WeedLife News Network

Nearly two thirds of Marylanders, 62%, support legalizing the recreational use of marijuana, according to the latest Goucher College poll.

Support for the legalization of cannabis reached its highest point since Goucher College starting polling around marijuana in 2013 in the March 2021 results, in which two thirds of Marylanders approved. That support has since waned slightly.

Although a majority of those polled supported legalization, there was some clear division in support along party lines.

Among Democrats, 65% support while 32% percent oppose it.

More Republicans are supporting legalizing marijuana use than ever before, with 54% of those polled supporting the move and 44% opposing it.

It’s been well over a month since the Mississippi Medical Cannabis Act was signed into law.

However, potential cannabis growers in Mississippi are hesitant on how to proceed in growing their product.

Ambiguity in the signed legislation doesn’t specify if greenhouses are considered indoor or outdoor grow.

The difference is outdoor grow is strictly prohibited under the law.

“We fought so hard for these last two years, over two years, to get something passed,” said Zack Wilson with We are the 74.

A criminal record doesn't always hurt

New York state’s plan to let people with past convictions for marijuana crimes become the first to sell it legally is admirable, but faces some major challenges.

The dynamic pits what’s now referred to as the “legacy market” of once-illegal sellers against the publicly traded multi-state companies, some of whom already sell medical marijuana in the state. It’s a group that includes big players such as Curaleaf Holdings, Green Thumb Industries and Acreage Holdings. 

As New York becomes one of the world’s largest legal marijuana markets, the nitty gritty of its regulations will make or break the broader industry. Like California, where the industry is now asking for bailouts to beat back a still-thriving illicit market, New York has an entrenched network of marijuana dealers who don’t pay taxes or meet regulatory standards — helping them potentially undercut fledgling licensees. 

New York’s decision to set aside the first 100 to 200 licenses to sell recreational marijuana for people with past convictions may upend that dynamic. It’s one of many initiatives across the country to bring  those arrested for past marijuana crimes — disproportionately Black people — into the newly legalized industry and its profits.

“Those who have been most impacted will go first,” said Christopher Alexander, the executive director of New York State’s Office of Cannabis Management, during last week’s conference announcing the measure. Alexander clarified that New York’s rules would include good conduct standards to exclude individuals who are unfit to lead businesses. Applicants should also have experience as a business owner.

There's still a long way to go.

Americans for Safe Access (ASA), an organization working to ensure safe and legal access to cannabis for therapeutic uses and research recently unveiled its “2021 State of the States Report: An Analysis of Medical Cannabis Access in the United States.” Since its first edition in 2014, advocates and state legislators have utilized ASA’s report to pass new legislation and regulations to improve laws.

“The report evaluates the effectiveness of each state cannabis program from a patient perspective and assigns a grade using a rubric that reflects the key issues affecting patient access broken down into over 100 categories, including barriers to access, civil protections, affordability, health and social equity, and product safety as well as penalties for harmful policies," reported ASA in a press release. 

The report offers solutions for improvement to programs including legislative and regulatory language.

Americans for Safe Access hosted a press briefing on the report, which highlights the fact that states are still falling short in creating programs that fulfill the needs of all patients (the average grade among states was only 44%, with the highest score being 76%).

Drop off in legislative forward movement

“With a decline in legislative improvements in state medical cannabis programs, millions of patients are left with limited or no access,” said Debbie Churgai, ASA's executive director.

As D.C. seems unable to fully create a proper cannabis program, it is overcoming the roadblocks step by step.

The new bicameral omnibus spending bill presented on Wednesday by congressional leaders in Washington D.C. would keep a ban on allowing legal recreational cannabis sales. On the other hand, a different provision that protects state-legal medical marijuana programs from federal interference was left unchanged in the proposed measures, reported Marijuana Moment.

And so, the long-standing problem for cannabis businesses in Washington D.C. looks like it will remain, despite recent efforts to change it.

On March 4, the Drug Policy Alliance and more than 50 criminal justice reform, business, labor, and drug policy organizations, sent a letter to key House and Senate appropriators as well as Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, demanding the removal of the appropriations rider that has prevented the District of Columbia from spending its own money to legalize and regulate adult-use marijuana sales.

Though adult-use cannabis was legalized in Washington D.C. in 2014, a rider that has remained valid over the course of several presidential budget proposals has prevented the District from fully exercising its legal cannabis program.

As such, adults over 21 are allowed to grow and possess cannabis yet commercial sales remain stalled under the rider, which was also included in President Biden’s last budget for 2022. Last year, the rider was purposely left out of a spending bill approved by the House and circulated in draft form in the Senate.

Coronavirus testing has made Reditus Laboratories one of the fastest-growing employers in central Illinois, and the man behind the company's success says it's about more than good timing.

In the first of a two-part series on Reditus’ sudden rise, CEO Aaron Rossi has a unique blend of business interests that goes beyond the biomedical lab. There's orthotics, there's branding, and soon there may even be cannabis growing in his future.

In 2018, Aaron Rossi bought a bankrupt orthotics company called PAL Health Technologies in Pekin. A year later, he started a company called Reditus Laboratories inside the same building along the Illinois River in a business park on the city's southern edge.

Rossi, 39, explained he wanted to build Reditus into a leader in health care technology, starting with the study of body organs and tissues and molecular testing for cancer treatments.

In what turned out to be a fateful decision, Reditus then moved on to study infectious diseases.

Seated in his corner office and wearing his signature blue plaid sports jacket, Rossi recounted the early days at Reditus when COVID changed everything. He knew there would be huge demand for COVID testing. He said he and Reditus' partner, Thermo Fisher Scientific, worked out a plan to fill that need.

The global pandemic has spurred the growth of the cannabis industry. Over two-thirds of adults in the U.S. now believe marijuana should be legalized, and adoption is growing. As of this writing, medical use is legal in 37 states, and recreational sales are allowed in 18 states and Washington D.C.

Now is a great time to begin your legal business. In this guide, we will outline the key steps required to set up a dispensary, and recommended strategies for marijuana SEO promotion in 2022. Despite its size, the cannabis industry is still censored in terms of advertising media. Businesses may not use Google Ads, so SEO is king.

Virginia House Republicans squashed an effort to give people incarcerated for marijuana-related crimes an automatic resentencing hearing.

State lawmakers voted last year to allow adults to possess small amounts of marijuana. But Democrats said time restraints then kept proposals to include resentencing options for those incarcerated on marijuana convictions on the shelf.

Democratic state Sens. Scott Surovell (Fairfax) and Louise Lucas (Portsmouth) introduced a bill this legislative year that would have allowed those in state custody and on probation for marijuana-related felonies to ask a circuit court judge for a different sentence.

In February, the Virginia Senate passed the legislation on a bipartisan vote. Changes were made to the bill once it reached the House of Delegates, but it ultimately was rejected by Republicans.

On a 12-10 party-line vote Monday, the GOP-controlled Virginia House Appropriations Committee defeated the bill. The measure before the panel had been changed to eliminate the automatic hearing option and only called for a state study on resentencing for marijuana-related offenses.

“The underlying problem is that we decriminalized the possession of marijuana by adults of small amounts in most circumstances last year,” Sen. Surovell told the committee.

The famous Hash Bash returns to Ann Arbor, Michigan next month, the 50th anniversary of the cannabis activism festival.

Festival organizers and local officials in Ann Arbor, Michigan are busy preparing for the 50th anniversary Hash Bash, a celebration of cannabis scheduled to return to the University of Michigan on April 2 after two years of virtual festivities.

Since 1972, pot enthusiasts and activists have taken to an open area on the UM campus known as the Diag to protest cannabis prohibition. And even with the legalization of recreational weed in Michigan in 2018, the event still serves to shine light on the nation’s failed cannabis policies. 

The last two years, however, in-person festivities were canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic and virtual events were held online instead. Now, with vaccines readily available and the pandemic appearing to be waning, Hash Bash will be returning to fill the air above the Diag with clouds of smoke once again.

It promises to be a welcome return for Ann Arbor businesses that provide goods and services to the happily high revelers. Frances Todoro-Hargreaves, executive director of the State Street District, said that Hash Bash is one of the best business days of the year for merchants in the downtown area, especially for restaurants and other food vendors.

“Anything that brings people downtown, especially a traditional thing like Hash Bash, is good for the community,” Todoro-Hargreaves told MLive.

Well-intentioned government programs were supposed to lift barriers for Black entrepreneurs. But access to capital is still a big problem.

As cannabis legalization has swept through the U.S., nearly a dozen states have adopted programs intended to help marginalized groups enter the industry. But the so-called “social equity” initiatives have fallen far short of their goals, according to entrepreneurs they were designed to help.

Four Black founders of legalized weed businesses talked to The Business of Business to share their thoughts about why it’s been so hard for them to succeed in the industry, and why the popular programs do little to address the problems they face. Legalized cannabis for medical and recreational use is a swiftly growing business in the U.S. It hit $17.5 billion in 2020 and was projected to more than double to $43 billion by 2025, according to Forbes.

Still only a tiny morsel of that business belongs to Black Americans — a group that has long been deemed to have been unfairly targeted by the War on Drugs. According to data gathered by our parent company, Thinknum, of dispensaries listed on Leafly, only 26 of 9,487 locations across the U.S. are Black-owned. That’s fewer than 1%. Meanwhile Black people are more than four times as likely as white people in the U.S. to be arrested for pot violations, even through rates of pot use are about the same in both groups, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

So why are social equity programs not helping? These Black weed business founders offered their thoughts.

Norbert Pickett
Cannabliss DC

Pickett is the sole owner of Cannabliss DC in Washington D.C.’s Deanwood neighborhood. The district’s social equity program for legalized weed has done little for Pickett and other entrepreneurs because the model “is broken and needs to be fixed,” he told us.

Is Your Company Missing Out on a Billion-Dollar Opportunity in Cannabis?

Business is booming in cannabis country. Sales of legal cannabis in the U.S. grew 40 percent in 2021 to $25 billion, according to BofA Securities.

But entrepreneurs and large-scale corporations who are eager to cash in on the cannabis bonanza should be prepared for red tape and some seriously gray legal areas as they wait for federal legalization. Because while states have legalized cannabis in many cases—to some degree—it is still not legal on a federal level, meaning you cannot transport it across state lines, even for business purposes.

The California Department of Cannabis Control is proposing a variety of new changes to “streamline and simplify” the state’s cannabis industry.

The California Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) announced on March 4 that it was releasing a list of changes to the state’s regulations on cannabis. According to a press release, these changes intend to “streamline and simplify” existing cannabis regulations, as well as “enhance consumer protections and make permanent changes that are currently in effect as emergency regulations.”

According to DCC Director Nicole Elliot, these changes are a reflection of the intention of the department to continue bettering the state’s cannabis programs.

Inventor of the Renew Sports Car says he was “about seven years ahead of [his] time."

The cannabis car may never have hit the road officially, but its approach to reducing the carbon footprint still holds promise.

Using carbon-negative fibre — of which hemp is the primary ingredient — would prevent two tons of carbon dioxide “from being dumped into our atmosphere,” the company website claimed.

You cannot bring edibles or any form of cannabis on a plane. Even a legal prescription from a licensed medical practitioner might not be accepted.

The full resumption of commercial flights after the long pause across the world means many people plan to get into the skies soon.

We can all admit that the acceptance of cannabis and its derived products soared throughout the pandemic. So, it is expected that thousands of cannabis lovers are unaware of the laws regulating the use and possession of cannabis in United States airports.

The widespread cannabis legislation across the country has many people asking whether or not they can carry their cannabis products with them on their next flight. Some have even tried sneaking food products containing cannabis with them on interstate travels. The simple truth is that cannabis is a federally illegal substance. According to the CSA, they’re regarded as schedule 1 drugs.

Edibles In Airports

Edibles are consumables with varying levels of THC infused in them. These food products can be created at home or bought in cannabis dispensaries in legal states. It can be any food product as long as it contains cannabinoids.

A majority of the states in the country approve of medical cannabis or drugs. So people generally assume that they would be permitted to bring their cannabis for interstate travel from one legal state to another. However, federal legislation makes it impossible to do so. Regardless of whether it is medical cannabis or adult-use cannabis.

Strategic Partnerships with Futurola, Stündenglass, GPen, Click and El Blunto Puts Company At The Cutting Edge of the Cannabis Industry and Demonstrates Tyson 2.0's Excellence in Elevating Cannabis Consumption Experiences for Consumers

 Tyson 2.0, legendary boxer, entrepreneur and cannabis advocate Mike Tyson's newly launched cannabis company, today announced that fans will be able to experience their favorite Tyson 2.0 strains through new concentrate delivery devices and specialty products developed in partnership with the industry's premier cannabis brands.

"We are thrilled to partner with Futurola, Stündenglass, G Pen, CLICK and El Blunto to bring the newest and most innovative cannabis products and devices to market. Tyson 2.0's latest collabs combine our signature and most popular strains with our partners' premium technology, catering to a broad set of individuals and meeting the cannabis consumption methods they seek," said Mike Tyson, Chief Brand Officer and co-founder, Tyson 2.0.

Tyson 2.0 has joined forces with Futurola, an Amsterdam-based global brand founded in 1996, to launch an exclusive line of world-class rolling and smoking accessories. FUTUROLA x Tyson 2.0 BLUNT CONES are the latest innovation in pre-roll mastery, featuring Futurola's exclusive blend of tobacco-free, cruelty-free and vegan blunt paper and terpenes from Mike's favorite strain, the Toad. Each King Size Cone is rolled with care by skilled artisans, following the most stringent quality-control standards to ensure consistency in the finished result and are individually packaged in shatter-resistant glass tubes.

"Futurola is the future of rolling, and this exclusive collaboration between two legends in their industries, FUTUROLA x Tyson 2.0 offers the latest and greatest in the blunt game. We are all about innovation and our goal is to make a great experience, accessible for everyone," shared Patrik Eriksson and Toby Skard, owners of Futurola.

Tyson 2.0, alongside Stündenglass, maker of the world's first 360 degree gravity powered infuser developed the Tyson 2.0 x Stündenglass Gravity Hookah, a contactless smoke delivery system featuring a patented design and packaged in a transportable, craft storage box. Tyson 2.0 also announced a collaboration with G Pen, a subsidiary of the leading cannabis technology company Grenco Science Inc. and will bring to market the Tyson 2.0 x G Pen Dash, an innovative personal vaporizer, tailored to connoisseurs and new consumers alike. The Dash features a glass-glazed stainless steel heating chamber combined with a clean air source and integrated air path for unsurpassed flavor and vapor production from fan-favored Tyson strains.

France tiptoes into the medical cannabis industry, but legalization needs to be implemented.

The French government issued a decree last month that authorizes the cultivation of medical cannabis and the development of its industry.

Although the decree entered into force on March 1, 2022, regulators need to implement it.

The legislation only specifies the conditions and procedures for the cultivation and production of cannabis for medical use.

The decree has amended some parts of France's Code of Public Health to allow cultivation, production, manufacture, transport, import, export, and possession of cannabis and its derivatives under medical authorization.

As the legal cannabis industry grows, the rate at which women are entering the industry is now declining.

Women held 37% of executive-level roles in 2017, when Marijuana Business Daily released “Women & Minorities in the Marijuana Industry.” Today, the percentage of women holding those top positions has dropped to 22%. That's despite the findings in a recent white paper from The Arcview Group and the National Cannabis Industry Association concluding companies with women in leadership roles are actually more profitable and produce more than twice the revenue per dollar invested than those without them.

According to LDG, Drop Point is a first-of-its-kind cannabis online marketplace that automates workflows.

It has been a rough week in international affairs. Even the cannabis sector, which has unique political problems of its own, felt the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Pot investors can’t tune out Kremlin’s aggression

Two political imbroglios for the cannabis industry have added to its usual legislative woes.

Sanctions against Russia following its invasion of Ukraine and a White House memo about marijuana stocks upended the industry last week, sending the AdvisorShares Pure U.S. Cannabis exchange-traded fund down 9.6% over five days.

Canadian shares of Curaleaf Holdings Inc., the dominant U.S. cannabis company by market share, lost 17% last week after a flurry of posts on Twitter that raised concerns about the company’s ties to Russia. Its executive chairman and largest shareholder, Boris Jordan, is also a founder and chairman of two large Russian companies: Renaissance Insurance Group and investment firm Sputnik Group. Another large shareholder, Andrey Blokh, holds dual citizenship in the U.S. and Russia.

“The speculation on social media that the company and its major shareholders and executives will somehow be subject to any U.S. government economic sanctions now or in the future is incorrect,” Curaleaf said in a statement on Feb. 25, noting that Jordan is also a U.S. citizen.

Blokh and Jordan’s history with Russia is old news, well understood by Curaleaf investors for years. A Curaleaf spokeswoman said the company can’t speak to Jordan’s other investments, and that he won’t be discussing concerns about Russia sanctions.