WeedLife News Network

Gov. Andy Beshear is expected to make an announcement regarding medical marijuana on Tuesday. 

Medical cannabis is not currently legal in Kentucky, but Beshear has said he supports its legalization. The governor Medical Cannabis Advisory Committee earlier this year, after a medical marijuana legalization bill stalled out in the state Senate. In September, the governor's office announced that the advisory committee reported that many adults in the commonwealth favor medical marijuana legalization. 

Beshear's office says the governor will provide an update on medical marijuana in Kentucky at 1 p.m. CT on Tuesday in the Kentucky State Capitol in Frankfort. 

The governor will be joined by Justice and Public Safety Cabinet Secretary Kerry Harvey, Public Protection Cabinet Secretary Ray Perry, addiction specialist Dr. Linda McClain and veteran and advocate Jared Bonvell. 

Humboldt Family Farms launches a line of the world’s best Cannabis, hand-curated and grown in sunshine by a collaboration of legacy craft farmers from the legendary Humboldt County, Calif. 

Available for direct-to-home delivery through online ordering, Humboldt Family Farms offers premium flower, vape cartridges and pre-rolls – all 100% grown in Humboldt County.

When buying from the Humboldt Family Farms line of premium flower, vape cartridges and pre-rolls, consumers have access to more information about the products than ever before. Through extensive lab testing, Humboldt Family Farms is able to identify and inform customers of the specific benefits and experience they can expect from each product through the identification of the cannabinoids and terpene profiles of each product.

“We are thrilled to bring consumers our line of premium craft Cannabis and brands grown by legacy farmers,” says Scott Vasterling, Founder of Humboldt Family Farms. “Our network of dedicated farmers has made a huge impact on this fast-growing category over generations. Beyond providing exceptional 100% Humboldt-derived Cannabis, we saw a need to offer consumers direct access to comprehensive terpene profiles so they can better select the flavors and effects that benefit them the most.”

Humboldt Family Farms’ initial product offerings include:

The farmers behind Humboldt Family Farms have taken offering the premium experience of their products to the next level, curating individual Spotify playlists to pair with each product. Each mix was hand-selected – just like the product – to match the spirit and intent of its corresponding product.

Delhi-based cannabis wellness startup Awshad has announced the launch of their new prescription product - a cannabis medicinal capsule line branded as ‘Calmasule’.

The objective behind this roll-out of the new product line of Awshad is to help people experience the healing qualities of cannabis in the form of a capsule in order to enable them to alleviate pain, insomnia, stress and various other lifestyle ailments through an all-natural solution and thus aid their overall well-being. Interestingly, the naming of Calmasule is inspired by the first and foremost effect of this capsule, which is to calm down one’s nerves to further help an individual with managing anxiety, pain and sleep issues.

With this new line of products, Awshad intends to expand its target audience and customer base and thereby increase sales and revenue in order to consolidate market leadership. Thisin turn will help Awshad infuse more resources in educating and spreading awareness to destigmatize cannabis and spread awareness on its myriad wellness benefits, which till date remains the biggest hurdle in this industry.

Awshad has been working with leading cannabis manufacturing and formulation teams in India in a bid to come out with these superlative, pure cannabis extract capsules that have been proven to have very high efficacy and showed extremely promising results amongst the focus groups. Only if and when they have a prescription, the customers would be able to buy Awshad’s newly-launched capsule products directly from the Awshad website or via aggregator marketplaces like CBD Store, It’s Hemp and others.

Awshad’s new range of capsules have been made available under two variants: Calmasule and Calmasule Plus; the main difference between these two variants lies in the concentration/ratio of CBD and THC (both of them being compounds present in cannabis) present in the product. Calmasule is the milder product variant which is more versatile and can be used by a wide range of users. With 10mg CBD and 5mg THC (2:1 CBD: THC ratio), Calmasule helps patients combat anxiety, stress, insomnia and mild pain issues. On the other hand, Calmsule+ is a much stronger product variant with 15mg CBD and 15mg THC (1:1 CBD: THC ratio), thus especially recommended for those facing chronic and more serious ailments like chronic pains, chronic insomnia, Cancer, Parkinson’s, Epilepsy, Arthritis, etc.

Speaking on the launch of the new product, Shivam Singhee, Co-Founder & CEO, Awshad said, “We at Awshad are extremely pleased and excited to introduce our and India’s first cannabis extract-based capsules to the market, called Calmasule and Calmasule Plus. These newly-launched Awshad capsules are meant to derive the best efficacy and results for our discerning Indian customers. Also, these capsules will be the strongest products among our current offerings, and is geared towards people who are looking for highly effective products to deal with their more serious ailments. In the long run, we understand the importance of a variety of products under a trusted brand can lead to bigger market acceptance, and knowing that our customers come from diverse backgrounds and situations, we shall continue to strive to serve them all with appropriate products that will help them achieve their health and wellness goals.”

According to BDSA, a worldwide leader in cannabis data analytics, the United States cannabis industry’s total economic impact is expected to grow from $8 billion in 2021 to $158 billion by 2026.

CannaVerse aims to be at the forefront of this movement by offering an all-encompassing hub for people who want to get involved with cannabis or are already part of the industry — called Cannaland.

Created by CannaVerse, Cannaland is the world's first cannabis-themed metaverse that features a dedicated business-to-business (B2B) strategy in addition to its business-to-consumer (B2C) services. Unlike other players who singularly focus on the consumer experience, Cannaland has been designed to help both consumers and businesses make the most out of the budding cannabis industry.

Cannaland also strives to dispel the traditional boundaries and constraints that blunt the potential of the cannabis industry. Its solution? One unified ecosystem to empower cultivation, extraction, consumption, community, infrastructure, globalization and so much more for consumers and businesses alike — all through the virtual frontier!

A deeper dive into Cannaland

It's not always easy to weed out the good from the bad, but when it comes to Cannaland, it's an unmistakable virtual paradise for cannabis enthusiasts. It’s the world's first dedicated platform for cannabis enthusiasts and canna-curious people to come together in the digital world from the comfort of their homes.

Cannaland will be a platform for users to socialize, collaborate and transact — all in a single place. Not only that, but Cannaland will offer virtual experiences that will let users experience the world of cannabis like never before. Interactive concerts, comedy shows, festivals and sports events are just a few examples of how Cannaland plans to reward cannabis enthusiasts.

With neither the Democratic nor the Republican party close to the 60-vote threshold in the Senate required to advance difficult legislation, federal reform regarding cannabis will likely be on hold for a while.

However, with two more states -- Maryland and Missouri -- adopting recreational marijuana sales in ballot referendums this past week, there are now 21 adult-use states. Both of these trends are good for cannabis real estate investment trusts (REITs) like AFC Gamma (NASDAQ: AFCG) and Industrial Properties (NYSE: IIPR).

The two REITs are thriving. This is partly because with cannabis still on Schedule 1 under the Controlled Substances Act, banks generally won't provide full services to marijuana companies in the U.S. That means cannabis retailers, when they need capital, are more likely to turn to REITs for cash, typically is sale leaseback deals in which the seller gets funds while the REIT gets a long-term tenant. The two REITs are benefiting from a supply/demand imbalance in what looks to be a prolonged environment in which it will remain hard for cannabis producers to raise capital.

Maryland and Missouri are currently limited-license states for medical marijuana. As they become recreational-use states more companies will look to expand there, opening up more opportunities for AFC Gamma and Industrial Innovative Properties.

Why this works for AFC Gamma

AFC Gamma's shares are down more than 36% over the past year, which in turn has driven up the yield on the company's dividend to around an attractive 14%. The decline in the stock's value would be more concerning if the company's business model was also weakening, but that doesn't appear to be the case. The stock is trading at a very attractive valuation of slightly more than 7 times earnings.

AFC Gamma's loan portfolio includes 13 loans across 17 states, including Missouri and Maryland. In the third quarter, which it reported Nov. 8, it had net income of $11.5 million, up 45% year over year; distributable earnings were $11.8 million, or $0.59 per share, up 64% from the same period last year.

Does consuming cannabis boost creativity?

We conducted two studies, which we carefully designed to test your question, and found similar results across both of the studies. We found that using cannabis makes you more jovial. It puts you in a better mood, and that joviality increases the degree to which you perceive your own work as creative. It also increases the degree to which you perceive other people’s work as creative. But we also had third-party evaluators look at the outputs of the creativity tasks our subjects tried, and we did not find a relationship between cannabis use and that creativity, as rated by third-party evaluators.

We don’t pretend to have the final answer to the question for all time, for all of humanity. We set out to study this in as natural a context as we could. We wanted people to use the same cannabis they use in their daily lives, in the same way that they tend to use it, which is good and bad. The good thing is that it makes a more realistic test of our ideas. The downside is we have no control over the type and amount of cannabis that they use. It’s a complicated topic, and I’m sure that there are lots of contingencies: Different contexts, and different strains of cannabis, might have different effects; and different people might experience different effects.

This was just an initial step for us. We didn’t bring them into our research laboratory. They’re in their own homes, using their own weed. And that’s fine for now. We don’t expect to do everything in one paper. We were excited with the scope that we took using two different creativity tasks, while also trying to manipulate whether or not people were high at the time. That was kind of tricky, because our ethics board said that our university has a policy that we are not allowed to ask people to use cannabis. And we’re definitely not allowed to give people cannabis. So we had to be a little creative. Our way was to say: For people that smoke in their daily lives, we’ll ask them to either do the study within 15 minutes of when they’ve last used cannabis, or after a time period of at least 12 hours of not using cannabis. 

We started with an industry standard task for creativity, the brick task, where you ask people to generate as many creative uses as they can for a brick. You can code that for both how novel and useful their response is. It’s an abstract task that doesn’t map very well, especially to business contexts. In our second study, we made it a lot more business relevant. We asked people to take on the role of someone who’s managing a band, tasked with increasing band revenue. In both tasks it was important to generate new, useful ideas. 

Veterans are essentially subject to the laws within the U.S. states in which they live, but no federal Veterans Affairs doctor is going to be recommending THC gummies.

It is well-known and generally accepted that active duty military service members in the U.S. cannot partake in even the slightest bit of THC. But what about once they retire?

The subject of U.S. military veterans and their access to medical marijuana continues to be a topic of debate and several proposed bills in congress.

As it stands, veterans are essentially subject to the laws within the U.S. states in which they live, but no federal Veterans Affairs (V.A.) doctor is going to be recommending THC gummies.

According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs website, “As long as the Food and Drug Administration classifies marijuana as Schedule I, V.A. health care providers may not recommend it or assist Veterans to obtain it.”

The classification as a Schedule I substance poses all sorts of legal issues, from research to a veteran’s right to use cannabis as therapy. One might argue it is common medical sense that military veterans should receive any and all possible treatments available to them. Additionally, it is particularly taxing since cannabis has shown great promise when it comes to alleviating symptoms related to several issues that many veterans face.

Amid moves to walk back the legalisation of cannabis, Minister of Public Health Anutin Charnvirakul shrugged off the attempt to criminalise the herb again.

Anutin, who also serves as deputy prime minister, says that the debate over cannabis is decided and done.

Opponents of legalisation are pushing for cannabis to be reclassified as a Type 5 narcotic, which would be under the purview of the Office of the Narcotics Control Board. But Anutin says that cannabis legalisation is for medical purposes and will not lead to an increase in illegal use by underage people. He reckoned that smoking ganja is more difficult than drinking alcohol or using cigarettes so the threat is minimal and parents should be overseeing their children anyway.

“The opposition should learn more about the context of the proposed cannabis use and change their mindset about it now that the law has been issued. We have also prohibited the sale and use of the plant among minors. The prohibition behind the law should be solely dependent on their family.”

Anutin has always maintained that his Bhumjaithai Party push for the legalisation of cannabis was only for medicinal purposes. They did not expect or foresee recreational use increasing. But a look on any street corner in any touristy area of Thailand will reveal at least one cannabis dispensary that has sprung up since the legalisation.

Many government officials fear that unabashed cannabis use will lead towards an increase in young smokers, according to The Phuket News. They also fear that the lack of regulation will lead people to create dangerous concoctions. Anutin says that a new bill on cannabis will incorporate a notification process that clearly defines which products are usages are legal and which are illegal.

DOVER - Hero Technologies, a cannabis company focused on a "seed-to-sale" vertical integration strategy, today announced that, subject to certain minimal conditions, it has received license and permit approval from Vassar Township, Michigan, to build a local cannabis growing facility.

The company was approved subject to certain conditions; however, approval requires only resubmission, not an additional planning commission meeting. Vassar Township Planning Commission meetings are only once per month. The company's application was sufficient to avert another one month wait to receive Commission approval. All conditions have been satisfied by the company. Blackbox management sent requested revisions to Vassar Township on Monday, November 14th. Relevant conditions included revisions to the drawings to reflect a future processing facility and changes to the lighting plan.

In a parallel development, the company expects to close on its previously agreed-upon purchase of a 10-acre parcel in Vassar within the next 10 days.

Hero Technologies' subsidiary, BlackBox Systems and Technologies LLC, previously received pre-qualification approval from the state of Michigan for Adult (recreational) and Medicinal Use cannabis licenses.

"We are grateful to the Vassar Township Planning Commission for its thorough and expeditious review of our license and permit application," said Hero Technologies' CEO Gina Serkasevich. "Now that we have the necessary local approvals, we look forward to closing on our 10-acre property in Vassar as soon as possible, transforming the site into a state-of-the art cannabis production facility, and capitalizing on the strong cannabis market in Michigan."

Michigan's legal marijuana market has grown rapidly since the state legalized adult recreational use in 2020. According the Michigan Marijuana Regulatory Agency, sales of legal cannabis in the state were approximately $1.8 billion in 2021 and should approach $2.8 billion in 2022.

Twenty-five years after Mike Tyson bit a chunk out of Evander Holyfield's ear, the pair are teaming up to release a cannabis gummy collection called 'Holy Ears'.

The weed gummies are shaped like an ear with a section missing, mirroring the damage done to Holyfield during the infamous 1997 fight that cost the undisputed heavyweight champ his boxing licence and a fine upwards of $3million.

Twenty-five years after Mike Tyson left a chunk missing from Evander Holyfield's ear, the pair are teaming up to release a cannabis gummy collection together called 'Holy Ears'

'From Mike Bites to Holy Ears, now cannabis fans around the world can experience the same wellness benefits that plant-based products have brought me,' Mike Tyson says. 

The weed gummies are shaped like an ear with a section missing where Tyson bit off a piece of Holyfield's ear during the infamous 1997 fight that cost the undisputed heavyweight champ his boxing license and a fine upwards of $3million

'It's a privilege to reunite with my former opponent and now long-time friend, and turn years of fights and knockouts into a partnership that can make a positive impact and heal people.'