Author: toker

Louisville’s first medical cannabis dispensary opens

Source link

The Role of Medical Marijuana in Managing Chronic Conditions

Dogs living with chronic health issues deserve comfort, relief, and a better quality of life. Medical marijuana, particularly hemp-derived options, has drawn attention as an alternative way to support their well-being. As research expands, veterinarians …

Continue reading “The Role of Medical Marijuana in Managing Chronic Conditions”

Source link

New Platform Aims to Become ‘Trustpilot for Medical Cannabis’ with Verified Patient Reviews

As incoming European markets look towards alternative delivery mechanisms like oils and vaporisers, more mature markets like the UK remain dominated by traditional dried cannabis flower, representing around 80% of all prescriptions. 

Despite conistent double digit growth, rising 262% since 2022 and seeing 10 tonnes of flowers prescribed in 2024, the UK still lacks a centralised tracking system, mandatory product registry, or official source for patient feedback other than individual private clinics. 

This not only means that analysts and industry stakeholders are left to trudge through messy Freedom of Information (FOI) data to gauge the size of the market and the shifting trends within it, but it also creates space for private companies in a position to amass this data to dominate. 

Now, a new platform aiming to be the ‘Trustpilot of medical cannabis’ is hoping to help democratise this data and put it in the hands of patients. 

Arron Dando, the creator of CannaBias, told Business of Cannabis: “I found that I seemingly go to multiple different sites to understand what it is that I’m purchasing. Sometimes I don’t know if it’s a sativa or an indica. It’s really quite tricky for me as a patient to actually understand what it is that I’m getting.”

What is CannaBias?

CannaBias, now in early access, positions itself as a ‘moderated, safe and independent review platform’ for UK medical cannabis patients, providing verified, batch-by-batch feedback on their prescribed products. 

Its creator, Dando, says that his background developing ‘safety-critical’ software for the UK’s national infrastructure has shaped his approach to medical cannabis and his new platform. 

“If you drive a car, you’ve probably driven past an AI system that I put on the highways,” he explained. “It applies quite neatly to medicinal cannabis because, again, it’s a heavily regulated safety-critical industry.”

Its inception, he explains, stems from his own frustrations as a patient: “I may go online, I see something working well that could be worth trying, but then I get it, and it doesn’t match the review. That could be because that person’s biased, or it could be because the batch quality is not consistent.”

With this issue front of mind, CannaBias is engineered to track reviews at the batch level, rather than simply by the product name, and well beyond the point of delivery to a patient’s door. 

“At the moment, the traceability stops at the door. The prescription is handed over, and that seems to be the end of it.

“We can tell on average, across the whole data landscape, whether the consistency is varying a lot, or maybe there’s quality control issues that we’re able to pick up quicker.”

While feedback is shared with individual clinics, it’s often sporadic and rarely neutral. 

“If you have five or 10 people saying there’s an issue with this product, that’s much more reputable than one person contacting their clinic and then that clinic contacting the pharmacy or the cultivator.”

Many of the issues CannaBias is targeting mirror those highlighted in an October 2025 themed review of 25 pharmacies regularly supplying CBPM prescriptions. 

In the review, conducted by the General Pharmaceutical Council 68 discrete concerns were identified across the various pharmacies. While 17 pharmacies met all standards, eight failed to comply fully. The GPhC report noted that CBPM dispensing has ‘devolved into putting it in a box and shipping it,’ with little or no pharmacist-patient contact. 

“What industry do we have where a product is manufactured, and they don’t actually get user feedback? There’s all this data out there at the moment, but it’s just not meaningful. It can’t be used in a way that actually benefits anybody.

“Medbud Wiki has lots of information there, and that’s valuable, most definitely, but I find it quite hard to use, quite complicated and not really patient-friendly. I don’t trust that the information is accurate all the time. If you have one person’s review, it’s biased, but if you have 100 people’s reviews, suddenly you’re removing the bias.”

Is Europe Moving Away From Cannabis Flower? – Why Companies Are Betting on CE-Certified Devices

Read More »

January 29, 2026

No Comments

New Platform Aims to Become ‘Trustpilot for Medical Cannabis’ with Verified Patient Reviews

Read More »

January 27, 2026

No Comments

UK’s First Medical Cannabis Legal Helpline Launches as Patients Navigate New Police Guidance

Read More »

January 26, 2026

No Comments

How it works

At the heart of the platform is a verification system designed to ensure every review is left by a verified patient who has tried that specific product.

The current process requires three photographs of the product packaging, ensuring one review per batch, per product, per patient. Each review is sent to an AI system for initial automated verification, then to manual human verification before patients can view products on the platform and submit reviews.

This three-stage system is, according to Dando, a prelude to a more sophisticated approach once clinic partnerships are established.

“If a clinic wants to be involved, then there is a stronger method of verification which is linked to them,” he explained. “We don’t hold any medical data with either process.”

With talks already underway with several clinics, Dando envisions a streamlined future where patients simply scan a QR code on their prescription packaging to verify their product.

“The route that I’ve always had in mind is actually having a QR code inside the prescription. I’ve seen QR codes on my prescriptions. I know this is possible.”

Accessibility is another core tenet of the platform, ensuring the entire patient population can use and navigate the site with ease.

“A lot of companies don’t actually make their sites accessible, although they should do so by legislation. Accessibility is pretty important for us.”

Rather than requiring patients to type extensive information, the platform is built around photographs. “If they don’t want to type, they just take photos. And it’s integrated within your phone. It’s mobile optimised.”

Go-to-market strategy

Rather than a traditional consumer launch, Dando is pursuing multiple routes to patients through the industry’s existing infrastructure, from patient association memberships to a network of ambassadors who can manually verify reviews.

“Working within such a small and regulated industry, there’s quite a lot of direct routes to patients. I’ve got every base covered, if necessary.”

The platform is currently in user testing with hand-selected patients, with full launch targeted for the end of January. The immediate focus remains on validating the data collection process.

“The data that we collect is the most important. It affects everything else that we do from that point onwards. So we need to make sure that that’s paramount.”

The post New Platform Aims to Become ‘Trustpilot for Medical Cannabis’ with Verified Patient Reviews appeared first on Business of Cannabis.

Source link

U-M Study: 1 in 5 Young Adults Using Marijuana, Alcohol to Fall Asleep

• About 22% of young adults use cannabis, alcohol, or both to help them fall asleep, according to a University of Michigan study
• Experts warn that relying on substances to sleep can worsen sleep quality and increase the risk of dependency
• Cannabis advocates say, when used properly, the drug may help promote better rest  

Struggling to fall asleep, many young adults are reaching for marijuana or alcohol at bedtime, a University of Michigan study found.

U-M’s annual Monitoring the Future Panel study found that 22% of adults between the ages of 19 and 30 used either cannabis, alcohol or both to sleep. 

Of the two, marijuana was more common, with 18% using the drug to fall asleep, compared to 7% of participants who used alcohol. 

While advocates say cannabis can be a low-risk alternative to sleep medications, using drugs or alcohol for sleep could “backfire because they can interfere with the ability to stay asleep and with the quality of sleep,” said Megan Patrick, research professor at the Institute for Social Research at U-M. 

“They appear to actually disrupt sleep in the long term. The fact that so many young adults reported that they use cannabis to sleep is alarming.”

Sleep deprivation, or the lack of sleep, is a common condition that many Americans experience, according to a study published in the National Library of Medicine. It is generally recommended that adults get between 7-9 hours of sleep per night. If not, it can lead to excessive daytime sleepiness. 

Factors like excessive screen time before bed can prevent the brain from releasing melatonin, the “sleep hormone.” 

People who work early morning or late night shifts tend to have a harder time falling asleep and generally get fewer hours of sleep, according to the study. 

“Unfortunately, there is a misconception that substance use can be helpful for sleep problems, but it can make things worse,” Patrick said. “High-quality sleep is critical for mental health and regulating mood. Young adults told us that they are using cannabis to try to get to sleep, but doing so may make their sleep problems even worse. They need to know the potential risks.”

Cannabis as sleep aid 

While medical experts warn that relying on substances to sleep can increase the risk of dependency or substance abuse, cannabis advocates argue that, when used responsibly and in the right doses, the drug can offer real benefits for those struggling to fall asleep naturally. 

Cannabis has become more widely accepted in recent years, particularly for its medicinal benefits. Michigan voters approved a measure to legalize medical marijuana use in 2008 and later approved recreational use in 2018. 

A 2023 study published by the National Library of Medicine found that participants who used cannabis were able to reduce or completely stop prescription medication to help aid them with sleep.  

“We sell thousands of packs of sleep gummies every week. I didn’t realize how many people had sleep problems,” said Jerry Millen, owner of Greenhouse dispensary in Walled Lake. “A lot of seniors can’t sleep, and a lot of young people now are stressed out and they can’t sleep either.” 

The study found that cannabis that contains low levels of THC, a psychoactive cannabinoid that can produce relieving, sedative or euphoric effects, can help ease falling asleep and increase lower sleep time. 

Cannabis that contains a high concentration of CBD, a nonpsychoactive cannabinoid, can have a sedating effect, while a lower dosage can actually have a stimulating effect. 

“People are getting off opioids with cannabis. People are replacing alcohol with cannabis,” Millen said. “If you have a vice and you want to ‘abuse’ something, I suggest you use cannabis.” 

Practicing good sleep hygiene 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that adults get at least seven hours of sleep each night. 

Getting good quality sleep can decrease the number of times you get sick, maintain a healthy weight, reduce stress and improve your heart health and metabolism. 

The CDC offers several recommendations for getting better, more restful sleep: 

• Going to bed and getting up at the same time every day
• Keeping your bedroom quiet, relaxing, and at a cool temperature
• Turning off electronic devices at least 30 minutes before bedtime
• Avoiding large meals and alcohol before bedtime
• Avoiding caffeine in the afternoon or evening

Article originally written by Janelle D. James with Bridge Michigan

This article first appeared on Bridge Michigan and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The post U-M Study: 1 in 5 Young Adults Using Marijuana, Alcohol to Fall Asleep appeared first on Weedmaps News.

Source link

Trio appear in court charged with €10m seizure

Source link

Announcing the nominees for Leafly Strain of the Year 2025

Five strains. Five breeders. Only one winner. Here are our nominees for Leafly Strain of the Year 2025.

The post Announcing the nominees for Leafly Strain of the Year 2025 appeared first on Leafly.

Source link

Marijuana Dispensary Near Me: Choosing a Trusted Delivery Service

Searching for a “marijuana dispensary near me” may seem simple, but for many consumers, it raises an important question: who can actually be trusted? In an industry shaped by evolving regulations, payment limitations, and inconsistent …

Continue reading “Marijuana Dispensary Near Me: Choosing a Trusted Delivery Service”

Source link

You’re Not Supposed to Smoke Weed Here. So Why Did This Feel Normal?

I was told (correctly) that cannabis in the Dominican Republic is illegal. Minutes later, after a conversation that felt less like a transaction and more like a mutual acknowledgment, I was holding a joint that was not quite a joint like I’ve ever seen before, rolled not in thin white paper but in cigar leaf paper, brown, the kind used to roll habanos, as if the culture itself had decided that if this plant was to be smoked, it would be smoked on local terms.

That Dominican joint was offered to me almost immediately after leaving the airport in Punta Cana. It happened so fast that I declined the first offer, more out of surprise than caution.

I have no idea if this is how Dominicans always do it. So far, I’ve been unable and unwilling to ask anyone who might settle the question.

The paper burned slowly, as expected, and with every draw it reminded me that tobacco had been here long before cannabis learned how to ask for shelter. In the Caribbean, tobacco is an institution. Entire cities were shaped around drying leaves, around thousands, maybe millions, of hands trained to roll before they ever learned to read. Cannabis arrived later, without ceremony, and wisely chose not to challenge any of this. It slipped into the existing choreography of smoke, a quiet guest who knows better than to rearrange the furniture.

In places like this, where cigars are not symbols but facts of life, cannabis borrows the ritual. It folds itself into what already exists. That’s why there are no flashy rolling papers, no engineered cones, no talk of strains or percentages. Just leaves, paper, and the unspoken agreement that whatever you smoke will be good enough—or better.

A Dominican cigar leaf comes from different strains of Nicotiana tabacum. The cigar paper changes the experience in quiet but decisive ways. It slows combustion, flattens flavors, and introduces a welcome note of nicotine into the mix. All ways of smoking, after all, are shaped by history and by technology.

Tobacco was once the great extractive obsession of empires, carried from the Caribbean to Europe and back again as capital and addiction. Cannabis, now globalized and branded elsewhere, returns stripped of slogans, wrapped in the leaf of its predecessor, as if acknowledging a lineage of smoke that predates both prohibition and legalization.

Tobacco was here before European law arrived.

It did not come to La Española as a commodity; it is native to that region.

Long before Europeans named the island shared today by the Dominican Republic and Haiti, the Taíno people cultivated and smoked tobacco in ritual contexts, sometimes inhaled through nasal pipes, sometimes rolled into crude forms for ceremonial use. When Christopher Columbus reached these lands in 1492, he encountered tobacco not as a vice, but as a social, medicinal, and spiritual practice. The plant was already embedded in daily life.

What Europeans did was not introduce tobacco, but reorganize it.

By the early sixteenth century, Spanish colonization had turned La Española into a logistical hub of the Atlantic world. Tobacco became one of the few crops that could thrive outside rigid imperial control. Unlike sugar, it required less capital, less land, and less infrastructure. It could be grown by small producers, dried locally, and moved quietly.

Throughout much of the 1600s, tobacco from the northern coast of La Española circulated through contraband networks linking Spanish settlers, enslaved Africans, remaining Indigenous communities, and foreign merchants—especially Dutch and Portuguese. Tobacco taught the island early that smoke could move faster than law.

And What’s the Deal Now?

The Dominican Republic today is one of the world’s leading producers of premium cigars, exporting over a billion dollars’ worth annually to more than a hundred countries. Tobacco remains a national industry, rivaled only by gold and tourism. Factories, fields, and free-trade zones coexist with family operations and informal knowledge passed hand to hand.

If you pay attention, the way a society smokes often tells you more about its relationship to power than anything written in its laws.

It was only afterward, when the taste of cigar paper still lingered like a sentence that refused to end, that I understood the quiet irony of those Dominican guys—the Polanco Brothers—taking over the Nat Sherman cigar house in New York City, a shrine to old money and North Atlantic tobacco mythology, and why they called it destiny rather than a business move.

Only then did the cigar-paper joint make full sense as a small signal of a much larger continuity that lets cannabis borrow tobacco’s rituals in Santo Domingo or Port-au-Prince, and lets Dominican hands redefine luxury cigar culture in Manhattan.

The distance between periphery and center collapses.

Weed and tobacco blur.

All that vanished in smoke.

<p>The post You’re Not Supposed to Smoke Weed Here. So Why Did This Feel Normal? first appeared on High Times.</p>

Source link

THC may protect against Alzheimer’s when paired with this drug

Source link

Midnight Madness at Mint Cannabis Dispensary on Jan 31

Midnight Madness is coming to Mint Cannabis on Saturday, January 31st, and adults are invited to the ultimate late-night party!

Mint is turning up the vibes with a full-on disco madness theme, complete with a disco ball, strobe lights, and music to keep the energy high all night long. Whether you’re coming for the deals, the atmosphere, or the free giveaways, this is one event you won’t want to miss.

What to Expect

– Vendors on-site from top cannabis brands
– Exclusive Midnight Madness deals starting at 11:00pm
– Games, giveaways, and surprises throughout the night
– Free snacks and free hot chocolate
– Disco vibes with music, strobe lights & a glowing disco ball

Midnight Freebie

– Starting right at midnight (12:00am), the first 50 customers to make a purchase will receive a FREE eighth — no better way to celebrate Midnight Madness!

When & Where

– When: Saturday, Jan 31st – Time: 11:00pm – 2:00am
– Where: Mint’s Tempe & Buckeye locations

The post Midnight Madness at Mint Cannabis Dispensary on Jan 31 appeared first on AZ Marijuana.

Source link