Botanicals

Pinellas County sheriff’s deputies arrested a former employee at an assisted living facility on Friday, saying he ingested an unregulated drug called kratom and fell asleep while a disabled man in the backseat of the company minivan died in the heat. Russell had taken John LaPointe, 35, to a doctor’s appointment on May 9 from Crossroads of Pinellas, Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said at a news conference. LaPointe, who had Down syndrome, was non-verbal, and had the intellectual capacity of a 1-year-old, was belted in the back seat of the van when Russell stopped at his own house on the way back to the facility. While at his home, Russell ingested two packets of kratom powder. According to the National Institute for Health’s Drug Abuse Institute, kratom is a tree native to southeast Asia. Its...

Paraguay is set to establish rules for the country's first commercial cannabis production licenses, Julio Mazzoleni, the Paraguayan minister of public health and social welfare, announced last ...

Thailand’s Bhumjaithai Party has announced that it will be proposing a bill that will allow the country’s households to grow up to six cannabis plants. Thailand has a long tradition of using cannabis and the kratom plant for wellness purposes. It was the first Southeastern Asian country to regulate medicinal cannabis in 2018, when a law was passed unanimously in favor of the policy change. “The principle is for medical use,” said Bhumjaithai Party official Supachai Jaisamut. “You can have it at home for ailments, but not smoke it on the street.” Jaisamut estimated that the law could come to a vote in the next six months. Such a bill would break the current monopoly held by the Thai government on marijuana production, and empower doctors outside of governmental hospitals to treat pati...

For all the talk about how cannabis will transform the worlds of health and wellness, one impediment stands in the way of its ascendance: an education gap. Marketers and entrepreneurs of all stripes ...

Kratom is marketed for its psychoactive and opioid-like analgesic effects, the council says. "The mayor and council are concerned by the health problems posed by the use of kratom, the potential ...

Kratom is a dietary supplement used for pain relief and a natural alternative to treat opioid withdrawal, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and other health conditions. It’s grown in ...

InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips ... companies can apply for a license from Health Canada to sell cannabis edibles, beverages, and vaping products, as well as ...

Kratom, a popular herbal substance of Southeast Asian origin, continues to be targeted by the federal Food and Drug Administration, which has issued numerous health warnings about it. The agency has ...

There's arguably no industry generating more excitement right now than legal marijuana. Last year, Canada became the first industrialized country in the world to legalize the use of recreational ...

The New York State Department of Health is now investigating high levels of vitamin E acetate in cannabis products as ... Michael Felberbaum to CBS News. “Importantly, identifying any compounds ...