420 with CNW – Complaints about the Minnesota Medical Cannabis Task Force Increase

When Minnesota legalized medical cannabis in 2014, a task force was established to evaluate the medical cannabis program and report back to the state. However, numerous complaints about the operation and effectiveness of this task force have arisen.

Representatives of patients, law enforcement agencies, the medical community, lawmakers and other stakeholders make up this task force. The task force is mandated to scrutinize patient access to the medical marijuana program, the affordability of the products and any other issue connected to medical cannabis.

However, the task force appears to have been doomed right from its very inception. For example, the law establishing this entity wasn’t very clear on the exact duties of the task force.

Consequently, some of its members thought that the task force would assess the conditions that people wanted to be added to the list of qualifying conditions and then make recommendations on the same while other members didn’t think the task force had that authority.

Additionally, the composition of the task force appears not to be conducive for the group to do its work. This is because the task force has members who have divergent views about the appropriateness of having a medical cannabis program in the state.

Such divergent views of the proponents and opponents of the medical marijuana program create a lot of tension during meetings, so it is hard for the members to agree on anything.

As if the issues above weren’t bad enough, the task force rarely meets. For example, the last meeting they held was in 2017. It is nearly two years since they held a meeting!

Even the meetings that have been convened haven’t been well attended. Denis Flaherty, the ED of the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association, revealed as much when he decided to resign his membership on the task force.

He said that being on the task force was “a waste of my time” due to the poor attendance and the lack of impact that the meetings were having.

Because of the lack of impact by the task force, medical marijuana remains very expensive (and many patients have resorted to the black market).

These complaints about the task force haven’t gone unnoticed by the powers that be in the state. For example, Rep. Heather Edelson has drafted a bill to clarify how often the task force should meet, and the specific issues they should consider during that annual meeting.

Gov. Tim Walz also acknowledged that there were frustrations with the task force. He revealed that he was considering recreating the group into a new one that will consider the legalization of recreational marijuana in addition to assessing the medical cannabis program.

It seems there is all round consensus that something needs to be done to make the task force more useful. Plus Products Inc. (CSE: PLUS) (OTCQB: PLPRF) and Redfund Capital Corp. (CSE: LOAN) (OTC: PNNRF) (Frankfurt: O3X4) call on all the concerned authorities to revisit the task force so that medical marijuana patients aren’t exposed to preventable inconveniences.

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420 with CNW – Idaho Police to Procure Equipment That Distinguishes Cannabis from Hemp

A committee of the Idaho State Assembly has approved funding so that the state police can buy the equipment needed to test whether a given plant is industrial hemp or marijuana. This plan comes after the police seized a semitrailer carrying what the arresting officer thought was marijuana while the driver and his employer insisted that the consignment contained hemp.

The owner of the cargo, Big Sky Scientific, tried to get a court order to compel the police to release the cargo since it was deteriorating rapidly as the police continues with its investigations. The company argued that it was now legal to grow hemp and transport it across state lines from the time President Trump signed the Farm Bill 2018 into law.

However, court declined to issue the court order since the state didn’t have a law prescribing how hemp could be grown. Furthermore, the court could not be certain that Big Sky Scientific had grown its “hemp” in accordance with the Farm Act 2018.

This case has captured headlines within and outside Idaho because it serves as an eye-opener of the kind of situations that law enforcement agencies are likely to face now that hemp is legal while marijuana remains illegal at the federal level.

This confusion is likely to arise because there is no difference in the physical characteristics of hemp and cannabis. It is therefore possible for someone to attempt to transport cannabis across state borders while passing it off as hemp. It is also likely that hemp cultivators will face a lot of inconveniences as they jump through hoops to prove that what they are cultivating or transporting isn’t marijuana.

The procurement of the testing equipment was initiated by some lawmakers (not the police department) who felt that it was unsustainable to keep sending samples to Kentucky each time a seizure or arrest was made by the police. The argument of the lawmakers makes sense, because Big Sky Scientific stands to lose its cargo due to the delays created by having to conduct tests outside the state yet the crop is highly perishable and cannot retain its quality while the legal issues are sorted out.

For now, the entire Assembly has to approve the $240,000 funding request before the spending proposals go to the state Senate for approval. Only then can the money be released to procure and install the testing equipment in the police testing facility. Plus Products Inc. (CSE: PLUS) (OTCQB: PLPRF) and Redfund Capital Corp. (CSE: LOAN) (OTC: PNNRF) (Frankfurt: O3X4) call for the speedy procurement of the testing equipment so that additional problems can be avoided later on.

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420 with CNW – North Dakota Cannabis Activists Consider 2020 Ballot Measure

While attempts to legalize cannabis by a ballot measure last year and by legislative means this month were met with defeat, marijuana advocates in the state aren’t giving up, and they are already planning to have another shot at a ballot measure in 2020.

Dave Owen, a leading cannabis advocate in the state who played a major role in the ballot measure that was voted upon during the recent midterms says that his organization (Legalize ND) will look to national advocacy groups for funding and support this time round. He revealed that the huge amounts of money poured into the state to oppose the ballot measure in the midterms led to the defeat of that effort.

Dave Owen also revealed that come 2020, the ballot measure will be a watered down version of the one of 2018. For example, rather than insist that people should be allowed to grow as much marijuana as they want for their own use, the new ballot measure will propose some restrictions to home grows.

The new ballot measure will also include provisions for licensing as well as excise taxes on marijuana sales. These provisions were lacking in the measure that was rejected by voters during the midterms last year.

The last ballot measure had a provision to expunge marijuana convictions from the criminal records of North Dakota residents. Dave Owen isn’t sure whether the next ballot measure he plans to draft will still have this provision. It should be noted that most of the states that have legalized recreational marijuana have also taken steps to expunge some marijuana convictions from the criminal records of those who qualify for this expungement. It is therefore unclear whether Dave Owen feels that watering down the ballot measure in this regard will win it more supporters.

Polling is an important step during such a campaign for marijuana legalization, and the cannabis advocate admits that they have been finding it hard to get the funds needed to conduct several polls. This lack of funding has compelled the organization to base on assumptions when planning and executing a campaign strategy. Legalize ND intends to change this so that they can work with concrete numbers as they prepare for the polls in 2020.

Dave Owen is confident that the grassroots networks that exist in the state can propel the ballot measure to success if only external help (especially funding) can be sent in by the national marijuana advocacy groups.

All that Redfund Capital Corp. (CSE: LOAN) (OTC: PNNRF) (Frankfurt: O3X4) and SinglePoint, Inc. (OTCQB: SING) can do is wish both sides good luck as they put their case before North Dakotans for a final decision at the ballot.

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420 with CNW – Marijuana Linked to Higher Sperm Concentrations

New research has revealed that men who smoke or have ever smoked cannabis have a higher concentration of sperm when compared to those who have never smoked marijuana. This study was conducted at Massachusetts General Hospital.

The team of researchers, led by a group based at Harvard Chan School of Public Health, based their work on a hypothesis that smoking marijuana would have an adverse effect (poor quality sperm) on the reproductive health of men.

They selected that hypothesis because some previous research seemed to suggest that smoking marijuana was detrimental to male reproductive health. However, those previous studies may have been flawed because they focused on men with drug abuse problems or the research was conducted on mice.

Nevertheless, this research sought to dig deeper into the link between smoking cannabis and sperm health.

To this end, the researchers obtained semen samples from 662 men. These samples (totaling 1,143) were collected for nearly two decades from 2000 to 2017. The men were approximately 36 years old and they were largely white with college degrees.

317 men from that group of participants also provided blood samples to the researchers. These blood samples were analyzed to check for the presence of reproductive hormones.

Additionally, the study participants were asked to fill a questionnaire about their use of marijuana. The questions included whether those men had ever smoked a total of two or more marijuana joints in their lives, and whether they were current cannabis smokers.

55 percent (a total of 365 of that group) of the study subjects admitted that they had ever smoked cannabis. From this number, 11 percent said they still smoked cannabis while 44 percent said they no longer did.

The researchers discovered that the men who smoked or had ever smoked cannabis had approximately 62.7 million sperms in each milliliter of ejaculate. The average sperm concentration for those who said they had never smoked cannabis was 45.4 million in each milliliter of ejaculate.

The World Health Organization puts the threshold for normal sperm concentration at 15million/mL of ejaculate. Interestingly, only 5 percent of the men who smoked cannabis had concentrations lower than this threshold while those who had never smoked had 12 percent of their members registering sperm concentrations that were below this threshold.

Serum testosterone was also higher among men who smoked or had ever smoked cannabis when compared to those who had never done so.

Feiby Nassan, the lead author of this research, warned that their findings should be taken with some caution because the researchers were aware that there is so much that may be going in the bodies of the study participants to explain why the results came out the way they did.

For example, the compounds in cannabis may work with the endocannabinoid system, thereby boosting male fertility.

On the other hand, one can also claim that men who have higher testosterone may be more likely to smoke cannabis since this hormone makes them more likely to indulge in risky behavior.

All in all, the researchers appealed for more research to be conducted on how marijuana affects the reproductive system and the entire body. This is exactly why cannabis industry players like Redfund Capital Corp. (CSE: LOAN) (OTC: PNNRF) (Frankfurt: O3X4) and SinglePoint, Inc. (OTCQB: SING) have been hoping that the U.S. federal government eases its restrictions on cannabis so that American researchers can add onto what researchers elsewhere are doing to increase the available knowledge about cannabis.

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420 with CNW – Why Suppositories will be Big in the Medical Marijuana Industry

Many people may feel rather squeamish about sticking a cannabis suppository up their backside, but this method of administration is beginning to attract widespread attention as a way to administer medical cannabis. Several reasons can explain their growing popularity.

Better Absorption Rates

The most common ways to take medical cannabis are by eating or smoking the substance. However, these two methods of administration don’t allow enough of the cannabis consumed to be absorbed into the bloodstream.

For example, the acidic environment inside the stomach and the entire gastrointestinal tract destroys most of the therapeutic ingredients in cannabis before those compounds have a chance to enter the bloodstream and do their work.

Smoking also comes with its own risks of damage to the lining of the lungs, among other dangers. Furthermore, not enough cannabis can be absorbed through the lungs since some is exhaled along with the air one breathes.

However, the lining of the rectum provides an excellent medium through which cannabis can be absorbed into the bloodstream. Consequently, a patient will not need to use a large dose in order to get the desired effects.

It’s Ideal for Seriously Ill People

Some patients, such as cancer patients, are in such a bad state that it is nearly impossible for them to smoke or consume cannabis edibles. How can such people get medical cannabis into their bloodstream?

Cannabis suppositories are an excellent option in such situations. Remember, all lists of conditions for which one can access medical cannabis include chronic or debilitating illnesses. No wonder doctors are increasingly recommending that patients use marijuana suppositories.

They Have a Track Record

Suppositories aren’t a new invention. They have been used in conventional medicine for decades. These items are therefore getting a new lease of life by being used in the medical cannabis industry.

Additionally, it is possible to standardize the dosing of cannabis products if patients are going to use suppositories. This is much better than telling someone to smoke “a thick wad of cannabis when the tremors start.”

Such standardization can go a long way in removing the stigma that has sometimes been directed at cannabis as something for reckless people who have nothing to do except getting high.

Less THC Is Absorbed in This Way

Another key advantage of cannabis suppositories is that they are likely to silence the critics who say that patients are using medical cannabis in order to get high.

Research has it that THC (the psychoactive element in cannabis) isn’t as readily absorbed into the bloodstream through the rectum, unlike CBD that is readily absorbed. Thus, there is a lower risk that patients will get addicted to cannabis while taking it anally.

As you can see, cannabis suppositories seem poised to stake their claim in the medical cannabis sector. The cannabis industry, including SinglePoint Inc. (OTCQB: SING) and Redfund Capital Corp. (CSE: LOAN) (OTC: PNNRF) (Frankfurt: O3X4), welcomes all avenues through which patients can get relief from their conditions.

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