A significant amount of data has been generated in recent years showingthat cannabis access is associated with reduced levels of opioid use and abuse. But emerging data also indicates that many patients similarly substitute marijuana for a variety of other substances, including alcohol, tobacco and benzodiazepines.

Last month, a team of researchers from Canada and the United States surveyed over 2,000 federally registered medical cannabis patients with regard to their use of cannabis and other substances. (Medical cannabis access has been legal across Canada for nearly two decades).

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By Paul R. La Monica • CNN Business –

April 20 has become the unofficial holiday for marijuana users. So now’s a good time to look at the red hot sector. Cannabis stocks are soaring as the business goes legit.

For decades, though nobody was really sure why, April 20 has been the unofficial holiday for marijuana users and a joke by and about them. Now, though, it’s also a reminder of how quickly marijuana is moving from illegal and a joke to a multi-billion dollar legal business — and a good time for us to take another look at how well cannabis stocks have been doing.

Publicly traded cannabis companies have reported strong sales since Canada legalized pot last October and several U.S. states voted to approve recreational and medical marijuana use.

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U.S. News & World Report –

March 30, 2019 –

COLUMBUS, OHIO (AP) — The Ohio Senate has passed a bill to legalize hemp and hemp-derived cannabidiol oil, a move that could create an industrial hemp industry in the state.

The bill, which was unanimously approved on March 28, would allow for cultivation of hemp as long as it contains less than 0.3 percent THC, the psychoactive active ingredient in marijuana that makes users high. The legislation comes after a 2018 federal farm law reclassified hemp as a commodity rather than a drug.

“It is important to understand that hemp is not marijuana, it is much more versatile and lacks an appreciable amount of THC to cause any psychotropic effects,” Republican Sen. Steve Huffman, a co-sponsor of the bill, said in a statement Thursday. “This is an incredible opportunity for our farmers to help diversify their crops by allowing them to grow legal hemp.”

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By Parija Kavilanz, CNN Business –

The CBD gold rush has begun.

CBD, the chemical found in hemp and marijuana plants, is showing up in shampoos, lattes, body oils, gummy bears and dog treats. It’s being sold in coffee shops and farmer’s markets, mom-and-pops and high-end department stores and most recently, drugstore chain CVS.

“Literally overnight, you’re seeing CBD all around you and in everything,” said Troy Dayton, CEO of The Arcview Group, an Oakland, California-based cannabis investment and research firm. “This is a product that is going from relative obscurity to being on everyone’s mind: producers, consumers and especially entrepreneurs.”

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