WeedLife News Network

Bees Love Cannabis Too!

In the American agricultural landscape, industrial hemp, Cannabis sativa (Cannabaceae), is a newly developed and rapidly growing crop. Hemp lacks nectar but, as an exclusively wind-pollinated crop, produces an abundance of pollen in agricultural landscapes during a period of time referred to as floral dearth. Researchers have found that a number of bee species are attracted to these pollen plumes, yet the diversity of floral visitors and their use of hemp in a variety of agricultural contexts remains uncertain.

Gov. Jared Polis signed a landmark bill affecting the cannabis industry on June 29 in front of Simply Pure in Denver. The dispensary was the first in the nation owned by a Black couple.

HB20-1424 creates a new social equity license that is intended to boost minority participation in the cannabis industry. The program goes into effect Jan. 1.

The bill also authorizes the governor to pardon individuals for possession of up to 2 ounces of marijuana — the current legal limit for medical patients — removing a barrier to ownership of marijuana businesses.

“This month, across our whole state and our whole society, we’ve had a long overdue and renewed conversation about race, about racial inequalities … and cannabis is no different than anything else,” Polis said at the bill signing. “The majority of those in prison for cannabis-related crimes are people of color, while the majority of people that are making money legally on cannabis are white.”

People with prior convictions have been prevented from raising capital and getting loans, leases, jobs, licenses and mortgages, Polis said.

2 Top Marijuana Stocks To Add To Next Months Watchlist

Cancer is cruel.

If you or someone that you know was ever diagnosed with cancer, then you are well aware of how terrible it is.

Receiving a diagnosis that you or a loved one has cancer is something that is absolutely heartbreaking.

It is estimated that roughly 17 million people were diagnosed with cancer in 2018 worldwide.

Unfortunately, that number is expected to increase to 27.5 million by 2040.

A temporary scheme enabling patients in Ireland easier access to their prescribed medical cannabis treatments has been made permanent.

In Ireland, specialist medical consultants can prescribe medical cannabis for patients with certain conditions assuming an appropriate application is submitted to the Department of Health and accepted. The country’s Medical Cannabis Access Programme kicked off in 2019 on a pilot basis for five years.

Currently, only three medications can be used – High CBD Oil Drops from Aurora, CannEpil from MGC Pharmaceuticals and THC10:CBD10 from Tilray. But it hasn’t been a case of popping down to the local pharmacy to pick up the medicines. The majority of patients of licenced clinicians obtain their prescribed products from Transvaal Pharmacy in the Hague in the Netherlands.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, these patients or family members had to travel to the Netherlands to collect their medical cannabis prescription due to a ban in the Netherlands on commercial exports of cannabis oils. This created a great deal of stress for patients and their families, along with the significant added financial strain associated with making the trips.

A temporary delivery service from the Netherlands was established in April 2020 for the filling of individual prescriptions due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. It’s obviously worked out pretty well, and yesterday Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly announced this would be ongoing.

The Bureau of Cannabis Control‘s Cannabis Advisory Committee approved recommendations that would relax several regulations for the California cannabis industry, aimed at helping struggling cannabis businesses. The recommendations were included in the state panel’s annual report.

While arguably the largest state market for cannabis in the United States, California legal cannabis businesses struggle with competition from illegal cannabis sellers, among many other obstacles to expanded profitability. Though classified as essential services by the state, the businesses also have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and new public health requirements for retail and manufacturing industries.

“The state has faced unprecedented circumstances in 2020: the global COVID-19 pandemic and resulting recession, a record-breaking wildfire season, and the nationwide fight for racial justice and equality,” the seventeen-member panel reported. “With the additional pressures the cannabis industry faces during this challenging time in mind, the Advisory Committee sought to recommend policies that promote public health, set the stage for the proposed consolidation of the licensing authorities, and lead to economic recovery.”

Recommendations made by the panel included lifting the $5,000 limit on the cannabis products can be carried by delivery vans, which would allow retail businesses to offer a greater variety of products. The panel also recommended that cannabis lounges eventually be allowed to serve food and beverages.

The committee has not yet posted it’s final report, but a draft is available here.

The cannabis industry is booming all over the globe, mostly from a medical cannabis standpoint. 

Dozens of countries now allow some form of legal medical cannabis industry to operate within their borders, and some of those countries also have some type of legal import/export industry.

Adult-use is far more limited.

Only two countries, Uruguay and Canada, allow a legal adult-use industry to operate, and in the case of Uruguay, sales are only allowed for residents.

Fortunately, a number of countries are exploring the idea of full legalization, and multiple countries such as Mexico are working to implement adult-use court-ordered mandates.

California’s booming cannabis industry has been around much longer than many in the United States, and now, the state is on pace to collect as much as $1 billion in taxes from sales made in 2020, a record landmark for the local industry. 

According to a new study, women are more likely than men to switch to cannabis rather than pharmaceuticals to treat pain and other issues. The findings are even more remarkable, considering women also reported getting less support from physicians to try medical cannabis.

Researchers from DePaul University and John Hopkins University worked on the study, publishing their findings in the Journal of Women’s Health. 

The study involved data from a survey of medical cannabis patients that asked them about their experiences using weed to treat various conditions. Part of the study focused on asking patients specifically about the impact of using medical cannabis on their pharmaceutical prescriptions.

According to survey data, women appeared more likely than men to use medical cannabis for symptoms that included pain, anxiety, inflammation, and nausea. They also were more likely to increase their use of cannabis once they qualified for medical cannabis in their state and decrease their use of pharmaceuticals.

Less support from doctors

While women reported less use of pharmaceuticals after trying cannabis for pain and other symptoms, they also reported less support from physicians.

Two weeks ago, I reported on the landmark ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union (the CJEU) that cannabidiol (CBD) derived from the entire hemp plant is not a narcotic under the U.N. Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961 (the Single Convention); and thus, should be freely traded between European Union (EU) member states.

The same day that piece was published, the European Commission accepted the CJEU ruling and retracted its preliminary position on treating hemp-derived CBD and other extracts derived from the flowering tops of the Cannabis sativa L. plant as narcotics. This means that CBD ingestible products won’t be banned from the EU market and that European regulators have resumed the review of those existing CBD Novel Food Authorization applications.

Then, on December 2, 2020, the United Nations Commission for Narcotic Drugs (the CND) brought to a vote six recommendations made by World Health Organization (WHO) in 2019.

The Single Convention, an international treaty in which member countries pledge to ban the production and trade of certain drugs, including cannabis, except for medical and research purposes, categorizes drugs based on their possible harm versus medical utility. The Single Convention has four schedules: Schedules I and II are the main schedules, whereas Schedules III and IV are complementary schedules. Schedule IV is a stricter subset of Schedule I and includes substances considered to be the most harmful and with virtually no therapeutic value — this is in essence comparable to Schedule I of the U.S. Controlled Substance Act (the CSA).

Of the six WHO recommendations, only the proposal to remove cannabis and cannabis resin for medicinal purposes from Schedule IV of the Single Convention was approved by a close vote, passing 27 to 25, with the United States (the U.S.) and notable European nations in favor.

Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Tuesday blamed small draft errors for a delay in approving a new law that would legalize cannabis and effectively create one of the world’s largest weed markets.

The bill was due to be approved by Dec. 15, but it has been delayed to next year, with the Supreme Court setting a new deadline of April 30 for the law to be passed, according to local media.

Lopez Obrador said legislators requested a delay as time had run out before the current session in Congress ended this month, meaning there was not enough time to review the bill.

“The period was practically over but they are matters of form and not substance,” Lopez Obrador said in his morning daily press conference, adding that the issues will be “resolved” in the next session due to start in February.

The bill, which would mark a major shift in a country bedeviled for years by violence between feuding drug cartels, easily passed the Senate in a vote last month, and would create a huge new legal market for marijuana.

From January to the end of September, Nevada's cannabis dispensaries made more than $588 million in sales.

That's according to a new report by the Nevada Dispensary Association. The industry group that represents cannabis sellers in Nevada said over last year, they have recorded a 14% increase in sales. In September alone, Nevada dispensaries reported $82.6 million in sales — a 43% increase over the same month last year.

September is the latest month that data is available.

Nevada voters legalized recreational marijuana in 2016. The state puts a 15% excise tax on wholesale sales, then a 10% tax on recreational sales to consumers. According to Nevada's Department of Taxation, the state took in nearly $37 million from July through September.

Nowadays, there’s numerous ways to smoke cannabis. Here are some things you should consider before making your purchase.

Buying your first marijuana smoking piece is a big deal. It’s the moment when you say to yourself that you’re committed to your weed habit. Once you own a pipe, bong or other piece of equipment, you won’t need to depend on the whims of your stoner friend, which is a clear step forward.

Despite the excitement you’ll feel over the prospect of buying a cute pipe in the shape of an elephant, it’s important to first do some research. What is it that you’re looking for? Is it something discreet or something geared for premium enjoyment?

Here are some tips that can help you find what you’re looking for:

Pipes

Photo by SharonMcCutcheon via Pixabay

MONOGRAM, Jay-Z's much-hyped weed brand, finally makes its debut after a buzzy introduction back in October. 

Back in October, not much was known about the brand, other than it was the brainchild of Jay-Z and Caliva, one of the largest cannabis brands in California, and that it had a mysterious, vibey website with Fela Kuti, Bob Marley and the Wailers, and OutKast snippets playing as "Sounds from the Grow Room." 

Today, MONOGRAM announced that after 18 months selecting and cultivating strains, “MONOGRAM is finally ready to introduce its core collection of products to the world,” according to a press release. 

Recreational marijuana is now legal in Arizona after voters approved Proposition 207, and that will pose some new challenges for employers, said Julie Pace, a Phoenix attorney who specializes in employment and cannabis law.

There also is confusion about what the implications are for both employers and employees, said Pace, an attorney with Gammage & Burnham, who spoke with Chamber Business News about what business owners need to know in moving forward.