The United States government has surprisingly allowed one of its most prominent drug warriors to admit that, despite more than 40 years of pot propaganda, marijuana does actually possess medicinal qualities.

In a column published last week by the Huffington Post, Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, wrote that while many compounds of the cannabis plant are beginning to show evidence of a “range of uses in medicine,” cannabidiol, otherwise referred to as CBD, “appears to be a safe drug with no addictive side effects.” 

Military veterans are committing suicide. Prescription painkiller overdose deaths are skyrocketing. There is a national discussion around these issues. Medical marijuana can help. In these cases it could save lives. 

A special working group of Pennsylvania House Representatives is trying craft a medical marijuana bill for the lower chamber. A bill already passed the state Senate earlier this year. Two of their biggest issues are whether to include Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and chronic pain as qualifying conditions.

Senate Bill 3 includes PTSD but Rep. Ron Marsico's House bill did not.

Waiting for medicine

•July 2014: Gov. Andrew Cuomo signs the Compassionate Care Act into law, making New York the 23rd state to legalize medical marijuana.

•December 2014: Draft regulations for medical marijuana released. They essentially control how patients access the drug, as well as how organizations grow and sell the drug.

•April 2015: Final medical marijuana regulations released. make any substantive changes to the draft regulations despite the comments.

SPARKS, Nev. — Fifteen years after Nevadans voted to legalize it, medical marijuana was sold legally in the state for the first time Friday at a dispensary in a strip mall about 5 miles east of downtown Reno.

Dressed in polo shirts, tie-dyes and button-downs, about 75 people with medical marijuana cards lined up outside Silver State Relief, between a sub shop and pizza place in Sparks, to be among the first to buy as much as a half-ounce of pot for $195.

“It smells good in there,” said Dana Metz, 64, a retired General Motors worker who said he suffers from back pain, insomnia and anxiety. He was the first in line two hours before the doors opened just after 10 a.m.

After suffering a serious injury in a house fire more than four years ago, Robin Douglas was confined to a wheelchair and thought he would never walk again.

Depression and hopelessness took over. When he tried to kill himself, he knew he'd hit rock bottom.

That's when he turned to marijuana for salvation. A few months later, he no longer needed the wheelchair.

"My mind, body and spirit was healed." Douglas, 57, told VICE News Thursday from White Rock, British Columbia. "And every time I met with like-minded people who helped me use cannabis, we would smoke or eat it and be able to see things clearly."

Medical Marijuana licenses were announced by the Department of Health Friday.

After a cutthroat competition, the five companies that will receive licenses to grow and distribute medical marijuana in New York were announced today by the state Department of Health.

Licenses have been awarded to Bloomfield Industries, Columbia Care NY, Empire State Health Solutions, Etain and PharmaCann.

The leaders of the five winners come from a range of backgrounds:

The NY State Department of Health announced the five companies that were given medical marijuana licenses. One of the companies will be manufacturing in Queens, with a dispensary in Manhattan, while three other companies will have dispensaries in Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx.

Here are the companies, with the counties they are doing business in:

Bloomfield Industries Inc.
Manufacturing: Queens
Dispensing: Nassau
Dispensing: New York
Dispensing: Onondaga
Dispensing: Erie

Columbia Care NY LLC
Manufacturing: Monroe
Dispensing: New York
Dispensing: Suffolk
Dispensing: Clinton
Dispensing: Monroe

The Mount Sinai Health System will work with Columbia Care LLC, a provider of medical marijuana, on research projects

New York, NY (PRWEB) July 31, 2015

The Mount Sinai Health System will work with Columbia Care LLC, a provider of medical marijuana, on research projects that evaluate the potential of related, experimental treatments. The collaboration moves into the next phase with the recent decision by the New York State Department of Health to award Columbia Care one of five state licenses to produce and dispense medical marijuana.

The New York Department of Health announced Friday the names of five companies chosen to legally grow and sell medical marijuana. Bloomfield Industries, Columbia Care NY, Empire State Health Solutions, Etain and PharmaCann were awarded licenses to manufacture medical cannabis and operate dispensaries at their intended facilities in several countries throughout New York State.

NORTHAMPTON — Local and state officials got a firsthand look this past week at the bounty of cannabis that will serve state-registered patients at medical marijuana dispensaries in Northampton and Brookline later this year.

Senate President Stanley C. Rosenberg, D-Amherst, and state Sen. Karen E. Spilka, D-Ashland, toured New England Treatment Access’ cultivation and production center in Franklin last Friday, while Northampton Mayor David J. Narkewicz made a similar visit Tuesday.

The facility is the source of all medical cannabis products that will be available to patients at NETA’s planned Northampton and Brookline dispensaries, which are slated to open later this year.