Washington Could be the 5th State to Allow Medical Cannabis in Schools

      The Washington State Senate has passed a bill requiring school districts to allow parents to administer CBD infused products on public school grounds, on buses and at school sanctioned events. Following a 77-19 vote in the Washington House, the bill passed easily in the Senate with a vote of 41-4 and is now headed back to the House for final approval. Students receiving the nonsmokable cannabidiol must be registered in the state medical cannabis database and only their parents are permitted to administer the CBD rich products, a provision meant to protect school district employees from issues with the Federal Government. Additionally, portions of the bill requires a review of the program if the federal Government does threaten school funding.

      The prime sponsor of the bill for the third year, Representative Brian Blake, D Aberdeen commented “We want to give the school system, the K-12 system, some comfort because they said they were stuck between a rock and a hard place. I think there was some objections in the Republican caucus about the word marijuana in the title. think it freaked people out.”

 (From Rep Brian Blake quote to Spokesman Review)

      Despite recent advances in Cannabidiol public policy and science, thirty three states and D.C. have full plant medical cannabis systems, with ~17 more having high CBD laws, the FDA famously approved the first oral CBD spray in 2018 and the University of Alabama Birmingham recently found CBD to be an effective treatment for seizure disorders, school districts around the country still struggle at the intersection of local, state and Federal cannabis laws. Remarkably, if passed Washington would only be the fifth state to require school districts statewide to allow parents to administer medical cannabis at schools.

Medical Cannabis, an Effective Treatment for Cancer

     Studies show medical cannabis can not only be a useful tool in managing the side effects associated with cancer treatment, but also medical cannabis can be an effective treatment for battling cancer itself. For years patients and care givers have enlisted cannabis as an essential tool used to negate the terrible side effects associated with cancer therapy like nausea, lack of appetite, depression and anxiety. As laws loosened around the country and more and more patients began using medical cannabis, reports began to emerge that medical cannabis was an effective treatment for cancer. Now the evidence is beginning to move beyond anecdotal, and emerging research suggests that the terrible “devil weed” may actually be a powerful cancer fighting drug.   

Cannabinoids  

     There are two major cannabinoids found on the cannabis plant that help fight cancer. They are Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and Cannabidiol (CBD). Both were discovered in Israel in the 1960’s and have been shown to have a wide variety of medicinal effects. THC is the famous cannabinoid that gives weed its high, while CBD is a bit lesser known and doesn’t produce a high. Numerous studies have shown both CBD and THC are effective in treating cancer by attacking the disease and by acting with traditional cancer treatments.  

Studies

      Due to its more lenient cannabis laws, researchers in Spain have been at the forefront of cannabis research. Dr. Christina Sanchez of Compultense University and her team of researchers discovered that THC kills cancer by inducing apoptosis. Probably one of the funniest words in medicine, apoptosis is the process by which a cell dies, essentially committing suicide. When cells do not go through apoptosis they divide out of control, and voila a tumor is born. Dr. Sanchez told Cannabis Planet in 2014, “Cells can die in different ways, and after cannabanoid treatment, (cancer cells) were dying in the clean way. They were committing suicide which is something that you really want.” She goes on to say. “One of the advantages of cannabanoid based medicines would be that they target specific tumor cells. They don’t have any toxic effect on normal non-tumoral cells. This is an advantage with respect to standard chemotherapy which targets basically everything.”

      In an Israeli study, CBD also has been shown to increase apoptosis by reducing inflammation in cancerous cells. An Italian study also proved that CBD promoted apoptosis by increasing the presence of a special category of molecules called reactive oxygen species. Other studies show cannabinoids aid pharmaceutical cancer fighting drugs in brain and prostate cancers to reduce the size of tumors. CBD and THC therapy, coupled with chemotherapy drugs, is a promising new avenue in cancer research, but researchers agree more studies are needed before we can say for sure medical cannabis is a treatment for cancer.  

CBD Basics

A great article on CBD.

http://www.cannabisfn.com/cbd-101-buy-much-take/