WeedLife News Network
Hot off the press cannabis, marijuana, cbd and hemp news from around the world on the WeedLife Social Network.
The long list of harmful effects of cannabis criminalisation no one talks about
Thousands of people are arrested every year for illicit consumption of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances (NDPS). In 2018, 81,778 persons were arrested under the NDPS Act. Fifty-nine per cent of the those were found in possession of substances for personal use. Our forthcoming findings on Mumbai give an insight into how many people are arre
Canada: Illicit pot still dominates after two legal years
It’s been nearly two years since Canada became the first G20 country to legalize cannabis for recreational purposes. However, the majority of customers are still getting their pot from the illicit market -- with a lot of ground left to cover. In the fourth quarter of 2018, legal marijuana represented only 21 per cent of total consumption in Canada,
Cannabis industry’s benefit to Massachusetts ‘has been immediate’ as tax dollars keep rolling in
Cannabis may not be the answer to all of life’s problems, but the drug is generating so much tax revenue in Massachusetts that it is making a case for itself. The state has collected a staggering US$122 million in the first two fiscal years of legal recreational cannabis, according to the Boston Business Journal, with the vast majority of those bad
French trade group Syndicat Professionnel du Chanvre (SPC) and three other industry organizations have called on authorities in France to defend their interests amid fears the European Commission is about to designate hemp extracts as narcotics. The groups warned warned that a position on hemp extracts announced recently by the Commission “would ha
Earl Blumenauer cautioned Biden from following too closely in Hillary Clinton’s footsteps, as he believes she would be President if she had supported cannabis legalization. When presidential candidate Joe Biden announced his criminal justice reform plan, it included cannabis policies that appeared to be lacking compared to those proposed by other p
It's been over a year since the 2018 Farm Bill legalized the commerce of hemp and CBD. Yet, CBD is still not regulated as a dietary supplement by the FDA. This may come as a surprise to many people who’ve already incorporated CBD into their lives. Among the 14 percent of Americans who use CBD, most believe those products are FDA regulated. The FDA
Federal trademark registration is viewed as an attractive form of property-rights protection for most industries. The benefits of such a registration are numerous. A federal trademark registration serves to recast what would normally be localized common-law trademark rights into nationwide trademark rights. It provides the owner with the right to u
Joe Biden’s hoped-for change of heart on marijuana legalization may eventually come, but don’t expect it anytime soon. The presumptive Democratic nominee won’t have to deal with the issue in this election, as Democratic leaders decided not to make it part of the party platform. That decision came in the form of a 106-60 vote in July by Democratic N
Today, the Office of Marijuana Policy, a part of the Maine Department of Administrative and Financial Services, unveiled plans for the issuance of Maine’s first active licenses for adult use marijuana establishments. The Office intends to issue the first active licenses to recreational cannabis businesses on Tuesday, September 8, 2020. Retail sales
The designation of the cannabis business as essential caught some states and some state officials off guard. It was a classic watershed moment when 20 of the 33 states across the U.S. that allowed some form of sale and consumption of marijuana had those businesses designated as essential businesses in March during the early days of the coronavirus
Vice President Mike Pence took to Lou Dobbs Tonight on Fox News earlier this week to gripe that Democrats were attempting to include legislation related to marijuana and banking in the latest coronavirus relief bill. "I heard the other day the bill mentions marijuana more than it mentions jobs," Pence said to Dobbs. "The American people don't want
It would appear that changing over the Senate is even more important than who is President on this particular issue. Many in the cannabis industry have, understandably, backed Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for President and VP, presumably for a variety of reasons which include a belief that they are more likely to support legalizing cannabis at the f
A study of consumer attitudes released recently found that residents of states with legal cannabis have a positive view of the regulated marketplace. Results of the research, “Consumer perceptions of ‘legal’ and ‘illegal’ cannabis in US states with legal cannabis sales,” were released online last month ahead of the publication of the study in the j
Two separate cannabis initiatives have qualified for the general election ballot in Montana, making it the sixth state in the nation that will be voting on a legalization measure in November. On Thursday, the office of Montana Secretary of State Corey Stapleton revealed that supporters for Initiative 190 and Constitutional Initiative 118 had collec
U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer has urged the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to hold off on implementing the U.S. Domestic Hemp Production Program final rule until 2022. Senator Schumer was a supporter of the Hemp Farming Act of 2018 and believed the crop should have the full backing of the federal government without any interferenc
Ten years ago, when Bill Esbensen first began working with activists to push for some form of legal marijuana in Idaho, someone threatened to beat him up for it. He was at a Willie Nelson concert in Boise, trying to collect signatures to get an initiative to legalize marijuana on the ballot. As he remembered it, the man who wanted to attack him for
Following its first-ever critical review of cannabis, in January 2019 the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a collection of formal recommendations to reschedule cannabis and cannabis-related substances. 53 member states of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND), two of which are Caribbean states, are set to vote on these recommendations in Dec
Cannabis prohibition is one of the worst public policies in modern times. Prohibition is often used to trample on citizens’ rights around the world, including and especially citizens of color. Efforts to dismantle global institutional racism must absolutely include ending cannabis prohibition. Right now there are only two countries that have legali
Oklahoma cannabis users are on pace to spend twice as much this year compared to 2019. As of June, Oklahomans spent more than $385 million this year on medical marijuana. That's nearly the entire amount spent during 12 months last year, according to an analysis of data from the Oklahoma Tax Commission. Much of that boost came during the early days
