WeedLife News Network

Vegan cooking competition show High Cuisine recently debuted on Amazon Prime Video. The 12-episode series taps into cannabis culture by challenging Los Angeles-based vegan chefs to create the most innovative dishes after getting high, while discussing the creative culinary inspiration they get from their use of cannabis. Challenges include creating the world’s largest burrito, turning Thanksgiving dinner into a sandwich, and making sushi for dessert. The chefs make use of everyday vegan ingredients as well as products from national brands such as Beyond Meat, Dandies, The Herbivorous Butcher, and Follow Your Heart. 

“We wanted to do a fresh take on the traditional cooking show. High Cuisine has all of the trappings of a competition show you might find on network television, but with the added fun that stoned chefs bring to the kitchen,” High Cuisine executive producer Asher Brown said. “Plus, we’re aiming our show at a wide audience. You don’t have to be vegan to appreciate how creative great chefs can be when they’re cooking with plants. And you don’t have to smoke [marijuana] to appreciate High Cuisine either. The weed is in the chefs, not in the food, so we’d love everyone watching at home to wonder what a fruit roll-up enchilada tastes like and be able to follow along when a chef tries to make beet cupcakes—and then get inspired to cook some awesome weird plant-based food themselves.”

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, many people are dealing with stress, anxiety and boredom, and some San Diegans' coping mechanism has shown in sales.

"I personally use it a lot to manage my anxiety and my stress,” said San Diegan Jackie Bryant, referring to marijuana, “and it’s been a really huge help for my mental health during the pandemic.”

Blake Marchand is the owner of marijuana dispensary, March and Ash in Mission Valley. He compared the initial rush of marijuana sales during the beginning of the pandemic to that of some other popular items.

“It was similar to how people ran to Costco to grab you know, all the toilet paper that they could. I think in the first couple weeks, you know, a lot of customers are coming in and just grabbing, grabbing enough just in case we were to be shut down," he said.

While the cannabis-infused beverage category is expanding rapidly, product awareness and brand awareness lag behind, according to a survey of 1,000 U.S. cannabis consumers fielded July 2nd through July 16th, 2020 by consumer insights firm SoapBoxSample. Results revealed that the top reason cited for not having tried cannabis beverage products is that 45% of consumers simply did not know they existed. Meanwhile, those who have tried it are likely to try it again. The most popular types of beverages consumers have tried and say they will have again are juice or fruit punch (68%), hot chocolate (61%) and non-alcoholic wine (60%). Certain categories of cannabis-infused beverages have even become a part of some consumers’ weekly routines including coffee (42%), tea (42%) and juice or fruit punch (41%).

“This study illustrates the enormous potential of the cannabis beverage market,” said Jacqueline Rosales, COO of SoapBoxSample. “Cannabis consumers are eager to try new products and they are expecting brands to bring products to market that speak to their specific tastes and preferences. By connecting with their target audience, brands can make strategic decisions supported by market insights.”

Beer without cannabis is the most popular alcoholic beverage in the United States. However, that popularity doesn’t seem to translate to the cannabis category. SoapBoxSample asked consumers who hadn’t tried a cannabis beverage about their interest level in 13 different types of beverages. The only beverage that ranked lower than beer were aperitifs. Only 33% expressed an interest in trying cannabis-infused non-alcoholic beer. By comparison, 79% said they would like to try a cannabis lemonade or limeade. Other popular choices for would-be consumers include iced and herbal teas (79%), juice/fruit punch (77%), and soda/sparkling seltzer (72%).

Cannabis beer brands may be hoping to win over consumers once they sample the product. However, consumers who have tried cannabis beer have less interest in trying it again, compared to other beverage categories. While 39% of those who have tried cannabis beer said they would drink it again, 68% of those who have had cannabis juice or fruit punch said they would drink it again and 61% of those who tried cannabis hot chocolate would have it again. Adoption rates of cannabis sparkling water (59%), infused coffee/cold brew (58%) and infused iced or herbal tea (56%) were also relatively high, while cannabis beer (39%) and aperitifs (28%) ranked lowest.

The emerging popularity of cannabis beverages is reflected in the data. Among those who have tried cannabis beverages, 29% tried it for the first time in the last month. To understand rapidly evolving consumer preferences, SoapBoxSample looked at consumer interest in beverage types and awareness of cannabis beverage brands. Overall, brand awareness is low. Around 60% of consumers said they were unfamiliar with all 23 of the brands tested in this study, indicating there is room for cannabis brands to earn market share by increasing brand awareness.

Thousands of people are arrested every year for illicit consumption of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances (NDPS). In 2018, 81,778 persons were arrested under the NDPS Act. Fifty-nine per cent of the those were found in possession of substances for personal use. Our forthcoming findings on Mumbai give an insight into how many people are arrested for illicit cannabis consumption, in comparison to other prohibited substances.

During the course of our research, we analysed 10,669 cases from Magistrate Courts in Mumbai, 99.9 per cent of these cases involved consumption of a narcotic substance. Wherever information on the kind of substance involved was available, 87 per cent of the cases involved cannabis. We find, therefore, that Mumbai’s NDPS arrests, which are the highest in the country, are primarily arrests of cannabis consumers. This suggests that criminalisation of cannabis consumption is pushing a substantial number of people into the criminal justice system.

Strain on the criminal justice system

Criminalisation of illicit cannabis use exacerbates the strain on the criminal justice system. The impact is particularly felt by an already overburdened and understaffed police force, where the police per lakh population ratio and vacancies have constantly remained a critical governance issue and the judicial system, already crumbling under high pendency.

In order to arrest, prosecute and sentence a cannabis consumer, the state machinery exhausts substantial human and economic resources. The police, judiciary and correctional institutions are systematically made party to a futile exercise, the cost of which is enormous. With over 3 crore cannabis users in the country, if the NDPS Act were to be implemented effectively, with every cannabis user arrested and prosecuted, the crumbling system would cave in entirely.

Although there is no current research on the cost of enforcing cannabis prohibition in India, studies conducted abroad find that on an average, incarceration costs are 2-6 times higher than money spent on health and social services. A study of budgetary implications of cannabis prohibition in the US indicated that legalisation of cannabis would save $7.7 billion per year in government expenditure.

On November 6, 2018, Missouri voters passed Article XIV of the Missouri Constitution, establishing a medical marijuana program in Missouri. Article XIV requires the Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) to protect the trade secrets of medical marijuana businesses as well as patients’ information by keeping that information confidential.

Article XIV Section 1.3.(5) of the Missouri Constitution states, “The Department shall maintain the confidentiality of reports or other information obtained from an applicant or license containing any individualized data, information, or records related to the licensee or its operation, including sales information, financial records, tax returns, credit reports, cultivation information, testing results, and security information and plans, or revealing any patient information, or any other records that are exempt from public inspection pursuant to state or federal law…”

The Administrative Hearing Commission, the administrative agency charged with hearing the medical marijuana licensing appeals, recently ruled that the confidentiality provision in Article XIV did not prevent litigants from compelling DHSS to disclose trade secrets or other proprietary information submitted by other businesses.

“As most people know, there were many more applicants than there were medical marijuana facility licenses,” said Lyndall Fraker, Director of the Section for Medical Marijuana Regulation. “Some of those applicants are now pursuing their competitors’ business and proprietary secrets through the appeal process. It’s our responsibility to implement the Constitution, and we want to be sure we’re doing exactly that."

DHSS initiated an action in Cole County Circuit Court seeking a judicial order regarding whether it should continue protecting the confidentiality of business and trade secrets.

Earlier this year, the Arkansas Department of Health suspended expiration dates on medical marijuana registry cards due to the COVID-19 public health emergency. This allowed individuals to temporarily use their cards past the expiration date written on their card.

This temporary extension will end on September 30, 2020. Cards with an expiration date on or before September 30, 2020, will expire on September 30, 2020.

Cardholders need to submit a renewal application by September 11, 2020, to allow time for processing. Cards with an expiration date after September 30, 2020, will expire on the date written on the card.

To renew, cardholders will need to submit an updated physician written certification, patient application, copy of their Arkansas driver’s license or ID, and the $50 processing fee. Applications can be submitted here.

Hemp. It's related to marijuana, but you don't smoke it, you make things with it. 

After being banned for more than 80 years, it's once again legal to grow it. 

However, in Florida, hemp farmers are facing a challenge insuring their crop just as hurricane season heats up. 

From paper straws to perfumes, even designer dresses, hemp is in line to become the key ingredient -- a durable fiber that thrives on sunshine, the kind Florida has in abundance, making the state nearly perfect for growing. 

It’s been nearly two years since Canada became the first G20 country to legalize cannabis for recreational purposes. However, the majority of customers are still getting their pot from the illicit market -- with a lot of ground left to cover.

In the fourth quarter of 2018, legal marijuana represented only 21 per cent of total consumption in Canada, despite weed becoming lawful on Oct. 17 of that year. Fast-forward to the first quarter of 2020 and cannabis is now a $2.2 billion retail industry, yet legal consumption is still just 46 per cent of the total, according to data from Statistics Canada.

“Consumer conversion from the illicit market is clearly occurring, but it is still early days,” Cormark Securities analyst Jesse Pytlak said in an email. “Retail infrastructure is still being developed, and useful insight on consumer preferences and behaviors is just now beginning to emerge.”

The relatively slow growth can be attributed to both steep prices in the legal market, as well as the fact that physical stores remain few and far between in large provinces like Ontario. The accessibility of brick-and-mortar storefronts is critical for converting consumers from illegal consumption, Pytlak added.

“The pricing is still way too high relative to what we’re seeing in the illicit market,” Canaccord Genuity analyst Matt Bottomley said in an interview. “If you are someone that consumes cannabis on a regular interval, there’s not a lot of incentive for you to transition over.”

Any situation where a child ingests even the smallest amount of THC is just not good. Here’s how to keep them safe.

Parents have been getting high since the dawn of time. It used to be one of those situations where old mom and dad might buy a dime bag to have on the weekends after the kids went to bed. Until then, they might stash it in their underwear drawer alongside a small collection of sex toys and dirty magazines, or they might even hide it in the refrigerator inside a can of Folgers coffee.

There’s no way the kids would ever look in any of those places and discover that their parents were going against the wishes of Nancy Reagan by Just Saying YES to drugs. But times have changed since then. 

Now, marijuana is legal for medicinal and recreational use in more than half the nation, and the kids, well, they apparently know no boundaries when it comes to sniffing out the parental stash. That’s right, mom and dad, not even the tried and true underwear drawer is safe anymore. 

It seems that every time we turn around a new report has emerged, showing that more children are being admitted to hospital emergency rooms all across the country to be treated for marijuana-related poisonings. Most of these cases are the result of little Jimmy getting into his mom’s THC-infused candies and biting off way more than his small body and mind can handle. 

If you were wondering: No, the marijuana industry hasn't lost its allure. Although the Horizons Marijuana Life Sciences ETF fell 36% in the past year, some pot stocks have reported impressive sales. With national elections on the horizon and marijuana legalization initiatives on the ballot in few U.S. states, investors are optimistic about the industry's room to grow. Medical cannabis is already legal across Canada, in 33 U.S. states, and the District of Columbia. The market should expand even more as marijuana-related therapies offer patients benefits that conventional therapies have failed to provide.

Cannabis companies are learning that to survive the pandemic, bigger isn’t necessarily better.

Specialized operations and a narrow geographic footprint are buoying marijuana providers such as Trulieve Cannabis Corp. at a time when the broader industry is struggling with falling demand and capital constraints. That’s a shift from a few years ago, when exuberance in the market pushed cannabis companies to expand their reach across the nation in a hasty land grab, which has left many onetime heavyweights overextended.

Companies with a broader reach got “punished” last quarter, said Joe Caltabiano, a cannabis entrepreneur who recently left the company he co-founded, Cresco Labs. With the industry shift, “you’re starting to see a separation of winners and losers.”

French trade group Syndicat Professionnel du Chanvre (SPC) and three other industry organizations have called on authorities in France to defend their interests amid fears the European Commission is about to designate hemp extracts as narcotics.

The groups warned warned that a position on hemp extracts announced recently by the Commission “would have dramatic repercussions on the hemp sector as a whole.”

Signatories

In addition to SPC, the open letter was signed by representatives of Synadiet, the French national union of food supplements makers; ITEIPMAII, the French research institute for perfume, medicinal and aromatic plants; and Phytolia, which represents stakeholders in France’s health & beauty and well-being sectors.

The EC last month issued the “preliminary conclusion” that non-medical natural hemp extracts should be considered narcotics in the EU, and appear to be preparing a similar recommendation to the 12 EU member states that will vote on cannabis and medical CBD issues at a meeting of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) this December. If the EC makes its “preliminary conclusion” final, it would throw the European CBD market into chaos, affecting hemp food, food supplements and cosmetics that are formulated with CBD.

Hit to entire sector

The French groups said classification of hemp extracts as narcotics would not only hit manufacturers and distributors in the wellness and health & beauty sectors, but would have a knock-on effect of jeopardizing investments in the sectors that process hemp straw for sustainable building materials, textiles, paper, plastics and biocomposites.

If you grow marijuana for a dispensary or personal use, you should know these tips. This guide lists 7 marijuana growing tips every grower needs to know.

In case you didn’t know, CBD is now legal in 33 states, and medical marijuana in the remaining 17. That means that you can grow your own marijuana and make a living out of it. However, making a killing off the trade isn’t as easy as throwing marijuana seeds on the ground and harvesting liters of CBD oil.

Any serious marijuana grower knows that growing marijuana is incredibly difficult. Growing quality marijuana takes lots of diligence, commitment, and resources.  With the right marijuana growing tips; however, growing your own marijuana will be a piece of cake.

Even the most seasoned marijuana growers sometimes have a hard time getting a good yield. However, here is a couple of invaluable marijuana growing tips for both newbies and experienced growers.

You don’t have to be a master marijuana grower to know that your marijuana is only as good as its genetics. The first step to growing some good marijuana is finding an excellent cannabis strain, and there are plenty to choose from. So the million-dollar question is, where do I find quality marijuana strains?

The California Department of Pesticide Regulation (CDPR) approved the use of BotaniGard Maxx (pyrethrin + a fungicide, Beauveria bassiana) to control insect pests in hemp. Pyrethrins are broad-spectrum insecticides that are toxic to honey bees and other pollinators. Best Management Practices (BMPs) should be followed to reduce the risk of bee exposure to BotaniGard Maxx when producing hemp.

While most cultivated hemp are non-pollen producing female plants, seed feminization is never 100% true and males (picture at right) will be present in the field. Males shed a lot of pollen, making them attractive to native bees and honeybees.

How to Protect Bees when using BotaniGard Maxx in Hemp:

Removing male plants can help reduce the chance of attracting bees into hemp where pyrehtoirds are being used.

Finally, the feds are looking more seriously into product safety and quality for cannabis and CBD products, but it’s not the FTC taking the reins.

Over the years, we’ve pointed out when federal agencies opt to ignore the federal illegality of cannabis. It happens more often than you might think depending on the topic (see, for example, the NLRB). One agency, however, that has surprisingly never lifted a finger against state-legal cannabis – though it is taking a closer look at CBD – is the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

It is bad public policy when no federal watchdog is looking out for cannabis consumers (many millions of people) or scrutinizing the quality of cannabis products overall, and/or going after bad actors to deter bad behavior. To date, it’s truly been “buyer beware” outside of states putting together their own protocols on things like recalls, packaging and labeling safety standards, quality assurance reviews, and testing. None of this is approved or sanctioned by the feds, like it oftentimes is for other industries. As such, the states are literally making up cannabis consumer safety as they go along; and products liability suits (and at least one wrongful death suit) have manifested over the years. See here for our various posts on these topics.

Cannabis testing, itself, has also been problematic in a variety of states where no gold standard exists for testing. It’s entirely up to state agencies regarding what, exactly, should be tested and in what amounts, in order to be considered a “passing” product. For example, if you remember, vitamin E acetate was one of the presumable culprits when consumers were experiencing significant health issues from ingesting illegal market cannabis oils through vapes.

At the same time, California’s cannabis regulators didn’t mandate testing for additives/thickeners (like vitamin E acetate) for products manufactured and sold by state-licensed businesses. In addition, there have always been issues with certain standards of lab integrity/general competence: one lab will issue a passing result for a batch of cannabis while a second lab issues a failing result — both using the same testing methods under state laws and regulations.

Earl Blumenauer cautioned Biden from following too closely in Hillary Clinton’s footsteps, as he believes she would be President if she had supported cannabis legalization.

When presidential candidate Joe Biden announced his criminal justice reform plan, it included cannabis policies that appeared to be lacking compared to those proposed by other prominent Democratic party members. Almost none, however, have criticized Biden’s cannabis agenda until this week when one Democratic congressman described it as “essentially meaningless.”

The comment came from Oregon Rep. Earl Blumenauer, a co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus. The congressman appeared in a video interview with Canopy Growth executive David Culver, who asked Blumenauer about Biden’s marijuana platform.

“[Legalization] is demanded by the American public. It’s no longer controversial,” Blumenauer said. “For the campaign to talk about decriminalization is essentially meaningless. Your grandmother is for decriminalization.

“Over two-thirds of the American public supports full legalization. A majority of Republicans support full legalization and an overwhelming majority of young people,” he continued. “So I think that’s where we’re going. I’m optimistic that before the election we’ll get a better statement. But ultimately, what’s going to matter is what we do in Congress and we are poised, maybe even this Congress, to fully legalize, but certainly in the next Congress.”

The state of New York will not submit a state hemp plan to the U.S.

For the past century, America has been in a fierce debate regarding the legal status of marijuana. And while individuals on both sides of the issue are passionate about their positions regarding the morality and safety of cannabis, those against legalization have largely had their way— until very recently.