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As marijuana legalization continues to sweep the county—and with Congress potentially moving to finally decriminalize pot on the federal level—a new poll shows that a huge majority of Americans support expunging the criminal records of those who have previously been busted.

The findings, which come via the pollster YouGov.com, found that 70 percent of respondents said yes when asked if they support or oppose “expunging marijuana-related convictions for non-violent offenders.” A mere 17 percent said they oppose the idea. 

Digging into the crosstabs, the poll found a partisan split—though not as wide as it likely was in previous eras. 81 percent of Democrats said they either strongly or somewhat support the idea, while a majority of Republicans—57 percent—said the same. 

The mounting evidence of bipartisan support for relaxed pot policies is reflected not only in surveys like this, but in results at the ballot box and actions on Capitol Hill. 

Last month saw voters in four states move to legalize recreational pot use for adults; two of those, South Dakota and Montana, were carried easily by President Donald Trump. Arizona and New Jersey were the other two states where voters approved legalization measures, while South Dakota voters additionally passed a similar measure legalizing medical marijuana. 

Getting a cannabis license and building a brand in the industry can be incredibly complex and daunting – which has many producers utilizing a practice known as white labeling.

White labeling, or white-label branding, is a common practice in mainstream industries in which a company removes their own brand and logo from the end product and uses another company’s brand, usually a more established one with a wider client base. This is common with many well-known brands such as 365 brand from Whole Foods Market, Costco’s Kirkland brand, and Walmart’s Great Value products – all of which are manufactured by numerous other smaller companies.

More and more countries have been loosening their policies when it comes to the non-psychoactive component of cannabis – CBD (cannabidiol). With a new amendment waiting for final approval, Israel says CBD is not dangerous, and is expected next week to remove it from its Dangerous Drugs Ordinance.

It’s holiday season, and that means only one thing: gifts! Check out the best Delta-8 THC deals for you and everyone you love.

When it comes to cannabis, Israel is not the most lax country when it comes to regulation. However, this undermines the fact that Israel is about the most far ahead when it comes to medical research concerning cannabis. With the help of Raphael Mechoulam, whose work was roundly ignored for decades, and who in the more recent environment of cannabis acceptance has now been lauded for his work, Israel has been the world leader in cannabis research. This did not stop the drug from being completely illegal recreationally, with no personal use laws until only the last couple years. Now, in a move that shows its ready to play catch-up for real, Israel not only is discussing plans for a recreational legalization, but is set to remove CBD from its list of dangerous drugs, with the expectation that CBD products will soon be lining supermarket shelves.

Current Israeli cannabis laws

Israel only instituted a decriminalization policy for cannabis in 2019, which affords personal use rights for small amounts in the home. The term ‘small amounts’ was defined by the Anti-Drug Authority as 15 grams. Public use and possession still results in a fine of 1000 NIS, or $307 (by today’s conversion), though this is a vast improvement from what it was before, when offenders could be required to pay as much as 226,000 NIS, or $69,479 (by today’s conversion). The 1000 NIS is just for a first offense, and doubles with the second offence, and turns into a criminal act on the third. This comes with the loss of a drivers’ license and/or gun as well. Minors under the age of 18 who reject a treatment program when caught, can still be subjected to jail time.

Like pretty much anywhere in the world, selling and supply crimes are illegal, and offenders can find themselves with 20-year prison sentences. This can be increased to 25 years in the case of extenuating circumstances, like selling to a minor. Cultivation is technically illegal, but also seems to fall into gray area. According to the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, growing can carry up to 20 years. In 2017, the publication Cannabis made public that there had been an order issued which stated that growing small amounts for personal use would only be seen as a minor violation. This was meant to be a way to separate large-scale, and small-scale growers. However, this order was obviously never meant to be public, and when Cannabis put out the news, the response from law enforcement was that no change had legally been made.

The cost of cannabis flower has fluctuated throughout the years. 

For many decades the standard cannabis flower that was available in most parts of the world originated in third-world countries, was compressed into bricks, and then distributed to various markets.

The cannabis flower was often low-quality and not that potent, and it was priced accordingly. 

Cannabis was more expensive than other crops due to the illegalities involved, but for the most part it was affordable for many consumers.

Prices for cannabis started to climb as sophisticated cultivation practices were implemented, such as hydroponic cultivation methods.

The executive in charge of Canopy Growth Corp.'s global beverage unit is leaving less than a year after he joined the company, a high-level departure that comes as the pot giant looks to ramp up sales of cannabis-infused drinks to the Canadian recreational market. 

Andrew Rapsey joined Canopy in January and took on the role of global head of beverages in August. He announced in a LinkedIn post on Wednesday he is leaving the company and plans to return to Alphabet Inc.'s Google in 2021. 

"As I gear up for 2021, I have decided to head back to Google Canada for some unfinished business with a marketing team I adore," Rapsey said in the post. 

California is on pace to collect $1 billion in taxes from licensed cannabis sales in 2020, even amid challenges of the coronavirus pandemic and a still thriving black market for it, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s senior adviser on cannabis business said Thursday.

Now that Mississippi has officially joined the ranks of U.S. states legally allowing medical cannabis, the next step is more cannabis legislation, as well as a thriving cannabis industry, so the state needs to be prepared. In order to help provide services for those next steps, Mississippi now has an official cannabis trade association. 

It’s early on a mid-March Friday morning at the Oregon CBD headquarters, outside Corvallis, Oregon. The company’s co-founder, Eric Crawford, is breaking up a piece of intimidatingly frosty cannabis as I watch with apprehension.

“Don’t worry, it’s only hemp,” Crawford jokes as he packs the flower into the bowl of a glass pipe. “It has no measurable THC or CBD, but about 15 percent CBG and it really helps with staying focused.”

Fridays are usually filled with non-stop meetings at the industrial hemp seed firm, especially as the cannabis growing season approaches. Clients travel from across the nation to sit down and pick the two brains behind the business: Eric Crawford and his co-founder and brother Seth Crawford. The brothers admit that with the barrage of questions visiting clients often lob their way, sometimes a little help with focus can go a long way.

While their innovative early-finishing, CBD-rich strains have brought them success in the past, the duo has spent the last two years working to stabilize the nation’s first production-ready, CBG-dominant varietals in seed form.

CBG, the non-intoxicating cannabis compound whose full name is cannabigerol, has been garnering attention for its promising effects in the treatment of a wide variety of medical conditions.

There was a lot of uncertainty surrounding the re-emerging industrial hemp crop in Texas at the start of the year, but now that harvest is complete and more questions have been answered, growers are pleased with the results. 

Hemp hasn't been widely grown in Texas for 80 years, and while three licenses were issued by the Texas Department of Agriculture in the Panhandle and 33 licenses in the Lubbock region, some growers sat this year out to see how it goes for others. 

Kyle Bingham, president of the Texas Hemp Growers Association, has worked on growing new crops and commodities before, and found that hemp has been one of the easier crops to grow. 

For one, technology is creating more effective CBD products for the CBD market, and better, more efficient products.

Wall Street experts project the CBD industry to swell to more than 22 billion dollars over the next two years. Within a decade that number is projected to exponentially grow towards 75 billion dollars.

As is with any big industry boom, everyone wants a piece of the action. Fortunately, with CBD hemp there is plenty of pie to go around. And technology plays a big role in the CBD industry from seed to shelf and beyond.

This article goes over four important aspects of the CBD industry and how technology shapes and molds the big boom of CBD oil.

Tech-Centered CBD Hemp Farming

Farming is labor-intensive process that requires lots of tedious work. It’s no wonder that tech steps in to make certain processes and tasks more efficient. Equipment and machines that speed up tasks such as potting, planting, and digging aren’t the only kinds of technology on the farm. Visit a tech-centered hemp farm and you’ll find RFID tags on plants, biometric security systems, and incredibly advanced.

2020 was a historic year for marijuana legalization as four states — Arizona, Montana, New Jersey and South Dakota — legalized recreational marijuana for adults, and Mississippi legalized medical marijuana.

2021 could be another big year for the cannabis industry; MjBizDaily is predicting that these five states will probably legalize recreational marijuana for adults:
– Connecticut
– Maryland
– New Mexico
– New York
– Pennsylvania

“New York, Connecticut, Maryland, New Mexico are ripe for 2021” marijuana legalization via their legislatures, said Steve Hawkins from the MPP. “We’re at 15 (states that have legalized adult use) now, and it’s not outside the realm of possibility that we can be at 25 states” in the near future.”

In recent years, Maine, Massachusetts, and Vermont legalized recreational cannabis industries. These are adding fuel to the Northeast fire. The governors in New York and Pennsylvania have openly supported legalizing marijuana for adults for some time.

Growing up, Georgia's family thought she was a bit of a hypochondriac because she'd always complain about weird aches and pains. Even doctors didn't really take her symptoms seriously.

"I remember at 14 going to the doctors with really bad lower back pain, and they told me it was my posture. I was really fatigued all the time and sleeping so much," Georgia told Hack.

Finally, after years of pain and other chronic symptoms, Georgia was diagnosed with endometriosis.

Endometriosis is a disease in which tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows in other parts of the body. It can be painful, chronic, and has no cure.

Medical cannabis was legalized in Colorado in 2000, but 20 years later, Camille Stewart, MD, isn't able to prescribe it to her patients. Nor is she able to dictate the dosage or frequency with which patients take the drug.

That's because of the weird limbo in which medical cannabis exists. Although it is legal in many states, cannabis still is classified by the federal government as a Schedule I drug with no current acceptable medical use and a high potential for abuse. That puts it in the same category as heroin, LSD and MDMA (ecstasy).

You can see why that's very confusing to a layperson, and even confusing to a person in the medical field. You've got this thing called medical cannabis, but then at a federal level it literally says in the law that there is no medical use for it."

Dr. Camille Stewart, Assistant Professor, University of Colorado (CU) Division of Surgical Oncology and CU Cancer Center Member

In Colorado, the most a physician can do is recommend cannabis for a medical condition. Most states operate in a similar fashion, though laws vary on how cannabis is obtained or grown and who can make the recommendation for a patient to receive it.

NSW-based Australian Natural Therapeutics Group (ANTG) has been granted a license to produce large quantities of medicinal cannabis oil for commercial use as the industry booms on the back of good news internationally.

ANTG will commence commercial manufacturing of cannabis oil at its Armidale facility following receipt of the license from the Therapeutic Goods Administration.

Founded in 2015, ANTG already produces four strains of medicinal cannabis flower, and will soon add four oil combinations to its product range following.

ANTG CEO Matt Cantelo said the license signifies a big step in the buy-local movement and will mean price drops in medical cannabis as more of the drug is made on-shore.

Looking back at 2020, the Brightfield Group determined the cannabis product shelf space winners. A review of the first three quarters provided a snapshot of which products cannabis consumers wanted most. This type of information is invaluable to producers and dispensary owners alike. The producers can make sure that they have these products in their portfolio and dispensaries can make sure they stock their shelves with the items that customers want.

Increased 2020 Shelf Space:

Candy

Brightfield’s report found that since January 2020, the candy category has captured 12% of the shelf and in August held 14% of the shelf its largest position to date. The category has grown by 41% in 2020. The report also noted that the shelves saw a shift towards luxury and premium prices.  Consumers have also been drawn to natural marketing and like options that are vegan, non-GMO, and additive-free.

Top Candy Flavors:

Top Candy Brands

Vapes

Despite the vape crisis of 2019, vape products commanded 22% of the shelf space for 2020. The report found that cartridges and pods grew shelf space by 3% in 2020. 74% of these products were in 500mg packages and a majority were marketed for relaxation and stress relief. The price preference was the opposite of candy, but that’s probably because vapes in general are more expensive. Budget-priced products saw an increase in shelf space and premium-priced products saw shelf space declines.

Top Vape Attributes

Top Vape Brands

Resin & Rosin

THC concentrates continue to win over new consumers. The product packs a bigger punch than vapes or traditional flower that typically deliver 15%-35% THC. These concentrates can provide doses of 60%-90% THC. While dabbing shatter, wax, or crumble has been the predominant concentrate method, rosin and live resin are coming on strong. Rosin is made with a solventless method that relies only on heat and pressure to extract cannabinoids and delivering a “cleaner” dab. Live resin is made with more traditional extraction methods and preserves the terpenes. This category increased its shelf space by 3%, while the shatter, wax and crumble categories fell.