WeedLife News Network

It would appear that changing over the Senate is even more important than who is President on this particular issue.

Many in the cannabis industry have, understandably, backed Joe Biden and Kamala Harris for President and VP, presumably for a variety of reasons which include a belief that they are more likely to support legalizing cannabis at the federal level. Many are not as aware that President Donald Trump has stated that he is, in his words, “100%” in favor of legalizing medical marijuana, and that he believes recreational or adult use should be decided by the states, although early in his 2016 campaign he said he opposed legalizing adult use.

The truth is, as many have discovered, the Biden campaign has almost the same view as Mr. Trump. The former VP will support the legalization of cannabis for medical purposes, leave decisions regarding legalization for recreational use up to the states, and reschedule cannabis as a Schedule II drug. If Trump supports legalization essentially in this manner, then why has it not been enacted since his inauguration? There are primarily three barriers to this, and their names are Republican Sens. Mitch McConnell, Mike Crapo and Lindsey Graham. But let’s step back.

In January 2018, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded the Obama-era Cole Memo in the Justice Department which deemphasized federal prosecution of state legal cannabis enterprises. In response to this, Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) told the President he would hold up all his judicial nominees until he addressed the issue. A few months later he was able to talk to Trump, who assured him that if a bill came to his desk legalizing medical marijuana and leaving adult use to the states, he would sign it. Gardner then backed off his resistance to Trump’s judges.

Shortly thereafter, Gardner, along with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), introduced the Strengthening the Tenth Amendment Through Entrusting States (STATES) Act, then reintroduced it a year later. A companion bill was also introduced in the House. The bill would take the steps Trump said he would accept in legalizing medical marijuana and allowing states to legalize adult use.

A study of consumer attitudes released recently found that residents of states with legal cannabis have a positive view of the regulated marketplace. Results of the research, “Consumer perceptions of ‘legal’ and ‘illegal’ cannabis in US states with legal cannabis sales,” were released online last month ahead of the publication of the study in the journal Addictive Behaviors early next year.

To conduct the study, researchers with the University of Waterloo’s School of Public Health in Canada surveyed adult consumers in states with legal cannabis and asked them about their views of the regulated marketplace. Investigators surveyed 5,530 respondents residing in Alaska, California, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. 

The study examined consumer perceptions of quality, price, convenience, and safety of use and purchasing cannabis from legal versus illegal sources in U.S. states with legal retail sales. The study also attempted to examine associations between cannabis use, length of time since legal sales began, and perceptions of legal cannabis.

Well over half (59.2%) of the survey participants reported that, compared to an illicit supplier, cannabis was more convenient to obtain from a licensed source and 56.1% said it was a safer way to purchase cannabis. Additionally, 37.6% of consumers said that they believed the quality of the cannabis offered at licensed businesses was superior to what can be purchased from unlicensed sellers, although more than 30% of respondents said that legal cannabis is more expensive. Less than 15% of respondents in any state reported that legal cannabis was less expensive than that purchased from unlicensed sources. The study also found that 40.3% of those surveyed felt that cannabis purchased from legal sources was safer to use than unregulated products.

Better Over Time

Researchers also found that consumer perceptions varied according to the length of time since legal cannabis sales began. Respondents living in more mature legal markets that had legalized marijuana earlier were more likely to perceive legal cannabis as being of higher quality. The survey also found that consumers in mature markets were less likely to say that legal pot was more expensive.

Two separate cannabis initiatives have qualified for the general election ballot in Montana, making it the sixth state in the nation that will be voting on a legalization measure in November. On Thursday, the office of Montana Secretary of State Corey Stapleton revealed that supporters for Initiative 190 and Constitutional Initiative 118 had collected enough signatures to qualify both measures for the ballot.

Initiative 190 would legalize the possession and sale of small amounts of marijuana for adult use and establish a regulatory system to license cannabis businesses. The measure also levies a tax of 20% on recreational marijuana and reduces the existing tax on medical cannabis from 1% to 2%. The initiative also authorizes the home cultivation of up to four mature cannabis plants and four seedlings.

Revenue from the tax on adult-use cannabis would be allocated to land, water, and wildlife conservation programs, veteran services, substance abuse treatment, long-term health care, and local governments. Proponents of the measure have estimated that it would raise $48 million in tax revenue by 2025.

Constitutional Initiative 118 would amend the Montana Constitution to allow the state legislature to set the legal age to make cannabis purchases at 21. Currently, the constitution grants all of the rights of an adult to all persons age 18 or older, except for the purchase of alcohol.

More Than Enough Signatures Collected

Petitions for both initiatives were circulated by New Approach Montana, which collected more than 130,000 signatures to put the measures on the ballot. To qualify, Initiative 190 needed approximately 25,000 verified signatures, while the constitutional initiative required about 50,000 signatures. The group reports that it spent approximately $2 million on its signature-gathering effort and other expenses related to qualifying the two initiatives for the ballot.

The cannabis start-up is a place where dreams are born. A place where exuberance pulses through the bloodstream, fueling visions of world domination. It’s a place where the new and the old, the novice and the experienced, the tried and the true have all taken their shot. And most of them have failed.

Many others are waiting for the right moment when they come off the sidelines and show the rest how it’s done. Many equate cannabis to a “gold rush” for all these reasons and more. Not the least of which is the notion that this emerging industry is a lot of fun to be a part of. The parties are sensational. What’s not to love?

University College London researchers have found a single dose of cannabidiol boosts blood flow to an important part of the brain.

The hippocampus is part of the brain’s medial temporal lobe (MTL). It plays important roles in shifting information from short-term memory to long-term memory, and in spatial memory that enables navigation. If the hippocampus is damaged, it can impact a person’s existing memories and their ability to form new memories.

The progressive shrinking of the hippocampus is responsible for the short-term memory loss that accompanies Alzheimer’s Disease, the most common form of dementia affecting up to 70% of all people with dementia.

The non-intoxicating cannabinoid CBD is increasingly being investigated for its potential therapeutic benefits, including improving memory function and how the brain processes emotional memories – but the mechanisms have been unclear. New research from UCL may provide an important hint.

The researchers set out to investigate how CBD influences cerebral blood flow in different regions on the brain involved in memory processing. As part of the investigation, 600mg of oral cannabidiol or a placebo was administered to 15 healthy young adult participants who had little or no history of cannabis use. Using a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) brain scanning technique called ‘arterial spin labelling’ that measures changes in the blood oxygen levels, the researchers determined CBD significantly increased blood flow in the hippocampus.

Cannabis prohibition is one of the worst public policies in modern times. Prohibition is often used to trample on citizens’ rights around the world, including and especially citizens of color.

Efforts to dismantle global institutional racism must absolutely include ending cannabis prohibition.

Right now there are only two countries that have legalized cannabis for adult use – Uruguay and Canada. Hopefully more countries will follow suit sooner rather than later.

Countless people have had their lives ruined because of cannabis prohibition, and many continue to have their lives ruined well after they have paid their fine and/or served their sentence.

The ‘Cannabis Scarlet Letter’

Cannabis convictions punish offenders well after they have served their debt to society via showing up on background checks.

Let’s talk about pain and cannabis. No, I’m not talking about medical efficacy, although that’s well proven. I’m referring to the great pains that come with regulatory compliance.

There are so many bureaucratic hoops for a business to jump through, it borders on ridiculous. 

Vapor pens accounted for most of the sales of Cannabis 2.0 products in Canada, as demonstrated by new data collected by data analytics company Headset. 

Dubbed Cannabis 2.0, the second wave of legalization in Canada saw vapes, edibles and beverages become legal exactly one year after the country allowed recreational marijuana sales. 

Since then, products under the Cannabis 2.0 category started slowly hitting the shelves of Canadian markets, however, the coronavirus pandemic has significantly impacted the entire cannabis industry. 

As the rollout of Cannabis 2.0 is still in its early stages, companies are still trying to figure out which products will attract the most consumers. 

According to the data from Headset’s report, vape pens were by far the most popular product in the three Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario, which Headset included in its analysis on Cannabis 2.0. 

A new kind of vending machine is coming to Massachusetts — a self-checkout kiosk for cannabis dispensaries.

Boston-based anna, which also has a presence in Colorado, announced this week that it would deploy its self-checkout products in two Colorado dispensaries this week. The company is expected to launch in Massachusetts in September, deploying 14 units across the two states within the next eight weeks.

Further rollouts are anticipated in Nevada, California and Canada.

With anna’s devices, customers can browse in-store using the touchscreen interface or use online ordering by scanning their QR code upon arrival, keeping the checkout process to less than a minute.

According to a demo on the company's website, local agents are tasked with verifying customer's ages through their driver's licenses, and approving payment before orders can be processed.

An Oregon hemp processor claims a Washington farm violated a contract by failing to deliver hemp of sufficient potency and quality to fully repay a loan.

New Earth Biosciences, a processor in Salem, Ore., has filed a lawsuit seeking repayment of about $800,000 advanced to Terra Ridge Farms of Othello, Wash., for seeds, growing supplies and drying services.

Under a contract between the companies, 90% of the hemp supplied by Terra Ridge Farms to New Earth Biosciences was to contain at least 10% cannabidiol, or CBD, the complaint said.

The CBD compound is extracted for use in a variety of products, as it’s believed to have anti-inflammatory and other healthful qualities.

However, the farm’s first load of hemp delivered to the processor last autumn only contained about 7% CBD while having been “excessively dried” and “chopped too finely” to fit the specifications of extraction equipment, the complaint said.

Hemp has thousands of uses including paper, textiles, building materials, food, cosmetics and more. One application that might not immediately come to mind is hemp’s usefulness in the manufacture of musical instruments.

Entrepreneur Morris Beegle may be better known as the producer of the world’s largest hemp-centric conference and trade show, NoCo Hemp Expo, held each year in Denver, but with his new company, Silver Mountain Hemp Guitars, he’s combining two passions. In addition to leading the NoCo show and a number of other hemp-related activities over the past several years, Morris spent 25 years as a producer and promoter in the music business. Now, with the launch of Silver Mountain hand crafted, hemp composite electric guitars and ukuleles made in classic styles for working musicians, he has come full circle.

Hemp has thousands of uses including paper, textiles, building materials, food, cosmetics, animal feed and more. But one application that might not immediately come to mind is the use of hemp in making musical instruments. Beegle is among a group of early innovators seeking to change that with the launch of Silver Mountain’s website, his flagship hemp guitars made in classic styles inspired from the ‘50s and ‘60s, high performance, hemp-derived speaker cabinets and cones, and related productThe use of hemp composite materials helps reduce deforestation and the use of endangered woods often used in making musical instruments, Beegle says, and hand crafted under a luthier’s care, his eco-friendly guitars and ukuleles sound great, too. Silver Mountain guitars were recently featured in Merry Jane, Pot Network and most recently on the Devil Doc Talk Podcast featuring Joey “Doc Talk” Martinez.

In addition to hemp guitars, ukuleles and speaker cabinets, Silver Mountain offers guitar straps, guitar picks, volume knobs and other accessories, all using hemp as a main ingredient in the manufacturing process. The company’s flagship guitars are hand made using hemp bast fiber composite body shells molded around hemp board cores. Custom hand-made speaker cabinets are forged with hemp pressed particle board and paired with a choice of Tone Tubby HempCone or Eminence Cannabis Rex speakers, Beegle says.

For travelers, BugOut Guitars, based in Randolph, VT, combines hemp and plant-based resins to create a unique and “supremely rugged” travel-size guitar. “One thing that’s unique about the hemp guitars compared to wood guitars (and) compared to a carbon fiber guitar is it’s sort of a happy medium between the two in the sense that my guitars have fibers and cells in common with wood, but also the durability of a carbon fiber,” Burstein told Lancaster Farming. In addition to durability, using hemp also can reduce the number of trees being used to make guitars. Burstein explained that there’s a shortage of the wood traditionally used to make guitars. As such, “there is a movement within the guitar community to use alternative forms of building instruments. This one’s mine,” he said.

The American Heart Association says marijuana should be removed from the USA’s Schedule I controlled substance category – but not to encourage wider use.

Not all cannabis is equal in the eyes of the law in the USA. Hemp and marijuana are both cannabis, but are treated very differently.

The 2018 Farm Bill removed hemp’s Drug Enforcement Administration Schedule I controlled substance designation. Hemp is defined as any part or derivative of the Cannabis sativa L. plant containing less than 0.3 percent tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) by weight. Anything above that is considered marijuana at a federal level, and is still a Schedule I controlled substance (listed as “marihuana”).

Schedule I indicates a substance has no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse – so it needs changing just based on the medical use aspect. The American Heart Association suggests it also needs to change to enable further research.

“Our understanding of the safety and efficacy of cannabis has been limited by decades of worldwide illegality and continues to be limited in the United States by the ongoing classification of cannabis as a Schedule 1 controlled substance,” said the AHA in a scientific statement published in the journal Circulation.

One year after the Canadian government created a program to quickly and affordably clear cannabis possession charges from people’s criminal records, just 265 records have been cleared. 

Applicants can have small cannabis possession charges suspended from their criminal record so a background check for a job or housing comes up clean. 

The Liberal Party estimated 10,000 people would be eligible for the program while advocacy group Cannabis Amnesty calculate 500,000 Canadians are eligible.

But as of Aug. 7, 2020, barely a fraction of the anticipated applicants have completed the process.

According to numbers from the Parole Board of Canada, 467 people have applied to the program: 265 were approved; 196 were denied due to ineligibility or incomplete applications; four are being processed; and two were discontinued. 

Quite a few adults in the United States have consumed marijuana in the past year. This is according to a new study published in the journal BMJ Open and epublished by the U.S. National Institute of Health. The study is titled Retrospective cross-sectional analysis of the changes in marijuana use in the USA, 2005-2018.

According to the study, almost one our of every four adults who live in the United States say that they have consumed marijuana in the past year. For the study researchers from Harvard Medical School and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center examined marijuana use from a nationally representative sample of over 35,000 US adults. They found that “Overall, 53.5 percent of the US adult population reported ever using marijuana between 2005 and 2018. The prevalence of lifetime marijuana use, and first use before the age of 18, remained stable between 2005 and 2018. Overall 22.6 percent of US adults reported using marijuana within the last year.”

The full abstract can be found below:

Objectives Understanding trends of marijuana use in the USA throughout a period of particularly high adoption of marijuana-legalisation, and understanding demographics most at risk of use, is important in evolving healthcare policy and intervention. This study analyses the demographic-specific changes in the prevalence of marijuana use in the USA between 2005 and 2018.