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Russia and few countries like Canada are at loggerheads over the issue of cannabis and hold conflicting views on drug related legislation. As per the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s (UNODC’s) World Drug Report 2019, Russia along with the US and China was one of the three countries that together accounted for 43% of injected drug use globally.

Russia has identified the drug and crime policy as an area challenging the existing Western-dominated order and has strongly advocated a hard-line approach that seeks to eliminate the illegal drug market. On the other hand, the US has softened its stance on drug policy since the last decade.

Russia has taken hard-line stance on drugs and has expressed its counter-narcotics vision in a number of multilateral forums. In addition, the Russian Federation has continued to be a relatively important donor to the UNODC. Russia ranked 15th among major donors to the Special Purpose Fund (SPF) in 2017, according to the UNODC’s 2017 Annual Report. Moreover, in 2010 Russia made a voluntary contribution of USD7 million to the UNODC.

Russia has opposed the regularisation of cannabis markets as it believes that it violates a number of the UN Conventions. It may be recalled that in October 2018, a Russian statement on twitter said that Canada’s efforts to legalize pot will lead to an increase in international drug trafficking and contradicts existing treaties.

The translated Russian testimonial reads: “By consciously torpedoing the international drug control regime, the Canadian government is creating the largest drug market in the world that, despite all the claims and measures being considered to prevent the export of cannabis outside national borders, will certainly raise considerable traffic to other states, including those which are strictly adhered to in the spirit and letter of the conventions mentioned”. Canada provided a form of response to the Russian intervention when its permanent representative Ambassador Heidi Hulan clarified that policy shifts in Canada were a response to the country’s domestic situation and were not intended to apply in other countries with their own distinctive challenges. In 2019, Russia sponsored the resolution, ‘Supporting the International Narcotics Control Board in fulfilling its treaty-mandated role’ before the Commission on Narcotics Drug (CND).

A Russian delegate explained to the Committee that this resolution expressed “deep concern about legalisation of non-medical use of certain drugs in some regions, which represents a challenge to the universal implementation of the drug control conventions, a challenge to public health and well-being, particularly among young people, and a challenge to the States’ parties to the conventions”.

Russia has been critical of Canada’s marijuana legislation and believes Canada had opened a ‘Pandora’s box’ as cases of drug violation have started to multiply and this contravenes international law.

All is not well in vapeland. Over the weekend, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) released a health alert with the headline: "Severe Pulmonary Disease Associated with Using E-Cigarette Products."  

The warning came on the heels of reports that at least 215 people in 25 states have reported lung-related illnesses associated with e-cigarettes or vapes. The first known death was in Illinois, where a patient who reported using E-cigarettes was hospitalized with severe respiratory illness and later died. That state alone has seen the number of cases of people reporting respiratory problems from e-cigarettes or vapes double in the past week. 

On Sunday, The New York Times released a bombshell story that quoted Dr. Melodi Pirzada, chief pediatric pulmonologist at NYU Winthrop Hospital in Mineola, N.Y., as calling the situation "an epidemic." The article went on to say: "Patients, mostly otherwise healthy and in their late teens and 20s, are showing up with severe shortness of breath, often after suffering for several days with vomiting, fever and fatigue. Some have wound up in the intensive care unit or on a ventilator for weeks." 

Not Just a Nicotine Problem

While research remains to be done, some reputable organizations consider vaping to be a safe alternative to tobacco. The Government agency Public Health England has said that vaping is safer than smoking and could lead to the demise of the traditional cigarette. 

However, the CDC warns that E-cigarettes can contain harmful substances, such as nicotine, heavy metals (like lead), volatile organic compounds, and cancer-causing chemicals. They go on to say that some products causing these illnesses may have been acquired from unknown or unauthorized (i.e., “street”) sources; and can be modified, increasing their potential for harm to the user.

But this isn't just a problem for tobacco smokers. According to the CDC, "many patients have reported using e-cigarettes containing cannabinoid products such as THC or CBD."

What Should You Do

While acknowledging that the recent vaping illnesses are part of an ongoing investigation, the CDC offers several recommendations to a public on edge:

Don't buy vapes from an unreputable source

Anyone who uses e-cigarette products should not buy these products off the street (e.g., e-cigarette products with THC, other cannabinoids) and should not modify e-cigarette products or add any substances to these products that are not intended by the manufacturer.

Monitor your symptoms

Regardless of the ongoing investigation, e-cigarette products should not be used by youth, young adults, pregnant women, as well as adults who do not currently use tobacco products. If you use e-cigarette products, monitor yourself for symptoms (e.g., cough, shortness of breath, chest pain) and promptly seek medical attention if you have concerns about your health. CDC and FDA will continue to advise and alert the public as more information becomes available.

Write down this information

If you are concerned about harmful effects from e-cigarette products, call your local poison control center at: 1-800-222-1222. The CDC also encourages the public to submit detailed reports of any unexpected tobacco or e-cigarette-related health or product issues to the FDA via the online Safety Reporting Portal: https://www.safetyreporting.hhs.govexternal icon.

Vaping is generally considered one of the safest forms of consuming cannabis. According to a study by Public Health England 

Thailand has removed cannabis and hemp extracts from its narcotics list, officials said on Monday, the latest effort to promote the development of marijuana products for medical purposes.

Thailand, which has a tradition of using cannabis to relieve pain and fatigue, legalized marijuana for medical use and research last year to help boost agricultural income.

“The intention is to allow extracts to be used in medicine, cosmetics and food and support hemp as a cash crop,” Tares Krassanairawiwong, Secretary-General of the Thai Food and Drug Administration, told reporters, adding that hemp seed and oil would also be exempt.

So far, only hospitals and research facilities are allowed to apply for licenses to develop medical extracts from cannabis, but businesses see an opportunity.

Ishaan Shah, from the billionaire Shah family, founded the Ganja Group in Bangkok and plans to supply medical cannabis to the family’s GP Group’s pharmaceutical arm, Megalife Sciences Pcl.

“We are working toward cannabidiol (CBD) extraction, that’s our short term goal,” Shah told Reuters.

Extracts from cannabis and hemp plants such as pure CBD, CBD-based products and products with THC content of less than 0.2%, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, were removed from the narcotics Category 5 schedule, the regulator said.

Licenses are not yet available for businesses.

Category 5 drugs are punishable by up to 15 years in prison and fines of up to 1.5 million baht ($49,019.61).

Early-stage venture capital fund manager, Expara, is aiming to raise $30 million by December this year to invest in cannabis-related technology, said Managing Director Douglas Abrams.

“We think the change in the regulatory environment is a leading indicator of fast growth in this new industry,” he told Reuters.

Cannabis production, cultivation and sale is limited to licensed Thai producers for five years to protect the domestic industry, Tares said, adding that it was reviewing regulations that would allow businesses to apply for permits.

Some 334 permits have been issued so far, mainly to hospitals and health agencies, according to the FDA website.

Thailand delivered its first patch of 10,000 bottles of cannabis oil extract to patients last month.

Hemp can help to alleviate poverty in Latin American countries, but only if effective competitive strategies are in place, said Sergio Vazquez Barrios, who heads Uruguay’s industrial hemp program in the Ministry of Livestock, Agriculture and Fisheries (MGAP).

“I believe that the poverty levels of a country or an agro-exporting region are not overcome only with the large-scale production of a crop for which the demand is temporarily higher than the supply,” Vazquez Barrios told HempToday. “A strategic objective must first be considered and a competitive strategy must be identified.”

Vazquez Barrios said such a strategy must be combined with public education and development policies in order to advance economic growth.

Leading Uruguay’s hemp program

Head of the Technical Advisory Department for non-psychoactive cannabis production projects, and Management Advisor at the General Directorate of Agricultural Services (DGSA) in the MGAP, Vazguez Barrios will be a featured speaker at the Latin American & Caribbean Hemp Summit Nov. 8-9 in Montevideo.

Summit organizers also announced that leading global hemp advisor HempConsult GmbH has signed on as the exclusive Platinum sponsor of the inaugural Summit.

Vazquez Barrios is grain expert

An expert in cereals and oilseeds, Vazquez Barrios holds a degree in Agricultural Engineering from the University of the Republic of Uruguay, an MBA from University ORT, Uruguay, and a degree in design and evaluation of public policies from the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA).

Despite Uruguay’s liberal policies toward cannabis that set it apart from other nations, Vazquez Barrios said the hemp sector still faces hurdles. “With hemp still regulated from the seed to its final product, complying with the provisions of the law without affecting the dynamics of the entire value chain continues to be a challenge,” he said.

‘Many opportunities’ in hemp

While Uruguay has worked to position itself as a medicinal cannabis hub, it is also one of few nations in the world that allow a full 1 percent THC in industrial hemp. “I consider that hemp has many opportunities in the area of food, and raw material for the fiber industry,” Vazquez Barrios said, noting the industry’s potential to develop in a manner similar to Uruguay’s forestry sector, which has attracted leading pulp producers who have set up large-scale industrial factories in the country.

“Uruguay produces food for 30 million people, and has a lot of experience in the production and conditioning of open-pit oilseeds from other plant species,” Vazquez Barrios noted. “With this experience and through three years of hemp flower and biomass production in Uruguay, we’ve shortened the learning curve that the agricultural sector must cross with a new crop. Uruguay can teach the world how to produce biomass, seeds and flowers competitively, since it has been doing so with other crops for years.”

Kruse will address market status

HempConsult GmbH, the Summit’s main sponsor, offers guidance on everything from hemp farming and organic certification to CBD production and sales as well as its legal status. The consultancy also produces regularly updated market reports on a range of indicators, having been one of the first major industry players to begin to quantify the overall hemp sector when it started collecting worldwide market data in 2012. HempConsult has an extensive base of knowledge, network partners and experience all over the world.

Daniel Kruse, CEO at HempConsult GmbH, will address the Summit in Montevideo. Part of his summary will be focused on the current oversupply in the hemp industry and the need for the market to balance supply and demand at a time when the market market is fettered by unnecessary strict and outdated regulations, which – at least in Europe – lead to an uneven playing field for the hemp industry.

Kruse has been in the hemp industry since 1995. Through HempConsult GmbH, he is a senior advisor to entrepreneurs, startups, investors and other industry stakeholders. He recently guided the development of a solar powered hemp food processing factory at Borken, Germany.

Inventor Carl Martell to speak

Canadian scientist and inventor Carl Martell, Advanced Hemp Technologies, also will join previously announced speakers for the event.

Martell has been researching industrial cannabis since 2010. Formally trained as a geo-archaeologist with degrees in Interdisciplinary Science, he has worked with a number of hemp companies across Canada, the United States and Australia. Co-inventor of a grain disinfection system deployed in Canada and Australia, he continues to explore and develop grain quality post-harvest management technology. Martell’s focus recently has been on value added products from agricultural waste such as carbon foam for insulation, water filtration/desalination and energy storage systems.

Organizers & other sponsors

HempToday international and HempToday en Espanol are organizers of the Latin American & Caribbean Hemp Summit along with Hempoint of the Czech Republic and Hemp Engineering, Perth, Australia.

Previously committed sponsors for the Summit are European CBD maker MH medical hemp, and Hempro International GmbH & Co. KG.Hemp producers also have a chance to display their products during the Summit in HempBoutique, a popup showroom that is part of the event, sponsored by the hemp wholesale trading platform HempTradePro.com.

Although Colombia is known for being a country involved in the illegal drugs market as a producer of cocaine and marijuana, the nation is now moving towards the new medical marijuana industry. According to a recent report released by BBC World News, Colombia is becoming a recognized producer of marijuana for the medical sector.

Medical Marijuana Industry Expands In Colombia

Colombia has been working in order to offer high-quality marijuana for the medical sector that is slowly growing around the world. There are different farms that are currently exporting their products to the United Kingdom and Canada, among other countries.

As mentioned by the report, there are several countries in the world that are legalizing medical marijuana in specific cases, which is increasing the demand for this good. According to Rodrigo Arcila, the president of the Colombina Cannabis Association, Colombia offers cheap farmland, low wages and also skilled labour, which make of the country a great location to start these activities.

In addition to it, Colombia receives 12 hours of daily sunlight all year. Meanwhile, other countries have to invest in artificial lights to remain competitive in the market, which can be very expensive in many cases. In Colombia, there are more than 24 different companies working in the sector. These firms produce pain relievers for cancer patients and many other products.

Álvaro Torres, the CEO of one of the companies in the country, considers that Colombia is migrating from being the “drug cartel” to a leader in the medical marijuana sector. With this model, pharmaceutical solutions would be provided by a country from the Southern Hemisphere, when it was usually in the other way.

One of the companies in the country, Clever Leaves, has already created more than 500 jobs in Colombia. Some of the individuals working in these farms have been affected by the bad reputation of the marijuana industry, but things are starting to slowly change.

If you use cannabis on your own time in a state where it is legal, should that be grounds for terminating your employment or rejecting your application for a job? Advocates are starting to say no, and demanding action to protest workers’ rights to use cannabis without the fear of the sack and unemployment.

Some states have already made progress in this direction. Yet California, which led the way toward opening legal space for cannabis with the Propositio 215 medical marijuana initiative in 1996, is not among them. Neither 215 nor the Prop 64 adult-use legalization initiative exactly 20 years later provided any such protections.

California Out of the Vanguard

California’s Supreme Court actually ruled on the question in 2008, finding that Prop 215 does not protect workers’ rights. The high court dismissed a suit brought by Gary Ross, an Air Force veteran who suffered from a back injury sustained during his military service. Ross sued under the state’s Fair Employment & Housing Act (FEHA), charging that he had been wrongfully denied employment by RagingWire Telecommunications after testing positive for cannabis use. The court found that 215 did not create a general right to use medical marijuana, but only protected patients from criminal prosecution.

Later that year, the State Legislature passed a law to correct this situation, making it illegal for employers to discriminate against workers in non-safety-sensitive jobs for using medical marijuana. However, it was vetoed by then-governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The California chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) has launched a campaign to instate employment protections for cannabis users.

Progress in 15 States 

Fortunately, things are looking a little better elsewhere in the United States. Fifteen states have passed laws making it illegal for an employer to discriminate against either an employee or job applicant who uses medical marijuana as permitted by state law. These states are Arkansas, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and West Virginia.

In June, Nevada became the first state to actually ban pre-employment cannabis testing altogether — for workers not in public safety positions, an inevitable exception. The law was signed by Gov. Steve Sisolak and will take effect next year. 

In Maine, which voted to legalize adult-use cannabis in the same 2016 elections that California and Nevada did, employers are not allowed to discriminate based on cannabis use. This was written into the text of the Pine Tree State’s 2002 medical marijuana law. However, there are no laws that directly address drug testing. 

The New York City Council also passed a measure this April that bars employers from requiring job applicants to pass a cannabis screening test as a condition of employment. 

There is likewise a sense of the tide turning on the judicial front. After years of upholding employee firings for use of cannabis even under state medical marijuana programs, the courts are finally starting to turn around on the question. The rights of Massachusetts medical patients were upheld in state court last year, as were those of patients in Rhode Island and Connecticut.

In February of this year, another such victory was reported from Arizona — this time in the federal courts. Carol Whitmire, a former Arizona Walmart employee and card-holding medical marijuana patient who was fired after testing positive for cannabis, won a wrongful termination suit in the U.S. district court in Phoenix. 

A remedy from Capitol Hill may also be in the works. Legislation introduced in the House of Representatives this year would protect the jobs of federal employees who use cannabis in states where their use is currently legal. The Fairness in Federal Drug Testing Under State Laws Act would prohibit cannabis drug-testing “from being used as the sole factor to deny or terminate federal employment for civilian positions at executive branch agencies if the individual is in compliance with the marijuana laws in their state of residence.”

And the Golden State, which has long been at the forefront of expanding freedom for cannabis users, may soon be catching up with Nevada, its supposedly more conservative neighbor to the east. California NORML asserts: “Employment drug testing has been shown in federal studies not to improve worker safety, but it’s a great way to discriminate against cannabis consumers. We hope to sponsor a bill that will truly make marijuana legal for all adults and educate unions and employers about the needlessness of drug testing.”

Medical cannabis advocates have been talking with legislative leaders about getting rid of a requirement that buds and leaves be packaged in "blister packs."

"What we’re looking at is maybe altering the way that blister pack would be, in order to make it specific to how that particular dose would be most efficiently packaged, not cause any impurities, allow it to be given to a dose-specific element with a patient," Senate Majority Leader Evan Vickers, R-Cedar City, told FOX 13 in a recent interview. "There could be some tweaking on how that bubble pack looks, what it looks like and how it’s used."

Desiree Hennessy, the director of the Utah Patients Coalition, which sponsored Proposition 2, said her group had been talking with lawmakers about alternatives. She argued that no other state with cannabis puts the product in blister packs and requiring buds or leaves to be put in them could impact the efficacy of the product.

"They are the medicine. So if you’re sticking that in a blister pack and then heating that up, you are tampering with the effectiveness of the plant," she said.

Hennessy said she preferred tamper-resistant bags or sealed containers that other states use. Sen. Vickers said discussions were underway, but cautioned that no agreement has been reached.

"We have some discussions, but there’s also a lot of resistance to that, too. I know that we would like to go down a road where those can be as tightly unit dose medication as possible, so dose-specific medication," he said. "And that’s a little bit hard to do with cannabis, especially with the bud and leaf. We’ll see how that turns out."

When voters approved Prop. 2, which legalized medical marijuana last year, lawmakers replaced it with a bill crafted as a compromise between supporters of the citizen ballot initiative (including the Utah Patients Coalition and the Libertas Institute) and opponents like the Utah Medical Association and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

That bill set in place a number of strict control measures, including requirements that the marijuana bud be placed in blister packs. Edible marijuana would be in cube-shaped gummy form only (and Sen. Vickers said there was no plans to change that). The state was also creating a dispensary network that required county health departments to dispense medical cannabis to qualifying patients.

The state-run dispensary network is expected to be done away with after the Davis and Salt Lake County attorneys told FOX 13 they were recommending against their local health departments distribute marijuana out of fear government workers could face federal drug charges. A special session of the legislature to fix that could take place later this month.

"Where these issues have come from is our agencies start to try to implement the program and meet those deadlines and, 'Hey, we’ve run up against this. How do we solve it?' So it’s been a pretty collaborative opportunity," Sen. Vickers said.

A bill on any packaging changes would not be considered until the 2020 legislative session in January.

"Blister packs were the result of an effort to solve two concerns by Prop 2’s opponents: consistent dosing and distinguishing between 'street marijuana' and cannabis purchased legally," Connor Boyack with the Libertas Institute, who negotiated the compromise bill, told FOX 13 in a text.

"I don’t think anyone is a fan of the specific concept we landed on, and in the time since we have been kicking around some alternative approaches that are more patient-friendly and cost-effective, and that still solve those two concerns. I’m optimistic we’ll get agreement on a new direction by the time January comes."

The Senate Majority Leader believed that a working medical cannabis program would be running by March 2020.

"We’re still on track to meet that March 1 deadline. Is it going to be completely 100% ramped up on day one? No," he said. "It’s going to take a little bit to ramp up."

The state is being sued by two medical cannabis advocacy groups. Together for Responsible Use and Cannabis Education (TRUCE) and the Epilepsy Association of Utah argue the replacement bill is not what voters wanted. They have also argued that the state's program was essentially a government-run drug cartel. The lawsuit is currently pending in federal court. They have asked for Prop. 2 to be implemented in full.

"Over-packaging is a real problem in the cannabis industry. Unnecessary packaging, like the mandatory blister packs for cannabis flower, serve little purpose but drive up cost and destroy the delicate trichomes that rest on the surface of the flower," TRUCE founder Christine Stenquist said in a statement.

"Forcing this botanical into a pharmaceutical model it's not designed for, is akin to,  expecting a fish to climb a tree and insisting it's possible if we just fashion it with legs. Both Prop. 2 and the replacement bill addressed public safety concerns with a flower limit. All dispensaries track how much you can buy, so the patient-consumer can't go over the legal limit. So, the right question is, which special interest is this regulatory redundancy designed to profit?"

Still, some medical cannabis advocates are optimistic about the direction the program has started to take. Asked if it appeared the Utah State Legislature was moving toward what Prop. 2 originally envisioned, Hennessy said she believed lawmakers were listening to the concerns of patient advocates.

"The whole point of our initiative was to get the attention of the legislative body and that’s what it did," she said. "Now, we’re working together to get patients access and so yeah, we are going back to Prop. 2 -- or more like it -- and that’s wonderful."

Understanding the effects of cannabis is crucial to determining the legal status of the substance, which is still a schedule I drug in the Controlled Substances Act. In learning more about cannabis, researchers from The University of New Mexico (UNM) recently examined its use as a pain reliever. According to the results of their study, on a scale of 0 to 10, the pain level of the user decreased by approximately three points with the use of cannabis.

Presently, chronic pain impacts over 20% of adults, and there is nothing more financially stressful in the health sector than this problem. It even exceeds the cost of treating cancer and heart disease combined. Jacob Miguel Vigil, one of the researchers that was leading the study, said,

“Our country has been flooded with an over-prescription of opioids medications, which then often leads to non-prescription opioid and heroin use for many people. This man-made disaster is killing our families and friends, regardless of socio-economic status, skin tone, and other superficial human differences.”

Vigil further explained that the use of cannabis was a better alternative to using opioids, when it comes to pain. This alternative method had “very minimal negative side effects for most people.”

The researchers collected information from a mobile software program called Releaf App. The app was developed by Branden Hall, Keenan Keeling, and Franco Brockelman, collaboratively, allowing users to monitor the effects of their use of cannabis-based products. Since the co-authors developed the app in 2016, the free service has been a helpful source of information on the different types of products, the methods of use, and the cannabinoid content of cannabis-based products.

In the findings of the study, the researchers stated that the highest reports of analgesic response came from the use of dried cannabis flower, especially flower with high THC levels. CBD, however, showed momentary changes, but the combination of THC and CBD was the best soothing effect.

Vigil added, “Our results confirm that cannabis use is a relatively safe and effective medication for alleviating pain, and that is the most important message to learn from our results. It can only benefit the public for people to be able to responsibly weigh the true risks and benefits of their pain medication choices, and when given this opportunity, I’ve seen numerous chronic pain patients substitute away from opioid use, among many other classes of medications, in favor of medical cannabis.”