An update on the cannabis oil controversy at Memorial Hospital. An eight year-old Monument girl will not be able to take it when she's at the hospital later this week.

11 News Reporter Katie Pelton first told you about the story over the weekend. She talked to the family again Monday.

Cora has a rare condition and takes cannabis oil twice a day as part of her daily regimen. But come Wednesday, she won't be able to take it while she's at Memorial Hospital undergoing surgery.

Cora's mother, Alicia Stier, tells 11 News she's frustrated with the hospital's decision. They told her Monday evening, Cora can't use cannabis oil during her stay Wednesday. They also said she could postpone the appointment to a later date.

Drug Policy Alliance Press Release — Earlier this month, the Costa Rican Ministry of Health outlined the details for the implementation of a pending bill to research and regulate marijuana for medical and industrial purposes. The bill was introduced by ruling Citizen Action Party legislator Marvin Atencio last year to tax marijuana products and regulate the use of medical marijuana through registration cards for patients provided by the Ministry of Health.

Teen use of marijuana doesn't seem to change when states pass laws legalizing the drug for medical purposes, a new study suggests.

Researchers analyzed information from more than 1 million U.S. teens in grades 8, 10 and 12, who were asked whether they'd used marijuana in the past month. The researchers collected 24 years' worth of survey data, spanning 1991 to 2014.

A report from one of Britain's leading experts on the benefits on medical marijuana has urged the British government to relax the laws regarding medicinal use of the drug.

Val Curran, professor of Psychopharmacology at University College London, along with co-author Frank Warburton, says British patients are "suffering unnecessarily" with medicinal marijuana not being made available to them.

The report adds patients with conditions such as multiple sclerosis, spinal cord damage, epilepsy, chronic neuropathic pain, chronic pain following shingles, the side effects of chemotherapy for cancer, and those with a spate of other ailments are being denied effective treatment.

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a hereditary condition caused by a mutation in the haemoglobin gene, which leads to symptoms of anaemia, extreme pain, and organ damage if unmanaged. Individuals suffering from SCD are far more likely to use cannabis than the general population, potentially for its analgesic properties.

What is Sickle Cell Disease?

In SCD, a mutation in the haemoglobin gene causes red blood cells to become distorted, from the usual pliable, concave disc to a rigid, sickle-shaped form. In normal conditions, the cells temporarily deform in order to be squeezed through narrow blood vessels.

Seriously ill Alex Renton has had his first cannabis oil treatment this afternoon.

The 19-year-old, who sparked a national debate over the benefits and morality of using cannabis oil for medicinal purposes earlier this month, will continue to receive cannabis oil in coming days, with his doses gradually increasing.

Alex's family hopes to see positive results in the coming two to seven days.

He has been in Wellington Hospital since early April suffering from a form of prolonged seizure, known as status epilepticus.

Doctors have tried more than 20 medications to treat him, but none have worked.

Marijuana is a controversial topic in the medical community, with some well respected doctors advocating for its use and others concerned about its long term effects and addictive properties. As researchers continue to explore the drug as a potential treatment to chronic and terminal illnesses, some studies are focusing their efforts on the effects of medical marijuana on Alzheimer’s treatment and symptoms.

Learn more about what these studies have found and why more work needs to be done in evaluating it as a treatment for the disease.

Medical Marijuana Brings Controversy to the Medical Community

"There's no way Silk Road could be reasonably expected to reduce violence," Federal District Court Judge Katherine Forrest said at the recent sentencing hearing for Ross Ulbricht, the convicted founder of the Silk Road online drug market.

Legalising the medical use of cannabis has not led to a surge in the numbers of adolescents using it in the USA, according to new research that surprised its authors and will encourage those hoping for relaxation of the law elsewhere.

Since 1996, 23 US states and the District of Columbia (DC) have approved the medicinal use of cannabis. In the states of Colorado, Washington, Alaska and Oregon and DC, recreational use is also legal. These moves towards permissiveness, even where possession of the drug is restricted to medical use, have caused many critics to worry that cannabis use would rise, especially among teenagers.

Helen Branswell, The Canadian Press
Published Monday, June 15, 2015 6:47PM EDT
Last Updated Monday, June 15, 2015 7:04PM EDT

TORONTO -- Passing a medical marijuana law does not lead to increased use of the drug by teenagers in that jurisdiction, concludes a new study that looked at self-reported use of pot among more than one million adolescents from 48 U.S. states from 1991 to 2014.

The research was applauded by other social scientists for its size and strength. And the authors themselves suggested it is time for the debate over how to keep adolescents from using marijuana at an early age to move on to target on other factors.