Via #TheHill

Originally shared by MarijuanaDoctors.com

Via #TheHill

A Colorado financial institution is suing the federal government to be allowed to serve the state’s growing marijuana industry, according to a report in The New York Times.

The Federal Reserve earlier this month rejected the application from The Fourth Corner Credit Union in Denver, because it intends to provide banking services to state-licensed marijuana businesses.

The federal government still prohibits the use of marijuana, even though many states have taken steps to legalize recreational and medical marijuana.
In response, the Obama administration has loosened enforcement against many marijuana businesses that operate outside of federal law, but it has yet to lift a ban on banks dealing with these companies.

As a result, most banks do not open accounts for marijuana businesses, even if they are operating within states that allow it.

Critics say this is a public safety issue, because it places a target on the backs of marijuana businesses by forcing them to keep large amounts of cash in their stores.

The Fourth Corner Credit Union applied last November to become the first financial institution in Colorado to serve marijuana dealers, but the Federal Reserve rejected their application.

The credit union is now suing the government in federal court for “equal access” to the U.S. financial system, according to the report.

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#Source http://ow.ly/QokQI

A new study reports that chronic marijuana use in teenage boys does not appear to be linked to later physical or...

Originally shared by MarijuanaDoctors.com

A new study reports that chronic marijuana use in teenage boys does not appear to be linked to later physical or mental health issues such as depression, psychotic symptoms or asthma. The study, published by the American Physiological Association, did not include teenage girls.

Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and Rutgers University compiled data by tracking 408 males from adolescence into their mid-30s. The participants were placed into four groups based on their reported marijuana use: low or non-users, early chronic users, participants who only smoked during adolescence, and those who began using marijuana late in their teens and continued through adulthood. Early chronic users reported higher marijuana use, which increased in their teens to a peak of more than 200 days per year on average when they were 22 years old, the news release said.

The study was an offshoot of the Pittsburg Youth Study, which tracked 14-year-old male students in Pittsburgh public schools in the late 1980s, according to a news release. Participants were surveyed annually or semiannually, and a follow up survey was conducted in 2009-2010 when the volunteers were 36 years old.

Based on the results of prior studies, authors expected to find a link between teen marijuana use and the later development of psychotic symptoms, cancer, asthma or respiratory problems but found none, according to a news release.

“What we found was a little surprising,” lead researcher Jordan Bechtold, a psychology research fellow at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, said in the release. “There were no differences in any of the mental or physical health outcomes that we measured regardless of the amount of frequency of marijuana used during adolescence.”

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#Source: http://ow.ly/QwVmE
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Marijuana May Help Organ Transplant Patients By Delaying Rejection.

Originally shared by MarijuanaDoctors.com

Marijuana May Help Organ Transplant Patients By Delaying Rejection.

As the battle against the legalization of medical marijuana continues, a number of reasons have been put forward that actually explains the medical benefits associated with pot. Adding to the list of benefits, a latest study suggests that, Tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, an active ingredient found in marijuana, can help delay rejection of incompatible organs in transplantation patients.

A team of researchers from the University of South Carolina School of Medicine found that THC successfully delayed the organ rejection in a group of mice. For the study, the researchers took two groups of genetically different mice. Skin graft from one group of mice was grafted on to another and vice versa.

While the first group was treated with placebo, the second group was exposed to THC. What researchers observed was strange and surprising at the same time.

"We are excited to demonstrate for the first time that cannabinoid receptors play an important role in the prolongation of rejection of a foreign graft by suppressing immune response in the recipient, said study co-author Mitzi Nagarkatti. "This opens up a new area of research that would lead to better approaches to prevent transplant rejection as well as to treat other inflammatory diseases."

Proving the point you should never discard THC as a powerful cannabinoid!

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#Source: http://ow.ly/RM3Pi
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Nurses group pushing for expanded use of medical marijuana

Originally shared by MarijuanaDoctors.com

Nurses group pushing for expanded use of medical marijuana

If some Arizona nurses get their way, medical marijuana will become available as early as next year to treat everything from arthritis and autism to Tourette's syndrome and traumatic brain injury.

Members of the Arizona Cannabis Nurses Association are petitioning the Department of Health Services to add those conditions and four more to the list of what qualifies people to use the drug. The voter-approved Arizona Medical Marijuana Act requires the agency to consider the requests.

To date, all other efforts have failed -- with one notable exception for post traumatic stress syndrome. And that approval came only after the petition was denied and the case wound up in court.

What may make the outcome this time around different is that the nurses group has apparently figured out exactly what the law requires. Most significant, a medical condition can be added only if there are peer-reviewed studies that have been published in medical journals.

In each of the eight new petitions submitted, attorney Ken Sobel who represents the nurses has provided such references. But it remains to be seen whether these studies prove acceptable to Cara Christ, who took over as state health chief earlier this year.

Thumbs up for those nurses!

#Source: http://ow.ly/RM9im
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