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Medical, ScienceMay 23, 2018 by Adam Rhodes

Pennsylvania Approves Eight Colleges for Medical Research

Pennsylvania makes history
Pennsylvania is on track to be the first state to license a number of universities to begin scientific studies of marijuana. Just three months after legalizing medical marijuana, the state is taking action to provide peer-reviewed research on the topic. So far, eight universities have research permits in hand.
Governor Tom Wolf announced permit holders. They include the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania along with the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, the Drexel University College of Medicine, Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, Penn State College of Medicine, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University.
During the press conference, the governor stated, “Today, medical research is so limited by the federal government that only a few doctors can even have access to medical marijuana,” He continued by saying, “Pennsylvania’s premiere medical schools will be able to help shape the future of treatment for patients who are in desperate need not just here, but across the country.” His remarks come after decades of federally enforced policies that limit and all but prevent medical research into marijuana.
Pennsylvania breaks with tradition
Marijuana has a long history in America. Most of that history includes federally managed and funded programs refusing to even look at cannabis medically. Medical and educational institutions are often denied research requests by regulatory and drug enforcement agencies. This makes it all but impossible to find valuable medical insights.
On top of that, the few instances where research is allowed are hampered by inferior product. So far, studies only have product from the University of Mississippi. Unfortunately, the ganja is notorious for being the lowest quality product possible.
Breaking with this long-standing tradition, Pennsylvania is allowing each university to fund and source product from state licensed medical producers. In addition, the researchers get to work directly with the states patients and products. Officials at Pitt stated “It is important to note that Pennsylvania is the first and only state in the country to institute such a program, and we believe that the research that will be conducted by the School of Medicine in collaboration with [University of Pennsylvania Medical Center] will be of great importance in determining the safety, efficacy and effectiveness of medical cannabis products in treating specific diseases,”
Researchers must act fast
There are no official start dates for kicking off the research yet. But state law requires the cannabis studies to begin within six months of obtaining a license. Officials involved with the program hope that their research will lead to groundbreaking advances in our understanding of cannabis.
Because the new research is mandated to use only state qualified and licensed individuals, the pressure is on to find enough support. Pennsylvania patients with one of 21 qualified medical conditions can apply for a card and over 37,000 have already registered to participate in the medical marijuana program.
In addition to patients and providers, the research also requires medical professionals. But according to the health department, over 1,000 physicians are already registered. More than 600 of them are also certified as practitioners.

Culture, List, Medical, Offbeat, Science, UncategorizedMarch 20, 2018 by Adam Rhodes

Top 5 Medical Reasons People Use MMJ

People have many reasons for smoking MMJ.

Ask 5 stoners why they smoke MMJ and you will likely get 5 reasons. There are a lot of factors in life that dictate our actions and few are predictable or unilateral. After all, it’s hard to be an astronaut in the 1600’s or if you happen to be a felon. Not so much if you are in 1970’s Ohio though.
But that shouldn’t stop us from trying to understand why people consume marijuana. It doesn’t matter if you consume flower, concentrates, edibles or use MMJ topically. If you use marijuana medically, this list probably has you on it.
Just remember that this list is in no specific order. If you disagree with the order or think something else should have been on it, call me out in the comments. Let everyone know what I missed and why it belongs there.

Cancer

Approximately 39.6% of all men and women are diagnosed with cancer in their lifetimes. While many remain benign, a vast majority grow rapidly and resist treatment. Some cancers can kill in a matter of months while others take decades to metastasize.
Research shows that MMJ helps treat certain types of cancer. There is still a long way to go but cannabinoids like THC, CBD and CBN show great promise. Especially in cancers like: breast, brain, liver, melanoma, and leukemia.

Epilepsy

Epilepsy is a condition where your brain misfires and causes a seizure. But unlike popular perception, it doesn’t just come from flashing lights. Seizures may even come on unprovoked, as though out of nowhere and for no reason.
There is no cure for epilepsy and it can affect anyone, even children. There are few options on the market that are truly safe for children. But CBD is one of the few natural alternatives to prescription medications that works.
With 65 million people suffering from epilepsy worldwide, cannabis has a lot of work to do.

Chronic Pain

Life is tough and can leave you in constant pain for many reasons. More than 1.5 billion people suffer from chronic pain worldwide with 50 million of them living in the united states. Healing can take a long time and many common pain killers come with risks of dependency or overdose.
Marijuana isn’t chemically addictive like oxycodone or dangerous in large quantities like aspirin. So as patients heal, they can reduce or eliminate using with no long term side effects. As a bonus, we still have zero confirmed deaths exclusively from consuming too much weed.

Anxiety

Some people need help getting through a situation. Others need help just chilling out in general. This includes those suffering from OCD, panic disorder, phobias, bipolar disorder and many other variants.
For the 18% of the U.S. population suffering from anxiety disorders, medication makes life manageable. But not everyone wants to use Xanax to get the job done. Unlike cigarettes or e-juice, cannabis vapor doesn’t harm lungs or cause cancer.

Depression

About 350 million people have depression. Many prescriptions to treat it come with dangerous side effects or are unsafe for children. While THC may be controversial for teens to have, CBD offers many of the same benefits without the cognitive impairment.
Despite this, the federal status of marijuana keeps it from being prescribed in many cases. As a Schedule 1 Drug, it is legally considered to have no medical value. Many doctors simply refuse to prescribe MMJ for religious reasons or because of corporate policies. But increasing acceptance and legal reform are lowering that number.

Culture, Guides, MedicalApril 3, 2017 by Adam Rhodes

Sold: Starting a Medical Grow Business

Before starting a medical grow business, you need to do a ton of research.

Federal, state and local laws create a vast web of interconnecting rules that are unique to each medical grow (even if they are in the same city and industry). Navigating this miasma is both arduous and tedious by design but is also vital to remaining in business. The best place to start is with your states official rules.
You can’t simply put some seeds in backyard dirt or throw thousands of dollars around and expect to get anything competitive out of it. And this is a competition. The time, effort and skill needed to get a plant from seed to sale is a skill that can be developed over several years. A skilled hand can take a good strain and make it great while an unskilled grower can kill everything.

But it takes more than growing the dankest buds to survive.

Growing great herb is a prerequisite to a business based around growing weed. But equally important is the ability to manage costs and duplicate results. It doesn’t matter how much you can sell your product for. If it costs more to produce than what you get, it isn’t a viable business.
“Even if you get your costs under control, you still have to worry about duplication. If you can’t produce the same product every time, you have a problem.” Mike Boynton, the master grower for Oregon Imperial farms told me in an interview. “Changing anything in the environment from fan placement to light duration will change how your plants grow and therefore your bottom line.” The more people and the bigger the farm, the harder it is to control costs. If you can’t get it under control with 5 plants, you will never be able to with 5000.

The Marijuana industry is an especially challenging one.

Getting a business off the ground in the weed industry is a lot harder than most other industries. Cannabis is one of the oldest crops known to man and you can bet there are a lot of talented people out there trying to do it better and cheaper than you. Besides having to deal with the standard problems of location and competition, cannabis businesses are heavily regulated and lack traditional support infrastructure like banking services.
Marijuana businesses lack the ability to use banking services because it remains federally illegal. This is not to say that banks refuse drug money. SBC was fined $1.9 billion by the U. S. government for laundering cartel drug money in 2012. Yet the cannabis industry is forced to work on a cash basis regardless of how big the costs.

There are a variety of rules regarding how to grow legally.

With over half of the nation having legal weed in one form or another on a state level, there have been many ideas about what should be allowed. Each state has taken different measures to ensure a safe and effective cannabis industry. Some states require seed to sale tracking and vertical integration while others prohibit delivery or drive-thu services.
In addition to rules and regulations about where and how to provide services, there are also rules around what kind of equipment is needed in order to get a license. This further compounds the complexity with many states have a different set of rules for medical grows and recreational operations. As an example, Washington merged their medical grow and recreational grow rules for a single comprehensive program while Oregon kept them separate.

After all, growing weed isn’t cheap.

Even in places with ideal growing conditions like Northern Cali, Florida or Hawaii, plants still need water, nutrients and protection from pests/diseases. In areas where the weather is too dry or cold, growing indoors becomes a necessity. The cost of equipment pales in comparison to the cost of keeping the growing environment perfect.
In addition to lights; pumps, timers, fans, filters and air conditioners all use electricity. Keeping the juice flowing can be a challenge in itself. Grows with more than one room may even need to have a more powerful line run by the electric company to keep from blowing transformers. All of these little additions add up quickly and can quickly eat up all the potential profit.

A lawyer, an accountant and a lobbyist walk into a grow room.

If you plan to operate a successful company growing a federally illegal substance, you need to have some specific talent on your team. This team needs at least a lawyer, an accountant and a lobbyist to run interference while the head grower does their work. Without someone covering each area, the chance of getting blindsided is astronomical.

Lawyer

Find someone who specializes in canna-based business compliance and criminal cannabis defense. Ask others in your area who they recommend. Don’t forget to check online databases like www.martindale.com, www.avvo.com, www.justice.org to name a few.

Accountant

Look for someone with experience in the industry. Overly “creative” accounting can get you in hot water so make sure you can trust them. In addition to searching online for local tax professionals, ask colleagues for referrals. Asking others in your area who they use and why is also a great way to narrow the search for the right accountant.

Lobbyist

Look for someone with the time and energy to represent your cause. Their job is to keep an eye on local and statewide changes that pertain to your business. They are also there to help prevent others in the community from effectively banning your business or engaging in sneaky tactics to close you down. There are no lists/registries for this, gotta tap into that network to find the right person..

Head Gardener

Look for someone with botany experience. Many master gardeners hang out in local hydro stores or are at least known by them. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and be picky. This is the person who will dictate the initial and final quality of the product and choosing the wrong person can have dire consequences.

Skipping the support staff can have dire consequences.

Many states ban the operation of any marijuana based business (including a medical grow) within a certain radius of schools. But most states don’t ban schools from opening near a marijuana businesses. There is normally nothing explicitly stopping a preschool from opening next to a dispensary or grow location and putting you out of business.
A good team is the difference between closing up shop or staying open for years. It does you no good to spend millions of dollars on a medical grow business just to have a preschool open next door a week later and shut you down. Better to have the staff on hand to stay open and deal with the issue before it gets finalized than not.

You need to find just the right spot.

Besides schools randomly popping up, there is a lot to consider when starting a grow business. The first thing most growers work out is where they plan to grow. Most medical grows are done on a personal consumption scale. If the plan is to make it profitable, it takes a bit more consideration.
Because cannabis remains federally illegal, landlords are almost as hesitant as banks are to work with weed entrepreneurs. Even in the case of a medical grow, it can be almost impossible to get permission to start. In most cases, growers need to own the land/building they plan to operate in or receive written permission from the land owner before getting licensed.

Security is a major concern as well.

Each state has very specific rules on which types of security are needed for a medical grow to remain in compliance. States may require barriers like walls be erected around grow sites. They also might require closed circuit cameras linked to cloud backups but it depends.
Whole sectors of the economy have been dedicated to the outright eradication of cannabis for decades (I’m looking at you Big Prison, Pharma and Tobacco). As cannabis moves from illicit trade to regulated market, there is bound to be pushback from entrenched interests. Even a medical grow can face opposition from local religious or political groups that don’t like cannabis.

The market is growing.

More and more people are getting in on the Green Rush and starting to grow cannabis. Like the Gold Rush that sparked westward expansion, the hype and obvious wealth being generated is causing a migration of talent and willpower. Fortunes are waiting to be made by talented and driven individuals willing to put in the work.
In the end, most of the states where weed has been legalized were ballot measures which means they were supported by voters. With the majority of the population clearly supporting cannabis reform, cannabis is primed to continue growing for years to come. Getting a good team will make every other part of the process easier.

Do you agree?

Or do you think I’m off my rocker? What advice would you give to someone just getting started? What do you wish you knew before starting a medical grow? Let us know in the comments down below. We would love to hear your take. And as always, thanks for reading.

GuidesMarch 25, 2017 by Adam Rhodes

Concentrates and Extraction Techniques

Concentrates are becoming a major player in the cannabis industry.

The word “Concentrates” often refers to the wax you vaporize, the tincture under your tongue, and your orally administered CBD oil. The potency of these cannabis products is steering consumers toward the more concentrated forms of weed. This is especially true as the therapeutic potential of non-smoking consumption is becoming better known.
People around the industry are taking notice of the meteoric rise in popularity of concentrates. OpenVape CEO Ralph Morgan believes cannabis concentrates will be more popular than smoking buds in the coming years. “I see concentrates becoming a part of folk’s daily regimen,” Morgan said in an interview.
The Cannabist’s concentrates expert Ry Prichard agreed with Morgan’s statement and his timeline. “Most of the clients that I work with have seen their sales go from 20 percent to 30 percent to 40 percent and now they’re about even,” Prichard said, “and a lot of shops, especially on the boutique end of the spectrum, are 70 percent concentrates.”

Concentrates make up a large segment of the current market.

Under the rubric of cannabis concentrates falls anything created through an extraction process. Solvents like butane, propane and CO2 strip the active compounds from the cannabis plant. Solventless processes also exist that can produce increadibly high concentrations as well.
Some types of extracts test in the 70-80% THC, while others are instead rich in non-psychoactive compounds like CBD. There are a lot of intricacies to cannabis and new methods of extraction are being developed regularly as the market expands. Here is a quick rundown of the most popular products the average consumer can buy that fall under the rubric of “concentrates”.

Solventless Extracts

Many solventless extractions are offered in less stable, sappy forms. Their color can vary from a golden opacity to a darker amber depending on production factors. Cure time and starting material play a big role in dialing in these nuances.
Heat, pressure, and exposure can impact the consistency of these products. Higher temperatures tend to create stable products that more resemble shatter, whereas lower temperatures often produce sappier, less stable products. Both high and low temp products appear on dispensary shelves these days and have begun to form respective niche markets.

Kief

Also known as dry sift or pollen, kief is made up of the resin glands called trichomes on cannabis flowers. These glands produce the terpenes and cannabinoids that bring the diversity of flavors and effects to cannabis. Kief is often used to make hash and is commonly collected in a grinder. It is normally sprinkled onto flower cannabis or vaped directly for a more potent high than smoking flower alone.

Rosin

Rosin opened the door for several different new products. Solventless shatter, a type of rosin that maintains a glass-like consistency, may resemble butane hash oil in appearance but is manufactured with nothing more than heat and pressure. Hash oil of this consistency is obtained through the acquisition of key genetics and the right combination of heat, pressure, and exposure to heat.

Hash

One of the oldest products in the cannabis industry is has. This concentrate is made by compressing the plant’s resin. Where kief preserves the structure of the trichomes, hash tries to merge them into a single superstructure. The powdery kief normally that coats your cannabis flowers can be collected and pressed together to form hash.
Solvents like ice water or ethanol may be used to more effectively strip the plant of their cannabinoid-loaded crystals but are not required. This method produces less potent results than BHO and other cannabis concentrates but remains a staple of cannabis culture around the world.

Budder

Another variation of hash is budder. Also called cake batter or “whipped” rosin, these products are created by incorporating light heat and agitation to rosin. The result is a whipped consistency that looks very similar to a salve of some sort. This technique has been known to significantly increase the aromatic properties of the hash oil it uses.
This method provides a new creamier texture that can be much easier to work with than shatter or sappy consistencies. While many retailers are beginning to sell whipped hash oils, the process can be achieved easily at home with preexisting rosin by simply stirring it with a warm dabber tool.

Solvent Based Extracts

Butane and propane are popular solvents used to extract cannabinoids like THC and CBD from cannabis plants. They are some of the more dangerous methods as well due to the explosive nature of the two solvents.
Extraction can be done at home using simple equipment and is also done on large scales, but the process is almost the same. To start, fill a tube (metal or plastic) with plant material. The quality of the material used directly affects the quality and yield.

C0₂Oil

Supercritical fluid extraction is another method commonly used to extract cannabinoids. While it is possible to use other gasses, C0₂is the most commonly used gas for this method. CO2 has the benefit of not causing harm if not fully purged from a product like butane.
C0₂has become the connoisseur’s extraction choice because it goes past “critical” at around 90 °F, a temperature well below the deactivation temperature for cannabinoids. This means more flavor is preserved and a clearer high is produced than with other methods.
This extraction method relies on pressure and temperature to extract the terpenes, cannabinoids, and waxes from the cannabis material. Extractors use this knowledge of which temperature and pressure each terpene, cannabinoid, and wax separate them from the homogenous solution of marijuana material. This way they are able to target certain flavors and “types of high” produced by the genetics they are using or add additional flavorings.

Butane Hash Oil (BHO)

BHO, or butane hash oil, is an extremely potent concentrate used in dabbing and other vaporization methods. Cannabinoids are drawn out of the plant with butane which leaves behind a wax. The wax will either remain sticky or harden up, resulting in a crumbly “honeycomb” or a glasslike “shatter.” Because its THC content can reach into the 70-80% range, BHO is a popular remedy for people who need the highest concentrations available.
BHO is relatively easy to produce at home or in an industrial setting. After covering one end of a tube with a filter or mesh screen (with holes small enough to prevent plant material from seeping through), butane is sprayed into the tube. Refiners then allow the resulting cannabis-butane solution to drip into a glass dish below the filter end of the tube.
The butane must be purged from the solution for safety by heating the solution in a hot-water bath. The solution is slowly heated until the escaping gas produces bubbles.The water-bath quickly becomes cold, so it frequently changed or a heating plate is used until the solution is fully purged of solvent. The remaining “goo” is cooled and then used as the concentrate known as shatter.

Rick Simpson Oil (RSO)

In 2003 a man named Rick Simpson treated his skin cancer using a homemade cannabis remedy. By soaking the cannabis in pure naphtha or isopropyl alcohol and allowing the solvent to fully evaporate, a thick tar-like goo is created. Also known as Phoenix Tears, Rick Simpson Oil (RSO) can be ingested or applied directly to the skin. Many businesses sell their own renditions of the Rick Simpson Oil these days. Some are high in THC while others contain only non-psychoactive compounds like CBD.

Tinctures

Up until prohibition of cannabis in 1937, tinctures were the most common form of cannabis medicine in the United States. A tincture is a liquid concentrate using alcohol for extraction. Alcohol pulls out many of the plant’s beneficial cannabinoids and is stable to work with. A few drops under the tongue is a normal dose, but patients can safely use more as needed. Tinctures are a great way for patients to medicate without having to smoke and come in a variety of flavors.
Thanks for reading.

Analysis/Opinion, Culture, Medical, ScienceJanuary 29, 2017 by Adam Rhodes

A History of Medical Cannabis Part 1: Ancient Cannabis

Medical Cannabis is known by many names.

Whether you call it; ganja, weed, dope, grass, or the medical cannabis, it all means the same thing. Cannabis is one of the earliest plants known to be harvested by man. In fact, the oldest human artifact on record is an ancient sandal made from cannabis fibers known as hemp. The fibers of the cannabis plant were used in the oldest civilizations like Rome, Assyria, Egypt and China.
Some of the oldest known medicine was also made from cannabis. The earliest record of medical marijuana use was in 2900 BC by Chinese Emperor Fu. He and a majority of his citizens used the herb for medicinal purposes. From treating headaches and nausea to acting as an aphrodisiac, the ancient Chinese were pioneers in cannabis research.

Over the centuries, marijuana was used medicinally all over the world.

Many festivities and religious ceremonies involved cannabis as well. Cannabis was so important to ancient religious rites that it was an integral part of many rites including the process of anointing. Early Christians were well aware of how cannabis worked and used it in many of their most sacred rituals.
Christians inherited many of their religious practices directly from the Hebrews. The word Christ actually means ‘the anointed one’ and many scholars believe that Christ was anointed with chrism, a cannabis-based oil. The ancient recipe for this oil recorded in Exodus (30:22-23), included over 9 pounds of cannabis flower which the Hebrews called kaneh-bosem.
The Hebrews extracted the cannabis into about 11 pints of olive oil. This cannabis concoction was then mixed with a variety of other herbs and spices in very specific ways. The mixture was normally used in anointing and rituals that would allow the priests and prophets to commune with the divine.

Cannabis was used by more than just the ancient Chinese and Hebrews though.

India has a deep and long history with the plant. Ancient chefs created a drink known as bhang out of cannabis paste, milk and spices. Shiva is said to have loved the drink so much that he took the title “Lord of Bhang”. Bhang has remained a medical remedy/ preferred beverage in India for centuries and is prepared there to this day. Zoroaster is also said to have listed cannabis as the most important of 10,000 medicinal plants.
The Indian Hemp Drugs Commission described the history and culture of cannabis in India: “To the Hindu the hemp plant is holy. A guardian lives in the bhang leaf… To see in a dream the leaves, plant, or water of bhang is lucky… No good thing can come to the man who treads underfoot the holy bhang leaf. A longing for bhang foretells happiness.”
Cannabis has been popular in India since the beginning of recorded history and is often drank. Nuts and spices like; almonds, pistachios, poppy seeds, pepper, ginger and sugar are mixed with cannabis and boiled in milk. Yogurt can also be used instead of milk. While popular in the east, bhang has never caught on with western pallets the same way.

Romans used Medical Cannabis as well.

The Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides from around 40-90AD was a Roman army doctor who traveled widely on campaigns throughout the Roman empire. He studied many plants, gathering his knowledge and assembling it into a book he titled De Materia Medica (On Medical Matters).
Published around 70AD, De Materia Medica became the most important medical text for the next 1500 years. Virtually all medical texts were based off of this single work. Within its pages were contained the most important and useful plants known to mad. Included in the tome was cannabis, both kannabis emeros and kannabis agria, the male and female respectively. Dioscorides stated bluntly that the plant used in the making of rope also produced a juice that treated earache and suppress sexual longing.

Even the Egyptians were into medical cannabis.

In the ancient world, Egypt was a center of trade and information. Their position at the mouth of the Nile provided a base of strength for millennia. Part of that strength was advanced medical techniques that were passed down through the use of writing. Ancient Egyptian doctors and pharmacologists would use papyrus to record their work.
One of the oldest texts to survive to modernity is the 2nd century Fayyum Medical Papyrus. This ancient Egyptian text is believed to contain the earliest record of cannabis as an ingredient in cancer medicine. While they didn’t record enough for us to assess the successes of ancient Egyptian cancer treatments, cannabis continues to receive interest as a cancer therapy today.
Cannabis pollen was even found on the mummy of Ramesses II. He was a powerful Pharaoh who died in 1213 BC. It is unclear how the cannabis was used but prescriptions for cannabis in Ancient Egypt also included treatment for the eyes (glaucoma), inflammation, cooling the uterus, as well as administering enemas.

Cannabis is actually new to the Americas.

By the late 1700s, American medical journals began recommending hemp seeds and roots for the treatment of inflamed skin, incontinence and venereal disease. But it was Irish doctor William O’Shaughnessy who first popularized marijuana’s medical use in England and America.
O’Shaughnessy was a physician with the British East India Company during the years leading up to the American Revolution. He found marijuana eased the pain of rheumatism and was helpful against discomfort and nausea. Patients were prescribed cannabis most for cases of rabies, cholera and tetanus. Truly, Dr. O’shaughnessy was an integral part of the rise of medical cannabis in Europe and the Americas.

In the age of scientific innovation, cannabis was in medical texts.

In 1621, medical marijuana made its way into the English Mental Health Book, the most popular medicinal textbook from the time. Of all the things it could have suggested, it recommends marijuana to treat depression, the same as modern scientific research has shown.
Early Settlers had cannabis but mainly used it for fiber. The Jamestown settlers brought the marijuana plant specialized to produce fiber commonly known as hemp, to North America in 1611.
Throughout the colonial period, hemp fiber was an important export. By 1762, cannabis cultivation can become so common that Virginia awarded bounties for hemp culture and manufacture along with imposing penalties on those who did not produce it.

It wasn’t until the 1900’s that cannabis lost its medical, economic and spiritual prominence.

With the invention of television and the consolidation of media during the 1900s, cannabis moved from medical staple to outcast with surprising speed. Due to the efforts of Larry Anslinger and his associates, medical cannabis was stripped from medical texts and scientists were effectively banned from studying it.
Top image: Bigstock

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