It is not often that you get a billionaire, a minister of state and a priest at the same table discussing cannabis decriminalization, but then Ireland has its own, very particular way of doing things. The country has a cannabis culture that is buried deep below the surface. Alcohol is embraced with abandonment but cannabis production and sale is controlled by criminal gangs. This has not helped bring the subject to public attention, especially as a drugs turf war rages in some parts of the country. Last Friday evening, an event by CityWide Drugs Crisis Campaign was organized.

Attention deficit disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADD/ADHD) is a neurological disorder characterized by impulsiveness, inattention and hyperactivity. ADD/ADHD is one of a group of neuropsychiatric conditions (that also includes schizophrenia and autism) now linked to a dysfunctional endocannabinoid system.

Minister favours expungement of past convictions and is ‘open-minded’ on pill testing

British businessman Richard Branson has said the decriminalisation of drugs in Ireland would lead to a sea change in public attitudes on a similar scale as that which followed the same sex-marriage referendum.

Mr Branson, speaking at an event organised by the Citywide Drugs Crisis Campaign in Dublin at the weekend, said the abolition of criminal penalties for drugs offences would become a “non-issue” for the public once it takes place.

While THC and CBD have their individual benefits, combining the two creates a powerful force to be reckoned with – with each bolstering the other’s strengths.

THC, the most common cannabinoid found within cannabis, is best known for its psychoactive traits. It is these qualities that make cannabis so appealing to recreational users, and fuels the worries of anti-drug campaigners. Yet, only looking at THC in terms of its recreational qualities is merely scratching the surface. THC has been shown to have some therapeutic benefits, including reducing the onset of neuropathy, and helping those suffering from PTSD.

Only recently we had published an article explaining how scientists at the National Institute of Health (NIH) have found cannabis to be a potential killer of cancer cells. You can read the article here. 

On that note, we're going to talk about a scientific explanation that supports the NIH claim: "cannabis and cannabinoids may have benefits in treating the symptoms of cancer or the side effects of cancer therapies."

The task of categorizing and cataloguing the billions of plant species that have existed on our planet since the dawn of life is a huge and vastly complex one. Prior to our development of genetic testing, classification on the basis of perceived similarity was the only way to assign a plant to its correct taxon. Now that we have developed the study of phylogenetics (evolutionary relationships between groups of organisms), we have some basis for classifying plants according to their genetic similarities, but that does not provide a problem-free approach to such a complex task.

By Sylent Jay

The Swiss cannabis landscape has been under scrutiny lately. Since January 2015, consumers of the plant residing in Switzerland have been targeted by the government, with the help of Customs personnel as well as of police forces.

Switzerland in backwards motion since 2005

During the ‘90s and early ‘00s, Switzerland was somewhat of a quiet haven for cannabis consumers, offering for instance many options in terms of hemp-related items; clothing, hygiene products, and even some not-made-for-consumption cannabis-based products such as pot-pourris. Large metropolises especially, were riddled with shops selling these types of articles.

Bulgaria is the next European country to make headlines for cannabis. Member of parliament Velar Enchev Penkov will introduce legislation this month calling for the adoption of cannabis to treat illness in the country.

On 18 September 2014, the Ministers of Defence and of Health signed a memorandum for a pilot project of "domestic production of substances and herbal preparations made from cannabis' for medical and scientific purposes. For the cultivation of plants a military pharmaceutical factory in Florence was chosen for the "skills of military and civilian personnel" and "manufacturing capabilities and quality control of its pharmaceutical industry," combined with the "security level of an army".