Uruguayan scientists, taking advantage of their country's legalization of marijuana, will study the long-term effects of the drug on sleep

LEGAL IN URUGUAY. A picture made available on 10 December 2013 shows a plant of marijuana at a house in Montevideo, Uruguay, 05 December 2013. Pablo Nogueira/EPA

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay – Uruguayan scientists, taking advantage of their country's legalization of marijuana, will study the long-term effects of the drug on sleep, a local newspaper reported.

INLSAThe South African Dagga Party founder Jeremy Acton hopes to gather the 500 signatures needed to register for this years national poll.

Durban - With the new year well under way, national focus has turned to the forthcoming elections, the date of which is expected to be announced by President Jacob Zuma any time after February 9.

Richard Browne, Business Reporter

The legalisation of marijuana for recreational purposes in the state of Colorado, United States, has pushed prices up to US$400 (J$42,448) per ounce as demand quickly outpaced supply in that market.

The price spike has created a differential between legal Colorado marijuana and the illegal Jamaican product of some $41,988 per ounce, and has given even greater impetus to the drive to legalise the crop here.

Those efforts were previously held back as Jamaica was "always concerned about US policy", said Delano Seiveright, director for the Ganja Law Reform Coalition.

No other pain relieving medication is less toxic than cannabis, not even aspirin or Tylenol. If deaths from toxic effects from NSAIDs such as ibuprofen and Aleve were tabulated separately in the National Vital Statistics reports, these drug toxicities would constitute the 15th most common cause of death in the United States. This is why cannabis as medicine can be an excellent choice as a substitute for more toxic pain killers.

In this myth shattering, information packed documentary, learn from physicians and leading researchers about medicinal cannabis and its demonstrated effects on human health.
This game-changing movie presents the most comprehensive synopsis to date of the real science surrounding the world's most controversial plant. 

The precipitous rise in public approval for legalized marijuana has accelerated over the last year. A spate of victories for cannabis proponents in early November was a fitting corollary to the Gallup poll a month earlier, revealing that 58 percent of Americans approve of marijuana legalization, and also seemed to confirm that the United States is on an inexorable march toward a mostly (if not entirely) regulated market for the plant: currently, 20 states plus DC permit either recreational or medical marijuana use, and cannabis industry experts predict that 14 more states will be added to that roster in the next five years.

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — Prisoners in the jails of Uruguay will be able to use marijuana if a doctor says it will benefit their health.

Uruguay's drug czar Julio Calzada said that on Tuesday that any inmates with doctors' orders will be prescribed marijuana to their improve physical or mental health.

Meanwhile, social development minister Daniel Olesker told a medical marijuana symposium in Montevideo that medicinal pot will be incorporated into the country's public health system, alongside acupuncture and homeopathic remedies.

Calzada says his agency needs two more weeks to complete the regulations for the government's legal marijuana market, which he now expects to issue between April 20 and 25. He says the actual rollout won't be until the end of the year.

Delano Seiveright, Guest Columnist

Unsurprisingly, a recent survey showed the majority of Jamaicans in support of ganja decriminalisation - a fillip to the growing local and international movement pushing for sensible reforms to our laws that will reduce human-rights abuses, spur economic activity by complementing existing industries, and creating new ones, especially in research and development.

The Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices survey commissioned by the Professor Henry Lowe-led Bio-Tech R&D Institute and Pelican Publishers and executed by prominent pollster Don Anderson and his team over the last several weeks, I pray, would be the finale to a drawn-out debate that has carried us around in glorious circles.

Professor Henry Lowe yesterday launched Jamaica’s first medical ganja company, MediCanja in Kingston, to capitalise on the multibillion-dollar industry’s commercialisation.

Lowe is the executive chairman of Biotech Research and Development Institute.

He said it would be unfortunate if Jamaica lost out to a booming multibillion-dollar industry in Europe, Canada and the United States.

He noted that Canada’s hemp industry is valued at more than US$2 billion yearly.

Professor Lowe pointed out that Jamaica was the first country in the world to develop a commercial product from ganja, Canasol used to treat glaucoma.

Several pharmaceutical drugs have been developed which either contain or have similar chemicals as those found in the cannabis plant. Some researchers have used their understanding of how the brain processes cannabinoids to develop drugs which follow the same pathways but work differently than marijuana. 

A sample of those pharmaceutical drugs based on marijuana are listed below with their names, trade names, manufacturers, cannabis-related properties, suggested medical uses, and approval statuses.