WeedLife News Network

New York design studio Zero is getting into the weed business by partnering with Dosist and Sunday Goods founders to launch a "brand-centred" cannabis company called Studio. It marks the first step into creating their own series of cannabis brands after years of helping build them for clients.

With plans to expand to other markets across the United States, Studio initially launched in Arizona. The state is poised to be one of America's most attractive legal cannabis markets, with a projected $2.6B in cannabis revenue by 2025. Seeing this opportunity, Matt Seashols of Dosist, Randy Smith of Sunday Goods and the Zero team decided to combine their experience in retail, content, design, strategy and building trendsetting brands to create something of their own.

Despite the inauspicious beginning of 2020, Hawke Media believes the COVID-19 pandemic presented unprecedented opportunities for companies in the right industries: specifically cannabis.

Hawke Media, a digital marketing company operating as an “outsourced” chief marketing officer (CMO), believes that such an opportunity existed, and still exists, at the convergence of the e-commerce, consumer packaged goods (CPG), and cannabis spaces.

Wisconsin lawmakers recently unveiled a bipartisan bill to decriminalize marijuana statewide. The bill is not the first of its kind, but it benefits from the exceedingly rare support of some Republican politicians, setting it apart from the usual Democrat-led initiatives shunned by the Republican legislature.

Under this bill, possession of a personal-use amount of marijuana would be subjected to a fine of $100 for possessing 14 grams of marijuana or less. Municipalities would have some discretion, but they cannot enact a penalty lesser than $100 or greater than $250, or up to 40 hours of community service. Any amount greater than 14 grams could still be subjected to the current law.

Currently, Wisconsin law states that a first offense of possessing personal use amounts of marijuana can incur a fine up to $1,000 and six months of incarceration. A repeat offense is a felony and can be punished with three and a half years in prison and a $10,000 fine. This makes Wisconsin one of the worst locations in the United States in terms of personal use of marijuana.

Remove the Threat of Prison

Most importantly, the bill in question would eliminate counting for the purpose of determining whether there has been a repeat violation in cases where the amount seized is 28 grams or less. This would remove the threat of prison entirely from most low-level marijuana cases, statewide, and would turn thousands of serious offenses every year into slaps on the wrist.

As such, this proposal seems appealing, especially for Wisconsinites who live outside of the main centers of population, many of which have already enacted some form of decriminalization. As more and more localities have taken the initiative to enact cannabis reform without waiting for the regressive legislature, this bill aims to harmonize the law across the state. Co-author Rep. Sylvia Ortiz-Velez has argued in a press conference that marijuana laws in Wisconsin are “a patchwork,” which confuses residents who expect rules applied in Milwaukee and Madison to be applied elsewhere.

We’re now armed with more facts about marijuana than ever before, but a lot of misinformation continues to circulate. Here are some untruths you should be aware of.

As marijuana becomes more mainstream, so do   myriad myths and legends. Fallacies and untruths about marijuana have existed as long as its opponents have. The main difference between then and now, however, is legalization and popularity.

Increased data and newly-funded research have given birth to scientific findings that help shed light on how marijuana actually affects people and society. As weed becomes legal and the states that legalize it continue to operate normally, many skeptics are starting to realize some of the great myths of marijuana are just that — myths.

Marijuana Use Causes Cancer

The research and study of how marijuana affects or contributes to cancer is still very new and inconclusive overall. Although marijuana has proven to be a helpful therapy for those undergoing cancer treatment, whether or not marijuana causes cancer is still up in the air.

Weed Is Not as Potent as It Used to Be

There is a common rumor, sometimes spoken among more senior generations, many of whom are reformed marijuana users, claiming the potency of marijuana has decreased. There is no denying the way cannabis is grown in this country has changed a great deal. 

Marijuana was illegal and often farm-grown in the 1960s, and today it is a multi-billion dollar industry in the United States.

Despite a high rise in Michigan’s marijuana business, Delta Township does not have a dispensary — and township officials don’t expect that to change any time soon.

According to Michigan Marijuana Regulatory Agency, more than 700 dispensaries opened in the state of Michigan since 2021.

In 2019, the township board voted against allowing dispensaries within Delta Township’s borders. Since then, this issue hasn’t been revisited, while nearby cities such as Lansing and East Lansing are dabbling into Michigan’s now multimillion-dollar business.

Township resident Amy Zander, owner of Zeedia Media, said Delta should stay current and competitive with other communities.

“The money it could bring to the community and adding more businesses to the Delta Township community will make our economy stronger,” Zander said. 

The West Virginia Office of Medical Cannabis is holding registration events in several cities in the coming days.

The public events for medical cannabis patients will be held Wednesday in Morgantown at Fairfield Inn and Suites, Thursday in Weston at Hampton Inn and Dec. 7 in Princeton at Country Inn & Suites. Each registration will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

"Would be great to hear from you," the police service tweeted.

There was nothing sweet at all about cannabis-infused treats found hidden inside a hedge that could have proved dangerous if discovered by children.

A treasure trove of cannabis sweets was found in a suspicious package tucked away in the hedge on a residential street in Ivybridge by a citizen. The person then handed in the cannabis products to the Devon and Cornwall Police in the U.K.

Each packet reportedly had a cannabis warning. The treats contain cannabis that has “been through a distillation process,” notes another tweet by Watkins.

Distillation and isolation is a process that “take place in the final stages of creating a cannabis oil extract,” notes Alberta-based Maratek, a company that engineers solvent recycling and cannabis/hemp extraction technologies.

If cannabis reform is an incremental process, and it is, then this past year has shown the industry just how much can be accomplished in state-level legislation.

Following the watershed election in 2020, state legislators across the U.S. got down to business this year. As detailed in a new report from NORML, state legislatures have passed and enacted more than 50 cannabis reform laws since January. 

At the top of the list: Virginia, Connecticut and New Mexico, which passed adult-use legalization measures. New York and New Jersey also crossed that line by passing the laws that would enact voter-approved adult-use measures passed last November.

Beyond that, state legislators drafted, debated and passed laws to further expungement efforts, broaden the parameters of “diversity” in the cannabis industry and expand medical cannabis access.

If cannabis reform is an incremental process, and it is, then this past year has shown the industry just how much can be accomplished in state-level legislation. No doubt, there’s more to come.

“State lawmakers took unprecedented steps this year to repeal marijuana prohibition laws and to provide relief to those millions of Americans who have suffered as a result of them,” NORML’s Deputy Director Paul Armentano said in a public statement.

Retail marijuana will not be coming to Greenport in the near future.

Village trustees voted 3-2 Monday night to opt out of allowing on-site marijuana consumption and retail dispensaries within village boundaries, ahead of the state’s Dec. 31 deadline. The village may choose to opt in later, reversing the decision, but it will never again have the opportunity to opt out. 

Mayor George Hubbard, Deputy Mayor and Trustee Jack Martilotta, and Trustee Mary Bess Phillips voted in favor of the opt out, emphasizing regulatory concerns. Trustees Julia Robins and Peter Clarke voted against.

“I’m not opposed to it either way, I just think that we’re really not prepared for this,” Mayor George Hubbard said. The village can choose to opt in six months from now with more research after seeing “what the state is going to do.”  

Trustee Mary Bess Phillips took a similar stance, emphasizing that whether residents smoke marijuana is not the issue.

Over the course of the past decade, the public perception of adult recreational cannabis use has shifted dramatically.

Ever since Colorado legalized marijuana for recreational use back in 2012, it’s been no secret that it could create a financial windfall for both cannabis businesses and the state itself.

A decade later, multiple other U.S. states have followed in the footsteps of the Centennial State in allowing their citizens to purchase cannabis in a manner similar to alcohol or liquor.

People are seeking new alternatives to alcohol

No one has been caught more off guard by the high demand for cannabis products than beer, wine and liquor companies. Sales tax revenue for alcohol has been surpassed by those of recreational marijuana.

According to David Feldman, CEO of Skip Intro Advisors, a strategic consulting firm for up-and-coming cannabis brands, there are numerous reasons why tax revenue for cannabis has surpassed alcohol.

When Lisa Capitani decided to start a small business to educate and guide medical marijuana patients, she knew she’d need some advice.

Cannabis is a growing part of the holidays

The South Dakota Supreme Court has sided with the state’s anti-pot governer, overturning a broad state cannabis initiative passed by voters last year, saying the amendment violates the state constitution. The court ruled 4-1 last week that the initiative, Amendment A, approved by ballot in November 2020, violates a narrow “single-subject” rule that applies to constitutional amendments.

The decision at least temporarily imperils adult-use marijuana in South Dakota but does not change laws in effect that allow medical marijuana and industrial hemp. As a whole, the amendment embraced those two sectors along with adult-use marijuana.

Republican Gov. Kristi Noem, who has said the amendment was “the wrong choice for South Dakota’s communities,” launched a legal challenge immediately after the state’s voters passed it by referendum in last year.

No effect on hemp

The court’s ruling, while a setback for adult-use marijuana, does not affect Measure 26, which separately authorizes medical marijuana and passed with the support of 70 percent of voters independently last November. It also has no effect on South Dakota’s hemp program, which was established and received U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) clearance last year.

The court agreed that most of Amendment A, including parts that address licensing, regulation and taxation of cannabis production and distribution, are confined exclusively to the legalization of recreational marijuana. But the judges ruled that provisions instructing the legislature to authorize medical marijuana and cultivation of industrial hemp addressed separate additional subjects, thereby violating the state constitution.

One of Thailand's major fast food chains has been promoting its "Crazy Happy Pizza" this month, an under-the-radar product topped with a cannabis leaf. It's legal but won't get you high.

Veterans of the backpacker trail, familiar with the legendary pizza parlors of neighboring Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh that offer powerful marijuana as an optional condiment, might feel downright cheated.

"Of course, they cannot get high," Panusak Suensatboon, general manager of The Pizza Company, said in an interview this week. "It's just a marketing campaign. and you can taste the cannabis and then if you have enough, you maybe get a bit sleepy."

The Crazy Happy Pizza is a mashup of toppings evoking the flavors of Thailand's famous Tom Yum Gai soup along with a deep-fried cannabis leaf on top. Cannabis is also infused into the cheese crust and there's chopped cannabis in the dipping sauce. A 9-inch pie costs 499 baht (about $15). Customers preferring a do-it-yourself variety can choose their own toppings, with a 100 baht ($3) surcharge for two or three cannabis leaves.

In recent years, a kind of middle-ground product has emerged: cannabidiol, or CBD, a chemical found in cannabis that can be processed into what is touted as a cure-all medicine. CBD can be separated out from tetrahydrocannabinol — THC — the chemical in cannabis that produces marijuana's high.

To understand how rapidly New York overhauled its marijuana laws, look no further than its impact on the criminal justice system.

Fewer and fewer people are being arrested on marijuana offenses in New York, underscoring the major effect of the drug’s decriminalization in 2019 and, ultimately, its legalization this past March.

From April through October of this year, just 116 people statewide were arrested on a top-level misdemeanor or felony charge related to marijuana possession or sale in New York, data compiled by the state Division of Criminal Justice Services shows.

The drop-off in marijuana arrests has been stark as state lawmakers and then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo reshaped the state’s laws related to the drug.

In 2020, after New York lawmakers took steps to decrease marijuana penalties but before they legalized certain amounts of the substance, there were 2,720 misdemeanor or felony marijuana arrests. Compare that to 2017, when there were 28,239 misdemeanor marijuana arrests alone, according to a study by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Health officials in Connecticut are issuing a warning about fentanyl-laced marijuana which is being eyed in a rash of overdoses throughout the state.

Since July, 39 overdoses requiring the use of naloxone for revival have been reported. In each of the cases, the person involved said they had only smoked marijuana, but officials said they exhibited opioid symptoms.

“This is the first lab-confirmed case of marijuana with fentanyl in Connecticut and possibly the first confirmed case in the United States,” said Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Manisha Juthani.

A new cannabis film documentary entitled Lady Buds, releasing this weekend, explores the lives and challenges of female business owners.

The cannabis industry has heavily benefitted from niche documentaries, which present a professional way to educate viewers about the stigma of cannabis, its history on the War on Drugs or its effectiveness as a medicine. Films such as WEED (2013), featuring CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent Sanjay Gupta, who opened up the conversation about medical cannabis to the nation. Weed the People (2018) explores the effectiveness of medical cannabis for children. Grass is Greener (2019) examines the history of music and its depiction of the War on Drugs.

Now it’s time to enjoy a new cinematic adventure in the form of Lady Buds—a unique perspective about female cannabis business owners from all walks of life.

High Times conducted an exclusive interview with Director, Producer and Writer Chris J. Russo in the High Times’ November Issue, aka the Women’s Issue, where she offered an inside look at her film and what kind of experience it presents to audiences. According to Russo, Lady Buds is the first of its kind—and it all began with a statistic about women in the industry that stuck with her. A few key studies have produced some shocking data about women in the industry, or lack thereof.

Pharmacy chains will be appealing the verdict that they created a public nuisance by contributing the Ohio’s opioid crisis.

A federal jury in Ohio on Tuesday found that pharmacy giants Walgreens, CVS and Walmart contributed to the opioid crisis in that state, a verdict that could serve as a bellwether for thousands of similar cases pending from coast to coast. The decision is the first verdict returned by a jury that holds a pharmacy retailer responsible for its role in the devastating epidemic of opioid overdoses that has plagued the United States for decades.

In the lawsuit, Lake and Trumbell Counties in northeastern Ohio maintained that the pharmacy retailers had recklessly distributed more than 100 million opioid pain pills in the counties, leading to addiction, death and a strain on public services. Between 2012 and 2016, more than 80 million prescriptions painkillers were dispensed in Trumbull County alone, or about 400 pills for every resident. During the same period, approximately 61 million opioid painkillers were dispensed in Lake County.

“For decades, pharmacy chains have watched as the pills flowing out of their doors cause harm and failed to take action as required by law,” a committee of attorneys representing local governments in federal opioid lawsuits said in a statement. “Instead, these companies responded by opening up more locations, flooding communities with pills, and facilitating the flow of opioids into an illegal, secondary market.”

Attorneys for the plaintiffs argued that the actions of the pharmacies amounted to a public nuisance that cost the counties about $1 billion each to address. Mark Lanier, an attorney representing the counties, said that the pharmacies failed to hire or train enough employees and implement systems to prevent suspicious orders from being filled.

“The law requires pharmacies to be diligent in dealing drugs,” Lanier said. “This case should be a wake-up call that failure will not be accepted.”