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It seems like cannabidiol (CBD) is popping up in everything these days, from workout gear to skincare. Suddenly, the cannabinoid is being pitched to various populations as a near-magic cure-all and pet owners are no exception.

The psychoactive but non-intoxicating hemp-derived compound has been administered for illnesses such as pain, arthritis, and anxiety in cats and dogs — but with very little scientific evidence backing CBD for pets, many veterinarians are wary of the treatment.

But that’s starting to change. A new study from the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine (UPSVM) is partnering with Denver-based cannabis producer Dixie Brands, Inc. to launch the first scientific study of the effectiveness of a cannabinoid therapy administered to relieve pain and other symptoms of canine joint-immobility.

Kimberly Agnello, an associate professor of surgery at UPSVM, is the study’s lead investigator.

“There are many different products that are sold out there and we really don’t know which ones are helpful, how much to give, or even how safe it is to administer it at different dosages,” Agnello told Philly Mag.

“We want to validate whether this is actually helpful and if it’s something we should be recommending. Up until now, there haven’t been too many great studies showing that CBD is beneficial in helping to relieve pain in people or dogs with arthritis.”

Agnello’s team will study dogs suffering from osteoarthritis in order to establish which CBD treatments result in better patient outcomes. The dogs will be divided into three groups — one which will be administered a Dixie Brands affiliate-developed CBD formula, one that will be administered CBD only, and one that will receive a placebo.

Agnello says that the study will be the largest-scale canine/CBD trial to date, and may be the first significant double-blind trial for dogs (which means neither researchers or dog parents know which canines have received which medication or placebo), although it isn’t the first time she and her researchers have tried to study how CBD affects domestic animals.

“We actually tried to do a study using CBD years ago but due to regulations around having it here and the fact that it was listed as a Schedule I substance, it was very difficult for us to do the study,” she said.

“Because while it doesn’t contain THC, it is developed from the same marijuana plant,” she explained. “Now that those regulations have become less strict, it has been easier for us to do the study.”

Agnello believes that the study could also help humans with arthritis, as most simulate arthritis in rodents — but dogs who have been diagnosed with arthritis have more similarities, physically and with regards to lifestyle, to humans.

“Dogs truly develop arthritis in a similar way to humans and they experience similar chronic pain, she said. “Unlike a mouse that lives in a lab, dogs live with us and are exposed to the same toxins in food, in the air, and in the environment. So, they’re not only similar in the development of disease but they have a similar lifestyle to us. We see a lot of the studies we do as translational studies because the information could also be useful for future studies in people.”

Companies vying to be the biggest cannabis producer in America or Canada are wasting their time and suffering from a crippling lack of vision. The real play is to make a bid to become the worldwide leader in global cannabis exports — like firms in Jamaica and Lesotho as well as Canada are attempting to do — and the window of time to get in is closing fast, according to one entrepreneur with clear-cut plans to curb that market.

Though recreational cannabis is now available in two countries, medical marijuana is legal in about 50 and not every country produces adequate supply to fulfill domestic demand. Over the long-term, the thinking goes, cannabis will become like any other agricultural commodity and production will shift to the locale where costs are lowest. But so far, the limited export game has been dominated by a few players, most of whom are either occupying a very limited lane or banking on the future.

An example of the former, Bedrocan in the Netherlands, produces cannabis solely for the government authority, which then exports most of it to Germany. Bophelo Bioscience and Wellness, a startup recently acquired by a Canadian-firm and based in tiny Lesotho, the first country in Africa to legalize cannabis, is an example of the latter. Somewhere else is a company like Fotmer Life Sciences in Uruguay, which is hoping to supplant both.

The world’s most popular illicit drug, cannabis boasts at least 263 million users worldwide, according to a New Frontier Data estimate, who in turn consume $340 billion worth annually, most of which is still on the underground market. At the moment, with so few legal companies producing cannabis and even fewer exporting, it’s a seller’s market. That state of play — flux, uncertainty, opportunity — will last only about another five years, said Jordan Lewis, an American entrepreneur who is Fotmer’s CEO.

Fotmer was in the news much last week as the company prepared its first shipment of export cannabis: 22 pounds, headed for medical cannabis patients in Australia. After that, Fotmer hopes to start competing with Bedrocan and begin shipping cannabis flower and oil to Germany, with up to 220 pounds or so per month headed out of the country to global customers, as he told Reuters.

Most of that will go to Europe, which “right now represents the single largest market in the next five years,” Lewis told Supplychainbrain.com.

The window for producers to charge high prices, before a reliable global supply floods the market, is now through 2024, he added, with high THC oils and plants to preserve their value longer than CBD products.

The modest first shipment is a tiny fraction of the company’s capacity. Fotmer currently has government approval to produce up to 10 tons of flower and 5 tons of oil, said Lewis — who added that he’s asking the Uruguayan government to allow him to grow 15 times that, in order to curb that global market. (He’s also shopping for a “large strategic partner” to provide the estimated $60 million of start-up capital needed to grow all that cannabis.)

If Lewis is right and producers in other companies join in, Fotmer may be well positioned to remain competitive, an outlook shared by other analysts. As New Frontier Data noted in a global market analysis released earlier this year, South America is considered a future hub for cannabis production thanks to an agreeable climate and low labor costs.

If countries decide that domestic suppliers are preferable and throw up tariffs, Lewis’s play could disappear. Or perhaps the best praxis is to play off of the incredible hype around the cannabis industry and get acquired. The point is that in a world obsessed with the next big thing, cannabis is very quickly approaching critical mass, and entrepreneurs are slowly catching on.

A new course about medical cannabis will be offered starting next year by the Office of the Non-Formal and Informal Education.

A team of experts on medical cannabis is working to create content for the course, said Assoc Prof Phatchari Sisang, an expert in research and development at  Srinakharinwirot University.

"Marijuana and Hemp Studies for Smart Use" will be worth 3 credits and take a total of 120 hours to complete, said Assoc Prof Phatchari, who is on the working team.

Designed by the Office of the Non-Formal and Informal Education together with Chaopraya Abhaiphubejhr Hospital, the course will consist of seven parts:

1: Reasons Why We Need to Learn about Marijuana and Hemp (10 hours); 2: Marijuana and Hemp as Medicinal Plants (20 hours); 3: Dangers and Benefits of Marijuana and Hemp (15 hours); 4: Laws about Marijuana and Hemp (15 hours); 5: Marijuana and Hemp in Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine (20 hours); 6: Marijuana and Hemp in Modern Medicine (20 hours), and 7: How to Use Marijuana and Hemp as Medicines To Their Fullest Benefits.

"This course is not about growing marijuana. Instead, it will provide knowledge about the pros and cons of marijuana and how to use it appropriately," Assoc Prof Phatchari said.

Suphaphon Pitiphon, the president of the Thai traditional medicine and herbs department at Chaopraya Abhaiphubejhr Hospital, said the course will give basic and necessary knowledge about marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Sangkhom Thopurin, an expert on educational institution management,  who is a member of the team designing the course, said it would be better to put in place a formal study course on marijuana and hemp than to let enthusiasts struggle to find information on their own from elsewhere.

There have recently been a series of developments advancing the Australian medicinal cannabis industry.

Key developments include recommendations put forward by Professor John McMillan AO aimed at reducing the regulatory burden on the medicinal cannabis industry, the Australian Capital Territory legalising possession of up to 50 grams of cannabis for an individual over 18 years of age and permitting the cultivation of up to four cannabis plants (excluding artificial cultivation), and the Australian Government announcing it will be investing AU$3 million into the industry for research.

Background

The Australian Federal Government has a fully established cannabis production and manufacturing regulatory regime. The Narcotic Drugs Act 1967 (Cth) (ND Act) establishes a licence and permit scheme to regulate the cultivation, production and manufacture of medicinal cannabis. The scheme allows patients and doctors to access a legal domestic source of cannabis for medicinal use. The ND Act gives effect to Australia’s obligations under the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961 as in force from time to time.

Key Developments

Since legislation came into effect on 30 October 2016 to allow the legal cultivation, production and manufacturing of medical cannabis products in Australia, there have been a series of developments advancing the Australian medicinal cannabis industry.

Key developments include:

1. Permitting the export of Australian manufactured medicinal cannabis products, subject to local demand.
2. The introduction of new legislation in Queensland (revoking the Public Health (Medicinal Cannabis) Act 2016 (Qld)) to simplify the process for patients and doctors to access medicinal cannabis.
3. On 5 September 2019, Professor John McMillan AO's Final Report (Final Report) on the operation of the ND Act was tabled in Parliament. Minister Hunt has accepted all 26 recommendations put forward by Professor McMillan which are primarily aimed at reducing the regulatory burden on the medicinal cannabis industry. Notably, Professor McMillan recommends replacing the current three licence structure in the ND Act with a single licence structure. This will require significant legislative and administrative changes.
4. On 25 September 2019, the Australian Capital Territory passed the Drugs of Dependence (Personal Cannabis Use) Amendment Bill 2018 which amends the Drugs of Dependence Act 1989 (ACT) and the Criminal Code 2002 (ACT) to legalise possession of up to 50 grams of cannabis for an individual over 18 years of age and permit the cultivation of up to four cannabis plants (excluding artificial cultivation).
5. On 6 October 2019, the Australian Government announced it will be investing AU$3 million to examine the benefits of medicinal cannabis to manage pain, symptoms and side effects in cancer patients. The outcomes of these studies will greatly assist health professionals in the prescription of medicinal cannabis products. Typically, cannabis products are prescribed for treatment indications such as chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, neuropathic pain, epilepsy and cancer pain. However, there is currently lack of information on dose response and adverse events from the use of medicinal cannabis products.

What’s next?

In the short term, it is anticipated some of the reforms arising from the Final Report will be implemented at the end of this year.

A particular challenge over the course of the next few years will be on developing a streamlined process for supply of medicinal cannabis both at a Commonwealth and State level to avoid unnecessary administrative burden for manufactures and suppliers.

Hemp offers untold benefits for the soil, production processes, renewable fuel and sustainable fashion.

For many, pot is part of a well rounded lifestyle that includes nutrition, fitness and a balanced work life.

If you feel like you’ve tried everything to boost your workouts and take your physical activity to the next level, have you considered marijuana? Before, after, during — they all have their places. With cannabis being the enhancement plant that it is, it’s no wonder that keeping active and using marijuana go hand in hand. For many, pot is part of a well rounded lifestyle that includes nutrition, fitness and a balanced work life.

To begin with, no matter how often you work out or eat healthily, an essential ingredient for good health is good rest. Cannabis, especially an indica or indica heavy hybrid, puts us in a state where we can more easily drift off to dreamland. Whether power napping before that crunches class or getting a full night’s sleep before tackling a tough day, marijuana helps.

Many yoga studios and private teachers in legalized states are turning to cannabis, especially microdosing, to enhance their practices. Taking the smallest amount of marijuana and mixing it with hot yoga or even just good, deep stretches, will synergize the experience and help move it forward to the next level.

Get in the zone. Literally. Though we don’t recommend getting stoned before hitting the gym, having a puff and getting into the right frame of mind before a mild workout is the perfect way to work into the strain, while also getting into the music playing in your headphones to keep your body going with the flow.

Though cannabis has gotten a bad rap for being a demotivational drug, it can actually energize you for an active session. Here you’ll want to use a sativa dominant strain and again, not too much beforehand, don’t forget about the rewarding cooldown to come. Marijuana is a great motivator and vaping some and then hitting the floor running is the best way to utilize it. Just be sure to keep your head out of the clouds; focus is the goal here and you need to be clear headed to pay the best attention to your muscle groups.

Finally, after working it out and getting that workout high turned on, it’s time to cool down and soothe some sore muscles. Rub CBD or activated THC cream into those worked areas, use some tincture, vape a bit, however it hits you best. Cannabis is a known anti-inflammatory and it goes right to work on where it hurts, soothing aches and pains and readying you for the next round.

A U.S. group is calling on Congress to take action on what it says is illegal pesticide use in cannabis production.

Cannabis in its various forms is a pretty hardy plant, but like all plants has its share of predators. For example, insect pests of hemp include aphids, crickets, slugs and snails (well, the latter two are actually molluscs). To help control these pests, pesticides may be used.

Washington-headquartered Beyond Pesticides is concerned about the use of such chemicals on cannabis generally.

“Because marijuana is not a legal agricultural crop under relevant federal law (Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act) and hemp has only recently been legalized, EPA has not evaluated the safety of any pesticide on marijuana plants,” says the group.

While marijuana may not be legal at a federal level, it is in some states and those states may have their own and differing  laws regarding the use of pesticides.

Pesticide use on medicinal cannabis plants is a point of major concern for the group, as it states this introduces toxic chemicals into a medicine. The group claims medical cannabis can interfere with the body’s ability to detoxify these substances.

This isn’t a new issue – back in 2016 we mentioned 84.3% of cannabis samples submitted to a lab in California tested positive for pesticide residues. Of particular concern was Myclobutanil, a fungicide that converts to hydrogen cyanide when heated above 205C.

Beyond Pesticides is calling for oversight hearings to document what it says are state violations of federal pesticide law by allowing use in cannabis production and processing, despite not being registered for this use by EPA. It wants to see states establish laws and/or regulations that mandate an organic approach to cannabis production.

In terms of hemp, some pesticides may get the nod from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the not-too-distant future.

The National Industrial Hemp Council (NIHC) and American Farm Bureau Federation recently lodged a submission with the EPA with regard to adding hemp to the labeling of 10 currently registered pesticide products.

“The letter calls for EPA to approve these and additional applications in order to expand the range of approved pesticides and provide our members with lawful options for pest control,” says the NIHC.

The letter can be viewed here.

I’ve warned investors that making money in marijuana stocks is not as simple as loading up when the news is good. That’s because bad news is sure to follow.