Cayman Islands Governor Helen Kilpatrick has assented to changes to the Misuse of Drugs Law allowing for the importation of oil derived from the marijuana plant for medical purposes only.

That means Cayman pharmacists and doctors can lawfully import and prescribe cannabinoid [cannabis] oil for patients, as long as they can find a source to import it from. The bill does not legalize ganja usage for medical purposes.

The Legislative Assembly unanimously approved the changes allowing the importation Oct. 24.

Early this year, a disabled former automobile body worker named Greg Vialpando explained to lawmakers in New Mexico how medical marijuana helped his chronic back pain.

State legislators were considering a bill backed by workers’ compensation insurers that would have exempted them from paying for medical marijuana. But Mr. Vialpando and another patient described how smoking the drug let them escape years of stupor caused by powerful prescription narcotic drugs known as opioids.

The lawmakers ended up dropping the bill, and Mr. Vialpando’s expenses for buying marijuana are covered by insurance.

“I would recommend that people use medical marijuana over opioids any day,” Mr. Vialpando, 58, said in a telephone interview.

On this Thanksgiving Day, Reggie Williams will move freely and with only minor pain. A man who has endured 24 operations on his right knee, who has spent the last two decades in chronic agony, now passes his days in true thanks, for a treatment he says is his salvation.

Williams is a regular user of medical cannabis, and doesn’t mind letting the world know about it. He says he isn’t looking to start a crusade, but Williams is a natural crusader. He wants the NFL and its players union to consider his story when next they sit around a conference table.

Marijuana grown in Uruguay only enough for 25% of consumers. The Monitoring Cannabis team of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of the Republic estimated that only 25% of regular consumers will be able to access legal marijuana from Uruguay.

By October 2016, 5,332 farmers were registered in the regulatory framework program, as required by law. Additionally there are 22 buyers’ clubs registered in the Institute of Regulation and Control of Cannabis. Each club is allowed to have a maximum of 45 affiliates..

BAS Research, recently granted California’s first medicinal marijuana manufacturing and research license, is teaming with Montel Williams’ LenitivLabs startup to begin developing, producing and marketing medical-grade cannabis products.

BAS’ goal is to replace the social stigma associated with cannabis by creating medical marijuana products with standardized dosing and proven efficacy. Its products are aimed at people with chronic diseases like multiple sclerosis, chronic pain, and serious conditions like cancer or epilepsy.

Veterans Affairs Canada is set to “reduce substantially” the amount of medical marijuana for which retired soldiers can seek reimbursement, after new projections revealed the cost is set to rise to $90 million — 18 times more than the amount paid out two years ago.

The program under which veterans could access marijuana for medical purposes was introduced in 2008-09 and by the end of the year there were just five recipients being reimbursed $19,000.

A new review offers further insight into how long-term marijuana use might have a negative impact on mental health, after finding "substantial evidence" that the drug alters the brain's reward system to increase negative emotions and decrease motivation.

The study says there is sufficient evidence to suggest marijuana, or cannabis, reduces levels of dopamine in the brain - a neurotransmitter that plays a key role in learning, movement, motivation, emotion, and reward.

Although the United Nations international drug treaties have upheld an official prohibition against marijuana, the marijuana industry has spread across the Americas, Europe, and Asia.

In a test starting 2018, therapeutic marijuana will be legal in Denmark for 1,500 patients suffering from chronic diseases. Danish farmers are lobbying the government to allow them to satisfy this new market, Dagens Nyheter reports.

Since it's currently illegal to grow marijuana in Denmark, cannabis for the trial is being imported from the state-run production of the Netherlands. 

But as the only producer for medicinal marijuana in Europe the Netherlands can only supply a tenth of the demand for therapeutic cannabis the Danish test group is facing. Should the test result in permanent legalization of medicinal marijuana the problem will become all the more acute.