Majority in Finland favour cannabis decriminalisation, THL survey finds

This article originally appeared at https://yle.fi/a/74-20027123 For the first time in the survey’s 30-year history, more people said they think that using cannabis regularly is not as risky as weekly binge drinking. The survey also found 29 percent of respondents saying they would be prepared to decriminalise all drug use, which is nine percentage points […]

How Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister Pushed Through Asia’s First Cannabis Legalization

This article originally appeared at https://time.com/6273768/anutin-charnvirakul-interview-cannabis/ Until last summer, Thailand had some of the world’s harshest drug laws, with possession of cannabis then punishable by up to 15 years in prison. But on June 9, marijuana was decriminalized and a resurgent cannabis culture has seen dispensaries popping up across the Southeast Asian nation of 70 […]

High potency cannabis use, mental health symptoms and cannabis dependence: Triangulating the evidence

This article originally appeared at https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306460323001351?via%253Dihub Highlights Preferring high potency cannabis was associated with risk of cannabis dependence.Further triangulation with THC concentration did not support these results. Evidence for an association between high potency cannabis use and other mental health symptoms is mixed. Improved methodology is needed to assess cannabis use in research. Abstract Cannabis […]

Influence of cannabis use on incidence of psychosis in people at clinical high risk

This article originally appeared at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/pcn.13555 Authors: Lucy A Chester  1 , Lucia R Valmaggia  2 , Matthew J Kempton  1 , Edward Chesney  1 , Dominic Oliver  1   3 , Emily P Hedges  1   4 , Elise Klatsa  1 , Daniel Stahl  5 , Mark van der Gaag  6   7 , Lieuwe de Haan  8   9 , Barnaby Nelson  10 […]

Isle of Man to grow cannabis business to diversify economy

This article originally appeared at https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/may/15/isle-of-man-grow-cannabis-business-diversify-economy The Isle of Man has for decades been dominated by offshore financial services, but now its government is planning a push for a new kind of economic growth: medicinal cannabis. The British crown dependency is hoping to license as many as 10 firms by the end of 2025 to […]

Drug Use is Not the Same as Addiction

This article originally appeared at https://volteface.me/drug-use-is-not-the-same-as-addiction/ Conflating drug use with addiction causes a wide variety of issues. Years of fear-mongering and moralizing regarding drug use, particularly in the US but also across the Atlantic in the UK and Europe, have given the general public a skewed view of many drugs. Medical benefits of substances are […]

Studies Link Marijuana Legalization to All Sorts of Positive Public Health Outcomes

This article originally appeared at https://reason.com/2023/03/07/studies-link-marijuana-legalization-to-all-sorts-of-positive-public-health-outcomes/ Legalization linked to fewer suicides, traffic fatalities, and opioid deaths. A new paper on the public health effects of legalizing marijuana finds “little credible evidence to suggest that [medical marijuana] legalization promotes marijuana use among teenagers” and “convincing evidence that young adults consume less alcohol when medical marijuana is […]

The Association between Cannabis Product Characteristics and Symptom Relief

This article originally appeared at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-39462-1 Abstract Federal barriers and logistical challenges have hindered measurement of the real time effects from the types of cannabis products used medically by millions of patients in vivo. Between 06/06/2016 and 03/05/2018, 3,341 people completed 19,910 self- administrated cannabis sessions using the mobile device software, ReleafApp to record: type […]

Sir Patrick Stewart Is an Everyday Cannabis User

This article originally appeared at https://merryjane.com/culture/patrick-stewart-uses-cannabis-daily A new Oxford University study will spend millions of pounds to examine the benefits of the cannabis plant. To sway public opinion about the controversial allocation of funds, England’s most prestigious school got a high profile cosign from a very important British Knight – Sir Patrick Stewart. “This is […]

Why I traded in my wine for weed

This article originally appeared at https://macleans.ca/society/health/why-i-traded-in-my-wine-for-weed/ I’ve never really liked smoking pot. More to the point, I’ve never really liked the way pot makes me feel: foggy and sleepy and clumsy. Once, while stoned, I attempted to make a peppermint tea and ended up pouring a kettle of boiling water onto my hand. I was […]