• Dr. Ian Mitchell will recruit people in the fall to research the effect of different preparations of cannabis on posttraumatic stress disorder.

Dr. Ian Mitchell says that in an ideal world, physicians would learn about the medicinal properties of cannabis in medical school. Doctors would be trained about different extracts from marijuana plants, including cannabidiol, aka CBD, and tetrahydrocannabinol, aka THC.

But the Kamloops emergency-room physician tells the Georgia Straight by phone that the vast majority of doctors haven’t been educated in this area.

Lawmakers in Springfield will consider several marijuana bills this session, including at least one that would decriminalize small amounts of pot.

Other proposed laws would:

• Extend the now-delayed medical marijuana pilot program.
• Add post-traumatic stress disorder to the list of conditions that make a patient qualified to use medical marijuana.
• Allow adults to possess or grow small amounts of marijuana.

Several other marijuana-related bills also are proposed.

And proponents of legalized marijuana see this influx of legislation as “baby steps” on the way to legalization.

The Canadian Medical Marijuana experience for investors has for the most part been a tremendous letdown thus far. When Tweed Marijuana Inc. (TSX.V:TWD) lost 10 percent on its first day open of $3.32, and as of Friday last week accumulated a total YTD loss of 41 percent, the writing was on the wall.

Of course, that does not apply to insiders and early stage investors. Tweed founders paid as little as $0.15 a share, and their instant wealth came at the direct expense of retail investors.

But that is the game, and anybody who cries about it has no business investing in it.

In order to give Lift readers a better understanding of the Quality Assurance and testing practices that go into producing medical marijuana under the MMPR, we’ve enlisted the services of Emily Kirkham, the lead analytical chemistry consultant at Signoto, in Vancouver, BC. A professional chemist with a B.Sc. in Chemistry from McGill University, she brings over 15 years of experience working in analytical laboratories, with an emphasis on quality control procedures and method development. Signoto provides quality control consulting services to the Canadian medical cannabis industry.

AUSTIN – Medical marijuana has got a lot of folks buzzed in the Lone Star State. Lawmakers will have their chance to vote on House Bill 3785 this session, which would give Texans a shot at using the drug for medicinal purposes.

Will this bill go up in smoke?

Well, maybe. We’re still in Texas, folks. But a recent poll showed nearly 60% of Texans support medical legalization.

So, does this mean pot shops will sprout like weeds in DFW like they did in Colorado?

A group pushing for a 2016 ballot question on legalizing the recreational use of marijuana is warning against imposing excessive taxation or fees on the sale of pot.

Bay State Repeal on Wednesday released a statement saying it welcomes a bill filed by more than a dozen Massachusetts lawmakers that would allow marijuana to be taxed and regulated like alcohol. The bill also would let adults 21 years or older possess and grow limited amounts of marijuana.

But the pro-marijuana group says if taxes and fees are too high that will force up the cost of pot and help maintain a black market in the state. It says that could have the unintended consequence of giving minors the ability to continue obtaining marijuana illegally.

A new national survey of American voters has found a strong majority in support of marijuana legalization and an even larger majority in support of decriminalization of the drug.

The "Beyond the Beltway" report released Wednesday by Democratic-affiliated Benenson Strategy Group and SKDKnickerbocker found 61 percent of Americans in favor of marijuana legalization and 72 percent in favor of decriminalization. The drug remains illegal under federal law.

Graph appears courtesy of Benenson Strategy Group/SKDKnickerbocker.

WASHINGTON—Ann Lee, a Republican precinct chairman in southwest Houston, had her first marijuana epiphany around her 60th birthday.

A workplace fall paralyzed her son Richard from the waist down. When he began to use marijuana to treat his pain, she decided her lifelong opposition to the drug was wrong.

Her second epiphany came after her 80th birthday. NORML, the marijuana advocacy group, invited her to be part of a five-person panel discussion at a conference in 2012. “As we all talked,” she says, “we realized that three of us were Republicans!”

In Oregon, edible labels seem to say one thing, while potency testing seems to say another. As the state’s marijuana testing industry suffers from a lack of regulation, edible packaging may not always reveal the truth about how much THC is contained within a marijuana-infused treat.