Medical cannabis (pictured) has a good safety profile in patients with chronic pain, according to researchers

Cannabis is widely used by patients with chronic pain to self-medicate but its long-term safety profile is not well established. 

Researchers from Canada found the rate of serious adverse events among 215 chronic pain patients prescribed cannabis for a year was similar to that of 216 control patients who did not take cannabis. 

“We found no evidence of harmful effects on cognitive function or blood tests among cannabis consumers and we observed a significant improvement in their levels of pain, symptom distress, mood and quality of life compared with controls,” says lead author Mark Ware from McGill University, Montreal. 

Canadian doctors should use medical marijuana instead of frequently abused opioids to treat patients with neuropathic pain and a host of other conditions cannabis has been proven to combat, Vancouver-based HIV/AIDS researchers argue in a newly published editorial.

Thomas Kerr, Julio Montaner and Stephanie Lake of the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS argue the Canadian Medical Association is holding pot to a higher standard than other pain-relieving pharmaceutical drugs and is ignoring high-quality, peer-reviewed studies on the use of cannabis. Their editorial is in the latest edition of the Journal of the Canadian Public Health Association.

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VANCOUVER - The Canadian Medical Association and the federal government apply a far more rigid standard to prescribing marijuana than other drugs, resulting in negative - or even deadly - consequences, say experts from the B.C. Centre for Excellent in HIV/AIDS.

Medical marijuana is held to a different standard than other prescription drugs despite research suggesting it has therapeutic benefits, say three experts from the centre in a commentary published Friday in the Journal of the Canadian Public Health Association.

"When it comes to prescription marijuana, patients' needs should be considered above political considerations," Dr. Julio Montaner, one of the authors, said in a news release. "There could be great harm in ignoring the medical uses of marijuana."

This election may decide whether Canada makes a historic leap toward marijuana reform or remains a legal battleground between cannabis advocates and a resistant federal government.

Under the federal Conservatives, Ottawa has long argued pot is dangerous, unproven as a medicine, and a serious risk to youth if legal access grows.

The government has only allowed possession by authorized medical marijuana users after courts ruled in 2000 they have a right to reasonable access.

Since then, tens of thousands of Canadians became approved users and many got federal permits to grow it themselves.

Cities grew anxious about the explosion of often unsafe legal grow-ops in their midst.

A new study clears away the smoke on what medical marijuana can, and cannot, do

The growth of marijuana dependency is a troubling issue for Calgary’s youth, according to a director at a local clinic. 

“It’s alarming to the point that we’re treating more marijuana dependent youth across North America than any other illicit drug combined,” said Dr. Jackie Smith at the Alberta Adolescent Recovery Centre, adding the majority of her clients are addicted to and dependent on pot.

Smith’s comments come on the heels of Canada’s changing political stance on weed, where Vancouver is selling it through dispensaries and the Liberals promise to legalize it, if elected. 

“It’s just condoned and way more accessible now,” she said, adding kids who wake-and-bake miss classes and end up highly anxious when they don’t do the drug. 

That happy, invincible feeling you get when you're floating through the air at the peak of a workout?

You've probably heard that it's something called endorphins that your body produced during prolonged exercise. That idea, which has been around since the '80s, is based on the theory that these chemicals interact with receptors in the brain to reduce your perception of pain and some thought they may also give you that euphoric boost.

A new study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences challenges that notion and puts forth a different theory: That that "high" it could be due to different substance called endocannabinoids.

The Ottawa Police Service drug unit said it collected more than 200 kilograms of marijuana plants during its annual fall 2015 outdoor eradication project.

Police identified 15 locations across in various rural areas of the city and harvested 22 “patches” totalling 1,505 marijuana plants, which they say have a street value of more than $1.5 million. The plants were seized.  No suspect have been identified.

“The seizure of this quantity of marijuana represents a significant loss of illicit profits which finance a variety of criminal enterprises including gun smuggling, human trafficking and cocaine importation,” said acting staff sergeant Ian McDonell, of the Ottawa Police Service’s drug unit.