WeedLife News Network

Backers of Missouri's successful 2018 ballot measure that legalized medical marijuana say they plan to unveil their next effort — an initiative petition targeting the 2022 ballot to legalize recreational use — by the end of June.

The timing will allow signature collection to begin in August, says John Payne, though he declined to specify details on possession and cultivation limits while the campaign's drafting committee is still finalizing the petition.

With Missouri dispensaries opening across the state, Payne says he's confident that residents are ready to expand cannabis legalization. If the measure is passed, Missouri would join fourteen states that have legalized recreational marijuana — including its neighbor Illinois, which Newsweek reports is on pace to finish the year with more than $1 billion in cannabis sales.

According to Payne, it was local polling in 2019 that showed "a strong majority that supports legalizing the adult use of marijuana" — and which motivated the creation of Missourians For A New Approach. The campaign attempted to repeat the success of 2018 by placing a question on the November 2020 ballot, one asking voters to approve a constitutional amendment that would effectively treat cannabis the way the law treats alcohol.

Payne, who served as the 2020 initiative's campaign manager, says the surprising level of public support for adult-use cannabis was borne out in the streets — at least, initially.

Fraud charges have been laid against CannTrust Holdings Inc.’s former chief executive Peter Aceto and two former directors, all of whom face possible jail time of up to five years if found guilty in a sweeping quasi-criminal case led by the Ontario Securities Commission.

Company co-founder and former board chair Eric Paul and former director Mark Litwin are also charged with insider trading following a months-long investigation by Canada’s largest capital markets regulator. The OSC moved in following blockbuster revelations in the summer of 2019 that a Health Canada inspection of the publicly traded company uncovered unlicensed cannabis growing at its Pelham, Ont. facility.

The three men are facing a total of more than a dozen counts that include allegations of making misleading disclosure to investors in a case that will be prosecuted in the Ontario Court of Justice due to its quasi-criminal nature, rather than before an OSC tribunal as a civil matter. This marks the first time the commission has gone after a public company over disclosure using its quasi-criminal powers.

Quasi-criminal offences such as fraud and insider trading carry penalties including jail terms of up to five years less a day and fines of up to $5 million for each conviction.

In a statement Tuesday laying out the charges, the OSC said the allegations “relate to efforts to conceal the illegal growing of cannabis at CannTrust over a 10-month period in 2018 and 2019.”

Insomniacs who received nightly sublingual administration of a cannabinoid extract managed to get more and better sleep, suggests a new Australian study.

Investigators found that the extract was “well-tolerated and improves insomnia symptoms and sleep quality in individuals with chronic insomnia symptoms,” notes a study abstract, published online this month in Sleep.

Participants included those who had been experiencing chronic insomnia symptoms for at least three months. They received either the extract or a placebo over a two-week period.

Comparing the effects of the extract to a placebo, researchers considered self-reports from participants, measurements of sleep onset latency, wake after sleep onset, total sleep time and sleep efficiency, and self-reports of sleep quality and feeling rested upon waking. One person did not finish the study.

The remaining participants, the vast majority of whom were female, did not report any serious adverse outcomes. There were, however, 40 mild, non-serious, adverse events — 36 of those involving subjects being administered the extract — “with all but one resolving overnight or soon after waking,” the study abstract reports.

Despite most states legalizing cannabis in some form, it is still federally illegal. So many banks, credit unions, and lenders refuse to conduct business with licensed cannabis companies out of fear of federal retaliation.

On a farm in southeastern Kentucky, inside a pristine greenhouse, you’ll find row after row of hemp, or "Cannabis sativa L.” 

It has a high level of cannabidiol, or CBD, and a very low level of the compound tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, this is the compound that makes people high. 

David Jaggers is the director of cultivation for Buffalo Skull Ranch Greenhouse, which started operating in March of 2020.

"Kentucky law allows for hemp to be grown up to 0.3% THC," he said. "After that, it’s considered marijuana and it gets destroyed." 

The Kentucky Department of Agriculture tests the hemp grown there, he said. 

Since the eruption of altcoins, the crypto space has experienced a wide variety of wonders and unexpected events. Smart contracts, Lighting network, DeFi, scams, bubbles and failed projects to name some of the most obvious. In the midst of this frenzy, a fascinating concept appeared: Cannabis Crypto. 

Some view these tokens as a possible solution to the cannabis industry’s banking problem that stems from the DEA's outdated Schedule I status of marijuana as a controlled substance thus making it impossible for the entire industry to access banking institutions, essentially forcing cannabis companies to operate outside of insured banking systems.

Proposed legislation will likely prohibit hemp products from containing more than .3% of any kind of THC, including delta-8. This will make the market for such products very small, or non-existent.

For a state that pioneered medical cannabis and was a relatively early adopter of recreational cannabis (cannabis is defined only as marijuana here and not hemp), California is among the worst states in the union when it comes to sensible hemp-derived CBD policy. So it should surprise absolutely nobody that in legislation that’s designed to “legalize” CBD (AB-45 and SB-235), the state is now coming for delta-8 THC.

Before explaining what delta-8’s fate may be, I’ll provide a brief CliffsNotes for how bad California has handled CBD:

Photo by Christina Winter via Unsplash

The second of those links immediately above describes in detail provisions in these bills designed to outlaw any kind of smokable hemp product. I think these bills are long shots. This is in part due to the smokable hemp bans, which are facing huge industry backlash and severely narrow the market for hemp grown in the state, and in part due to general political reasons and opposition from the cannabis industry and elsewhere.

Following the Florida Supreme Court upholding the state’s seed-to-sale medical marijuana model, the Department of Health is preparing to issue 15 new treatment center licenses.

Those involved in the industry believe the expansion will increase competition and benefit patients, but some lawmakers doubt whether the new players will actually make a dent on cost and availability.

There are more than 575,000 medical marijuana patients in Florida and the ever growing number has opened the door for 15 new MMTC licenses.

Once the patient count hits 600,000, a total of 19 licenses will be available.

“This frankly doubles the size of the industry,” said Jeff Sharkey with the Medical Marijuana Business Association.

After years of flirting with marijuana legalization, the state of Connecticut is finally ready to make it official.

Today, the state’s governor Ned Lamont signed legislation that legalized recreational pot use for adults aged 21 and older. The new law will officially take effect on July 1. However, retail sales aren’t expected to begin until 2022.

Lamont added his signature to a bill that finally cleared the necessary legislative hurdles last week.

Lawmakers in the state Senate last Thursday approved legislation that would legalize recreational pot use for adults. The vote marked the second time that members of the state Senate passed a legalization measure. Last week, another bill was approved in the chamber before it was amended in the state House and returned to the Senate.

The bill passed the state Senate on Thursday by a vote of 16 to 11, according to local television station NBC Connecticut. The outcome sent the legislation to the desk of Lamont, a Democrat who has made no secret of his support for marijuana legalization.

The regulatory body currently overseeing Ohio’s medical marijuana program has now instituted new rules governing the use of Delta-8 THC, the popular, yet controversial, compound that has been known to yield similar effects to regular weed.

The rules, via the Ohio Medical Marijuana Control Program, are intended to provide “guidance to licensees regarding the production, distribution and sale of medical marijuana products containing Delta-8 THC,” the agency said.

Weed drinks have been taking off, but many would say they’re still not at the same level as other cannabis products. Vapes, edibles and stronger batches of cannabis flower have been selling well in the U.S. (and elsewhere) for a variety of users, from newbies to experienced cannabis consumers.

Cannabis drinks stand in an awkward place; while there’s a growing interest in a “California sober” lifestyle, a lot of people don’t get why they should drink cannabis from a can when they can consume it in other more traditional ways. The weedy flavour sometimes associated with the drinks may also be tough to get used to.

It’s not a given that replacing a cannabis gummy or a joint with a cannabis drink is an ideal solution. These drinks provide a different effects, something that’s much more light than what edibles are known for.

The makers of Cann seltzer told INSIDER that they wanted to create a cannabis drink that people could consume in social situations, containing between two and four milligrams of THC. With some CBD in the mix, the drink’s experience is one that Cann describes as a plateau instead of a spike.

Not all cannabis drinks are the same; some have higher amounts of THC and can produce more powerful results.

When you think of liberal cannabis laws, Colorado is probably near the top of the list. However, according to a recent MJBizDaily article, the Colorful State will likely add restrictions to their marijuana industry, pending the signature of Gov. Jared Polis. If passed, House Bill 1317 would:

2 Top Marijuana Stocks To Add To Your June 2021 Watchlist

The current trading for marijuana stocks has started to look better over the last month. At the start of May, cannabis stocks were still trading down. However, towards the second week of trading marijuana stocks started to show signs of volatility.

A combination of inflammatory cytokines in the blood and regular cannabis use, or use at a young age, can increase the chances of developing psychiatric disorders, researchers have demonstrated.

A first-of-its-kind study by researchers at the University of São Paulo‘s Ribeirão Preto Medical School (FMRP-USP) in Brazil found that individuals exposed to a combination of these two factors – the presence of pro-inflammatory cytokines in the blood and cannabis use (either daily or during adolescence) – are more likely to suffer from psychosis than those who are exposed to neither or to only one. According to the authors, the study provides “the first clinical evidence that immune dysregulation modifies the cannabis-psychosis association.”

The study was part of a project conducted by the European Network of National Schizophrenia Networks Studying Gene-Environment Interactions (EU-GEI), a consortium of research centres in 13 countries, including Brazil. An article published in The Lancet Psychiatry by the consortium in 2019 showed that daily cannabis use increased the likelihood of suffering from a psychotic disorder threefold.

The article has been published in the journal Psychological Medicine.

Cannabis use and body functioning

In the more recent study, the researchers analysed data for 409 people aged 16 to 64, including patients experiencing their first psychotic episode and community-based controls. The sample was drawn from the populations of Ribeirão Preto and 25 other cities in the region. The variables analysed included cannabis use frequency (daily, not daily, or never), duration (five years or less), and onset age (in adolescence or later).

The EMCDDA’s European Drug Report 2021 highlights a significant increase in THC content of cannabis in Europe, as well as prevalent cannabis use amongst Europeans and an increase in home cultivation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

For cannabis operators, being compliant and efficient at the same time often feels like an impossible feat.

This is especially true for cultivators, who must go to great lengths to ensure their cannabis is both high-quality and produced within the constructs of the laws of their individual state. 

In 2017, Matt Mayberry, Karen Mayberry, and Benjamin Wong (all passionate cannabis advocates) were exploring a foray into the legal market when they discovered the multitude of issues producers were facing.

One of the main challenges was the archaic systems being used for the vast amount of data needing to be collected for regulators.

“We started going to tradeshows to check out the scene and quickly began speaking with growers to determine what challenges they were facing in the current market,” Matt Mayberry (the company’s CEO) explained in an interview with Cannabis & Tech Today.

The actual nomination of a Cannabis Control Board chairperson is the first tangible step towards a functioning cannabis industry in NY.

In all of the excitement over New York’s passage of the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA), one of the things that often gets lost is that legalization was just the first step towards the issuance of adult-use cannabis licenses. The single most important administrative action item is the formation of the primary regulatory governing body, the Cannabis Control Board (CCB).

The CCB will be responsible for many of the prerequisites to adult-use licenses being issued. Chief among its responsibilities is the creation of the actual application process for both adult-use cannabis licenses and new registered organizations (ROs) and the industry’s rules and regulations, all of which will be issued within the framework of the MRTA.

Photo by gradyreese/Getty Images

The CCB will consist of five board members: three appointed by the Governor and two appointed by the Senate and Assembly (one each). The CCB’s chairperson will be nominated by the Governor with the advice and consent of the Senate. CCB members will be appointed for a term of three years and must be citizens and residents of New York.

While ibuprofen is very effective, it carries several risk factors that affect quite a significant number of users. Side effects after using CBD, however, are rare.

Pain is a natural and unavoidable occurrence in the human body. It is one of the body’s responses to self-healing. But, sometimes it gets too much and painkillers have to come into the picture.

Ibuprofen is one of the most effective drugs for alleviating chronic pain symptoms from things like headaches, toothaches, and backaches. More than 50% of the American population has used ibuprofen at one point or another. Unfortunately, it sometimes comes with side effects like ulcers, etc.

Photo by Elsa Olofsson via Unsplash

Now, with the newly tested and proven therapeutic qualities of the cannabidiol (CBD) compound, one is left to assume that it may be an effective alternative to treating pain. But, CBD has not been approved for medical use yet.

A Black farmer with ties to doing business in Florida will be at the head of the line for a long-awaited batch of medical marijuana licenses in an application process that state health officials will launch soon, senior aides to Gov. Ron DeSantis said.

The aides told The News Service of Florida that the Department of Health will kick off the rule-making process for Black farmer applicants within “weeks to months” and set the stage for another set of licenses that would nearly double the number of medical marijuana operators in the state.

“It would be awesome if we could get that application, get that license. We are definitely overdue as it relates to that,” Ocala nursery operator Howard Gunn, who is Black, said in a phone interview.

State health officials are poised to begin the application process following a highly anticipated Florida Supreme Court ruling last month that upheld a 2017 law carrying out a 2016 constitutional amendment that broadly legalized medical marijuana. The court upheld a requirement in the law that medical marijuana operators handle all aspects of the business, including cultivation, processing and distributing — as opposed to companies being able to focus on individual aspects. Tampa-based Florigrown LLC, which challenged the law, had until June 11 to ask for a rehearing but did not.

Part of the 2017 law requires health officials to grant a license to “one applicant that is a recognized class member” in decades-old litigation, known as the “Pigford” cases, which addressed racial discrimination against Black farmers by federal officials.