WeedLife News Network

While sales of cannabis edibles in general have grown steadily in legal marijuana markets, the cannabis candies segment has seen very strong sales, with cannabis-infused gummies making up 84% of cannabis candy sales so far in 2020 across Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada and Oregon.

BDSA Consumer Insights data from the beginning of 2020 shows that gummies are the most widely used and most popular ingestible product for recreational (adult-use) cannabis consumers in the United States and Canada. Nearly 60% of America’s cannabis edibles consumers report past 6-month use of gummies.

The benefits of offering a convenient, discrete method of marijuana consumption with an array of flavors to suit any consumers’ taste are key factors leading to the success of marijuana-infused gummy products.

Overall cannabis gummy sales among Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada and Oregon have seen major growth in recent years, from $20 million in July 2017 to almost $64 million in July 2020. This growth rate far exceeds that of other cannabis edibles.

If you’re a cannabis user, your most important consideration is the flower itself.

However, how one ingests the substance is a close second.

The physical and mental benefits largely depend on how you absorb the herb.

Today, we’ll take a look at the most prominent methods, discuss the positive and negative aspects of each, and end by busting some common myths and misconceptions. 

Inhalation Method

There are three primary ways to consume cannabis: oral, inhaled, and topical.

When the pandemic began last Spring, Mary Jane’s Medicinals, which sells CBD and cannabis-infused topicals, took a big hit. April was “one of our worst months of sales ever,” said chief executive and founder Dahlia Mertens. A rebound soon followed though and by August sales were as high as they had ever been. The company’s growth this fall has been dramatic she said, doubling to $100,000+ in income for the month November. Now the holidays are approaching.

2020 might be a very green Christmas for the cannabis industry.

Mitch Baruchowitz, managing partner at Merida Capital Holdings, a New York-based private equity fund working in the sector, believes more cannabis products will be sold this holiday season than any before. Several diverse factors contribute he said. Acceptance of cannabis has continued to grow along with legalization, evidenced by recent ballot wins in both right and left-leaning states. That opens new markets to millions of potential consumers. Cannabis production and sales were deemed essential businesses in the pandemic, keeping sales from dropping. And cannabis purchases do have some seasonality, with holiday purchases growing over the past few years according to Headset, an industry research group.

Still, the complicated and regulation-laden industry isn’t a money-printing machine. Customer loyalty and name recognition play a large role, so building a strong brand is important Mertens said. “People want to spend money on a product that they already know works,” she said. As “one of the OG topical producers in the cannabis space,” the company benefitted from this. She said success of their recently launched Super Strength Nano Salve product has helped too.

While brand is important, a strong company requires more than high quality products, good prices and attractive packaging said Greg James, publisher of Marijuana Venture and Sun Grower magazine. The business mechanics – how reliable the company is at fulfilling orders quickly, how efficient their back office operates, matters just as much. “It’s no different than Proctor and Gamble,” he said.

(image: credit GKUA Ultra Premium)

If you’ve listened to the music of groundbreaking rapper and entrepreneur Lil Wayne, his love of cannabis shouldn’t be much of a surprise.

Now, Wayne is making a lasting impact in the cannabis space with his cannabis brand GKUA Ultra Premium. 

“I used to just want to get high, now I smoke to get inspired…with GKUA, I’m sharing a feeling that I love,” explained Lil Wayne in an interview with NME Magazine. 

(image: Police grew suspicious when they noticed a marijuana smell emanating from his car. / PHOTO BY VMARGINEANU / ISTOCK / GETTY IMAGES PLUS)

50-year-old Irish resident caught with €20k worth of weed.

An Irish resident is definitely in the soup after claiming that the €20,000 ($31,000) worth of weed he had in his vehicle was merely meant as an ingredient for the soup he planned to make.

In fact, after being caught with the substantial stash, Eddy Osagie, 50, initially claimed the weed wasn’t really weed at all, according to EchoLive. Osagie said the paste-like substance found inside a couple of cereal boxes was a completely different material than cannabis.

The explanation failed to convince Irish gardai, who had stopped the man and grew suspicious when they noticed a marijuana smell emanating from his car.

(image: Shutterstock)

The Detroit City Council approved an ordinance on Tuesday that will permit recreational marijuana retailers and other adult-use cannabis businesses to operate in the city. The ordinance, which includes provisions to ensure that at least half of recreational pot businesses are owned by city residents, was introduced last month by Councilmember James Tate.

On Tuesday, Tate said that the ordinance is the product of two years of work “to identify ways to make sure there’s success” for residents of the city. Currently, only four of Detroit’s 46 medical marijuana retailers are owned by people who live in the city.

“We’ve seen around the country where individuals who live in the municipality where the industry is located are frozen out and not having an opportunity to participate,” Tate said.

Legacy Applicants To Get Priority

Although regulated sales of marijuana to adults began in some Michigan municipalities last year, city leaders in Detroit were determined to craft legislation that supports ownership of cannabis businesses by longtime city residents. Under the approved measure, at least 50% of licenses will be awarded to applicants with “Detroit legacy” status. Detroit legacy applicants are those who have lived in the city at least 15 of the past 30 years, or 13 years if the applicant is low-income. Those with a marijuana conviction who have lived in Detroit for 10 of the last 30 years also qualify.

The common wisdom about cannabis enthusiasts is that they don’t have any common wisdom. The stereotype of the drooling guy “on” cannabis sitting in his parent’s basement playing video games for hours or Instagrammig nonstop is what many of the “straights” still imagine to be true.

Hardly.

In fact, smoking or vaping or eating cannabis—especially certain sativa strains—has quickly become the best way to energize getting chores done. Every busy chore hustler knows that choosing the right CBD/THC sativa combination, with the right terpene profile, can do the trick.

The cannabis connoisseur knows to go for certain strains that fire up their chores jets, such as Strawberry Diesel, Lemon Meringue, AK47, Panama Punch, Mountain Thunder, and Silver Haze, just to name a few.

These strains are generally carefully cultivated for their energizing effects.

This winter, expect to spend more time than usual indoors. Here are 5 weed hacks that can help you make the most of this time.

Winter is fast approaching and it’s gonna be one to remember, for better or worse. With less incentive and options to go out and have fun, it looks like the majority of our time will be spent indoors. Smoking weed probably.

While you’ll hopefully spend your time doing a healthy mix of different activities, don’t beat yourself up if you end up smoking more weed than usual. It’s the holidays and it’s been a wild year. Here are 5 weed hacks you should use this winter:

Buy enough to keep you stocked up

While we should never hoard anything, having a sufficient stock of weed during the holiday season s a good investment. Buying anything during this time of the year is a pain and a hassle, made worse by the pandemic. Next time you visit your dispensary, buy enough to keep you stocked for a couple of weeks, that way you limit your level of exposure and can focus on other aspects of the holidays that are fun and also stressful.

Store it correctly

Photo by Zummolo/Getty Images

Licensed cannabis retailers in Maine sold more than $1.4 million worth of marijuana products during the first month of legal recreational pot sales, according to data released by state regulators on Monday. Legal sales of adult-use cannabis began on October 9, nearly four years after voters approved recreational marijuana sales for adults in 2016.

On Monday, the Maine Office of Marijuana Policy (OMP) released sales data collected by Metrc, the state’s cannabis track-and-trace system, for October 9 through November 8. The figures for the first 31 days of legal sales showed that smokable forms of cannabis were the most popular products, making up 76% of revenue. Cannabis concentrates accounted for 14% of sales, while infused foods and drinks made up the remaining 10%. A total of 21,194 transactions were logged by cannabis retailers during the first month in business. Sales figures released by the state are preliminary in nature and have not yet been audited by state regulators.

“In comparison, Maine’s medical marijuana program—which includes eight licensed dispensaries, more than 200 stores run by medical marijuana caregivers and individual caregivers that operate out of their homes or embrace the delivery model—sold on average $9.4 million in medical marijuana on a typical 31-day month in 2019,” reported the Portland Press Herald. 

As legal sales of recreational marijuana launched on October 9, eight retailers had been licensed by the state to begin operations, although only six shops were ready to open for business on the first day, in part due to reported product shortages. By the first week in November, a total of nine adult-use cannabis retailers were open for business in the state.

Erik Gundersen, the director of the OMP, congratulated licensed cannabis retailers on the successful launch of licensed sales while facing the ongoing challenges of a global pandemic.

The cannabis industry is abuzz over terpenes. Everyone in the know is claiming it’s “all about them terps brah,” but do you truly understand these magnificent compounds? Here are 10 things you probably didn’t know about the intoxicating aromas of cannabis.

1. Terpenes are everywhere. These wildly diverse organic compounds are produced by an array of plants and insects, and exist abundantly in nature. From orange peels to pine resin their powerful scents play a major role in our lives that we hardly ever consider. Their distinctive scents shine brightly in cannabis, from fruitiness to skunky, it’s all in the terpenes.

2. Terpenes interact with cannabinoids and are understood to have vital roll in the effects of the plant on the brain. They can increase and decrease dopamine and serotonin production, speed up THC absorption, and alter our moods. Whichever dominant terpenes are produced in a particular plant make a huge difference in the resulting “high” when consumed. The differences between myrcene and limonene are not only the scent, but also in the psychological and physical effects of the plant and the human body.

3. There is in fact a ‘terp wheel.’  Similar to the color wheel, which at its core is composed of sweet, sour, bitter and spicy. Many cannabis strains will exhibit a multitude of these flavors, before and after smoked, or ingested.  As you move farther out the wheel flavors get more specific.

There are more than 1,200 nicknames for cannabis, some more familiar than others. Ganga, weed, reefer and bud are some of the most-used and familiar, while alfalfa, Green Goddess and muggle —a 1920's term for a pot smoker and not a non-magical person — are less well-known. 

According to slang scholar Jonathon Green, drugs like cannabis are slang's “best sellers” because slang consists of words and phrases, think codewords or inside jokes, intended to stand in for an actual thing or topic considered too taboo for conversations in polite society. 

Of course, one of cannabis' best-known nicknames is pot, but of all of the dozens and dozens of nicknames, the word “pot” standing in for cannabis seems a bit odd. Marijuana doesn't remotely resemble the shape of a cooking pot, nor is it the color of one. So where did this odd-ish term come from? 

Can you believe December is already just around the corner?

While some may argue that it’s too early to start stringing up the lights, I think we all deserve a longer holiday season this year.

What better way to end 2020 than enjoying some high-quality cannabis treats and gifts?

We’ve picked some of our favorite products that will be sure to put your favorite cannabis enthusiast into a proper holi-daze.

Different ways to be legal

Not only does every country have its own laws regarding the use, possession, sale, cultivation, and import/export of cannabis, but often these categories too can be broken down further into medical legalizations, recreational legalizations, and even religious legalizations, each with its own set of laws concerning use, possession, sale, cultivation, and import/export.

Right now, in terms of full recreational legalizations, there are only a few places that apply. Uruguay; Canada; the US states that have independently legalized; Mexico, although until legislation comes out in December, it’s technically only a judicial legalization, with no regulated system for sale of products; and Canberra, Australia’s capital city. Then there’re places like Washington DC, and Georgia (the country, not the state), which have wonkier recreational legalizations. In DC, a person can possess and use, but can’t buy or sell, although cultivation is legal. In Georgia, it’s the same, but without the cultivation part, making for a strange system where using a product is actually legal, but there is no legal way to obtain it.

When it comes to medical legalizations, these have become ubiquitous in the world. From South American countries like Argentina and Uruguay; to the majority of European countries; to Australia & New Zealand; to African countries like Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Lesotho, though these countries don’t always guarantee the use of cannabis for their own people, and are more geared toward the business end, and exportation to other markets. Nearly every US state has medical legalization; even some Asian countries like Thailand; and Middle Eastern countries like Lebanon, which just became the first of the region (apart from Israel) to allow this.

And then there are the more elusive religious legalizations, which have been coming into play more recently. The most well-known religion to use cannabis sacramentally is Rastafarianism, although others do exist. Due to the Rastafarian religion, countries like Jamaica and Barbados have specific laws that allow the use of cannabis for religious purposes. And though there isn’t an actual written law attached to it, Nepal allows cannabis to be smoked without harassment by law enforcement, for one day a year to celebrate the Mahashivrati festival.

Where can you fly with cannabis

To be clear, there are no legalized locations – recreational, medical, or religious – that have laws allowing the transport of cannabis across country borders. What this means is, whatever the legalization policy, and whatever might be allowed within a country’s borders, this has no bearing on anything, anywhere else. No country will allow you to legally cross its border with cannabis. To make it even more clear, even if a person is attempting to fly with cannabis from one recreational legalized location to another – let’s say Toronto to California, this too is not possible.

CBD products have become incredibly popular thanks to new legislation legalizing hemp-derived products with minimal THC content. The popularity of CBD is also attributable to the number of people experiencing benefits from it; CBD is being used to alleviate anxiety, help people sleep, and give people a deeper sense of wellness and relaxation.

But what does the future hold for this industry? Is CBD just a fad, or will it continue growing in popularity? And how will innovators direct the development of this market?

Product Innovation

First, let’s take a look at the area of product innovation. Already, there is a wide range of different CBD products available for consumers to try. You can buy and smoke CBD flower, just as you can buy and smoke weed, but most people prefer a different delivery system due to concerns about smoke and lung health. 

Instead, many people are turning to full spectrum CBD oil, an extract designed to provide you with a full spectrum of different cannabinoids (except THC, of course), in a much cleaner, more efficient delivery system. We’re also seeing the development and circulation of topical forms of CBD, including creams, and CBD cartridges for vaporizers.

Nearly seven in 10 Americans now support legalizing marijuana nationwide, according to a Gallup poll released on Monday.

Overall, 68 percent of respondents said they favor legalizing cannabis for adult use, which is “Gallup's highest reading” since the firm started polling voters on the issue, it said. Last year, the survey found 66 percent support for legalization.

In 1969, only 12 percent of Americans favored legalizing marijuana. Today's level of support is double what it was in 2000.

The new poll shows majority backing for the policy change across all age demographics for the first time. However, support among Republicans dipped slightly compared to last year, from 51 to 48 percent.

Meanwhile, 83 percent of Democrats and 72 percent of independents said they back legalization, which Gallup says is the highest level of support it has ever recorded for those political groups.