WeedLife News Network

The Arizona Department of Health Services has issued its end-of-year report for 2020, and to the surprise of virtually no one, medical marijuana sales increased year-over-year, for the eighth year in a row.

Arizonans purchased 106 tons of cannabis products from dispensaries in 2020, according to the report, and all signs point to much higher numbers in 2021.

That's due largely to the fact that recreational cannabis is now legal for adults to buy as of January 22, 2021. 

Between MMJ and recreational pot, dispensary companies in the state are planning to grow two-to-three times as much marijuana in 2021, but the reality of recreational in the state remains to be seen, said Sam Richard, executive director of the Arizona Dispensaries Association. Some of the revenue growth will be due to higher prices in the initial months of recreational sales, he added.

"Largely, the trajectory of the growth in medical sales will likely taper off" while the new combined industry reaches new frontiers, he said. Last year's 106 tons in sales is close to the weight of a fully loaded space shuttle on its way to the space station, and while the medical program is "approaching cruising altitude," the industry as a whole is set to travel much further.

If you’re not currently receiving any treatment for insomnia, or if your current treatment isn’t enhancing the duration and quality of your sleep, you may want to give cannabis a try.

Farmers and researchers across Ohio are learning some of the most basic agricultural information about hemp after the state’s first year of legal cultivation.

Unclear growing conditions coupled with unpredictable market forces mean even if farmers successfully grow a crop they sometimes don’t know much about, processing it into products that consumers can buy could be prohibitive to running a business.

“[Hemp] grows well in Ohio,” said Sano Ti Amo co-owner Karen DeLuca. “We had great success in our field even though it was an experimental field, but you need a place to take it.”

When it comes to the North vs the South in America, there is usually a pretty evident divide when it comes to social issues. From abortion to religion in schools to drugs, the South is generally slower to adopt new policies. In the case of cannabis and the south, a lot of change has happened in the last few years, signaling a massive shift in overall public perspective.

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Sometimes change comes slow to the South, and this is evident from resistance to legalized abortion, pushing religion being taught in schools, letting go of slavery (let’s not forget that one), and the decriminalization and legalization of different drugs. But even those slow with the pickup, eventually come around. Whether it’s the changing of society through new generations being born, or the insertion of new information that changes minds. Whatever the case here, and as highlighted by the last election, how cannabis is viewed in the South, has seen much change and improvement in the last few years.

The last US election, and what is the ‘South’?

The last US election was quite the circus, with a persistent battle that continued after results were in, as to who actually won. As it stands, Joe Biden was officially sworn in to the white house in January, effectively ending that conundrum. But perhaps bigger news than a post-election presidential standoff, is the inclusion of several more states when it comes to cannabis legalization. In fact, for the first time, it became evident that cannabis is no longer shunned in the South, with new laws reflecting this change in perspective.

It wasn’t just the South that saw these changes. Four new states became legal for cannabis recreationally: Arizona, Montana, South Dakota and New Jersey. On the medical front, South Dakota (pulling double duty) and Mississippi joined the ranks of the legal for medical use group. Of all these states to change policy, the one that stands out the most, is Mississippi.

The modern cannabis space is marked by an ebb and flow of business opportunities within specific market locales; opportunities that arise out of market demand and operational requirements. This notion informs technological innovations in security, including the advent of biometric identification. As the industry continues to mature, business owners in cultivation, processing, and retail environments are entertaining the use of this technology once reserved for such applications as national security.

According to SearchSecurity, biometric identification is defined as any form of biological trait that uniquely identifies a person. For example, fingerprints are the original form of biometric verification, used to identify people in law enforcement and security applications. As biometric identification technology has advanced, it has started to utilize other genetic identifiers, such as retina shapes, iris profiles, DNA sequencing, hand geometry, and voice waves.

Thus far, biometric verification technology has seen innovations and applications in the private sector of the cannabis space. For starters, cannabis tech company American Green has developed a biometric marijuana vending machine. The idea behind American Green’s “ZaZZZ” vending machine is to use biometric technology to verify the age and legal status of a consumer in an unmanned retail exchange.

Due to obvious legal issues with cannabis sales and compliance, the ZaZZZ vending machine is still in its development phase. In a more operational application, safe manufacturers such as Brown Safe have created biometric locking mechanisms on their safes. These safes utilize biometric screening to keep cash and inventory secure from all but a few key employees at the business in question. Brown Safe is actively engaging the cannabis market with this technology.

While these sorts of applications of biometric technology are doubtlessly both innovative and exciting, they are not necessarily applicable across the cannabis industry. This is largely because, in each legal cannabis market in the United States, minimum security standards are set forth in accordance with state mandated compliance programs.

In a move that gave local cannabis watchers—and many dispensary owners—a serious case of whiplash, the Arizona Department of Health Services gave the green-light to recreational pot sales late last month, catching a lot of people in the industry off guard.

Harvest Enterprises, Inc., founded by CEO and Tempe native Steve White, had the first-ever Arizona adult use sale in its Scottsdale location and Harvest became the first Tucson-area dispensary to sell recreational marijuana, with patients waiting in line for hours outside the midtown outlet at 2734 E. Grant Road, on opening weekend.

Harvest’s opening came after the AZDHS allowed recreational cannabis sales to begin, letting dispensary owners know adult-use recreational sales can move forward as soon as licenses are approved and dispensaries are set up to handle both aspects of the market.

“This has been really surprising and gives an opportunity for us to have a conversation about how we don’t say a lot of good things about government,” White said. “But this is really a bang-up job by the

department.”

In a move that gave local cannabis watchers—and many dispensary owners—a serious case of whiplash, the Arizona Department of Health Services gave the green-light to recreational pot sales late last month, catching a lot of people in the industry off guard.

Harvest Enterprises, Inc., founded by CEO and Tempe native Steve White, had the first-ever Arizona adult use sale in its Scottsdale location and Harvest became the first Tucson-area dispensary to sell recreational marijuana, with patients waiting in line for hours outside the midtown outlet at 2734 E. Grant Road, on opening weekend.

Harvest’s opening came after the AZDHS allowed recreational cannabis sales to begin, letting dispensary owners know adult-use recreational sales can move forward as soon as licenses are approved and dispensaries are set up to handle both aspects of the market.

“This has been really surprising and gives an opportunity for us to have a conversation about how we don’t say a lot of good things about government,” White said. “But this is really a bang-up job by the

department.”

Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly of Kansas announced a proposal on Monday that would legalize medical marijuana to raise the revenue required to expand the state’s Medicaid program. Under the proposal, nearly 200,000 state residents who do not currently have health insurance would gain eligibility for coverage. 

“After nearly a year of challenges brought on by COVID-19, we need to use every tool at our disposal to protect the health of our workforce and our economy,” Kelly said in a statement from the governor’s office. “Getting 165,000 Kansans health care, injecting billions of dollars and thousands of jobs into our local economies, and protecting our rural hospitals will be critical to our recovery from the pandemic. By combining broadly popular, commonsense medical marijuana policy with our efforts to expand Medicaid, the revenue from the bill will pay for expansion.”

Obamacare Includes Medicaid Expansion

Under the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010, Congress authorized an expansion of the Medicaid program to provide health insurance for more low-income families, with the federal government covering 90% of the cost and the states responsible for 10%. Kansas is one of 12 states who have not implemented the expansion, with leaders of the GOP-led legislature citing the costs of the program.

“You have heard many of the comments coming from the opposition have been [that] we can’t afford it,” Kelly said in a press conference on Monday. “We have just designed a bill that pays for itself and more.”

“There’s never been any good argument against expansion other than we can’t afford it,” she added.

Too often, we hear, "I have been taking CBD, but I don't feel any effects."

But the problem doesn't lie with CBD. Scientific research tells us that cannabinoids (CBD, THC, CBG, CBN) provide therapeutic relief relating to stress, anxiety, sleeplessness, and inflammation with the right dose and when taken correctly. Medical marijuana shows even greater promise for more severe ailments like epilepsy, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and cancer, to name a few.

The issue stems from CBD's inability to absorb easily into the body; more biotechnological advances are necessary to resolve this. Cannabinoids are oil-based and do not readily absorb into bodies that are 80% water. Additionally, they face destruction from stomach acid and other obstacles when traveling through the digestive system. Thankfully, there is a flurry of activity among chemists and engineers looking for innovative solutions. 

Let's start with the different ways cannabinoids get processed in our bodies.

The pros and cons 

1.  Nasal spray or vaping provides the most rapid results and CBD intake because it enters directly into the bloodstream through thin membranes of the nose and lungs.

Cannabis is legal in some form in 34 U.S. states, with five more pending legalization. Of those states, most have legalized all forms of cannabis for medicinal purposes, though a handful have only legalized CBD oil.

Despite increased legalization, there remains a major void in the medical cannabis market: health insurance. 

The reason major health insurance carriers won’t cover cannabis is they require their drug formulary approved by the FDA before it can be covered in their medical plans. With cannabis still classified as a Schedule I drug at the federal level, no such drug has been approved with exception of Epidiolex, an FDA-approved CBD-based epilepsy medication developed by GW Pharmaceuticals. 

There are a handful of health insurers that do provide coverage for cannabis, but they don't advertise their coverage, leaving patients instead to rely on word of mouth. But with cannabis and cannabis-based products growing more and more popular, so too is the need for cannabis-based health insurance. 

Introducing a Cannabis Health Plan

The announcement that the amount of marijuana in liquid form seized by customs officials in Tokyo in 2020 soared nearly 70 times from the previous year has attracted headlines in a country that still operates a zero-tolerance policy on all forms of narcotics. For Junichi Takayasu, founder of the Hemp Museum, the dramatic media coverage of the figures is deeply unfortunate.

All too often, he says, the Japanese media, local authorities, the police and public simply conflate cannabis with hemp, a crop that has a history that stretches back centuries in Japan, and which Takayasu would like to see once again flourishing in the fields.

THREE people were recently sentenced to 30 years in prison in Tunisia for using cannabis and this verdict has ignited public debate in the country to the point of causing Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi to react on February 1.

The conviction for the consumption of cannabis has sparked a heated debate in the country around its legislation. The judgment, handed down on January 20 by a court in Kef (north), “does not relate only to the consumption of narcotics but also to the use of a sports field for the consumption of drugs,” specified on January 31 to the AFP.

A spokesman of the court, Mohamed Faouzi Daoudi said Tunisian law provides for a severe penalty for the consumption of narcotics in the public space, citing “law 52 and chapters 7 and 11”.

On social media, using the hashtag in Arabic “#prison-no, change 52”, many users protested against the verdict and called for a demonstration.

The director of the regional office of Amnesty International, Amna Guellali, described the decision made by the courts as “unacceptable” rejecting “all the [prison] sentences issued concerning the consumption and possession of narcotics”.