We are rapidly approaching that dreadful time once again: cold and flu season. All one has to do is spend a few hours in an airport — a petri dish inside the global travel system — and it becomes painfully evident by all the coughing and wheezing whipping about the terminal that it won’t be long before some kind of sickness puts us flat on our back. And that almost guarantees we will suffer fever, chills, and uninspired coughing fits, causing us to miss work and those all-important social activities that keep us sane. When those vile germs strike, and sure as Shinola, they will, we are destined to feel like hell has opened up shop in our bodies. In turn, we’ll beg for mercy, we’ll pray for death, but all we will get from this pleading is five to seven days of the ick.

What makes this disgusting, snot riddled breakdown of our health so ghastly is that there is no known cure (or even an effective treatment) capable of getting us back on our feet in a reasonable amount of time. We must simply endure the sick, knock back Nyquil like Charles Bukowski would a boilermaker and let it run its course. Some people, however, believe that marijuana can help alleviate cold and flu symptoms more effectively than over the counter medications. But is there really any evidence showing that getting stoned is the best way to feeling whole again?

As with most things medical marijuana, there really isn’t much scientific research pointing to it as a legitimate remedy for a cold or flu. But that’s not to say that cannabinoids do not have a place in easing these nasty afflictions. We know that cannabis compounds have anti-inflammatory properties, and there is also evidence showing they can help ease low-level pain. Both of which are popular complaints for anyone with the feel-bads. While the cannabis plant is not a cure for the common cold, there are perhaps some ways it can be administered during those times when the body is ravaged by microscopic assassins that make it an excellent alternative to other medicines.

But using marijuana as a way to rise above the funk really comes down to how it is consumed. Smoking weed (or even hitting a vaporizer) probably isn’t the right way to go for the person who is seeking a trapdoor out of the misery that comes with a cold or flu. Smoke can irritate the throat, sinuses and lungs and make coughing, congestion and headaches much worse. As it was pointed out earlier last year by former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb, “using a lung as a drug delivery vehicle isn’t optimal.” And anyone who has ever tried smoking weed when their respiratory system is being beaten into submission by a virus understands that there are better ways to medicate.

“These detrimental effects are likely to be due to the smoke and heat that burning cannabis produces,” says Medical News Today.

Fortunately, there are now all sorts of smoke-free cannabis products on the legal market that are optimal for those with a cold or flu. Edibles, beverages and tinctures can be purchased at almost any medical marijuana dispensary or neighborhood weed store, none of which will cause a sick person excruciating pain the way smoking can. We have even seen cannabis-infused soups and hot teas in some dispensaries that are explicitly designed for people who are feeling under the weather. These are good for treating a cold or flu with cannabis, as the consumption of hot liquids fits right in line with doctor’s orders. Some reports have even suggested that cannabis products containing higher cannabidiol (CBD) content might be an even better route than products designed to give the user a buzz. This cannabinoid has been known to ease muscle and joint pain, which is desperately needed in times when the cold or flu has settled in to make life a miserable experience for the next week or so. However, a person who is vomiting and having trouble finding their appetite shouldn’t avoid THC altogether. This cannabinoid, which produces the stoned effects, has been helping people eat and control nausea for years.

But perhaps the best way to get through cold and flu season is to do everything in your power to keep from getting sick in the first place. This means it might be a good idea to stop smoking weed with other people. As we pointed out, smoking devices contain around 50% more bacteria than a toilet seat. So it makes sense that avoiding situations where a group of people are sitting around a room slobbering all over the same bong, bowl or dab rig is a solid first step in preventing the spread of disease. Yeah, yeah, we’re just being paranoid. But the next time you’re curled up in the fetal position under a layer of blankets, sweating profusely with a temperature of 102 and crying for your mommy to make it all go away, don’t say we didn’t warn you.

European cannabis has become a “prime investment target for excess cash” for North American firms emboldened by high valuations in USA, a sector expert says.

Ben Langley, chief executive of investment company Grow Biotech, said that a “steady wave of capital flowing to Europe” is starting to roll across the Atlantic from entrepreneurs and investors who have “cash to deploy, global ambitions, and experience operating in ‘legal’ markets”.

According to broker Liberum, cannabis sector fundraising in UK has only reached £45mln year-to-date, “a drop in the ocean” compared to the £30bn raised in North America.

There’s a feeling that North American companies have already had their windfall – with mega corporations forming such as Canada-based Canopy Growth Corporation (TSE:WEED) listed in Toronto with a market cap of $7.9bn and Aurora Cannabis Inc (TSE:ACB) trailing not far behind with its $4.3bn valuation.

British cannabis and CBD companies

Bolstered by a £7.8mln Series A funding round in September, British medical marijuana company Cannaray is now aiming for a £100mln float that would make it the largest cannabis business on the London Stock Exchange.

The funding round came from a group of private investors, of which 60% was from US.

Another major UK deal came in September when medicinal cannabis investment group World High Life announced the £9mln acquisition of Love Hemp, a UK company which already turns over £2.5mln a year selling their products in retail chain WHSmith.

London-listed Zoetic International PLC (LON:ZOE) has undertaken a major shift in direction this year, moving firmly into the CBD business in August with a CBD oil sales operation on both sides of the Atlantic.

Before the end of the year, Zoetic plans to begin production of its first feminised seeds, ie those that produce the buds that produce the CBD, with initial sales expected in the first quarter of 2020.

“As we expand the techniques we have been developing, we have every reason to believe that we have the capability to become a trusted supplier of significant volumes of feminised seeds on a monthly basis”, new chief executive Nick Tulloch said.

David Stadnyk, one of the founders of Toronto-listed Supreme Cannabis, set up World High Life with the “ambition to become a leading European medical cannabis and CBD investment company”, setting its sights on the German market for 2020.

“North American cannabis wealth and experience is currently an enabler of growth, rather than something to be feared,” maintained Langley.

Meanwhile others such as Canopy Growth this year made investments in production, with Spanish hemp producer Cafina and German medical marijuana firm C3 benefitting from investment, and its rival Aurora took over Portuguese pot producer Gaia Farm and also won a tender to produce and distribute cannabis in Germany.

Alongside their more traditional grains and other crops, American farmers are harvesting a new crop this year.

Some growers are in the midst of the first legal hemp harvest.

The Hemp Farming Act of 2018, a piece of legislation found in the 2018 Farm Bill, removed hemp from Schedule I controlled substances, allowing farmers to produce it the same way they would any other grain crop without any legal issues as long as they have a permit.

Hemp is any cannabis plant with less than 0.3 percent tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Any plants exceeding that amount are considered marijuana.

To grow hemp, however, producers needed permits from state ag departments.

The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, for example, issued 572 grower permits for more than 32,000 acres of commercial hemp.

Those individuals who received a permit are pleased with how the harvest is coming along.

“We started off with a really rainy season which put the crop behind the eight ball,” John Freeman, a grower and president of the Industrial Hemp Industry of Michigan, told Farms.com. “But we’ve got thousands and thousands of pounds of the crop right now.”

How the crop is harvested depends on the plant’s end use.

“People are harvesting for different things,” he said. “If you just want the seed, then you can use a combine but, if you want the flowers, then you might want to consider harvesting by hand.”

Farmers in Kansas are also harvesting their first hemp crops.

The state ag department licensed 260 grower permits for more than 2,300 acres across 57 counties.

Harvesting the plant in a timely manner is important to meet the legalities associated with it.

“We’re on a 10-day time schedule,” J. Bradley, a producer with Heartland Hemp Farm in Leavenworth, Kan., told KSHB on Oct 3. “We don’t want to be over the THC threshold, so we just cut it down.”

Researchers at the University of Georgia will study the effects of legalized medical cannabis on those suffering from chronic pain thanks to a multi-million dollar grant.

The project, announced this week, will seek clarity on whether medical marijuana laws alter the health behaviors of people living with chronic pain and whether they substitute or reduce traditional pain treatments while using medical cannabis.

“We are thrilled to get started on this work,” said Grace Bagwell Adams, assistant professor in the College of Public Health at the University of Georgia. “Much of the policy change has happened quickly in a landscape that is not well understood at the patient level. This work is going to contribute to our understanding about the intersectionality of medical cannabis policy and the behavior of chronic pain patients.”

Researchers will have access to years of data on five million Medicare and five million Medicaid enrollees’ complete medical claims history, which will include all inpatient, outpatient and prescription drug use, as well as some information about socioeconomic status.

In addition, the research team will also examine comparable data on individuals with private insurance.

“For all three types of individuals—Medicare, Medicaid and HCCI/private insured—they will follow the same people over time and see how their pain management health care decisions change as they gain access to medical cannabis via changes in state laws,” the school said in its announcement.

The project could help illustrate the real world policy effects in more than 30 states across the country that have legalized medical cannabis. It is also the latest in a flowering of academic research on marijuana, as governments, institutions and companies reconsider prohibitions on pot as concerns over prescription painkillers continue to mount.

The National Football League said in May that it would participate in a study on the effects of cannabis on pain management, a response to the growing number of players who have become addicted to prescription drugs.

In April, the cannabis investor Charles R. Broderick made a $9 million donation that was split between Harvard and MIT to support research into how marijuana affects the brain and behavior.

Broderick said the gift was driven by a desire “to fill the research void that currently exists in the science of cannabis.”

David Bradford, the public policy chair at the University of Georgia’s School of Public and International Affairs, said that the research announced this week will also fill a gap.

“Researchers have been able to document reductions in aggregate prescription use, especially opioids, after states implement [medical cannabis laws],” Bradford said. “But there is almost no research on how a large representative sample of individual patients respond to medical cannabis access. Do we see lots of patients reducing opioid use, or just a few patients reducing by a lot? What happens to other kinds of health care use, like emergency room visits or physician office visits? We don’t know, and we’re excited to find out.”