This is the week of cannabis review for April 9th, 2022. Don’t have time to read it? Listen to it on the go with the player below and available on all outlets where Lonestar Collective is streamed.
This week the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), which is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), put forward a proposal published in the Federal Register on Thursday. The proposing changes are to clarify that having a doctor’s recommendation for medical marijuana or any other Schedule I drug is not a valid excuse for a positive drug test for federal employees. Current policy lists marijuana as the lone drug where passive exposure is not acceptable, while the new proposal states that it is not acceptable and explicitly lists poppy seeds as an example along with marijuana. This will likely create confusion on what acceptable use is as hemp products at or under zero point 3 percent will still cause drug test failures despite no longer being schedule 1.
Learn how to become a medical cannabis patient in Texas
This comes on the heels of the US Navy informing its sailors that using Pepsi’s new Rockstar Energy drink is off limits as the new drink containing hemp seed oil will result in positive drug tests for marijuana. Despite that the hemp seed oil barely contains traces of cbd and likely very little trace amounts of THC if any at all, the Navy War College is pushing the notion that the drink will definitely cause positive drug screenings on service members, and that despite the legality of hemp in the US, the substance is off limits for service members. The notice sent out by the agency stays consistent with the 2019 Department of Defense policy announcement barring all active and reserve service members from using hemp products, including CBD.
Check out our 2022 candidate interview articles and podcasts
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has effectively acknowledged that that seeds of marijuana plants are generally uncontrolled and legal, regardless of how much THC might end up being produced in buds if those seeds were cultivated. The agency stated that while marijuana seeds were controlled in the past at all times, that it is no longer the case because of the federal legalization of hemp. Now that hemp has been removed from the Controlled Substances Act’s definition of marijuana, all parts of the plant Cannabis sativa L. are uncontrolled as long as they don’t exceed 0.3 percent THC. This includes the seeds as they do not yet contain the amount of THC needed to bring the portion of the plant over the limit. Attorney Matt Zorn created this flow chart to help people understand the process.
A federally funded study has found that feeding Cows Hemp Helps Them to stay calmer, reduce stress levels and lie down more. Relaxed steers tend to be healthier steers and would be very beneficial to ranchers in reducing stress induced respiratory infections and other health issues that take place with cattle over periods of their life cycles. Researchers at Kansas State University recently published the results of the study recently in Scientific Reports. Over the course of two weeks with 16 Holstein steers, half the steers consumed traditional feed and the other half were given a mixture of feed with industrial hemp. The research team tracked their movements while monitoring their blood for cortisol and prostaglandins, which are biomarkers for stress. The hemp fed steers were noted as spending more time lying down and having lower levels of stress hormones.
Articles on Texas decriminalization and penalty reduction
Learn how to become a medical cannabis patient in Texas
Researchers at the University of Mississippi have analyzed data from several sources, using a difference-in-differences design to compare trends in foster care systems in states that have legalized cannabis with those in non-legal states. Results showed there was a 10 percent decrease in foster care admissions on average, which included reductions in placements due to physical abuse, neglect, parental incarceration and misuse of alcohol and other drugs. The authors of the study state that “Our most conservative estimates imply that legalization causes at least a 10 percent decrease in total admissions to foster care, with larger effects in years further after legalization and for admissions into foster care due to specific child-welfare concerns.” This comes after a recent announcement by a US District judge in Texas that they had lost faith in the Texas Rangers’ sex trafficking investigation involving the state foster care system and was turning the case over to federal investigators. In mid-March, allegations surfaced about potential abuse, and even sex trafficking, involving girls who lived at The Refuge in Bastrop, according to a letter from a state employee filed in federal court records.
Go Cannabis!