A Russian court has sentenced US basketball star Brittney Griner to nine years in prison on drug charges. As Griner, 31, was being led out of the courtroom in handcuffs, she was heard saying: "I love my family." The double Olympic winner has admitted possessing cannabis oil, but told the court she had made an "honest mistake". - Read the entire article at BBC News.
The first licence to produce medicinal cannabis products on the Isle of Man has been approved. GrowLab Organics (GLO) has been offered a conditional licence to cultivate, extract, manufacture, import and export the drug. Chief Executive Alex Fray said the industry had the "capability to transform the quality of life". - Read the entire article at BBC News.
UK firm 4C Labs has been given the first licence to cultivate medical cannabis in Guernsey. It follows a visit from the UK Home Office to the island to look at the company’s infrastructure and security. Deputy Neil Inder, president of Guernsey’s Economic Development Committee, said cannabis would not replace the finance industry, "but it’s evidence of diversification and that is a good thing". - Read the entire article at BBC News.
An increasing number of mothers are using cannabis to help them parent. As they come out of the 'green closet', they're hoping to shift the stigma. A couple years after California legalised cannabis for adult use in 2016, Danielle Simone Brand decided to try it. A journalist in the US Pacific Northwest, Brand, then 42, found cannabis left her feeling “better and more embodied, happier in my body and mind”. Looking at legal cannabis as…
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The life of a teenager who can have hundreds of epileptic seizures a day "hangs in the balance" without cannabis treatment, his parents say. Bailey Williams' parents say getting the £1,200 needed each month has become harder during the pandemic. Without the drug they fear the 19-year-old's body may need to be "shut down" in hospital to control his condition. The Welsh government said doctors must take account of evidence and guidelines before prescribing. -…
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The treatment was made legal with a prescription in 2018 for those with an "exceptional clinical need". But a cross-party letter from 100 politicians says only three NHS prescriptions have been given out since, forcing families to spend thousands on private treatments. The government said it sympathised with those facing hard-to-treat conditions. - Read the entire article at BBC News.
The parents of a three-year-old boy with severe epilepsy have dropped a legal challenge after guidelines on prescribing cannabis were 'clarified'. Charlie Hughes went from having up to 120 seizures a day to fewer than 20, after receiving cannabis oil privately. Medical cannabis was legalised in 2018, but few NHS prescriptions have been handed out due to NHS guidance. A clarification to the guidance means specialist clinicians can prescribe medicinal cannabis where appropriate. - Read…
The NHS has repeatedly refused to fund medical cannabis for children with severe epilepsy, families have said.
Three prescriptions are thought to have been written for “whole plant cannabis” oil since it was legalised two years ago, campaign group End Our Pain say.
But at least 20 families are paying for costly private prescriptions after being turned down by the NHS, it said.
The Department of Health and Social Care says more research is needed before it can be routinely prescribed.
This year has been a difficult time for Fredzia, a young female African elephant at Warsaw Zoo in the Polish capital. The zoo's four elephants became three in March, following the death of Erna, the largest female and elder of the herd. Erna's death left Fredzia in mourning, putting her under stress. Zoo keepers noticed an immediate change in Frezia's behaviour, as she attempted to make sense of life without Erna. - Read the entire…
The families of severely epileptic children have held a protest criticising the NHS for failing to prescribe medical cannabis.
The law changed in 2018, allowing doctors to legally prescribe cannabis for some serious conditions.
Although private doctors are issuing prescriptions costing up to £3,500 a month, families say they were promised the drug would be available on the NHS.
The government said it was working hard “to get these drugs available”.
More than a year ago, Canada made recreational cannabis legal. So why are people still buying it on the black market?
When Canada legalised marijuana just over a year ago, it seemed like anyone who was anyone wanted to break into the market.
The media nicknamed the frenzy Canada’s “green rush”, as investors like Snoop Dogg and the former head of Toronto’s police force clamoured to get a slice of the multi-billion-dollar-pie.
But like the gold rush of the 1850s, the lustre would soon fade, leaving prospectors in the dust.
Cannabis cafes in the Netherlands are to be supplied legally with drugs from regulated producers as part of a trial aimed at tackling the black market.
Under Dutch law, cannabis can be sold over the counter in licensed coffee shops, but it is currently illegal to produce and supply the drug.
The country’s loose policy on cannabis has seen criminal enterprises flourish.
From 2021, cafes in 10 cities will get a legal supply of “quality” cannabis as part of a four-year experiment.
Being a former police officer, Lou Haslam knew his family’s story about breaking Australian law to get medicinal cannabis for his son was powerful. It helped lead to a change in the law but, as Gary Nunn reports from Sydney, the family remains unhappy with the result.
Working undercover for the police drugs squad, Mr Haslam, now 66, arrested “a tonnage” of people for cannabis-related crimes in New South Wales (NSW) between 1972 and 2006.
“We were mainly after growers and suppliers,” he says.
Little did he know he’d later possess cannabis himself – and even purchase a farm to grow it. He began supplying cannabis to his own son, Dan Haslam, after he was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2010.
