In the days of the Armada, a fleet of warships, the scuttlebutt was the rumor or gossip that would spread throughout the ship. Today, Armada Law Corp presents The Scuttlebutt, a daily summery of news articles that people within the cannabis, hemp and plant medicine industries are chatting about along with links to the full articles.
In today’s news:
#cbdproducts – “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Thursday it does not intend to make any new guidance on the use of the popular cannabis compound CBD in food and supplements, saying the United States needs to develop a new framework to ensure its safe use.
The health regulator said it would work with Congress to develop a new, cross-agency regulatory framework. The FDA denied three citizen petitions that had requested the agency to provide guidance.
The agency said the current safety standards for dietary supplements or food additives are not appropriate for cannabidiol, based on data and studies it has reviewed and conducted.
“We have not found adequate evidence to determine how much CBD can be consumed, and for how long, before causing harm,” FDA Principal Deputy Commissioner Janet Woodcock said.”
#californiacannabis – “The reduction in canopy is leading to wholesale price stabilization – and might even result in a slight increase in pricing – following months of declining prices in the nation’s largest marijuana market, according to some industry officials.
Cannabis wholesale technology platform LeafLink reports that the total square feet of cultivation canopy in the state has dropped about 15% from a year ago, to around 68 million square feet versus roughly 80 million square feet at this time last year.”
https://mjbizdaily.com/cannabis-growers-exit-california-market-helping-stabilize-prices/
#cannabisindustry – “The state commission in charge of Georgia’s medical marijuana program adopted rules Wednesday for the manufacture and sale of low-THC cannabis oil to patients suffering from a variety of diseases….
The rules will govern various aspects of the program including the facilities that will produce the oil, the dispensaries where the oil will be sold, and the independent laboratories that will test the product….
The original law allowed each licensee to open up to five dispensaries for selling the product. However, licensees now will be permitted to add an additional dispensary because the enrollment in the registry has increased to more than 25,000, commission Executive Director Andrew Turnage said last week.”
#psychedelics – “In the first placebo-controlled efficacy study completed to date exploring a short-duration psychedelic for depression, intravenous (IV) N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT)—SPL026—with supportive therapy for the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD), met the primary endpoint and demonstrated a statistically significant and clinically relevant reduction in depressive symptoms at 2-weeks post-dose as compared with placebo….
“The results are exciting for the field of psychiatry. We now have the first evidence that SPL026 DMT, combined with supportive therapy, may be effective for people suffering from MDD,” said David Erritzoe, MD, a clinical psychiatrist at Imperial College London and chief investigator of the phase 1/2a study. “For patients who are unfortunate to experience little benefit from existing antidepressants, the potential for rapid and durable relief from a single treatment, as shown in this trial, is very promising.””
#californiacannabis – “A California state judge has ordered an early cannabis entrepreneur to pay $3.8 million after she was found to have cheated the successor of her dispensary by falsely claiming ownership of a legacy license, blocking him from securing a recreational marijuana business.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David Sotelo in a three-page filing Tuesday ordered Kathy Smith to pay a multimillion-dollar judgment to Cobby Pourtavosi, the operator of cannabis dispensary St. Andrews Pharmacy LLC. The order requires her to pay $950,000 in damages for stealing the license from under Pourtavosi. Smith is also required to pay on top of that treble damages of $2.85 million after being found in violation of state penal code section 496.
At the end of an eight-day bench trial, Judge Sotelo ruled in favor of Pourtavosi, finding that Smith had engaged in fraudulent conduct when, in 2013, she took control of the cannabis business license, which she originally obtained in 2007.”