'I smuggled cannabis oil to help my son'

Former police officer Lisa Quarrell never imagined she would break the law - but this year she began smuggling a cannabis product into Scotland.

Lisa, from East Kilbride, travelled to the Netherlands to bring back a medical cannabis oil to give to her six-year-old son Cole, who has severe epilepsy.

Cole has had brain surgery and tried many anti-epileptic drugs, but nothing was helping his seizures.Lisa has spent thousands of pounds to bring the drug back illegally.She told BBC Disclosure: "I'd sell my house. I would. I can't let him get sicker. I need to get him better. There's nothing else for it."

But now her smuggling days could be behind her after Cole was prescribed cannabis oil legally by a private London hospital.Lisa, left policing five years ago to look after Cole, who was diagnosed with severe epilepsy as a baby.

A bad day for Cole could mean up to 16 seizures, most of which would happen at night.She said: "He'll convulse, he'll click in his mouth, his eyes will roll back, he'll drop to the floor with no notice.It's the most heart-breaking thing to watch. Two-and-a-half minutes has never felt so long as when you're watching your child take a seizure."
"Cole had never had a dream because he didn't get to sleep long enough or deep enough to ever have a dream."

Roth Capital Partners Sees Rare Opportunity For Cannabis Industry, MSOs

Roth Capital Partners analyst Scott Fortune said the cannabis industry represents a unique and sizable one-time opportunity as it converts from an illicit market to a legal one. 


The cannabis industry faces a rare opportunity as the drug heads toward a potential rescheduling in the United States. A new Roth Capital report suggests that multistate operators (MSOs) are the most promising companies in the space.

The Thesis

The reasoning behind rescheduling cannabis in the U.S. is three-pronged, Fortune said in a Friday note.

“Quickening favorable public sentiment, progressive legislation and accommodating regulations should eventually deschedule cannabis as a Schedule 1 drug and bring an end to decades of cannabis prohibition,” the analyst said. 

Texts adopted: "Use of cannabis for medicinal purposes" 13/02/2019- Strasbourg

The European Parliament,

–  having regard to Article 168 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

–  having regard to the question to the Commission on use of cannabis for medicinal purposes (O-000122/2018 – B8‑0001/2019),

–  having regard to Rules 128(5) and 123(2) of its Rules of Procedure,

A.  whereas the cannabis plant is made up of more than 480 compounds, including over 100 cannabinoids composed of both psychoactive and non-psychoactive compounds whereas many of the compounds constituting the cannabis plant are unique to cannabis

B.  whereas D9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) are the best known cannabinoids identified in cannabis, with THC constituting the main psychoactive and addictive constituent of cannabis while CBD has no intoxicating or addictive properties

C.  whereas the numerous other cannabinoids which make up the cannabis plant, such as cannabichromene, cannabinol, cannabidiolic acid, cannabigerol and tetrahydrocannabivarin, can have neuroprotective effects, can help reduce certain symptoms affecting patients – such as chronic pain, inflammation or bacterial infections – and can stimulate bone growth

"Atlas Growers & Biotechnologies, Will Supply Cannabis Products and Funding Clinical Trials at Harvard University"

Atlas Biotechnologies Inc. along with its wholly owned subsidiary Atlas Growers Ltd. (collectively “Atlas”) is pleased to announce that it has secured a research collaboration with the Harvard Global Health Catalyst (“HGHC”) at Harvard University.

Atlas is proud to be a founding partner of the International Phytomedicines and Medical Cannabis Institute at Harvard (“Harvard IPI”), which will represent one of the largest global efforts in research on medical cannabis and phytomedicines.

The Harvard IPI is an initiative of the HGHC, a cross institutional program at Harvard seed-funded by the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard, several Harvard Medical Institutions (including the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital), as well as a growing number of non-profits, industry and foundations. 

A flagship initiative of HGHC is the creation of the world’s premier comprehensive cloud-based cancer center (www.ecancer4all.com), powered by artificial intelligence and faculty from the world’s leading institutions including Harvard University, University of Heidelberg, Oxford University and industry partners.

"Researchers of the University of Colorado examine Marijuana use and short-term outcomes in patients hospitalized for Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI)"

There are known benefits of marijuana for the treatment of numerous medical conditions such as cancer, glaucoma, HIV / AIDS and post-traumatic stress disorder.

However, with increasing use, there is a worrying increase in reports of adverse cardiovascular events after marijuana exposure.



Based on the limited published data, authors hypothesized that marijuana use would be associated with worse in-hospital results in patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI).

Few studies, however, have examined the impact of marijuana use on cardiovascular outcomes such as AMI and are limited by small sample sizes but a study aimed at quantitating long-term effects for marijuana users after AMI showed no correlation between marijuana consumption and long-term mortality in patients after AMI.

The purpose of this retrospective study is to quantify short-term outcomes in AMI patients with reported marijuana use to those with no reported marijuana use. 
The researchers compared the results of AMI patients in the hospital with reported marijuana use to those who did not report marijuana use.
In total, 3,854 of 1,273,897 AMI patients reported using marijuana.