“It’s rope, not dope!” So went the clarion call from early activists seeking to restore the incredibly versatile hemp plant to its rightful place in U.S. industrial production. Just a few decades ago, that catchy slogan accurately summarized the distinction between hemp and cannabis. Up until recently, “hemp” referred to low-resin, non-intoxicating Cannabis Sativa L that had been bred for maximum fiber or seed oil content and grown for multiple industrial purposes, while “cannabis” typically meant plants bred and grown for maximum resin content and imbued with medicinal and recreational quali ..read more

Every five months Irvin Rosenfeld gets a FedEx shipment, courtesy of the federal government, containing six metal canisters, each with 300 perfectly rolled joints of what today would be considered rather mediocre weed. But the quality of the government-issue reefer matters less than the fact that Uncle Sam has been supplying him with it regularly since 1982, when Rosenfeld won the right to smoke cannabis for reasons of medical necessity under the auspices of the federal government’s Compassionate Investigational New Drug (IND) program. Rosenfeld smokes cannabis every day to treat a rare and e ..read more

Adapted from The Cannabis Cancer Connection: How to use cannabis and hemp to kill cancer cells by Joe D. Goldstrich, MD, with Angela Bacca (Flower Valley Press, 2023). There is a growing body of anecdotal and scientific evidence that the “major cannabinoids” tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD), certain “minor cannabinoids” (some without a name), and other cannabis compounds have antineoplastic action against cancer cells.  The vast majority of the existing research is on how specific cannabinoids kill cancer, but a growing body of work is revealing how the entourage of ..read more

Every five months Irvin Rosenfeld has gets a FedEx shipment, courtesy of the federal government, containing six metal canisters, each with 300 perfectly rolled joints of what today would be considered rather mediocre weed. But the quality of the government-issue reefer matters less than the fact that Uncle Sam has been supplying him with it regularly since 1982, when Rosenfeld won the right to smoke cannabis for reasons of medical necessity under the auspices of the federal government’s Compassionate Investigational New Drug (IND) program. Rosenfeld smokes cannabis every day to treat a rare a ..read more

Earlier this year, the Food & Drug Administration disclosed that it would not regulate non-pharmaceutical CBD products, thereby putting the onus on Congress to devise an appropriate regulatory framework for cannabidiol and other hemp-derived cannabinoids. Solicited by a formal Congressional Request for Information (RFI) on ideas for how to regulate hemp-derived CBD, public feedback included a diverse range of perspectives from businesses, trade associations, and other stakeholders. But today’s “hemp” market has moved way beyond CBD, as noted by several commentators who expressed concerns ..read more

I counted over 175 talks and posters at the 33rd annual gathering of the International Cannabinoid Research Society (ICRS), which convened in Toronto at the end of June. In accordance with longstanding ICRS policy, all speakers presented new findings and data that had not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal. But this year’s 4-day ICRS conference was notable not only for its cutting-edge science. It was also the first ICRS meeting since the passing of its cofounder and guiding light Raphael Mechoulam. Several colleagues paid homage to Mechoulam in a moving memorial session that honor ..read more

Dr. Mark A. Scialdone, a recognized expert in the field of organic chemistry who specializes in natural product chemistry, is an inventor of 37 issued US patents and the author of 17 peer-reviewed articles in science publications. From 1994 to 2013, he was employed as a principal investigator at DuPont Central Research and Development. Dr. Scialdone is a founding member of the Cannabis Chemistry Subdivision of the American Chemical Society from which he received the 2018 CANN-CHAS Heidolph Award for Excellence in Cannabis Chemistry. Scialdone is currently founder and president of BetterChem C ..read more

Cannabis is supposed to be relaxing and fun. What’s not to like about giggles, munchies, and a brief break from the mundane? Unfortunately, news from California’s Emerald Triangle is anything but upbeat these days. Report after report portends doom with headlines like “the world’s largest legal weed market is going up in smoke” (The Economist), “California pot industry facing ‘extinction event‘” (SF Gate), “Despair in Emerald Triangle as CA legal cannabis collapses” (CalMatters), and “Legal cannabis sales are on a bad trip in the latest reckoning for the once-booming industry” (Fort ..read more

Pain, anxiety, and sleep are major drivers of medical cannabis use. But gastrointestinal symptoms, such as nausea and upset stomach, aren’t far behind.1 Even small doses of cannabis can soothe the stomach and stimulate the appetite. In fact, of the four cannabis-derived drugs approved so far by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, three are prescribed for the treatment of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting. One gastrointestinal condition long associated with self-medication through cannabis is inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). A flurry of recent research bears this out. In a newly pub ..read more

Project CBD recently reported on studies indicating that cannabis terpenes — the compounds that give the plant its robust and distinctive smell — activate the CB1 cannabinoid receptor. What’s more, in the presence of THC (also a CB1 agonist), terpenes appear to modulate cannabinoid activity in varied and interesting ways.1,2 Today we focus on spicy-peppery beta-caryophyllene (BCP), one of the most common cannabis terpenes, which acts on several targets that impact the endocannabinoid system, not just CB1. BCP is also a component of black pepper, basil, oregano, cinnamon, hops, rosemary, clove ..read more