Understanding of neurological mechanisms opens door to new treatments

Irvine, Calif., June 9, 2015 — Brain inflammation caused by chronic nerve pain alters activity in regions that regulate mood and motivation, suggesting for the first time that a direct biophysical link exists between long-term pain and the depression, anxiety and substance abuse seen in more than half of these patients, UC Irvine and UCLA researchers report.

Hundreds of tribal representatives as well as American Indian advocates and supporters are expected to rally in Washington D.C. on June 16 in front of the U.S. Capitol to bring attention to advancing economic development in Indian country.

This is the second year that the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development will host a regional Reservation Economic Summit, or RES event, in the nation's capital, and the first time that a rally will be held, according to Gary Davis, president and CEO of the National Center, a nonprofit organization that assists American Indian tribes and their enterprises with business and economic development.

For years, Garden City resident Shona Banda has been self-medicating her Crohn’s disease with cannabis oil and making no secret of it, touting her homemade vaporizer on YouTube and in a self-published book.

Now, Banda could face up to 17 years in prison for doing so, in a case that has medical marijuana advocates enraged and legislators from both parties saying it is past time to re-examine the state’s drug laws.

“We are terrified,” said Lisa Sublett, founder of the medical marijuana advocacy group Bleeding Kansas. “We are outraged. We are heartbroken. Many are planning to move.”

As more and more Americans consider the pros and cons of cannabis legalization, many points are worth repeating, and chief among them: cannabis actually decreases the risk of lung cancer.

It’s a counter-intuitive notion, since tobacco smoking causes cancer, marijuana smoking must as well. But as the LA Weekly highlights Monday, it’s just not true. Decades of pulmonary research is in: pot decreases the risk of lung cancer and does not cause chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican running for president, went to the Baltimore area on Tuesday night for the first time since riots provoked by the death of Freddie Gray in police custody.

The 2016 hopeful appeared at a dinner of suburban Republicans in a banquet hall that arguably looked more like a setting for a mafia wedding than a speech on urban policy.

More than a year after Indiana lawmakers legalized a so-called cash crop, the coffers are still empty.

Legislation signed into law in 2014 approved the commercial growth and research of the versatile industrial hemp plant, which is a non-intoxicating form of cannabis.

But lack of federal approval has stalled the state from moving forward.

Jamie Petty, the founder of the Indiana Hemp Industries Association, says the plant could be a boon for Indiana agriculture and manufacturing.

“We have empty factories in Anderson and Kokomo that could be converted,” she says. “It becomes the hemp processing plant.”

With IRS recognition, gifts are tax deductible for Bill Levin’s new Indianapolis church, which will begin operation the day Indiana’s new Religious Freedom law takes effect

though he grew up at the Reform-affiliated Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation, Bill Levin recently founded a church. And not just any church — the First Church of Cannabis, for which Levin will serve as the Minister of Love.

A new clinic promising to help patients get signed up for Minnesota's medical marijuana program has been suspended by the state, a potential blow to hopeful patients and a New York company seeking to connect them with willing doctors.

The Minnesota Certification Clinic in Bloomington billed itself as a solution for residents struggling to get a physicians' sign-off to obtain medical marijuana. But the clinic informed would-be patients Tuesday in an email obtained by The Associated Press that it was canceling all appointments for certification. It cited a Department of Health decision last week to suspend its accounts with the state.

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - New Hampshire is one step closer to giving qualifying patients access to medical marijuana.

The state's Department of Health and Human Services says it has selected three vendors to operate four dispensaries across the state, although specific locations have not been chosen. New Hampshire passed a medical marijuana law in 2013, and the state is running behind schedule in making the treatment available.

The dispensaries will be located in four specific geographic areas: Belknap, Strafford and Rockingham counties; Merrimack and Hillsborough Counties; Sullivan and Cheshire counties; and Grafton, Carroll and Coos counties.

Indiana's First Church of Cannabis, an organization which is expected to test the limits of the state's new controversial religious freedom law by using marijuana recreationally during its services has purchased a former church building as its worship center where it plans to host alcoholics anonymous and narcotics anonymous meetings.

The group's founder, former musician Bill Levin told Indy Star that the new building located in Indianapolis' Eastside area will include a souvenir store and will host the recovery meetings in the basement.