The largest comprehensive study of marijuana users is under way. BDS Analytics is working on the industry’s first scientifically rigorous consumer-research survey about cannabis consumption. Headed by Linda Gilbert, a market research veteran, the team is conducting a nationwide survey of 1,000 people in every state who are deemed demographically representative.
“Everyone in the business has common questions but nobody has any answers,” Gilbert says. “We want to understand not just where consumers are right now at this point in time, but where have they been, and where do they seem to be headed. This is not an advocacy study. We want to understand the general marketplace.”
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling about gun sales to medical marijuana patients doesn’t directly pertain to Colorado, but attorney Rob Corry worries that it will still have an impact.
Last month, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that the federal ban on gun sales to medical marijuana patients was constitutional. But since the court’s jurisdiction doesn’t include Colorado, local patients aren’t affected, right?
Not so fast, says marijuana attorney Rob Corry. When asked if the ruling could eventually lead to greater limitations on the ability of Colorado medical marijuana license holders to purchase firearms, Corry replies, “Yes, there is that danger.”
Tim Jeffries, the outspoken director of the Arizona Department of Economic Security (DES), wants people to vote no this November on Proposition 205, the ballot measure that seeks to legalize recreational use of marijuana in the state.
Jeffries has donated a total of $1,500 personally to the opposition group,Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy (ARDP), and spoke out about the initiative at least twice on a radio show hosted by Seth Leibsohn, a cofounder of ARDP.
On Monday, DES employees arrived at work to find an e-mail from Jeffries pushing an anti-Prop 205 message from Leibsohn that contained questionable facts.
It’s one of many theories.
Here’s your daily round-up of pot-news, excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek. Download WeedWeek’s free 2016 election guide here.
Three Phoenix cops resigned and face criminal charges after allegedly forcing a 19-year old to eat marijuana or go to jail.
Pro-legalization activists say opponent Kevin Sabet broke the law by displaying a bag of infused gummies on a television panel in Boston. Sabet didn’t return an email requesting comment.
Police lights flashed outside Churchill’s Pub in Little Haiti, Miami this past weekend during the Vote Yes Marijuana Fest, but no one seemed to mind. The officers had been hired to work the event. There were no plans to rough up any of the participants of the festivities, which included a 2:30 a.m. blunt-rolling contest.
“The police understand,” organizer Oski Gonzalez said. “They don’t want to keep hassling people because of some marijuana. They want to be out looking for some real criminals.”
Florida might finally vote to legalize medical marijuana November 8.
But beginning last Monday, a few South Floridians became able to use a strain of low-THC cannabis oil called Haleigh’s Hope. The oil contains high quantities of cannabidiol, also known as CBD, which calms epilepsy patients. However, it does not contain marijuana’s psychoactive chemicals.
The first time Todd Mitchem’s mother was diagnosed with cancer, she says it scared him more than it did her. “He thought he was going to lose his mom,” Kenny Cummins says. “It was a very fearful time.”
When she was diagnosed with cancer a second time, she started using marijuana as medicine. “Once he saw what I was doing and how it was helping me, he started doing his own research,” Cummins says of her son. “He knew it was saving my life, and he knew it could help other people.”
The state’s growing regions can be dangerous.
Here’s your daily round-up of pot-news, excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek. Download WeedWeek’s free 2016 election guide here.
Two women were arrested for detaining four brothers on a California pot farm and forcing them to work for six months. In Colorado, 14 Chinese nationals were arrested at an illegal grow. Authorities are investigating whether they were “labor trafficked.”
In SFWeekly, I recommended that the industry adopt an abuse-free product certification to curtail worker exploitation.
The world of weed is open for business, and celebrities are capitalizing on it. From Merle Haggard, who died before his strains hit the market, to Wiz Khalifa and Snoop Dog, who performed together at Red Rocks for the 4/20 celebration in 2014, celebrities are flocking to Colorado to join the cannabis revolution. Here are six of them:
After retiring from the league he joined the industry.
Here’s your daily round-up of pot-news, excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek. Download WeedWeek’s free 2016 election guide here.