Author: News Room

A federal judge found that the producer of the only medical-grade CBD product approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) did not lie to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to avoid high filing fees.U.S. District Judge Michael E. Farbiarz last week dismissed allegations that 19 patents held by producer Jazz Pharmaceuticals covering epilepsy treatment Epidiolex aren’t enforceable. Farbiarz ruled that there was no evidence that the company lied to the patent office to dodge higher fees. The judge said InvaGen Pharmaceuticals, which brought the case, failed to show Jazz’s statements to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office were…

A bill to legalize medical marijuana in Ukraine has now been “unblocked” from advancing to the president’s desk after an attempt to overturn the reform failed in the parliament. Lawmakers approved the medical cannabis legislation last month, but the opposition Batkivshchyna party used a procedural tactic to block it by forcing consideration of a resolution to repeal the measure. That resolution failed this week, earning just 25 of the required 226 votes. On Wednesday the bill was formally sent to the desk of President Volodymyr Zelensky, who supports the reform. MP Yaroslav Zhelezniak of the Holos party announced the development…

A new survey published in the Journal of Cannabis Research found strong majority support for legal cannabis among respondents from both the United States and Canada, along with just under half of people in both countries saying that they consume cannabis. The trends were overall very similar between the two nations even as Canada has federal cannabis legalization and the U.S. does not. The eight-page paper, “Comparison of perceptions in Canada and USA regarding cannabis and edibles,” examines data from surveys of 1,047 Canadian and 1,037 U.S. residents. “The analysis and findings evolved into 4 themes,” wrote the four-author research…

Indiana’s Senate Health and Provider Services Committee on Wednesday unanimously approved a bill that would fund clinical research trials into psilocybin, making two relatively minor amendments before advancing the legislation. “There’s reason to believe that there is value in psilocybin and, at this point, I want to elevate the discussion,” said Sen. Ed Charbonneau (R), the bill’s sponsor and committee chair. “We need to be taking a look at something like this that is so important to our veterans with PTSD and many other issues.” Charbonneau emphasized that the bill does not change the legal status of psilocybin under Indiana…

“This Court and our state Supreme Court have repeatedly held that the odor of marijuana alone provides probable cause to search the object or area that is the source of that odor.” By Kelan Lyons, NC Newsline The North Carolina Court of Appeals issued a ruling Tuesday reversing a trial court’s decision to suppress evidence that police obtained during a traffic stop, despite still-unanswered legal questions over whether the smell of marijuana is, by itself, a sufficient reason for police to search a person’s vehicle. An officer with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department pulled over Antonio Demont Springs on May 17,…

The National Football League (NFL) is partnering with Canadian researchers on a clinical trial to test the safety and efficacy of CBD for pain management and neuroprotection from concussions—key issues for many football players who experience injuries as part of the game. The Phase 1 trial will involve 35 people who will receive either a placebo or CBD-rich cannabis extract to test whether it’s “safe, well-tolerated and without adverse physiological and psychological dysfunction” for daily use. NFL has committed hundreds of thousands of dollars to research investigating the therapeutic potential of the non-intoxicating cannabinoid in recent years, including funding for…

Democratic lawmakers are weighing a proposal that would also allow misdemeanors for drug possession, but with smaller potential penalties than those proposed by the Republicans. By Ben Botkin, Oregon Capital Chronicle Oregon House Republican lawmakers on Thursday released details of a proposal that would end Measure 110 by mandating misdemeanor penalties for drug possession and treatment to avoid jail. House Republicans want to make possession of small amounts of fentanyl, heroin and meth a Class A misdemeanor, which carries up to a year in jail, a fine of up to $6,250, or both. Under the bill, users could avoid jail…

The South Dakota House of Representatives has approved a pair of bills to remind patients that the use of medical marijuana can preclude them from lawfully owning firearms under federal law, with the legislation proposing to require notices of the policy on cannabis patient applications and at dispensaries, which would face daily fines if they don’t comply. The application-specific measure passed overwhelmingly on Tuesday, in a 68-1 vote. The dispensary bill was then approved with a more divided tally of 42-27. Rep. Kevin Jensen (R) is the sponsor of both measures, which cleared the House Judiciary Committee last week before…

The top Republican in the Wisconsin Assembly says he’s unwilling to compromise with his Senate colleagues who are opposed to his plan to create state-run dispensaries under a limited medical marijuana program. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R) unveiled the medical cannabis bill last week, proposing the “most restrictive” medical cannabis law in the country. It quickly drew criticism—from Democrats who want comprehensive legalization, as well as Republican Senate leaders who have taken issue with the specifics of the proposal. Vos said at a press conference on Tuesday that he has no plans to amend it to address his Senate counterparts’…

A person would need to “smoke a joint the size of a telephone pole” to get high from hemp, even if it marginally exceeds the 0.3 percent THC threshold that separates the federally legal crop from prohibited marijuana, a Justice Department researcher says. It’s part of what makes the federal definition of hemp, as set out in the 2018 Farm Bill, a bit perplexing. While the intent of the low THC standard is to prevent people from accessing an intoxicating product, the origin of the specific 0.3 percent rule doesn’t appear to be especially grounded in science. “It’s just a…