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Despite being known for its liberal policies, Washington, D.C. still doesn’t have a recreational market. But that could be about to change. 

Council Chairman Phil Mendleson proposed a new, recreational cannabis regulation bill that focused on progress and equity. The bill is also supported by Kenyan McDuffie, Charles Allen, Brianne Nadeau, Brooke Pinto, Christina Henderson, and Mary Cheh, and the focus is deliberately on equity because of the issues the cannabis industry has with inclusion, and the negative impact the war on drugs has on people of color. 

“This legislation is the culmination of over a year of work by my office and external stakeholders,” Mendelson said about the newly proposed legislation. “It creates a comprehensive regulatory framework for the cultivation, production, and sale of recreational cannabis and most significantly, this bill centers reinvestment and opportunity for people and communities hit hardest by the War on Drugs.”

Equity, Justice, Education

This new plan, known as the “Comprehensive Cannabis Legalization and Regulation Act of 2021,” would establish a social equity program, and would make sure that at least half of all those with licensed businesses are equity applicants. Those eligible for equity applicant status would be folks who were formerly convicted of cannabis offenses or residents from areas with high rates of poverty that have been disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs. 

The bill will also set up a cannabis equity and opportunity fund in order to fund those who are eligible for social equity status. As long as cannabis remains federally illegal, it will be difficult to access cannabis funding and support through traditional channels, so the support for equity applicants is essential to make sure they can actually participate in the legal industry. Thirty percent of the tax money generated from cannabis sales will go into this fund. 

As the cannabis and hemp marketplace continues to mature, more investors have begun to enter the playing field. These groups look at the cannabis space as an opportunity to acquire or merge with businesses that can offer potentially high returns.

But this process is not as simple as it seems.

Sometimes, the true financial picture of a company is not what it is portrayed to be. Companies could report a massive net income, but their operating cash flows may be negative. An extensive process of verification, investigation or audit of a potential deal or investment opportunity is required to confirm all relevant facts and financial information. This is known as financial due diligence.

A majority of French people are in favour of legalising cannabis for recreational use, according to a recent parliamentary survey. Although France has Europe's highest number of cannabis smokers, it also has some of the harshest drug laws.

Legalization could mean millions of dollars for the states as the growth of the supply chain will open multiple opportunities.

The growth of medical marijuana has seen the trend of legalization and opening of new markets prevalent in recent years. Some states that were not leaning towards legalization have greater chances of success this year. More importantly, there is a big possibility for four traditionally red states to make the move to allow medical marijuana programs: Alabama, Kansas, Kentucky, and South Carolina.

A paradigm shift has been taking place carefully since last year and 2021 could help solidify that shift. Many Southeastern states are leaning towards following the trend of Mississippi with respect to marijuana legalization. Likewise, states that normally lean towards the Republican view of things are already embracing cannabis. 2020 showed this reality as Montana and South Dakota legalized medical and recreational marijuana use in November. This makes it 38 states with Washington DC that have medical marijuana programs infused in their state health system.

Legalization for these states will do a whole lot of good given the economic and commercial effects of the 2020 pandemic. Legalization could mean millions of dollars for the states as the growth of the supply chain will open multiple opportunities. Jobs will be created for the populace and the states can hugely benefit from the opening of new economic systems and tax opportunities.

Prospects of the new possible markets

Each of the four states has peculiarities in terms of their road to legalization. Kansas already had two medical marijuana bills squashed last year. Nonetheless, the journey of West Virginia to medical marijuana legalization in 2017 leaves much to expect good news in Kansas too. Though the stakeholders in some of these states seem resilient with prohibition, they will have no choice in the face of a decision made by voters. This was the case of Mississippi where voters used the power of the ballot box to incorporate medical marijuana despite resistance from the legislature.

The coronavirus was good for some industries and ruinous for others. For cannabis, 2020 was a breakout year. Legal sales across the U.S.—15 states allow adult use, 35 allow for medical sales—hit a record of $17.5 billion, a 46% increase from 2019, according to a new report.

Most of the sales growth came from adult-use markets, especially mature markets like Colorado, which grew sales by 26% to reach $2.2 billion, and Oregon, which saw sales hit $1.1 billion, a 29% increase over 2019, according to the report published by BDSA, a cannabis sales data platform.

Emerging markets like Illinois, which expanded its medical cannabis market to include adult-use sales last year, saw the largest dollar gain in 2020, rising by $784 million. (Illinois’ cannabis market is now doing over $1 billion in sales.) California, the country’s largest cannabis economy at $3.5 billion, increased sales by $586 million, while Florida saw a $473 million increase.

“We expected more potential impact from an economic downturn, but the industry has proven to be resilient,” says Kelly Nielsen, who runs BDSA’s insights and analytics department. “It’s potentially recession-proof.”

Nielsen says three things contributed to the industry’s growth last year: the Covid-19 pandemic (many states deemed dispensaries “essential businesses” during lockdown); more customers entered mature markets like California, Colorado and Oregon; and states like Illinois and Arizona have created new adult-use markets.

When it comes to products that can be made from hemp, the possibilities seem to be endless.

Hemp may not get you high, but it can do pretty much anything else you can imagine. This low-THC variant of the cannabis plant has a dizzying array of uses, including everything from food to medicine to rope to bricks and more—somebody even made a sports car out of hemp. Here are 15 products that can be made from hemp.

1. Beer

Beer and hemp are the perfect match. That’s because hops and cannabis are essentially botanical cousins.

There are now a handful of breweries around the country that use hemp to make cannabis-infused beer.

Unlike CBD, CBN is not present in significant quantities in fresh marijuana, but when unheated marijuana ages or is exposed to air and light, the THC in it turns to CBN.

According to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 25% of U.S. adults report insufficient sleep or rest at least 15 out of every 30 days. In addition to its profound impacts on cognitive health and behavioral functioning, sleep deprivation can cause accidents, affect relationships, and contribute to lowered immunity and chronic illness.

A report by Express Scripts, a Cigna-owned pharmacy benefit manager, concludes that more than one in five people say their quality of sleep has suffered during the spread of COVID-19. With that spike, the demand for sleep aids and medications has seen a similar surge, and with it the debut of products containing cannabinol (CBN), a minor cannabinoid with, what some claim is, a uniquely sedative effect.

Unlike CBD, CBN is not present in significant quantities in fresh marijuana, but when unheated marijuana ages or is exposed to air and light, the THC in it turns to CBN, which is only psychoactive if ingested in large doses. Promoted as the cannabinoid with the most significant sleep-inducing qualities studied to date, CBN has been compared to Valium in the way it calms the body without having a negative impact on functioning. While CBN has also been shown to have positive benefits for sufferers of glaucoma, psoriasis, bacterial infection, and pain, sleep is where some say CBN (in concentrated form) comes out on top.

An analysis performed by cannabis testing and analytics company Steep Hill Labs showed that 5mg of CBN is as effective as 10mg of diazepam, a prominent pharmaceutical sedative. Steep Hill later amended their analysis to state that their results did not show conclusive sedative qualities, but enthusiasm for CBN is still on the rise

Will Cannabis Stocks Resume Upward Momentum?

Marijuana Stocks have begun to regain some of the market value they lost at the end of February. On the first day of March, top cannabis stocks saw upward momentum as the day progressed. During trading top pot stocks like Curaleaf Holdings, Inc. (OTC: CURLF) ended March 1st up 3.4% showing signs of possibly rising in the market. In reality, the cannabis sector has seen significant gains since the start of 2021.

A decade ago, I was spearheading company growth for Atlas Snowshoes, which had just invented and launched a modern snowshoe. Some consumers associated snowshoeing with flimsy equipment, tedious exercise and winter vacationers who prefer to veer away from ski resorts.

That simply wasn’t going to work.

So we utilized innovative engineering and design to create equipment that people want to own and developed partnerships with major ski resorts around the world to create the luxury snowshoe experience known today. The lessons I learned then serve me well now as I face challenges – both similar and new – in the cannabis industry.

The New Zealand Medical Cannabis Council claims the country’s government scheme is being undermined by unregulated medical cannabis imports.

The NZMCC says some medical practitioners are importing products and selling directly to patients, taking advantage of a loophole in Section 25 of NZ’s Medicines Act.

That section provides an exemption allowing all authorised prescribers to “procure the supply of any medicine”; including approved and unapproved medicines. Among other things, it allows an authorised prescriber to obtain a medicine by direct importation.

The Council claims currently there is less regulatory oversight of Section 25 imports than vitamins sold in supermarkets.

While benefiting patients through lower cost products being available, the situation is impacting on the viability of local producers and distributors who cannot compete on price at this point. Among some of NZMCC’s other concerns is that some of these imported products are of “unknown quality and consistency”.

The news Seth Rogen has waited a decade to announce?

He will soon be legally selling weed in the United States. Rogen’s beloved Canadian cannabis brand Houseplant, founded with his creative partner Evan Goldberg, is launching in California. Expect to see Houseplant available initially through a direct-to-consumer ordering platform on the brand’s website beginning Thursday, March 11, 2021.

“If you know anything about me at all, I’m going to assume it’s that I really love weed,” Rogen announced to his Twitter audience of 9.1 million followers on March 1, 2021. The launch traffic was so overwhelming, it crashed the Houseplant’s website servers. Houseplant plans to roll out in select dispensaries across California this Spring.

“We are finally ready to launch in America,” says Rogen. “What we are doing is bringing you the best strains of weed that have been hand-picked, by that I mean hand-smoked, by me. It’s just the weed that I love that I want to be smoking. We have an orange one for sativa, a purple one for indica, and it even stacks.” Green packaging is the Houseplant hybrid strain. Rogen and Goldberg underwent an “extensive process,” testing hundreds of strains before choosing the initial launch strains: two sativas, Diablo Wind and Pancake Ice, and one indica, Pink Moon.

The brand has made waves since its 2019 launch with chic, colorful, and minimalist design. The packaging is recyclable, aiming for an eco-conscious consumer. Houseplant even won a Clio award in 2020 for its unique design. The brand has a partnership with cannabis giant Canopy Growth Corporation in Canada, but will not be working with Canopy stateside. Instead, Houseplant’s California cannabis will be grown by an undisclosed select group of cultivators. Rogen was the talk-of-the-town at Hall of Flowers in 2019 where Rogen appeared in-person to scope out the California competition.

Almost no one used marijuana before it was prohibited. Now, almost 100 years later, it is everywhere.

Disclaimer:The views expressed in this article solely belong to the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Fresh Toast.

As we used to say, back when we could still go to the movies, “This is where I came in. ”

In 1972, the first thing I ever wrote for publication was in the late William F. Buckley Jr.’s National Review on why conservatives should support the legalization of marijuana. It caused quite a stir. There it was on the cover: THE TIME HAS COME: ABOLISH THE POT LAWS.

The New York Times even wrote about it. So did Time (and again in 2015).

I was down the rabbit hole. So now, 49 years later, when I saw “There’s a Responsible Way to End the Federal Marijuana Ban. The key to any nationwide legalization is to “keep the free market out of it” by Ramesh Ponnuru, a senior editor for National Review, I just had to respond with Conservative Intellectual Wants To Keep Marijuana In The Black Market So “Problem Users” Won’t Be Such A Problem.

They have names like Dream Lotus, Ghost Dawg and Blue Dream — all varieties of the cannabis plant, subsets within the species that in the world of botany would be called a cultivar but in the cannabis world are referred to as strains. Each one is cultivated for its unique properties, including height, color and leaf structure, as well as THC and CBD content, all of which go into variations in effect on mind and body.

The cannabis education website Leafly lists as many as 5,000 distinct cannabis strains, but many of those are not commonly known to the public. Still, it’s estimated that there are at least 800 cannabis strains currently named and consumed by adult-use and medicinal cannabis consumers — the result of experimentation, discovery and advances in seed saving and cultivation. The sheer variety means that dispensary professionals like those at Resinate in Worcester and Northampton, Massachusetts, can help customers find just the right strain for their purpose, goals and lifestyle.

The three basic strains

Each strain falls into one of a few larger categories: sativa, indica and hybrid. While it was commonly believed that sativa strains are more energizing while indica strains are said to make a person sleepier, cannabis consumers and specialists alike now find that each strain effects the consumer differently, making it a personal experience. Hybrids, as the name indicates, are a cross of indica and sativa, usually with one or the other dominant.

CBD and THC are two major chemicals of many that make up a strain. Sativa plants generally are lower in CBD counts and higher in THC, while indica strains go in the opposite direction. Each specific strain will have different levels of each of these chemicals. There are also physical differences in the shape of the leaves and plant height as well as differences in aroma and texture.

This year's 60-day legislative session has 20 days left, and lawmakers in the Senate have four proposals to consider.

On Saturday, members of the Senate Tax, Business and Transportation Committee hashed out those initiatives with the bills' sponsors for nearly four hours. It was the first time the bills received a hearing in the Senate — a point brought up by Sen. Craig Brandt, R-Rio Rancho.

"This was supposed to be a priority issue and yet we have 20 days left and we’re just hearing it," he said, urging his fellow members on the committee to move at least one of the four bills forward to the Senate Judiciary Committee for consideration to get the ball rolling. 

But in the end, the sponsors of the four proposals — House Bill 12 and Senate bills 13, 288 and 363 — were told to get together over the next week and come up with just one proposal for the committee to vote on March 6. 

That will leave lawmakers just two weeks to move the chosen initiative through the Senate Judiciary Committee and then to the Senate floor for a final vote. 

The emerging legal cannabis industry is going global, with a growing list of countries that have legalized cannabis for adult and/or medical use, and even more countries exploring a similar move. At the same time, the world’s climate is changing, with extreme weather patterns picking up in frequency and severity all over the world.

Climate change is affecting virtually every aspect and sector of the agriculture industry, and that is likely to be the case for cannabis too as outdoor cultivation is permitted in more areas. As the global cannabis industry continues to expand across the planet, and climate change, unfortunately, marches on, the problem for cannabis entrepreneurs is going to be more pronounced.

Extreme Weather

Every agricultural crop has a preferred climate, and the cannabis plant is no exception. Cannabis obviously has certain parts of the world where it prefers to grow compared. For example, it grows very well in tropical climates but not at the North Pole. Historically, it thrived in Jamaica and while that is still true, something troubling is going on.

As recently reported by Cannabis & Tech Today, Jamaica has been hit hard by natural disasters and is currently experiencing a cannabis shortage. As climate change continues to negatively impact our planet and extreme weather patterns become more common, what is going on in Jamaica right now could prove to be a foreshadowing of what is to come. It could be something that other historically popular cannabis cultivation countries experience, making it hard to know where the ‘best’ places to cultivate cannabis will be in the future.

Shifting Cultivation Zones

Many scientists are pointing to data that suggests agricultural zones for many crops will be shifting in the future as the world gets warmer at the macro level, and extreme weather patterns pick up at the micro-level. The wine industry is often used as an example, with areas historically known for being optimal for growing wine grapes being less so as the years go by.

Hopefully, in time, these cities will reevaluate the deleterious effects these ordinances have on sales taxes and consumer choice.

Arizonans knew zoning issues could cause headaches for dispensary owners. However, what was unanticipated are the new bans by some of the Arizona cities for recreational marijuana establishments.

Shortly after the passage of Proposition 207, otherwise known as the Smart and Safe Arizona Act (the “Act”), several Arizona cities moved to ban recreational marijuana sales, unless the dispensary is a “dual licensee”. A dual licensee means an establishment that is licensed both as a medical marijuana establishment and an adult use (or recreational) establishment.

The Act specifically allows dispensary owners to hold both licenses (medical and recreational) and to sell both types of products from the same dispensary location. The cities in Arizona, like Mesa, found a way to end run the Act by prohibiting, among other things, recreational only marijuana dispensaries. While Mesa and the other Arizona cities are certainly allowed to pass such ordinances, it certainly appears to frustrate the purpose of the Act, even though apparently lawful to do so.

Why did these cities seek a ban of recreational-only establishments? There have been several theories espoused by others. As the Phoenix New Times reported:

Cannabis may be one of the hottest investments of the year.