Author: hashtshish

A cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan approved a summary on Tuesday to allow legal production for the first time, the minister Fawad Chaudhry told a news conference in Islamabad.*

“We want that this hemp market could give us around $1 billion in the next three years,” he said, adding the global market is worth around $25 billion.*

The summary seen by Reuters says the ministry sought permission to cultivate industrial hemp after deliberation by the ministries of commerce, narcotics control and national health services.*

Hemp seeds produce hemp oil, while the leaf is used in medicine and the stem can be turned into fibre to replace cotton in the textile industry.*

Chaudhry said the compound cannabidiol found in the hemp plant has an important role in medical science and therapies to mitigate severe and chronic pain affecting for instance cancer patients or those who have lost limbs.*

Across the world, companies have been seeking to tap into the market for medicinal cannabis.*

The minister said the cultivation of hemp – a strain of the cannabis plant that contains little or no tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the substance that makes people high – will only be allowed under government control and the venture should not be confused with poppy-growing.*

Pakistan’s northwestern lawless districts along the Afghan border have been home to the illegal cultivation of poppies for opium and heroin and the production of cannabis, supplied to the local narcotics market or smuggled internationally.*

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A common assumption is that cannabis consumption before or during work hours causes substandard work performance, yet there has been very little scientific exploration regarding the impact of cannabis use after working hours.*

Dr. Jeremy Bernerth, management professor at San Diego State University’s Fowler College of Business and H. Jack Walker, management professor at Auburn University’s Raymond J. Harbert College of Business set out to determine the effects of different types of cannabis use (before, during and after hours) on work performance, especially as it relates to core job requirements, helping colleagues or their organizations, and counterproductive behavior in the workplace.*

“Given the popularity of cannabis on a national level, it should be of little surprise that organizations spend billions of dollars each year addressing what many believe is a problem,” explained Bernerth. “To our knowledge, this is the first study to research cannabis usage in relation to workplace behaviors in nearly 20 years. We hope this research can provide organizations with the necessary information to structure their substance policies.”*

Surveying Employees and Their Supervisors

The researchers studied key job requirements (called “task performance” in the study), the willingness to voluntarily help the organization or their colleagues (called “citizenship behavior”), and the counterproductive work behavior of employees by surveying 281 employees and their direct supervisors. Participating employees and managers were recruited through social media and with the help of university business students, though cannabis usage was not required of the survey participants.*

Each employee was asked about the frequency and the timing of their cannabis use as it relates to their work shift (for example, how often over the past 12 months had they used cannabis within two hours before starting the workday). Their supervisors were asked to assess their employee’s task performance, citizenship behavior and counterproductive work behavior.*

The Results

After tabulating all the responses, the researchers found a negative correlation between those who used cannabis before and during work with task performance. This indicates a decline in performance when using cannabis prior to or while on the job. There was, however, no relationship between using cannabis after work and one’s performance on the job.*

They also found supervisors were more likely to report reduced citizenship behavior (or helpfulness) toward the organization and increased counterproductive work behaviors among employees who said that they used cannabis before and during work hours. However, the results showed no discernable effects for employees who used cannabis after work. The researchers also noted that there was no correlation between employee’s willingness to engage in citizenship behavior aimed at their coworkers with cannabis usage regardless of the time of usage.*

While the results of the study showed that supervisors reported that employee cannabis use before or on the job diminished most areas of their performance, there was no significant change in any of the work performance dimensions when employees used cannabis after work hours.*

“The findings are obviously consequential for scholars and organizations who believe that all cannabis use negatively impacts workplace behaviors,” said Bernerth. “Our research suggests there is no evidence that after-work usage compromises work performance as assessed by one’s direct supervisor.”*

Cannabis Use May Offer Work-Related Benefits

Though the research doesn’t offer direct evidence, Bernerth suggests that after-hours cannabis use, may offer some work-related benefits. “Individuals deciding to consume cannabis after finishing their work may be able to distract themselves from stressful on-the-job issues,” said Bernerth. “The relaxation induced by cannabis may help employees restore energy spent during the day and they may subsequently return with more stamina to devote to their job once they are back on the clock.”*

However, one of the major challenges facing employers with substance policies is determining when employees consume cannabis. Bernerth noted that testing for cannabis consumption (through urinalysis, for example) can only detect the presence of metabolites in the system as opposed to the frequency or time of use. This may make it difficult for organizations to defend strict substance policies. Said Bernerth: “Since our study shows that off-the-job cannabis use has little to no impact on workplace performance, organizations will be hard-pressed to provide legally defensible justifications for the continuation of policies prohibiting all forms of cannabis use.”*

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Nelly Rodriguez found the answer to her chronic back pain just when she least expected it, in the middle of a coronavirus quarantine that had made her condition worse, report Reuters.*

The 70-year-old pensioner’s salvation came in the form of Bogota’s first medical cannabis clinic, which opened in March and says it has since treated nearly 1,000 patients.*

“The situation was awful. I thought it would never end but at some point I decided I had to do something about it,” said Rodriguez, whose 30-milliliter bottle of cannabis oil costs about $48 and lasts one month.*

“This is the only thing I’ve found that can treat the pain,” she added.*

Clinic Zerenia only sells oils containing cannabidiol (CBD) or tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), or a mix of the two. It is the only clinic selling marijuana products in the country as complex regulations have put the brakes on the industry in Colombia, one of the world’s biggest suppliers of illegal substances.*

“We get asked if products should be smoked or smeared a lot,” Juan Manuel Orjuela, mental health manager for Khiron, the company behind the clinic, told Reuters.*

The clinic had to pass 28 regulatory hurdles before opening, including health authorities permissions and implementing a system tracing the products’ origins.*

“It’s not easy because it’s innovative,” Orjuela said, adding stigmas had to be overcome. “It needs not just legal approval but also cultural validation.”*

The clinic treats neurological illnesses including epilepsy in children and adults, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, chronic pain and conditions like anxiety and depression.*

Though cannabis treatment does not cure illnesses, it can relieve symptoms with an effectiveness of 60% to 70%, Orjuela said.*

Many symptoms have surged due to months of quarantine measures taken to curb coronavirus, he said.*

“Rates of anxiety and depression have increased greatly,” he said. “We have chronic confinement…we are starting to feel caged in.”*

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With a tradition of using the leaf to relieve pain and fatigue, Thailand became the first Southeast Asian nation to legalise marijuana in 2017 for medical use and research, but only the government was allowed to grow plants.*

Deputy government spokeswoman Traisuree Taisaranakul told reporters after a cabinet meeting that the proposed amendments would also allow patients, businesses and medical professionals to produce, export, import and sell the leaf.*

“The law will promote the pharmaceutical industry and increase competitiveness, which will be important for Thailand in becoming a leader in medical cannabis,” Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul also told reporters.*

Thailand has dropped cannabis extracts from its narcotics list and opened medical marijuana clinics.*

Cannabis still remains a category five drug under Thai law, however, and illegal possession is punishable by up to 15 years in prison and fines of up to 1.5 million baht ($48,000).*

The amendments are to be sent for legal review before going to the Thai parliament.*

While countries from Colombia to Canada have legalized marijuana for medical or even recreational use, the drug remains illegal and taboo across much of Southeast Asia, which has some of the world’s harshest punishments for drug law violations.*

Marijuana traffickers can be subject to the death penalty in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia.*

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