Italy legalizes weaker form of cannabis

Italy's parliament legalized the production and sale of a weaker form of cannabis this week, ending months of uncertainty for farmers and sellers.

Tobacconists and specialized shops will be allowed to stock cannabis products, which must not contain more than 0.5 percent of the psychoactive compound THC, from January 1. 

Parliament approved the amendment overnight on Thursday after a long-running row pitching former interior minister Matteo Salvini against small business owners and the agriculture lobby.

Far-right leader Salvini had vowed to close all shops selling so-called cannabis light.

Italy's agriculture association Coldiretti welcomed parliament's move, noting that the area under cannabis production in Italy had grown from 400 hectares (988 acres) in 2013 to 4,000 hectares last year.

"It's the end of a nightmare," Luca Fiorentino, founder of cannabis supply firm Cannabidiol Distribution, told La Stampa after the parliamentary vote. 

"After Salvini's witch hunt I had to fire 10 people and I lost 68 percent of my revenues." 

Last May, Italy's highest court affirmed that the sale of cannabis was illegal, but gave judges discretion to consider the "narcotic effect" of the cannabis at issue when issuing decisions. 

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Mexican lawmakers OK marijuana for medicinal purposes

MEXICO CITY - Mexican lawmakers gave final and overwhelming approval Friday to a bill legalizing medical marijuana after a national debate on narcotics policy in a country mired in brutal drug violence.

The legislation also allows use of marijuana for scientific research, as well as production and distribution of pot for those two stated purposes.

The vote in the Chamber of Deputies was 371 in favor and seven against with 11 abstentions.

The bill will now go to President Enrique Pena Nieto for his signature and then publication in the official government gazette, the lower house said in a statement.

The Senate approved the bill by a wide margin in December.

With Friday's vote, Mexico will join several US states and other nations in Latin America that allow cannabis for medical uses.

Pena Nieto proposed legalizing medical marijuana in a major policy shift in April after his government organized forums to discuss changes to the laws.

The bill fell short of demands from some lawmakers and civil groups that argue that a wider legalization of marijuana use could help the country reduce drug-related violence.

But proponents said it was a major step that will address Mexicans' need of an alternative medical treatment.

The bill authorizes the Health Ministry to design regulations for the use, import and production of pharmaceutical products made from cannabis or marijuana, including tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the plant's main psychoactive ingredient. Products with one percent concentration of THC will be allowed.

Growing marijuana for medical and scientific purposes will not be punishable.

A family in northern Mexico became a symbol of the push to legalize medical marijuana last year when the parents of a young epileptic girl won a court battle to import a cannabis-based treatment to stop her daily seizures.

The girl's father, Raul Elizalde, told AFP then that the legislation represented "great progress," but that it should make it easier for patients to acquire THC by letting them buy it without a prescription.

In a separate major case in November 2015, the Supreme Court authorized four people to grow and smoke pot for recreational purposes.

Although Pena Nieto is opposed to a broader legalization of marijuana, he has proposed increasing the amount of the drug that can legally be possessed for personal consumption to 28 grams (one ounce) from five grams.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Pot tied to fewer brain injury deaths: study

NEW YORK - People who use marijuana may be more likely to survive a serious head injury than people who don't, a new study suggests.

At one hospital, the death rate after traumatic brain injury was lower among people who tested positive for tetrahydrocannabinol (THC, the active ingredient in marijuana) than among people who tested negative for it, researchers found.

“This data fits with previous data showing that (THC) may be neuroprotective,” Dr. David Plurad, one of the study's authors, said in a phone interview.

Experiments in animals have found that THC may protect the brain after injury, Plurad and his colleagues write in The American Surgeon. Little is known about the specific effects of THC on brain injury in humans, however.

For the new study, the researchers reviewed data on 446 adults treated at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, California for traumatic brain injuries. All had been tested for THC.

Overall, approximately one in five patients tested positive for THC and one in 10 patients died after their injury.

About 2.4 percent of people who tested positive for THC died, compared to about 11.5 percent of those with negative THC tests.

People who tested positive for THC were about 80 percent less likely to die, compared to people with negative THC tests, researchers found after they adjusted the numbers to account for age, gender, injury severity and type.

Previous studies have also suggested that alcohol may protect the brain in traumatic brain injuries, Plurad said. Those studies did not account for the presence of THC, however.

“We included the presence of alcohol in our statistical analysis, and it didn't turn out to be as protective as the presence of the marijuana,” he said, adding that future studies examining the effects of alcohol on traumatic brain injury should account for the presence of THC.

One concern with the study, according to Plurad, is that the test for THC could not distinguish occasional from regular users. A person could test positive after having used marijuana days or even weeks before.

Given that marijuana is inexpensive and may have some medical benefits, its therapeutic effects are worth investigating further, he added.

“There's not going to be one answer, is marijuana good for you, is marijuana bad for you,” he added. “Like most things in life, and particularly medicine, it's going to be somewhere in between.”

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com