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Portugal exported 66.3 tonnes of cannabis for medicinal purposes in just six months. 🇵🇹🌿

Between January and June 2026, exports reached 66,305 kg — already 83% of the total exported during the whole of 2025.
Germany, Spain and Denmark were among the leading destinations.

Portugal’s medicinal cannabis industry continues to grow rapidly — but the scale of exports also raises an important question: how much of this sector is actually benefiting patients at home?

Source: INFARMED



“Cannabis isn’t a gateway — it’s a way out.”

For years, cannabis was blamed as a “gateway drug.” But for many, it’s been the opposite — a path away from addiction, chronic pain, and dependency on harmful medications.

Used responsibly, it’s helped people manage:
- PTSD
- Opioid withdrawal
- Anxiety & insomnia
- Chronic conditions where other treatments failed

The narrative is shifting - from fear to facts, from stigma to science.

There’s a contradiction worth questioning.

Alcohol and to***co are legal, regulated and taxed. Pharmaceuticals are legal and widely prescribed. Sugar is legal and heavily commercialised.

Yet cannabis — a plant with a long history of medicinal use and now recognised as a medicine in many countries — has spent decades being criminalised.

This isn’t an argument that everything else is harmless. It’s an argument for evidence, proportion and consistency.

If cannabis can have legitimate medical value, shouldn’t policy reflect the science rather than the stigma?

Question the narrative. End the hypocrisy.

PSILOCYBIN IN THE NHS. 🍄🇬🇧

A new UK trial has produced some striking results for people living with treatment-resistant depression.

60 people took part in an NHS-based randomized trial. After a single 25mg dose of psilocybin with psychological support:

• 40% were in remission at 3 weeks — sustained at 6 weeks
• 50% showed a major clinical response by 6 weeks
• Compared with just 3% remission in the placebo group

The trial was delivered within the NHS, including later in a community mental-health setting, and researchers reported that psilocybin was generally well tolerated.
It’s still a small feasibility study, and the researchers acknowledge an important limitation: with psychedelics, participants can often tell whether they received the active treatment, making placebo blinding difficult.

But for people who have struggled with depression despite multiple treatments, these findings are difficult to ignore.

The next step? Larger trials to find out whether these results can be replicated — and whether psilocybin could eventually become part of publicly funded mental healthcare.

📚 Reference: Rucker JJ, Mantingh T, Kerr-Gaffney J, et al. Psilocybin-assisted therapy for treatment-resistant major depressive disorder in a public healthcare setting: a randomized controlled trial. Nature Medicine. Published 6 August 2026. DOI: 10.1038/s41591-026-04541-0.

Bees and cannabis? There’s more to the story. 🐝🌿

Research from Cornell and other scientists has found that flowering industrial h**p can provide an important late-season source of pollen for bees — at a time when other floral resources are becoming scarce.

One study recorded 16 bee species visiting h**p, while another found 23 bee genera using flowering h**p for pollen.

It doesn’t produce nectar, but its abundant pollen could make h**p a valuable part of landscapes supporting pollinators.

Cannabis has a surprisingly important relationship with the natural world. 🌱🐝

**p

Sources: Cornell H**p; Environmental Entomology (2020); Biomass and Bioenergy (2019).

WHO’S REALLY THE CRIMINAL?

Alcohol is legal despite its enormous health burden.

To***co is legal despite being one of the world’s leading causes of preventable death.

Pharmaceuticals are legal despite the risks, side effects and dependence some can cause.

Sugar is legal, everywhere — despite excess consumption being linked to obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and other serious health problems.

Cannabis was demonised, criminalised and portrayed as a dangerous drug.

And yet cannabis has been used as medicine for centuries — long before modern prohibition.

Maybe it’s time to stop judging cannabis by propaganda and start judging it by evidence.

CAN CANNABIS HELP IBS? 🌿

IBS is more than a stomach problem. The gut has its own endocannabinoid system (ECS) — a network involved in regulating gut movement, pain, inflammation, sensitivity and communication between the gut and brain.

Cannabinoids interact with this system, which is why they’re being explored for IBS symptoms such as abdominal pain, cramps, spasms and altered bowel function. Research suggests targeting the ECS could help calm excessive gut signalling and support intestinal balance.

The science is revealing something fascinating:

Your gut has cannabinoid receptors.
Your body makes its own cannabinoids.
And cannabis can interact with that system.

As we learn more about the ECS, we’re beginning to understand why cannabis may have a role in helping people with IBS.

The gut has an endocannabinoid system.
Maybe it’s time we listened to it. 🌿

Sources:
Brierley et al., Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology (2023)
Caruso et al., International Journal of Molecular Sciences (2025)
Role of the Endocannabinoid System in Intestinal Homeostasis (2022)

Medicine has a history — and it isn’t always straightforward.

Some substances once used and marketed as medicines were later found to carry serious risks. Others were used therapeutically long before modern clinical standards existed.

And cannabis deserves a different conversation.

Cannabis has been used as a medicine for centuries, and by the 19th century, cannabis tinctures and extracts were widely used in Western medicine. Its medical use later declined, influenced by problems with consistency and dosing, changing regulation and prohibition.

Now, cannabis is finding its way back into modern medicine — this time through clinical research, standardised preparations and a growing understanding of cannabinoids and the endocannabinoid system.

Swipe through 7 fascinating chapters in the history of medicine — and consider how much has changed.

Because medicine evolves. And sometimes, history deserves another look. 🌿