The two main compounds in cannabis are in a constant balancing act. Many people who use cannabis do it for the euphoric effects caused by the main psychoactive ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol, often called THC. But THC can also cause unpleasant side effects like paranoia, dissociative thoughts, impaired memory or even psychotic episodes. As cannabis has become […]
Marijuana
The professionalization of cannabis growing
As the wave of legalization advances, a budding industry is adopting the high standards of consumer-product makers to meet regulatory requirements. For years, the popular image of cannabis growers has been scruffy hippies getting high on their own supply in a disorganized underground economy, rather than shiny white industrial agriculture facilities. Even larger-scale operations involved […]
Cannabis money opens new opportunities, and ethical dilemmas, for medical research
A research partnership between The Lung Association of Ontario and Tetra Bio-Pharma, a drug company focused on medicinal cannabis, has raised questions about whether it is appropriate for health-focused charities and researchers to work with companies selling a product that is smoked. Read more in CMAJ.
CMA position against separate regulations for medical cannabis draws ire and insults
A bad-tempered exchange at a medical-cannabis conference has highlighted a strong disagreement between the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) and some of its members on how medical cannabis should be regulated when the drug becomes legal. Read more in CMAJ.
Researchers gear up for cannabis legalization
The community is eager to track the wide-ranging social, economic and health impacts of this historic shift in public policy. Sometime later this year, if all goes as planned, Canada will usher in what University of Calgary health policy researcher Fiona Clement calls “the largest cultural change in my lifetime” – cannabis will cease to be […]
A budding cannabis research cluster in Fredericton
The city’s two universities create new research chairs related to cannabis. A new research cluster will soon be sparking to life in Fredericton as the city’s two universities each begin their search for a researcher to fill a new chair in cannabis research, reportedly the first two such chairs in the country. St. Thomas University’s new […]
Free certification for US cannabis labs to help fight opioid epidemic
Ensuring that America’s medical marijuana is reliable and of high quality will help patients and drive down opioid use in the country, according to Americans for Safe Access. A group dedicated to improving access to and the safety of medicinal cannabis in the US is offering its certification programme free of charge to cannabis testing […]
How Space Technology Will Produce the Best Weed Ever
Mike Dixon wants to send plants to Mars. Growing crops in space is the best way to provide proper nutrition to the crew on a long-duration mission, this University of Guelph researcher believes—but because there’s no manned mission to Mars scheduled at the moment, it’s hard to get funding for this type of research. In […]
Drug development: The treasure chest
Pharmaceutical research into the chemicals found in cannabis has so far supplied only one licensed medicine. But scientists think there could be hundreds more. The annual meeting of the International Cannabinoid Research Society (ICRS) is a highly unusual scientific conference. It has been closed to all media since its inception 25 years ago, lending an […]
How to Test the Potency of Pot-Infused Foods
Eating a bag of THC-laced gummy bears may seem like a safer way of taking your medical marijuana than smoking a joint, but how do you know that you’re actually getting the right dose? It turns out the labels on edible products—when they even exist—are often inaccurate, and testing is actually very hard to do. […]