Search Results: cannabis/ (68)

The exotic-sounding Mexican Spanish word “marihuana” was used as part of the 1930s scare tactics which led to the plant being declared illegal in 1937. But should that mean we can never use the word again? Not unless we’re willing to forget the counterculture of the 1960s. 

I love the cannabis community. Most of the people working in it have the best intentions and laudable goals. And the challenge facing those who wish to re-legalize cannabis is difficult and daunting enough without those in the movement inadvertently placing additional roadblocks in our own path.
One of those roadblocks seems to happen more and more often — and that’s arguing over word etymology and usage, of all things, rather than working to legalize the plant.
Yes, I’m talking about the great “marijuana/cannabis” controversy. Some activists get quite worked up about it, but any pejorative baggage surrounding the term “marijuana” is, at this point, really nothing more than an increasingly irrelevant historical footnote from the distant past.
There are those within the cannabis movement who will tell you with a straight face that the reason the plant is still illegal is because it is called “marijuana.” That’s overreaching wildly.
The nominee doesn’t seem to care much about the environment either.
Here’s your daily dose of pot news from the newsletter WeedWeek.

President Elect Donald Trump selected Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt (R) to run the Environmental Protection Agency. Pruitt has repeatedly sued the agency to block anti-pollution laws. While this might be seen as support for states’ rights — and by extension the marijuana industry — Mark Joseph Stern at Slate calls Pruitt “ one of the phoniest federalists in the GOP.

In particular, Pruitt joined Nebraska in suing Colorado over the state’s REC industry. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case.

Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security, retired Marine General John F. Kelly, opposes legalization saying that it increases health care costs and crime, and that the state experiments with it open the U.S. to accusations of hypocrisy from Latin American nations. Kelly is open to the plant having medical benefits.

Meanwhile veterans’ group American Legion, pushed the administration  to loosen cannabis laws. ” I think they were a little caught off guard and didn’t expect such a progressive statement from such a traditional and conservative organization,” a senior Legion official told Marijuana.com.

It also emerged that Jim O’Neill, a Silicon Valley investor who Marijuana.com describes as a “ Marijuana legalization activist,” could be tapped to lead the Food and Drug Administration. O’Neill is neither a doctor or scientist, typical credentials for the position. For more see here.

Marijuana entrepreneurs want Trump to see them as “ job creators,” Forbes reports.

The New York Observer, which is owned by Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, called for rescheduling.

In an effort to protect marijuana laws under the Trump administration, Colorado is cracking down on home growers. The state is poised to surpass 3,000 licensed businesses next year.

What attorney general nominee Sen. Jeff Sessions (R) means for state-legal pot business remains the big green question. In an in-depth piece, Politico says Sessions could easily “ ignore the will of millions of pro-pot voters” and crack down. Time lists seven reasons Trump is unlikely to go after the industry.

The Sessions hearing has been scheduled for Jan. 10 and 11.

Pro-cannabis group Americans for Safe Access (ASA) is petitioning the Justice Department to correct what ASA says is incorrect or misleading information about cannabis on the DEA web site. ASA is represented pro-bono by the major San Francisco law firm Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe.

Though he’s promised to legalize next year, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he still wants police to prosecute dispensaries. His pro-pot supporters feel “cheated.”

Canadian producer Cronos Group will work with First Nations groups in Canada to help them join the cannabis economy.

An upcoming March ballot measure for regulating the industry in Los Angeles raises many questions.

A Democratic state Senator in Texas introduced a “longshot” MED bill. Virginia Senate Majority Leader Thomas K. Norment Jr. (R), asked for a study of how the state’s cannabis laws might be changed.Tennessee could also be in play.

Oregon took emergency steps to lower the testing burden on growers, but the industry is skeptical.

REC opponents in Maine were accused of not providing enough volunteers for a recount of the recent vote. A judge ruled that following the recent vote, MED dispensaries in Montana can reopen immediately.

Maryland named 102 pre-approved dispensary license winners. In New York, licensees are worried about competition in the relatively small market.

Guam is implementing a MED program. Dusseldorf, Germany is on the path to legalization.

Israel’s Teva Pharmaceuticals will start to distribute a medical cannabis inhaler developed by Syqe, an Israeli start-up that raised money from tobacco giant Philip Morris. The inhaler may also be tested with opiates.

An editorial in The Scientist says its unacceptable that the World Health Organization has not developed positions on legalization.

Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children will begin a clinical trial of cannabis extracts containing CBD and THC for children with severe epilepsy.

A new study from Steep Hill Labs found that 83 percent of California weed wouldn’t pass Oregon’s testing standards. An industry report says Oregon’s strict regulations are crushing the state industry. Willamette Week reports that business conditions are pushing some entrepreneurs back to the underground market.

Rehab provider Spectrum Health Systems said a doctor was not to blame for revealing to a patient’s employer that she uses MED.

A survey of cannabis researchers finds out what they want from the government in order to pursue their work.

A Reason investigation finds that conservative authorities in Idaho “conspired to restrict a promising cannabis-derived seizure treatment.”

The National Fire Protection Association is developing fire safety standards for cannabis businesses.

The FDA will allow a late stage clinical trial for ecstasy as a treatment for PTSD.

Minnessota approved PTSD as a MED qualifying condition. New York approved chronic pain.

Canada’s legalization push is getting complicated. The much-anticipated task force report on legalizationhas been delayed. Meanwhile activists wonder why shops are getting raided if the government plans to legalize. For more see here.

Bill Blair a Canadian government official overseeing the issue appeared at a “ cash-for-access” fundraiser with cannabiz leaders that may have violated Liberal Party ethics guidelines. Blair defended recent raidssaying, “The only system for control is the existing legal regime. And we’re a society of laws,” he says.

A little known aspect of busts.
Here’s your weekly dose of cannabis news from the newsletter WeedWeek.
An investigation in Reason finds “ widespread, unchecked violence against pets during drug raids.” Two Detroit officers it found have killed more than 100 dogs each.

The owner of Med-West, a San Diego extraction company that was raided by local authorities in January is seeking a return of his frozen assets. $324,000 cash was seized during the raid. No criminal charges have been filed.

Police departments are becoming more tolerant of applicants’ past pot smoking.

Las Vegas police said they would still pursue possession arrests, though the district attorney said they wouldn’t be prosecuted.

With Trump’s election, federal inmates incarcerated for non-violent drug offenses fear their window to win clemency is closing. “Some of these people are bad dudes,”  Trump said at an August rally “These are people out walking the streets. Sleep tight, folks.”

CBS tells the story of Harry Anslinger, a leading figure in passing the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, which made it illegal.

The New Yorker sent Adrian Chen to the Philippines, where President Rodrigo Duterte is waging a brutal drug war. The article is subtly titled “ When a Populist Demagogue Takes Over.

In California, police are concerned about home grows.

Time Magazine calls hmbldt vape pens one of the 25 best inventions of 2016.
Ozy discovers “ happy pizza” in Cambodia. A Barcelona cannabis club was closed by authorities. There’s a cannabis/comic book convention today in Colorado Springs.

Vice learns how to make “ the most potent weed oil.”

The Washington Post recommends four books to understand the new weed reality. They include Marijuana: A Short History, by John Hudak, Jesse Ventura’s Marijuana Manifesto, Sacred Bliss: A Spiritual History of Cannabis by Mark S. Ferrara and Cooking with Cannabis by Laurie Goldrich.

The New Yorker published a pot-industry cartoon. It isn’t especially funny.

That’s a lot of lotion.
Here’s your daily round-up of pot news, excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek.
A report found that cannabis “ medicinals and personal care products” could be a $2 billion industry by 2020. Sales of high-CBD products are growing among non-traditional cannabis users.

The new REC states have big plans for pot taxes. The Cannabist alerts them to “ five immediate concerns” about the industry.

Kris Krane, president of consulting firm 4Front Ventures, pooh-poohs the notion of Big Pot.

“There isn’t some megalithic industry that exists today…The notion that there are these gigantic, big-money players running in to take this whole thing over is just a fiction. There’s no Philip Morris, no Anheuser-Busch, no cannabis division at Bank of America. Even the most successful company is still barely in the growth stage.”

September was the third-straight best-month-ever for Colorado dispensaries.

A company called CanPay has what it calls the first “legitimate” debit payment system for dispensaries. The customer pays with a QR code accessed on their phone.

The Post Office has few safeguards for stopping employees who intercept weed sent through the mail.

Employers in California will still be able to fire workers who test positive. The San Jose Mercury News piece mentions that near one drug testing lab in Colorado, workers who arrive with containers of someone else’s clean urine tend to heat it up in a nearby convenience store’s microwave.

Canadian firms appear to be gouging the government healthcare system by signing up veteran MED patients for expensive strains according to a Vice report. Canadian companies could also benefit if there’s a crackdown in the U.S.

The Toronto Stock Exchange halted trading of six surging cannastocks. Some market watchers think it’sstill too early to invest.

Heavy rains in southern Oregon will force growers to torch moldy crops. Some rural Colorado communities derive much needed revenue from pot.

Florida entrepreneurs are excited about MED.

Jamaica’s licensing authority received 89 applications.

Could Delaware become a tax-free cannabis haven?” Small-scale Northern California growers areadjusting to legalization.

The U.S. Surgeon General says most illegal drug users don’t receive treatment. Many of them don’t want or need treatment, Reason says.

A study suggests that cannabis use can weaken heart muscles, particularly in young men. Read it here.

The journal Science says that the lower potency of plants from the one federally-sanctioned grow ( the one in Mississippi) undermines studies conducted with those plants.

Scientists are working on a new drug that functions like MED without the psychoactive effect.

Recent studies suggest that cannabis use may have mental health benefits and could have a role in curtailing opiate use.

Viceland uncovers a U.K. network of underground MED providers who give it away to patients.

British Columbia Premier Christy Clark, a Liberal, said police had discovered pot and other drugs laced with the powerful opiate fentanyl. Vancounver police denied it.

Some researchers are starting to take psychedelics seriously, as therapy. Also see this.

It follows an infamous raid..

Here’s your daily round-up of pot-news, excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek. Download WeedWeek’s free 2016 election guide here.

Santa Ana, Calif. paid $100,000 to a the dispensary raided by police in 2015, and agreed to drop misdemeanor charges against employees, in exchange for them agreeing not to sue. Three officers face charges after surveillance footage recorded them mocking an amputee and playing darts during the raid. They argued that they shouldn’t be charged since they believed they had disabled all of the dispensary’s video cameras.

The company applied to trade on NASDAQ earlier this year but was rejected.

Here’s your daily round-up of pot-news, excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek. Download WeedWeek’s free 2016 election guide here.

Social network MassRoots, defaulted on almost $1 million in debt payments and laid off about 40% of its staff, according to SEC filings. This week Chairman and CEO Isaac Dietrich, wrote an upbeat letter to shareholders that did not reference either setback. The company has raised more than $5 million.

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.

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