WeedLife News Network

Climate change got personal for my family in 2013, when a refugee bear fleeing a nearby wildfire scaled my goat-corral fence and killed most of the herd in front of our eyes. Milk providers, yoga partners and friends Natalie Merchant, Bette Midler and Stevie Nicks were lost that day (we name our goats after singers we like). Baby Taylor Swift survived and slept inside with my human kids for a while.

Since that day, I’ve been consciously sequestering carbon — trying to reduce carbon miles by eating and buying locally, avoiding petroleum-based plastics in favor of compostable materials and furthering both of these goals by planting hemp and milking goats. It’s my day job: farming so my grandkids have a habitable planet.

State regulators say the lottery to award licenses to operate six new medical cannabis facilities has been delayed due to an ongoing appeal of a rejected lottery applicant.

The administrative appeal first delayed the lottery in the spring and now it will not happen the first week of August either, the Providence Journal reported.

Matthew Santacroce, chief of the Office of Cannabis Regulation within the Department of Business Regulation, said Tuesday that the lottery will not be scheduled until the appeal has run its course and it remains unclear how long that could take.

The new facilities will be dispersed around the state in six regions, joining the dispensaries in Providence, Portsmouth and Warwick.

A nightly dose of medicinal cannabis (MC) improved sleep and other quality of life (QOL) outcomes in patients with high-grade gliomas, according to results of a study published in Frontiers in Oncology.

Researchers conducted a randomized, phase 2 trial comparing 2 ratios of oral MC oil in patients diagnosed with recurrent or inoperable high-grade gliomas, including glioblastoma multiforme and grade III anaplastic astrocytoma.

The study enrolled 88 patients. Their average age was 53.3 years, a majority of patients were White (95.2%), and about half were women (49.4%).

Patients were randomly assigned to receive a 1:1 ratio of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) to cannabidiol (CBD) or a 4:1 ratio of THC to CBD. In the 1:1 group, the dose of THC was 4.6 mg/ml, and the CBD dose was 4.8 mg/ml. In the 4:1 group, the THC dose was 15 mg/ml, and the CBD dose was 3.8 mg/ml.

The researchers assessed QOL changes from baseline to week 12 using a paired t-test for the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy – Brain (FACT-Br). The results showed greater improvements in physical domains (P =.025), functional domains (P =.014), and sleep (P =.009) with the 1:1 ratio over the 4:1 ratio.

An organization hoping to regulate marijuana in Ohio has changed routes on legalization. 

The Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol announced Tuesday it will now try passing a state law instead of through a constitutional amendment, which was the original plan, as outlined in March 2020.

“We are proposing to regulate marijuana for adult use, just like we do for alcohol," said Tom Haren, a spokesman for the group, in a statement. "Our proposal fixes a broken system while ensuring local control, keeping marijuana out of the hands of children, and benefiting everyone.”

The coalition submitted its proposal, along with more than 1,000 signatures, to the Ohio attorney general's office on Tuesday. The AG has 10 days to review the summary proposal.

The group would need to collect 132,887 signatures of registered Ohio voters to put the measure before the Legislature.

Darren McCarty said he wouldn't be alive today if he never found marijuana.

The former NHL star and four-time Stanley Cup champion balanced a 16-year hockey career with binge drinking and alcoholism, McCarty told Insider in an interview. But once he retired in 2009, there was no sport left to balance out his addiction, and his drinking habits escalated to life-threatening levels over the next six years.

"I was 280 pounds," McCarty said. "My blood pressure when I was in the hospital was 265 over 145. I should be dead."

But in November 2015, he made the decision to do a seven-day detox in his garage while under the care of his wife Sheryl Simmons, who served as his nurse.

But the key ingredient that helped McCarty get through the detox, he said, was Rick Simpson Oil, or RSO, a cannabis-oil product with high levels of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the main psychoactive cannabinoid in marijuana that gets users high.

Children whose parents regularly smoke or vape marijuana may experience viral respiratory infections, such as the common cold, more frequently than those whose parents do not smoke, according to a study published in the journal Pediatric Research.

Researchers from Wake Forest School of Medicine and Children's Hospital Colorado, USA surveyed 1,491 parents and caregivers who lived in Colorado, a US state where recreational and medicinal use of marijuana is legal. The researchers found that parents who regularly smoked or vaped marijuana reported that their children experienced more viral respiratory infections in the year prior to the survey, compared to children whose parents did not smoke tobacco or marijuana. Parents who smoked or vaped marijuana reported that their children had not experienced other conditions often related to second-hand tobacco smoke exposure, such as ear infections and asthma attacks, more frequently nor that they had visited a hospital emergency department more often in the previous year, compared to children whose parents did not smoke.

The negative impact that exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke can have on children's health has been extensively studied but the impact of second-hand marijuana smoke on young children is unclear. Our findings identify the potential for increased respiratory infections in children exposed to second-hand marijuana smoke. This could have significant healthcare implications as more states in the USA move towards legalising recreational marijuana use."

Adam Johnson, Corresponding Author

Of the parents and caregivers who participated in the survey, 78 (5.2%) reported regularly smoking or vaping only marijuana, 214 (14.3%) reported regularly smoking only tobacco and 80 (5.4%) reported regularly smoking both marijuana and tobacco. The researchers found that those who only smoked marijuana tended to be younger, educated to a higher level, less likely to identify as Hispanic, and have a higher income than those who did not smoke or who only smoked tobacco. Parents and caregivers who smoked both marijuana and tobacco tended to be younger and were less likely to identify as Hispanic than non-smokers. They also had lower income and education levels than non-smokers, compared to those who only smoked marijuana and those who only smoked tobacco.

Alabama became the 36th state to allow cannabis for medical use when Gov. Kay Ivey signed into law the Darren Wesley ‘Ato’ Hall Compassion Act on May 17, 2021. The act establishes a process through which applicants will compete for a limited number of licenses in the following categories: (1) cultivator; (2) processor; (3) dispensary; and (4) “integrated facility” (which can cultivate, process, transport, and dispense medical cannabis under one license), as well as a to-be-determined number of licenses for secure transporters and testing laboratories. A 14-member Medical Cannabis Commission licenses and regulates the medical cannabis program, with input from the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries on cultivation matters. The act requires that the Commission and the department adopt regulations that allow license applications by September 1, 2022.

This article provides an overview of the requirements for obtaining a dispensary license, and is part of a series of similar overviews for the other five license categories. 

What is a dispensary license?

A dispensary license authorizes the licensee to: (1) purchase and transfer cannabis from a processor, integrated facility, or cultivator, if the cultivator contracted with a processor to process its cannabis on the cultivator’s behalf; and (2) dispense and sell medical cannabis to a registered qualified patient or registered caregiver.

How many dispensary licenses will be issued?

The act authorizes the Commission to issue four dispensary licenses. At least one license must be awarded to a business entity that is 51%+ owned by individuals of “African American, Native American, Asian, or Hispanic descent,” and “managed and controlled” by such individuals “in its daily operations.” Each dispensary licensee may operate up to three dispensing sites, each of which must be in a different county from any other dispensing site and is subject to other restrictions.

What are the requirements for obtaining a dispensary license?

Applicants for a dispensary license must pay a non-refundable application fee of $2,500. Each “owner, shareholder, director, [and] board member” of an applicant, along with each “individual with an economic interest in an applicant,” must submit to a “state and national criminal background check.” If any “owner, director, board member, or individual with a controlling interest” has been “convicted of or released from incarceration for [any] felony” or “convicted of a controlled substance-related felony” within the last 10 years, the applicant is ineligible for a license.

When it comes to CBD, entrepreneurs would be well served to start with the end in mind. 

The foreseeable outcome is federal regulation – just like any other consumed food or dietary supplement on the market.

While it is understandable that CBD manufacturers would prefer to run their businesses without any government intervention, being left unchecked has made the sector vulnerable to unscrupulous behavior.

Without regulation in place, anyone can sell CBD products.

Consequently, there are plenty of bad actors out there without experience growing hemp or making high-quality hemp extracts.

The legal cannabis market is planned to reach $43 billion by 2025. In the US, as of July 1, 2021, 47 states have legalized cannabis, of which 19 states have legalized it for both recreational and medical use. This means that 43% of the US adult population resides in these states and that by 2025, 5.4 million Americans will be registered as patients in medical cannabis states.

Looking at these numbers, a question that often arises is - will all these people be able to get life insurance coverage?

Up until recently, using marijuana was taboo and was not supported, even condoned, by the health care and life insurance fields. Things have changed, research shows more in-depth findings, and customer behavior and demand have shifted.

When insurers review an individual applying, there are quite a few factors considered:

Age

The CBD market has achieved steady growth curve even during the pandemic. CBD or cannabidiol is a natural substance derived from cannabis, found in both marijuana and the non-psychoactive hemp plant. CBD is a non-psychoactive chemical compound and may alleviate things such as anxiety and pain, which is why it is used to create wellness products, such as oils, edibles and functional beverages. The pandemic caused a shift in CBD sales to online channels. While this shift ensured that CBD products remained accessible to consumers, it did not fully compensate for the loss of education and brand awareness available at some retail stores.

PIERRE, S.D. — As the November deadline for proposed laws concerning legalized medical cannabis approaches, the South Dakota Department of Health is holding a public hearing to consider the adoption and amendment of proposed rules for South Dakota medical cannabis program.

The hearing will be held on Aug. 18, 2021 from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. CDT, 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. MDT in Conference Room 3 of the Kneip Building, 700 Governor’s Drive in Pierre. Anyone interested in testifying for or against the proposed rules may do so by appearing in person or remotely at the hearing.

To testify remotely, you must register by Aug. 13, 2021 by clicking here.

If you cannot make it in person or remotely, written comments and materials must reach the South Dakota Department of Health — 600 East Capitol Avenue, Pierre, South Dakota 57501 — by Aug. 28, 2021.

After the hearing, the DOH will consider all written and oral comments.

ALBANY — A certification process highlighting energy-efficient cannabis cultivators and a tax credit to complement it are key sustainability proposals of an industry white paper released Tuesday by New York’s Castetter Cannabis Group. The paper also called for state regulators to develop a strategy for data collection and analysis of license holders’ operations.

Its recommendations reinforce lawmakers’ urgency to minimize harm to the the state’s fledgling industry, but suggest a divergent strategy centered on incentives rather than efficiency limits.

“We’re advocating for a performance-based approach,” said Kate Hruby, the group’s lead policy analyst and co-author of the paper.

As billionaires blast off into space to search for inhabitable planets, there are other business leaders doing their part to keep the planet we have from either burning up or being buried under all the garbage we produce. CannaCraft, a community-oriented cannabis company based in Sonoma County, has made it its mission to tackle the plastic packaging waste issue.

When the New Mexico Legislature was considering a bill that eventually became the Cannabis Regulation Act, one of the major topics of concern was water use. Ultimately, lawmakers agreed to require cannabis growers to prove they had legal access to water.

Marijuana smokers in Southern Illinois can now legally light up in a new consumption lounge. The Luna Lounge, in Sesser, Illinois, about 5 hours south of Chicago, was specifically built for marijuana smokers.

Misinformation has run rampant over the use of marijuana for decades. In 1936, the church group-financed movie Reefer Madness taught the public about the perils presented in using the drug — everything from attempted murder to suicide and madness. Around the same time, Harry Anslinger and others began the war on drugs, which was at least partly fueled by racist motives. Ever since, rumors and or slanted science about weed has often filled in a gaping hole in research due to restrictions on drugs illegalized by western governments. That said, the legalization of marijuana in various states and countries has led to marketing campaigns making sometimes dubious claims of the herb’s health benefits.

Some people have long tended to lump all illegal drugs together, seeing little difference between the dangers posed by drugs like heroine or methamphetamines to marijuana. But how dangerous is marijuana, really? Can it kill you? Is it possible to overdose on weed?

The answer to the latter question is an easy “no.” There are some ways that joints, bong hits or synthetic versions of the psychoactive agents in marijuana can kill you, but overdosing on pure, unadulterated marijuana that isn’t mixed with anything is very nearly impossible.

“It’s not close to alcohol or opiate toxicity,” says Mujeeb Shad, a psychiatrist with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Why the Danger of Marijuana Is Self-Mitigated

The reason marijuana doesn’t pose the same sort of risk as opiates, cocaine, amphetamines or even alcohol is that some of the active components of the pungent herb work against each other in your body.

A trial carried out in Western Australia is indicating strong potential for hemp to be a good summer feed option for livestock.

There’s a lot of anecdotal evidence that hemp is a great livestock feed, but one of the challenges is regulatory – concerns about how the intoxicating cannabinoid THC may impact animal products. While THC is only present in small amounts in hemp, the fact it exists at all is the main reason it remains illegal to feed it to livestock in many jurisdictions.

Synthetic cannabinoids have different biochemical properties compared to THC that increase their risk.

By Nate Guzowski

A problem of increasing social importance is the rise in the use of synthetic cannabis alternatives, commonly called K2 or Spice or a number of other brand names. In 2020, 2.4% of high school seniors tried synthetic cannabis.

In contrast to marijuana where THC is the active molecule, these alternatives use a range of different, more potent compounds that activate the same pathways as THC, namely the CB1 cannabinoid receptor, which is responsible for the subjective effects of cannabinoid intoxication.

JWH-018 is perhaps the most widely abused of these molecules historically due to its ease of synthesis, but these products may contain any of a large number of similarly acting molecules. JWH-018 has approximately 5 times the activity as THC, but other synthetics can far exceed this. For example, HU-210 has an activity measured in hundreds of times the potency of THC. The legal status of these compounds varies on a case-by-case basis and can be poorly defined. This is because the CB1 receptor is promiscuous with respect to the variety of chemical matter it will bind to. JWH-018 is officially a schedule 1 drug, whereas HU-210 is unscheduled currently.

While the use of cannabis dates back to the third millennium BC, the ways that humans have experienced the plant haven’t changed dramatically. With legal medicinal dispensaries being welcomed into our communities, the selection and quality of cannabis products has improved vastly - but the fundamental experience of ingestible products has stayed basically the same. At long last, that’s about to change.

Maine’s recreational marijuana market continued its eye-popping growth in June, the state has reported.

Sales of cannabis for recreational, adult use topped $6.47 million for the month, up from $5.36 million in May, according to new data from the Maine Office of Marijuana Policy. More than 86,000 purchases took place during June.

The value of June sales is the highest monthly total since Maine’s recreational marijuana market launched last October, and represents a 20.6% increase over the dollar amount in May. That’s slightly less than the 23.2% growth in May over the previous month.

To date, sales have totaled nearly $30 million, according to the OMP. June sales were roughly six times the total in the first month.