Follow Us!Share This!Voters in Utah approved Proposition Two, a medical cannabis initiative, in the November 2018 general election. Polling before the election showed that Proposition Two was likely to pass, so opponents chose to circumvent the law by going to the legislature before the vote had even taken place to craft a replacement bill. On December 3, in a special session, both houses of the Utah Legislature passed HB3001, the Utah Medical Cannabis Act. The Marijuana Policy Project, a national…
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Follow Us!Share This!SAVE THE DATES!! We’re pleased to announce that the Thirteenth National Clinical Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics will be held in Tampa, FL April 11-13, 2019. The theme of the conference is Cannabis: Whole Plant Medicine for the Whole Person. More information and registration coming soon. Follow Us!Share This!

Follow Us!Share This!The US Food and Drug Administration is seeking comments on the international classification of cannabis and cannabinoids. The deadline is October 31, 2018. The FDA published the following notice in the Federal Register on October 10, 2018: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is requesting interested persons to submit comments concerning abuse potential, actual abuse, medical usefulness, trafficking, and impact of scheduling changes on availability for medical use of 16 drug substances. These comments will be considered in…
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Follow Us!Share This!The For Alternative Approaches to Addiction Think & do tank (FAAAT) has announced new dates for the International Cannabis Policy Conference in Vienna, Austria. It will be held December 7-9, 2018. Details and registration are available at the conference website. According to FAAAT: December 5-6-7th 2018, the UN Commission of Narcotic Drugs (CND), the only United Nations body dealing with Cannabis policy, will receive the final scheduling recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) on cannabidiol (40th ECDD)…
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Follow Us!Share This!The Drug Enforcement Administration published the following notice in the Federal Register on September 28: As noted, until now, Epidiolex has been a schedule I controlled substance. By virtue of this order, Epidiolex (and any generic versions of the same formulation that might be approved by the FDA in the future) will be a schedule V controlled substance. Thus, all persons in the distribution chain who handle Epidiolex in the United States (importers, manufacturers, distributors, and practitioners) must…
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Follow Us!Share This!The state of New York has added pain management to its list of eligible conditions for patients seeking to qualify for a recommendation for medical cannabis. According to a press release from the Office of the Governor of New York on Sept. 24, 2018: Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today signed legislation (S8987A/A 11011-B) that adds acute pain management to the list of conditions for which medical marijuana can be recommended as an alternative to opioid use. The bill…
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Follow Us!Share This!The state of Illinois has expanded its medical cannabis program to allow patients access to medical cannabis as an alternative to opioid pain medications. The Chicago Sun-Times reported on August 28, 2018: Gov. Bruce Rauner on Tuesday signed a landmark bill to allow patients access to medical marijuana as an alternative to opioids, but the Republican governor — who’s in a battle for his political future — said he still opposes legalizing pot for recreational uses. The Sun-Times…
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Follow Us!Share This!Congress is continuing to prevent doctors working at VA hospitals from recommending medical cannabis for their patients who are in need. Stars and Stripes reported on September 11, 2018: A measure to allow doctors at the Department of Veterans Affairs to recommend marijuana in states where it’s medically legal failed to make it into the final version of a VA funding bill for the third consecutive year. Lawmakers on Monday released their VA funding agreement for fiscal 2019…
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Follow Us!Share This!Barbara Douglass was a Founding Director of Patients Out of Time, and a federal medical cannabis IND Patient from 1991 to 2013 to help treat her Multiple Sclerosis. She had to leave the IND program simply because her primary care physician moved out of the area. Barbara was a spokesperson for Patients Out of Time and resided in Lakeside, Iowa, until her death on August 26, 2018. She is sorely missed. This obituary was published by Barbara Douglass’s…
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Follow Us!Share This!On July 12, the New York State Department of Health filed emergency regulations that went into immediate effect “adding any condition for which an opioid could be prescribed as a qualifying condition for medical marijuana.” According to the NY State DOH: “Effective immediately, registered practitioners may certify patients to use medical marijuana as a replacement for opioids, provided that the precise underlying condition for which an opioid would otherwise be prescribed is stated on the patient’s certification. This…
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