WeedLife News Network

In November of 2019, a Pew Research study revealed that 9 out of 10 Americans favor legalization of either medical or recreational/adult-use marijuana. As a political issue, the study found that a majority of Republicans – 55% - and a majority of Democrats – 78% - were in favor of legalization. American voters no longer believe marijuana should remain a criminalized, Schedule I substance. This is not shocking. The people have spoken, the money is flowing, and the globe keeps on spinning. 

Blockchain is the cannabis industry’s answer for stealing market share from the unlicensed market.

While we wait for government regulators to catch up to the speeding train called cannabis innovation, consumers need protection from rogue growers and distributors. Blockchain is capable of many use cases, but it’s a perfect fit for supply chain management.

So what is blockchain? Blockchain is a digital ledger that records and tracks data and physical assets from point A to B in the supply chain. The information on the blockchain is cryptographically secure and tamper-proof—which means that no one can change data once it has been entered and verified.

The blockchain technology can strengthen consumer confidence in the cannabis industry by verifying product origin, compliance, seed verification, proof of ownership, cultivating and manufacturing processes, transactional information, location tracking, and supply chain paper trail.

Let’s break it down:

Despite the fact that CBD makes a lot of money for both big and independent companies, a surprising amount of people don’t know what the compound does or where it comes from. No matter if you think it’s crazy that someone will swallow or put something on their bodies without knowing what it does, we have to recognize that the CBD industry is confusing. It’s common and okay for people to be a little bit unsure.

Here are 5 of the most popular questions people have Googled about CBD topicals:

What is the purpose of CBD lotions? 

Photo by Linda Prebreza via Pexels

CBD lotions can be used for a wide variety of medicinal conditions and, depending on the other components in the lotion, can produce myriad results. CBD is primarily known for its anti-inflammatory effects, which is why there are so many CBD lotions designed to target chronic pain, arthritis, eczema and the like.

How many mg of CBD should be present in the topical in order to have some effect?

Photo by Toa Heftiba via Unsplash

The legalization of marijuana for Washington state adults may be thwarting a steady downward trend in teen marijuana use, according to new research from the University of Washington.

The longitudinal study of more than 230 teens and young adults finds that teens may be more likely to use marijuana following legalization—with the proliferation of stores and increasing adult use of the drug—than they otherwise would have been.

"When we think about marijuana legalization, a worry is that underage use may go up," said Jennifer Bailey, the study's lead author and principal investigator with the Social Development Research Group in the UW School of Social Work. "Early use and heavy use during adolescence can have a lot of negative health consequences, then and later in life, so we don't want teen use to be going up."

Bailey notes that before marijuana legalization, rates of teen marijuana use and other drug use had both been decreasing over the last couple of decades.

The study was published July 9 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

According to a new study published in the journal Addiction, neither the current nor the cumulative lifetime use of marijuana is associated with heart abnormalities at middle age. The study, first reported on by NORML, is titled Association between marijuana use and electrocardiographic abnormalities by middle age.

For the study researchers from Switzerland and the United States examined the relationship between cumulative marijuana use and the prevalence of electrocardiogram (ECG) abnormalities in a group of 2,585 middle age subjects. “Researchers controlled for several potential confounders, including subjects’ use of alcohol and tobacco, as well as blood pressure and cholesterol levels.”

Investigators reported: “We found no evidence that current or lifetime cumulative use of marijuana was associated with a higher prevalence or incidence of major or minor ECG abnormalities in this cohort, … although major ECG abnormalities seemed to be less frequent in current marijuana users. … Whether participants used marijuana daily, in the last 30 days or intermittently over a lifetime, marijuana use was not associated with an increase in prevalent or incident specific ECG abnormalities by middle-age.”

They concluded by stating that “Our finding that occasional marijuana was not associated with ECG abnormalities adds to the growing body of evidence that this level of marijuana use and CVD [cardiovascular disease] events and markers of subclinical atherosclerosis are not associated.”

One of the most controversial and sensitive topics when it comes to cannabis is cannabis use during pregnancy. That is true regardless of what country someone is in.

All responsible parents (or soon to be parents) want to do what is best for their child. That, of course, is coupled with doing what is best for pregnant mothers’ health as well.

After all, the overall health of the pregnant mother is a major factor in determining the overall health of the developing baby.

For many years it was generally accepted that any cannabis use during pregnancy was bad. However, a growing body of evidence is calling that absolutist position into question.

Data Analysis Shows Mixed Results

Researchers at Ohio State University College of Medicine analyzed data regarding maternal cannabis exposure and the risk of premature birth (prior to 37 weeks of pregnancy).

The New York State Senate approved a bill on Tuesday that would grant housing protections for registered medical marijuana patients. The measure, S.4117, “prohibits the eviction of tenants for using medical marijuana for a certified medical use,” according to a summary of the bill.

S.4117 was originally introduced in the New York State Senate by Democratic Sen. Anna Kaplan in February 2019. The bill was approved by the Senate in April of that year and referred to the State Assembly, where it died in January 2020.

That sent the measure back to the Senate, where it was passed again by the chamber this week by a vote of 58 to 2. The bill has been referred again to the State Assembly, where it has been assigned to the Housing Committee for consideration as A.7764.

“This legislation would seek to ensure that tenants lawfully using medical marihuana are protected from eviction proceedings,” a memo accompanying the Assembly version of the legislation cites as justification for its passage.

Elderly Patient Evicted

The legislative memo goes on to relate the story of a 78-year-old man from Niagara Falls who was evicted from his residence because he used medical marijuana for pain management. The eviction was made on the grounds that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development “prohibits and has a strict policy of allowing and evicting individuals who use marihuana.”

How the Cannabis Industry can Continue to Benefit America

Analysts are projecting that the U.S. cannabis industry could add as much as $130 billion into the economy within the next half-decade. This may seem like a lot, but given where marijuana stocks have already taken the market, it begins to make more sense. A new study showed that cannabis sales alone have shot up to around $50 billion as of last year.

Interest in medical cannabis oil has increased exponentially in recent years as news stories about suffering patients finding relief from the substance have spread to virtually every corner of the planet.

Medical cannabis has been found by many suffering patients to be safe and effective at treating their condition(s).

That is true for all types of ailments, including and especially severe seizures caused by epilepsy which seems to be a condition that is particularly responsive to this type of therapy.

In the United Kingdom, government health workers are considering manufacturing their own medical cannabis oil.

Is that a good idea? Will it help?

The recent study was conducted at the St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia, and the Emerald Clinics (EMD) in Perth, suggests cannabis is a safe option for patients to integrate into their current pain treatment.

That includes patients who already consume high doses of opioids.

The company administered its ZTL-103, a 1:1 THC/CBD formulation to chronic pain (non-cancer) patients who used at least 60 milligrams of morphine or similar opioids daily. After a two-week dosing period, patients reported reduced levels of pain, stress, depression and anxiety, while experiencing no serious side effects.

“This study not only reinforces that cannabis can be safely administered in increasing amounts to treat pain, but can be safely taken concurrently with high daily doses of opioids,” says Zelira CEO Dr. Oludare Odumosu. “These promising results lay the groundwork for our further study on pain management among retired athletes.”

This trial aimed to assess the safety of Zelira’s cannabis formulation, ZTL-103, in patients with chronic pain who are already on long-term, high-dose opioid treatment. 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration released preliminary guidance on Tuesday on cannabis-related clinical research, outlining how companies seeking approval of drugs that contain cannabis or its derivatives must follow the traditional drug review and approval process involving clinical trials.

The agency is still working on rules for products that contain the cannabis ingredient CBD, which is widely held to have wellness properties but lacks research to support that view. Many companies are keen to market food, drinks and dietary supplements containing CBD, a non-psychoactive ingredient in the hemp plant, that they say can help with ailments such as anxiety.

As cries to “defund the police” reverberate across the country, cities are looking at ways to shift funds from policing into communities. In California, tax revenues from marijuana should be a clear point of entry. When voters legalized cannabis in 2016, they expected the taxes would be invested in communities that were adversely impacted by the war on drugs. Instead, a new report finds that these revenues are actually funding the police.

The report, California Cannabis Tax Revenues: A Windfall for Law Enforcement or An Opportunity for Healing, which was authored by Youth Forward and Getting It Right from the Start, looks at 28 cities across California that collect cannabis-related tax revenue. It turns out that from the time Proposition 64 was passed to fiscal year 2019-20, 23 of the 28 cities analyzed saw double-digit increases in the amount of general-fund money going into their police budgets. Eight of the 28 cities saw their police budgets grow by at least 25 percent. Overall, the average shift in police budgets for these 28 cities was an increase of 19 percent over that three-year period.

One reason for this is that the revenue collected from cannabis in nearly all these cities (the one exception being Shasta Lake) goes into the general fund, where the largest chunk of spending goes toward police departments. Another reason is that a number of cities are directing these tax revenues toward special units focused on cannabis enforcement, setting the stage for a war on drugs 2.0.

Law enforcement is now beginning to “crack down” on unlicensed vendors, most of whom are people of color. For example, San Diego uses cannabis tax revenues for “enforcement of marijuana laws” and “proactively cracking down on illegal operators.” And Los Angeles allocates millions of their revenues toward the police overtime fund to “investigate and enforce laws relative to illegal cannabis businesses” among other law enforcement functions.

The tragic irony of this is that cannabis tax revenues are now continuing the historic pattern of arrests for nonviolent drug offenses that have disproportionately harmed communities of color for decades. As recently as 2013, Black people were arrested more than twice as often as white people for cannabis offenses, and by 2018 people of color comprised 75 percent of cannabis arrests. Though marijuana use is roughly equal among Blacks and whites, Blacks are nearly 4 times as likely to be arrested for marijuana possession.

A second medical cannabis company has filed a petition asking a state district judge to invalidate rules recently enacted by the New Mexico Department of Health. 

Pecos Valley Production, a medical cannabis company with dispensaries in the southern part of the state, filed a petition Monday in state district court calling for an annulment of regulatory rules that lawyers for the company called “arbitrary and capricious.”

The petition from Pecos Valley argues similar points as one filed last week, on behalf of cannabis producer and manufacturer Ultra Health. Both petitions are filed under the same case.

Lawyers for Ultra Health, one of which is Brian Egolf, who also serves as the state’s Speaker of the House, argued that the Medical Cannabis Program and the DOH failed to show reasoning for new rules. Ultra Health’s lawyers also accused the state of copying regulations from other states that have a medical cannabis program like Oregon and Colorado. 

The petition from Pecos Valley Production also accused the state of adopting rules from other states instead of properly consulting with medical cannabis producers in New Mexico.

A marijuana high typically lasts for a couple of hours, but the THC stays in your system much longer—as in, weeks longer. This fact can be annoying for anyone who has to undergo drug testing. Nobody wants to subject themselves to a 30-day pot detox just so they can keep their job or avoid legal trouble.

So why does THC stay in your system for so long? And is there anything you can do about it?

What Is THC?

For a quick primer, THC is delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol. It’s one of over 100 cannabinoids found in marijuana. Cannabinoids are the compounds that bind to the body’s natural cannabinoid receptors, and these interactions are what cause the well-known physical and physiological effects of marijuana.

For most marijuana users, THC is the most important cannabinoid; it’s the psychoactive compound that gets you high. But it’s also the compound that conventional urine, blood, and hair tests look for. That means it can come back to haunt you long after your smoke session is a distant memory.

How Long Does THC Stay Inside the Body?

If you’re a regular user, THC may be detectable in your system for a full month, sometimes longer. Some research has even detected cannabis a full 90 days after the user’s last toke. On the flip side, there are instances when THC is only detectable for about 48 hours after use.

It was already an assumption that Canada was going to have a booming, country-wide cannabis market through their legal industry, but now the numbers prove that that assumption is a reality. Retail sales reached $185.9 million Canadian dollars this past May, according to Statistics Canada. 

The prospect of legal marijuana in Arizona has drawn passion from advocates, opponents, and investors alike.

Just as quickly as support arose for legal recreational marijuana in Arizona, so too did opposition. The advocacy group Smart & Safe Arizona submitted more than 420,000 signatures earlier this month to put cannabis legalization on the ballot. The measure is currently in review, but only 237,645 valid signature are required to qualify.

An Arizona Public Opinion Pulse (AZPOP) poll released this week found that 62% of voters favor legal marijuana. The poll, which surveys about 600 likely Arizona voters each month, reports that support is divided evenly among urban, suburban, and rural voters. Only 32% of respondents oppose legalizing cannabis.

This represent a significant increase from polling data released in December 2019. An AZPOP poll at the time found 52% supported the initiative and 42% were against it.

“Four years ago, marijuana legalization nearly came to fruition,” said Mike Noble, Chief of Research at OH Predictive Insights. “And less than four months before Election Day, Arizona is on the cusp of allowing the adults to use recreational pot.”

There will be plenty of footsy going on between the United Soccer League (USL) and CBD hemp brand Synchronicity as part of a new four-year sponsorship deal.

Functional Remedies, makers of the full-spectrum hemp oil brand, can look forward to seeing the products featured on USL stadium signage, social media channels, website and app network, according to Ganjapreneur.

Not everyone can invest directly in marijuana stocks. Last year, for example, according to Military.com, Department of Defense employees were warned that investing in marijuana companies could hurt an employee's security clearance. Other private employers, particularly contractors that interact with the federal government, may have similar policies against such investing by employees.

Cannabis legalization is picking up steam throughout the United States. The industry is already booming, and it’s set to grow over the next decade, prompting investors and entrepreneurs everywhere to jump on the bandwagon to try to cash in.

There will certainly be some impressive entrepreneurial and investment opportunities in the near future, but before you make any big financial decisions (or take any big business risks), there are some things you should know.

Regulations Can Be Messy

The gears of automated delivery management were in motion long before the arrival of Uber and other sharing services. Tech behemoths like Amazon had already shattered the glass ceiling on next-day delivery, but their buffet of consumer products was missing many of the smaller markets. 

Both a product of compliance and payment issues, large corporations like Amazon simply didn’t offer the delivery of products like marijuana. Only four years after Proposition 64 in California, the bespoke delivery market for cannabis products remains ripe for disruption, with the lack of a major player leaving a void.