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The days of Republicans hard stances against marijuana have seemingly gone up in smoke. On Thursday, President Trump signed an executive order to reschedule marijuana as a Schedule III substancean effective downgrade from Schedule I, the most dangerous classification, which includes substances like heroin. The change could allow for marijuana to be used in more medical research, and the order also authorized the creation of a pilot program to reimburse Medicare patients for CBD products. The reclassification does not legalize marijuana, and seemingly completes or finalizes a recommendation made by the Biden administration in 2022 that the drug be rescheduled. The Attorney General shall take all necessary steps to complete the rulemaking process related to rescheduling marijuana to Schedule III of the CSA in the most expeditious manner in accordance with Federal law, the executive order reads. Notably, Trumps reclassification order was signed days after Trump ramped up his administrations stance on another controlled substance, fentanyl. On Monday, he signed another executive order that called fentanyl closer to a chemical weapon than a narcotic, and designated it as a weapon of mass destruction. Cannabis stocks actually ended Thursday in the red, despite the news. Tilray Brands, for example, was down 4.3% for the day, and Canopy Growth was down almost 12%. Members of the cannabis industry are cautiously optimistic about what the executive order actually means, however. The Administrations order calling to remove the cannabis plant from its Schedule I classification validates the experiences of tens of millions of Americans, as well as those of tens of thousands of physicians, who have long recognized that cannabis possesses legitimate medical utility, said Paul Armentano, the Deputy Director at NORML, an organization that advocates for cannabis reform laws, in a statement. This directive certainly marks a long overdue change in direction. Others are much more skeptical of what it means for the legal market, but do think the changes mark a boon for medical cannabis. Cannabis is still federally illegal, said Ryan Hunter, the chief revenue officer at Spherex, which creates vapes and cannabis-infused gummies, in comments shared with Fast Company. The real win here is for medical cannabis, he added. At Schedule III, its much more practical for mainstream physicians to prescribe cannabis products. Still others are simply happy to see reclassification come to fruition. We welcome the decision to reschedule cannabis. This long-overdue step aligns regulation with science and public opinion, providing a necessary foundation for patient relief and compliant business growth, said Socrates Rosenfeld, the CEO and co-founder of Jane Technologies, which creates software for cannabis businesses, in a statement shared with Fast Company. We are hopeful this marks the beginning of real momentum toward the broader, systemic reform needed for a truly just and accessible industry.
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E-Commerce
Dont beat yourself up if you do some serious damage on a cheese plate during holiday festivities this year: You just may do your future self a favor. A new study has found that eating nearly 2 ounces or more of high-fat cheese each day has been associated with a 16% lower risk of dementia, according to the study published this week in Neurology. Lest you think this is some sort of propaganda by Big Cheese, the study followed nearly 28,000 adults in Malmö, Sweden for roughly 25 years. The studys findings indicate that Swedes who ate more cheese with a fat content exceeding 20%which includes many varieties of cheddar, gouda, and blue cheese, among othershad a lower risk of all-cause dementia. The researchers didnt find a similar link with other high-fat dairy products and noted that further confirmation of these findings in diverse populations is warranted. While the amount of cheese in questionequivalent to less than a handful of diced cubesmay not seem significant, scientists are keen to identify even something small that could raise or lower the risk of dementia. More than 6 million Americans are currently living with dementia, and 42% of Americans over the age of 55 could eventually develop such declines in mental abilities, according to figures from the National Institutes of Health. QUESTIONING THE FINDINGS It might be tempting to give yourself permission to go wild on full-fat cheese for your brain, though your waistline could pay the price. The studys authors said their findings require caution in interpretation, something that other experts were quick to do. The researchers only captured the dietary habits of participants at one point in 1991 and didnt follow up with the majority of them over the course of the next 25 years. This sort of approach raises questions about the robustness of the studys conclusions, Dr. Tian-Shin Yeh, a physician and nutritional epidemiologist at Taipei Medical University in Taiwan, wrote in an editorial published alongside the study. Whats more, the benefits of eating high-fat cheeses were most evident when participants swapped cheese for other foods, like processed or high-fat red meat, which might just reveal the difference of better options, according to Yeh. It is not so much that high-fat cheese is inherently neuroprotective, but rather that it is a less harmful choice than red and processed meats, she wrote. BENEFITS OF CHEESE The findings may not apply to somewhere like the U.S., where much of our cheese is processed, according to Emily Sonestedt, who led the new study and is a senior lecturer and associate professor of nutrition at Lund University in Sweden, Still, its possible that there are benefits from certain healthful components of cheese, like vitamins K or B12, or minerals like calcium, she told The New York Times. As with any of these sorts of studies, its also important for people to remember that correlation doesnt imply causationsomething Sonestedt reinforced. This does not prove that cheese prevents dementia, but it does challenge the idea that all high-fat dairy is bad for the brain, Sonestedt said in an email to CNN. HIGH-FAT FOODS IN FOCUS Some people dont need purported brain benefits to convince them to eat foods high in saturated fats. These foods have been embraced in the keto diet, among others, in recent years, despite long-standing nutrition guidelines that recommend people limit their consumption of foods high in saturated fats because of the evidence that they raise LDL cholesterol levels, along with the risk of heart attack or stroke. But those guidelines are likely to see a shake-up in 2026 as Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. secretary for health and human services, has said that the next edition of the federal dietary guidelines will instead stress the need to eat saturated fats, dairy, fresh meat, and vegetables. And even if the results of this study are appealing to cheese lovers, the quirks of how the research was conducted mean that some experts arent exactly buying the results. NOT BUYING IT In fact, because the link between cheese consumption and dementia risk was at the margin of statistical significance, it could be due to just chance, notes Dr. Walter Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston. Im not running out to buy a block of cheese, Willett said in an email to CNN.
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E-Commerce
Bitcoin investors are bracing for Witching Friday tomorrow, December 18, when billions of options are due to expiremaking for what could be a highly volatile, roller-coaster ride at the end of the week for the markets. Some $23 billion in contracts are set to expire just on Deribit, the largest Bitcoin exchange, according to Bloomberg. Here’s what to know. What is ‘Witching Friday’? “Witching Friday,” also known as “triple witching” or “the triple witching hour,” refers to the last hour of the stock market trading session on the third Friday of March, June, September, and December, when three kinds of securities expire simultaneously, often leading to increased volatility. Those securities are: stock index futures, stock index options, and stock options, (plus single-stock futures), according to Decrypt. These “triple witching” days often generate more trading activity, thus more volatility, or larger swings, since the expiration of the contracts trigger buying or selling of the underlying security, per Investopedia. “These witching days simply indicate higher volume and the ability to inflict maximum pain if certain thresholds are hit,” Michael Terpin, author of Bitcoin Supercycle and CEO of Transform Ventures, told Fast Company. “It’s by no means a guarantee of falling prices, but with the steady drumbeat of fear in the market, including the Japan rate hike decision, the odds of a lower low grow higher.” Where does Bitcoin stand now? In the lead-up to Friday’s event, Bitcoin continues to fall, as it has in recent weeks, triggered in part by the Federal Reserves recent interest rate cut by 25 basis points on December 10, and compounded by uncertainty over the long-term, macroeconomic environment ahead, the Bank of Japan’s potential rate hike, and fear of growing U.S. inflation in 2026. On Thursday afternoon, at the time of this writing, the digital cryptocurrency (BTC) was trading down nearly 1%, dipping well below $90,000, to $85,184. Its part of an overall decline in the crypto market that also saw closely watched digital asset XRP fall nearly 2%, hovering around $1.82 per token on Thursday, while Ethereum (ETH) held steady and was trading at $2,802 at the time of this writing.
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E-Commerce
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