Tag: Medical

8/26/20--An association of medical marijuana-certified doctors is growing, and giving those physicians the chance to learn from one another about the development of treatment and best practices. Yet, marijuana remains illegal under federal law, which limits research. As a result, physicians who recommend cannabis have only anecdotal evidence of its efficacy. Read

7/15/20--Though there's no evidence that cannabis can treat opioid use disorder, medical boards in four states -- Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and New Mexico -- include the disorder among conditions that qualify a person to access marijuana for medical purposes. Shover and her colleagues found that in the Northeastern states where that is the case, more dispensaries make advertising claims that cannabis can treat opioid addiction than they do in adjacent states. Read

7/14/20--According to this study, state-level policies designating opioid use disorder (OUD) as a qualifying condition for medical cannabis were associated with more dispensaries claiming cannabis can treat OUD. Future studies linking dispensary advertisements to health outcomes in people with OUD (eg, use of MOUDs, overdose mortality) are warranted, as are investigations into advertising that addresses other conditions with major morbidity and mortality consequences. Read

7/13/20--The FBI has once again requested records from Independence City Hall, the latest in a series of inquiries by federal authorities over the last year that appear to be focused on a pair of utilities contracts and medical marijuana regulations. Read

7/6/20--WeedCerts says it approved thousands of medical marijuana patients. The St. Louis company is at the center of a state investigation into about 600 fake certifications. Officials with the Department of Health and Senior Services and the attorney general’s office haven’t said whether they believe Lou Moynihan, who was instrumental in the launch of the company WeedCerts last year, knew or participated in the fraudulent activity, which the state believes occurred through telemedicine visits. Read

6/29/20--Gov. Kim Reynolds has signed into law a bill that changes the cap on THC in Iowa's medical marijuana program and allows patients with more conditions to access the program. Read

6/28/20--Viridian Legal Services, a Tulsa law firm, has filed a class action lawsuit against the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority for rejecting license renewals of medical marijuana dispensaries because of changes in state law made after the entities were licensed. Read

6/29/20-- On Monday, June 29, Gov. Reynolds signed several bills into law, including HF2589: an Act concerning the medical cannabidiol Act and marijuana. Read

6/22/20--Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft’s Securities Division ordered Shawn Harrison, Kristie Harrison, Kevin Larson and their company Cannabis Plus Missouri LLC to cease and desist after they allegedly committed fraud in offering and selling unregistered securities. The division ordered the Harrisons, Larson and their company to show cause why they should not be ordered to pay restitution plus interest, civil penalties and investigation costs totaling at least $21,000. Read

6/19/20--Missouri's medical marijuana program announced late Friday that it launched an investigation after it determined that patient medical marijuana cards have been issued to applicants whose doctor paperwork was sent in with an unauthorized signature. Read

6/4/20--This report documents everything from who’s using cannabis in the state of Michigan for medical and recreational purposes, to downstream effects including motor vehicle crashes, emergency department visits and criminal justice cases. It aims to provide a baseline for future studies on the impact of state-level recreational cannabis legalization that occurred in late 2018, and to inform future policies and public health messaging. The report also includes a wide range of findings compiled from original research and official sources. Read

6/8/20--Missouri lobbyist Steve Tilley, reportedly under state and federal scrutiny, had direct contact with state medical marijuana officials as they were developing the program’s regulations and taking business license applications. According to The Kansas City Star, medical marijuana license applicants raised the question of whether he received an unfair advantage in terms of access and influence. Read

6/3/20--The Piqua City Commission and Planning Commission of Piqua will be conducting a work session to learn about and discuss the topic of medical marijuana dispensaries on Wednesday, June 17, at 6 p.m, using the video conferencing application Zoom. Read

6/5/20--Data from the Oklahoma Tax Commission show sales of medical marijuana in the state are continuing to break records. Sales in May brought in over $11.6 million in sales tax revenue, with overall sales topping $73 million. Read

6/5/20--The Department of Health and Senior Services has released the Missouri Medical Marijuana Regulatory Program’s annual report to Gov. Parson. Reported activities are based on the program year of December 6, 2018, through December 5, 2019. Read

5/29/20--Scrutiny of Missouri’s medical cannabis licensing recently escalated to Gov. Mike Parson’s office and a close adviser, apparently making the investigation among the first MMJ licensing probes to extend to the highest levels of state government. Read

5/16/20--Due to Maine allowing the medical use of marijuana by students, the federal government is cutting off $3.3 million in already approved funding to support mental health programs for youngsters. Read

5/15/20--Republican lawmakers in Missouri, who had projected confidence in meeting their goals at the beginning of the session, were forced to downsize their ambitions to fit a COVID-19-shortened time frame. The 2020 session saw lawmakers divided not just by party lines but by 6 feet of social distance. Read

5/18/20--The Denver Department of Excise and Licenses has formed a Marijuana Licensing Work Group (MLWG) to gather community input regarding the new marijuana licenses created by the State of Colorado in 2019, Denver’s Cannabis Equity Program, and the City’s 2020 Marijuana Workplan. Read

5/2/20--Researchers haven’t conducted enough large-scale clinical trials that show that the benefits of the marijuana plant (as opposed to its cannabinoid ingredients) outweigh its risks in patients it’s meant to treat. Long-term studies are necessary. Due to the lack of research, Westview emphasizes the importance of an educated community, especially young people and their parents, about the dangers and potentially addictive dynamics of all drugs, including marijuana. Read

5/1/20--Saint Louis University is offering its first online certificate in Cannabis Science and Operations. This certificate will educate students in all aspects of the cannabis industry, including cultivating, growing, and production as well as dispensing and understanding the pharmacological properties of cannabis. Graduates of this certificate will be prepared to pursue positions in sales and marketing, dispensary management, quality assurance and laboratory technology, to name a few. Read

5/1/20--Two former employees of the multistate dispensary operator Harvest Health and Recreation are suing the company, accusing it of engaging in a slew of compliance violations and asking them to break Arizona law. Read

4/21/20--Marijuana companies don’t want competitors seeing anything that reveals their growing methods, but several experts in chemistry and botany reviewed the publicly available testing data and saw no potential issues. Read

3/30/20--Stephanie Smittle, culture editor for the Arkansas Times, interviews Micah Reynolds, a 28-year-old Camden native and self-described cannabis nerd who works as an “herbologist” at Little Rock’s Herbology dispensary, to uncover the contents of what is included in marijuana provided by Arkansas’s medical marijuana dispensaries and how transactions are handled with patients. Read

4/1/20--Due to some recent regulatory changes, getting a medical marijuana card in Massachusetts is an easy process. For starters, the temporary Cannabis Control Commission process meant to support social distancing amid the coronavirus outbreak, offers initial appointments (and required annual certification renewals) that can now be conducted over the phone. The agency also recently eliminated state fees for medical patients. Read

4/2/20--The Opioid Alternative Pilot Program (OAPP) was launched by the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) on January 31, 2019. The OAPP provides access to medical cannabis for individuals who have or could receive a prescription for opioids as certified by a physician licensed in Illinois. Read

4/5/20--Ohio’s medical marijuana industry is required to follow stringent rules that prevent it from taking some of the same precautions as pharmacies during the coronavirus outbreak. Some in the industry would like those rules eased. The list of essential businesses allowed to remain open during the coronavirus pandemic includes medical marijuana dispensaries, which are in the same category as pharmacies because they provide what is considered medicine under Ohio law. Read

4/3/20--New York-based Acreage Holdings said it's temporarily closing The Botanist in Fargo, medical marijuana dispensary, that opened a year ago was shut down Friday because of slow sales and regulatory delays due to the coronavirus, the facility's operators said in a statement. Read

3/13/20--While neither the Department of Health and Senior Services or any of the dispensaries they've licensed have confirmed opening dates, online sources speculate a mid-2020 launch of Missouri's legal cannabis industry. Keep an eye on the DHSS website for the latest updates and regulatory news. Weedmaps outlines information about what should be known about purchasing cannabis in Missouri. Read

3/15/20--Two individuals involved in controversial energy projects in Independence that have drawn FBI scrutiny submitted a formal proposal to help repurpose a separate, soon-to-be shuttered Blue Valley Municipal Power Generating Plant into a biofuels production facility “to provide alternative fuels for the future.” Read

3/2/20--A proposed cap on the level of euphoria-inducing THC in medical marijuana has hit a snag in the Florida Senate, leaving a priority of the House in jeopardy as time runs down on the legislative session. Senate Health Policy Chairwoman Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, introduced a proposal Monday that would have capped THC levels in medical marijuana for patients under age 21. Read

3/3/20--Lawmakers have begun digging through the constitutional amendment legalizing medical marijuana, and in some cases, they don’t like what they see — and they’re intent on making changes. Read

3/3/20--More than 800 appeals have been filed by people who were denied state permits to grow, sell or distribute medical marijuana in Missouri. According to Joe Ingrande of Troy, Mo., who thought he had a good chance to open a dispensary in Bowling Green, says there was "something funny about the test, and there was too much ambiguity." Ingrade also states he was told priority would be given to pick local people, but he says many of the winners appear to be corporations from out-of-state. Read

3/5/20--An amendment that establishes a potency cap of 10% THC for medical marijuana patients under 21 has made its way back to the Florida House floor, where it was tacked onto a larger healthcare bill during a floor session Thursday. Capping THC is a priority of House Speaker José Oliva, R-Miami Lakes, who said Wednesday the chemical in medical marijuana could “possibly be detrimental to a young brain.” Read

2/15/20--A bill to let more potent medical marijuana products be sold in Iowa has cleared initial review in the Iowa House, but the bill also would limit the total amount of THC patients could be sold over a 90 day period. Under the state’s medical cannabis program, there are licensed growers, producers and sellers of medical marijuana to Iowans with a limited number of medical condition like Multiple Sclerosis and chronic epilepsy. Read

2/2/20--According to a new cannabis industry pricing guide, Arizona has some of the least expensive marijuana products in America. The pricing guide also reveals that many Arizona dispensaries see the highest profit margin from pre-rolls and the lowest from flowers. The lowest prices in the state appear to be for edibles such as foods and drinks. Read

1/20/20--Wellcana Group has big expansion plans for its LSU-licensed medical marijuana operations in Louisiana and is separately courting farmers to grow hemp to support the company's launch soon into CBD products. Currently, Wellcana's Baton Rouge facility can grow a limited number of marijuana plants and manufactures tinctures for patients suffering from specific ailments outlined in state law. Read

1/11/20--After a bill in 2016 regulating growing facilities and allowing for the licensing of doctors and pharmacies that the use of medical marijuana became viable in the state, it took two and a half years before medical marijuana became available to the public in Louisiana. The program still continues to have problems. Health insurance does not cover medical marijuana, and the Louisiana Board of Pharmacy, which licenses and regulates the pharmacies that dispense marijuana products, has received complaints about potential patients’ lack of access to the treatment. Read

1/11/20--A bright purple sky appeared over Snowflake, Arizona due to the lights from nearby marijuana farm Copperstate Farms. The landscape, with shades of pink and purple across clouds in the sky and a blanket of white snow on the ground, looked more like a video game than real life, and it was visible for miles, according to a Facebook post on Friday. Read

12/26/19--Six licensed operators in the New Jersey Medicinal Marijuana Program submit their strains of cannabis flower to a single laboratory, administered by the state’s Department of Health, for testing. The collection of strain profiles available in New Jersey conforms to results of other population studies, revealing three broad classification of strains based on their relative concentration of cannabinoids. Read

12/5/19--Results from a prevention study in California conducted by the RAND Corporation, published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, suggest that medical marijuana programs in that state attracted a substantial number of young people who already were heavy users of the drug. Read

12/3/19--Minnesota is expanding the state’s medical marijuana program to include chronic pain and age-related macular degeneration as conditions that can qualify for treatment, state health officials said Monday. The state Department of Health also said it would allow more sites where patients can access medical cannabis. The changes take effect in August, Minnesota Public Radio News reported. Read

11/11/19--This guideline covers prescribing of cannabis-based medicinal products for people with intractable nausea and vomiting, chronic pain, spasticity, and severe treatment-resistant epilepsy. Read

11/11/19--Two cannabis-based medicines, used to treat epilepsy and multiple sclerosis, have been approved for use by the NHS in England. Doctors will be able to prescribe Epidyolex, for children with two types of severe epilepsy - Lennox Gastaut syndrome and Dravet syndrome - which can cause multiple seizures a day. The other treatment, Sativex, is a mouth spray that contains a mix of THC and CBD. It has been approved for treating muscle stiffness and spasms, known as spasticity, in multiple sclerosis. But doctors will not be allowed to prescribe it to treat pain. Read  

11/14/19--According to an article published in The Spectator USA, marijuana’s effects on the minds of many of its users are permanent. They may give it up entirely, but the damage has been done, and there’s a simple reason for this. Marijuana has been the beneficiary of one of the slickest, most sustained advertising campaigns in human history. Not only do millions believe it is some sort of medicine. Most people, even law enforcers, describe it as a ‘soft’ drug. Read

11/6/19--A year after Missouri voters approved medical marijuana, News 4 checked in with the state to get an update. Currently, there are no medical marijuana facilities in Missouri but over 20,000 applications have been submitted for facilities. To start, the state said they will only approve about 350 licenses for manufacturing and dispensaries. Read

10/30/19--According to the Marijuana Regulatory Agency (MRA), the new rules for the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act (MMMA) will lower the registry card application fee by 33% while eliminating fees associated with processing updates or replacing marijuana registry cards. Read

10/29/19--Some newly proposed bills would lay the foundation for legalization of recreational marijuana in Florida, and others indicate a more lax approach to drug sentencing. As it stands, lawmakers continue to grapple with their approach to licensing medical marijuana facilities and regulating public smoking now that hemp is legal. With that in mind, Miami New Times outlines what state legislators have been working on lately. Read

10/14/19--On Friday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a requirement that all cannabis stores enter into so-called “labor peace agreements” as soon as they have 20 or more employees. Labor unions have been pushing for these agreements in recent years, as more and more states decriminalize marijuana. They say they want to make sure the $6 billion industry doesn’t exploit workers, who are often paid below the minimum wage or given marijuana instead of wages. Read

10/4/19--Many LGBTQ people are at the center of the growth of the marijuana industry. Colton Griffin, CEO of Flourish, an Atlanta-based company that helps medical marijuana companies monitor logistics, is one of the LGBTQ people playing a role in Georgia’s booming medical marijuana business. Read

8/19/19--The medical marijuana facility application period closed at 4:30 p.m. today, and the Missouri’s Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) received approximately 2,100 applications by the extended deadline. Applications are from those hoping to obtain licenses from DHSS for cultivation, dispensary, manufacturing, testing laboratory, and transportation facilities for the state’s medical marijuana program. Read

8/22/19--Missouri collected $13-million dollars in fees after receiving more than 2,000 business applications to grow and sell medical marijuana. More than 1,200 applications were submitted in the final three days including 800 in the final 24 hours. Read

8/23/19--Despite the known risks to using marijuana while pregnant, including impaired brain development for the fetus, nothing in Missouri’s new medical marijuana law prevents other doctors from helping pregnant patients obtain the drug. Doctors are only required to discuss the risks. Read

8/10/19--Lauren and Shawn Jenkins, co-founders of FlowerCraft dispensaries in Tulsa and Coweta, announced this week that they will close their dispensary. Saturday was the last day for the Tulsa store. Read

7/9/19--The Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority says it is currently taking steps to implement statutory modifications to the state’s medical marijuana program that was made during the 2019 legislative session. All changes will be implemented through August and November, and will be followed by permanent rule promulgation activities in 2020. Read

6/14/19--Medical marijuana edibles are now available in Arkansas – one month after marijuana sales began in the state. The state’s two operating dispensaries – Doctor’s Orders and Green Springs Medical – received their first shipment of marijuana gummies on Friday. Both dispensaries, located in Hot Springs, anticipate added variety of edible products in the near future. Read

6/15/19--Gov. Greg Abbott has signed House Bill 3703 into law expanding who can access medical marijuana products in the state of Texas. Effective immediately, specialty doctors will be able to prescribe medical marijuana to treat multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, ALS, terminal cancer, autism, and many kinds of seizure disorders. Read

6/14/19--Five new conditions were accepted for treatment to the state’s growing medical marijuana program at a recent Board of Physicians meeting. The five conditions will be added to the Medical Marijuana Program’s regulations, and are ultimately subject to approval by the Regulations Review Committee of the Connecticut General Assembly. Read

6/4/19--The City Council voted Monday to direct the city attorney to prepare a resolution stating that medical marijuana dispensaries are permitted on Marco Island. The motion, presented by councilor Jared Grifoni, passed 5-2. Chairperson Erik Brechnitz and councilor Howard Reed voted against it. Read

5/9/19--Missouri’s medical marijuana industry players have already donated more than $15,000 to a political action committee controlled by Gov. Mike Parson, whose administration will decide who gets growing licenses and what regulations they’ll face. There’s no law against giving money to politicians as they’re making decisions that directly affect the donor’s business — but, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Editorial Board's recently published editorial, there should be. Read