A Denver-based company hopes to be the state’s first to study the effects of marijuana on Alzheimer’s disease, thanks to a newly available research and development license in the city.

MedPharm Holdings plans to apply for a Denver marijuana R&D license to test delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), cannabidiol (CBD) and other cannabinoids’ effects on Alzheimer’s and dementia patients.

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, 5.8 million Americans have the disease, a degenerative brain disorder that affects a person’s memory and thinking skills. While there are drugs that help ease symptoms, they do not change the course of the disease.

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TINEY RICCIARDI ~ The Denver Post 

Jarros Friedel has his medical marijuana card and has been experimenting with recipes that go beyond the standard of gummies and brownies. 

One of the recipes the co-owner of Guyute's in Oklahoma City has been working on is a chicken confit.

He makes the oil at his house. "We grind up the cannabis. We put it in the oven at 220 for about an hour," Friedel says in a video he sent to KOCO 5.

"Once it's decarbed, you set up a double boiler and heat it to about 140, put cannabis in oil in mason jar in a double boiler. Let it sit there. It becomes infused after about an hour, hour and a half. Strain oil."

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Maine's medical marijuana industry is twice as big as expected. Only lobsters and potatoes beat it in revenue.

Medical cannabis has been legal in the state for two decades, but now state regulators have given the industry its own tax category.

It's true size and value is known for the first time.

The industry itself can't believe the magnitude of the market.

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Medical marijuana is known to stir up controversy among healthcare professionals, researchers, and policymakers.

Several states are yet to legalize medical marijuana and do not allow the sale of marijuana products in the State.

With 22 States legalizing medical marijuana, it is the cash crop that is taking the country by storm.

In these states, you will find medical marijuana dispensaries mushrooming all over. Here’s how medical marijuana can help improve your overall health.

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Veterans are pushing back against a proposal backed by Florida House leaders that would limit the amount of THC in medical marijuana, an effort they say is not based on science and could be harmful to veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder.

House Speaker José Oliva has called the proposed 10% cap on THC, the euphoria-inducing component in cannabis, a priority, but Senate leaders have remained skeptical about the need for such a limit.

Smokable cannabis now being sold by the state’s medical marijuana treatment centers has potency of as high as 30%.

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Dara Kam ~ News Service of Florida via MiamiHerald.com ~ 

The cannabis industry, like so many global concerns, is dependent on labor in China’s factory zones.

The scope of the crisis now facing China is truly staggering, and clearly poses a threat to the country’s generation-long thrust of prodigious economic growth and that includes one industry that has close ties to cannabis, vaping.

By the Chinese government’s own count as of Feb. 17, a total of 72,436 people are confirmed to be suffering from the COVID-19 coronavirus, while 1,868 people have died.

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Bill Weinberg ~ CannabisNow.com ~ 

Almost 60% of US healthcare providers feel negatively about medical cannabis, while less than 12% view it positively.

These results, the product of a survey reported in the forthcoming March 2020 issue of Preventative Medicine, provide a startling insight into the relationship between medical cannabis and those who can prescribe it.

The survey, which investigated the opinions of 1,439 licensed clinicians anonymously from 2011 through to 2017, hints at some of the hurdles cannabis needs to clear for doctors to warm to it. 

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Emma Stone ~ Leafly.com ~ 

How is a cop supposed to tell the difference between a consumer using a legal product, and an illegal consumer using or transporting a product from the illicit market?

Law enforcement wants to take marijuana-intoxicated drivers off the road. But roadside testing devices are still unavailable.

They want to help stop the illicit cannabis market. But one person’s ounce of weed looks like another’s.

They have their drug dogs at the ready. But drug dogs hit on hemp and marijuana, legal or not, and are being phased out or overruled.

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The sale of recreational marijuana in Illinois generated $7.3 million in cannabis tax revenue last month, the Illinois Department of Revenue announced Monday.

The Revenue Department also reported that an additional $3.1 million was generated in retail sales tax revenue.

Dispensaries across the state sold nearly $40 million in recreational pot last month.

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Associated Press ~ 

Americans may want to rethink the stereotype of the pot-loving teen: More U.S. seniors are using the drug now than ever before.

The proportion of folks 65 and older who use pot stands at 4.2%, up from 2.4% in 2015, according to figures from the U.S. National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

"The change from 2.4 up to 4.2, that's a 75% increase," said senior researcher Joseph Palamar, an associate professor of population health at New York University Langone Medical Center. "It didn't double, but 75% is a pretty big increase, I think."

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Dennis Thompson ~ HealthDay.com ~ 

The Bahamas National Commission on Marijuana expects to complete a crucial public survey on whether cannabis should be legalized by mid-April.

The commission was split on whether adult-use cannabis should be legalized. It agreed to put the matter to a public poll in a bid to break the deadlock.

Commissioners must first decide on whether to use the Department of Statistics or turn to a private company to conduct the survey.

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Martin Green ~ Grizzle.com ~ 

A new report from Statistics Canada adds to a growing body of evidence that marijuana legalization dissuades adolescent use.

It would be wrong to state that marijuana legalization causes a drop in teenage use, due to a lack of rigorous scientific studies on the matter.

A coloration is developing, however. According to a new report from Statistics Canada, teenage use of cannabis has declined following adult-use legalization in the country.

In ending prohibition, the Canadian government wanted to ensure they were creating a system where cannabis couldn’t easily end up in youth’s hands. 

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Here are the best new cultivars and clones to grow in 2020 -- selected based on interviews with the world’s most influential breeders, what’s available legally in stores and online, and data trends in popular strains.

Legalization’s onward march into the mainstream means that more gardeners than ever can grow some cannabis.

Michigan and Illinois added medical marijuana cultivation rights this year.

Oklahoma is in the midst of a legal medical genetics boom. The list goes on and on. 

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A team of researchers have created a ‘hemp scanner’ that can determine the level of THC in cannabis plants instantly, without damaging any of the product.

Hemp is technically legal in Texas, but proving that hemp is not cannabis can be a hurdle, requiring testing in a licensed laboratory.

So, when a truck carrying thousands of pounds of hemp was recently detained by law enforcement near Amarillo, the driver spent weeks in jail awaiting confirmation that the cargo was legal.

Stories like that one inspired a team of Texas A&M AgriLife researchers to create a “hemp scanner” that can distinguish hemp and cannabis instantly, without damaging any of the product.

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A Jakarta-based activist is campaigning to change public perceptions and Indonesian policy so that patients suffering from chronic disease and pain can also access the potentially life-changing treatment.

Dhira Narayana of Lingkar Ganja Nusantara, Indonesia’s cannabis movement, has been working with a network of NGOs, volunteers, patients and doctors to research how a domestic medicinal cannabis market might look and what needs to change for it to become a reality.

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Michael Andrew ~ The Jakarta Post ~

Experts are cautioning companies to shore up their security practices and for consumers to be mindful of opportunities that seem too good to be true.

Cannabis is an emerging industry with stratospheric growth expectations.

Like the California Gold Rush, the dot-com boom and every other new market with boundless potential, the cannabis industry also has the tendency to attract some sketchy characters with dubious motives.

Security experts have long warned that the cannabis industry is susceptible to both cybercriminal and fraudulent activities. 

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With the opioid crisis on the minds of communities and governing bodies all over the United States, a New York doctor shares how marijuana is impacting his patients and business.

With stringent new regulations on prescribing opioids, many pain doctors are looking to alternative medicines to help patients cope beyond pills and patches.

Stakeholders in the elimination of the opioid crisis have focused on prevention and early intervention with patients.

Many doctors are still struggling to offer alternative medicines for individuals seeking relief from short-term or long-term pain.

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This time last year, it appeared that Colorado's industry was plateauing. Now it's surging.

Colorado cannabis shops notched sales of nearly $1.75 billion during 2019, setting a new annual sales record for the state home to the nation's longest-established recreational cannabis industry, according to Colorado Department of Revenue data first reported by the Denver Westword.

The new high water mark for sales netted more than $302.4 million in tax revenue for the state's coffers, where that money is divvied up into various buckets to fund programs such as school construction, law enforcement, public health, drug education and public safety.

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Alicia Wallace ~ CNN.com ~ 

Veterans fighting for looser cannabis laws took to the Capitol today for an impromptu Lobby Day as the discussion about the medical benefits of the plant loom in the general assembly.

Advocates with the Veterans Cannabis Project discussed what they call a medical anomaly for veterans dealing with PTSD.

Michael Krawitz, an Air Force veteran and director of Veterans for Medical Cannabis Access says its a disgrace that the drug can’t be legally prescribed.

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NBC12.com ~ 

With the burgeoning marijuana industry comes new jobs. And most everyone taking these jobs is entering the industry for the first time.

When Gene Ray was studying biology at Fisk University in Nashville, he started to use marijuana regularly.

At the time, he wasn’t thinking that if combined, his scientific expertise and interest in cannabis could make a career.

While studying medicinal plant extracts in Hawaii later, it was the first time Ray, a pharmaceutical chemist, thought that his skills could apply to marijuana.

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