WeedLife News Network

 Tennessee’s first cannabis restaurant — “Buds & Brews” — will officially open its doors in Germantown. 

The bar and restaurant serves elevated classic American dishes, and if you wish, with a side of special sauce.

“You can get chicken tenders and then you can order some THC ranch,” said Mike Solomon part owner of Buds & Brews. 

The secret here is in the sauce. 

“What is infused is the condiments. We have the 25 most common used condiments from ketchup, honey mustard, ranch dressing, steak sauce,” Solomon went on to explain.  

Legal, hemp-derived THC-infused condiments, desserts and mocktails are what make Buds & Brews a one-of-a-kind high.

An IT programmer was allegedly forced to store £225,000 worth of herbal cannabis at his home in Belfast to pay off a personal drug debt, a court has heard.

Peter Renshaw claimed he had acted under duress after police seized the haul - some of which was in packaging with images of Winnie the Pooh.

The 36-year-old civil servant, of Willowbank Park in the city, is charged with possessing Class B drugs with intent to supply.

He was arrested following searches carried out at his home on Tuesday.

Belfast Magistrates' Court heard officers discovered 15kg of herbal cannabis with a potential street value of £225,000 in an upstairs bedroom.

"This was found in a variety of packages such as cardboard boxes, suitcases or holdalls, giving the impression that it had not all arrived at the location at the same time," an investigating detective said.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) remains firm in his stance that cannabis reform doesn’t lead to an increase in crime or drug use. (Benzinga)

“The overwhelming evidence from the states that have legalized cannabis is there has not been an increase in crime and has not been an increase in drug use,” Schumer said at a recent press briefing. The comments came on the heels of his introducing long-awaited U.S. Senate legislation that would decriminalize and deschedule cannabis on the federal level. 

The nearly 300-page Cannabis Administration And Opportunity Act (CAOA), from Schumer and Senators Ron Wyden and Cory Booker, was presented last week. Two more Senate Democrats, Assistant Democratic Leader Patty Murray (D-WA) and Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI), also agreed to cosponsor the measure.

Schumer’s Latest Cannabis Legalization Efforts

Meanwhile, despite an overall pessimistic sentiment regarding the passage of the legislation in the Senate, as it needs a 60-vote threshold to get approved, Schumer continues to advocate for the broad reform proposal.

Last month the senator convened with GOP House Rep. Dave Joyce (R-OH) on several occasions to discuss possible bipartisan cannabis reform steps that can be taken ahead of the finalization of a separate comprehensive legalization bill that would include much more than just banking and expungements reforms.

CBD gummies are now a mainstream phenomenon, and there are tons of different kinds of CBD gummy products available online. Why have CBD gummies become so popular, though, and what benefits can they offer if you suffer from chronic pain or inflammation? Discover the benefits of CBD gummies, and find out why you should try CBD gummies for pain and other purposes.

What are CBD gummies?

CBD gummies are delicious, chewable CBD-infused treats that are often fruit-flavored. There are lots of different ingredients you can use to make gummies, but the best CBD gummies only contain simple, natural ingredients with no artificial sweeteners, flavorings, or coloring agents.

What do CBD gummies do?

Designed to make it easy and tasty to take CBD anytime and anywhere, CBD gummies deliver this cannabinoid into your system efficiently and without any unpleasant hemp taste. While you’ll still taste the CBD oil in your gummy to some degree, the flavor will be masked under fruity sweetness.

Why do people use CBD gummies?

“There are a bunch of us in Hollywood that smoke weed and get shit done.”

Kevin Smith. Such an ordinary name for such an extraordinary man. For almost 30 years we’ve looked to him for comedy, podcasts, and comic books, while also admiring his acting and filmmaking in movies like Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, and the movie that started it all, Clerks.

Kevin may have become a stoner later in life, but the wisdom he carries regarding it reads like a positive affirmation we should all ingest. Turned on to using cannabis for a higher good by his pal Seth Rogan, Kevin’s take on living a stoner lifestyle gives us one more reason to admire this multi-talented, ordinary name having man.

Coming off the heels of Comic-Con, and before Clerks 3 makes it’s anticipated debut on September 13th, we attempted to get some spoilers (Spoiler: we didn’t), discussed the sweetest currency, his strains with Caviar Gold, and cannabis being a running theme in his life, even when it was just for show. 

Do you ever sit there at Comic-Con and revel in your head like, oh my god I did this?

Kevin Smith: Like, literally. Revel is the right fucking word. I’ve been going to Comic-Con since 95’ and when I first got there the dream was like, this is where I wanna be accepted. I wanna be as integral to this institution as Stan. This is worth all the effort. Some people got lucky early, like I did with my career, and all they wanted to do was party, do drugs, and get fucked. All I wanted to do was become the King of Comic-Con. It took decades, and I don’t know if I’m the king, but I’m definitely Comic-Con royalty. So, I do revel in it because I think back to the conscious effort I put into getting here. The kids today would call it, “thirsty.” I’m sure the kids would also say that was cringe, but whatever. I do revel in it. It’s so gross to admit!

Yes, consuming cannabis has gotten the green light in New York for people over 21 years old. But let’s clear the air: It is not legal to grow your own marijuana plants in New York — yet.

That hasn’t stopped at least one budding cultivator from raising several of the herbs in a community garden, nearby the more typical basil, sunflowers and tomatoes.

The plants lacked any discernible flowers, and their musky smell was mostly masked by other floral aromas; on a recent July day, they went unnoticed by nearly all of the garden’s visitors. Yet with telltale serrated leaves sprouting in hand-like clusters and stalks that climbed to nearly chest height, they seemed as inconspicuous as the vendors now selling unregulated cannabis products in Washington Square Park. 

When I pointed to the plants and asked, “Are these…?” their caretaker simply smiled and put a finger to his lips. 

While the plants are illegal, they are sure signs that connoisseurs and tycoons alike will try their hands at raising cannabis in the city. 

Although cannabis is legal to consume and possess in small amounts in New York, the state is still crafting the regulations that will allow businesses to cultivate, process and sell marijuana products. Experts, however, say that within a couple years we can expect the city to have its fair share of grow operations.

New findings presented at the 2022 AACC Annual Scientific Meeting.

As the cannabis derivative delta-8-THC grows in popularity, it's important for drug tests to be able to detect and differentiate it from delta-9-THC—the primary psychoactive ingredient in cannabis. Breaking research showcased at the 2022 AACC Annual Scientific Meeting & Clinical Lab Expo demonstrates that common drug testing methods can do just that.

Unity Rd., the national cannabis dispensary franchise from Item 9 Labs Corp., is opening medical cannabis establishment, in South Dakota on July 27 with local entrepreneurs, B.J. Olson and Adam Jorgensen.

The new shop is located in the Sioux Falls suburb of Hartford at 404 West Opal Lane. (Benzinga)

Multiple economic missions had booths at the conference last week – the beginning of an international trend

While the scale of the event rivaled any corporate conference – as did the exhibit booths – one thing stood out clearly this year at the Berlin International Cannabis Business Conference last week: The arrival of cannabis missions from international locales.

Last year, both Zimbabwe and New Zealand sent economic trade envoys to the conference. This year, both New Zealand and Thailand had their own booths, promoting their country’s cannabis exports.

It is, clearly, the beginning of a wave. The International Cannabis Business Conference has, since its beginning in 2017 been the most international, high-level business conference in the world. From now on, governments will be taking notice.

It is obviously now a relatively fast-changing world. One where the governments of three European countries (Malta, Germany, and Luxembourg) met last week to begin a series of high-level meetings on changing cannabis regulation across the region.

Unprecedented Market Access

One of the most important reasons for foreign producers to work with their governments to send trade mission presence to the International Cannabis Business Conference conference is that the access created by the International Cannabis Business Conference in Berlin is unprecedented, globally. Attended by all the major producers across Europe and in Germany, along with representatives of what are now believed to be the 187 distributors across Deutschland, the conference is an unparalleled opportunity to gain market access to the cannabis market in the world’s fourth-largest economy.

Dispensaries have many challenges in managing inventory for amnesia autoflower and other cannabis products.Hence, the current technology is not designed for the scale and complexity of this industry.

A restaurant may have 30 menu items to manage; a dispensary may have hundreds or even thousands. The amount of data to track requires extensive attribution and data capture. Blockchain technology offers a solution. The cannabis industry is ripe for this kind of technology. Flowhub, Outlaw Technology, and Releaf app are all examples of these solutions. 

Flowhub is a technology that can be used to streamline cannabis business transactions. Flowhub’s POS system can automatically report information to state compliance tracking systems, replacing a laborious manual process. In addition, the system can be customized to fit the needs of specific cannabis businesses. Flowhub has partnered with other technology companies, including Aeropay, to provide its services to the cannabis business industry.

Flowhub is a software provider for the cannabis industry, which can help dispensaries manage their point-of-sale, inventory tracking, and more. It connects cannabis retailers with leading data analytics, helping dispensaries make better business decisions. Flowhub is a founding member of the U.S. Cannabis Council, and has given away more than $3 million in free software through its social equity program. The company is privately held and focuses on remote operations and is committed to helping cannabis businesses thrive.

Outlaw Technology

As the cannabis business industry continues to expand, the need for advanced technology is becoming even more important. Blockchain, access control, AI, and IoT have all found application in the cannabis business. These new innovations help businesses streamline their operations while keeping costs low and the end product quality high. The industry has seen many technological advancements over the last decade, including better harvests and increased production efficiency. These new technologies help businesses associate with their customers and guarantee quality safety standards. They also give consumers a variety of cannabis products to choose from.

One of the latest developments in the cannabis industry uses artificial intelligence (AI). This technology can help growers and processors automate data entry, reducing inventory and harvest time. AI is also being used to track consumer data. Startups like Eaze, which developed an app for marijuana delivery, are leveraging AI to predict demand and supply. They then adjust inventory accordingly. Outlaw Technology can help the cannabis business industry.

The use of medical cannabis is rapidly rising in the United States. Of the 50 states, 37 have legalized medical marijuana and 19 have legalized recreational use. This has resulted in a total of $3.7 billion in cannabis tax revenue and increasingly widespread awareness of the plant’s pain-relieving qualities and potential to treat other illnesses and conditions.

According to a study published in Annals of Internal Medicine, the number of registered U.S. medical cannabis patients quadrupled between 2016 and 2020 to nearly 3 million total. This supports statistics from cannabis health technology company Veriheal, which reported 170,000 newly enrolled Florida patients in 2020 alone.

Medicinal Marijuana as an Alternative to Pills

The cannabis plant can assist in alleviating various conditions, from insomnia and Crohn’s disease to PTSD and depression. Considering that over 20% of Americans suffer from chronic pain—historically the most common reason people opt for medical cannabis—researchers have homed in on the potential of cannabis as a safer alternative to addictive opioid-based painkilling medications. Opioids have claimed hundreds of thousands of U.S. lives since the 1990s.

A study published in 2015 found that the use of medical cannabis “was associated with improvements in pain, function, quality of life and cognitive function.” The efficacy of cannabis as pain treatment has led to significant decreases in opioid use. According to a study, opioid overdose deaths were reduced by 25% in states that enacted medical cannabis programs.

Millennials were the biggest demographic of medical marijuana cardholders in 2020, followed by Generations X and Z. Statistics indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic combined with heavy political tension in 2020 caused these groups to experience depressive episodes, stress, and anxiety. Instead of seeking out traditional medications that often come with severe side effects, these groups chose cannabis as a tool for improving their mental health.

Is there a relationship between cannabis use and outcomes in spinal surgery and other procedures?

While there is limited literature examining the potential connection, a team of orthopedic specialists sought further answers. They ultimately found that patients with a history of cannabis use are indeed less likely than non-users to experience adverse medical outcomes after thoracolumbar (lower back) spinal fusion (TLF) surgery. The study, “The Impact of Isolated Baseline Cannabis Use on Outcomes Following Thoracolumbar Spinal Fusion: A Propensity Score-Matched Analysis” was recently published in The Iowa Orthopedic Journal.

The orthopedic specialists, affiliated with the State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate Health Sciences University in Brooklyn, analyzed the relationship between cannabis use and surgical outcomes with a 704-patient cohort, all undergoing TLF surgery for adult spinal deformity (ASD). Researchers queried the New York Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System database between January 2009 and September 2013 to identify all patients who underwent TLF for ASD. To be included, individuals were over the age of 18 and had either minimum 90-day or two-year follow-up surveillance.

According to the researchers, ASD is a spectrum of disorders presenting in late adolescence or adulthood and includes adult spinal scoliosis, iatrogenic spinal deformity and primary degenerative sagittal imbalance. The authors note that, as life expectancies increase, the prevalence of ASD is rising and more surgical corrections are expected to occur in the future.

“With shifting public sentiment, expanding decriminalization, and a lack of objective data on the potential consequences of cannabis use, it is imperative to identify how baseline cannabis use impacts postoperative outcomes of patients with adult spinal deformity (ASD) undergoing thoracolumbar fusion (TLF),” the study reads.

Half of the sample identified themselves as cannabis consumers and the other half did not. The study looked to compare 90-day complication, 90-day readmission, and two-year revision rates between cannabis users and non-users.

In an inflationary period where the prices of most products are on the rise, why is it that cannabis seems unaffected? The question surrounding this is, “Is cannabis inflation-proof or are there other factors in play?” Historically, the price for a gram of cannabis has been around the $10 and $20 range, and on up. Nowadays, consumers can find cannabis for around $5 per gram depending on how much they purchase.

Hero Technologies a cannabis company focused on a "seed-to-sale" vertical integration strategy, has migrated its banking operations from traditional financial institutions to banks that specialize in marijuana-related businesses (MRB). The company expects that the move to MRB banks will facilitate its compliance with state and federal financial regulations and help it manage cash and financial risk as it grows. (Benzinga)

Banking for MRBs is challenging due to the varied regulations across the U.S., the cash-intensive nature of the marijuana business, and the explosive growth of the cannabis industry.

Flora Growth Corp. (NASDAQ: FLGC) (“Flora” or the “Company”), a leading all-outdoor cultivator, manufacturer and distributor of global cannabis products and brands, announced today that the Company met with the author of a new bill to legalize recreational cannabis on the day the legislation was introduced to Congress.

Flora’s Chairman and CEO Luis Merchan met with Colombian Sen. Gustavo Bolivar prior to the bill's introduction to Congress on July 20. Bolivar, the key author of the bill, and Merchan discussed the top tenants of the bill, the bill’s implications for companies such as Flora in Colombia and what legalization means for the country’s burgeoning domestic and international cannabis markets.

Highlights of the discussion include:

Mids can be regarded as the mid-point between low-quality and high-quality cannabis. This classification has brought on different names for this class of marijuana flowers over the years.

For many that are new to the cannabis industry, you might have heard the word “mid” being used repeatedly while trying to buy weed. Now I know that we all want to act like we are in tune with every lingua in the cannabis industry, but it’s okay if you’re not. All you need is the right info and you’re good to go.

Before we delve into what mids are, you must understand what is known as the cannabis quality spectrum. This is simply the classification of cannabis based on its quality and many cannaseurs are known to use the classification that recognizes mids. There are four categories, listed in order of low quality to high quality: regs, mids, beasters, and headies. This means that regs are the least in terms of quality and headies are the best.

Another explanation of the cannabis quality spectrum has the marijuana flowers divided into three categories: low quality, medium quality, and high quality. The high-quality cannabis can further be divided into the low-high quality and high-high quality.

What are mids?

Mids can be regarded as the mid-point between low-quality and high-quality cannabis. This classification has brought on different names for this class of marijuana flowers over the years, including: middle, middle shelf, the thirties, middies, and B+. All these names point to the same thing, but what identifies mids are the flower variables. This includes appearance, flavor, cannabinoid content, effects, and price.

Appearance

You can easily identify mids from its appearance as many U.S. cannabis readily falls into this category. The buds are usually separated and contain few seeds and stems. It is also possible for the buds not to contain seeds at all. Mids have very few trichomes and are very bright with colored pistils and orange hairs.

Meat alternatives are on the rise globally. Could hemp take the lead as cannabis reform drives agricultural production?

Meat consumption is rising globally (starting with the U.S.). The American market alone is worth about $270 billion annually, out of a market worth about $1.5 Trillion dollars globally. Unfortunately this is also a vertical which is increasingly unsustainable from the climate change perspective—forget the moral issues involved. As Mr. Rogers famously said, he could not eat anything that had a mother.

Though marijuana use is now legal in most of the United States, questions remain about how smoking marijuana can affect lung health and the risk of lung cancer in particular.

Research has suggested that smoking marijuana can cause damage to the lungs but is not as detrimental as smoking tobacco.2-4 Studies have also indicated that smoking marijuana may not increase a person’s risk of lung cancer, but robust evidence is lacking.2-9

“We concluded that there is moderate evidence that there is no association between cannabis smoking and lung cancer,” said Donald I. Abrams, MD, professor emeritus of medicine at the University of California San Francisco and integrative oncologist at the USCF Osher Center for Integrative Health. 

Dr Abrams is one of the experts who reviewed evidence on the health effects of cannabis for a report published in 2017 by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM).

Among the research reviewed for that report was a pooled analysis of 6 case-control studies encompassing 2159 individuals with lung cancer and 2985 control participants. The analysis showed “little or no association” between the intensity, duration, cumulative consumption, or age at the start of cannabis smoking and the risk of lung cancer. 

Another study reviewed for the NASEM report was a population-based study of cannabis use in 49,321 Swedish military conscripts. Researchers evaluated the risk of lung cancer over a 40-year follow-up period. They found a 2-fold increase in lung cancer risk among participants with a history of “heavy” cannabis use (defined as having smoked more than 50 times at baseline) compared with those who had no history of cannabis use.