Category Archives: Cannabis

Pat Dodson takes leave from Senate – as it happened

Posted on by

This blog is now closed.

Former Tasmanian Liberal premier condemns party’s opposition to voice

Tasmania is the last Liberal state government left in the country and its former premier has taken to social media this morning to speak out against the federal party’s decision to oppose the voice to parliament.

Should the Liberal party maintain its opposition to the voice it will simply accelerate its increasing irrelevance.

I have asked for Cyber Security NSW to issue advice to NSW government employees, to implement this change as soon as possible.

I will no longer be using TikTok.

Continue reading...

Amsterdam tells young British men who want a ‘messy’ weekend to stay away

Posted on by

In bid to reduce nuisance behaviour ads will be triggered if people search online for terms such as ‘stag party Amsterdam’

The city of Amsterdam is geo-targeting a campaign to tell young British men wanting a “messy” weekend to stay away.

Research has suggested these Britons aged 18-35, and Dutch men of a similar age, tend to cause most nuisance in the red light district, with stag parties, pub crawls and all-night drink and drug benders making life unbearable for residents.

Continue reading...

NSW election: Legalise Cannabis eyeing an upper house seat in bid to overturn drug-driving law

Posted on by

Pollster says it’s a crowded progressive micro-party market, but some high-profile donors are backing the party’s campaign

When Antony Zbik was handed a “life-changing” medical cannabis prescription almost six years ago, he did not realise it would also rob him of his freedom.

While the treatment helped the 38-year-old with crippling pain caused by fibromyalgia, it also forced him to move back home and become reliant on his parents to drive him around.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Australia spends billions ‘failing to police’ cannabis that earns black market $25bn a year, Greens say

Posted on by

David Shoebridge says legalising the drug would bring in $28bn in tax revenue in first decade

Australia’s cannabis industry could be earning the black market $25bn a year and, rather than policing it, we could be gaining revenue from it by legalising it, Greens senator David Shoebridge has said.

“Law enforcement is spending billions of public dollars failing to police cannabis, and the opportunity here is to turn that all on its head by legalising it,” he said.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Number of US children who accidentally ate cannabis rose by 1,375% in last five years

Posted on by

In 2017, 207 cases of accidental ingestion by children younger than six were reported, while in 2021 there were 3,054, report says

The number of young children accidentally ingesting marijuana in the US has rocketed by 1,375% in the last five years, a new report reveals.

The report, released on Tuesday in the journal Pediatrics, examined findings from the National Poison Data System on pediatric exposure to edible cannabis products in children younger than six years old from 2017 to 2021.

Continue reading...

A dying cancer patient used cannabis to ease pain. His hospital called the police

Posted on by

‘You’d think they would have shown compassion’: patient’s son decries Kansas police who issued citation as father suffered

Hospital staff in Kansas called the police on a man dying of cancer who was using cannabis products to cope with his symptoms, in an incident that has since sparked outrage and renewed calls to rethink the state’s strict cannabis laws.

The encounter took place in mid-December, when police in the city of Hays say two officers showed up at the cancer patient’s hospital room to issue him a citation for a drug violation. Police also took away a vaping device and cannabis product that hospital staff had already confiscated.

Continue reading...

Victorian crossbench contenders vow to push for cannabis decriminalisation if elected

Posted on by

Despite premier Daniel Andrews refusing to budge on the issue, Legalise Cannabis party promises to push ‘forcefully’ on drug reform

A group of progressive candidates that might hold the balance of power in the Victorian upper house have vowed to push for cannabis decriminalisation despite premier Daniel Andrews refusing to budge on the issue.

While the Legalise Cannabis party said it was too early to “count their eggs”, preliminary projections suggest they are in the running to win three upper house seats – but it is promising to push “forcefully” on drug reform if elected.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Cannabis oil failed to improve pain or quality of life in palliative care cancer patients, study shows

Posted on by

Researchers say despite the lack of symptom relief, more trials are needed to focus on the targeted use of medicinal cannabis

The first high quality study looking at the impact of cannabidiol oil on palliative care patients with advanced cancer found it did not improve their pain, depression, anxiety, or quality of life.

Palliative care is one of the conditions for which medicinal cannabis has been approved in Australia.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

New York has $750m worth of cannabis stockpiled that growers can’t sell

Posted on by

Cannabis farmers have ‘an unclear path to market’ as the state has yet to approve retail dispensaries

A strong smell of weed hangs over many New York neighborhoods, the result in part of cannabis decriminalization in 2019 – but cannabis growers in the state are at an impasse when it comes to getting their crops to market.

Almost 300,000 pounds of the drug, worth as much as $750m, from last summer’s production at 200 state-licensed farms are stockpiled, without a place to be sold and in danger of deteriorating, according to a Bloomberg report on Saturday.

Continue reading...

Germany announces plan to legalise cannabis for recreational use

Posted on by

Minister says legalisation could set precedent for rest of Europe, though plan is still subject to EU approval

Germany wants to make it legal for adults to purchase and own up to 30g of cannabis for recreational use and to privately grow up to three plants, the country’s health minister has announced, saying the intended outcome could set a precedent for the rest of the European continent.

“If this law comes to pass, it would be the most liberal project to legalise cannabis in Europe, but also the most regulated market”, the Karl Lauterbach said at a press conference in Berlin on Wednesday. “It could be a model for Europe.”

Continue reading...

Boom in unapproved medicinal cannabis products worries Australian experts

Posted on by

Some patients are taking cannabis for conditions where there is little evidence it is effective, GPs and researchers say

Prescriptions for unapproved medicinal cannabis products in Australia have quadrupled since 2019, with half issued for adults aged 24 and under.

Researchers and GPs’ representatives have questioned whether the boom has led to patients taking cannabis for conditions where there is little evidence it is effective, given large gaps in the data and the role of cannabis manufacturers in promoting their product to practitioners.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Officer who wrote Met’s drug strategy smoked cannabis daily, panel told

Posted on by

Commander Julian Bennett refused to take a drug test in 2020 after his lodger contacted police alleging drug use

A senior Metropolitan police commander who wrote the force’s drug strategy allegedly smoked cannabis in front of his lodger every day, a gross misconduct hearing has been told.

Commander Julian Bennett later threatened to resign when he was asked to take a drug test on 21 July 2020, a disciplinary panel heard.

Continue reading...

‘Very good for tourists’: Thailand aims for high season with U-turn on cannabis

Posted on by

The once-banned drug is now on sale at market stalls, beach clubs and even hotel receptions. But the laws in this ‘pot paradise’ are blurry

A distinctive sweet smell wafts through Fisherman’s Village night market on the Thai island of Koh Samui, drifting up between the sticky mango rice stalls and bucket cocktail vans. The Samui Grower cannabis stall is doing swift business tonight. A table is laid with glass jars, each displaying a different flowering green bud, with labels saying things like ‘‘Road Dawg’ hybrid THC25% 850TBH/gram”.

Elsewhere on the island, at Chi beach club, tourists lie on couches puffing ready-rolled joints and munching pizzas topped with green cannabis leaves. On Instagram, the Green Shop Samui offers a marijuana menu of fantastically named buds: Truffle Cream, Banana Kush and Sour Diesel, alongside hemp cookies and cannabis herbal soap.

Continue reading...

‘Every part is useful’: the man who wants Afghanistan to swap opium for hemp

Posted on by

Oil from the versatile plant makes cannabis medicine CBD and its fibre has a range of uses but the Taliban need convincing

The smell seemed unmistakable, the dried buds looked familiar and the Taliban checkpoint guards, who had never heard of CBD, a non-psychoactive cannabis compound, were disgusted by the pungent cargo of Amin Karim’s truck.

“They said to me: ‘Aren’t you ashamed of yourself, Haji?’” using an honorific for an older man, as they poked through the piles of hemp headed for Kabul last October.

Continue reading...

Germany’s move to legalise cannabis expected to create ‘domino effect’

Posted on by

Coalition government consults health experts, economists and growers in race to clear legal hurdles within two years

Germany is mulling over the consequences of soon becoming the world’s largest potential market for legally sold cannabis, as the country’s left-liberal government presses ahead with plans to allow the controlled distribution of the drug among adults.

Olaf Scholz’s coalition government has in recent weeks reiterated its 2021 coalition-deal vow to legalise for recreational use what its Green and liberal party minister have taken to referring to as Bubatz, a slang word for weed popular among German rappers.

Continue reading...

How cannabis-fed chickens may help cut Thai farmers’ antibiotic use

Posted on by

Scientists observed fewer cases of avian bronchitis and superior meat after chickens given cannabis

It all began when Ong-ard Panyachatiraksa, a farm owner in the north of Thailand who is licensed to grow medicinal cannabis, was wondering what to do with the many excess leaves he had amassed. He asked: could his brood of chickens benefit from the leftovers?

Academics at Chiang Mai University were also curious. Since last January they have studied 1,000 chickens at Ong-ard’s Pethlanna organic farm, in Lampang, to see how the animals responded when cannabis was mixed into their feed or water.

The results are promising and suggest that cannabis could help reduce farmers’ dependence on antibiotics, according to Chompunut Lumsangkul, an assistant professor at Chiang Mai University’s department of animal and aquatic sciences, who led the study.

Continue reading...

Thailand to ease cannabis rules but smokers warned over smell ‘nuisance’

Posted on by

People will be allowed to grow it at home but smoking for recreational purposes is still forbidden

Thailand will soon ease its rules on cannabis and allow people to grow the plant at home – but smoking for recreational purposes is still forbidden, and officials have warned that anyone who creates a smell by doing so in public could be charged.

From Thursday, Thailand will remove cannabis and hemp plants from its narcotics list, part of a drive to tap into the growing interest in infused drinks and medical treatments.

Continue reading...

Sadiq Khan launches commission to examine cannabis legality

Posted on by

Mayor of London says panel of experts will consider effectiveness of UK policies on non-class A drugs

Sadiq Khan has announced a commission to examine the effectiveness of the UK’s drug laws, with a particular focus on those governing cannabis.

The London drugs commission, to be chaired by Lord Charlie Falconer QC, a former lord chancellor and justice secretary, was one of Khan’s manifesto pledges in his re-election bid last year.

Continue reading...

More than half of prescriptions for medicinal cannabis in Australia given in Queensland, study says

Posted on by

Anxiety and sleep disorders were some reasons given for prescriptions despite lack of evidence for cannabis treatment, researchers find

More than half of all prescriptions for medicinal cannabis in Australia are written by doctors in Queensland, with prescriptions often given for conditions there is little evidence medicinal cannabis can treat, new research reveals.

Medicinal cannabis products such as capsules, creams, oils, lozenges, sprays and granulated flowers were approved for prescription 159,665 times between the start of Australia’s medicinal cannabis program in February 2016 and September 2021, research led by the University of Sydney’s Lambert Initiative for Cannabinoid Therapeutics shows.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Food Standards Agency draws up list of food products containing cannabidiol

Posted on by

Move intended to ensure CBD ‘products are safe and what they say they are’, says FSA’s chief executive

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has created a list of more than 3,500 food products infused with cannabidiol (CBD), bringing them one step closer to being authorised as part of government plans to wrest control over a flourishing industry.

CBD extracts are widely available in UK shops, cafes and online in the form of oils, drops, gels, confectionery, bakery products and drinks. The FSA is responsible for food safety and hygiene in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Continue reading...