Examine, a free weekly newsletter covering science with a sceptical, evidence-based eye, is sent every Tuesday. Below is an excerpt – sign up to get the whole newsletter in your inbox.
We’re going to try something new, and possibly quite dangerous, in Examine this week: predictions. After speaking to a range of top scientists across Australia, here are four big things I reckon will shape the year in science. We’ll come back to this list at the end of the year to see if I got it right!
Let me give you a sense of the state of medical cannabis in two news bites.
Workers pack medical cannabis, at UNIVO Pharmaceuticals in Israel.Credit:AP
The first is from a company called Levin Health, which has signed up a bevy of A-list sports talents to promote its medical cannabis business; AFL coaches Chris Scott and Damien Hardwick, rugby’s Andrew Johns and basketballer Lauren Jackson are joining forces “to break down the stigma around medicinal cannabis”.
The other news bite comes from the Australian Pain Society’s annual scientific meeting, which held a session called, “Is medicinal cannabis the next opioid crisis waiting to happen?”
I suspect medicinal cannabis could be the thin edge of the wedge that is being used by some to achieve a larger goal: cannabis legalisation. After the Legalise Cannabis Party picked up two seats in Victoria’s upper house late last year, we can expect this barrow to be pushed even harder.
Here’s my concern: “Medical cannabis” is a very different concept to “legal cannabis”. A vast and powerful medical cannabis industry now operates in America and Australia, pushing a product that is rapidly growing in use – prescriptions are up 50 per cent since 2020 – yet there is little rigorous scientific evidence to support it.
Genes, weed and long COVID: Four predictions about the year in science
Examine, a free weekly newsletter covering science with a sceptical, evidence-based eye, is sent every Tuesday. Below is an excerpt – sign up to get the whole newsletter in your inbox.
We’re going to try something new, and possibly quite dangerous, in Examine this week: predictions. After speaking to a range of top scientists across Australia, here are four big things I reckon will shape the year in science. We’ll come back to........
© The Sydney Morning Herald
visit website
login
who are we?
contact us
qosheapp
Toi Staff
Gideon Levy
Yara Hawari
Patrick Gathara
Andrew Mitrovica
Marwan Bishara
Tafi Mhaka
Julie Bindel
Jan Egeland
Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi
Fisayo Soyombo
