New York senator Michelle Hinchey filed legislation called “Cannabis Container Bill of Rights,” which pushes for recycling across the cannabis industry once retail sales officially begin, reported Marijuana Moment.
The measure asks marijuana shops to provide a $1 deposit for any cannabis product sold in single-use plastic containers and to reimburse customers when they return the container. The proposed legislation would also demand that all cannabis products use packaging made from 50% recycled materials, at a minimum.
Last year, Hinchey sponsored another measure that would give priority to hemp-based packaging over synthetic plastics for cannabis products.
The bill’s justification segment notes that New York’s recreational cannabis law has important packaging demands like childproof sealing, which have caused the industry to have an enormous plastics footprint.
“The legal cannabis industry in the United States produces about 150 million tons of waste each year. Even when marijuana packaging is recycled at home, it is often sorted out by recyclers and taken to landfills,” it says. “While no industry is blameless in the plastic pollution crisis, New York has a unique opportunity to prevent a new source of plastic pollution as we consider the legalization of recreational marijuana.”
This bill is the same as one filed by Assemblymember Patricia Fahy (D) last year, but this new Senate version had been presented to the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee.
New York Cannabis Program Overview
Among other policy changes and updates confirmed since New York State’s legalization took effect in March last year, one of the most significant was the employee cannabis testing policy update. In October, New York became the first state in the Union to prohibit employers from testing most employees for cannabis.
In addition, New York Senator Jeremy Cooney (D) proposed a bill that would allow transgender and non-binary people to qualify as social equity applicants under the state’s cannabis law.
The FDA has pushed for the fast approval of COVID-19 vaccines for kids under the age of 5. Here’s when these shots will be available.
COVID-19 vaccines for children under the age of 5 have been heavily debated. Despite Pfizer and Moderna pushing for their emergency approval, everyone involved is reticent to get it wrong. Still, if everything were to work accordingly and the FDA were to approve the shots, children between 6 months of age and 5 years old could start receiving them late this month or the next.
This past Tuesday, Pfizer and Moderna requested emergency authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration in order to get vaccines to kids under the age of 5. Clinical trial data and all of the pertinent information will be submitted soon, with the FDA meeting on February 15th to reach a conclusion.
“The confidence of the American public depends on that, that you’re recommending something that you would give to your own children,” said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, to CNN. “It all depends on the data. The data will tell us just how good these are. There should be a robust safety profile and a robust efficacy profile and immunogenicity profile. And if that’s true, speed doesn’t really matter, as long as they have those data.”
If the vaccine were to be approved, it would function like all of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, requiring two shots at separate times for the initial full inoculation. Still, pending more studies, kids under the age of 5 might work differently than older children and adults. Pfizer has some data dating back to December showing that two shots didn’t build up the expected immunity and that a third might be necessary.
According to health experts, the approval of the vaccine has been pushed forward in order to address the growing numbers of COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations seen in kids under the age of 5.
Following the vaccine’s approval, vaccinating kids under the age of 5 should be relatively easy with a few caveats. While doctors and health practitioners will likely be equipped with how to vaccinate these kids, some pharmacies might not have the personnel with the necessary training for vaccinating children these young.
Just like with any other product on the market, there will be significant differences when you buy cheap vs. expensive cannabis.
A new analysis from Leafreport has just proven this, though we didn’t expect them to find such a huge difference. Leafreport has already been doing analyses every 6 months to provide consumers with a glimpse of the current CBD market, including helpful data such as thorough pricing studies that help in comparing over 3,000 CBD products made by over 100 brands.
Photo by Erin Hinterland via Pixababy
Their CBD reports have proven valuable for consumers as well as industry insiders because the market continues to grow and it has become challenging to decipher which products are worth spending our hard-earned money on.
They discovered that there is a 5,100% difference when comparing the cheapest and the most expensive CBD items on the market. CBD isolate is currently the lowest priced product on the market, which they found to be 19% less priced on average compared to when they obtained the same data on April 2021. Meanwhile, capsules were the product that saw the biggest price increase in the same period, which spiked 2.55%.
The biggest price difference was found to be in the topicals category, where the most expensive product was 11,142% different from the cheapest. They also found that Industrial Hemp Farms was the brand with the most economical products in general, for the second time in a row while Kushly was the most expensive brand. The 5,100% difference was discovered to be the biggest disparity in the industry, which they found in edibles.
Pricing Factors
Leafreport spoke to Laura Fuentes, Green Roads CBD Chief Officer of Science and Innovation, about the factors that affect pricing. “Companies like Green Roads that spend heavily on top-quality raw materials, independent testing, and other best practices, will naturally be more expensive than other brands that skip those steps – and expense – completely,” she says.
“If you review the pricing on all the top players in the industry, the pricing gap isn’t that big because most follow the same production process and have similar costs. The gap starts to arise when companies who fly under the radar and don’t follow generally accepted manufacturing procedures turn up with lower prices; consumers should be wary of pricing that seems too good to be true.”
They also spoke to Mitch Meyers, a co-founder of BeLeaf Life Oils, who stresses that consumers get what they pay for. “It is very important that people taking CBD for health and wellness purposes understand the company, the source of their hemp, and the testing regimen of the company producing the products,” Meyers says.
Meanwhile, Winston Peki, Herbonaut’s chief editor, says that how CBD is produced is a major factor in determining its final price. “The basis of difference in pricing for all CBD products, whether that’s oils, creams, or gummies, is highly related to the production process,” he says. He also elaborates that extraction type of processes impact the price since full-spectrum CBD products will cost more than isolate, whether the brand is vertically integrated or not, and the plants of the hemp part used also play a role.
Photo by Aleksandr_Kravtsov/Getty Images
“It’s erroneous to compare the prices of CBD products based on how much CBD you get for a certain price,” he says. “Other hemp compounds can significantly increase the effectiveness of CBD and possibly also create unique effects through their interactions with CBD.”
“Paradoxically, isolating CBD from an extract is cheaper than trying to remove all non-beneficial compounds, but trying to keep all beneficial compounds inside the extract,” Peki said. “If you isolate CBD, you simply filter everything else out. If you want to preserve other cannabinoids and volatile compounds like terpenes, you need a much more sophisticated filtering process that can be more costly.”
Other Factors That Play A Role
While CBD in general costs more than other types of wellness supplements, there are many things that affect the final price.
One of these is the source of hemp. Ideally, you want to go with organic hemp since the nature of hemp plants are dynamic bioaccumulators, which means they basically absorb all substances in the environment they are grown in. So, if they were grown using pesticides and chemicals, you’d also be putting these things in your body. When you buy CBD from organic farmers, this ensures better quality and purity while giving you peace of mind that it’s rich in all the good stuff and doesn’t have any chemicals.
CBD extract spectrum also plays a role; there are isolates, broad-spectrum, and full-spectrum on the market. Isolated cannabidiol is cheap and widely available but many consider it to be less beneficial compared to broad-spectrum and full-spectrum CBD because it doesn’t provide the benefits of the entourage effect.
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Broad-spectrum refers to CBD that is similar to full-spectrum though it doesn’t have THC. Full-spectrum CBD will give you the closest compound makeup to what is found in the hemp plant since it has a rich array of terpenes and cannabinoids that already naturally are found in hemp, as well as some trace amounts of THC, though it’s usually 0.3% or less. Full-spectrum CBD will always be the superior product because it’s been tested and proven to be more effective, so it’s no surprise its more expensive.
Additionally, how much CBD concentration is found in a product also plays a role. High concentration CBD is pricier because they also provide more value for money, since a lower cost of CBD in every mg comes in your dose. The reasoning for this is similar to buying your groceries in bulk.
Some CBD products also contain other ingredients that can increase the price such as natural flavors, organic honey, etc. There’s also third-party testing, which is recommended for all hemp products. CBD products that can provide you with a certificate of analysis from a third-party laboratory gives consumers peace of mind that you are seeing unbiased testing results.
The results may have implications for the treatment of episodic memory deficits, which are not only hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease, but are also prevalent in many psychiatric disorders.
Cannabidiol (CBD) may be capable of improving episodic memory and verbal recall, possibly providing important therapeutic treatment, according to a study undertaken at the University of Basel, Switzerland.
The study’s lead author, Janine Hotz with Division of Cognitive Neuroscience, and her colleagues say such findings are particularly interesting because they suggest a potential treatment option for psychiatric conditions affected by deteriorated verbal memory.
“The results are in line with the idea that vaping cannabidiol interacts with the central endocannabinoid system and is capable to modulate memory processes, a phenomenon with possible therapeutic potential.”
Treatment For Memory Decline?
“The results may have implications for the treatment of episodic memory deficits, which are not only hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease, but are also prevalent in many psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia, bipolar disorders or posttraumatic stress disorders,” according to the study.
Study Design And Participants
The double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized, crossover trial comparing the effect of vaping cannabidiol (CBD) e-liquid (0.25 ml, 5% CBD, 12.5 mg CBD) with vaping a placebo e-liquid was performed at the University of Basel with 34 healthy Swiss adults between the ages of 18 and 30.
Photo by Christian Wiediger via Unsplash
“The present study revealed an average increase of recalled words 20 minutes after vaping CBD compared to placebo condition by 10%. Importantly, we did not detect medication effects on attention or working memory performance, suggesting that CBD has no negative impact on these basic cognitive functions,” wrote Dr. Hotz, also a member of the Faculty of Psychology.
“The effect of CBD on episodic memory was independent of age, sex, depressive symptoms, frequency of cannabis consumption in a year, and the ratings after vaping (relaxation, tiredness, motivation, mood, tolerance).”
Hotz pointed out that BMI also seemed to play a role.
“The interaction between BMI and drug suggests that the dose for subjects with lower BMI might have been too high to increase memory.”
Now What?
“To conclude, while further research is needed to identify dose-response and time-response relationships, our results show that CBD can improve episodic memory, a drug effect with possible therapeutic potential,” wrote Hotz in the paper that was published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research.
A new study shows the subtle differences between tobacco and cannabis smoking. They’re both bad for your lungs, but in different ways.
Smoking alters your lungs, no matter the substance. But, according to a new study, there’s a difference between long-term cannabis smokers and long-term tobacco smokers.
The study, conducted by researchers from New Zealand, showed the differences in which cannabis and tobacco operate. While it found both substances detrimental to people’s health and lungs, it found that smoking tobacco made people’s lungs decline in how much air they can force out while smoking cannabis produced the opposite; cannabis was connected to higher lung volumes.
“Although the effects of cannabis were detrimental, the pattern of lung function changes was not the same. The research found that prolonged cannabis use led to over-inflated lungs and increased the resistance to airflow to a greater extent than tobacco,” said Professor Bon Hancox, one of the study’s co-authors. “It was also found that cannabis use may also impair the ability of the lungs to extract oxygen from the breath. This is a known consequence of smoking tobacco, but has not been demonstrated with cannabis until now.”
Photo by RODNAE Productions from Pexels
The study is one of the longest and most comprehensive studies done on the effect of lifetime cannabis use, tracking over 1,0000 adults until the age of 45, measuring their tobacco and cannabis smoking habits. At the start of the study, when subjects were 18, they all had similar lung health, an overall healthy baseline. By 45, lung damage was apparent, particularly in those who smoked tobacco.
Despite the fact that cannabis has been smoked for ages, very little is known about its effects, with the most evident harm being “bong lung,” a condition that leaves users with bronchitis and permanent lung damage known as emphysema. This condition has appeared in people who abuse cannabis smoking, not in regular or occasional smokers.
Lung damage from cannabis and tobacco has been historically difficult to differentiate, primarily because cannabis smokers tend to be tobacco smokers, at least in years past. In future studies, it’ll be worth looking into whether or not tobacco smoking has decreased and whether or not cannabis users are still tobacco consumers.
The Maryland Senate also has been working on an approach to legalizing marijuana. The chamber has been working for months to develop an implementation framework.
Maryland lawmakers announced legislation they say will put the state on an equitable path to legalize adult recreational marijuana if voters approve the bill in November.
House Speaker Adrienne Jones said the bill introduced Thursday sets out to address criminal justice and public health issues, while also building a foundation for social equity in the cannabis industry.
“While I feel strongly that the voters should decide this issue, it is the General Assembly that is charged with making sure we have a legally defensible, equity-driven plan in place should they choose legalization,” Jones, a Baltimore County Democrat, said in a press release.
“Marylanders deserve to have their voices heard at the ballot box on the question of legalization, but we cannot move forward without an implementation plan that addresses our immediate priorities,” said Del. Luke Clippinger, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee.
What’s In The Bill
The bill would allow Marylanders to possess up to 1.5 ounces of recreational cannabis. Possession of over that amount and up 2.5 ounces would be reduced to a civil offense rather than a misdemeanor.
The legislation also would automatically expunge the conviction of anyone previously found guilty of simple possession of marijuana if it was the only charge in the case. In addition, anyone currently held in a state prison or local jail for a cannabis conviction would be re-sentenced to end their term of incarceration.
Senate In Step With The House
The Maryland Senate also has been working on an approach to legalizing marijuana. Sen. Will Smith, who chairs the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee, said the chamber has been working for months to develop an implementation framework.
“We will not send this to a referendum without having a clear idea as to what things look like in terms of the actual regulatory framework,” Smith said. “The regulatory framework has to be sussed out before we send it to the voters.”
The report shows some details of medical cannabis’s first year of operations, calculated between December 2020 and December 2021, showing that medical cannabis created 7,000 new jobs. A total of 77,600 jobs were created overall.
“Missouri’s medical cannabis industry is delivering on its promise of not only providing safe, affordable and convenient access for patients but also helping to infuse the state’s economy with sizable investment and millions in new tax revenue,” said Andrew Mullins, executive director of MoCannTrade.
According to Jay Patel, CEO of Green Releaf Dispensaries, “Medical cannabis is hands down the most impactful collective investment our state has seen in recent memory.”
Missouri’s medical marijuana program has been incredibly successful, attracting 170,000 registered patients and creating over $200 million in sales. To date, the state has approved 322 medical marijuana facilities, including dispensaries and cultivation facilities.
Medical marijuana was legalized in Missouri in 2018, with the state’s first legal sale in October 2020. Under this ruling, doctors are able to recommend cannabis treatment to patients who fit the state’s criteria. Conditions treated by the program include cancer, epilepsy, glaucoma, migraines, and more.
People who live in Missouri can apply for medical marijuana cards and home cultivation cards for a $25 and $100 fee, respectively.
There is hope for those struggling from pain if researchers determine that psychedelics indeed can be used, since the studies we have today are still lacking.
The use of psychedelics for treating emotional, mental, and psychological disorders has been proven time and again.
It’s an area of interest specifically because psychedelics, such as the psilocybin in magic mushrooms, LSD, and ketamine, have been proven in the lab to help reduce and manage difficult to treat conditions such as addiction, PTSD, depression, anxiety, and more. Aside from that, they have a loyal following because of the anecdotal evidence.
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Simply said, psychedelics works so well for psychological disorders. But what about for ailments of the body? What about pain?
The Problem of Pain
Different types of pain afflict some 50 million adults in the United States alone. It causes a strain on healthcare, costing some $635 million each year. Pain can be a notoriously difficult condition to treat, whether it’s acute or chronic, without the use of dangerous opioid medications, which can be fatal and addicting.
If not opioids, then there are over-the-counter painkillers, which may not work so well and result in a dependence or addiction, which can then harm the liver.
So can you use psychedelics to treat pain the way you would depression?
In 2020, a paper published by members of the UC San Diego PHRI: Timothy Furnish, who is an associate clinical professor of anesthesiology and pain medicine, UC San Diego pain physician Joel Castellanos, and associate professor of psychiatry Adam Halberstadt, as well as others, discussing the potential benefits of psychedelics for chronic pain.
Their preliminary findings reveal that psychedelics could be used either alone or as part of a multi-prong approach to treat chronic pain conditions including complex regional pain disorders, cluster headaches, and cluster headaches among others because pain has a cognitive aspect as much as it does a physical aspect. It represents a great alternative to opioids.
“Neuropathic pain conditions such as phantom limb pain are often difficult to treat,” explains Furnish. “The possibility that psychedelics could reorganize pain pathways in the brain holds out the promise of a much more long-lasting treatment than current medication can offer.”
There are already studies that prove the safety of psychedelics, primarily psilocybin, at least on healthy individuals. But can it be safe for treating pain in less healthy people?
An Area Of Interest
There are some research groups that have taken on the herculean task of determining if psychedelics can be used in pain treatment. It’s certainly an area of interest, and we’re all interested to learn more.
An article by Scientific American, which was published last year, discusses how medical professionals are engaging in the studies to learn more. “Pain is this four-letter word that can mean so many different things,” says Stanford University School of Medicine assistant professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine, Vivianne Tawfik. “There’s a role for opioids,” she tells Scientific American. “There might end up being a prescribed role for psychedelics. The jury’s still out.”
Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels
Tryp Therapeutics, a start-up pharmaceutical company in California, last year announced that they were working with researchers at the Chronic Pain & Fatigue Research Center in the University of Michigan Medical School to continue the Phase 2a study, the first of its kind to determine if psilocybin was helpful in treating fibromyalgia.
“We are thrilled to collaborate with such forward-looking clinicians and scientists to develop additional treatment options for fibromyalgia,” explained Tryp President and Chief Science Officer, Jim Gilligan, PhD. “The Chronic Pain & Fatigue Research Center at the University of Michigan brings incomparable experience with evaluating treatments for fibromyalgia and other chronic pain indications, and there is nothing more important to our collective team than creating therapies that will address the daily distress of these patients.”
For the study, Tryp developed a synthetic version of psilocybin called TRYP-8802, and they will be assessing its safety and efficacy. Psychotherapy will also be included as part of the research, a treatment that is intended to treat pain through the process of neuroplasticity, which changes and reorganizes the brain’s neural networks.
“Existing treatment options for fibromyalgia are often ineffective and show significant side effects,” explains Daniel Clauw MD, Director for the Chronic Pain & Fatigue Research Center.
Last year as well, Mind Medicine (MindMed) of New York launched a project to discover if psychedelics is effective in treating two pain conditions, under the name Project Angie.
“With the launch of Project Angie, we seek to align closely with MindMed’s core mission to improve mental health and combat substance abuse for the many patients in need. If we can help to develop a new paradigm to treat pain, it may have the potential to greatly reduce the use of addictive medicines such as opioids currently ravaging society and its mental health,” says JR Rahn, co-founder of MindMed and CEO.
Photo by massagenerds via Pixabay
However, MindMed didn’t say which pain conditions they were looking to treat. They are working in cooperation with researchers in Switzerland who had a Phase 2 clinical trial back then for using LSD to treat cluster headaches. They added that they were working on a second treatment for a “common, often debilitating, chronic pain syndrome.”
“Evidence dating back to the 1950s suggests that LSD and other psychedelics may have analgesic effects, but this treatment area remains largely untapped by companies studying psychedelics, with the majority of research focusing solely on psychiatric indications,” explains MindMed Chief Development Officer, Rob Barrow.
For as long as psychedelics are used correctly, they should have a good safety profile. They aren’t addictive unlike opioids. There is hope for those struggling from pain if researchers determine that psychedelics indeed can be used, since the studies we have today are still lacking, but we are optimistic that psychedelics can eventually be used for long-lasting and meaningful results.
The U.S. House of Representatives formally attached a marijuana banking reform amendment to a large-scale bill dealing with innovation and manufacturing, marking the most recent development in the push to protect financial institutions that work with state-legal cannabis businesses.
Marijuana Moment first reported that the amendment from sponsor Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO) was preliminarily approved on Wednesday on a voice vote as part of an ‘en bloc group’ with other amendments, but a roll call was requested. The chamber then took that package back up on Thursday and passed it in a 262-168 vote.
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“There was no floor debate about the cannabis provision itself, demonstrating how relatively noncontroversial the bipartisan-supported reform is in the House,” noted Marijuana Moment‘s Kyle Jaeger. “The Senate, as observers of the issue know, is a different story.” Yes, we do.
What’s Next?
Advocates will need to wait and see whether the America COMPETES Act, with the now-attached Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act, will actually pass in the House on Friday when a final vote is expected.
Marijuana legalization proponents have been pushing for the SAFE Banking Act to be passed into law for several years.
Though legislative hurdles have arisen in the past, it appears as though there may be momentum for meaningful change. The hope is that bicameral negotiations do not remove the desired language from the currently proposed legislation, ultimately setting the stage for its enactment.
A variety of social media posts have been claiming that pneumonia is just an “allergic reaction” to COVID-19. Experts don’t agree.
With new diseases, there are misunderstandings. In the case of a pandemic, these are augmented by a collective panic and people’s easy access to social media, amplifying everyone’s opinions.
Most recently, users took to social media to discuss COVID-19 and pneumonia, with some claiming that it’s an allergic reaction to the infection. Suffice to say, experts don’t agree with this.
These types of posts that have been making the rounds claiming that a variety of COVID-19 symptoms are actually allergic reactions. One of the most concerning ones, which has been shared on Facebook hundreds of times through the past week, explains that this type of pneumonia is a “mast cell degranulation” of the lungs.
“Put simply, it’s an allergic reaction occurring after the viral phase ends, most likely to something in the viral particles left over after the body deals with the virus,” reads the post. “Add antihistamines to your C protocol!”
This is wrong according to a variety of fact-checking companies. USA Today spoke to experts who explained how pneumonia works in the case of COVID-19, and why it’s related to lung inflammation. “Allergies and infectious diseases could present with some similar features but are different clinically,” explained Dr. Kyle Enfield.
Pneumonia is a lung infection that occurs due to COVID-19 complications and lung inflammation. According to data, about 15% of people with COVID-19 get pneumonia, with 5% of them needing to go on a ventilator.
Allergic reactions are prompted by completely different things, occurring when the body creates antibodies as a reaction to foreign substances, like pollen. Symptoms can be similar to pneumonia — shortness of breath, asthma, etc — but prompted by different things.
Researchers also make it clear that taking antihistamines shows no evidence of improving a COVID-19 infection, particularly if the person starts experiencing pneumonia as well.
