The profile also includes this note by Katie Perry on Sheeran’s appeal: “Everybody loves him, no one’s scared of him, they want to date him. They can have him.”

Check out Rolling Stone for the full, extremely worthwhile profile.

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6 Celebrities You Didn’t Know Were Working In The Marijuana Business

Brendan Bures
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6 Celebrities You Didn’t Know Were Working In The Marijuana Business

Despite the threats of Jeff Sessions and Donald Trump, cannabis is a thriving business. With 28 states approving medical marijuana and eight states with recreational laws, it’s little surprise why some celebrities are getting in the marijuana business—after all, they happen to be cannabis enthusiasts themselves.

Now some names are hardly a surprise—your Snoop Doggs, your Willie Nelsons, your Tommy Chongs. But some celebs keeps a lower profile when it comes to investing in weed. Here are the six celebrities you might be surprised to learn are creating their own cannabis-related products.

Cliff Robinson

The 18-year NBA veteran and Survivor contestant unveiled plans last year for a company he’s calling “Uncle Spiffy.” The company will be the “first-to-market Sports Cannabis brand in the world… marijuana designed for athletes.” As Robinson revealed in an interview with Sports Illustrated, “Right now I’m excited about creating a positive atmosphere around something that’s been a negative for a long time.”

Melissa Etheridge

Now, singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge hasn’t been exactly quiet about using cannabis. After being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004, she began consuming marijuana to deal with adverse effects of chemotherapy. She wrote in a CNN opinion piece, the “entire experience changed my life. It opened my mind to a new way of thinking about my body, my health and the future.” Etheridge has since developed her own cannabis-infused wine called No Label available to California residents with a valid ID.

Margaret Cho

The comedian is a big fan of cannabis. As Margaret Cho told TruTV, “It stimulates everything—your creativity, your hunger.” Cho has created her own strain that stems from the very popular OG Kush. It’s called “Margaret Cho-G” and available in California’s Bay Area. As Leafly describes it, “Sweet lemon, woody pine, and sour diesel flavors lead you into Margaret Cho-G’s powerfully tranquilizing effects that any OG Kush enthusiast will appreciate.”

Sir Richard Branson

Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson has invested in numerous startups, including funding $15 million to the ridesharing app Sidecar. Originally tailored as the smaller, less-funded competition to Uber and Lyft, Sidecar now moved into the medical marijuana delivery business by partnering with another Bay Area startup, Meadow. Geekwire describes the process as something legitimate: “Sidecar drivers who deliver the marijuana are all medical patients. They also carry the medicine in a safe lock box during transit, and can use the Sidecar app to verify an ID.”

Whoopi Goldberg

Part of what makes studying cannabis as a business is watching the various approaches different people employ. Instead of focusing on any recreational usage, Whoopi Goldberg founded a cannabis line for women called Whoopi & Maya. Her line includes balms, tinctures, sipping chocolates, and a bath soak aimed at reducing the pains and cramps from periods. As Goldberg told USA TODAY, “I want to go nice and slow with this. I don’t want this to be a joke to people. It’s not a joke to women.”

Roseanne Barr

Last year, the actress was part of group that was one of 20 who won a city lottery to open a dispensary in Santa Ana, California last year. Roseanne Barr will be an investor and have a licensing agreement with the dispensary, which they’re calling Roseanne’s Joint. In an interview with the Denver Post, Barr said “the legalization of marijuana I think solves about 75 percent of all our problems in this country” and “it’s the hope of the future.”

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