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It’s been a long road, but the Olympic torch finally landed in Japan on 23 July. The latest edition of the Games has been so mired in difficulty that many feared it might not go ahead, with COVID-19 causing seemingly insurmountable logistical issues. It’s also seen its fair share of controversies, with the conversation around cannabis chief among them.

The 2020 Games in Tokyo is effectively the first in which professional athletes have been allowed to use cannabis-based products while preparing for the competition. CBD use among professional athletes has been allowed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) since 2018, and it’s becoming increasingly popular.

In this article, I’ll explore the growing role that cannabis-based substances can play in sports, the main regulatory barriers in the way of development, and the exciting opportunities that may arise as cannabis in sport becomes normalised.

The athletic case for CBD

In the run up to this year’s Games, a growing procession of athletes have endorsed the use of CBD-based products. Although some of these endorsements are facilitated by sponsorship deals between athletes and CBD manufacturers, it’s without a doubt that stars across different disciplines are taking advantage of cannabinoids.

The list of advocates includes a number of top-tier athletes: from world record-holding sprinter Micheale Frater and golf star Catriona Matthew, to the NFL’s Rob Gronkowski and Eugene Monroe, heptathlete Chari Hawkins and former boxer Mike Tyson.

In January 2021, recreational marijuana became legal in Arizona thanks to the passage of Prop 207 in November 2020. In the months since, dispensaries have opened their doors to recreational marijuana sales and proved to be a powerful economic engine.

“It looks like Arizona is set to hit the $1 billion sales mark at the end of the year, which is huge in comparison to other states in their first year of recreational sales,” says Greta Brandt, president of The Flower Shop, mentioning that Colorado took about two years to do the same. Taxes collected from these transactions have added $75 million to the state’s coffers to date.

But besides increasing tax revenues, is Prop 207 on track to achieve its stated goals after six months of legalization?

Unlocking an Industry

Before marijuana was legalized for recreational users ages 21 and older, Arizona voters approved Prop 203 in 2010 which created the state’s medical marijuana (MMJ) program.

“The Arizona Department of Health Services has run a wonderful, tight-knit MMJ program, and they’re doing the same for recreational. They shut down rogue operators and are trying to regulate that side of the industry very seriously,” Brandt contends.

Alberta marks the 4th province, in addition to British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec, where Neptune Sells its Branded Cannabis

LAVAL, QC, Aug. 2, 2021 /PRNewswire/ - Neptune Wellness Solutions Inc. ("Neptune" or the "Company") (NASDAQ: NEPT) (TSX: NEPT), a diversified and fully integrated health and wellness company focused on plant-based and sustainable lifestyle brands, today announced it launched its  Mood Ring branded cannabis flower in the province of Alberta.

"I am pleased to announce that we have officially launched our Mood Ring Florida Citrus Kush flower in the province of Alberta, which has been very well received by consumers in other provinces," said Michael Cammarata, Chief Executive Officer and President of Neptune. "This is another step in the transformation of our cannabis business from a slow-growth, low margin extraction business to a high growth, higher margin branded CPG business."

The Alberta launch marks the fourth province, in addition to British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec, where Neptune Wellness now sells its cannabis products under its Mood Ring and PanHash brands. These four provinces account for more than 80% of Canadian cannabis retail sales and provide Neptune Wellness access to more than 2,000 retail cannabis stores in the Canadian market.

With every purchase of our Mood Ring flower products, a portion of the proceeds are donated to the planting of a tree through our partnership with One Tree Planted. The Company expects to launch new Mood Ring and PanHash branded products across its licensed Canadian footprint throughout the coming year. For more information, please visit https://moodring.com or https://panhash.com.

Even as Americans fork out more cash for upscale forms of caffeine and alcohol, there’s one thing they increasingly want in bulk, for cheap: marijuana.

In Tilray’s fourth-quarter call last week, Chief Executive Officer Irwin Simon said that Covid-19 prompted more people to shop for marijuana online, and that worked against premium brands. That contrasts with the “premiumization” trend of consumers trading up to higher-priced products that companies including Molson Coors and Starbucks talked about in earnings calls last week.

“Yes, there will be some room for brands that differentiate themselves on quality, but this is a price-sensitive category,” Stifel analyst Andrew Carter told me in a phone interview about the study, which was published last week.

Stifel’s survey found that price, potency and quantity were the top factors that influenced cannabis shoppers. Carter also observed that there was a high level of turnover in terms of which brands were most popular during Covid-19, as shown through data from cannabis data tracker Headset. This shows that consumers are still largely searching for brands and products to latch onto.

Headset analyst Cooper Ashley said there was also a trend toward buying cannabis flower in larger package sizes during the pandemic. “This indicates increased consumer price sensitivity, because the average price per gram of larger package sizes was (and still is) much lower,” Cooper said in an email. “Customers were finding value by purchasing in bulk.”

Major beer companies are investing in THC-infused drinks, but the sector represents less than 2 percent of the overall $20 billion marijuana market.

Planet 13, a tourist hotspot, is among a number of Las Vegas marijuana dispensaries crafting plans for consumption lounges, which the state Legislature approved earlier this year.

At Planet 13’s superstore on West Desert Inn Road, a 20,000-square-foot storage warehouse will likely be converted into a lounge, Farris said.

“We want to make something that people can travel to, something like a club concept,” Farris said. “We know the pressure is on us to build something special.”

"Excited to have a positive impact, providing a solution for our Black community, stay in line with marijuana laws, avoid unnecessary interactions with police."

“[Drivers who possess cannabis] can violate the law, maybe not even knowing they’re violating if it’s not in a sealed container,” Sarah noted. PHOTO BY LOCKGREEN PRODUCTS INSTAGRAM

Sarah and Ronald Morton are locking down their place as cannabis entrepreneurs.

By Nina Zdinjak

Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s cannabis and lifestyle brand Houseplant and cannabis giant Canopy Growth Corp. (NYSE: CGC) will terminate their partnership.

The two companies that created a joint venture three years ago and launched in Canada have mutually agreed to end their collaboration. Since the brand’s launch, the Canadian cannabis market has significantly expanded, thus the parties decided it was time for Houseplant to further evolve on its own while Canopy will continue working on its wholly-owned brands.

During their years of working closely together, Houseplant grew to become a popular consumer brand in Canada and is now among the top 10 in the premium cannabis market in Ontario.

Among the most successful products are beverages with Houseplant Grapefruit becoming the top-selling cannabis drink in Canada in its first year. In 2020, more than one million cans of Houseplant beverages were sold in Canada.

One local hospital says they're now treating at least a couple of young children every month for toxic exposure to edibles — and they're warning parents to lock up their pot treats

A skyrocketing number of children in the tri-state are inadvertently ingesting marijuana edibles, and legislators say there's a void in New York's emerging pot regulations that isn't helping the situation.

The scary trend began before New York State legalized recreational marijuana back in March, going from six children in the NYC metropolitan area poisoned by edibles in 2018, to 32 in 2019 and 127 in 2020, according to regional poison control officials.

"Sometimes that's in the form of candies and gummies, cookies and brownies. There are lots of forms that are out there," said Dr. Ethan Wiener, director of pediatric emergency medicine at Hassenfeld Children's Hospital at NYU Langone.

Two-thirds of those children are under the age of 5 — and the numbers are on track to be just as high this year.

It’s possible for a weed-consuming population to use marijuana without needing emergency medical assistance. Here’s how.

It seems that every time a state officially launches its legal cannabis market, reports showing that emergency rooms are filling up with people who can’t handle their weed start to bombard the internet. This took place earlier this year throughout Illinois, which rolled out its taxed and regulated pot trade in January. In Chicago, doctors claimed an increase in ER visits due to people overdosing on weed.

Listen, this madness might be happening, or it might not. The purpose of this article is not to debate whether legal marijuana brings about an uprising in freakouts that send people on a mad dash for the hospital. It is to serve as a guide, of sorts, intended to prevent these horrific events from happening in the first place. Because, get this, it is possible for a weed-consuming population to use marijuana without needing emergency medical assistance. It’s a novel concept, we know. But we swear that people can use cannabis products safely and responsibly.

Here’s how.

Photo by Nicole De Khors via Burst

The first thing to consider is this: Any report that comes out in the media suggesting that people are running to the ER because the weed got on top of them can almost always be attributed to edibles. We’re not going to lie, these popular pot products sold in dispensaries in states where marijuana is legal can be tricky and the source of great misery if they are not consumed correctly.

PHOENIX  --  The Clarendon Hotel and Spa in downtown Phoenix is open for business. Hotel managers say it is "Arizona's first Cannabis-friendly hotel."

“We are a cannabis-friendly hotel and have a cannabis-friendly event company that is elevating and educating the community about cannabis,” says Daron Brotherton, the VP of Operations at the hotel.

The cannabis sleeping rooms are located on the west side of the hotel property where guests can partake in edibles, flower and vape which have been purchased at a local dispensary. Cannabis flower usage is allowed in designated areas only. To shop for cannabis, the hotel will offer a car service to drive guests to a dispensary where they can also rent pipes and bongs.

It’s happened to the best of us. It’s late at night and we’ve totally underestimated the amount of marijuana at our disposal. We aren’t in a position to buy more at the moment. We look through our ashtray and our weed baggie and there’s nothing useful in sight. Then we spot the stems. Should we smoke them? Can we smoke them?

Sadly, it appears that weed stems are different from the usual bud you smoke. For starters, they don’t contain much THC, rendering them useless if you’re looking to get high. They also taste bad and woody, because there’s no plant in them, and they’re associated with a batch of negative side effects like headaches, sore throats and coughing fits, according to Healthline.

Still, just because you can’t smoke cannabis stems doesn’t mean you can’t find something useful to do with them. A lot of people find inventive ways of incorporating these parts of cannabis, using them to brew teas, to make tinctures, topicals and to even make stem butter. While there’s not much THC in stems, they are still a part of the cannabis plant, having many of the mysterious health benefits that experts and cannabis users love.

Before re-purposing your stems for any reason, it’s important to decarboxylate them, activating however small amount there is of THC and other cannabinoids. Once you’re done with this part of the process, you can infuse the stems into whatever you want.

Cannabis stems aren’t likely to get you high, but they could provide therapeutic and relaxing effects for you. There’s anecdotal evidence of cannabis stem teas treating nausea, anxiety, chronic pain, and more, all the while eliminating the unpredictable psychoactive effects of cannabis drinks. We even have a recipe for it.

Report from Brightfield Group details most popular CBD sweet edibles as well as consumers’ need to either take the edge off or charge through their day.

Market research firm Brightfield Group’s U.S. Cannabis Distribution Report: Cannabis Candy report revealed that, while cannabis candies are not to be consumed like candy, the industries share some similarities. Flavor innovation is thriving in both as well as the desire for both to either take a break or recharge with something sweet.

Of Brightfield’s list of top eight cannabis candies by share of shelf feature, three edibles are made by Smokiez in the flavors blackberry, sour blue raspberry and sour watermelon. Wana Wellness’ assorted hybrid sour gummies make the list, as are Kiva Confections wild berry Camino gummies, Kushy Punch hybrid raspberry gummies and Kanha blue raspberry gummies. Wyld CBD’s pomegranate 1:1 THC:CBD gummies also made the list.

Brightfield narrows cannabis candy positioning down to two types. Products that help folks unwind, according to Brightfield, are the most common – helping consumers with relaxation, sleep and stress relief, and claiming 68% of retail display space.

Of these, relaxation rules the roost, controlling nearly half of all cannabis candy space with a whopping 40% shelf share. Sleep is next at 19%.

With the growing acceptance of the legal cannabis industry across the United States, more states are diving deeper into regulatory questions. The latest push around legislatures has been THC Caps, which would limit the potency of THC in various products depending on the state's guidelines.

Lawmakers believe that limiting the strength of marijuana will be in the interest of public safety, which seems like a commonsense argument. However, when one looks at how manipulating the potency of THC would impact our bodies and society, it's clear that they are not the answer to responsible legislating of the cannabis industry.

At the Blinc Group, we wrote a white paper, "Six Reasons that THC Caps Are a Bad Idea," examining the implications of THC Caps on the vaping industry. It demonstrates, backed by existing research that THC Caps will endanger the public, lead to dangerous products entering the market, and keep necessary medicines out of patients' hands.

It also would require manufacturers to dilute their concentrates with additives to meet the lower standards. While regulations are up in the air from state to state, the unsafe additives will pose a greater health risk to consumers, possibly resulting in an uptick in EVALI cases.

The Colorado Cannabis Manufacturers Association (CCMA) agrees that THC Caps are not in the industry or consumers' best interests.

Sha’Carri Richardson’s disqualification provides an excellent opportunity for sports organizations to evaluate their marijuana policies.

On June 28, U.S. sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson was suspended for one month by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) for using cannabis, effectively disqualifying her from competing in the Olympics. The suspension of a gold medal contending athlete caught many by surprise and sparked a worldwide debate about marijuana use by athletes should be addressed. Many in the sports world quickly rushed to her defense, including Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs, who called the suspension “ridiculous.”

WADA has three criteria for a drug to qualify for its prohibited substances list: (1) it represents an actual or potential health risk to the athlete; (2) it has the potential to enhance or enhances sport performance; and (3) it violates the spirit of sport.

Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images

According to a 2011 paper written by WADA scientists, marijuana satisfies all three of the criteria. First, “athletes who smoke cannabis or Spice in-competition potentially endanger themselves and others because of increased risk taking, slower reaction times and poor executive function or decision making.” Second, “based on current animal and human studies as well as on interviews with athletes and information from the field, cannabis can be performance enhancing for some athletes and sports disciplines.” Third, “use of illicit drugs that are harmful to health and that may have performance-enhancing properties is not consistent with the athlete as a role model for young people around the world.”

The COVID-19 pandemic caused an unprecedented and worrisome impact on all businesses and sectors across the world. The cannabis and liquor businesses were not spared, and it is expected to think about the state of these businesses post-COVID-19. 

Interestingly, one of the focal points to consider is the priority people will place on both substances. Will cannabis be more prominent in use than liquor, or will it be vice versa? How will cannabis businesses fare over the liquor business? Let’s find out!

The California factor

One week after the WHO declared the COVID-19 outbreak a global pandemic, the state of California announced a statewide business lockdown. The state of Illinois also followed through with the same directive after California. 

Both states designated marijuana businesses and operators as “Essential services” with supermarkets, pharmacies, and liquor stores. These businesses were allowed to be opened while other businesses shut down. 

Other states quickly followed the California and Illinois lead by declaring marijuana operates as an important business. This move enabled a rush for such essential designations in the early weeks of the pandemic. This rush for marijuana was a progressive moment in the marijuana industry which also led to the creation of new legal state marijuana markets. 

Though public opinion has increasingly favored decriminalization of marijuana use in the last two decades, the process has been complicated by the public’s differing opinions on how marijuana should be decriminalized and for what reasons. While on a national level, marijuana distribution for any use is illegal under the Controlled Substances Act, 36 U.S. states have passed measures allowing for medicinal use, while 18 states have permitted recreational use as of June 22. A 2018 poll found that 56% of adults surveyed favored the state regulation of marijuana over federal regulation, highlighting that some wish for states to be given autonomy over decisions regarding decriminalization.

However, every state that decriminalizes marijuana for any reason sustains an “uneasy relationship” with the federal government. The federal government is unable and partly unwilling to enforce marijuana criminalization in all 36 states in which it is legal, but businesses wishing to sell marijuana encounter problems with federal tax laws, banking, and the threat of arrest if the federal government decides to crackdown. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas recently criticized the federal government’s approach to marijuana, saying it “simultaneously tolerates and forbids local use of marijuana” after a Colorado business appealed a ruling prohibiting the business from deducting business expenses from its federal taxes.

With public opinion in support of decriminalization, the complexity of the federal government’s relationship with marijuana may be too difficult to preserve. On June 14, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer introduced the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act that would legalize marijuana nationally, but passage faces challenges in both parties along with President Biden more supportive of decriminalization than legalization.

Public opinion research increasingly finds support for legalization in some form, with a 2021 Pew Research Center survey finding that 90% of Americans believe marijuana should be legalized for medical use, and 60% favored legalization for both recreational and medical use. In contrast, only 12% supported legalization in 1969 and 31% in 1999. Medical use remains the primary reason listed for legalization according to a 2019 Gallup poll and this focus may explain the challenges to full decriminalization. Likewise, a 2018 study suggests the media focus on medical use may explain why around 30% of Americans surveyed support legalization for medicinal but not recreational use. Meanwhile, few studies directly ask whether legalization should be left up to the states.

To assess public opinion of decriminalizing marijuana, we conducted a national online survey of 625 Americans, using quota sampling and administered through Qualtrics on June 22-24. Participants were asked “Which of the following best matches your opinion regarding marijuana?” and could choose one of four answers:

With the touch of a button, CBD buyers in the Miami suburb of Doral, Florida can now have their hemp-based products automatically dispensed into their hands.

The Wellness Pantry, developed by cannabis tech firm Cultiva, allows people who download a free app from the company on their mobile phones to buy CBD remotely and pick up the products from a machine similar to one that sells soda and chips.

How it works

The machine features remote monitoring and operation, touchless payments and the use of blockchain technology to verify customers’ age, according to the Cultiva’s CEO. Unlike marijuana vending machines, which state laws restrict to operating solely inside dispensaries, CBD machines like the Wellness Pantry can operate from just about anywhere – including inside non-cannabis businesses and even housing complexes.

“We’re giving whole communities access to quality products in a fun, interactive, safe and simple experience,” said Cultiva founder and CEO Daniel Torres.

The first Wellness Pantry was became operational this weekend inside a condominium complex owned by NFC Amenity Management, one of the largest amenity management companies in the country.

Since the first legal cannabis market came to be, we’ve had a bit of a chicken or egg conundrum… you can buy weed legally, but might not have anywhere to consume it legally. Most states have laws against public cannabis consumption, so you can only smoke on private property. If you live in said state, that’s no problem. But say you’re visiting Vegas, for example, and you hit up Planet 13, the largest dispensary in the world that’s right off the strip and geared towards drawing in tourists… you do some shopping only to realize that the hotel or Airbnb you’re staying at has a ban against cannabis use.

You can’t smoke in public on the strip, and even though they have just been approved, no legal consumption lounges are open in the state yet. What’s a law-abiding stoner to do in that situation?

One way savvy cannabusiness owners have been skirting the regulatory insanity that goes along with opening a consumption lounge, is by launching cannabis-friendly campgrounds. It makes sense if you think about it. It falls under private property laws and weed typically makes for a nice addition to any outdoor adventure, but if cannabis-use is permitted can the land be legally registered as a public campground? That is where the law gets a bit confusing, so let’s take a closer look.

It’ summertime, post-shutdown, and people are going outside more than ever before. Cannabis products can really take your adventure to a whole new level, but figuring out what to bring can be a challenge.. 

Smoking in nature

Edibles are fine, and even vaping can be pretty discreet, but what about the old fashioned among us who still enjoy smoking flower and who definitely love to light up a nice joint or bowl when camping, hiking, or otherwise connecting with nature. It’s fun, it’s relaxing, and it feels like a rite of passage; but is it legal?