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A survey by Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy indicates many in Texas using medical cannabis sourced illicitly are experiencing benefits.

Texas has a medical cannabis program – of sorts. It’s among the most restrictive in the USA and currently there are only a few thousand Texans registered. The program only allows for the use of cannabis extracts high in CBD and low in THC among those with few qualifying conditions and prescribed by physicians registered to do so.

Given the Compassionate Use Program (CUP) is rather lacking on the compassion side, it’s little wonder illicit medical cannabis use in the state is so prevalent – and this comes with significant legal and other risks.

The Baker Institute for Public Policy’s survey was designed to gain insight into the needs and experiences of this population. 2,866 Texas residents participated in the survey, which was conducted online between Aug. 11 and Oct. 6, 2020.

Among the findings:

It’s up to entrepreneurs, activists, and various public entities to create campaigns making their local cannabis industries less exclusive and much more inclusive.

The statistics on disproportionate arrests against Black people when it comes to marijuana-related crimes are nothing short of shocking. Systemic racism plagues the industry, and cannabis crimes are just one part of it.

New Mexico lawmakers passed a bill to legalize recreational cannabis on Wednesday, making the state the second in the nation to approve such legislation this week. Also on Wednesday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York signed an adult-use cannabis law passed by the legislature late Tuesday, making the Empire State the 16th in the nation to do so.

New Mexico lawmakers came close to reaching an agreement on legalizing recreational marijuana use and sales last month, but failed to complete a deal by the end of the legislative session on March 20. That led Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to call a special legislative session that began on Tuesday to complete work on the legalization bill.

State legislators also passed a separate measure that will expunge the records of those with convictions for some past marijuana offenses. Lujan Grisham said she would sign the bills and  characterized the special legislative session as a “success” after the bills were passed by lawmakers.

“This is a significant victory for New Mexico. Workers will benefit from the opportunity to build careers in this new economy. Entrepreneurs will benefit from the opportunity to create lucrative new enterprises,” the governor said in a statement released on Wednesday. “The state and local governments will benefit from the additional revenue. Consumers will benefit from the standardization and regulation that comes with a bona fide industry. And those who have been harmed by this country’s failed war on drugs, disproportionately communities of color, will benefit from our state’s smart, fair, and equitable new approach to past low-level convictions.”

Up To Two Ounces Of Pot OK Under Bill

Thanks to the state of New York’s recent move to legalize recreational cannabis, laws are going to change across the board. One exciting new development is that the smell of cannabis alone is no longer cause for search and seizure in the state. 

As of this week, the NYPD issued a memo to all officers that, now that cannabis is officially legal, more probable cause than just the smell of cannabis is needed for a car to be searched. The memo lays down the new law and explains how it will affect officers’ interactions with folks who may or may not have cannabis legally on their person. 

“Effective immediately, the smell of marijuana alone no longer establishes probable cause of a crime to search a vehicle,” the memo explains. “This change applies to both burnt and unburnt marijuana.”

While driving high will remain a crime in New York, like in other legal states, and the small of burned cannabis could be cause for officers to decide a driver is impaired, they will only be allowed to search the passenger compartment, not the trunk of the vehicle, unless there is more evidence that the trunk could contain something illegal. While using cannabis in a vehicle is illegal, transporting legally purchased cannabis back home after purchase is not, as long as the cannabis is sealed and not being used. Therefore, simply smelling of cannabis is no longer a crime.

Other Major Changes In New York

The legacy of Charlotte Figi, the young Colorado girl whose struggle with epilepsy made CBD known worldwide, will be remembered next week with a benefit concert taking place in her honor.

The April 7 livestreamed concert, featuring performances by acts including The Avett Brothers and Jason Mraz and appearances by Colorado Gov. Jared Polis and CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta, has been dubbed Rock the RoC. The name of the event is a reference to the Realm of Caring (RoC), a nonprofit dedicated to supporting research into cannabinoids and helping patients who need them gain access to lifesaving medications.

Charlotte gained global notoriety after being featured on “Weed,” a 2013 CNN documentary by Gupta, the network’s chief medical correspondent. She had a rare form of epilepsy known as Dravet syndrome that caused dozens or even hundreds of seizures per day. After traditional treatments for the disease were unsuccessful, Charlotte’s mother Paige Figi decided to try medicinal cannabis with tremendous results, which were documented by Gupta. Sadly, Charlotte died last year at the age of 13.

“On April 7, 2020, Charlotte Figi passed away, leaving the world with her life-changing story of overcoming adversity through courage and grace, and impacting the lives of millions along the way whose wellness and dignity were in part made possible by Charlotte and the Figi family’s efforts,” Polis said in a statement to High Times. “This year on April 7, we celebrate Charlotte Figi day to honor her legacy and the battle that so many continue to fight.”

A Benefit For Realm Of Caring

Heather Jackson, the president of Realm of Caring and the host for the event, said that Charlotte’s experience is largely responsible for the popularity of CBD, a cannabinoid that is now the active ingredient of an FDA-approved medication, Epidiolex.

As the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted work, school and life schedules, it also caused marijuana buyers to change when they shopped, shifting from the evening hours to the daytime. A year later that pattern is returning to normal, with more shoppers visiting cannabis retail outlets in the evening.

Retailers in general, including marijuana outlets, experienced shifting peak hours after the outbreak of the pandemic as consumers sought safer, more-convenient shopping experiences during the day versus the evening. Many consumers were able to shop at different times because of new working conditions, or they deliberately avoided popular times. Knowing and understanding that peak shopping hours are shifting back will allow cannabis retailers to better predict their scheduling needs.

Since the start of the pandemic, cannabis use has skyrocketed. Americans spent $18.3 billion on cannabis products last year – 71% over what they spent in 2019 – meaning we the people needed a lot of weed to cope with 2020. According to a recent survey, many of those people are parents.

The future of cannabis in cosmetics in China looks bleak following an announcement by China’s National Institutes for Food and Drug Control (NIFDC) that it plans to ban cannabis compounds for use in cosmetics.

According to the Notice on Amending Inventory of Prohibited Cosmetic Ingredients for Public Comments posted on NIFDC’s official website, the authority is proposing to prohibit the cosmetic applications of cannabis-related ingredients, including cannabis sativa kernel fruit, cannabis sativa seed oil, and cannabis sativa leaf, as well as CBD.
 
The public has until April 19 to submit their feedback.

Here is one basic fact of legalization that has permeated most reform movements in the United States at the state level and in Canada, if not just south of the Rio Grande (Mexico). To some extent, it is also the legal argument at the heart of German reform. It is absolutely the one at the heart of a major Spanish case now accepted for argument at the European Court of Human Rights. But here is the basic premise: Access to cannabis, particularly as medicine (but not limited to just medical access), is a basic constitutional right.

It is an interesting thought, really, that access to a plant might be considered so fundamental to human dignity if not individualism. It makes sense if you are a patient with a debilitating disease, but nobody really ever pays attention to the disabled if not “stoners” involved in this discussion (sadly). It is, however, thanks to these outsiders and their legal cases however, that reform has moved at all. 

However, even outside of a courtroom, as reform has moved forward only with this definition if not challenge to the same, that this powerful idea has permeated, even punctured, basic reform in several countries so far (as well as U.S. state markets). 

Why that has become of the tip of the spear of reform is one question. What it means, downstream, as the world normalizes, is another.

What Are Constitutional Rights and Where Does Cannabis Cross into Them?

Before you even begin to start growing cannabis, be sure that it is legal in your state. Always check local laws to make sure you are within the legal limits in terms of the number of plants and use of the final product.

It will take months to grow your cannabis into a beautiful and healthy plant. Then there is an additional four weeks to harvest and dry your buds.

With the right items and tips, you can create a healthy growing environment and begin to produce quality plants. Growing inside is more expensive because you need more items to start, but you have full control over the growing environment and the ability to make changes as needed.

Tips & Tricks

Grow Tents are not a necessary item, but helpful for beginners to optimize the growing environment. They are easy to purchase online.

Soil is extremely important.

Cannabis concentrates have been around for about as long as humans have been enjoying the benefits of cannabis, but the way they’re made and consumed has evolved dramatically in just the past few years. If there’s a single style of concentrate that epitomizes this seismic shift in cannabis technology and culture, it’s definitely shatter.

Produced in crystal clear sheets of glittering golden glass, nothing else looks quite like a slab of superb shatter. The shimmering clarity invites you to gaze into its reflective surface, while the tantalizing aroma (and the promise of swift, efficient cannabinoid impacts) urge you to, well, shatter it and consume the intoxicating vapor hidden within.

Shatter is more than just one of the most popular concentrate styles on the market, it’s a symbol of the new wave in cannabis and a high watermark for ambitious extractors who want to make the best. Its dramatic aesthetics often inspire shock and confusion in the uninitiated — and even those who enjoy dabbing shatter often know little about how its made.

The History of Shatter

Long gone are the days when smoking hash in America meant purchasing a piece broken off a brick shipped from Pakistan, Afghanistan or Morocco: By the early ’90s, the advent of prefabricated “kief boxes” and “bubble bags” inspired a dry sift and ice water hash boom that transformed the U.S. market into a largely domestic affair. NorCal dispensary shelves were overstocked with bubble hash by the early ’00s — just in time for the next revolution in cannabis: solvent extraction, which is how shatter is made.

What Is Solvent Extraction?

Solvent extraction isn’t new — it’s used in countless industrial processes, including the decaffeination of coffee and the production of perfumes and food flavors. In fact, none of the “new” techniques for making concentrates are really new, but the application of solvent extraction to cannabis was absolutely groundbreaking. Solvent extraction is complicated, but essentially, a solvent is run through cannabis plant matter, which strips the desirable oils from the plant. Because of its low cost and wide availability, butane has emerged as the most popular solvent option for hydrocarbon extraction, which has led to the term Butane Hash Oil or BHO.

With CBD shampoo, you get an effective yet gentle product that repairs your hair and revives your skin follicles.

There’s so much to say about cannabis; from being a great treatment option for pain relief to its mood relaxation properties and lots more. Cannabis has been described as the “new gold” in the health and wellness sector because of its endless potentials. The potential has now extended to the prevention of hair loss and treatment of psoriasis.

Why do people experience hair loss?

Before getting to the solutions, we must talk about the problem and try to understand why it happens. For anyone to fully appreciate the value of CBD shampoo and other CBD products, one must understand the problem.

When people grow older, they experience a natural change with their hair that leads to hair loss. While some lose hair at a slower pace, others lose hair much faster (this happens for different reasons).

Hair loss cab also be hereditary, if older members of your family also lose hair, there is a greater chance that the same will happen to you. Stress and hormonal deficiencies are also major causes of hair loss. If you are experiencing hair loss you will agree that it is the most worrisome experience. If you haven’t experienced hair loss, you should actively think about how to prevent it from happening.

2 Marijuana Stocks To Watch At The End Of The Month

As the market still looks to recover investors are still looking for marijuana stocks to buy. In recent market action, marijuana stocks have been on a volatile pattern. Some of this is due to why the sectors have had trouble sustaining any upward push in trading. Yet even though some marijuana stocks are trading at lower levels does not mean all is lost. In the last year of trading, many marijuana stocks have been moving up in the market.

Cannabis is undergoing a reputation makeover. Public perception has gradually shifted to viewing marijuana products as respected medicine and wellness products instead of illegal drugs. These changes in attitudes are likely due to a variety of factors, including new legal markets and increased access, available educational materials, numerous scientific studies, and overall more significant conversations of safety and use on various media platforms and forums.

Connoisseurs prefer it, lab tests confirm it. Producers of high-quality cannabis extracts can’t afford not to use it.

Three methods for extraction have been dominant in the cannabis market so far.

The primary difference between them is the solvent they use to process the plant into its final, consumable form. Extraction using CO2 was the first method to gain widespread acceptance in the recreational cannabis market.

CO2 can produce the shelf-stable oils used in vape cartridges and continues to be a popular option. Ethanol was another common solvent long-used by small producers, though professional-grade equipment for production at scale came along significantly later.

But it’s the third method, extracting cannabis with hydrocarbons (butane and propane) that has the most potential to serve consumers in the mature marijuana markets of the future. We can already see those preferences taking hold in the present.

Western Australia’s Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development says crops associated with its latest round of industrial hemp trials are in the ground.

The trials, now in their second year, will examine the potential for growing hemp in the state for grain production. This year, the research has been expanded beyond the Manjimup Research Facility to include a site at Busselton in the southwest of the state and another site much further north at the department’s Kununurra Research Facility.

The trial is comparing sowing on the first day of the months of October, December, January and March at the first two sites to ascertain the best time and environments for planting. Planting won’t occur at Kununurra until next month – that trial will delve into time of sowing and crop performance in a tropical environment.

Various varieties from Australia, France and Canada are being tested. Sown into clay loam soil, all the plots are irrigated and planting has occurred at a density of 100 plants per square metre. However, the Department states the site at Manjimup has additional plantings of 200 and 300 plants/m2 as part of a continuation of a 2019 sowing rate trial.

After maturity, which will occur in 100 – 160 days, the seed will be harvested and measured for grain, protein and oil content.

A new report from cannabis market data analyst Headset shows that cannabis beverage sales continue to grow in North America and new trends indicate that the sector may be poised for gains in market share. Headset’s industry report for March focusing on cannabis beverages was released last week and is available online as a free download.

In the report, Headset notes that many cannabis industry analysts have been expecting big gains for the beverage sector since the company began collecting and reporting on data from the legal marijuana industry in 2015. But sales data have shown that the bold predictions have failed to pan out.

“Over the last five years, beverage market share has maintained about 1% of total recreational cannabis sales, with sales to the category growing at roughly the same pace as the total market,” Headset wrote in the introduction to the report.

“But today, for the first time in a long time, our Headset analysts are bullish on beverages,” the report continues. “Between advancements in THC infusion technology, and a myriad of new brands catering to the occasional, low-dose consumer, there is a lot of reason to believe in the growth potential of this category.”

In Canada, beverage sales have grown to 1.5% of sales in barely more than a year on the market, while in the U.S. cannabis drinks are posting a more modest 1% share. Cannabis beverages actually saw a dip in the U.S. during 2020, but have recovered to slightly more than 1% of the market this year. Headset notes that some trends in the sales data could mean that cannabis beverages are ready to make more gains in market share.

We all know about delta-9 THC, the main psychoactive cannabinoid of the cannabis plant. Recently, delta-8 THC started making a strong impression as an alternate form of THC, with slightly different benefits. We even know there’s a delta-10 THC. So, how many THCs are there out there, and how are they similar?

Well, it’s finally happening, the new vape ban will stop retailers from being able to send vape products through the mail in the US. Luckily, you can still pick up products in dispensaries, and you can still order until the ban starts. Just a few days left, so check out these great Delta-8 THC deals before we can’t send them out to you anymore!

Delta-9 and delta-8 THC

The first guy to synthesize THC was chemist Roger Adams. He was the first to identify the compound in the 1940’s, although he was not able to isolate it. This was done in 1964 by Raphael Mechoulam and his team, although Adams was the first to isolate CBD. Mechoulam was able to benefit from Israel’s less restrictive cannabis research laws. He and his team wanted to figure out what it was in Indian hash that was making people act so intoxicated.

The answer, he found, was THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol. To be more specific, he isolated the most common form of THC found in cannabis plants, delta-9 THC. Delta-9 THC itself does not actually exist heavily in any cannabis plant, but is instead produced from THCA which decarboxylates (generally through sun exposure or heat) to become delta-9 THC. It was learned in the 1940’s that there were many different forms of THC, although how many THCs can be created, was a mystery (and still is).

In the last year or so, another form of THC has been getting more popular, partially due to the 2018 US Farm Bill which legalized the cultivation of industrial hemp for certain purposes. As a form of THC which does not exist in large enough amounts on its own, delta-8 THC requires being sourced from delta-9 THC. It’s formed through an oxidation process, which results in a compound that has shown in testing to have less psychoactive response, to produce less associated anxiety and panic symptoms, to be effective for use with nausea and vomiting due to illness and treatments, and which, due to the oxidation process, is actually more stable over time than delta-9.

In 2016, 28.2 million adults in the U.S. were diagnosed with heart disease with a heart attack occurring every 40 seconds, according to the American Heart Association.

As the leading cause of death for men, women and people of most racial and ethnic groups, new research is being released every year that explores ways to eradicate the one in every four deaths that are heart disease-related, notes information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Heart health truly matters, not just because of the importance of the body’s ability to pump blood and gain oxygen, but because it is directly tied to overall health and aging.

Conditions such as high cholesterol, angina and heart disease often occur because of a heart not functioning at its proper capacity.

Understanding cholesterol

Cholesterol often has a bad reputation. Needed inside the body to make vitamin D, it’s a waxy substance found in all cells. With a healthy diet and exercise, many people can stave off high cholesterol levels. However, for those with a genetic history of high cholesterol, other recommendations come into play.