Some ADHD sufferers claim cannabis is a wonder drug for their condition. Now we need some science to back them up.

When a parent learns their son or daughter is smoking pot, it can be the end of the world for them, especially if they’re teetotalers. First, there are the tears, followed by anger and disappointment, followed by punitive measures such as taking a cell phone away, putting the kid on lock down, and understandably, making life miserable for the typical teenager. But there may be an explanation for why one’s child smokes weed. It may be that the child is treating his/her Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) by self-medicating, and it just might be working.

“People who don’t live severe autism can’t really understand what it means. It’s life in the shadow of hell,” says Israeli Abigail Dar, mother to 23 year old Yuval, who began showing signs of autism at the age of 18 months. 

Yuval is one of a growing number of children being diagnosed with autism, which according to the World Health Organization affects 1 in 160, a figure that rises to 1 in 68 in the United States.

Generally manifesting between 12 and 18 months, autism is characterised by difficulties in communication, an apparent inability to form human relationships, an unusually limited range of interests, and abnormal sensory issues. 

Using marijuana could help some alcoholics and people addicted to opioids kick their habits, a UBC study has found.

"Research suggests that people may be using cannabis as an exit drug to reduce the use of substances that are potentially more harmful, such as opioid pain medication," says the study's lead investigator Zach Walsh, an associate professor of psychology at UBC's Okanagan campus.

This comprehensive systematic review of research on the medical cannabis use and mental health also found some evidence that cannabis may help with symptoms of depression, PTSD and social anxiety. However, the review concluded that cannabis use might not be recommended for conditions such as bipolar disorder and psychosis.

Legalization of medical marijuana in more than half the states has created a booming market for medicinal and personal care products.

A new report shows sales of cannabis-based medicinal and personal care products containing cannabidiol (CBD) are likely to skyrocket in the next four years.

The market for CBD products will reach $2.1 billion in sales by 2020, according to projections from “The CDB Report” from the Hemp Business Journal. That’s a huge leap from the estimated $115 million in CDB sales expected in 2016, making CBD among the fastest growing segments of the legal marijuana and hemp industries.

Those caught supplying marijuana risk being handed a 14-year prison sentence in the UK.

The UK’s underground medical marijuana scene, where dealers give away tens of thousands of pounds worth of cannabis in order to offer relief to those in physical pain, has been exposed in a new documentary.

Millions of people across can gain access to medical marijuana to treat the pain of chronic and fatal diseases. 

Drugs are a public health issue, and should be legalised with Doctors at the heart of the debate according to the British Medical Journal.

In a series of articles published today, the BMJ argue that ‘the war on drugs has failed,’ and claim that prohibitive drug laws have done nothing to reduce addiction or organised crime.

The BMJ’s editorial highlights a number of areas where ‘the war on drugs’ has actually caused public health problems, as opposed to remedying them:

Medical marijuana is now legal in the state of Ohio but patients who need it, can’t get it yet. Those patients might be waiting more than a year because a new committee must map out every detail from the marijuana seed to the plant’s sale.

What does the industry look like? Where is the marijuana grown? Who gets to sell it? and When can patients finally buy it?

These are all questions the group of 14 Ohioans is hoping to answer. From pharmacists and physicians to researchers and drug addiction experts, this team will set the rules.

2 NEWS Investigates traveled to Columbus for their first meeting and tracked down the local members: Shelby County Sheriff John Lenhart and Dayton Pain Management Physician, Dr. Amol Soin.

A pilot study hints at potential cognitive benefits to regular medical marijuana use, but the scope and scale of the study made it hard to draw definite conclusions.

On October 13 2016, the scientific journal Frontiers in Neuroscience published a pilot study that investigated the effect of regular medical marijuana use on cognitive function. According to the researchers (composed of scientists from Harvard University, Tufts University, and Mclean Hospital), this was the first study to address the effects using the same test subjects before and after medical marijuana (MMJ) use:

A team of scientists have questioned the validity of all existing research regarding both the harms and medicinal benefits of cannabis, after discovering that the strains of marijuana used in these studies tend to be considerably weaker than those that are sold commercially.

One result of the European Union’s policy of leaving domestic drug policy to individual member states is that each one chooses its own path to medical cannabis, creating a variety of different regulatory schemes across the continent. In Poland, the Parliament has begun debate on new legislation that would make cannabis available to tens of thousands of Poles with a wide range of health issues.

A parliamentary commission had its first meeting on the matter last month, a response to the tireless efforts of recently formed political movement Kukiz’15 as well as activists from the NGO Wolne Konopie (Free Cannabis Association) and the Coalition of Medical Marijuana, which consists of doctors, lawyers, patients, and patients’ families.