Cannabis Stunning and Amazing facts--Key news about Cannabis

Stunner #1 -Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) met with the nominee to become the next Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner and discussed the need for a regulatory framework for CBD products.

While there are few specific details available about their conversation, McConnell said he emphasized the importance of hemp legalization for Kentucky farmers and pointed out that those producers are also facing challenges given the lack of FDA regulations concerning CBD.

“I look forward to working closely with Dr. Hahn on several important issues for Kentucky,” McConnell said in a press release. “Like many Kentuckians who are taking advantage of hemp’s legalization, I am eager for FDA’s plans to create certainty for CBD products.”

The majority leader has previously pressed FDA to issue enforcement discretion guidance that prioritizes action against only CBD companies making especially unfounded medical claims about their products while allowing responsible businesses to continue to market their productsas the agency continues to develop rules.

McConnell similarly raised his concerns about the importance of expediting CBD regualations during a separate meeting with Acting FDA Commissioner Ned Sharpless in June.

Stephen Hahn, the FDA nominee, was also pressed on CBD issues during a confirmation hearing on Wednesday. Sens. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) and Pat Roberts (R-KS) noted that there’s wide consumer interest in the cannabis products but stressed that more research is needed, barriers to research should be lifted and public health interests should be balanced with policies that support the industry.

Hahn replied that he believed there’s untapped therapeutic potential in the cannabis compound, but he also agreed that there are “unanswered questions that need to be filled in by data and science and research.”

“Intense consumer demand and commercial interest has resulted in a flood of CBD products of uncertain quality and unapproved claims already in the marketplace, and this scenario has created an urgent need for FDA action,” CHPA President Scott Melville said in a press release.

“The request in our petition seeks to have FDA utilize the authority it already has to establish a lawful regulatory pathway for manufacturers to bring dietary supplements containing CBD to market,” he said. “Only then will consumers be able to purchase CBD-containing dietary supplements in a manner that ensures product quality, safety, and a level-playing field for enforcement.”

Stunner #2- The FDA warns consumers there are a Number of questions regarding CBD’s safety and there are real risks that need to be considered,’ official says

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration updated its stance on CBD late Monday.

CBD, has proliferated in drinks, cosmetics, foods and many other consumer products, even in states where marijuana is not recreationally or medically legal, including being sold in major retail chains such as CVS , Walgreens and Rite Aid Corp.

Over the summer, the FDA warned that it was looking into CBD and was concerned about its spread as the agency had approved one drug utilizing the compound — Epidiolex from GW Pharmaceuticals, a treatment for severe forms of childhood epilepsy. The regulator updated its summer warning to consumers last week with stronger language,

The FDA said that based on a lack of scientific information, the regulator cannot conclude that CBD is “generally recognized as safe among qualified experts for use in human and animal food.”

Beyond the warnings, the FDA said that there were many aspects about CBD that remain unknown, such as the effects of taking CBD daily for extended periods.

I will continue to monitor FDA status and report that information on this blog and my show NYCBD WITH JEFFREY HILL available on 710 WOR radio in NYC every Sunday at 8AM. Available as a podcast on Iheart Radio, iTunes, Spotify and YouTube @nycbdofficial

Stunner #3 — One of President Trump’s closest allies in Congress is pushing back against a top White House official’s opposition to marijuana legalization, and he’s using a popular meme to do it.

Asked about Kellyanne Conway’s comments about increasing cannabis potency and its “effect on the brain,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) replied, “Her reflection shows a real ignorance to the science demonstrating that in states where there are marijuana programs you see a reduction in Schedule I drug recommendations,” Gaetz said during a CNN interview on Saturday. “You also see a reduction in the types of overdoses that are crippling our country and hollowing out America. If we have a lower acuity anti-pain alternative to heroin and opioids, I think that you’ll see the country do a lot better.”

The GOP congressman also called out Conway, a counselor to the president, for incorrectly saying “TCH” instead of THC during her earlier CNN appearance, and pointed out that polling shows very strong support for Marijuana legalization except among only the oldest demographic.

“This is not an issue that young people are fighting about,” he said. “This is largely generational more than it is partisan because I think more and more young people in the country are saying, ‘let’s just go ahead and let people live better live with a more natural alternative that has a lower propensity for addiction.’”

Trump, for his part, said during the 2016 campaign that while he personally opposes legalization, be backs medical cannabis and supports states’ rights to set their own marijuana policies. While his first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, rescinded Obama-era guidance that told prosecutors to generally not interfere with local cannabis laws, the president later expressed support for pending congressional legislation.

Gatez, who was one of just two Republicans to join Democrats in voting to advance marijuana descheduling legislation through the House Judiciary Committee earlier this week, said that while he has “worked to be a positive influence” on the president when it comes to cannabis, Trump “made commitments about medical marijuana in his 2016 campaign that we still need to fulfill.”

A vast majority of the country wants to see sensible marijuana reform.

Stunner #4 — Virginia Attorney General Hosts ‘Cannabis Summit’ To Advance Reform In New Democratic Legislature

Virginia’s attorney general is inviting state lawmakers to a “Cannabis Summit” next month as talk about advancing marijuana decriminalization and other reforms during the 2020 legislative session picks up.

Officials from other states that have legalized or decriminalized cannabis will speak at the event, as will academics who study the issue.

“This upcoming General Assembly Session policymakers will be considering legislation related to cannabis use in the Commonwealth,” an invitation states. “This summit is designed to better inform those discussions and offer perspectives from states that have implemented similar changes at the state level.”

“The summit will consist of 4 panels of experts from around the country to speak on the following topics related to cannabis policy: decriminalization of marijuana, social equity, regulating CBD & Hemp products, pathways towards legalization through legislative efforts and other topics that will better inform the upcoming legislative work,” reads the invitation sent out by the attorney general’s office, which was first reported by The Virginia Mercury.

Attorney General Mark Herring (D) said last month that the legislature will first move to pass a cannabis decriminalization bill — something that Gov. Ralph Northam (D) had campaigned on and talked about in the State of the State Address.

Lawmakers will then “get to work on a larger study about how and when we could move toward legal and regulated adult use,” Herring said.

Stunner #5 — A number of studies have shown that people dealing with chronic pain issues find themselves substituting medical marijuana for prescription painkillers. According to new research out this week, they’re also using cannabis to replace opioids that weren’t prescribed by a doctor, such as heroin.

Patients who have under-treated or undiagnosed pain often turn to substances outside of their prescribed medications to help them manage. Because this population is at serious risk for opioid overdose, researchers at the University of British Columbia and McGill University in Canada, as well as the University of California, Los Angeles, set out to use individual-level data to understand whether marijuana serves as a potential substitute for these illicit substances.

For their analysis, which was published in PLOS Medicine, the study’s authors used information from two open prospective cohort studies of people who consume drugs in Vancouver, Canada, and included 1,152 individuals who reported feeling serious or persistent pain at some point between 2014 and 2017.

“We found that people who used cannabis every day had about 50% lower odds of using illicit opioids every day compared to cannabis non-users.”

“In this longitudinal study examining patterns of past-6-month frequency of cannabis and illicit opioid use,” the paper states, “we found that the odds of daily illicit opioid use were lower (by about half) among those who reported daily cannabis use compared to those who reported no cannabis use. However, we observed no significant association between occasional cannabis use and daily opioid use, suggesting that there may be an intentional therapeutic element associated with frequent cannabis use.”

In fact, a significant number of participants said they used cannabis regularly to address pain (148), sleep (144), stress (127) and nausea/loss of appetite (123).

Stunner #6 — Marijuana Use Tied To Lower Rates Of Depression And Suicidal Ideation Among PTSD Patients

People suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) who consume marijuana experience significantly fewer depressive episodes and lower rates of suicidal ideation compared to non-users, according to a new study.

The research, published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology on Tuesday, analyzed nationally representative health data from Statistics Canada’s 2012 Community Health Survey and found that people with PTSD who have not reported past-year marijuana use are much more likely to have suicidal thoughts and go through depressive phases.

“This study provides preliminary epidemiological evidence that cannabis use may contribute to reducing the association between post-traumatic stress disorder and severe depressive and suicidal states.”

Among the more than 24,000 people who were eligible for the study, with was conducted by researchers at the the British Columbia Centre on Substance Use and University of British Columbia, 420 were clinically diagnosed with PTSD. Of those, 106 individuals with PTSD (28.2 percent) said they used cannabis in the past year. That’s markedly higher than the average of those who don’t have PTSD (11.2 percent).

“We know that with limited treatment options for PTSD, many patients have taken to medicating with cannabis to alleviate their symptoms,” Stephanie Lake, lead author of the study, said in a press release. “However, this is the first time that results from a nationally representative survey have shown the potential benefits of treating the disorder with cannabis.”

Those suffering from PTSD who didn’t report past-year cannabis use were about seven times as likely to have experienced a recent major depressive episode, the study found. They were also 4.3 times as likely to have contemplated suicide.

“Among cannabis-using respondents, PTSD was not associated with a recent depressive episode or suicide ideation.”

“We’re only just beginning to understand what the therapeutic potential of cannabis may be for a variety of health conditions,” M-J Milloy, senior author of the new study, said. “These findings are promising, and merit further study in order to fully understand the benefits of cannabis for people living with PTSD.”

I will keep bringing you these Stunners here and on my radio show on 710WOR Radio in NYC @nycbdofficial (Iheart Radio, iTunes, Spotify, YouTube). Building this Brick By Brick

Special thanks to Marijuana Moments, and Ganjapreneur for help with these Stunners.

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