Canberrans will be able to visit a 'medical cannabis information centre' in September as an advocacy group steps up its push to open a dispensary in the ACT where marijuana is sold from a shopfront, the group claims.

The Med Shed is made up of 80 medical cannabis advocates who have been working to establish a shopfront in Canberra since it formed in May.

The drug will be (slightly) easier to study

On Thursday the U.S. government announced that marijuana would continue to be classified as a Schedule 1 drug, meaning it has a high potential for abuse. However, the feds are allowing more research on marijuana’s medicinal uses by making it easier for researchers to grow it.

Many researchers, both those who view marijuana as beneficial and those who are skeptical, argue that the government’s stance still hinders research. “I understand the cautious nature of the government, whose role is basically to protect its citizens, but it is disappointing that marijuana continues to be included on the DEA’s list of the most dangerous drugs,” says Dr. Yasmin Hurd of Mount Sinai, who studies the effects of marijuana on the brain.

The federal government said Thursday that it will allow medical marijuana patients to grow their own pot, a move viewed as a band-aid solution before broader legislation is introduced next year.

The decision creates uncertainty for Canada’s licensed medical marijuana producers, who are currently the only legal source of medical pot. However, it is not viewed as a game-changer for them, and some even see it as a business opportunity. Most stock prices in the pot sector declined on Thursday, but only modestly.

Health Canada announced that beginning Aug. 24, patients will be allowed to produce a “limited amount” of cannabis for their own purposes, or designate someone to grow it for them.

Illinoisans with chronic postoperative pain, or C-POP, may soon be eligible for Illinois’ medical cannabis pilot program.

Cook County Circuit Court Judge Neil Cohen ruled Tuesday that Illinois Department of Public Health Director Nirav Shah improperly used his own study to deny the condition affecting thousands of Illinoisans to the state’s cannabis program. Cohen struck down the denial and ordered Shah to reconsider the condition using only the recommendations from his advisory board, which voted to include CPOP.

Cohen and other Cook County judges have ruled that the department must reconsider other conditions such as migraines and irritable bowel syndrome for the pilot program as well.

The Obama administration is planning to remove a major roadblock to marijuana research, officials said Wednesday, potentially spurring broad scientific study of a drug that is being used to treat dozens of diseases in states across the nation despite little rigorous evidence of its effectiveness.

The new policy is expected to sharply increase the supply of marijuana available to researchers.

There ain’t no bones about it! Compounds in the cannabis plant may help prevent bone diseases and even make them stronger after fracture. Diseases like osteoporosis and osteoarthritis are painful and debilitating. Osteoporosis can make bones so brittle that they break even after a soft fall. Research conducted over the past several years has found that cannabinoids may be potent therapeutic agents for protecting against painful bone diseases, arthritis, and injury. Here’s how cannabis helps protect you from bone diseases.

The woman spearheading a statewide effort to regulate the booming but controversial medical marijuana industry is traveling across California to learn more about pot – and teach industry insiders about the state’s lawmaking process.

Lori Ajax, five months into her position as the chief of the newly formed California Bureau of Medical Cannabis Regulation, visited Coalinga last month. Coalinga is the first city in the central San Joaquin Valley to embrace medical cannabis. The city legalized its manufacture and sold a vacant prison to a cannabis oil manufacturer in July.

Lupus refers to some diseases in which the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks its own normally functioning tissues. Some form of the disease afflicts an estimated 5 million people around the world, 90% of whom are women. Progress in treating Lupus has been startlingly slow. Here, we’ll explore the disease, how it’s typically treated, and how cannabis interacts with patients who suffer from the disease.

Severe pain drove this average Minnesotan to seek the comforts of medical cannabis. Here's how things worked out for her. 

Earlier this year, one of my friends asked: “Will medical cannabis get you stoned?”

This was just before my first appointment to get “qualified” for medical cannabis use. I wasn’t sure how to answer.

What did I know about medical cannabis? Not much. I struggled to parse what I was finding online. Perhaps I was naive in expecting straightforward information communicated by words without multiple meaning. So I was thrown off by the lingo.

The Arkansas Farm Bureau Federation is joining with the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce in opposing two medical marijuana initiatives that are likely to be on the ballot this November.

Representatives of those two organizations met Friday along with three other groups that oppose the measure: the Coalition for Safer Arkansas Communities, which was formed by members of law enforcement and the medical community to oppose the proposals; the Family Council; and the Arkansas Faith & Ethics Council. The five groups agreed to jointly oppose the marijuana proposals and will meet Aug. 15 at the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce for an organizational meeting.