by HempingtonPost | Jun 8, 2020
A team of students in Morocco have successfully developed an environmentally sustainable home made almost exclusively from hemp and solar panels.
The building was erected as an entry into the SUNIMPLANT project’s ‘Solar Decathlon’, a competition organized by the United States Department of Energy and Morocco’s Centre de recherche en Energie solaire et Energies nouvelles to encourage construction of solar-powered buildings.
This design is unique and was built from only locally sourced hemp, vegetable-based bio-resins, and other non-synthetic materials found in the region.
“This ‘spaceship’ is advanced in time and reflects a turn not only in North Africa but in hemp construction, which doesn’t have comparable prototypes anywhere in the world.” — Monika Brümmer, German Architect and Project Leader
Monika is also the co-founder of Adrar Nouh, a Spain-based NGO with a focus on using hemp to build environmentally sustainable homes in Morocco’s poor and rural High Rif region.
The spherical home spans 90 square meters (approximately 969 square feet) and features 24 photovoltaic solar panels with a total price tag of only $120,000. The structure actually costs less than half of the most expensive entries in the competition.
According to Brümmer, the building could be optimized even further if hemp-clay boards were installed as internal partitioning walls and floors. Although funding restrictions did partially obstruct their original goal, the home features some interesting innovations such as hemp wool-derived panels which protect the underside of the solar panels against extreme weather conditions, an important inclusion for a region which reaches up to 114°F in the shade during August and September.
Other contestants included students from Morocco’s National School of Architecture and National School of Applied Sciences and the Fraunhofer Center for Silicon Photovoltaics, located in Germany.
Monika’s building offers the opportunity of an entirely off-grid experience, unencumbered by the need for outside electricity while maintaining the comfort of a modern lifestyle.
“The cylindrical envelope of the circular building, with minimal exposure of the 24 exterior panels, gives interior comfort through optimal damping and thermal phase shift, and osmosis of the components in the hempcrete formulation,” said Monika Brümmer, as reported by Hemp Today.
Demand for hemp-based building materials has been high lately, especially as more people learn that ‘hempcrete’ can replace traditional fiberglass, sheetrock, and drywall and offers superior temperature control, flame resistance, and noise reduction.
The product also has the potential to be carbon-neutral, but US-based growers tend to focus on growing hemp for CBD and other compounds instead of hempcrete, which requires taller and more fibrous hemp stalks.
Despite technical difficulties, this Moroccan ‘hemp house’ shows the world that environmentally sustainable construction is possible.
Phillip Schneider is a student as well as a staff writer and assistant editor for Waking Times. If you would like to see more of his work, you can visit his website, or follow him on the free speech social network Minds.
This article (Moroccan Students Build Off-Grid ‘Hemp House’ Made Almost Entirely from Hemp and Solar Panels) as originally created and published by Waking Times and is published here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Phillip Schneider and WakingTimes.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this copyright statement.
by HempingtonPost | May 7, 2020
Aromatic oils that give cannabis its signature taste and smell might have a role to play in fighting the coronavirus.
Israeli researchers at the forefront of cannabis research are now investigating the potential of a formulation of cannabis terpenes in treating viral infections, COVID-19 included.
Is cannabis effective against COVID-19? Researchers want to know
Secreted in the same glands that produce cannabinoids like THC and CBD, terpenes are aromatic oils that are responsible for the taste and smell of cannabis — but that’s not all that they do.
Research suggests that terpenes play a considerable role in not only tempering the intoxicating effects of THC, but also creating synergy with phytocannabinoids and even increasing their therapeutic value.
In the context of the coronavirus crisis, researchers at the Israel Institute of Technology are testing the therapeutic potential of cannabis terpenes.
During previous severe coronavirus outbreaks, such as those caused by the SARS coronavirus in 2002-2003, researchers found that cannabis terpenes reduced disease severity and impact in both in-vitro and in-vivo. In a 2007 study published in the Journal of Medical Chemistry, Chinese scientists concluded that the terpenes blocked a certain protein that allows the virus to replicate its genetic material.
“Our lab has been approved to operate as a corona lab, and in doing so, we are promoting two studies based on existing cannabis studies,” Professor Dedi Meiri of the Israel Institute of Technology said in a statement for Health Europa.
“First, we will try to identify the plant’s own molecules that are capable of suppressing the immune response to the COVID-19 coronavirus – which causes inflammation and severe disease – to lower the immune system response without suppressing it, thereby providing better complementary treatment to the steroids, which completely suppress the immune system.”
Meiri and colleagues hope that the terpenes might modulate the effect of cytokine storms –– the overreaction of the body’s immune system that can cause complications and multiple organ failure.
The novel formulation is designed to be administered by direct inhalation.
Cytokines are small proteins released by many different cells in the body, including those of the immune system where they coordinate the body’s response against infection and trigger inflammation.
It’s believed that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can trigger cytokine storm syndrome, attacking healthy lungs, eventually causing their collapse.
Besides looking into terpenes’ potential to lower the immune system response, the Israeli researchers are also investigating how these cannabis molecules interact with the ACE2 receptor. It is thanks to this receptor, which is abundantly found in cells in the respiratory tract, that the coronavirus enters cells and begins replicating its genetic material.
“There is a process that examines the effect of cannabis molecules on proteins as well, and we are now examining which ones are relevant to the same receptor, with the goal of reducing its expression, making it difficult for the virus to enter the cell and proliferate,” Meiri said.
Previously, researchers at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada, found that certain Cannabis sativa extracts could be used in treatments to prevent infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
A word of caution
The results of these preliminary studies shouldn’t by any means be considered an endorsement of cannabis in these trying times. COVID-19 is a severe respiratory illness that is known to aggressively attack the lungs. As such, those who smoke tobacco or marijuana might be at particular risk.
Research on cannabis as a COVID-19 treatment is still ongoing and it will likely take a long time before we have clear answers. In the meantime, don’t self-medicate and risk making matters worse.
This story first appeared at ZME Science.
by Paul J. von Hartmann | Apr 22, 2020
Cannabis has finally been recognized as ‘essential’. Growing Cannabis, regardless of THC content, must be encouraged now. Raising THC limits on industrial hemp, federally recognized “strategic resource” is this nation’s first priority. Cannabis stalk processing infrastructure has to be financed with some of the money allocated to the COVID bail-out.
This must happen immediately, before the hemp seed hits the ground. Spring planting season 2020 finds the world writhing in the grip of a global pandemic, in my opinion, caused by terpene deficiencies in Earth’s atmosphere, compared with concentrations of aerosol terpenes seventy years ago. It did not have to go this way. It is truly shameful how far my generation has allowed blatant attacks on democracy & the Rule of Law to advance. Our children will suffer the worst of what we’ve created, unless we act now.The ‘good news’ is, there is something we can do about the systemic dysfunction that afflicts our collective, extinctionistic trajectory: We must demand that government eliminate the THC limits on industrial hemp.
There is nothing about THC that is more dangerous than UV-B radiation. There is nothing more dangerous about THC than there is about COVID virus and other biopathogens circulating throughout Earth’s hydrologic cycle. If THC levels are eliminated in time, America could recover social balance in time to eject a traitorous, pseudo-president from office.Extremes of death, illness despair and sadness swirl around the planet. Fear is as epidemic a the virus itself. People are vibrating at fevered pitch, audible in the quivering voices of news anchors, forced to recite escalating casualty figures & dire warnings, day in & day out.
The FACT that Cannabis produces sustainable biofuels AND complete nutrition, FROM THE SAME HARVEST, ought to ring a bell for anyone who understands the need to grow energy without inducing food insecurity & malnutrition. Cannabis is unique in that. And essential. Funny that, in the midst of a pandemic, marijuana dispensaries have been deemed “essential” businesses here in Oregon. I’ve been writing it for so long, I’d given up hoping that anyone would ever recognize the truth In it. There’s much more to it though. When people realize the fuel potential in Cannabis, by investing in hemp as a biofuels feedstock for making cellulosic hydrogen, electricity & supercapacitors, fossil fuels stocks will plummet over-night.
That’s why there’s so much intentional dysfunction. The longer people are distracted by cognitive dissonance, the more fossil fuels we consume. As soon as we recognize the true essential value of Cannabis, we can begin to evolve toward agricultural abundance supplying Gaiatherapeutic industry. Cannabis agriculture connects the healing of Earth’s atmosphere to our energy consumption. Energy production is the driving force of human economics, but it doesn’t have to be harmful to the Natural Order.
If we make energy from an organic, non-GMO plant, that heals Earth’s atmosphere, water & soil, then consumption becomes healthy for people, animals, and the Earth itself. People have to decide whether they are more worried about THC or global extinction. Those are the choices. Unless we plant hemp everywhere we can this Spring, to produce fuel, food, fiber, & herbal therapeutics, then the chaos that ensues will, at some point, become irreversible, if it is not already. We have to assume it’s not too late to recover balance, in full understanding that time is the limiting factor in the equation of survival.
Our window of opportunity is closing at an accelerating rate. Cannabis agriculture is mankind’s functional interface with the Earth’s Natural Order. The sooner we recognize that, the better our children’s chances will be for a livable future.
by HempingtonPost | Apr 2, 2020
Never has it been more clear than during the current COVID-19 pandemic that marijuana has arrived at the forefront of mainstream American society.
In state after state, governors and public health officials are deeming cannabis businesses “essential” operations that can stay open amid coronavirus-related forced closures and stay-at-home mandates. People might not be able to go bowling or see a movie in theaters, but they can still stock up on marijuana.
It wasn’t long ago that anyone growing and selling marijuana faced the risk of being arrested, prosecuted and jailed. But now, in the era of expanding legalization, cannabis providers in many states are held up as vital members of the community who are providing a valuable service on par with picking up prescription drugs at a pharmacy or filling up your car at a gas station.
Advocacy groups have pushed governors and state officials to ensure that medical marijuana patients in particular can maintain access to the cannabis they need. But because many people who use marijuana for therapeutic purposes don’t necessarily jump through the hoops needed in order to become officially certified as patients, recreational businesses are also seen as crucial access points that need to stay open.
“Most of the American public and an increasing number of government leaders stopped buying into the demonization of cannabis years ago,” Karen O’Keefe, state policies director for the Marijuana Policy Project, said. “Now, not only have two-thirds of states recognized that medical cannabis should be legal—with 11 legalizing adult-use—many are recognizing that safe access to cannabis is essential.”
NORML Executive Director Erik Altieri said it is “encouraging to see our nation’s public policy in practice is finally catching up to where the vast majority of Americans have been for years.”
“The recognition by our government officials that cannabis is indeed not just here to stay, but an essential part of life for millions of Americans—particularly in the patient community—is a welcome move in the right direction,” he said. “It is also a move that could not have come at a better moment for those who still require access to maintain quality of life during these trying and troubled times.”
In some states, officials have enacted new temporary policies such as expanded delivery services or curbside pickup that make it easier for consumers to get their hands on marijuana while respecting social distancing measures. Others are allowing doctors to issue medical cannabis recommendations via telemedicine instead of requiring that they conduct in-person examinations.
Here’s a look at how states that are taking steps to maintain legal marijuana access during the COVID-19 outbreak:
California
Regulators deemed cannabis retail outlets to be essentialbusinesses that can stay open amid a broader stay-at-home order. Localities, including Los Angeles County and San Francisco, have also said that certain cannabis businesses are essential providers that can continue operations.
Colorado
Gov. Jared Polis (D) issued an executive order allowing marijuana businesses to provide curbside pickup services and letting doctors issue medical cannabis recommendations via telemedicine without in-person examinations. A subsequent order from the governor says that marijuana businesses are critical retail operations, but only for the sale of medical cannabis or curbside delivery. Regulators also issued emergency rules temporarily loosening requirements for fingerprinting of marijuana business owners, modification of premises and transfer of cannabis product samples for testing.
Connecticut
Regulators deemed medical cannabis businesses to be essential and thus exempt from a general mandate to suspend in-person operations.
Florida
The state surgeon general issued an order allowing physicians to issue medical cannabis recertifications to existing patients—but not new ones—via telemedicine.
Illinois
Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s (D) stay-at-home order declares marijuana dispensaries and cultivation facilities to be essential businesses that can stay open. Dispensaries are also being allowed to do curbside sales of medical cannabis—but not recreational marijuana—products.
Maryland
Medical cannabis growers, processors and dispensaries. are exempt from an order Gov. Larry Hogan (R) issued to close non-essential businesses. Regulators are also allowing dispensaries to deliver medical marijuana to patients in parking lots.
Massachusetts
Gov. Charlie Baker (R) issued a stay-at-home order deeming medical cannabis businesses—but not recreational marijuana ones—to be essential and exempt from a general shutdown. Regulators also encouraged medical cannabis delivery services to promote and expand their offerings, and are allowing doctors to remotely recommend marijuana to patients through the use of telehealth waivers.
Michigan
Marijuana businesses will be able to continue curbside sales and home deliveries but cannot perform in-person transactions in stores under a stay-at-home order issued by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D). Regulators previously sent a bulletin allowing curbside pickup and encouraging delivery services, and another bulletin extending the period of prequalification status for marijuana business license applicants that may experience building delays.
New Hampshire
Regulators are allowing medical cannabis patients to do curbside pickup at dispensaries and are letting doctors issue recommendations via telemedicine.
New Jersey
Gov. Phil Murphy (D) exempted medical cannabis dispensaries from a stay-at-home order. Regulators moved to allow patients pick up medical marijuana at dispensaries’ curbsides and to reduce caregiver registration fees.
New Mexico
Regulators ruled that medical cannabis businesses are essential and can stay open. They also allowed curbside pickup services, extended expiring patient and caregiver cards for 90 days and suspended background checks for new industry employees.
New York
The state Department of Health deemed that medical cannabis providers are essential businesses not subject to a general closure order. Those that are authorized to carry out home delivery are temporarily allowed to expand those services without written approval.
Ohio
Gov. Mike DeWine’s (R) stay-at-home order exempts medical cannabis businesses from a broader business shutdown. The State Medical Board also moved to allow doctors to issue medical cannabis recommendations via telemedicine without meeting patients in person. Additionally, regulators are letting patients phone in orders ahead of their arrival at dispensaries to reduce time spent inside.
Oregon
Regulators approved rules to allow curbside delivery of marijuana at licensed retail locations and to increase medical cannabis sales limits. They also moved to make it easier to obtain cannabis worker permits.
Pennsylvania
Regulators deemed medical cannabis providers as “life-sustaining” operations that are exempt from Gov. Tom Wolf’s (D) order to close businesses in general. They also took other steps, including allowing patients to have marijuana brought to their cars outside of dispensaries and letting caregivers make deliveries to an unlimited number of patients.
Washington State
Gov. Jay Inslee’s (D) stay-at-home order exempts marijuana businesses as essential, allowing them to stay open. And regulators are allowing marijuana dispensaries to carry out curbside service for medical cannabis patients.
Despite the significant number of states deeming cannabis businesses to be essential and issuing rulings temporarily expanding their services, that is not the case in every legal marijuana market.
In Nevada, for example, Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) and regulators are mandating that all sales be done via delivery, effectively shuttering businesses that only have storefront operations.
And despite the accommodations, many regulators are also directing businesses to implement social distancing measures such as limits on the number of customers who can enter a retail operation at a given time or guidance on physical space between those who are standing in line—changes that can slow down operations and reduce revenue.
Still, many industry leaders seems to understand the public health necessity of such moves, and cannabis law firm Vicente Sederberg LLP, for example, issued a set of suggested voluntary guidelinesfor marijuana businesses to consider.
For now, industry trackers have indicated that sales are strong as consumers stock up in preparation to hunker down at home for several weeks.
Nonetheless, the industry has called on Congress to give it equal access to disaster relief funds—a request necessitated by the fact that ongoing federal prohibition means that their operations are still illegal and not generally eligible for such aid.
Legalization opponents, meanwhile, are not pleased with moves by a growing number of states to keep cannabis stores in business despite the steps intended to foster social distancing at such locations.
“We have seen numerous reports of marijuana stores with long lines of people stocking up on the drug and have additionally seen states move to keep these stores open,” Kevin Sabet, president of prohibitionist organization Smart Approaches to Marijuana, said. “Quite frankly, this presents a unique harm to public health and safety. Across the country, states are doing everything in their power to limit the gathering of people in one location. Long lines outside of establishments engaged in the distribution of marijuana should be a tremendous cause for concern.”
When it comes to consumers, while advocates have cautioned them to consider refraining from smoking or vaping for the time being due to the risk of agitating lungs amid the respiratory effects of the novel coronavirus, they have also pointed out that there are other ways to use cannabis, such as edibles.
For now, the coronavirus pandemic has further highlighted the disconnect between federal and state policies: Under one set of laws cannabis is a banned drug, and under the other it’s a medicine deemed just as essential as any other.
This story originally appeared at Forbes.
by HempingtonPost | Mar 26, 2020
Amid the swirl of information or misinformation being aired and shared regarding the outbreak of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic has been discussion about whether cannabinoids — mostly CBD — has the capacity to kill the virus or stop its contagion.
Is there any truth to such claims? If not, what leads people to make or repeat them?
The short answer is that as of now, there is no cure, treatment, or vaccine for the COVID-19 disease from the coronavirus. Does that mean that cannabinoids are completely ineffective against the virus specifically, or against viruses in general? What about things like bacteria and fungus?
First things first: Cannabinoids have been found to be potent antimicrobials, meaning they work well against many types of bacteria and fungus, with the main “killer app” (pun intended) being the demonstration that cannabinoids can fight superbugs like MRSA and many common fungal infections including Candida. It is a well-known concept that goes back hundreds if not thousands of years and is recently supported by modern science and medicine. Second, cannabinoids do help certain types of viral infections. So, everything’s good, right?
Well, no. Unfortunately, a little knowledge is dangerous, and decades of prohibition of foundational investigative research on Cannabis and cannabinoids have bred some misleading assumptions, including some topics covered elsewhere:
Alas, bits and pieces of otherwise very valid cannabis science can be taken out of context and presented in ways that make people jump to conclusions or on bandwagons claiming that cannabinoids are able to cure every variety of illnesses, including the very unfortunate and scary Covid-19 disease. Conversely, relying on incomplete or bad information could potentially prove to be harmful or even lethal if followed as fact.
The truth is that cannabinoids and terpenes are potent small molecules that act by binding and signaling through the G-coupled master protein receptors (GCPR). The GCPR network includes hundreds of receptors that interact to modulate intracellular cascade signaling networks that are responsible for promoting cellular homeostasis or balance. Cannabinoids, terpenes, and hundreds of other phytochemicals interact through the network, triggering different interactions, via the second messenger (or cascade) system, which elicit responses from the pathways that control a number of different important functions in cells. One such function is a buzzword these days: Apoptosis (i.e., programmed cell death) is how our bodies turn over old cells, kill cancer cells, and use other cells such as macrophages and other killer cells to capture invading cells, viruses, or antigens and render them as non-harmful/nonpathogenic.
There are a host of second messenger systems (e.g., cAMP, AKT, AMPK, Mapk, NF-kappaB, notch, tgfB, etc.), each of which has many control proteins that then respond to trigger or affect other pathways/proteins to achieve the necessary outcome. One of these key pathways is tied to inflammation (of which we know CBD is extremely beneficial): as previously alluded to, apoptosis is involved in anything that is necessary to kill diseased cells, including microbial or virally infected cells. While providing a complete review of cannabinoids and second messenger signaling is beyond the scope of this brief article, suffice it to say that cannabinoids and the endocannabinoid system are like the proverbial “one ring to rule them all”: The endocannabinoid system, through cannabinoids (plant or endo), interact with every other system in the body via second messenger signaling to bring everything into balance.
So, if cannabinoids do work, what is the issue?
Part of the problem is that in some cases specific cannabinoids can in fact help against certain types of viruses, at least in vitro. Some studies have forwarded claims of efficacy in mice or monkeys. Unfortunately, no such studies have been allowed on humans, and the number of viruses studied were small and very specific to types of viruses that are not the novel coronavirus now causing casualties and concern. The viruses that have been studied include mouse hepatitis C (a betacorona virus), human and simian immunodeficiency virus (HIV or SIV), herpes simplex virus (HSV), and influenza viruses. The silver lining is that certain cannabinoids were in fact found able to inhibit the replication of a betacorona virus (MHV) in vitro, so that should motivate further investigation.
The issue remains that there just is not sufficient information. CBD helps with some viruses, but not all. CBD helps reduce inflammation. Some viruses need and cause systemic inflammation in the process of taking over the hosts and easing their transmission to the next set of cells for infection. For those viruses that need and cause inflammation, CBD may indeed help reduce the severity of infection. Is coronavirus a virus that causes or needs systemic inflammation? The answers are not yet clearly known.
Cannabinoids can also be immunosuppressive. Unfortunately, use of CBD or another cannabinoid which reduces inflammation against a virus that doesn’t need inflammation as a mode of host invasion causes a degree of immunosuppression in the host, ergo making any chances of beating the virus worse. That is a vital problem. So, without further study and understanding of the full route of infection, or more understanding of each and every pathway that cannabinoids trigger (including immunosuppression or inhibition of inflammation) — much less all the potential cross interactions — it is premature and potentially hazardous to assume that all cannabinoids will work the same way and achieve the desired effect, based on the premise that someone might have shown a connection in a petri plate or a monkey that a certain cannabinoid is effective against a certain type of virus.
CBD also has been shown to inhibit cytochrome P450 enzymes, which exist in the liver and are responsible for metabolizing up to 60% of currently prescribed pharmaceutical drugs. Combined with the fact that many people do not tell their medical practitioners about their use of cannabinoids, and adding pharmaceuticals that may be prescribed by doctors, the potential to have compounds working at odds with each other increases significantly.
Cannabis is an amazing plant, and it is highly likely that methods can be found to trigger the systems as intended, to achieve desired effects; it is also likely that potent antivirals can be found. Cannabis has potential for products effective against viruses, and the very short list of data presented here should be encouraging toward a call for increased cannabis/cannabinoid research on many different medical fronts. That is especially true in the U.S., whose researchers have been hamstrung by cruel restrictions against researching some of the most fascinating set of molecular assets to present themselves to modern medicine. Science just needs to keep looking for answers and follow the proper route toward new drug discovery and evaluation of new medicines.
This story originally appeared at New Frontier Data.
