Mother says drug trial is a step forward for fortunate patients but will take too long for patients who are out of time.

That is how Waterford mother and Medical Cannabis Advisory Group of Queensland spokeswoman Lanai Carter reacted to the announcement of Queensland’s first medicinal cannabis trial.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said Queensland would join the NSW Government, which last year announced scientific trials for patients.

But it was not good enough for Ms Carter, whose son Lindsay has a brain tumour.

The Carter family has twice travelled to the US to enable Lindsay to receive cannabis oil treatment, which she said reduced the size of his tumour, soothed his pain and altered the frequency of seizures.

Patients using and doctors recommending medical marijuana have begun to see the changes from two recent Provincial Colleges of Physicians guidelines released this March.

The Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia both released updated standards and guidelines for medical professionals in March highlighting issues like caps on ‘prescribed’ THC levels, recommendations for users under 25, and whether doctors can charge patients or producers for a’medical document’.

Israeli scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have tracked down a specific chemical compound in the cannabis plant, a cannabinoid called “cannabidiol” that researchers say can be used to treat diabetes.

The best source for cannabidiol, or CBD as it is called, appears to be hemp – a plant with no potential for abuse and which has no psychoactive properties.

Doctors need to participate in the debate on legalisation and regulation of illegal substances, because this topic is within their area of responsibility. The debate is not only about the introduction of legal, regulated outlets or prescribing of such substances by doctors. Some factors are directly related to the role of doctors in society, as well as to their relationship to patients who are using illegal substances.

DENVER, CO, April 22, 2015 /CNW/ - Balkan Herbal Industries announced its website launch this morning, inclusive of a promotional offer to website visitors for a free trial sample of Balkan Herbal Life Oil, an oil extract from Albanian cannabis, which is rumored to have some of the highest cannabadiol (CBD) content in the world.

Albanian cannabis has become a popular subject with the medicinal marijuana and industrial hemp communities in North America since the announcement of a international plans between the U.S. and Albanian government, as reported by Abeu and Tirana Observer. 

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Legalizing marijuana for recreational use in California would raise an array of unknowns, from how it would be taxed to the threat of environmental damage from thirsty pot plants in a state gripped by drought, a commission was told Tuesday.

As activists move to bring a proposal legalizing pot use to voters in 2016, the panel headed by Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom began considering how a state of 39 million people would change with once-outlawed pot consumption becoming a legal, and potentially widespread, practice.

What was clear is no one knows.

A bill to extend the state’s medical marijuana pilot program overwhelmingly passed the House Tuesday.

The bill passed 81 to 28 with one legislator voting present, according to state records.

Rep. Lou Lang, D-Skokie, who sponsored the extension and has championed the state’s medical marijuana law, said he’s hopeful the bill will make it through the Senate and that Gov. Bruce Rauner will sign it — allowing the delayed medical marijuana program to have a full four years of operation before expiring.

Lang’s bill seeks to extend the program four years from when the first dispensary begins officially operating. It’s now set to expire at the end of 2017.

The Public Health Agency has moved to warn users of the risks after receiving reports of cases where people have suffered symptoms including anxiety, breathing difficulties and loss of consciousness.

Some people have reported experiencing hallucinations which have prompted them to try to harm themselves or others.

Synthetic cannabinoids use a substance called tetrahydrocannabinol or THC to mimic the effects of cannabis, but some can produce effects more like those of psychedelic or dissociative drugs.

“People may experience acute mental and physical health problems when using synthetic cannabinoids as they have assumed that the dose to be taken is similar to that of cannabis,” Owen O’Neill, from the PHA, said.

Using medicinal cannabis to relieve chronic pain in people who don't have cancer is likely to be far more risky than beneficial, say specialists.

The evidence supporting its use by those sufferers is weak and based more on anecdote than sound clinical science and practice, they say.

The Faculty of Pain Medicine of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists on Wednesday urged caution in the face of ongoing calls for cannabinoids to be used to treat chronic non-cancer pain.

Faculty director of professional affairs, Professor Milton Cohen, referred to a lack of any sound evidence showing the treatments were effective saying its efficacy needed to be rigorously demonstrated.

I have used cannabis medically and recreationally and, to be honest, the two uses have merged a bit. I started to smoke cannabis to help with symptoms associated with crippling insomnia and the results were simply amazing. It changed my entire perspective on life.

I was a big drinker before I started to use medical cannabis. Nowadays, I just don’t even feel like drinking much at all. At parties, I always opt for getting nice and stoned, and then just nurse a beer or two throughout the night. I still have a great time and I don’t really deal with hangovers anymore.