18 Aug Top Stories From The Edge – Week of August 14th

A Weekly Roundup of Stories We Found Interesting – From The Profound To The Profane

Justice Department Acted to Shut Down DEA’s Effort to License Cannabis Research Growers
The crackdown has begun. Sessions has effectively stopped the DEA from taking action on more than two dozen requests to grow marijuana to use in research.

Struggling with Marijuana’s Black Market
Officials are having trouble containing pot grown legally in Oregon and other states smuggled out to neighboring black markets. The trafficking is putting America’s multibillion-dollar marijuana industry at risk.

The Highly Publicized Study Linking Marijuana to Hypertension is Flaw
You heard it all week. A report suggesting marijuana use increased the chance of dying of high blood pressure was all over the internet. As it turns out, authors of the research used a “retrospective study” design. That is to say, they didn’t identify any new cannabis consumers to compare their health data to that of non-users. Instead, subjects who had previously acknowledged ever having used cannabis in a 2005-2006 nutritional study, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, were used. Participants who admitted having engaged in past cannabis use were then automatically classified by the study’s scientists as “current users” of weed.

Utah Medical Marijuana Initiative Collecting Signatures
Utah, home of the Mormons, starts to gather the 113,143 signatures required to qualify their MMJ measure for the November 2018 ballot.

Spaceman Favors Legalization
Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, among the most well-known living scientists this side of Stephen Hawking, said this week that “there’s no reason for [marijuana] to ever have been made illegal.” Tyson’s endorsement makes it so much better for Monday Solar Eclipse.

NBA Commissioner Opens to Discuss Medical Marijuana
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, who has not exactly been in support of changing the NBA’s drug policy with respect to marijuana, is apparently loosening his stance on the concept of players using the herb as a substitute for dangerous prescription drugs.

Gorilla Glue Sues Gorilla Glue
The well-known strain of marijuana called “Gorilla Glue” is being dragged to court by the popular adhesive company with the same name. Maybe they are afraid people will be smoking marijuana more than sniffing their glue.