WeedLife News Network

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.

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. 

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. 

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.

Despite the proven track record of cannabis sales in the U.S., Senate Republicans still refuse to go down the path toward legalization.

For the first time in history, Congress has voted to legalize marijuana in the United States. Well, kind of.

The House of Representatives approved a piece of legislation (MORE Act) last week to eliminate the cannabis plant from the Controlled Substances Act and work to expunge criminal records and dedicate funds to those communities choking on the bones of the drug war. But the bill is not expected to advance with Senate support. More accurately, it’s probably dead in its tracks.

New Frontier Data Report Shows Passed Cannabis Legalization Initiatives and the Pandemic Increase Consumer Consumption, Igniting Flourishing Industry

By mid-2021, Pine Bluff is expected to have a new employer arriving in town that will provide as many as 200 jobs paying an average of $19 an hour, and an annual payroll of $9.4 million including benefits.

Good Day Farm Arkansas LLC, a medical-marijuana cultivator licensed by the state, received approval last month from the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Commission to purchase Natural State Wellness Enterprises of Newport and to move the operation to Pine Bluff, according to the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration.

Scott Hardin, spokesman for the department, said the commission took action in two steps.

The idea of adding cannabis to your investment portfolio may seem far-fetched. But this once frowned-upon commodity is fast becoming a viable asset for long-term sustainable wealth creation.

Cannabis may be consumed by adults of all races, ages, and genders, but in Canada, those employed in the upper echelons of the nascent industry don’t reflect that diversity. According to a report published by the Centre on Drug Policy Evaluation (CDPE) and the University of Toronto, the leadership of the country’s licensed cannabis producers is made up of predominantly white men.

Will These Cannabis Stocks See More Momentum?

Cannabis has been illegal at a federal level in the US since 1970, when the Controlled Substances Act was passed by the Congress. Things started to change in 1996, when California became the first state to legalize medicinal use of marijuana. Since then it has been a long and treacherous road, but most states (35 to be more exact) have legalized the medical use of cannabis. In 2012, Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize recreational use of cannabis and some other states follow suit. Currently, 15 states legalized the recreational use of cannabis and in 16 other states the consumption for recreational purposes is de-criminalized, and more reforms in this area are expected in the nearest future.

We know what you’re thinking: isn’t an article about “cannabis scalability” a bit premature? After all, we’re talking about an industry that’s still federally illegal. How could businesses plan for the future when marijuana laws are in constant flux? 

True, scalability is trickier in the cannabis sector, but that doesn’t mean business owners shouldn’t consider it. Cannabis may be a new industry, but it’s moving at a rapid pace. Competition in recreationally legal states is already intense, and you’d better believe established companies have a game plan for new markets. 

According to the Canadian Hemp Trade Alliance, Canada’s hemp acreage and export value are both up more than 20% this year.

“The Canadian hemp industry continues to grow in 2020 despite the challenges posed by COVID-19,” CHTA board chairman Keith Jones said in a statement after the group’s annual meeting, held online this year. “Canada seeded some 92,000 hemp acres in 2019, with exports exceeding $110 million Canadian dollars ($85 million).”

The United Nations has voted to remove cannabis from its classification as a dangerous drug. This week the U.N. Commission on Narcotic Drugs voted to remove cannabis and cannabis resin from a category of the world’s most dangerous drugs. This decision could potentially jumpstart the global medical marijuana industry. Many cannabis companies have eyed global expansion, but the markets have proven to be challenging as laws have remained strict.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Risk Management Agency (RMA) has announced an expansion of the pilot Multi-Peril Crop Insurance (MPCI) plan for hemp that will take effect in the 2021 crop year.

MCPI is the most common form of the federal crop insurance programme in the USA that insures against crop yield losses from all natural perils such as weather, fire and pestilence by enabling farmers to insure a certain percentage of historical crop production.

While delivered by private companies, MPCI is reinsured by the federal government.

The new states to be included for MPCI coverage are Arizona, Arkansas, Nevada and Texas – but only select counties within each. Additionally, 13 new counties are being included in states with existing coverage.

On Tuesday, Dec. 8, from 1-2 p.m. CST, the Minority Cannabis Business Association (MCBA), along with the U.S. Hemp Roundtable (USHR), will host a free webinar, “Cultivating Entrepreneurship in the Hemp Industry: A Complimentary Webinar for Small and Minority-Owned Companies.” The webinar is designed to provide essential information for small and small minority-owned businesses and engage all industry stakeholders.

Zimbabwe sees export earnings from cannabis outstripping those of tobacco by almost three times after last year legalizing the cultivation of the plant for medicinal use.

(image: Cresco Labs)

As the industry standards continue to be defined, this is the packaging every weed company should focus on.

It may come as a shock to you, but most people don't know much about cannabis. A Science Daily study about THC levels in edibles found that most consumers aged 16—30 could not identify if an edible had low or high THC levels based on the label. Add to that the fact that roughly 30% of Americans consume cannabis, which leaves a sizable audience who can benefit from cannabis if they knew more about it.