A small study finds that inhaling cannabis could demonstrate a dose-dependent pain reduction in patients with diabetic peripheral neuropathy.

One of the most celebrated elements found in cannabis is a chemical called CBD which is short for cannabidiol. It is a non-psychoactive compound that is a powerful anti-inflammatory, anti-spasmodic, and anti-seizure medication. Yet, its list of accolades doesn’t end there.

So far, the endocannabinoid system (meaning endogenous cannabinoid) is the largest receptor system known to exist in the human body. It’s a system that helps to maintain homeostasis, to keep things running in tip-top shape. That means that we already have our own versions of pot molecules in our nervous systems.

Back in October, one man was working to petition the American Chemical Society (ACS) to establish a division for cannabis chemists. Ezra Pryor – an ACS member and president of Ezchemcannabis consultancy – was somewhat alone in his quest for such professional recognition, but he’s made significant progress over the last few months.

As soon as this afternoon, the U.S. House of Representatives will be voting on the FY2016 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations bill, which sets the budget for the Veterans Administration (V.A.). Representatives Blumenauer (D-OR), Heck (R-NV), Gibbard (D-HI), Reed (R-NY), Lee (D-CA), Rohrabacher (R-CA), and Titus (D-NV) will be re-introducing the Veterans Equal Access Amendment (VEAA), which would lift the gag.

With the City of Vancouver looking at new rules to regulate the booming retail marijuana business, one of the hurdles some pot shops will face is police background checks of their operators. 

CBC decided to do its own background checks and quickly found some local operators have had serious run-ins with the law, including instances not involving the marijuana business. In one case, two of the operators of the Sea to Sky Alternative Healing Society — well aware their police involvement could back to haunt them — have removed themselves as directors of the pot dispensary at least on paper. 

They say they welcome Vancouver's move toward regulation of the city's 80-plus pot dispensaries. 

A Pennsylvania Senate committee unanimously passed a bill, co-sponsored by Delaware County Sen. Daylin Leach, legalizing medical marijuana use.

“It’s time to stop relying on old fear tactics and fairy tales to sustain irrational policies and deny people what will help them,” Leach, D-17, of Upper Merion, said before committee members convened last Tuesday.

Once enacted, patients dealing with an array of mental and physical disorders, including children, are allowed to use medical marijuana for treatment. Cannabis dispensers and growers would sprout across the commonwealth to distribute doctor-prescribed marijuana.

Strict regulations and licensing fees would monitor the distribution and use of the narcotic. Smoking cannabis is still banned under this bill.

So You Want to Work in the Medical Marijuana Industry

Congratulations -- your timing couldn’t be better! Last year, U.S. medical cannabis was the fastest-growing industry in the largest economy in the world. Many states have had their industry more than double despite their program having already existed for several years.

The rapid growth means there is, or soon will be, a place for you this industry, and your first job is to keep looking until you find it. Be ready to meet a ton of new people full of passion and exciting ideas. Try to interview as much as you can to prepare for this opportunity – as the saying goes, practice makes perfect, especially with someone you trust to provide helpful feedback on how to improve your communication skills.

Seth Wong’s place of work is heavily cluttered, with shelves loaded with moldy bagels, stale cake and fermenting carrots. There’s a not-so-faint smell of urine in the air.

But if all goes according to plan for Wong and his new business partner, JJ Slatkin, their new office soon will have something else in abundance: marijuana.

The two Jewish 30-somethings are launching a new company that will offer contaminant testing and potency analysis for cannabis, which Colorado legalized in 2014.

A British company that makes medicines from cannabis is aiming to raise almost $180m on Nasdaq to push forward a new treatment for childhood epilepsy.

The share issue would bring the total raised by GW Pharmaceuticals in New York over the past two years to nearly $450m. During that time, its market capitalisation in London, where it has a dual listing, has grown from less than £100m to almost £1.5bn.

GW has special permission from the UK Home Office to grow cannabis at an undisclosed location in England for use in drugs that harness the therapeutic benefits of marijuana without producing the “high” associated with smoking the plant.

People under the age of 25 or suffering addiction should not be prescribed medical marijuana, according to stricter standards being introduced by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C.

A version of the new professional standards was published on the college's website earlier this month, but has since been taken down.

College registrar Dr. Heidi Oetter said the statement is being reworded to allow for some exceptions for palliative-care patients and patients with seizure disorders.

Oetter said the new policies will also prohibit doctors from charging patients for completing a medical document prescribing cannabis.

"We certainly have learned from our colleagues to the south, particularly in places like Colorado and Washington state," she said.