A new drug derived from marijuana led to a landmark change in the US government’s stance on cannabis in late September.

After being greenlit over the summer as the first federally approved marijuana-based medication, an epilepsy drug called Epidiolex triggered the nation’s top drug enforcer to change how it regulates CBD, the compound in marijuana not responsible for a high. It’s the first time in 46 years that the agency has shifted its stance on the marijuana compound.

The move was somewhat unexpected. Barbara Carreno, a representative from Drug Enforcement Administration, initially told Business Insider that she expected the agency to reschedule CBD entirely — not just federally-approved drugs made with CBD.

Carreno added that the move would unleash what she called a “sea change” for CBD manufacturers and the industry as a whole, which up until this point has existed in a legal grey area.

But it appears that sea change may not occur after all. Only drugs already approved by the Food and Drug Administration will now be considered Schedule 5, the agency announced last Thursday.

Still, researchers, advocates, and entrepreneurs told Business Insider they thought the move was good news overall for patients and for the CBD industry as a whole, which has been pegged as a roughly $1 billion business. Here’s why.

The move makes the medication available, but limits research

Laura Lubbers, the chief scientific officer of a nonprofit called Cure that funds epilepsy research, told Business Insider that she was neither disappointed nor “necessarily pleased” with the DEA’s decision, but felt it was good news overall that Epidiolex, which treats two rare forms of epilepsy, could finally get into the hands of patients who need it.

“I’ve had so many people asking me: ‘When is this coming? When is this going to happen?’,” Lubbers said.

Now that the DEA has made its decision, patients can officially get Epidiolex with a doctor’s prescription.

But the research on CBD will continue to be limited, Lubbers added.

That’s because as it stands, CBD remains a Schedule 1 substance — unless it’s inside of a federally-approved medication. That means it’s still difficult for many researchers to access and study, Lubbers said. Conversely, if the agency had decided to put all CBD — whether in a medication or not — in the Schedule 5 category, more people would be able to get their hands on it and research the compound’s potential benefits.

“CBD is already a precious commodity and now it’ll be directed towards patients, which is good, but it’ll be harder for researchers to access and study it” than it would be if the DEA had fully rescheduled CBD, Lubbers said.

“I think the research will move forward but at a slower pace than people would want,” she added.

The DEA’s move could help keep unvetted products off the market

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Still, the DEA’s move may also help keep the booming CBD industry — which manufactures products that range from dog treats to coffee— in check.

That’s because the CBD in Epidiolex is manufactured and produced under strict standards, just like any other FDA-approved drug. The CBD in many other products is not.

“The main thing is that CBD as approved by the FDA is pharmaceutical-grade CBD,” Shlomo Shinnar, the president of the American Epilepsy Society and a professor of neurology and epidemiology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, told Business Insider in June. “That’s not the same as when people tell you, ‘Oh, I’ve got marijuana and it’s high in CBD,’ or ‘Oh, I’ve got a CBD product.’”

As it stands, the products are poorly regulated, meaning there is wide variation in content, safety, and price.

For a 2017 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers tested 84 CBD products purchased from 31 different online retailers. Roughly seven out of 10 items had different levels of CBD than what was written on the label. Of all of the items tested, roughly half had more CBD than was indicated; a quarter had less. And 18 of the samples tested positive for THC, despite it not being listed on the label.

“If the entire compound were to be rescheduled, there would be an even greater emergence of companies trying to ride the CBD wave, and these companies may or may not create a high quality product,” Kelvin Harrylall, the CEO of a company called The CBD Palace (which audits CBD companies and creates a list of vendors it deems safe for customers), told Business Insider.

“I am eager for the day when the schedule changes for the entire industry, but the issue isn’t as simple as just reclassifying CBD,” Harrylall said. “I believe the CBD industry as a whole will benefit from this, and those that continue to make a good product will grow and shine, while those that are not will slowly recede.”

Among the many wild headlines that Kanye West managed to generate over the weekend — ones about MAGA hats and boxy costumes, for example — there were none about the release of his ninth studio album, Yandhi. That’s because, as you probably noticed, the project never materialized, despite Ye announcing last week that it would drop the night of his appearance on Saturday Night Live.

Ever the efficient wife/spokesperson, Kim Kardashian West set the record straight on Monday afternoon (October 1) by revealing the album’s new release date: November 23, a.k.a. Black Friday. “TRUST ME it is worth the wait,” she tweeted, followed by a string of fervent emojis.

Kanye later confirmed the date in an interview with TMZ on Monday, during which he also revealed his plan to finish recording the album in Africa. Describing Yandhi, Kanye said, “I started incorporating sounds that you never heard before and pushing and having concepts that people don’t talk about. … It’s just a full Ye album and those five albums I dropped earlier were like superhero rehabilitation and now the alien Ye is fully back in mode.”

The Chicago MC first teased Yandhi last month with a Yeezus-esque piece of artwork. On September 27, he tweeted, “We’re releasing Yandhi Saturday night,” adding, “We know it will come in number 2 to my brother Lil Wayne and that’s lovely. … The universe needs Ye and Wayne music at the same time.”

This will be Kanye’s third album this year, following the solo Ye and his collaboration with Kid Cudi, Kids See Ghosts. Besides those projects, he also produced records for Nas, Pusha T, and Teyana Taylor. It’s clearly been a productive year for Kanye, but given his pro-Trump agenda and mounting backlash, maybe it’s good that Yandhi is being pushed to a time when we can all listen while simultaneously stress-eating leftover turkey and pie.

The Brexit vote. The 2016 U.S. presidential election. And … the online reaction to The Last Jedi. 

What do all these events have in common? All were allegedly skewed by Russian trolls. 

The Last Jedi accusation comes in a new paper by Morton Bay, a Research Fellow at the University of Southern California (George Lucas’ alma mater). Bay analyzed all tweets sent directly to Last Jedi director Rian Johnson over a seven month period after the movie’s release. 

His conclusion? More than 50 percent were “bots, trolls/sock puppets or political activists using the debate to propagate messages supporting extreme right-wing causes and the discrimination of gender, race or sexuality,” Bay writes. “A number of these users appear to be Russian trolls.” 

That last part is no mere guesswork; it’s based on the list of 2,752 accounts that Twitter itself identified as being linked to Russia’s Internet Research Agency, its so-called “troll farm.” Of the nearly 1,000 users that tweeted at Johnson in this period, 16 are suspected Russian accounts — and they appear to have been obsessed with hating the movie. 

The majority of these “almost exclusively tweeted about The Last Jedi, Rian Johnson or right-wing politics, typically retweeting personalities from the right or alt-right,” the study says. Many repeated each others’ talking points, such as this tweet from the now-deleted account @MarcoSo94862885: “So, now explain why Mark Hamil [sic] didn’t like Luje [sic] in TLJ?”

The Russian accounts’ goal appears to have been the same as it was in Brexit and the 2016 elections: to pile on discord that already existed in U.S. society. 

There were plenty of homegrown political activists attacking Johnson, too. Around 60 of the accounts were what you might classify as hardcore right-wing. Other than slapping Last Jedi, their tweets were virulently pro-Trump, pro-NRA, and anti-“SJW,” whatever they took that to mean. In other words, there’s a good deal of overlap here with the so-called GamerGate crowd. 

The trolls, bots and alt-right haters made a lot of noise, to be sure. They cluster around hashtags such as #LastJediAwful. (They continue to do so in Johnson’s mentions, even after the study period ended in July). But Bay found they were in a clear minority: the number of accounts attacking the movie was less than 22 percent of all tweets sent to Johnson about The Last Jedi.

Take the automated accounts and IRA Russians out of the equation, and you’ll probably get something close to the results of other studies and surveys: The Last Jedi was viewed positively by roughly 90 percent of its audience. It’s also the bestselling Blu-Ray of 2018 thus far, beating even the mighty Black Panther. 

Your move, Vladimir Putin. 

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – Political party canvassers were busy on Sunday at Rio de Janeiro’s Gloria market in a last-ditch effort to persuade passersby to vote for their candidate, ahead of next weekend’s elections.

A canvasser for a local leftist politician lambasted one man after he declined a leaflet and pledged support for far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro.

“Shame on you,” the campaigner said, prompting a sharp stare in reply.

The small, but telling exchange came just a day after battling protests for and against Bolsonaro gripped Brazil’s major cities, signalling a deepening divide within the country.

“It [polarisation] worries me a lot … there is much radicalism going on and it is something very sick,” Analice Moreira, a market stall holder, said.

“I ask god to change this, because the country is broken and I’m afraid,” the 56-year-old added.

Rising crime rates, a faltering economy and several high-level corruption scandals have unsettled Brazil in recent years.

But there is little unity about how to solve the problems, with division dominating the build-up to the first round of Brazil’s presidential election on October 7, when an estimated 147 million voters will choose the country’s next leader and more than 1,600 other positions.

The two most popular presidential candidates – frontrunner Bolsonaro of the Social Liberal Party (PSL) and second-placed Fernando Haddad of the leftist Workers’ Party (PT) – have high rejection rates, 46 percent and 32 percent respectively.

On Sunday, thousands of Brazilians participated in widespread pro-Bolsonaro rallies.

The demonstrations, which took place in cities including Sao Paulo and the capital, Brasilia, came a day after hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets nationwide as part of women-led anti-Bolsonaro #EleNao (#HimNo) protests.

Bolsonaro, who has been unable to campaign in recent weeks after being stabbed last month while campaigning in the city of Juiz de Fora, in southeastern Minais Gerais state, is projected to win about 28 percent of support on October 7. Haddad, meanwhile, is forecast to win 22 percent of the vote.

Democratic Labour Party candidate Ciro Gomes is the closest other competitor among the 11 other candidates trailing behind the pair, with 11 percent of support.

Neither Bolsonaro, a far-right former army captain, or Haddad, the PT’s replacement candidate for hugely popular former president Luiz Inacio ‘Lula’ da Silva, are projected to secure the absolute majority support required to win office during the first round vote.

Instead, the pair appear poised to contest a runoff vote on October 28, which, if it takes place, would mark the fifth presidential election in a row to be decided by a second round poll.

For 18-year-old Pedro Augusto, on the cusp of voting in a presidential election for his first time, that’s a major disappointment.

“I still don’t have a chosen candidate, the options are very bad and between the two [Bolsonaro and Haddad], I prefer no one,” he said.

“I love my country but the prospects for the next administration are terrible and it seems as if things will get worse … people are very divided at the moment,” he added.

Social divisions

On one side of the divide are supporters of Bolsonaro, who has frequently made polemic remarks in the past on issues relating to race, gender and sexuality and criticised the PT’s economic legacy.

On the other is the PT’s pro-Lula base, which has transferred its support to Haddad in recent weeks.

Lula helped lift millions of people out of poverty while in power from 2003 to 2010 amid a period of economic growth in Brazil that coincided with a global commodities boom and left office with approval ratings approaching 90 percent.

And despite a corruption conviction in 2017, centred on him accepting a luxury seaside apartment as a bribe from a construction firm, the 72-year-old is still adored by many voters.

Lula topped opinion surveys gauging presidential candidates’ popularity levels prior to renouncing his candidacy last month after being barred from running by Brazil’s country’s top electoral court.

For Bolsonaro supporters, however, Lula and the entire PT represent everything they think is rotten about Brazilian politics.

“Now is a time when the country should be united, because we are in a crisis and the population should be together not divided,” Augusto said.

 

According to Geraldo Tadeu, a political scientist at the Rio-based Academic Insititute for Research (IUPERJ), the origins of Brazil’s current polticial divide stretches back over a number of years.

He said the polarisation Brazil is experiencing now is a product of the 2014 election results, which were questioned by the opposition Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB). 

“It was the very beginning of this idea that the new president [the PT’s Dilma Rouseff] was not legitimate enough because of alleged fraud; this was a novelty in Brazilian politics,” he added.

In August 2016, Rousseff was impeached by Brazil’s congress and removed from office over allegations she broke budgetary laws.

In the months following her deposal, the opposition PSDB and new President Michel Temer – Brazil’s current leader – of the Brazilian Democratic Movement party were also embroiled in a number of corruption scandals, which until then had predominantly affected the PT.

By July 2017, when Lula was convicted, nearly Brazil’s entire political class had been discredited among the electorate.

A major anti-graft probe known as Lava Jato, or Car Wash, and other interlocking investigations have seen more than 150 Brazilian business leaders, corporations and politicians – including Lula – prosecuted for corruption since 2014.

Bolsonaro, a Rio congressman since 1991, has exploited that anger to attract a loyal following among some portions of the electorate and positioned himself as an antidote to a tarnished political class.

Several of the other more centrist candidates, including Gomes, Marina Silva of the Sustainability Network and PSDB contender Geraldo Alckmin, have run for the presidency at least once before.

“Bolsonaro realised there were people on the streets asking for change but they had no voice, so he became their voice,” Tadeu said.

“He assumed the discourse against politicians,” he added.

‘I won’t vote again’

The polarisation in Brazil forms part of a larger picture of widespread dissatisfaction with the country’s traditional political class and waning faith in the country’s institutions.

Only 13 percent of Brazilians are satisfied with democracy, according to a 2017 study by Latinobarometro, a Chile-based polling group.

But while discontentment has driven some towards Bolsonaro, or to double-down on their support for the PT, in Gloria, where discarded political campaign stickers litter the streets, manure salesman Richard de Oliveira has given up hope of politicians delivering change.

“The politicians only want to make money. The inequality in Brazil is very big and the politicians are cowards, we are nothing for them,” Oliveira, 53, said.

“I voted in previous elections but I swear that until I die I won’t vote again, I’m finished, I will annul my vote or pay the tax,” he added.

Voting in Brazil is compulsory for all “literate” citizens aged between 18-70, with abstention punishable by a small fine of about $1. Failure to pay the fine can result in citizens being barred from renewing their passport, obtaining government-backed loans or taking public office.

According to polling institute Datafolha, about 10 percent of the electorate – some 15 million people – intend to abstain from voting for any presidential candidate.

Stall-holder Moreira, like Richard, is one of them.

“It’s hard, I know that I’m wrong not to vote but this time I prefer to wait and see [who wins], I don’t want to regret my vote again,” Moreira said.

“I’m cheering for the success of the one who wins so that they can find a solution for the country’s problems,” she added.

“[Because] society wasn’t like this before, people respected each other more … now the opposing sides are not talking to each other. That is not democracy.”

LOS ANGELES — With a 5-2 victory over the Colorado Rockies on Monday, the Los Angeles Dodgers became only the third franchise in baseball history to win a division title six consecutive years.

Yawn.

OK, props to the Dodgers for capturing the National League West Division and joining the New York Yankees (1998-2006) and the Atlanta Braves (1995-2005) as the only franchises to win at least six consecutive division titles. But with the Dodgers set to play the Atlanta Braves in a best-of-five divisional playoffs series starting Thursday, it’s World Series or bust.

The Dodgers haven’t won one since Kirk Gibson limped around the bases in 1988 – and they may finally sneak their way to a title this year. It’s doubtful anyone is more confident than Yasiel Puig, the Dodgers’ boisterous, bat-flipping right fielder.

“We’re going to win the World Series,’’ Puig proclaimed during the champagne- and beer-soaked celebration in the locker room. “We’re bringing the 2018 championship here.’’

The Dodgers’ victory over the Rockies on Monday in the division tiebreaker showed why Puig, despite his propensity for beyond-bold talk, might be right.

MORE MLB:

You want power? The Dodgers have power. The Dodgers jumped ahead of the Rockies with a pair of two-run homers and have finished the regular season with a single-season franchise record 235 home runs. 

Good luck pitching around the Bronx Bombers of the West. The Dodgers have eight hitters with 20 or more home runs this season, including Max Muncy, who hit his 35th on Monday and Cody Bellinger, who hit No. 25 in the win.

You want pitching? The Dodgers got pitching. Walker Buehler, the Dodgers’ rookie sensation, pitched 6 ⅔ innings and limited the Rockies to one hit. We repeat: limited the Rockies to one hit.

Buehler backs up ace Clayton Kershaw, the three-time Cy Young award winner. If the Dodgers hope to win it all, Kershaw must avoid his annual postseason gag reflex.

Provided Kershaw avoids disaster, the Dodgers should have enough depth in the rotation and the bullpen considering they headed into Game 163 of the season Monday with overall ERA of 3.39, second best behind only the defending World Series champion Houston Astros.

You want momentum? You got it. The Dodgers have won 14 of their last 18 games – a .778 winning percentage – and went 18-9 in September.

Now the reality check: The Boston Red Sox, with 108 victories, and the Astros, are favorites to win it all. And who would bet on a team that’s failed to win a World Series in 31 years?

Anyone who’s not afraid to bet against the favorites, that’s who.

Follow Peter on Twitter @joshlpeter11

 

Brett Kavanaugh will not return to Harvard University to teach a course scheduled for the 2019 term.

The school made that announcement in an email sent to law students and obtained by Business Insider on Monday evening. Kavanaugh’s faculty page is also gone from the school’s website.

“Today, Judge Kavanaugh indicated that he can no longer commit to teaching his course in January Term 2019, so the course will not be offered,” reads an announcement sent by the associate dean and dean for academic and faculty affairs, Catherine Claypoole.

The embattled Supreme Court nominee is facing renewed FBI scrutiny over multiple claims of sexual misconduct from his years in high school and college. Beginning last week, new questions about his drinking habits during that time also emerged, prompting former classmates to share their knowledge of Kavanaugh’s behavior.

Several classmates have indicated that Kavanaugh has not been entirely truthful about his past drinking and the behavior he engaged in while intoxicated.

Ansel Elgort is warming up his pipes and breaking in his dancing shoes! The Golden Globe nominee will star as Tony in Steven Spielberg’s upcoming West Side Story remake, multiple outlets report.

The role will require Elgort to do his own singing and dancing, calling into play his brief EDM stint as Ansolo and his more recent moodier sound on singles “Thief” and “Supernova.”

Pulitzer Prize recipient Tony Kushner wrote the latest adaptation of the script based on the 1957 Broadway musical, which saw star-crossed lovers Tony and Maria prevented from taking their romance public due to their allegiances with contentious rival gangs; Tony was a former member of the Jets, led by his best friend Riff, while Maria’s brother, Bernardo, led the Sharks. The musical was a modernization of the original star-crossed lovers tale in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

This is the first casting news to reach the public since the filmmakers put out notices for open casting calls for both the lead and ensemble roles. There’s no word yet whether the other stars will be established or unknown actors, but with filming set to start in summer 2019, expect more announcements in the coming months.

In the meantime, you can preview Elgort’s sweet sounds and just imagine what he’ll sound like as he tenderly croons, “There’s a place for us…”