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:
#psychedelics – “Hawaii senators have approved a bill in committee to promote research into the therapeutic potential of psilocybin, MDMA and other alternative treatments for mental health conditions. And a House panel separately held a hearing of a measure to create a psilocybin-focused working group.
There’s been significant interest in psychedelics policy in the Aloha State this session, with a main focus on creating a research framework that could inform future legislation on providing regulated access to the substances.”
#hempfarming – “With CBD in full swing in 2020, North Carolina growers hit peak acreage of more than 16,000 acres, and saw the number of growers double between 2018 and 2021. The state recorded nearly 1,300 registered processors in 2020, according to data from the North Carolina Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services. (Other sources put that number as high as 1,500).
A year later the state’s farmers harvested just 1,850 acres after planting 2,150, according to the first-ever report on the crop from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), released in February 2022. Fiber hemp accounted for 1,550 acres while North Carolina farmers grew just 77 acres of hemp for CBD in 2021, NASS reported.
State interests have pushed hemp as a rotation crop, and as a replacement for North Carolina’s declining tobacco fields, a strategy that could also apply to an expanding hemp fiber sector.”
https://hemptoday.net/nc-grapples-with-cbd-as-downsized-hemp-industry-re-sets-to-fiber/
#cannabisresearch – “Contrary to some common claims, a study led by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers found that relatively high doses of cannabidiol (CBD) may increase the adverse effects of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main active ingredient in cannabis that can cause a mood alteration or a “high” sensation. The findings show that in edible cannabis products, CBD inhibits the metabolism, or breakdown, of THC, which may result in stronger and longer drug effects.
The results of the study, published Feb. 13 in JAMA Network Open, found that the maximum amount of THC measured in participants’ blood samples was almost twice as high after consuming a brownie containing THC with CBD than after eating a brownie with only THC, even though the dose of THC in each brownie (20 mg) was the same. In addition, the maximum amount of 11-OH-THC (a metabolic byproduct of THC that produces drug effects similar to THC) was 10-fold greater after eating the brownie with the high CBD extract compared with the one containing high THC extract.”
#cannabislaw – “The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that people who received conditional discharges for marijuana offenses prior to legalization are still eligible for pretrial intervention for new infractions, even though pretrial intervention is typically reserved for first offenders.
The high court issued its unanimous decision in the consolidated appeals of two defendants — Richard Gomes and Moataz M. Sheira — both of whom secured conditional discharges for crimes that stopped being unlawful when the state legalized adult-use cannabis in 2021.
Both defendants had applied for pretrial intervention after being charged with new offenses. A trial court in Morris County, New Jersey, ruled that Sheira was ineligible because of his prior discharge, while a trial court in the state’s Middlesex County came to the opposite conclusion regarding Gomes.”
#cbdproducts – “A proposed class of CBD supplement buyers is again asking a California federal court to reopen its claims alleging CV Sciences Inc. illegally sold CBD products as dietary supplements, saying a recent announcement from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration means there’s no reason for further delay.
In a joint status report filed Monday, named plaintiffs Michelene Colette and Leticia Shaw said that after the FDA announced last month that it would not develop rules to allow hemp-derived CBD to be sold in dietary supplements or foods, the regulatory posture of the products has changed, and the case should move forward.
Colette and Shaw said the FDA announced that the risks of CBD are too great to allow the marketing of the products as dietary supplements and does not intend to pursue rulemaking over them while denying citizens petitions to allow CBD to be marketed as supplements, showing that the agency’s regulatory posture does not allow CV Sciences to continue to sell them.”