Tag: hemp

Millions of California’s Bay area residents can still legally light up as cannabis facilities are exempt from a cornonavirus lockdown that has shuttered most businesses in San Francisco and nearby cities, reports Reuters*.

Cannabis store managers say they have lines longer than local grocery shops and waiting room only. Most staff at a dozen stores reached Tuesday evening said they were too busy to talk to Reuters. *

“Oh man, we’re flooded. As soon as people heard we were still open, they started lining up,” said Anthony Barajas, the general manager of Cana Culture in San Jose. *

“Once all the toilet paper got sold out, they knew they needed some relief,” he said. *

Bars, clubs, gyms and other businesses all closed Monday under one of the strictest orders made so far in the United States aimed at stemming the coronavirus pandemic. Around 7 million people reside in the area affected by the orders. *

Cannabis stores and vendors join the short list of “essential” places that can stay open along with grocery stores, pharmacies and doctors offices, the San Jose Mercury News and other media reported, citing the state’s Bureau of Cannabis Control and local officials. *

California has more than 500 confirmed cases of coronavirus and at least 12 people have died. *

Cana Culture is following strict rules, such as no more than 10 people in the facility at a time, either shopping or relaxing in a smoking area. Outside, the store’s security officers enforce a store rule that everyone has to stand about an arm’s length away from each other. *

“We’re a necessary service,” said Barajas. “People need this for medical purposes and recreation. The public still needs access to lab-tested medicine.” *

“It’s been steady from the time we open right up until we close, with people still waiting outside,” Barajas said. “And we’re still allowed to do curb-side service.” *

He added: “I guess the state still needs some tax revenue while everything else is closed.” *

* original article

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Malawi has become the latest country in southern African to relax laws against growing and selling cannabis, making it legal for use in the production of medicines and hemp fibres used in industry,

Malawi’s parliament passed a bill on Thursday that makes it legal to cultivate and process cannabis for those two uses, but stops short of decriminalising recreational use. Agriculture Minister Kondwani Nankhumwa tabled the bill. *

A growing number of countries around the world are either legalising or relaxing laws on cannabis, also known as marijuana, as attitudes towards the drug change. They include several in southern Africa, most recently Zambia, which in December legalised production for export. *

They follow Lesotho, which became the first country in the region to legalise cannabis, for medicinal purposes, in 2017, and Zimbabwe. South Africa meanwhile has decriminalised domestic personal use, and is in the process of lifting a ban on commercial cultivation of the plant. *

“We are very happy that finally we’re taking the right steps to move the country’s economy forwards,” Chauncy Jere, a director of Ikaros Africa, one of the two companies conducting industrial hemp trials in Central Malawi, told Reuters. *

“There’s no denying that cannabis would be a lucrative industry and its demand is huge,” said Jere, who is spokesman for the Hemp Association of Malawi. *

Tobacco, a drug scientists say is far more addictive and ruinous to health than cannabis, has been Malawi’s chief foreign currency earner since independence from Britain in 1964. *

* article original

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In just four years, marijuana use grew by 75% among Americans aged 65 and older, according to a new study, and researchers expressed concern over a lack of information on the potential health implications, reports Reuters.*

The increase was most pronounced in women, those with higher incomes and more education, according to a report published on Monday Feb 24th, in JAMA Internal Medicine. *

The findings continue a trend seen over the last decade, said the study’s lead author, Benjamin Han, an assistant professor of geriatric medicine and palliative care at the New York University School of Medicine. *

“Consider that not even 10 years ago 0.4% of adults 65 and older said they had used marijuana in the past year, and now it’s 10 times that at 4%,” Han said. *

The trend is concerning, Han said, because of the lack of research on the effects of cannabis on older people. Some prescription and even over-the-counter medicines, such as Benadryl, affect older people differently, he said. *

It was not known whether the trend is tied to marijuana becoming legally available in a growing number of U.S. states, or if people had been using the drug for many years before turning 65. *

Although researchers initially suspected medical issues might have driven the rise in marijuana use among seniors, most appeared to be in relatively good health, Han said. *

Researchers looked at four recent years of data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Among 14,896 respondents to the nationally representative survey who were 65 or older, marijuana use increased from 2.4% to 4.2% from 2015 through 2018. *

In men, the percentage rose from 3.6% to 4.2%, while for women it jumped from 1.5% to 2.9%. Among college educated seniors, marijuana use over age 65 rose from 2.9% to 6.2%, and in those making $75,000 a year or more, from 2.4% to 5.5%. *

The findings underscore the importance of monitoring marijuana use in this growing population, said Ziva Cooper, research director at the UCLA Cannabis Research Initiative, who was not involved with the study. *

“Without these data, we wouldn’t know what was going on in this age group,” she said. “It’s the fastest growing one and it’s important to study.” *

It also points to the need for additional research. *

“You want to know about the frequency of use, what percentage are using daily, weekly, monthly, and what are the consequences of use in this age group,” Cooper said. “Another question is are these people newly initiating use or are they ones who were smoking marijuana in the ‘60s and ‘70s and are going back to it now.” *

* original article

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*** ed: Professor Han’s studies are frequently funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). NIDA-funded studies are known to be essentially negative or to create distrust of all kinds of substances, including cannabis.