Healthcare
Should Healthy People Start Using Cannabis? – What Benefits Would They Get?
With the increasing awareness of the health benefits of cannabis for treating a multitude of ailments, it would be normal for a healthy person to wonder if there are any advantages for them using cannabis.
The truth is that cannabis can still be therapeutic and help even the healthiest of people. You don’t have to be sick or ill to enjoy its health benefits. This plant medicine is extremely powerful for helping mitigate even the most minor occurrences in our day to day lives that can build up over time and make us sick – either mentally, emotionally, or physically.
Understanding The Endocannabinoid System
Before you get to know how cannabis works in the human body, whether for sick or healthy people, it’s essential to understand the endocannabinoid system (ECS).
As humans, we have another system that biology classes of the past did not teach us about: the endocannabinoid system. This complex system as first identified back in the early 1990’s, and while much of it is still mysterious, experts do know that it’s vital for helping regulate many processes that keep us healthy. These include regulating our appetite, mood, sleep, fertility, reproduction, memory, inflammation, and much more. It does so through the massive network of cellular receptors and chemical signals within the ECS.
Meanwhile, the CB1 and CB2 receptors which can be found in the brain as well as other parts of the body, work to regulate other neurotransmitters. This is how cannabis helps to increase or decrease functions in the body such as sleep or hunger in order to achieve homeostasis. These receptors are further stimulated through endocannabinoids, which are compounds similar to the cannabinoids in the cannabis plant except that our human bodies produce our own. While we have our own endocannabinoids in the body, the cannabinoids in the plant help the endocannabinoid system work more effectively and address even minor ailments to promote balance all throughout.
Since the endocannabinoid system helps to regulate so many complex functions in the body, it doesn’t require sickness or illness for us to benefit from cannabis. Instead, think of cannabis as a vitamin or supplement that helps to keep us even healthier in the absence of disease with its ability to address problems such as endocannabinoid deficiencies, nipping any potential sicknesses in the bud.
How Cannabis Benefits Healthy People
Even the healthiest people are prone to certain things such as stress from work, occasional anxiety, and vitamin deficiencies to name a few. Here’s how cannabis can help keep you healthier:
- Stress: Everyone is prone to stress in varying levels. Whether stress is caused by work, pressures of parenthood, family life, or anything else, it has been scientifically proven that constant exposure to stress can kill you. That’s why millions of people count on cannabis during stressful moments in life – it simply makes you feel better immediately but more importantly, it addresses internal processes that are impacted by stress.
These can include fatigue, high blood pressure, migraines, headaches, abnormal heart rhythms, insomnia, and more. stress can also cause anxiety and depression. Studies show that microdosing cannabis is the most effective way to benefit from its stress-fighting properties, so you don’t need to smoke a whole joint to benefit from it when you’re having a tough day.
- Muscle recovery: Regular exercise is critical for health, but with fitness programs, it’s also important to pay attention to muscle recovery. Working out at the gym, trying a new yoga flow, or experimenting with a new workout – no matter what your fitness regimen is comprised of, muscles are prone to soreness, pain, and spasms.
It’s no secret that even elite athletes rely on cannabidiol (CBD) as well as THC to help with muscle repair and recovery after intense or mild workouts. Delayed onset muscle soreness, also known as DOMS, is a common side effect of workout regimen. Athlete or not, people who exercise regularly are prone to this but lighting up with a toke or taking CBD orally can greatly reduce the inflammation and pain associated with exercising.
- Mental health: Sure, your tests show that you are physically fit and healthy. But how about your mental health? If you find yourself vulnerable to the occasional anxiety, mood swings, depressive episodes, or other mental ailments, cannabis is here to help.
People who suffer from these ailments turn to cannabis not just because it makes them happier or makes them feel better. Studies show that THC plays an important role in regulating emotions, suggesting that the endocannabinoid system does help us process our emotions in a healthier manner. Regularly dosing with cannabis can thus help us manage negative emotions so as to not affect interpersonal relationships or increase our stress levels.
- Mindfulness: It can get too easy to be caught up in the trivialities of day to day life, so much so that we forget to live in the present moment, especially with most people becoming addicted to their mobile phones. This is why the practice of mindfulness has grown increasingly attractive for people for all walks of life. The American Psychological Association (APA) says that current research points to mindfulness practices as beneficial for improving cognitive processes that could otherwise lead to problems down the road such as heart disease and stress.
Various forms of cannabis can already help address the stress and anxiety that prevents us from achieving a mindful state. Whether with the relaxation offered by CBD or the mild psychoactivity of THC, a little is all it takes to feel more blissed out and centered no matter how busy or stressful our day would be without cannabis. Use it as a tool for your meditation and yoga sessions, or to reflect at the start or end of your day.
Conclusion
With these tremendous benefits offered, there’s no reason that even healthy people can’t take advantage of the impact of cannabis for the human body.
New Mexico regulators fined a cannabis operator nearly $300,000 and revoked its license after the company allegedly created fake reports in the state’s traceability software.
The New Mexico Cannabis Control Division (CCD) accused marijuana manufacturer and retailer Golden Roots of 11 violations, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Golden Roots operates the The Cannabis Revolution Dispensary.
The majority of the violations are related to the Albuquerque company’s improper use of BioTrack, which has been New Mexico’s track-and-trace vendor since 2015.
The CCD alleges Golden Roots reported marijuana production only two months after it had received its vertically integrated license, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Because cannabis takes longer than two months to be cultivated, the CCD was suspicious of the report.
After inspecting the company’s premises, the CCD alleged Golden Roots reported cultivation, transportation and sales in BioTrack but wasn’t able to provide officers who inspected the site evidence that the operator was cultivating cannabis.
In April, the CCD revoked Golden Roots’ license and issued a $10,000 fine, according to the news outlet.
The company requested a hearing, which the regulator scheduled for Sept. 1.
At the hearing, the CCD testified that the company’s dried-cannabis weights in BioTrack were suspicious because they didn’t seem to accurately reflect how much weight marijuana loses as it dries.
Company employees also poorly accounted for why they were making adjustments in the system of up to 24 pounds of cannabis, making comments such as “bad” or “mistake” in the software, Albuquerque Business First reported.
Golden Roots was fined $298,972.05 – the amount regulators allege the company made selling products that weren’t properly accounted for in BioTrack.
The CCD has been cracking down on cannabis operators accused of selling products procured from out-of-state or not grown legally:
- Regulators alleged in August that Albuquerque dispensary Sawmill Sweet Leaf sold out-of-state products and didn’t have a license for extraction.
- Paradise Exotics Distro lost its license in July after regulators alleged the company sold products made in California.
Golden Roots was the first alleged rulebreaker in New Mexico to be asked to pay a large fine.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/new-mexico-cannabis-operator-fined-loses-license-for-alleged-biotrack-fraud/
Alabama regulators are targeting Dec. 1 to award the first batch of medical cannabis business licenses after the agency’s first two attempts were scrapped because of scoring errors and litigation.
The first licenses will be awarded to individual cultivators, delivery providers, processors, dispensaries and state testing labs, according to the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC).
Then, on Dec. 12, the AMCC will award licenses for vertically integrated operations, a designation set primarily for multistate operators.
Licenses are expected to be handed out 28 days after they have been awarded, so MMJ production could begin in early January, according to the Alabama Daily News.
That means MMJ products could be available for patients around early March, an AMCC spokesperson told the media outlet.
Regulators initially awarded 21 business licenses in June, only to void them after applicants alleged inconsistencies with how the applications were scored.
Then, in August, the state awarded 24 different licenses – 19 went to June recipients – only to reverse themselves again and scratch those licenses after spurned applicants filed lawsuits.
A state judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Chicago-based MSO Verano Holdings Corp., but another lawsuit is pending.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/alabama-plans-to-award-medical-cannabis-licenses-dec-1/
The Minnesota Supreme Court affirmed that cannabis odor does not constitute probable cause to search a vehicle.
If Minnesota police search a vehicle solely based upon the smell of pot, they can’t justify searching a vehicle, even if there is evidence found of other alleged crimes. Even after appealing a lower court decision to suppress the evidence—twice—the Minnesota Supreme Court agreed, and the dismissal of his charges stands.
In a ruling filed regarding a case the State of Minnesota Court of Appeals on Sept. 13, the Minnesota Supreme Court affirmed that cannabis odor does not constitute probable cause to search a vehicle.
The case has been ongoing for two years. On July 5, 2021, just before 10 p.m., a Litchfield police officer stopped a car for an obscure local law: the light bar mounted on the vehicle’s grill had more auxiliary driving lights than are permitted under Minnesota law. The officer asked the driver, Adam Lloyd Torgerson, for his license and registration. Torgerson, his wife, and his child were present in the vehicle. The officer stated that he smelled pot and asked Torgerson if there was any reason for the odor, which he initially denied. But cops found a lot more than just pot.
A backup officer was called in. The couple denied possessing any pot, but Torgerson admitted to smoking weed in the past. The second officer stated that the weed odor gave them probable cause to search the vehicle and ordered them to exit the vehicle. The first officer searched the vehicle and found a film canister, three pipes, and a small plastic bag in the center console. The plastic bag contained a white powder and the film canister contained meth, which was confirmed in a field test.
Torgenson was charged with possession of meth pipe in the presence of a minor and fifth-degree possession of a controlled substance after the unwarranted search of Torgerson’s vehicle.
Police Aren’t Allowed to Do That, Multiple Courts Rule
But the search had one major problem—cops weren’t searching for a meth pipe. They only searched his car because they could smell pot, and the meth and paraphernalia were a surprise for everyone. Still, they had no grounds to search the vehicle. The man’s charges were later dismissed after the district court determined the odor of cannabis alone was insufficient basis for probable cause to search the vehicle, regardless of whatever other drug paraphernalia they found.
The state appealed the case, but the Minnesota Court of Appeals affirmed the district court’s decision. The case was appealed a second time, this time to the Minnesota Supreme Court, which agreed with the lower court’s ruling.
“This search was justified only by the odor of marijuana emanating from the vehicle,” the Minnesota Supreme Court decision reads. “Torgerson moved to suppress the evidence found during the search, arguing that the odor of marijuana, alone, is insufficient to create the requisite probable cause to search a vehicle under the automobile exception to the warrant requirement. The district court granted Torgerson’s motion, suppressed the evidence, and dismissed the complaint. The State appealed. The court of appeals affirmed the district court’s suppression order. Because we conclude that the odor of marijuana emanating from a vehicle, alone, is insufficient to create the requisite probable cause to search a vehicle under the automobile exception to the warrant requirement, we affirm.”
It amounts to basic human rights that apply—regardless of whether or not a person is addicted to drugs.
Other States do Precisely the Same Regarding Pot Odor as Probably Cause
An Illinois judge ruled in 2021 that the odor of cannabis is not sufficient grounds for police to search a vehicle without a warrant during a traffic stop.
Daniel J. Dalton, Associate Judge of the 14th Judicial Circuit, issued a ruling in response to a motion to suppress evidence in the case of Vincent Molina, a medical cannabis patient arrested for cannabis possession last year.
In that case, Molina was arrested despite the decriminalization of small amounts of cannabis in Illinois in 2019 with the passage of the Illinois Cannabis Regulation and Tax Act.
In some states, the issue of probable cause and cannabis was defined through bills.
Last April, the Maryland House of Delegates approved a bill that reduces the penalties for public cannabis consumption and bars police from using the odor of cannabis as the basis for the search of an individual or auto. Under Maryland’s House Bill 1071, law enforcement officers would be prohibited from using the odor of raw or burnt cannabis as probable cause to search a person or vehicle.
The rulings represent the rights of citizens when they are pulled over by police, even if there are hard drugs involved.
New Mexico cannabis operator fined, loses license for alleged BioTrack fraud
Marijuana companies suing US attorney general in federal prohibition challenge
Alabama to make another attempt Dec. 1 to award medical cannabis licenses
Pot Odor Does Not Justify Probable Cause for Vehicle Searches, Minnesota Court Affirms
New Mexico cannabis operator fined, loses license for alleged BioTrack fraud
Alabama to make another attempt Dec. 1 to award medical cannabis licenses
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