Government just made a massive change to South Africa’s cannabis laws

27 May 2019

On Thursday (23 May), the Department of Health published an update on regulations surrounding cannabis in South Africa, effectively deregulating certain components of the plant.

The cannabis plant comprises two main compounds — Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and Cannabidiol (CBD).

THC is considered to be the psychoactive component of cannabis, whereas CBD is not associated with psychoactive outcomes.

According to Helen Michael — a director in the Healthcare & Life Sciences practice at Werksmans — before the publication of the gazette THC and CBD (which are not intended for therapeutic purposes) were all listed as Schedule 7substances in term of the Medicines Act.

Schedule 7 substances — which also include substances such as heroin — are considered highly regulated drugs, which may only be supplied or used pursuant to a permit issued by the director-general of Health and under specific circumscribed circumstances.

“The effect of the government notice is to remove CBD (that is not intended for therapeutic purposes) from Schedule 7 and to include it under Schedule 4 of the Medicines Act,” said Michael.

“Schedule 4 substances are, in turn, those substances that may be sold by pharmacists when presented with a written prescription.”

Completely excluded

Michael said that the government notice goes further in that entirely excludes certain preparations containing CBD from the schedules to the Medicines Act.

These include:

• CBD preparations that contain a maximum daily dose of 20 milligrams and which do not claim to treat or cure any medical condition — but instead, contain a ‘low risk claim or health claim’, including reference to ‘general health enhancement without any reference to specific diseases’, ‘health maintenance’ or ‘relief of minor symptoms’ which are not related to a disease or disorder;

• Products ‘made from raw plant material and processed products’ which contain a very small amount of THC (not more than 0.0001%) and CBD (not more than 0.0075%).

“Notably, the exception contained in the exclusion notice is only valid for a period of 12 months from the date of signature of the notice (15 May 2019),” said Michael.

“The exception will, therefore, expire on 15 May 2020 unless the notice is renewed by the Minister of Health.”

For more https://businesstech.co.za/news/business/319352/government-just-made-a-massive-change-to-south-africas-cannabis-laws/

Cannabis can affect teenagers so severely that they end up three years behind their classmates, study finds

• Results concluded from an investigation of 4,000 Canadian school children
• Researchers found cannabis more toxic for youngsters’ brains than alcohol
• Persistent use of the drug seriously affected basic reasoning skills

Regularly smoking cannabis can affect teenagers so severely that they end up three years behind their classmates in terms of brain development, a landmark study has found.

The results of the investigation, which involved almost 4,000 secondary school children in Canada, led researchers to conclude cannabis is more toxic for youngsters’ brains than alcohol.

For complete article Canada Failing Their Children with Cannabis Chaos!

\”It isn\’t your grandpa\’s weed,\” former addict says

SPRINGFIELD – While the trendy emphasis may be on \”freeing\” people to legally use cannabis, one former addict says the whole \”legalize pot\” movement now expected to be embraced by Illinois\’ Democrat-controlled General Assembly is really all about selling THC.

\”This isn\’t your grandpa\’s weed,\” Ben Cort says in a TedTalk from Colorado.

In 2012, Colorado legalized cannabis and kickstarted a multibillion dollar industry with every product imaginable — brownies, gummy bears, granola bars, even lube! But to say that we’ve “legalized cannabis” is mistaken — we’ve commercialized THC.

\”The vast majority [of pot] being sold today really isn\’t cannabis,\” Cort says.

For more got to AINT YOUR GRANDPAS WEED

GETTING A PSYCHIATRIST AND BREAKING CYCLE OF HOMELESSNESS

By H. Swan

Part 3 of a 3-Part Series Read Part1 and Part 2. This entire story first appeared on the MomsStrong.org website.

After doing some research, I told K he should get psychologically evaluated for social security disability because— if he was mentally ill —he could get benefits and could afford a place to live. I reasoned he would cost the government a lot less by not being in jail or prison.

I’M NOT CRAZY!

I looked up all kinds of things about mental illness. We were warned by many people that getting benefits for mental illness was becoming harder and harder, and even the people who really deserved it weren’t getting it. But I was desperate. I was in LA and he was outside in Seattle, where it was cold and wet, living underneath a freeway and completely out of his mind. He needed psychiatric medication. But the law is that, unless he’s harmful to himself or other people, treatment is voluntary. I could not force him into anything. So I had to coax him.

Getting treatment when he didn’t think he needed it

After several common-sense arguments to try to get him to see the doctor–all of which he shot down–I realized that trying to reason with a crazy person was crazy. I finally had to trick him. I told him he could “scam” the government, that his “insanity” would just be a ruse so he could finally get his fair share from The Man. In his delusional mind, this made sense to him.

Months later, he showed up at his appointment with the psychiatrist. His doctor was a woman whom he trusted immediately. He said that he told her things he had never admitted to anyone in his whole life. Like he heard voices. And that he was under surveillance twenty-four hours a day. I never guessed this about him. Ever. Paranoid, I assumed. Out of touch with reality, of course. But his diagnosis of schizophrenia explained his years-long inability to see his own illness.

Anosognosia is essentially when a person doesn’t recognize they are sick. It is seen in stroke victims, persons with Alzheimer’s disease, and is present in some people with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Luckily, he received his SSI benefits and, as I mentioned, continues to receive psychiatric treatment. He moved to California and lived with our mom for a few years.

Living in a sober group home

Currently, he is now in a sober group home where, as I also mentioned, they take good care of him. He goes to dual diagnosis meetings, twelve step meetings, and has made a lot of friends.

While he was living with our mom, I began to find studies and articles that showed a correlation between teen pot use and adult mental illness. I found Moms Strong, The Other Side of Cannabis & Smart Approaches to Marijuana. I was overwhelmed by what I was learning. The studies seemed to describe my brother’s life: from his inability to do well in his studies, to his addiction to pot which transferred seamlessly to cocaine, to his devastating mental illness. I asked K if he wanted to write something to warn other young people from making his same mistakes. He agreed. He said if he ever thought pot would make him go crazy he never would have tried it.

For more go to Stop the Insanity

Biden\’s fix for cannabis could become a big problem

On one hand, Biden\’s shift on pot could potentially alleviate a lot of concerns that businesses and investors had about the growth of cannabis in the United States were he to become the 46th president.

On the other hand, the former vice president\’s solution to the cannabis conundrum in the U.S. is worrisome, as it might create more problems than it solves. When questioned by CNN, Bates went on to add:

He [Biden] would allow states to continue to make their own choices regarding legalization and would seek to make it easier to conduct research on marijuana\’s positive and negative health impacts by rescheduling it as a schedule 2 drug.

While this probably seems like a harmless, if not positive, statement by the Biden campaign, rescheduling marijuana to Schedule II from Schedule I — which would acknowledge that the drug has recognized medical benefits — could be a nightmare.

For starters, moving the drug from Schedule I to Schedule II wouldn\’t alleviate the issues U.S. pot businesses have to contend with regarding Section 280E of the tax code. Section 280E disallows businesses that sell a controlled substance (either Schedule I or II) from taking normal corporate income tax deductions, save for cost of goods sold, which is often a small percentage of revenue. This usually leads to profitable marijuana companies paying exorbitant effective tax rates to Uncle Sam. Without the ability to take deductions available to so-called normal businesses, weed companies could struggle to hire new workers and expand.

However, the bigger issue at hand is that a Schedule II classification opens a new can of worms for the U.S. cannabis industry. Being recognized as having medical benefits would put the medical marijuana industry under the strict supervision of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA could tightly control the marketing and labeling of medical marijuana packaging (which is already being done in our neighbor to the north by Health Canada), and it may very well oversee the manufacture of cannabis crops, ensuring cannabinoid consistency.

For complete article go to Biden on Pot