Before she gave birth to her daughter, Nova, at Cleveland's Fairview Hospital on September 26, Hollie Sanford used cannabis tea to relieve severe sciatic nerve pain. Her research convinced her marijuana was a safer choice than the painkillers she had been prescribed, and she may be right about that.

Pharmacist and university lecturer Dr Marcia Williams made a presentation highlighting studies that suggest cannabis can reduce the risk of contracting diabetes.

Dr Williams, who was invited to the Island to give a presentation at the Bermuda College by the Bermuda Pharmaceutical Association during Pharmacy Week, is a lecturer at the University of Technology in Jamaica and holds a PhD in Pharmaceutics from Queen’s University in Belfast.

Excerpt from Q&A, October 26, 2015.

RHONDA MILES: Our 15 year old epileptic son Lachlan has been on life support seven times. He has been hospitalised 95 times in the last four and a half years… We welcome the Federal Health Minister’s moves last week in her announcement that she will set up a farm to pharmacy medical cannabis production system in Australia by 2018. That doesn’t help my son now. Why can’t we import through the special access scheme and TGA, quality-controlled medical cannabis oil from overseas now?

Right now, medical marijuana is commonly used to treat nausea, chronic pain, glaucoma and a range of other issues.

But that might not be all that the drug can do. Several studies have uncovered some surprising potential for medicinal pot.

Now, these benefits are by no means tried and true — there's still a lot of research to be done on the actual benefits of marijuana — but they are ripe for future study.

Some doctors believe moms with a debilitating pregnancy complication could get relief from smoking pot, but it’s not as simple as that.

In early January 2015, Trinity Dogood started vomiting and couldn’t stop.

“I thought I had food poisoning or an awful stomach bug,” Dogood said. But after three days, the vomiting still hadn’t subsided, and Trinity found herself in the ER of a local hospital, begging for relief.

When the triage nurse took her blood for testing, they discovered she was pregnant.

“I was shocked,” Dogood said. The pregnancy was wanted, but unintentional. Doctors released Dogood and advised her to take more vitamin D and spend time outside to treat what they thought was standard morning sickness.

“I’m in a constant state of amazement. I would gladly give it up and have Dan back in a heartbeat but that’s not the way life is. We just had to do this, we had no choice,” – Lucy Haslam

This month, as Australia announces wide scale changes to cannabis laws, many cancer patients and parents of epileptic children can look forward to medicinal cannabis being a reality. There is one Australian family who have made that reality possible, credited with not only changing public opinion with their relentless campaigning for the sick but actually bringing about legislative change with a 245,000 strong Government petition. They are the Haslams.

The long, slow road to a legal medical marijuana regime in Illinois is finally approaching the point of getting the drugs to patients. This week, regulators expect to send official identification cards to qualified patients, the Chicago Tribune reported, one of the final few steps required before full implementation.

“Nightcaps” come in all shapes and sizes. Some people like to have a drink before bed, and others prefer taking a nice long toke. But while these nightcaps may help you fall asleep faster, they may not be giving you the rest your mind and body actually needs.

I’m sure that you have read the headlines which touts the fallacy that “marijuana consumption doubled over the past decade along with associated risks”. If you haven’t, I’m sure you’ll stumble across these articles as it has been reported by most major news networks.

Essentially the study concludes that marijuanause increased among adults because of more relaxed laws on marijuana and as a result have also seen a greater increase in “marijuana use disorders” which isn’t entirely true.

What constitutes marijuana use disorder?

The DSM-5 categorized “marijuana use disorder” under four main premises;