Cannabis Industry News

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. Nov. 3 2023: Here are the cannabis headlines making marijuana news globally and in the Caribbean and Latin America this week in less than 60 seconds:

Willie Nelson’s cannabis brand, Willie’s Reserve, is available for purchase at select stores beginningin Michigan – the eighth state to sell products from the line.

The US Senate has approved a bill that includes an provision to allow doctors at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to issue medical marijuana recommendations to veterans living in legal states – setting the stage for conference with the House, which has separately advanced similar language in its own version of the appropriations legislation.

The federal health agency is awarding researchers $3.2 million to study the effects of using cannabis while receiving immunotherapy for cancer treatment, as well as whether access to marijuana helps reduce health disparities. The University of Buffalo (UB) announced that one of its psychiatrists has received the research grant funding from the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Cancer Institute.

Germany-based Sanity Group is teaming up with the Swiss Institute for Addiction and Health Research (ISGF) to open two legal recreational cannabis stores in Switzerland as part of the country’s pilot study into dispensing marijuana.

A recent report published in the Southern Economic Journal has found evidence that legal access to CBD has helped lead to a decrease in opioid prescriptions. A study called “CBD as a cure-all? found that the ability to purchase CBD legally leads to 6.6% to 8.1% fewer opioid prescriptions.

The University of Mississippi, commonly known as Ole Miss, will begin offering a masters degree program for medical cannabis research. According to the Mississippi Clarion-Ledger, Ole Miss will begin offering the program in late 2024.

A growing number of heavy cannabis users in the US– especially young people – are showing up in emergency rooms with prolonged vomiting due to cannabis hyperemesis syndrome.

Beginning next month, adults in Connecticut will be able to buy up to half an ounce of marijuana in a single retail transaction—double the state’s current purchase limit of a quarter ounce.