Largest review of its kind says while cannabis-based medicines may help some people, drug is detrimental for others
Teenagers, young adults, pregnant women, drivers and mentally ill people should avoid cannabis, according to the largest ever health review of its kind.
However, cannabidiol can help reduce seizures in epilepsy patients, and cannabis-based medicines may help with multiple sclerosis, chronic pain, inflammatory bowel disease and in palliative care.
Continue reading...Legalise Cannabis party’s Jeremy Buckingham says risk of losing driver’s licence under current drug-driving laws acts as disincentive for patients
New South Wales drivers who use medicinal cannabis and return a positive result at a roadside drug test would be spared prosecution under new laws being put forward by the upper house MP Jeremy Buckingham.
It is illegal in NSW to drive with any amount of THC, a psychoactive component of cannabis, in your body even if you have a prescription. THC can show up in roadside drug tests days after the initial period of impairment has worn off.
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Continue reading...Move by city council follows action to limit public cannabis use and to discourage wild partying by young Britons
Amsterdam’s city council has decided to close a cruise ship terminal in its centre, in the latest attempt to limit mass tourism in the Dutch capital.
“Polluting cruise ships are not in line with the sustainable ambitions of our city,” said a statement from the centre-right party D66, which runs the city with the social democrats PvdA and GroenLinks environmentalists.
Continue reading...The party’s bill allowing adults to possess and grow small quantities of the drug at home will be introduced across Victoria, NSW and WA
Legalise Cannabis MPs are launching a coordinated push to make marijuana legal for personal use in three states and overhaul what the party says is outdated legislation that unnecessarily criminalises people.
The party’s drug reform bill will be introduced on Tuesday in state parliaments in Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia – the jurisdictions where it has representation in the state’s upper houses.
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Continue reading...Exclusive: Ethically Enhanced website sold Hubba Bubba-flavoured vapes containing cannabidiol, as owner of bubblegum brand considers legal action
A company advertising brightly packaged Hubba Bubba-flavoured cannabis vape products to Australians through sponsored TikTok posts and selling them without checking for ID or requiring a prescription is being investigated by the country’s drug regulator.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration confirmed it was investigating the content and owners of the Ethically Enhanced website, which sells vapes containing cannabidiol under the name Temple CBD Australia. A TGA spokesperson said the regulator would now “determine the most appropriate regulatory action”.
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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...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...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.
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Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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...‘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...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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...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...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.
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Continue reading...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...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...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...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.
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