Evidently, so many cannabis users have embraced this strategy before their dental appointments that the American Dental Association (ADA) is speaking out, suggesting patients refrain from cannabis use before their visits. Additionally, a recent survey found that more than half of dentists (52%) reported patients arriving to appointments high on cannabis or another drug.

The findings were uncovered in two surveys: One surveyed 557 dentists; the second was a nationally representative survey of 1,006 consumers. Each survey was conducted as part of trend research by the ADA, which suggests the trend is due to increasing recreational and medicinal cannabis use across the nation. 

As dentists talk through patients’ health histories, Dr. Tricia Quartey, a New York dentist and ADA spokesperson, said that more have disclosed their use of cannabis since it became legal.

“Unfortunately, sometimes having marijuana in your system results in needing an additional visit,” Dr. Quartey said in

Read More

A Montana-based company called Gaize has developed a device which can scan the user’s eye and utilize crazy futuristic robot intelligence to detect THC impairment.

According to the company’s founder, Ken Fichtler, American law enforcement agencies have already agreed to use the technology, though he could not specify which ones. 

“I’ll preface all of this by saying I am pro cannabis. I’m pro cannabis legalization. I’m doing this because I see a distinct need at the federal level to have some product to detect impairment so we can keep roads safe,” Fichtler said.

The device is akin to a virtual reality headset of sorts that a police officer would hypothetically place on the head of a driver suspected of reefer smoking. It shrouds the suspect in darkness for a few moments before shining a bright light to electronically scan the movement of the suspect’s eyeballs.

“The eyes are the window

Read More

SIU researcher Dr. Dale “Buck” Buchanan, who is also a professor of physiology at the university, is a founding member of the Cannabis Science Center. “We started the Cannabis Science Center in … December 2018, when they took it off of the controlled substances lists and legalized use of industrial help nationwide,” said Buchanan in an interview with SIU’s college newspaper, The Daily Egyptian. “Since then there has been an amazing explosion.”

Buchanan explained that since the 2018 Farm Bill was passed, he has been interested in cannabis’s ability to treat cancer. “The vast majority of ovarian cancer research is focused toward extending what we call ‘progression-free survival,’” he added. “So it seems misguided to me that the focus of the research is on this incremental increase in life … so we’re really interested in prevention.”

Although rodents are the easiest subject to study, Buchanan notes that there is

Read More

Could a fentanyl vaccine potentially save thousands of lives? A recent animal study published in the journal Pharmaceutics indicates that a fentanyl vaccine was able to block the drug from entering the brain of rats—thus making it a worthy candidate for human studies and eventually something available to the public that can save lives.

Researchers administered rats with three doses of the vaccine or immunization at three-week intervals, and another group of rats received a placebo. To determine if the drug was working, they tested the immunized rats’ pain responses by heating up their tails for up to 10 seconds and seeing how long they took to pull away.

The vaccination significantly reduced entry of fentanyl into the brain and anti-fentanyl antibodies targeted fentanyl with no cross-reactions to other opioids. 

“We believe these findings could have a significant impact on a very serious problem plaguing society for years—opioid misuse,” study

Read More

Researchers in the United Kingdom are currently recruiting volunteers for a study designed to explore the effects of cannabis on the human brain. Subjects selected for the full study will be paid for their participation in the research, which is being undertaken as part of King’s College London’s Cannabis & Me project.

The researchers conducting the study have said that the research is “paramount” to understanding the science behind cannabis, which they say is used daily by approximately 200 million people worldwide and is subject to legalization efforts in countries around the globe. Dr. Marta Di Forti, a leading cannabis and psychosis researcher and the leader of the new study, noted that “Cannabis is consumed daily by many recreationally but also for medicinal reasons.” 

“But in the UK, the prescription of medicinal cannabis remains rare,” Di Forti added, as quoted by the Daily Mail. “Our study aims to provide

Read More