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Friday November 20 2020
In todays report:
FDA details challenges, research gaps in regulating cannabis-derived products
Federal food and drug regulators this week highlighted the challenges they’re facing in regulating CBD and other cannabis-derived products, emphasizing the knowledge gaps that still exist due to a continued lack of data regarding the science of CBD and other cannabinoids.
Kaveeta Vasisht, director of the FDA’s Office of Women’s Health and associate commissioner for women’s health, said because CBD products are ubiquitous in the consumer market and many of them are marketed toward women, the agency called a multidisciplinary conference Thursday on CBD and sex and gender differences to highlight both existing and needed research to address questions surrounding these products.
Douglas Throckmorton, the deputy director for regulatory programs at the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, outlined the agency’s challenges in regulating cannabis-derived products and its plan for moving forward.
Throckmorton stressed that the FDA is evaluating the effects of not just CBD, but also other cannabis-derived products, including many chemical compounds of interest – THC, minor cannabinoids such as CBN, CBG and non-cannabinoid compounds such as terpenes.
Scientific uncertainty. There are too many unknowns about cannabinoids and the other compounds found in hemp, Throckmorton said, including:
Effects of cumulative and long-term human exposure.
Effects of CBD in susceptible populations, such as children, pregnant and lactating mothers and the elderly.
Reversability of adverse nonclinical effects.
Pharmacologic issues, such as how CBD interacts with other drugs, toxicology of the substance and metabolic profiles across toxicology species.
Impact of excipients and fillers used in marketed CBD products on bioavailability, i.e. topicals, transdermal patches and smoking and vaping products.
Potential consequences of the use of CBD on the liver, male reproductive system and the central nervous system, based on published studies from the Epidiolex Development Program.
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Cannabis is one of five essential plants in the Vedas: Dr Uma Dhanabalan
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There’s A ’50-50 Chance Connecticut Will Legalize Marijuana In 2021, New House Speaker Says
As more of its neighboring states move to legalize marijuana, Connecticut is increasingly likely to enact the reform itself, incoming House Speaker Matt Ritter (D) said on Thursday. He put the chances of state lawmakers passing a legalization bill during next year’s legislative session at 50–50., and said that the body should hold a vote on the issue regardless of whether it has enough support to pass.
“It is now legal in New Jersey, New York is coming, and it’s legal in Massachusetts,” Ritter said at a virtual meeting hosted by a business organization. “Connecticut cannot fortify its border.”
Lawmakers in neighboring Rhode Island also recently took up a legalization bill there at a hearing this week, and top lawmakers in the state are preparing a push to end cannabis prohibition in 2021.
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Madison, Wisconsin, will stop arresting people for marijuana possession
Madison, Wisconsin, home of the University of Wisconsin Badgers, just voted to decriminalize small amounts of #cannabis for all adults 18 and older. It remains illegal in the rest of the state. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy, file)
In a sign of progress for Wisconsin, the city council of Madison voted to update its laws #decriminalize -ing #marijuana use and #possession on Tuesday.
Although Wisconsin state law still still makes it a crime to possess any amount of cannabis—even in Madison—the city’s police department won’t pass charges for anyone who has 28 grams or less to the Dane County District Attorney’s office.