The island state of Hawaii, also known as the Paradise State, just got one step closer to that goal this month. On July 15, 2015, Gov. David Ige signed HB 321, a bill authorizing the use of medical marijuana, into state law.

A small trial shows a dose-dependent reduction in peripheral neuropathic pain in patients with diabetes, according to a study published in the July issue of The Journal of Pain.

The latest edition of the prestigious magazine The British Medical Journal includes an interesting study entitled “Continued Cannabis use and risk of incidence and persistence of psychotic symptoms: 10-year follow-up cohort study.” A lot has been said and written about the relationship between cannabis and psychosis. In this article, we will analyse the content of this latest study, as well as its contribution to this controversial subject.

Vaporized cannabis mitigates pain intensity in diabetic subjects in a dose-dependent manner, according to clinical trial data published online ahead of print in The Journal of Pain.Investigators at the University of California, San Diego assessed the efficacy of inhaled cannabis versus placebo in 16 patients with painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN).Authors reported: “This small, short-term, placebo-controlled trial of inhaled cannabis demonstrated a dose-dependent reduction in diabetic peripheral neuropathy pain in patients with treatment-refractory pain… Overall, our finding of an analgesic effect of cannabis is consistent with other trials of cannabis in diverse neuropathic pain syndromes.”

Does end-of-life chemotherapy do more harm than good? New study finds gruelling treatment can give cancer patients WORSE quality of life than going without

Giving chemotherapy to cancer patients nearing the end of life can do more harm than good, a study has found.

The new research shows gruelling treatments given to people with life-threatening illnesses has no clinical benefit.

Instead, it can actually lead to a worse quality of life, with patients unable to perform many day-to-day functions.

Doctors said courses of treatment given to patients with end-stage cancer, whose tumours had spread to other parts of their bodies, had little or no positive effect.

A new study shows that men may be considerably more susceptible to mental and physical effects of the drug

International Cannabinoid Research Society’s (or ICRS) recent 25th annual symposium proved to be a great place to share ideas and learn from a wide variety of highly accomplished scientists in the area of cannabinoid research. The 4-day conference was highly diverse, covering everything from novel chemical cannabinoid entities, to quality control methods for cannabis, to non-THC cannabinoids such as CBD (cannabidiol) and CBG (cannabigerol).

By Nora Volkow, Director, National Institute on Drug Abuse

This month the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER,) an non-partisan think tank, published a working paper showing that states who allow patients to access medicinal marijuana through dispensaries have fewer rates of opioid addiction and overdose deaths.

The impact was measured by researchers who studied admissions for opioid pain reliever addiction and opioid overdose death.  The research was done by the RAND Corporation and the University of California, Irvine.

“If marijuana is used as a substitute for powerful and addictive pain relievers in medical marijuana states,”

R.I. — The number of patients enrolled in the state's medical marijuana program has exploded in the past two and half years, more than doubling from 4,849 in 2013 to 11,620 today.

As of the beginning of this year, there were 684 physicians in the state providing certifications for medical marijuana patients, up from 512 in 2013, or a 33 percent increase over two years.

But while those numbers have skyrocketed, the number of people the state has devoted to the program's oversight — the licensing of patients and all those allowed to grow marijuana — has not changed.