Tag: All Medical Marijuana News

BREAKING: Canadian Judge Declares Home Medical Cultivation Legal

A legal decision years in the making finally landed in the Canadian Federal Court of Appeals on Wednesday morning. For the first time since the 2013 passage of the Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations (MMPR), patients in Canada will legally be allowed to grow their own cannabis without fear of seizure or retribution from the government.

The case of Neil Allard v. Her Majesty the Queen began in another time, under another government. Until 2013, the Marihuana Medical Access Regulations (MMAR) made up the country’s medical marijuana program. Under that structure, patients could access cannabis through Health Canada’s government supply, apply for a personal-use production license, or designate someone to cultivate cannabis on their behalf.

In June 2013, however, Health Canada adopted the new rules of the MMPR, which created a system of licensed producers from which patients could access medical cannabis. Under this new program, personal-use production licenses were to be suspended after March 2014, and all patients were expected to register with a licensed producer.

Nanaimo resident Neil Allard was the first to question the constitutionality of the new program. He challenged the law on grounds that removing his cultivation license would constitute a government-sponsored attack on his personal health, as he couldn’t afford to purchase medicine through the MMPR’s licensed producer system.

The court order issued Wednesday by Justice Michael L. Phelan undoes the cancellation of personal-use cultivation licenses. Cannabis activist Marc Emery said it was a crucial development for patients across the country. “Everybody was on edge about this, because 20,000 or 30,000 people are growing large amounts of pot under that that temporary injunction against the government,” he told Leafly. “Lots of things are going to be changing in Vancouver and across Canada over the next few months.”

While the move might help patients, it hasn’t been so good for licensed producers. Health Canada-licensed operations such as Canopy Growth, OrganiGram, and Aphria watched their stocks slump after the ruling. (Full disclosure: Tilray, a Health Canada-licensed producer, is owned by Privateer Holdings, which also owns Leafly.)

Although the ruling will have immediate implications for Canada’s medical cannabis industry, Phelan suspended his decision for six months “to permit Canada to enact a new or parallel medical marihuana regime.”

Big Cannabis News Today in Canada and Australia

There was big cannabis news today for the medical marijuana industries in Canada and Australia.

This Wednesday, both countries saw significant changes to rules surrounding the use of medical cannabis, and investors in the space will certainly want to be paying attention.

Here’s a look at what’s happened:

Canadian medical marijuana patients allowed to grow their own cannabis

First, Canada’s Federal Court struck down federal regulations aimed at restricting the rights of patients who grow their own marijuana for medical purposes. As CBC News reported, that’s a big win for patients who rely on medical marijuana.

“Basically we won, and it was a complete victory,” said Kirk Tousaw, lawyer for Neil Allard, who filed the claim. “[The Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulations] were declared to be unconstitutional and violate the charter rights of medical cannabis patients.”

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Under the Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulations, introduced in 2013, patients would have been required to buy cannabis from licensed producers, and would not have been allowed to grow their own.

That could have been a problem for some patients. As Lynne Belle-Isle, chair of the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition, told CBC News in March 2014, buying from licensed producers might mean a fair jump in cost for those who currently grow at home.

“I’ve heard recently they can grow for about 50 cents a gram, so going from 50 cents to $12 is quite a jump,” she told the news agency. Meanwhile, marijuana activist Dana Larsen said that dispensaries in Vancouver would typically sell marijuana for $7 to $8 per gram.

Still, there will be plenty of room for licensed medical marijuana producers at market.

For first time growers, the price for initial supplies needed can run upwards of $1,000, according to Colorado Pot Guide, not to mention the space needed to set things up. Buying from licensed producers could certainly be a simpler alternative.

“The ball is in the federal government’s court. Mr Trudeau and the justice minister have six months to respond to the court’s ruling and come up with a system of medical cannabis regulation in this country that doesn’t impact and negatively take away the charter rights of medical cannabis patients and their providers,” Tousaw added.

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DelMar Pharmaceuticals (OTCQX:DMPI) is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of new cancer therapies. The company’s lead product candidate, VAL-083, is a first-in-class small molecule chemotherapy with the potential to overcome chemo-resistance in cancer patients and surpass the current standard of care in a range of cancers. Connect with DelMar Pharmaceuticals to learn more.

Australia legalizes medical marijuana

In other cannabis news today, medical cannabis is now legal in Australia. Health Minister Sussan Ley announced on Wednesday afternoon that a bill allowing for access to medical cannabis products had passed in both the House and the Senate.

“This is an historic day for Australia and the many advocates who have fought long and hard to challenge the stigma around medicinal cannabis products so genuine patients are no longer treated as criminals,” said Ley in a statement. “This is the missing piece in a patient’s treatment journey and will now see seamless access to locally-produced medicinal cannabis products from farm to pharmacy.”

Cannabis is still technically illegal in Australia, and patients will need a valid prescription to access cannabis products.

In any case, the announcement was certainly good news for Australian medical cannabis company MGC Pharmaceuticals (ASX:MXC), previously Erin Resources, which gained nearly 25 percent to close at $0.033 on Wednesday. Certainly, investors will want to keep an eye on how the medical marijuana space continues to develop in Australia.

Company news

Mettrum Health (TSXV:MT) recently put out its third quarter results for the period ended December 31, 2015. The company had a strong quarter, recording an 18 percent increase in revenues to roughly $2 million, and a 20 percent reduction in growing costs to $2.55 per gram. The company’s EBITDA improved by 18 percent to a loss of $1,337,989 for the quarter relative to Q2.

Meanwhile, THC BioMed (CSE:THC) was granted a license to produce medical marijuana under Canada’s Marijuana fr Medical Purposes Regulations (MMPR). “We are filled with emotion and pride and take this opportunity to thank our dedicated shareholders for helping us get to this point,” said THC president and CEO John Miller in a statement. “Now we look forward to providing the highest quality product to our customers and value to our shareholders as we work diligently to build a world class cannabis company.”

Finally, Naturally Splendid (TSXV:NSP) recently reported signing a memorandum of understanding with Korea Beauty & Healthcare Co. regarding the distribution of its food brands in South Korea. Under the terms of the agreement, Korea Beauty & Healthcare must achieve minimum hemp seed sales of 200 metric tonnes in the first year of the agreement, 300 metric tonnes in the second year of the agreement and 300 metric tonnes in the third year of the agreement in order to retain exclusive rights to Naturally Splendid’s hemp food brands.

Securities Disclosure: I, Teresa Matich, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article. 

Editorial Disclosure: Mettrum Health and Naturally Splendid are clients of the Investing News Network. This article is not paid for content.

The post Big Cannabis News Today in Canada and Australia appeared first on Investing News Network.

Long Beach Ballot Initiative Is A Model For Responsible, Safe Cannabis Control, Taxation, Regulation

I received the following message from Long Beach Neighborhoods First: Long Beach Neighborhoods First, a coalition of cannabis collectives, patients, Long Beach residents, and the workers who are on the front lines of patient safety and education, introduced a city ballot initiative that would control, tax, and regulate medical marijuana within the city limits. “With

PhillyNORML Responds To Flower Show Denial

On February 22, 2016 the Philadelphia Flower Show said that local cannabis reform groups are not welcome to participate in a booth at their event. The show is beginning on March 5, 2016. “The Cannabis flower is beautiful and beneficial, witha strong tradition in America,” said PhillyNORML spokesperson Chris Goldstein, “Attendees to the Philadelphia Flower

Stanton Municipal Medical Cannabis Ballot Measure Campaign Announcement

For those who want verification aside from the word document, I believe one can do a public records check with the city clerk for the documents if one wishes. On December 22, 2015 the Stanton City Clerk returned the Stanton City Attorney’s Title and Summary of Stanton Patients Access PAC’s initiative. Next week we will

Cannabis Crackup: A Q&A with Leafly Comedy Tour Performer Brandon Wardell

It’s hard not to start a story about Brandon Wardell like everyone else does: by pointing out how young he looks. The now 23-year-old comic has been known to show up onstage in a backpack. Just look at his picture.

Don’t let his boyish looks fool you, though. Vice may have quipped that Wardell looked 14 when he was actually 22, but now, at 23, he’s getting ready to host a pilot on the company’s fledgling TV network, Viceland. He’s toured and made an album with comedy legend Bob Odenkirk, and he’s even written a “Guide to Sex with Millennials” (but please, read this interview before you get wrapped up in that).

Want to see Wardell in person? It’s easier (and free-er!) than you think. He’ll be among the comics at the Leafly Comedy Tour’s L.A. show on Saturday. Tickets cost nothing — all you have to do is RSVP.

Leafly reached Wardell in a Los Angeles loft, where he was holed up working on the Viceland pilot, dubbed Rap Nerd. He talked to us about his upcoming projects, L.A. apartment envy, and cannabis. But mostly cannabis. Here’s an edited transcript of the conversation:

Leafly: You, sir, are a busy man. Where’d we catch you?

Brandon Wardell: I am at this loft I’m staying at. I’m working on this Viceland pilot, and Vice rented an Airbnb for us to do work at. The Vice office is in Venice and I live in Hancock Park, so they were like, “Oh, we’ll rent an Airbnb for you guys to write at.” And when I got here, I was like, “Oh, this is amazing!” This is so much better than any place I’ve lived at. This is the first place where I’ve, like, taken a girl back and not been like, “Oh, sorry.”

As soon as I got here I was like, “I have to sleep here as long as I can.”

So I’m in my makeshift office-slash-bedroom right now. I want to stay here as long as possible. Now that I’ve lived in a loft for a week and a half, I can’t go back.

What can you tell us about the Vice pilot? And what else on your plate right now besides standup?

My Vice show, that should come out in March. It’s called Rap Nerd, and it’s me FaceTiming with rappers. It’s going to be super fun. And then I have this Comedy Central Snapchat show every week, and it’s called Hot Takes. Those are the two things that are taking up most— I mean, the Vice show takes a lot of time. The Comedy Central Snapchat thing, we’ll film like five episodes before lunch. And I’m doing Getting Doug.

Oh, nice! Some of the other comedians on the Leafly tour, like Natasha Leggero and Michael Ian Black, have been on Doug’s show, too. Are you a cannabis fan in general?

I smoke a fair amount of weed. I never got into, like, weed culture or anything, but I like weed.

Just to wind down at the end of the day, something like that?

Yeah exactly. I can work while high, but for the most part I like to have like an indica at the end of the day.

And had you heard of Leafly before the Comedy Tour?

I had! You have a great marketing team. There’s billboards in L.A. I’ve used it before. It’s a great app, a great website.

I know you’re in L.A. now, but you have roots in Seattle. Did you feel any kind of pride seeing Washington state become one of the first to legalize?

Yeah, absolutely! I don’t have a [medical] card here in California, so I was very excited about that. The last time I was there, I was on tour with Bob Odenkirk, and I needed to pick up an edible before my flight. I just literally drove to the weed store and then just showed my ID and walked out. It was like, “This is crazy.”

Oh, that’s another thing: Usually when I’m on flights I like to have an edible if it’s a flight longer than 3 hours. That’s very necessary.

When you’re performing for a cannabis-friendly crowd, does that change the feel of the show at all?

My friend, Andy Haynes, he ran a show called Midnight Run, where everybody would get high before they performed. And then he sort of gave me the show, and I’ll do it occasionally at festivals or whatever. And yeah, I think the crowd is maybe more accepting, I think they’re more open to hearing you out. You’re all in the same state. If the whole crowd is high, and you’re high, there’s a mutual understanding: “If I’m rambling a little bit, you guys are still going to stay on board. Because you get it.”

There are a lot of strange strain names: Alaska Thunder Fuck, Cat Piss, Super Cat Piss. If someone said, “Brandon, we just came up with this new strain,” what would you call it?

Like a new strain of weed? How about “Michael Ian Black.”

And how would you consume it?

I’d just go high-school gravity bong.

Intense. OK, last question, and it’s a toughie: Can you send us off with a haiku? That’s 5-7-5.

Oh, man, that’s so much pressure. I could email you a haiku.

That’ll do.

[Note: Wardell never emailed the promised haiku. So here’s a recent tweet of his instead. Eat your hearts out.]

when u get too doug w high pic.twitter.com/frFRNSdWrI

— BRANDON WARDELL (@BRANDONWARDELL) February 22, 2016

America's Favorite Travel Guide is Moving Legalization Nationwide

PBS travel host Rick Steves helped legalize cannabis in Washington and Oregon. Now he’s taking his message to Maine, Massachusetts, and even Oklahoma. In an article that first appeared on Crosscut, Knute Berger talks with the footloose author about the challenge of opening minds to the idea of a post-prohibition world.

Rick Steves has changed the way middle America sees the world through his European guidebooks, tours, columns, PBS television and public radio shows. He’s a successful entrepreneur with a teacher’s mien and an everyman persona that can steer curious Americans into foreign travel — not so easy in a country where the majority of residents don’t have passports. But like a good teacher, he makes taking the steps toward broadening one’s horizon easy.

New York Times columnist Timothy Egan captured Steves’ public image in a story a few years back. The travel guru, he wrote, is “benignly suburban to the core, with a bit of a paunch and the ever-quizzical look of someone who would try raw squid for breakfast and not complain about it.” But these days, Steves is about much more than raw squid. He’s become the pied piper of legalized cannabis, not just in the Pacific Northwest, but nationally.

Steves says 2016 is a big year with the potential to tip the balance on cannabis laws in this country. And he intends to be out there, committing his reputation, time, and money to make it happen.

In 2016, Steves has committed to nine or ten days of campaigning in October for legalization laws in Maine and Massachusetts. He says he’ll go wherever the experts think he can be most effective. To date he estimates he has spent approximately $500,000 of his own money on the legalization fight and thinks he’ll spend another $200,000 or so this year. “It’s more money than I’ve spent on anything than a house.” But if it contributes to national momentum toward legalizing marijuana for adults, he thinks it’s worth the investment.

Steves was a driving force behind Washington’s I-502 in 2012 and Oregon’s legalization initiative in 2014. This year, legalization laws are percolating in many states. A recent Leafly roundup lists four states where legalization is “almost a sure thing” this year (California, Nevada, Maine, and Arizona) and 10 more where there’s activity and reason for hope.

His commitment to the issue is deeply personal, but he’s also a team player with a role to play. Steves has been on the board of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) for years, and he has worked closely with Washington adult-use initiative author Alison Holcomb, who now heads the American Civil Liberties Union’s Campaign for Smart Justice with its focus on ending the War on Drugs. He’s also closely associated with Ethan Nadelmann, head of the Drug Policy Alliance.

Nadelmann calls Steves “a godsend” for legalized marijuana. “I think Rick is incredible,” he says. “I think he’s an exceptional human being.” What makes Steves influential, he says, is not simply that he is well known and seen as an honorable human being by millions of Americans, but that his commitment is broad. Steves often writes about drug policy in his travel books — it is integrated with his work and the way he sees the world. He’s deeply informed on drug policy and its consequences in society. He’s not a celebrity going out with a few memorized talking points, but as a real student with principled beliefs.

Steves can reach an important constituency: the swing voter. “He raises the right eyebrows,” says Nadelmann. Think of this travel audience: largely white, middle class, middle American, neither stereotypical potheads nor people interested in making a buck in the marijuana business, not even current users — just folks who probably haven’t given the issue much thought. Steves, the knowledgeable travel guide, is there to get them to think about it.

First, Steves says, he is not “pro pot.”

I am anti-prohibition and pro-civil liberties. He believes adults should have the right to smoke marijuana. A proposal he didn’t like: a recent Ohio law, defeated last year, that would have established what was essentially a cannabis cartel of approved suppliers. The idea of “Big Weed” does not appeal to him.

He also doesn’t think legal cannabis means a free-for-all. Steves is for “legalize, tax and regulate.” He supports public safety, cracking down on DUIs, and keeping marijuana away from kids. “I don’t want to endorse something that doesn’t address fears and legitimate concerns,” he insists. That doesn’t mean every concern, such as overblown worries that legalization will lead to civilization’s downfall. Sitting in his office in downtown Edmonds, Wash., Steves gestures out his corner window. “Marijuana’s legal — you can’t tell!” he exclaims. The suburban village outside has hardly become a perpetual Hempfest. Washington state has taken things in stride.

On the other hand, cannabis laws have a terrible consequence for people of color, the poor, those who are already marginalized in society or incarcerated for something that shouldn’t be a crime, let alone a lifelong mark on one’s record.

The Europeans have the right attitude, says Steves. “Tolerate alternative lifestyles or build more prisons,” he says. In Europe, countries have taken different approaches. The Netherlands has its famous coffeeshops. In Spain, you can obtain plants for personal use from a gardening co-op. In Europe, they’ve generally done a better job of mitigating the problems of substance use, such as addiction and HIV. Done right, legalization can reduce crime (gangs, the illegal drug trade) and the negative consequences of imprisoning so many people, Steves says.

Europeans are now learning something from Americans, he adds. Adult-use laws in Washington and Colorado are ahead of the European curve, and policymakers from across the Atlantic are coming here to study how we’re changing the legalization and regulation landscape. That might help soften attitudes of those Americans who bristle at importing “foreign” ideas but love the idea of “exporting” American ones.

Steves says his years of taking people abroad on tours have prepared him for spreading a message to a curious but sometimes nervous audience. He’s used to talking to folks who are out of their comfort zones in foreign countries, often for the first time.

He also has little to lose if people hate his message. His business remains largely unaffected by his activism. He can’t be fired, nor is he running for anything. If he loses a travel customer over his stance on marijuana, he thinks to himself: Good. Europe’s going to be more fun without you.

Steves relishes speaking to skeptical audiences in places like Oklahoma. The key is to not abuse bully pulpit, he says. Steves tries to make the message palatable and pragmatic. He reassures audiences by telling them America is great, as is our freedom and the military that protects us. He tells them he’s thankful that he runs his business in America, not Europe. Being a Christian helps too, he says. Steves is active in his local Lutheran church.

With his pro-American bone fides established, conservative audiences are often open to considering his views on marijuana. A Rick Steves travel talk might segue from where to stay in Tuscany to the issue of legalizing cannabis. Steves is comfortable with introducing uncomfortable ideas to the comfortable. Travel has taught the value of that role, he says, quoting Thomas Jefferson: “Travel makes a person wiser, if less happy.” A little discomfort is what travel, and stretching one’s mind, is all about.

Knute Berger is a regular contributor to Crosscut.

The Shake: Cannabis Cup moves to Pueblo, Boston Globe discovers Denver

Goodbye Denver, hello Pueblo! With Adams County shutting the 4/20 Cannabis Cup out of Denver, organizers of the annual bacchanal have booked a venue 120 miles south in Pueblo. It looks like the owners of The Yard, an outdoor music venue, have accepted the Cup for an April 16-20 run. It’s an appropriate spot, given Pueblo’s recent cannabis growing boom, but it’s unclear how Cup-goers will take to the sleepy steel town. Downside: Book your room now, because hotels are limited. Upside: There’s a Domino’s, a Chinese restaurant, a grocery store, a Loaf ‘N Jug, and a Mexican restaurant all within walking distance of The Yard. Which means munchies-hungry patrons may have a better chance of actually getting fed. Not that we’re bitter, Burger King That Ran Out of Burgers During the 2014 Cup.

The free agent market opens up. More football players are being cut following off-season run-ins involving cannabis. University of Kentucky coach Mark Stoops dismissed linebacker Jason Hatcher for a “violation of team rules.” Hatcher was pulled over for speeding on Monday morning; cops found nearly a pound of cannabis in his car and charged him with trafficking. Meanwhile, at the pro level, the Indianapolis Colts waived linebacker Jonathan Newsome four days after a marijuana arrest that began with a noise complaint from the neighbors. Look for Newsome to turn up in camp with the Broncos or Seahawks later this summer.

Utah OK with edibles, won’t touch the leaf. Utah’s medical marijuana bill made surprising progress in the state Senate on Monday after its sponsors allowed extracts but banned the use of whole-leaf cannabis. Banning the leaf seemed the placate Mormon church leaders, who said the amendments were “a substantial improvement.” The church had earlier opposed the bill, which pretty much doomed it. Now it’s got a chance.

Wyoming, meanwhile, panics over edibles. Dick Cheney’s home state already owns some of the nation’s most draconian cannabis laws. But they want more. Last year a local judge dismissed charges against a man found with cannabis candies in his car, ruling that state law prohibited only marijuana in leaf form. So outlawing gummies jumped to the top of the state’s to-do list. Shockingly, one brave senator rose to voice second thoughts about imprisoning candy holders. “It is a new world out there, and we face the reality that our neighboring states treat these crimes differently,” said Sen. Cale Case, a Republican. He warned his colleagues that if they turn edible possession into a felony, “you’re going to catch your own kids, or your grandkids,” and ruin their lives.

QUICK HITS: The Boston Globe dispatches a reporter to the badlands of Denver’s Colfax Avenue to report on “life after marijuana legalization.” After a dive into regulated grows and state-licensed stores, the Globe correspondent reports “the sky didn’t fall” after the end of prohibition. In New Zealand, a bunch of cannabis users sparked up at a public park to protest the drug’s illegal status, shocking the president of the New Zealand Police Conduct Association. Another day, another Girl Scout selling cookies outside a dispensary. And finally, if you’re a chocolatier and cannabis enthusiast, this infused chocolate startup in Portland, Ore., wants your resume. Imagine: “If your a stoner, to be around marijuana at work!” Grammar skills not required, apparently.

10 Celebs Who Share Their Names with Cannabis Strains

The nominations are in, the red carpet gowns are (presumably) purchased, and Oscar week is upon us! In celebration of all the celebs who’ll be gracing the awards ceremony with their presence on Sunday, we compiled our own A-list – of celebrities with cannabis strains named after them.

Numerous luminaries, both living and dead, lend their names to strains. Among them are rappers, singers, actors, comedians, athletes, a president – even celebrity youngsters. The following are just 10 of the stars immortalized by strains. And the awards go to…

Snoop Dogg

The inimitable rapper and cannabis evangelist has been singing about smoking weed every day since the 90s, and even has his own cannabis brand, so it’s no surprise that he lends his name to both Snoop’s Dream and Snoop Dogg OG.

Marshawn Lynch

The legendary Seattle running back, who hung up his cleats for good on Superb Owl Sunday, inspired two strains with his nickname – Beastmode OG, and Beastmode 2.0.

Blue Ivy Carter

Though it’ll be years before she’s old enough to consume cannabis herself, the four-year-old daughter of Beyoncé and Jay-Z inspired the eponymous Blue Ivy hybrid.

Michael Phelps

The 18-time Olympic gold medal swimmer and most decorated athlete in Olympic history made waves in 2009 when a photo surfaced of him smoking out of a bong. Michael Phelps OG is named in his honor.

Charlie Sheen

The TV and movie star, who was once the highest-paid actor on television, lends his name to the hybrid strain Charlie Sheen, whose effects are in fact relaxed and mellow.

Margaret Cho

Edgy, outspoken and hilarious, actress and comedian Margaret Cho is also a cannabis entrepreneur and activist, meriting a strain called Margaret Cho-G.

Tiger Woods

The lionized golfer, considered by many to be the best of all time, is just one of many superstar athletes thought to consume cannabis – hence the Tiger Woods strain named after him.

Stevie Wonder

The prodigious singer-songwriter’s relaxed, uplifting music matches the relaxed, uplifting effects of the Stevie Wonder hybrid.

Barack Obama

Though we wish he’d take more of a stand on cannabis reform before leaving office, it’s no secret that Barack Obama has both enjoyed cannabis himself and allowed states to legalize free of federal opposition. Obama Kush shares his name.

Tommy Chong

Tommy Chong’s acting and comedy careers alike have been interwoven with cannabis culture for decades, so it’s no surprise that the cannabis personality and activist is the namesake of the Chong Star strain.

Image Sources: WEBN-TV via Flickr Creative Commons, Angela George and Tim Hipps via Wikimedia Commons

Tickets Go On Sale Next Week For The High Times Cannabis Cup In Pueblo, Colorado

I went to the High Times medical cannabis cup in Denver in 2012, and again the following year after recreational marijuana became legal. Both of those Cups were held at a venue called the Exdo Center in Denver. It was a beautiful venue with a lot of unique characteristics that made it a very fun

Cannapics: Our Favorite Cannabis Photos on Leafly This Month

Is your photo the best on Leafly?

Each month, thousands of strain images are uploaded to Leafly through our app. We’ve seen everything, from lush, jaw-dropping images of trichome-rich buds in purple, orange, and green hues, to low-quality dried flower photographed blurrily on dirt-encrusted countertops. We’ve even seen dick pics. (Yes, we see each and every one you upload. No, you’re not the first one to think of submitting your junk.)

The more images each strain page has, the more it helps other consumers who are looking for information about a particular cannabis strain. To encourage more photo submissions, as well as to highlight examples of which images to upload, we decided to share a monthly roundup of a few of the best strain photos Leafly has to offer.

Have you ever shared your strain photos on Leafly? We’d love to see them, and so would other Leafly members. Upload your strain photos through our iOS or Android App today!

Romulan

Romulan, named after the alien Star Trek race, is a powerful indica revered for its potent therapeutic qualities. Though mostly indica, Romulan growers insist sativa genetics have crept in over time, lending it intense cerebral effects. These squat, pine-scented plants produce dense frosty buds that have found their following among connoisseurs in B.C. and the Pacific Northwest.

King’s Bread

Six Best Practices for Opening Your Own Cannabis Business

Leafly recently polled existing cannabis businesses in an effort to ferret out what it’s like to open shop. We asked about what worked well in the initial stages of the venture, which aspects were a little bumpy, and what was most important to remember. If you’re a budding ganjapreneur hoping to break into the cannabiz, here’s what you need to keep an eye on.

Are you a business owner with some tips or tricks you’d like to pass along? Take our poll and let us know what issues you found most crucial while opening your business.

Legal Requirements

Forty-four percent of respondents said staying compliant with state and local laws was one of the most important areas of focus when starting their cannabis businesses. State laws vary greatly, and making sure you and your employees adhere to them is quite possibly the highest priority for a prospective business owner. Do your homework and consult an attorney, preferably one that specializes in cannabis law. Many businesses are now also navigating the confusing legal waters of trying to pay state and federal taxes despite remaining illegal in the eyes of the federal government. When in doubt, consult an attorney or tax specialist.

Advertising

Advertising is key for maintaining a solid reputation, customer base, and revenue generation, but it can be tricky. Some states, such as New Jersey, prohibit advertising dispensaries, while other states, such as Illinois, do not allow health clinics to advertise dispensaries. You can find out more about advertising guidelines in our handy state-by-state guide to cannabis advertising regulations.

Money

It’s just like they say: Money makes the world go round, and this business is no different. Ensuring you and your potential investors have enough startup capital to keep the business going for as long as it needs to is crucial to surviving your first year in business. Up-and-coming business owners sometimes expect cash to begin flowing as soon as sales start, but businesses often see little income early on, especially in the first few months. In the words of one successful Oregon retailer, David Alport, owner of two Bridge City Collective locations in Portland, when it comes to financial overhead: “Whatever your projections are, double it!”

Education

This may seem like a no-brainer, but this is one of the hot tips that make a great dispensary or retailer truly stand apart from the rest. Whether or not your state requires training, make sure you staff your business with employees who are smart and well educated on the product. Make sure they know how to recommend strains and products to fit various medical conditions and symptoms, as well as being aware of what recreational consumers may want in a cannabis product. This means sampling products for effects, training on cannabis basics, and ensuring that your employees also know how to stay compliant with state laws (checking identification and medical recommendations, knowing expiration dates, etc.). In addition to basic cannabis knowledge, it’s always a good plan to make sure your employees are personable and friendly. A little customer service goes a long way!

Plants

Know your plants, know your growers, and know what good product looks like. This is often more difficult in recreational markets due to tight regulations on packaging and labeling cannabis products, but most producers are happy to give you a tour of their cultivation facilities. Maintaining a steady supply of high-quality cannabis is the lifeline for your business, especially in the first few months. Make sure you have a reliable source with quality growers. Make sure you and your growers are aware and in compliant with pesticide laws. If the state you’re operating in decides to ban certain pesticides after a major harvest, you may be faced with losing thousands of dollars in contaminated product. Know the laws, know your pesticides, and make sure your growers know, too!

Business Model

Another key component to survival is making sure that your business plan is solid and well thought out. Whether it’s a business model of your own design or created with the help of a professional, this will help you go further and lead you to a more successful future. Many states require that you present a business model in order to obtain a license, but either way, make sure your ducks are in a row. Know where your product is coming from, make sure you have security measures in place for the safety of your business and your clients, and create estimated projections of your losses and gains. The extra steps you take to plan for a successful business could be the difference between success and failure.

Looking for more great tips to make your cannabis business stand out? Learn more about how Leafly can help grow your cannabis business.

The Shake: How Much Does Your State Suck?

Meet the first cannabis-sponsored pro athlete. Accessory brand Black Rock Originals has teamed with professional freeskier Tanner Hall to release the Tanner Hall Ski Boss collection, which includes a lighter, grinder, and rolling papers. While a lot of athletes have gotten involved in cannabis — including that poor Canadian snowboarder who lost his Olympic gold medal — Hall appears to be the first active athlete to land a sponsorship. Gnarly, bruh.

The industry is an accounting nightmare. That’s the conclusion of the New York Times in a piece that examines the convoluted financial rules surrounding cannabis (involving fun things like banking and taxes). The article might be a bit of a snooze if you’re not a money or policy wonk, but it’s nice to see the Grey Lady acknowledging the dysfunction caused by cannabis’s precarious legal standing. Now if only the editorial board would come out and oppose prohibition. Oh wait, that happened a while ago.

How does your state rank on cannabis? We’re really excited about this one. Canna Law Blog is ranking all 50 states, in reverse order, based on their cannabis policies. Not all states are ranked yet, but head over and check it out — and then steer clear of Wyoming, No. 44, where cannabis intoxication alone can land you a $750 fine and six months in jail.

Idaho is no fun. Really. Zero fun at all. It might be surrounded by a bunch of groovy states, but as the AP points out, Idaho is rabidly anti-cannabis. State Sen. Roy Lacey, D-Pocatell, says the state tends to “lag behind” on cannabis. That’s an understatement. As Leafly has reported, it’s the kind of state where you could face a year in jail for carrying the plastic tube your joint came in. If you were wondering, Idaho is No. 48 on Canna Law Blog’s rankings, above only Nebraska (which filed a lawsuit trying to undo legalization in Colorado) and South Dakota (which is the butt of enough jokes already, thank you very much).

Doesn’t anyone understand what a tampon is? RYOT adds to the junk heap of articles about Foria Relief, a cannabis-infused vaginal suppository intended to ease menstrual discomfort. (Not to be confused with Foria’s stuff for sexytimes.) Let’s get one thing straight: Foria Relief is not a tampon, will not work as a tampon, and should not be described is a tampon. Instead, my coworker with a vagina tells me, it should be described as a godsend.

Iowa State University can’t abide a T-shirt. Administrators have repeatedly blocked the school’s NORML chapter from making shirts that feature a cannabis leaf. Eventually the students sued on First Amendment grounds — and won. But the butthurt university has filed an appeal, because spending thousands of dollars in taxpayer money is totally worth it to prevent people from seeing a graphical representation of foliage on a college campus. (Go figure: The school didn’t have a problem greenlighting designs from various gun-related groups or CUFFS, a student club focused on sexual bondage.)

Legal cannabis is “crushing” the black market in Colorado. Officials there say the regulated market comprises about 70 percent of all sales in the state, the Economist reports. The remainder is mostly made up of people who grow cannabis legally at home but sell it illegally. In Washington state, however, legal sales account for only about 30 percent of the market, according to estimates. Why the difference? The magazine attributes it to Washington’s huge unregulated medical cannabis industry and steep taxes on the recreational side.

Florida is taking common sense for a test drive. Under a yearlong pilot program, juveniles caught with 20 grams of cannabis or less will no longer be arrested but instead will be cited and required to attend drug treatment. Apparently arrests weren’t solving the problem. Imagine!

QUICK HITS: Is your cannabis organic? If so, Colorado wants to label it that way. * Want a free gram? Organizers in San Jose, Calif., handed out cannabis vouchers in an effort to raise awareness for the statewide legalization initiative on November’s ballot. * Cannabis commentator Russ Belville takes aim against “Stoners Against Legalization,” or people in the community who oppose a regulated market. Belville accuses them of trying to profit from prohibition. * A languishing California prison town is turning to cannabis to help save its future. Land prices in Adelanto have skyrocketed since the city became the second in Southern California to legalize cultivation. * Colorado named a new head of cannabis enforcement. Jim Burack, a former investigations chief and Marine Corps Reserve colonel, will lead the state’s Marijuana Enforcement Division. * These pets are stuck, but it ain’t no thing.

This Guy Just Made Your Bong Ten Times Better

A few years ago a friend of Corey Capasso’s called him up. “Corey, you know when you smoke a water pipe, how the water gets dirty?”

“Yeah,” Capasso said. “So what?”

“So the water is filtering out the tar from the smoke, making it cleaner. What if you could put something in the water to enhance the filtration?”

Capasso thought for a moment. “That’s interesting,” he said.

When Corey Capasso finds something interesting, things tend to happen. Nine years ago, as a finance major at the University of Wisconsin, Capasso sought out Tim Osswald, a mechanical engineering professor. Would it be possible, Capasso asked him, to create a flavored plastic? Osswald did so in 2008, and Capasso turned his tasty polymer into MoGo Sport, the company that invented the flavored sport mouthguard.

As he was getting MoGo off the ground, Capasso also did a little work on the side. He was intrigued by his friend’s water pipe question.

“I did some research and realized that water is very polar,” Capasso recalled in a recent interview with Leafly. “The majority of the tars and carcinogens in smoke — both tobacco and marijuana — are very nonpolar. If we could put something in the water that was also nonpolar, the tars might be attracted and get trapped by it.”

The easiest way to understand molecular polarity is to think of it as the opposite of magnetism. With polarity, like attracts like. Oil and water don’t mix, for example, because water is extremely polar and oil is highly nonpolar.

When he went looking for scientific research on water filtration of smoke, Capasso found slim pickings in the peer-reviewed literature. Surprisingly little research has been done on cannabis smoke filtration. There are essentially two publicly available water pipe studies, both conducted in the mid-1990s. One was by Dale Gieringer, director of California NORML. The other was by Nicholas Cozzi, director of the Laboratory for Neuropharmacology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and one of the world’s leading experts on hallucinogens and the human brain.

Those studies found that water pipes are good at filtering out hot ash, but they’re generally lousy at trapping the tars contained in both tobacco and cannabis smoke. They obviously trap some — hence the nastiness of bong water — but in general the bong lets most of the tars slip through.

“By weird coincidence, Dr. Cozzi was at the University of Wisconsin, where I was attending college,” Capasso recalled. He reached out to Cozzi and, as he had with Tim Osswald, convinced the professor to explore the possibilities of invention.

As it happened, Cozzi knew of a nonpolar material that just might work. It was a kind of macrobead — tiny, but larger than the microbeads currently causing so much trouble in toothpaste and facial scrubs — made of an inert, insoluble polymer that was highly attractive to nonpolar molecules. “It’s a substance used in chromatography,” Cozzi explained over the phone recently. “It separates mixtures of compounds into their elements.”

The stuff itself looks like large sugar crystals. “You pour it into the pipe and it floats on the water,” Capasso explained. “The smoke goes through the water, hits the beads, and those beads absorb ten times the amount of carcinogens as the water.” In early tests, Cozzi found that plain water removed 1.7 milligrams of tar per gram of water. The combination of Smoke Skreen beads and water extracted 20.6 milligrams of tar per gram.

Detail of Smoke Skreen beads

Capasso and Cozzi applied for patents on their invention, a “filtration agent” they named Smoke Skreen. That was in 2010. They waited. Years passed. From the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office came nothing but radio silence.

In the meantime, Capasso moved on to other entrepreneurial ventures. In 2010 he founded Spinback, an online analytics company, and sold it to Buddy Media. Then he created Nomi, an in-store analytics platform for retailers, and sold it to Brickstream.

While casting about for his next analytics venture, Capasso received a surprise visit from the past. On Dec. 30, 2015, he opened an email from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in Arlington, Virginia. The patent for Smoke Skreen had finally been approved.

It had been so long — more than five years — that Capasso figured the office had lost or permanently shelved his application.

The patent itself had always been a long shot. The federal illegality of cannabis extends to “drug paraphernalia,” (see 21 USC Section 863), which specifically mentions water pipes and bongs. Though the law is rarely enforced, Tommy Chong famously got caught up in Operation Pipe Dreams, a 2003 federal paraphernalia sting that resulted in the arrest of 55 individuals. (Chong was the only one sent to prison. He served nine months for selling bongs.) Even today, head shops in legal states like Washington will sometimes evict customers who refer to their “tobacco water pipes” as bongs. That problematic legal status has made it difficult for inventors to obtain patents for any product that could be considered paraphernalia.

Though Capasso and Cozzi made frequent mention of tobacco in their patent application, they specifically referenced “medical marijuana” in their patent documentation. “To my knowledge, as long as the product is described accurately and does not make any false claims under FTC regulations, there are no legal issues,” Capasso said.

The question every cannabis consumer will want to know: If it so effectively screens out tars, will it also screen out cannabinoids? Not so much, says Cozzi. “The tars are extremely nonpolar, and the THC, CBD and other cannabinoids are intermediate in polarity, meaning they contain both polar and nonpolar properties within the molecule.” The Smoke Skreen beads, Cozzi said, will preferentially remove the tars but not the cannabinoids. “Our empirical testing showed no effect on the psychoactive properties of the cannabis.”

Now he’s talking with a number of companies and potential investors. Capasso is new to the legal cannabis space, but thinks his product has the potential to find a big audience. “As marijuana grows,” he says, “there’s nothing better to have in a regulated market than a product that creates safety.”

Weekend Weirdness: Man Kind of Returns Lost Wallet, Keeps the Cash Cuz He “Needed Weed”

Losing your wallet is always a stressful ordeal, but occasionally a good Samaritan can find it and return it to you, restoring a little bit of faith in humanity. Unfortunately, a Brooklyn-area man who lost his wallet at a concert had it returned by someone more like a mediocre Samaritan who kind of wanted to do the right thing, but not without treating himself first.

Reilly Flaherty lost his wallet at a Wilco concert on February 5th, and two weeks later he received a suspicious envelope in the mail. It contained his ID and the credit cards that were in his wallet, but not the wallet itself. His cash and metro card were also missing.

Flaherty shared the amusingly honest note that accompanied the items on Instagram:

thanks.. I think?

A photo posted by reilly flaherty (@reillyflaherty) on Feb 15, 2016 at 5:45pm PST

I have to award points to the stoner Samaritan for being brutally forthright, but if the “pot-smoking, modern-day version of Robin Hood” is going to go through the trouble of sending the wallet back to its owner, he probably should have fully committed and sent everything intact instead of pocketing the most appealing items. The good deed ultimately proved futile, anyway, as Flaherty had already canceled his credit cards and replaced his driver’s license by the time he received the mystery envelope. Oh well, at least he got a good laugh out of it…and I suppose the other guy was able to (immorally) re-up on some of his favorite strains.

Check Out OG Analytical Presents: Cannabis Science Pub

I came across the following event on Facebook. It sounds very cool. Who doesn’t want to learn more about cannabis science?: OG Analytical presents: Cannabis Science Pub! A FREE monthly educational series on the science of Cannabis. Join OG Analytical every last Tuesday at Cozmic as we explore the science of Cannabis. Play trivia to

CBD Medicines Face New National Challenges

The Cannabis Benchmarks Weekly Report tells us that a half-dozen companies who market CBD-laden medicines and foods were sent letters this month from the FDA warning them against making claims of health benefits. CBD is the shortened name of cannabidiol, a phytocannabinoid chemical prevalent in cannabis, especially when plants are specifically bred by master growers

US DC: Review: Smoking Out the Stories on a Trailblazing Beat

Washington Post, 19 Feb 2016 – The legalization of recreational marijuana in Colorado and the District has led to a so-called “green rush” of prospectors looking to cash in. Can the commercial potential from this newly sanctioned vice revitalize a newspaper industry struggling in the Internet age? Documentarian Mitch Dickman’s “Rolling Papers” follows Ricardo Baca, marijuana editor at the Denver Post since 2013, to find out. Yet despite slick production values, this look at the intersection of two potentially fascinating subcultures – journalists and stoners – yields only half-baked results. ALCHEMY Jake Browne’s journalism job: Pot critic, writing reviews of such strains as Glass Slipper and Banana Kush for the Cannabist, a publication devoted to marijuana in the Denver Post. Denver Post editor Gregory L. Moore picked Baca from the ranks of his music writers, confident that he would be equally at home with pot. This logic points to one of the film’s weaknesses. “Rolling Papers” is scored with a variety of pot-friendly music, from stoner hip-hop to reggae. Unfortunately, the cues come off as increasingly flip when the film turns from its recreational subject to more serious matters, as when shots are fired at an outdoor cannabis festival.

Meet The Man That Discovered The Endocannabinoid System

I received the following message and thought it was worth passing along: Have you ever heard of the endocannabinoid system? Meet the man who discovered it at #Unity16 March 18-22 in Washington, D.C. ASA is thrilled to announce the Keynote Speaker for the 4th Annual National Medical Cannabis Unity Conference is Professor Lumír Hanuš! Prof.

10 Cannabis Strains That Won’t Make You (As) Hungry

“There’s weed that don’t make you hungry? For real? Honey, this changes everything.”

That was my Lyft driver’s response when I told her not all cannabis makes your gullet an insatiable black hole. Most cannabis consumers – especially first-time experimenters – have only tried high-THC strains, so it’s no wonder that the dispelling of this common misconception comes to the surprise of many who have long associated cannabis with the inevitable “munchies” syndrome.

The munchies can be a beautiful thing, and I’m not just talking about the pure ecstasy that comes with dual-wielding a fried chicken leg and an ice cream sandwich once in a while. That appetite stimulation is life-changing for patients dealing with cancer, depression, and other gastrointestinal/appetite disorders. But not everyone wants uncontrollable food lust, and some will actively avoid cannabis because of this one side effect – particularly those struggling with pre-existing eating and weight issues.

For those of you interested in reaping the myriad of benefits cannabis has to offer without the unbridled gluttony, we hope you find this list helpful. Remember, you can click the strain to see if it’s available at a store or dispensary near you!

High-CBD Strains

If you’ve ever tried a high-CBD strain before, you’ve probably noticed that they don’t summon the munchies monster like THC-rich varieties. A Yale study published last year found that THC – the same chemical responsible for cannabis’ euphoric high – stimulated a group of nerve cells in the hypothalamus, the area of the brain that governs instincts like hunger and arousal.

While less is known about CBD’s influence on appetite, we do know that this non-psychoactive constituent counteracts many effects of THC and researchers have even eyed CBD as an anti-obesity treatment based on its activity in the brain. Our own anecdotal evidence leads us to recommend high-CBD, low-THC strains for the best “munchie-less” experience, but a strain with equal parts CBD and THC can also induce less hunger with the added benefit of mild euphoria.

A popular strain found in many Oregon shops, Harle-Tsu is hybrid cross between two high-CBD parents, Harlequin and Sour Tsunami (which are also worth looking into for minimal munchies strains). Harle-Tsu typically expresses a high-CBD profile with very little THC, making it a perfect choice for anyone who wants the relaxing and therapeutic effects of cannabis minus the euphoria or paranoia.

The “Remedy” for your over-excited appetite is this indica cross between Cannatonic and Afghan Skunk. With a THC content that rarely squeaks past 1%, Remedy delivers mental tranquility and physical relief without the psychoactive burden. This Pacific Northwest strain is perfect for the patient needing to curb pain, anxiety, tension, headaches, or insomnia, but doesn’t want to interrupt their day with hourly snack breaks.

Canna-Tsu is taking off across the U.S., discoverable in Oregon, California, Illinois, Washington, Colorado, and many other medical marijuana states. Sweet and earthy in flavor, Canna-Tsu provides a boost to both mood and focus. Though this strain may calm upset tummies, you shouldn’t feel any extra rumblings of hunger.

For uncompromised energy and clarity, we recommend the low-munchies sativa MediHaze. This one can sometimes exhibit equal levels of THC and CBD, but compared to high-THC, low-CBD strains, MediHaze is much better for keeping the appetite at bay.

Similar to the widely coveted ACDC hybrid, Cannatonic is a high-CBD strain that relaxes the body while leaving the mind free to focus. On average, Cannatonic has a 2:1 ratio of CBD:THC, meaning you probably won’t feel much in the way of a high or hunger.

High THCV Sativa Strains

By now you know what THC and CBD is, but you may not be familiar with the less ubiquitous THCV, a related chemical that suppresses appetite. While most strains on the market today tend to test anywhere between 10-20% THC, what’s considered a high THCV content might only hit a high-water mark of 5%. THCV tends to be more abundant in sativa strains, and it’s possible you’ve noticed that sativas tend to provoke hunger less than indica strains. The unique metabolic effects of THCV even have researchers considering its utility in treating obesity and diabetes.

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While high-CBD strains tend to induce little to no high, these THCV-rich sativas produce high-energy, psychoactive effects. That’s good news if you like the euphoria associated with cannabis, but don’t want the raging appetite.

With an average THCV content that ranges between 0.2 to 1.8%, Durban Poison is the perfect weapon against overactive appetites and can be found in most major markets. Cherished for its active, upbeat high that can fuel productivity, this pure African sativa keeps you focused on what matters more than snacks.

Resist the call of the pizza with Power Plant, an electrifying sativa that descends from African landrace strains. Its spicy, peppery aroma perks up the senses, leaving you with inspiration and positivity instead of a demanding stomach. You can find Power Plant in many different markets across the U.S. and beyond, so check to see if a shop near you is carrying it.

Kill the temptation to order half Taco Bell’s menu with Jack the Ripper, a sativa strain that carries a tantalizing lemon scent. A favorite in the Pacific Northwest, this invigorating sativa is sure to summon a talkative mood long before a talkative tum.

Another African sativa, Red Congolese focuses all of its psychoactive energy in the head, helping creativity and focus to thrive. Among the list of activities this sativa motivates, you’ll sooner find hiking, painting, and reading more appealing than eating the entire contents of your fridge. Though most frequently found in Vancouver, BC and Ontario, you might be delightfully surprised by its occasional appearance on the West Coast and in other areas of the U.S..

As sweet and citrusy as this sativa might taste, Moby Dick doesn’t coerce the appetite as much as other strains. Expect instead to feel your mood and energy elevate to a place in which it’s easy to feel satisfied whether or not you treated yourself to an entire cheesecake. This sativa is lovingly embraced in Canada and Spain, although Americans have also reported sightings of the legendary Moby Dick in many markets.

Interested in strains that do make you hungry? Try these 10!

“The Drug War Created Stronger Strains”: 5 Ironic Contradictions in Cannabis

There has been no shortage of ironies pointed out by cannabis supporters and reformers in discussing issues in cannabis policy and the social attitudes that accompany it. Do we even need to rehash how the federal government continues to list cannabis as having no medicinal value when well over half the country has legalized it for medicinal use? We’ll refrain from commenting ad nauseum on this, yet there are many more contradictions woven into cannabis policy, history and culture. From the difficulty of legalizing fully in states where support for legalization is the strongest, to the fact that there’s no legal way to start a new state’s medical marijuana industry from scratch, below are just five of the ironies in cannabis today.

1. States with more support for legalization can have a harder time legalizing.

The more individuals that support legalization in a certain state, the more competing legislative proposals tend to be introduced in that state. Different groups with differing interests compete for support for their unique proposal, which can end up splitting pro-legalization voters into factions, and making it impossible to accumulate the support required to pass any one legalization proposal. California, for instance, has been at the forefront of the movement toward legalizing recreational marijuana for decades, yet thanks in large part to competing proposals, it has already been beaten to the punch by four states and D.C., with the potential for many more to overtake it in 2016.

2. A crackdown on criminal behavior encourages criminality.

When the original Prohibition experiment was enacted in the United States in 1920, it created a new breed of citizen: the scofflaw. Overnight, innocent people were made criminals, and where previously, unlawful behavior had been relatively rare and socially scorned, suddenly, a huge proportion of the populace found themselves frequently and openly in violation of the law. Rather than encouraging temperance, habitual lawbreaking simply became commonplace. The same has proved true with cannabis prohibition; with 44% of Americans having tried cannabis (according to Gallup), about one in four U.S. citizens technically counts as a criminal under federal law, and this sort of lawlessness has become as rampant as the consumption of alcohol was during Prohibition.

3. The War on Drugs created stronger strains.

When The War on Drugs pushed marijuana onto the black market, it made surreptitious growth and transportation of cost-effective quantities of marijuana extremely difficult. As such, the development of highly potent plants optimal for trafficking was significantly incentivized. “Drugs are more potent today…but that’s largely because of the drug war, not despite it,” writes Johann Hari for the Los Angeles Times. “As crackdowns on a drug become more harsh, the milder forms of that drug disappear — and the most extreme strains become most widely available.” Today, cannabis is between 57 and 67 percent more potent than the pre-prohibition cannabis of the 1970s.

4. There’s currently no legal way of sourcing cannabis to establish a legal medical marijuana industry.

What happens when a new state legalizes marijuana for medicinal purposes? Inevitably, an illegal act must transpire to spark the state’s new industry. Ignoring seeds that are within state borders prior to legalization, which already fall into the illegal category, the alternative is to source seeds from states who have already legalized cannabis. As it is federally illegal to transport cannabis, including its seeds, across state and national borders alike, any seeds must therefore be acquired illegally.

5. What has long been vilified as a gateway to harder drug use is now being studied as a gateway out of it.

As cannabis gains more mainstream acceptance and understanding than ever, the potential of cannabis as a means of weaning addicts off of harder drugs is being taken more seriously. With the epidemic of opioid abuse in particular, studies such as one published by Columbia University in July 2015 have supported this hypothesis. “From 1999 to 2008, the U.S. saw a 300 percent increase in overdose deaths from painkillers,” summarized Ali Venosa for Medical Daily. “Despite its reputation among many as a gateway drug or otherwise dangerous substance, deaths directly resulting from an overdose of marijuana are nonexistent.” Instead, evidence that cannabis can help address withdrawal symptoms increasingly suggests that it could actually help save lives that might otherwise be lost to addiction.

2016 SoCal High Times Medical Cannabis Cup Entries

I attended the 2012 SoCal High Times Medical Cannabis Cup when it was held in Los Angeles. Due to various reasons, the event was later moved to San Bernardino to the NOS Center. I have attended other events at that venue, but never a Cannabis Cup. It’s a stellar location, and when the Cup is

The Shake: How Much Did Stoner Sloth Cost Taxpayers?

Vermont attorney general backs legalization. William Sorrel, the state’s current AG, stepped forward to give the state’s already-promising legalization prospects an extra boost. Sorrell’s support follows on former Attorney General Kimberly Cheney, who came out a few weeks ago to back S.241, which would legalize and regulate marijuana in Vermont. In an official letter straight from the State Office of the Attorney General, Sorrel joins forces with Cheney and M. Jerome Diamond, another former Vermont attorney general, in one powerhouse display of support for the greenery in the Green Mountain State.

Dr. Joycelyn Elders says study and legalize. The former U.S. surgeon general delivered the keynote address at the International Cannabis Business Conference in San Francisco, where she made an enthusiastic endorsement for Bernie Sanders’ proposal to remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act. “I felt like the government should be involved in studying it,” she said, “and, if necessary, legalizing it.” Elders espoused the possible benefits of drug legalization as far back as 1993, when she was still in office. The opinion was unpopular with Congress and the White House, and the ensuing controversy, along with her strong opinions on sex education and condom distribution, eventually lead to her ouster by President Clinton.

Remember Stoner Sloth? The anti-cannabis advertising campaign that backfired on epic proportions cost Australian taxpayers $350,000, according to public records. But it’s about more than money: 265 public servant work hours also went toward the strange, hilarious failure. The spend included $115,000 for research and evaluation, $136,700 for production, and $99,990 for media agency Universal McCann. Advertising firm Saatchi & Saatchi, which made $36,386 on the job, has defended the three-toed bellyflop as a “significant return on investment and involvement.”

QUICK HITS: The DEA isn’t properly tracking the seized drugs, according to a new report, leaving them vulnerable to theft or tampering and compromising the security and usability of seized drugs as evidence. * An 8-year-old boy from Oregon ate a packaged cookie he found on the ground. Unfortunately, the it was infused with 50 mg of THC, which led to his hospitalization. His mother reminded the public to keep all medicines out of reach of children. We’ll have to wait and see how the anecdote affects the state’s pending decision on edible limits. * Cannabis cultivation uses a bucketload of energy because of indoor production, a report from the data analysis firm New Frontier finds. “Marijuana is the most energy-intensive agricultural commodity that we produce,” the report says, adding that cannabis production accounts for 1 percent of the nation’s entire electrical output.

BREAKING: Scalia's Death Could Decide Colorado Case’s Fate

The death of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia could have major repercussions for an important test of cannabis legalization before the high court early next week. The remaining eight justices are expected to consider whether to hear Nebraska and Oklahoma v. Colorado, a lawsuit that challenges legalization in Colorado, as early as Monday. (The conference had been scheduled for today, February 19, but was postponed due to a ceremony honoring the late justice.) If the case moves forward, it could derail Colorado’s regulatory apparatus and have a chilling effect on the nationwide legalization movement.

The attorneys general of Nebraska and Oklahoma filed suit in December 2014, claiming that the legalize-and-regulate program established in 2012 by Colorado’s Amendment 64 harmed their states by facilitating cannabis exportation across state lines. If at least four justices vote to accept the case, the Supreme Court will hear it in full later this year.

Joel Warner, writing recently in the International Business Times, put the justice’s absence in stark terms. “Scalia’s missing vote could change the fate of a case that has the potential to dismantle the country’s nascent legalized market,” he wrote.

Scalia could have provided a fourth vote — or not. On the bench he often sided with states’-rights advocates, but he was an ardent foe of any kind of cannabis legalization or leniency. In a recent analysis of Scalia’s record, writer Tom Angell concluded that “he probably wasn’t a fan of the fact that local businesses in Colorado are selling marijuana in defiance of federal law.” Scalia’s stand in favor of states’ rights and against federal overreach seemed to reach its limit when it came to marijuana. In the 2005 case Gonzalez v. Raich, he joined the majority in upholding the federal government’s right to prosecute a woman who grew medical marijuana in accordance with state law.

Today’s case was perhaps best summarized by a Denver Post reader named Corey Whitmer, who posted this comment to a story in late 2014: “Ah, the Upset Neighbors. Calling the cops about the house party next door.”

As the British might say: Spot on.

Nebraska and Oklahoma, in their original complaint, argue that Amendment 64 “has created a dangerous gap in the federal drug control system enacted by the United States Congress. Marijuana flows from this gap into neighboring states, undermining Plaintiff States’ own marijuana bans, draining their treasuries, and placing stress on their criminal justice systems.”

As many observers have noted, it’s a curious argument that, if accepted, could lead to an untold number of lawsuits between the states. Utah could sue California over its more permissive alcohol laws. California could sue Utah over its more permissive laws on guns. Texas could sue New Mexico over differing abortion laws. Washington could sue Oregon over the disparity in retail sales tax. (Washington has one, Oregon doesn’t, and Washington car dealerships near the border suffer the harm.)

The legal brief filed by the attorneys general of Oklahoma and Nebraska does make one thing clear: They are hoppin’ mad at Colorado. “If this entity [Colorado] were based south of our border,” they wrote, “the federal government would prosecute it as a drug cartel.”

The Obama Administration has weighed in on Colorado’s side. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli argued that Nebraska and Oklahoma haven’t been injured by Colorado. “At most, they have alleged that third-party lawbreakers are inflicting those injuries, and that Colorado’s legal regime makes it easier for them to do so.”

That did not please the AGs of Oklahoma and Nebraska, who retorted that the administration sought to “blame the whole problem on Joe Blunt.”

Yes. Joe Blunt.

“Colorado has created a massive criminal enterprise,” the upset AGs added. “Colorado created this illicit market for profit, and profit handsomely it does thanks to taxes imposed at every step.”

Colorado, for its part, noted that its neighbors weren’t challenging Colorado’s right to legalize – only its right to regulate. “In other words, if [Nebraska and Oklahoma’s] requested relief is granted, recreational marijuana would remain legal, but Colorado would lose the ability to monitor and regulate its retail supply and distribution.”

The case may ultimately turn on the fundamental question of jurisdiction. State-against-state lawsuits go directly to the Supreme Court, but the court accepts them only under rare circumstances. A 1992 case, Mississippi v. Louisiana, set a high bar: Before the Supreme Court could move to control the conduct of one state at the behest of another, the opinion says, “the threatened invasion of rights must be of serious magnitude and it must be established by clear and convincing evidence.”

Under those provisions, the harm delivered by Joe Blunt driving east from Denver might not be worthy of the high court’s consideration.

Image Source (curves, cropped): United States Mission Geneva via Wikimedia Commons

US Marijuana Production Energy Costs Exceed $6 Billion

New Frontier, the leading Big Data provider in the cannabis industry, analyzes the high energy costs associated with cultivating marijuana in its latest report, Illuminating Cannabis: The Future of Energy in the Cannabis Industry. Marijuana is the most energy intensive agricultural crop produced in the U.S. Its production consumes one percent of the country’s electrical

420 Games To Invade Los Angeles

Created to destigmatize cannabis and the people who use it,The 420 Gamesathletic event has experienced great success in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park for the past two years. This March, The 420 Games will debut in Los Angeles, the first leg of a four-state, six-city tour. Participants are “Going the Extra Mile for Cannabis” in

Leafly Science Roundup: Can Cannabis Improve Your Workout?

Cannabis won’t make you a nervous, miserable wreck. That’s the conclusion of a study published Thursday in the journal JAMA Psychiatry that failed to find a connection between mood disorders and cannabis use in adults. Researchers looked at about 35,000 U.S. adults, examining their cannabis use and, three years later, looking at their rates of mental illness. The conclusion: “Cannabis use was not associated with increased risk for developing mood or anxiety disorders.” Case closed? Not quite. Some other recent studies suggest such a connection might exist, though none has established a causal connection. Expect the back-and-forth to go on for a while. (Research would, of course, be easier if the federal government simply rescheduled cannabis, but you already know that.) The study did find an association between cannabis use and substance-use disorders, however, so there’s still good reason to consume responsibly.

Are more people using cannabis? Probably, but not as many as we thought. A study back in October said the number of people using cannabis more than doubled from 2001 to 2013, but a new report raises doubts. Instead of an increase in consumption, researchers wrote in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, it’s more likely the observed spike reflects simply an increased willingness by survey respondents to acknowledge their use. The update hinges on the fact that the initial survey was based on face-to-face interviewers with researchers. As society has become more accepting of cannabis, the new study found, respondents were less likely to conceal their use of the drug. Controlling for the difference, researchers revised the initial study’s estimate and found that cannabis use between 2001 and 2013 increased by a far more modest 19 percent.

Can cannabis help with your cardio? Believe it or not, yes. The little available research we have suggests cannabis is an “ergolytic,” meaning it decreases work capacity and cardiac output. But there’s more to a workout than peak horsepower. Iñigo San Millán, a director of sports performance at the University of Colorado, says cannabis can take the mind off pain and help athletes stay in the zone during tough workouts. It can also reduce stress and promote sleep, he says, making it a promising post-workout recovery aid. There are downsides, of course — cannabis can slow reaction times and may temporarily increase heartrate — but Clifford Drusinky, an elite triathlete, swears by the 20 milligrams of THC he eats in a cannabis-infused energy bar every morning: “Marijuana relaxes me and allows me to go into a controlled, meditational place,” he says. “When I get high, I train smarter and I focus on form.”

So maybe we should let athletes use it. The Super Bowl gave a whole bunch of former football players a chance to talk about how physically demanding (read: tragically devastating) the sport can be. It also let them tear into the NFL and its continued prohibition of cannabis, arguably one of the most promising treatments for a number of football-related injuries. Cannabidiol (CBD), for example, can help protect and even heal the brain. That could be big in a league where 96 percent of players, according to a 2015 study, show signs of chronic traumatic brain injury. Medical marijuana could help manage the pain of chronic traumatic encephalopathy and even slow the disease’s progression. It could also be far safer to players than prescription painkillers and other dangerous drugs. Nevertheless, NFL players even in legal states face fines and other penalties if they test positive for cannabis.

Elizabeth Warren is on board. The senator from Massachusetts urged the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to consider cannabis as an alternative to painkillers, arguing that legalization could help end America’s opioid epidemic. Cannabis, after all, is effective at treating pain, it’s safe (aside from a few “non-serious” side effects), and it’s less likely to be used alongside alcohol or other painkillers. All that saves lives: States with medical marijuana laws have a 24.8 percent lower rate of opioid overdose deaths compared to states without medical marijuana, a 2014 study found. Another study last year noticed a 15 to 35 percent drop in substance abuse admissions — and a similar drop in opiate overdose deaths — in areas where dispensaries exist.

No breathalyzer for cannabis yet. Blame it on the molecules. NPR explains why it’s so much more difficult to design a breathalyzer for THC than it is for alcohol, and it mostly boils down to this: THC dissolves in fat, and booze dissolves in water. When you drink, alcohol saturates your body evenly, so the percentage in your breath is a good indicator of the percentage in your blood. But THC, being fat-soluble, collects in fatty tissues over time. The upshot? Alcohol behaves much more predictably and uniformly from person to person than THC, making it easier to test for and to correlate with impairment level. Despite efforts to develop a cannabis breathalyzer or saliva test, nothing so far has stuck. Play it safe and drive sober.

“This is your brain on drugs”? Not quite. Two separate studies this month fired back against the stupid-stoner stereotype and found no evidence adolescent marijuana use leads to a decline in intelligence. But it’s clear there’s still a lot to learn about the effects of cannabis on young brains. Another study found that participants who smoked cannabis daily as teenagers had lower verbal memory scores than those who used cannabis less frequently or began at a later age. Despite the apparent connection, however, the study found that past cannabis use did not appear to affect participants’ other cognitive functions.

It actually might help your head. Cannabis has long been used for the treatment of migraines, and a University of Colorado study published last month backs the practice up with data. Of 121 adult participants, about 85 percent reported having fewer migraines per month when using cannabis. The average number of migraines fell from 10.4 per month to 4.6, and only 2 percent saw an increase in migraine frequency. It’s still not clear exactly how cannabis curbs the headaches, but it’s increasingly clear that it does.

Scientists are homing in on genetic differences in cannabis users. Researchers at the University of Exeter and University College London identified a gene they say predicts how susceptible cannabis users are to developing mental illness. Doctors have been probing the connection between cannabis and psychosis for some time, but they’ve struggled to understand how one affects the other. The study found that young people with a particular variant of the AKT1 gene were more likely to demonstrate “psychotic-like” effects after using cannabis. Scientists had already established a link between the AKT1 gene and psychosis, but this was the first that showed a link between the gene and psychotic effects of cannabis. The researchers stressed psychosis was extremely rare, affecting only about 1 percent of users.

What’s going on in that bong? Is all that gurgling actually making your toke any healthier? We at Leafly weren’t too sure, so we found out. What did we find out? Nobody else is too sure, either. Filtering smoke through water does seem to remove a lot of the bad things in smoke, but it also removes a lot of the desirable cannabinoids. Dig into the research and there’s evidence both ways. The conclusion? While your bong might give you nice smooth hits, it ultimately may not be any healthier than a joint.

And finally, remember that DEA agent who warned medical cannabis might lead to stoned bunnies? Turns out there’s no scientific evidence for that. The DEA finally replied to a Freedom of Information Act Request about the claim by acknowledging that “no responsive records were located.” Are we relieved? Yes. Heartbroken? That, too. Stoned bunnies sound freaking adorable. But in case you’re wondering, scientists have tried to get rabbits high. Because science.

Courtroom Drama: Bribery, the IRS, and a Cautionary Cannabis Tale

“Have you ever taken a bribe before?”

According to former IRS agent Paul Hurley, that wasn’t an uncommon query. He’d received it many times before. Taxpayers are curious. They tend to ask questions.

But as Hurley recounted the scene in federal court in Seattle last week, this time the ask was a little different. This time it would lead to an actual bribe exchanging hands.

The dramatic case of U.S. v. Paul G. Hurley, which played out in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour last week, represented a watershed moment in the short history of legal cannabis. It was one of the first times anyone in the industry had been arrested for a crime connected to the Internal Revenue Service’s onerous 280E rule. The twist here was that the cannabis seller wasn’t on trial. The federal agent was.

Hurley, the now-former Internal Revenue Service agent, had been arrested for soliciting and accepting a bribe. In the summer of 2015, he conducted an audit of Have a Heart Compassion Care, a Seattle-based medical and recreational cannabis company owned by Ryan Kunkel.

It was Hurley’s first time auditing a marijuana business. He knew going in that the case might be difficult. Under the IRS tax code section 280E, businesses that deal with a federally illegal substance cannot make any deductions for business expenses aside from the cost of goods sold. The rule has crippled many cannabis businesses, which have found themselves owing hundreds of thousands of dollars to the government. The IRS, Hurley noted, offers no special training for agents handling cannabis audits.

As Hurley recounted in his testimony last week, he got to know Kunkel, Have a Heart’s owner, over small talk in the parking lot of the Aurora Avenue dispensary, where Kunkel and the IRS agent would take cigarette breaks.

The audit was business as usual, according to both parties. Kunkel had exercised limited oversight of the accounting process and estimated only the cost of goods sold, essentially the only deduction allowed for a cannabis business.

After examining the tax records, Hurley determined that Kunkel owed the IRS $292,175.41, divided between the 2013 and 2014 fiscal years.

What happened next remains hotly disputed.

On the Stand

Hurley didn’t make an exciting villain. As he took the stand, bearing witness to his own downfall, he wore a poor-fitting khaki suit and an expression of shameful reproach.

His lawyer, the famous John Henry Browne, defender of “Barefoot Bandit” Colton Harris Moore and serial killer Ted Bundy, expertly spun the tale of a hardworking public official with immense student loan debt and a new baby to support.

Was a bribe asked for? Hurley said no. He simply wanted to help Kunkel with his taxes and accounting, the former agent said. He was looking to get his foot in the door with other marijuana businesses in the area.

The one phrase that they both agreed upon was Hurley’s: “I’m living paycheck to paycheck,” he told Kunkel. “I saved you over a million dollars.”

Kunkel testified that Hurley then rubbed thumb and forefinger together in a universally understood money sign, implying a bribe.

The Have a Heart owner said was taken aback, but replied, “How much?”

Hurley said simply “Twenty,” which Kunkel understood to mean he wanted $20,000.

Kunkel later admitted to Leafly, “I was going to pay it, to be honest. But I started thinking about it, and he said some things that kind of freaked me out. He said, ‘Can you make small deposits into my account over time?’ That’s structuring, that’s wire fraud, public corruption. I’m thinking this guy’s undercover, he’s wrapping me up in a nice little RICO package for the feds.”

At that point, Kunkel said, he consulted with several legal advisors he’d worked with in the past. They immediately advised him to go to the U.S. Attorneys Office.

By then, Kunkel was concerned about the survival of his business interests due to 280E taxes.

“If 280E didn’t exist, this would have been a straightforward audit,” he said. “There wouldn’t have been any doubt about whether or not we could have the cost of goods. The whole thing was a sham.”

Kunkel and Hurley agreed to meet at a nearby Starbucks on Sept. 16, 2015, the day after Hurley submitted final paperwork for the audit. Kunkel carried the cash in a manila envelope wrapped in a newspaper. He’d arranged the meeting with the assistance of the FBI. Kunkel wore a wire, and undercover agents waited in the shop. A hidden camera captured the whole exchange, during which Hurley received money literally under the table. He picked up the envelope, an action he does not deny.

“Do you regret taking that envelope?” asked Browne, his lawyer.

“Absolutely.” Hurley’s voice broke. “Everything spun out of control with allegations of bribery.” He began to weep on the stand. “I can’t believe I made such a huge mistake.”

The Verdict

In the end, it was a relatively speedy trial. Jury members began their deliberations on Wednesday. The verdict came in late Friday afternoon. Hurley was acquitted of the more serious charge — soliciting a bribe — but was convicted of receiving a bribe as a public official. He’s scheduled for sentencing on May 13.

Though the outcome of the trial was technically in his favor, Have a Heart owner Ryan Kunkel said he’s dejected by the whole affair. The IRS has scheduled a re-audit of all eight Have a Heart Compassion Care locations. “The IRS will force me into bankruptcy over this,” he said. “That is guaranteed. I can’t imagine anybody who wants to jump on a financial grenade.” He even feels a tinge of regret.

“I never wanted to set anybody up like that, send him to jail, wear wires,” Kunkel told Leafly after the verdict. “I don’t think anybody does. I mean, he’s a human being with a kid and a wife.”

US CA: Column: Sign Up, Pay Up

North Coast Journal, 18 Feb 2016 – It wouldn’t exactly be accurate to say Humboldt County marijuana growers are rushing into compliance. But Humboldtians put their neighbors to shame, out-enrolling other Northern California counties in the state Water Board’s marijuana compliance program. As the Times-Standard reports, the deadline to enroll in the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board’s Cannabis Cultivation Waste Discharge Regulatory Program (take a breath) was Feb. 15.

US CA: Column: The Cannabis ATM

SF Weekly, 18 Feb 2016 – California’s cannabis gold rush has at last reached the august halls of government. Noting that legal sales of medical cannabis exceed $1 billion annually, state Sen. Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg) last week unveiled a proposal that would make California’s biggest cash crop one of the most heavily taxed commodities in the state. Under McGuire’s “Marijuana Value Tax Act,” a 15 percent tax would be slapped on medical cannabis at the point of sale. This would be added to taxes already paid on weed: state sales tax – 8.75 percent in San Francisco and 9.5 percent in Oakland – and any local taxes applied by local governments (which in Oakland is another 5 percent).

A Conversation With Natasha Leggero, Leafly Comedy Tour's L.A. Show Headliner

Leafly’s first-ever comedy tour is coming to Los Angeles! For those who can’t wait for the giggles to get going, we’ve got an exclusive interview with our L.A. show headliner: actress and comedian Natasha Leggero.

Leggero, who has appeared all over TV and late-night shows and who once roasted James Franco, stars in Comedy Central’s Another Period, which she also created and writes for. The show, set in Rhode Island in 1902, spoofs programs like Downton Abbey — think waistcoats and sex jokes. Season two is in the works, set to premiere later this year.

Leggero talked to Leafly about cannabis, comedy, and simple pleasures like getting high and checking items off her to-do list. She even gave some advice to those of you who will see her in person at the Feb. 27 show. (By the way, have you RSVP’d yet? You should. It’s free.)

Not in Tinseltown? There are other ways to get your Leggero fix. Another Period is available to stream on Comedy Central and Amazon, and you can also watch an hourlong standup special, “Natasha Leggero: Live at Bimbo’s,” on iTunes or CC Direct. If you want to see her live but can’t make it to the Leafly Comedy Tour, Leggero is kicking off a multicity tour of her own that begins in May.

Leafly: Cannabis and comedy are a great match, at least when you’re in the audience. What’s it like among comics?

Natasha Leggero: Just to be in the comedy community is to be in the cannabis community. I don’t think there’s a lot of squares in comedy. People are either sober or they smoke pot.

So what are your thoughts on performing for a cannabis-related crowd?

I think it’s always fun when there’s that atmosphere where everyone’s kind of partying but they’re not drunk, they’re smoking pot. It’s fun. The conversations are better, their attention spans are better, they’re quiet. It creates a kind of environment I like to hang out in.

OK, so fair to consider Natasha Leggero part of the cannabis community?

When you say the cannabis community, I don’t mean, like, the cannabis nerds. Because when I was on Getting Doug with High, people were like, “That’s not how you smoke a bong!” You know, people — Doug’s fans especially — got very up in arms about the way I was holding a pipe, how that’s not the right way. I’m not in that community. I’m in the more “get high and do your errands” community.

You’re saying you won’t be releasing your own cannabis line, à la the Marley family or Willie Nelson, anytime soon?

Oh, there will definitely not be a line of cannabis products from me. That’s not my brand. I would do more of, like, a canned-Champagne type of campaign. I would maybe do a curated playlist to listen to while you’re stoned, but that’s as far as I would get.

Actually, I could take it further and do a playlist for when you’re high on cocaine, for when you’re drunk, a playlist for when you’re on Adderall, a playlist for rehab…

Wait, what would be on the cannabis soundtrack? And what about rehab?

Now rehab, rehab you wouldn’t want any drug music. You wouldn’t want anything that would drive you to do drugs. I’d have to think about it. The cannabis side, I’d say, would be a lot of, like, early dub, pre-Bob Marley.

And until the soundtrack business takes off, what else are you working on?

We’re starting Another Period, season two, starring me, Riki Lindhome, Christina Hendricks, and Michael Ian Black. It’s on Comedy Central, and we’re very excited about it!

Michael Ian Black is headlining our Denver show! And he’s also been on Getting Doug with High in what might have been the most precious celebrity appearance ever.

Michael Ian Black did Getting Doug with High?! I can’t imagine it! He’s so funny, I love him. But I did not know Michael Ian Black did— I should watch that.

When I told a friend about the Leafly Comedy Tour, she was impressed we had a female headliner, as she thinks of comedy as pretty heavily male-dominated. Is that fair? Is standup as bad as Hollywood in general?

There’s more men doing everything. So it’s hard for me to get too upset about it. I think we still have a ways to go, but it seems like it’s going the right direction, at least with women in comedy.

There are definitely some comedians that are obsessed with gender, I’m just not one of them. I like funny people, whether they’re men or women — a lot of my favorite comedians are women — but I’m not going to get on stage and start ranting about sexism in comedy. Because there’s sexism in the world, and I think females get a lot of opportunity in comedy, at least in my experience. If you’re funny.

OK, so maybe I’m way off. Is this a good time for women in comedy?

I feel like it’s a good time for women in comedy. I have my own show where I get to write. I was cast as a prostitute for 10 years, [so] now on my own show, every man I just cast as a gay person. That’s my own retaliation. [laughs]

I cast all the funny women I know. And I’m constantly working on other people’s shows who are funny women. I think it’s a cool time. All my favorite comedians — Tig Notaro, Maria Bamford, Nikki Glaser, Amy Schumer — so many people have their own show now. It’s exciting. Everyone I know is coming up and has their own show or is on their second show. Everyone’s getting to create things, and people are watching it. And everyone’s on tour.

There are now hundreds and hundreds of cannabis strains, many with silly names. If we came to you with a new one, what would you call it?

A name for my cannabis strain? Diamond Pussy.

I have zero clever replies to that, so I’ll turn it back to you: Anything you’d like to say to the L.A. audience before the show?

No red roses. Exotic flowers only.

The Shake: Trump Embraces MMJ, Utah Doesn’t

Trump wouldn’t dump medical cannabis. Appearing on Bill O’Reilly’s Fox News show on Wednesday night, Republican frontrunner Donald Trump said he was an adamant supporter of medical marijuana. “I am in favor of it 100 percent,” he told O’Reilly. Trump hedged on regulated adult use, though, saying “in Colorado, you know, the book isn’t written on it yet.” When O’Reilly, a longtime cannabis prohibitionist, called medical marijuana “a ruse,” Trump pushed back. “I know people that have serious problems, and they did that, and they really, it really does help them,” he said. Sean Quinn, who watches The O’Reilly Factor so you don’t have to, has the full story at Cannabis Now.

Utah expects a flood of younger voters for medical cannabis. So many that a number of historically Republican state legislative districts could flip Democratic, says Salt Lake City’s Fox 13 Now. “Democrats on Utah’s Capitol Hill said they have already seen some of their Republican counterparts have a little heartburn over the idea of medical marijuana on the November ballot,” reports Fox 13’s Ben Winslow. Two medical marijuana bills are technically still alive in the Utah state legislature, but supporters don’t expect either to pass in the face of opposition from the Mormon church. MMJ advocates are instead eyeing a ballot initiative in November. Meanwhile, former University of Utah and Weber State football coach Ron McBride came out in favor of medical cannabis, calling it “a no-brainer.” Said the coach: “It’s needed for the people in our state, and to me it’s just stupidity if you don’t pass this bill.”

Ghostface Killah launches new video genre. Call it…vapah rap? The Wu-Tang member just released a new video promoting his new line of CBD vaporizers known as WuGoo. Keep an eye out at 3:00 for the Leafly shout-out.

Strange busts this week. Hard to believe that people are still getting cuffed for cannabis, but that’s life in non-legal states (and sometimes legal ones too). The past few days have seen a number of odd arrests. Police in Mayfield, Ky., arrested WPSD-TV meteorologist Tori Shaw after finding five marijuana plants in her home, and two in a trash can in her back yard. In Zionsville, Ind., Indianapolis Colts linebacker Jonathan Newsome was arrested after police there discovered cannabis in his apartment while investigating a noise complaint. In Boston, authorities filed charges against Massachusetts cannabis activist Bill Downing for selling CBD oil to undercover detectives in his store, which is called CBD Please. To Smoyer and Newsome, we say: Denver and Seattle are excellent television and pro-football markets. Worth a thought.

QUICK HITS: Arizona researcher Sue Sisley finally secures lab space for her long-delayed study of PTSD and medical cannabis. * “Wallet Returning Guy” goes viral with a note that explains he “kept the cash because I needed weed.” Classy. * The Arizona Chamber of Commerce is “sounding the alarm” against cannabis in an effort to squelch a proposed ballot initiative that would legalize adult use. Think it’ll be awkward when the chamber realizes it’s attacking a fast-growing market stifled mainly by government overregulation? Sound the irony alarm!

Image Source: Gage Skidmore via Flickr Creative Commons

Eco Science Solutions, Inc. Annoucnes Launch of The Pursuit of Fine Herb Original Content Channels for Marijuana Enthusiasts World-Wide

Eco Science Solutions, Inc. (OTCBB: ESSI) announced the launch of The Pursuit of Fine Herb Original Content on its Eco Science Solutions and Herbo channels.

According to the company:

Under the direction of Founders Jeff Taylor and Don Taylor, the Company has been rolling-out originally created content within two distinct channels: one branded Eco Science Solutions, which is focused on Legislative, Geo-political, Financial, Commercial Growing / Distributing, and general Macro-trends within the Cannabis marketplace; and one branded Herbo, which is focused on Daily lifestyle and Consumption, Medical and Recreational Usage, Reviews of Application, Products, Technologies and Commerce Options, Food Pairings and Edibles.

Jeff Taylor, Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer of Eco Science Solutions, Inc commented:

The release of The Pursuit of Fine Herb original content channels compliments our recent location, e-commerce and delivery application launches by bringing first-hand original content for consumers, business owners and delivery providers whom are looking to stay plugged into the rapidly evolving Cannabis marketplace.

Click here to view the full press release. 

The post Eco Science Solutions, Inc. Annoucnes Launch of The Pursuit of Fine Herb Original Content Channels for Marijuana Enthusiasts World-Wide appeared first on Investing News Network.

Aurora Cannabis Gets License to Make Derivative Cannabis Products

Aurora Cannabis Inc. (CSE:ACB,OTCQB:ACBFF) announced that Aurora Cannabis Enterprises Inc., its wholly owned subsidiary, has received approval from Health Canada to produce derivative cannabis products through a Section 56 exemption to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.

As quoted in the press release:

Aurora’s pharmaceutical grade CGMP compliant super critical CO2 fluid extraction (SFE) equipment was acquired last summer in anticipation of receiving Health Canada’s Section 56 approvals. The best-in-class equipment is designed for solvent-free extraction of the active compounds of the cannabis plant while preserving its full terpenoid profile, all of which have generally accepted therapeutic benefits.

Aurora is confident that there will be tremendous demand for these new products, which are conservatively forecasted to contribute 30% additional revenues and improve the Company’s profit margins. Aurora’s facility, with 55,200 square feet of expandable licensed production space, is expected to be running at full capacity by spring 2016, has a demonstrated capability of producing over 8,000 kg of dried cannabis annually.

Neil Belot, chief brand officer at Aurora, commented:

Different methods of administration offer different medical benefits. For patients who are managing certain conditions and symptoms these products can be more appropriate than dried flower. Aurora’s new product line will offer clients more treatment options allowing them to choose from various forms of cannabis for medical purposes.

Click here to read the full Aurora Cannabis Inc. (CSE:ACB,OTCQB:ACBFF) press release.

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Investing in Marijuana: A High-risk Green Rush

It was not too long ago that selling marijuana could grant you a one-way ticket to the big house. But now, as more states move forward with legalizing marijuana, that trip to the big house can turn into a trip to the bank.

The legalization of marijuana in the United States has lit a spark with investors who are turning their focus to the small — but rapidly expanding — medical marijuana industry.

“Everybody is running toward this as the next entrepreneurial wave — the green rush,” Robert Frichtel, CEO of Advanced Cannabis Solutions, told Bloomberg Businessweek in a January interview.

But just how big is the legal marijuana market? Since the beginning of the legalized marijuana industry, the sector has seen significant growth. In fact, a recent report by leading marijuana industry and investment research firm, ArcView, sales of legal cannabis climbed 17 percent to $5.4 billion in 2015 and look to be growing an even more significant 25 percent in 2016. That said, the investors could see the market swell to a $6.7 billion in total sales.

More significantly, investors could expect to see legal market sales grow to $21.8 billion in 2020, with adult use sales accounting for over half of the total market.

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Download this FREE Special Report, Investing in Medical Cannabis Information about Cannabis and Legal Cannabis Stocks.

A long-term play? 

Though investing in marijuana sounds like a lucrative opportunity, market watchers are calling it a long-term investment.

That is not to say that making money right now is an impossibility. A recent Globe and Mail article points to several stocks, including Hemp Inc., Advanced Cannabis Solutions, Medical Marijuana Inc. and GW Pharmaceuticals, all of which have gained on the S&P/TSX Composite Index in the wake of the “green rush.”

However, as with any new opportunity, there is always a fair amount of risk. For the marijuana industry, those risks and challenges include the overarching decriminalization of marijuana at the federal level in the United States, among other regulatory threats.

But looking beyond the bureaucratic red tape still left to be cut, it should be noted that the industry is still in its early stages, meaning that — like any other investment opportunity — penny stocks are a risk. The Financial Regulatory Authority even issued a warning in January for investors to be on the lookout for marijuana stock scams.

Overall, however, it seems that despite the any concerns market watchers might have, the cannabis industry isn’t going to go up in smoke any time soon.

“Business is very good,” Robert Frichtel, told The Globe and Mail. “We are in the early stages of what’s going to be a very large industry over time.”

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Over time is what investors should be considering, it seems, when looking at marijuana investments. Alan Brochstein, a financial analyst in Houston who runs 420investor.com, told the Globe, “[e]verybody wants to get rich real quick, and that’s not the best way to look at these companies … You need to think long term.”

“It’s a multibillion-dollar industry,” Brochstein said. “These companies that people can buy right now are just a teeny, tiny fraction of the industry. They get a lot of focus because people can invest in them, but the reality is that better companies are going to be what you want to invest in. It’s just a question of when they come.”

Wall St. Cheat Sheet echoes the sentiment that investors should steer clear of marijuana stocks — at least for the moment — as prices are especially elevated. Instead, the publication suggests that those investors who cannot ignore the high of the speculative investments look for companies that are “poised to capitalize on the evolution of the market.”

For investors getting into the market, the Investing News Network recently had a look at some publicly traded cannabis companies. Check out our recent interview with Derwin Wallace of Cannabis Investor Webcast for his thoughts on North American cannabis stocks.

Investors looking for what to expect in 2016 can have a look at our recent cannabis investing outlook.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Vivien Diniz, hold no direct investment interest in any of the companies mentioned in this article.

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Jane's Domain: Please Allow Me to Introduce Myself

Editor’s Note: This week cannabis entrepreneur Jane West, founder of Women Grow, joins Leafly as a regular contributor and columnist. One of the industry’s sharpest and most vibrant leaders, West will bring her insights to Leafly twice monthly in her new column, Jane’s Domain.

I became Jane West to prove that I could change my life in a monumental way. I realized that I was the person holding me back from seeking out the bigger and better.

Jane is my nom de plume of pot, adopted because I needed to take a leap out of my former professional career. That I did, head first.

Three years ago I was a corporate event producer, living and raising a family in Denver. In 2013 I created a 420-friendly startup, Edible Events, while keeping my day job. The two parts of my working life remained separate until Feb. 26, 2014, when I appeared in a CNBC documentary on legal marijuana. My boss saw the show — and me — and the next day asked me to make a choice. I could keep my day job, or I could become “Jane West” of Edible Events.

I chose Jane.

That’s not to say this change came without difficulty. I’ve experienced more than my share of doubt, fear, and indecision. At times I’ve struggled with the feeling that I was in way over my head. But as I worked through the struggles, I found that Jane West was stronger, smarter and more powerful than the person I had been. Finding the real Jane allowed me to leave behind the parts of my life that were just adequate in favor of the inspirational and the extraordinary.

As a result, at the age of 40, my past two years have been full of these firsts:

I met Congresswomen Nancy Pelosi and Elizabeth Warren and hosted fundraisers for Colorado Congressman Jared Polis and Congresswoman Dina Titus.

I lobbied in Washington, D.C. (and a year later brought 78 women from 16 states with me).

I was the defendant in a criminal courtroom. Five times.

I got fired from a job for the first time in my life.

My parents permanently moved to the state of Colorado.

My husband changed jobs.

I wrote the foreword to a published book.

I used Twitter, HootSuite, MailChimp, Squarespace, WordPress, Vine, Vimeo, WuFoo, Streak, Zappier, Instagram, Snapchat, Trello, Slack, and Buffer for the first time.

I now know that marijuana is safer than alcohol.

My kids and I watched a story about myself on the NBC Nightly News.

I wrote my first hashtag, and now #byoc is a thing.

I stopped watching TV.

I started sleeping fewer than six hours a night.

I produced a concert at Red Rocks Amphitheatre funded by the cannabis industry showcasing the musicians of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra.

I raised more than $200,000 for not-for-profit organizations.

I missed irreplaceable moments, days and weeks of my kids’ lives.

I stayed in four of New York’s swankiest hotels and spoke at an event on Madison Avenue with New York state Sen. Diane Savino.

I flew to Boston for a private party at a castle.

I ate lunch on the rooftop of the Soho House while people dipped in the pool on a hot August afternoon.

I stopped my five-times-a-week yoga routine.

I appeared on every major news network, with over 2,000 exclusive articles and mentions.

I almost drove off the road when I heard on NPR, “The Colorado Symphony Orchestra combines cannabis and classical music on a high note in Colorado. I’m Neal

Conan and this is Talk of the Nation.”

I celebrated my sons’ fourth and sixth birthdays.

I had an entire chapter of Weed the People, published by Time, written about my events. It was titled “Classically Cannabis”.

I was the “talent” at a four-hour editorial photo shoot.

I celebrated my 38th and 39th birthdays.

I had the best sex in my entire marriage.

I utilized lysergic acid diethylamide.

I celebrated my tenth wedding anniversary.

I smoked a blunt with Snoop Dogg and a few joints with Willie and Annie Nelson.

I have put on more makeup than I have in the past five years combined.

I was way too nice to people who didn’t deserve it.

I didn’t thank my parents enough.

I started wearing heels on weekdays.

I lost a passport, multiple drivers licenses, two pairs of prescription glasses, and two Wi-Fi boxes.

I was in something called a “sizzle reel,” and it wasn’t pretty.

I paid over $500 in parking tickets.

I consumed more cannabis on a weekly basis than ever before in my life.

I wore fake eyelashes. Six times.

I founded an international professional networking organization for the future leaders of the cannabis industry, Women Grow.

The entire time I was completely me.

Can You Bake With Cannabis Lube? We Tried It and Found Out…

SPOILER ALERT: Yes. Yes you can.

Wait, what?

Okay, we’re not technically talking about lube here; the product in question is actually considered a “sensual oil” designed to heighten female sexual pleasure, but it’s the same idea. While unlikely to get you high when used in its intended manner (i.e., topically), recent publicity surrounding these types of products has led a number of imaginative individuals to ponder the question: “…but will I get high if I eat it?”

Who would try such a thing? Well, anyone who appreciates the active ingredient’s psychotropic effects might consider splashing several doses’ worth of THC on your lady parts a waste of cannabis. (Of course, after conducting a cannabis lube review of our own, we have to respectfully disagree.) But there’s also a good many of us who are just plain curious about these sorts of important questions.

After all, most cannabis sensual oils on the market at present are made up solely of coconut oil and THC. Coconut oil is already a hot culinary commodity on its own, and if you take the sexy marketing out of the picture, a bottle of pre-infused coconut oil sounds like an über-handy baking supply. Of course, you can always make your own cannabutter, but it takes some time, and for those of us dealing with important work projects like bong water experiments and picking out canna-crushes, who can go around dropping those extra hours? We thought that canna-lube should do the same trick.

So we set out to put our high-pothesis to the test. We chose a bottle of BOND Sensual Oil for its organic coconut oil base (organic always seems like a good idea). Each one-ounce bottle of BOND contains 150 milligrams of THC, or about 15 moderate doses. Ingredients: coconut oil, cannabis oil, and nothing else. Let’s do this.

As it was a few days before Valentine’s Day (an ideal holiday for lube experiments), I was already planning to bake a batch of festive pink cookies to send to my grandma, so I decided to buy enough ingredients for a second batch and sub the BOND for a portion of the butter. (Note: I kept the batches entirely separate – we do not recommend accidentally sending a batch of cannabis lube cookies to your grandmother, or to any unsuspecting recipient.)

Though the BOND coconut oil base is in liquid form, the dough that used BOND in place of one of the three sticks of butter came together just as well as the non-lubricated cookie dough did. Though the oil had a slightly greenish tinge on its own, when mixed with the remaining ingredients it did nothing to throw off the color of the cookies. The aroma and flavor were similar to that of cannabutter – a definite aroma of cannabis, and not something you’d want to consume on its own, though not an offensive flavor by any means.

I rolled out the cookies to as uniform a thickness as possible, and used a single cookie cutter shape to ensure that the cookies’ cannabis content was roughly equal across the board. I laid my cookies out on parchment paper on a cookie sheet and counted them. 150 milligrams of THC used, divided by 40 cookies (plus about five cookies’ worth of dough lost in mixing, scraps at the edges of the cookie cutters, and a few taste tests), should equal a THC content of approximately three milligrams per cookie. Most edibles contain more, but best to start slow when using something whose effects you’re unsure of (also I forgot to check the recipe yield ahead of time).

I baked the cookies as normal and they came out perfectly golden. I whipped up a batch of frosting (non-infused) and put the finishing touches on the cooled cookies. Then I packed them up and brought them into the office in the name of research. We passed the cookies around the office late on a Friday afternoon. Different “research subjects” selected varying numbers of cookies to get a sense of the range of their effects; most of us sampled one, two or three cookies, with one brave researcher trying five (after all, the cookies were pretty tasty regardless of their effects).

The results? Yes – cannabis lube cookies will get you high. Most reported a mellow body high, with relaxed muscles and a subtle euphoric effect comparable to most edibles sold in stores. One researcher noted that the amount of these particular cookies required to get a seasoned consumer properly high could just as easily cause a stomach ache, so if I did this experiment again, I would use the same amount of infused oil to make a half-batch of the same cookies.

Is baking with cannabis lube cost-effective? Probably not. For instance, California-based MariButter, a pre-infused cannabis butter, sells a 16-ounce container of their product for $40, and each ounce contains 25 milligrams of THC (so 400 milligrams for $40). A recreational outlet in Bellevue, Wash., lists BOND on their menu at $62 for a bottle (so 150 milligrams for $62). There are other factors to consider, including potency (at 150 milligrams in an ounce, BOND is six times as potent as MariButter) and the health benefits frequently associated with coconut oil, but we wouldn’t recommend buying cannabis sensual oil on the reg for your baking projects. However, if you have to have a spare bottle of cannabis-infused oil lying around the house and you’d rather harness the psychoactive effects than the sensual ones, good news – you can!

Want us to review (within reason-ish) something you’re not sure about trying yourself? Email us at tips@nullleafly.com!

The Shake: Cannabis Cup Permit Lost, Psychosis Gene Found

Denver Cannabis Cup permit rejected. April usually brings the High Times Cannabis Cup to Colorado. It’s the magazine’s biggest annual event and a festival that draws tens of thousands of enthusiasts. But this year, maybe not so much. Concerns about cup-goers openly partaking have led Adams County commissioners to deny a permit to Denver Mart, the expo center where the event is usually held. Last year as many as 35,000 visitors attended the event, and safety concerns escalated when, according to law enforcement, a military veteran experienced breathing problems and a woman leapt from a moving vehicle. Owners of Denver Mart assured county officials they’d cap this year’s crowd at 15,000 daily, but apparently that wasn’t enough. Where will the event be held? Stay tuned.

Cannabis psychosis gene identified. Researchers from the University of Exeter and University College London have discovered a link between those who carry a specific gene and those who go on to develop cannabis-triggered psychosis. Young people who carry a variation of the “alpha serine/threonine-protein kinase AKT1” gene code were more likely to experience visual distortions, paranoia, and other symptoms when under the influence of cannabis. The same researchers also found that female cannabis consumers are more susceptible to short-term memory loss than men.

Protest marks opening of Massachusetts dispensary. In an unusual turn of events, medical marijuana protesters interrupted the long-awaited opening of Patriot Care, the first medical dispensary in Lowell. The protest was inspired by Daniel Delaney, a registered lobbyist who assisted Patriot Care in obtaining a medical marijuana license. Delaney created a group called Safe Cannabis Massachusetts to oppose the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol in Massachusetts, an effort to legalize cannabis for adults 21 years of age and older. Patriot Care has three dispensaries in the state and is owned by Columbia Care, a larger organization that also operates in Arizona, New York, and Washington, D.C.

Will the VA’s cannabis gag order be lifted? A directive from the Department of Veterans Affairs that prohibits VA doctors from discussing medical marijuana with their patients expired this year, and veterans are wondering whether it will be renewed or whether VA physicians will finally be allowed to consider cannabis as a treatment. The directive was issued in 2011 and prohibits physicians from informing veterans of their options or recommending cannabis to those seeking to patients in legal states. But the times are changing. Since the edict was issued, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved an amendment to the 2016 Military Construction–Veteran Affairs appropriations bill that prohibits doctors from interfering with a veteran who seeks medical marijuana treatment. The Veterans Equal Access Act was also introduced in the House of Representatives, but received no action.

QUICK HITS: Charlotte, N.C., Mayor Jennifer Roberts says she’s troubled by racial disparities in arrest rates for the possession of small amounts of cannabis. * Two organizations in Billings, Mont., are competing to collect 24,175 signatures for two different petitions to change Montana’s medical marijuana law. * Utah state senators have introduced a new measure, Senate Concurrent Resolution 11, which urges Congress to reclassify cannabis from a Schedule I to a Schedule II drug. The measure requires the approval of the full Legislature and Gov. Gary Herbert before it can be delivered to lawmakers in Washington, D.C.

New Industry Report Speculates Cannabis Sales Could hit $21.8 Billion by 2020

A new industry report forecasts that nationwide cannabis sales could reach $6.7 billion this year and grow to $21.8 billion by 2020.

According to the press release:

The “State of Legal Marijuana Markets” report by research and investment firm the ArcView Group, states that 2016 could be a big year for cannabis in the U.S., with seven more states poised to potentially legalize it for adult use: Arizona, California, Massachusetts, Maine, Nevada, Rhode Island and Vermont. Florida, Ohio, Missouri and Pennsylvania will vote on passing medical marijuana laws.

As more cannabis markets open up, demand is expected to rise 25 percent, according to the report. Such rapid growth has led to significant challenges for the industry, including supplying a huge amount of cannabis crops without the use of potentially hazardous pesticides and making cannabis treatments safer, more discrete and more reliable for patients.

Click here to view the full press release. 

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The Do’s & Don’ts of Cleaning Your Glass: What to Watch Out for With Pipes, Bubblers & Bongs

This article is sponsored by Mile HIGH Cleaner, dedicated to developing all-natural cleaning solutions for the cannabis industry.

The more frequently you consume cannabis, the more important it becomes to clean your pipes, bubblers and bongs. The big question: how to get your glass pieces clean? Not only can resin look and smell unpleasant, its tar compounds include carbon and carcinogens, and continuing to burn them can have an array of negative health effects.

That said, cleaning can be a chore. Furthermore, many are unsure of how best to do it. Through a pair of informal Facebook polls, we asked the Leafly community how and how often they cleaned their glass. Here are a few of the responses we received.

How do you clean your glass?

“Ummm, you are supposed to clean it?” –Andrew Frost

“I don’t, just toss it and buy a new one.” –Robert Weaver

“Dawn power clean dish soap, hot water and pipe cleaners.” –Amanda Skelton

“Nail polish remover that contains 100% acetone…And for more home convenience, run it through the dishwasher.” –Aris Butler

“91% isopropyl alcohol and sea salt…any course salt will work…even sugar works in a pinch.” –Rich Schmitz

“The only thing to use is grain alcohol, it evaporates 100%.” –Gerald Schoolnick

“Fill a plastic bag with a tablespoon of sodium and enough isopropyl alcohol to submerge your piece completely. Place your piece in the substance and make sure the inside gets filled with liquid. Let it sit for 15+ min, shake the bag and move the mixture through the pipe. Remove, boil, and scrape the remainder with a paper clip. It’s important to remove resin as it will be toxic.” –Ben Craighton

“Iso & sea salt, final rinse with a bit of lemon juice for sparkle.” –Chaz French

“Rubbing alcohol & salt, but then polishing toothpaste.” –Courtney Kruk

“Thoroughly.” –Jeff Monastyrsky

Most of the glass cleaning methods above are a lot of work, and require soaking, shaking, or hazardous chemicals. Jim Berry, founder of Lakewood, Colo.’s Mile HIGH Cleaner, set about finding an easier solution for the resin that was building up on his own bong. “I recently started smoking again and realized there hadn’t been any real innovation in cleaning in decades. I started research into this and figured out a better way of cleaning,” says Berry. His compound of all-natural plant-based oils is odorless, tasteless and inert, and is designed to encapsulate the five types of resin left behind by smoking cannabis, allowing them to be washed away easily with a hot water rinse. (Since inventing Mile HIGH Cleaner in 2015, Berry has also discovered that it works on other items, including vapes, dab rigs and cannabis trimming tools.)

Based on his experience, Berry shared the following do’s and don’ts for cleaning your glass. Keep them in mind the next time you see resin on your pipe or bong!

Do’s

Do clean your bong daily, and your pipes once per week. “It really makes a difference; you can taste the smoke, not the resin,” says Berry, who also warns that water-based paraphernalia can grow mold or attract pests in a matter of days.

Do be mindful of the environment. Berry says his plant-based cleaner is safe to eat, and will not harm you or the environment.

Do protect new glass. “By adding 10 drops to the bong, resin will not stick to the glass,” says Berry of his product. “The resin actually prefers to stick to the cleaner. The next day, rinse it clean in hot water. Refill with 10 drops, add water and smoke again.”

Do discover the real flavor of your smoke through a clean pipe or bong. “That clean hit is the best,” says Berry.

Don’ts

Don’t use isopropyl alcohol. “Isopropyl alcohol…is by far the most commonly used cleaning substance for bong and pipe cleaning,” says Berry. “It is also listed by eight different government agencies as being toxic,” including the Environmental Protection Agency, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and the International Agency for Research on Cancer.

Don’t experiment with anything you wouldn’t consume directly. Acetone-based nail polish remover, for instance, is hazardous. “You chose natural medication in cannabis, so why clean with hazardous chemicals?” says Berry.

Don’t spend too much time or money. Berry says using a cleaner like his costs less than eight cents per day, and should take less than a minute to wash away after each use.

To learn more and purchase the product, visit www.milehighcleaner.com.

Cannabis Training Institute Announces Two New eLearning Tracks for Marijuana Dispensary Safety & Medical Cannabis Education

The Cannabis Training Institute (CTI) announced the launch of two new eLearning tracks: Dispensary Workers Health & Safety Training and Medical Cannabis Training.

According to the press release:

The Health & Safety Training track includes both a Dispensary Workers Health and Safety course and a Substance Abuse and Cannabis Course.

The Dispensary Workers Health and Safety course covers dispensary technician employee rights that are guaranteed by State and Federal laws and regulations, workplace violence and other potentials for injury, as well as robbery awareness. The Substance Abuse & Cannabis Course focuses on defining addiction and identifying signs of drug abuse so dispensary technicians can better interact with their customers and patients.

According to Luc Nelson, CTI’s Business Development Director:

The safety of patients and staff is a top priority for marijuana dispensary owners. Like all of CTI’s gold-standard training, our health and safety courses are digitally delivered through an in-site learning management system and viewable from any desktop, laptop or mobile device, making it a convenient and effective way to train techs so they can deliver the best and safest customer service possible.

Click here to view the full press release.

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Tunisia's Ban on Rapping About Cannabis Could Soon Change: The Leafly Legalization Roundup

On the docket this week: Legalization measures are taking one step forward in Connecticut, one step back in New Mexico. Louisiana is thinking positively, Ohio has the best-laid plans for medical marijuana, and Rhode Island is trying to expand qualifying conditions. Beyond the borders, Australia is hoping to become a new global cannabis leader, Tunisia seriously needs to relax their laws, and one brave British politician is standing up for legalization. Here’s the latest:

U.S. News

Connecticut

State Rep. Juan Candelaria (D-New Haven) introduced a bill to legalize possession and use of cannabis for adults 21 and older. Candelaria then joined a group of legislators, including Rep. Eszequiel Santiago (D-Bridgeport), in supporting another, more comprehensive proposal that includes specs on tamper-proof packaging, regulatory oversight, banning public use, and more. Under Candelaria’s proposal, medical marijuana dispensaries could grow cannabis for recreational use, with an allowance for more producer licenses in the event that demand exceeds supply. Unfortunately, Gov. Dannel Malloy says he isn’t comfortable with legalization, although he would support decriminalization.

Louisiana

A group of community members will hold a public forum to discuss opinions and concerns about the possible legalization of cannabis in the Bayou State. A representative from the group Legalize Louisiana are to speak Tuesday afternoon in an effort to educate the public about the benefits of legality, such as the revenue generated from legal cannabis sales. Currently, Louisiana has a strict medical marijuana law that allows patients who qualify under three qualifying conditions to access non-smokable forms of cannabis, such as oils and tinctures, which will be available through ten distribution centers tentatively scheduled to open June 2017.

New Mexico

New Mexico senators voted down a measure, 24–17, that would have legalized recreational marijuana. If it had been approved, the measure would have gone to voters in November. Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino (D-Albuquerque), who authored the proposal, has vowed to continue advocating for legalization in future legislative sessions.

In other news, doctors will be treating the youngest-ever epileptic child ever in a case study about the benefits of hemp oil in Colorado. The child, Amylea Nunez, is just a few months old, but when she was born in Albuquerque in December, it was immediately apparent that she needed specialized care. She suffered from 15 seizures a day and her heart stopped twice. Nunez has only just started her regimen, but her parents are hoping to wean her off other medications and replace them with hemp oil.

Ohio

Ohio’s new constitutional MMJ amendment is planned for the November ballot, but the language hasn’t yet been officially drafted. We’re starting to hear details, though. The amendment would establish a standard infrastructure of businesses to grow, process, test, distribute, and sell medical marijuana. Qualifying patients would obtain a registry card to buy and possess cannabis. Amendment authors are envisioning two types of cultivation licenses, one for smaller grow operations and another for large-scale, industrial production. An Ohio political action committee, Ohioans for Medical Marijuana, chose Michael Revercomb, Lissa Satori, and John Pardee to lead the campaign. To qualify for the November ballot, they’ll need to collect 305,591 signatures between April 2 and July 6.

Rhode Island

The state Senate Health and Human Services Committee is considering legislation that would expand the qualifying MMJ medical conditions to include post-traumatic stress disorder. The legislation, sponsored by Sen. Stephen Archambault (D-Smithfield), would also accelerate the issuance of a medical marijuana card if the patient is eligible for hospice care. A report from the Veterans Administration found that nearly 30 percent of veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan now suffer from PTSD. The condition is currently included as a qualifying condition in Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, and New Mexico.

International News

Australia

The Liberal Party has introduced a draft bill in the Australian parliament to amend the Narcotic Drugs Act 1967, and the measure seems all but guaranteed to pass. The proposal includes regulations for licensing national companies to supply medical cannabis to patients with painful and chronic illnesses as part of state-run clinical trials. New South Wales and several other states have passed laws allowing clinical trials on the effectiveness of cannabis as medicine, but current laws severely restrict cultivation. Researchers have found it all but impossible to find a reliable international source. Access to cannabis is currently limited to researchers and patients in clinical trials, but lawmakers will decide by the end of March whether to allow access for all qualifying patients.

Tunisia

Tunisian rapper Kafon is facing charges under a draconian law that criminalizes any public discourse of cannabis, including arguments, verbal statements, and even song lyrics. In this case, Kafon’s song “Chakchak” contained a violation that put him in prison for nine months before he was released due to pressure from international media. Kafon is hardly the first person to fall victim to the law. Tunisian prisons are overflowing with young, poor, low-level offenders jailed for possession of “zatla,” a low-quality cannabis usually smuggled in from Morocco and Algeria. In December, a proposal to revise the law was approved and sent to parliament. The reform measure would allow first-time offenders to pay a fine rather than serve a year in jail, and it would reduce the maximum penalty for repeat violations from five years down to one.

United Kingdom

Tim Farron became the first leader of a British political party, the Liberal Democrats, to openly endorse the legalization of cannabis for recreational use. Farron plans to propose a motion in support of legalization for both medicinal and recreational use. Those subjects will be debated after the release and analysis of the findings from an expert panel appointed by the party to examine how a legal marijuana market would function in the U.K. The panel so far has found that legalization could save the criminal justice system between £200 million and £300 million annually and could generate between £400 milliion and £900 million in yearly tax revenue.

Some Cannabis Users at Risk of Psychosis due to Genetics

The Daily Mail UK reported that scientists have identified a gene that could predict how susceptible cannabis smokers are to mental illness.

According to the article:

The research, carried out by scientists at the University of Exeter and University College London (UCL), also revealed female cannabis smokers are potentially more susceptible to short-term memory loss than men.

Previous studies have looked at people who already have psychosis, but this is the first to look at healthy people and how the drug affects their minds.

Professor Celia Morgan, professor of psychopharmacology at the University of Exeter, said:

These findings are the first to demonstrate that people with this AKT1 genotype are far more likely to experience strong effects from smoking cannabis, even if they are otherwise healthy. To find that having this gene variant means that you are more prone to mind-altering effects of cannabis when you don’t have psychosis gives us a clue as to how it increases risk in healthy people.

Click here to view the full press release. 

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Tweed Partners with Cannabis Connoisseur Snoop Dogg

Tweed Inc., a subsidiary of Canopy Growth Corporation (TSXV:CGC) has entered into a business partnership with entertainment icon Snoop Dogg.

According to the company’s press release:

Under the partnership, Snoop, through a controlled company, and Tweed have partnered on curated content and brand strategy exclusively in Canada. The license agreement is for an initial three-year term with a two-year extension. As partial consideration for the arrangement, the controlled company will receive a combination of Canopy shares, royalties, and monetary compensation, released over the course of the agreement.

Snoop Dogg commented:

There are real social and medical benefits from the cannabis industry- and the world is seeing this positivity in a whole new way,” said Snoop. “Canada has been at the forefront of the business model, and I look forward to being a part of the road ahead.

Click here to view the full release. 

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The Cannabis Candidate Marcus Musante Announces Campaign Team

Today, Marcus Musante announced the team of politicaladvisors and consultants working to gethim elected to Congress in California’s 44thDistrict. Marcus’s campaign had a successful start, raising over $50,000 in2015. “Senator Isadore Hall is no longer the front runnersince information about his brother’s past came out and frankly his downfall has created an opportunity to move

Using Cannabis to Treat Depression

We hear a lot about how cannabis has helped people suffering from a wide variety of physical ailments, from cancer to glaucoma to AIDS. Stories about using cannabis to treat psychological disorders such as depression, however, are less common. Fortunately, as cannabis sheds the stigma that has long been associated with its use, more people are speaking out about how cannabis has helped them deal with mental illness. Doctors and researchers are also beginning to come out in favor of cannabis and its potential to treat psychological disorders.

What is Depression?

Depression is a complex mood disorder that often leaves sufferers unable to work, eat, sleep or have fun due to their inability to feel joy or pleasure. Several forms of depression exist:

• Major depression — constant inability to enjoy life for six months or more
• Dysthymia — at least two years of mild depression with stable periods
• Bipolar disorder or manic depression — depression with rapid mood changes, often accompanied by hyperactivity, impulsive behavior, rapid speech, and insomnia
• Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) — depression triggered by seasonal changes

The World Health Organization estimates 350 million people of all ages suffer from depression globally. That makes it the leading cause of disability worldwide.

What Are the Causes of Depression?

• Abuse — physical, sexual or emotional
• Conflict — with family, friends or loved ones
• Genetics
• Isolation
• Loss — such as the death of a loved one
• Major transitions or life events
• Serious illness
• Stress — chronic stress is one of the leading causes of depression
• Substance abuse

What are the Symptoms of Depression?

No two people are the same, but hopelessness and lethargy are common symptoms, along with low self-worth, guilt, or shame. It can leave a person tired and unable to concentrate or suppress negative thoughts, leading to short tempers and irritability. It can be difficult to make decisions or remember things. Depression can also spur reckless behavior along with significant weight fluctuation and sleep issues. Insignificant tasks may become excruciatingly exhausting and time-consuming.

Depression can ultimately lead to suicidal thoughts and actions. Suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in America, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which recorded more than 42,000 reported suicides in 2014. That’s a life every 15 minutes. Although depression affects more women than men, more than 75 percent of suicides in 2014 were men.

Current Treatments for Depression

Since a combination of biological, psychological and social factors can cause depression, there is no straightforward treatment or cure. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is important. Eliminate stressors, add meditation to your routine, exercise regularly to boost endorphins, eat nutritious and balanced meals, and sleep 7 to 9 hours each day.

Psychotherapy can be utilized to help recognize and express emotions while building the skills needed to cope with adversity, trauma, and loss. Forms of therapy may include cognitive behavioral therapy, family-focused therapy, or interpersonal therapy.

Antidepressants alone don’t treat depression, and many can take several weeks to take effect. Side effects include dizziness, disorientation, and weight gain. Be sure to talk to your doctor.

How Does Cannabis Help Depression?

Cannabis has been used to treat depression throughout history. In 1621, English clergyman Robert Burton recommended its use in his book The Anatomy of Melancholy, while doctors in India during the same period were actively using it to treat their patients’ depression.

Cannabis is a faster-working alternative to antidepressants that stimulates the endocannabinoid system and speeds up the growth and development of nervous tissue with little to no troublesome side effects. This natural remedy offers patients peace of mind and battles stress by enhancing mood, providing energy and focus, relieving anxiety, inducing hunger, and combating insomnia.

Occasional or daily cannabis consumers have lower levels of depressive symptoms than non-users, a 2006 study found. Researchers at McGill University, in Montreal, discovered that THC in low doses can serve as an antidepressant and produces serotonin — but they also found that high doses of THC can worsen depression symptoms. The cannabinoids THC and CBD are known to exert sedative, antidepressant, and antipsychotic effects on consumers.

The University Medical Center Utrecht, in the Netherlands, touted marijuana as a cure for depression and other mental illnesses after conducting a study that found THC can alter the response to negative images or emotions by activating the endocannabinoid system in the brain. Another study linked cannabis use to improved cognitive function in people suffering from bipolar disorder.

Further research needs to be done, but as long as the federal government continues to classify cannabis as a Schedule I drug, research will continue to be limited. Moreover, depression is not a qualifying condition in most states to obtain a cannabis recommendation. Nonetheless, we do know stress is one of the leading causes of depression, and moderate use of cannabis appears to alleviate stress and stabilize moods.

Samir Haj-Dahmane, a senior research scientist at the University at Buffalo’s Research Institute on Addictions who studies chronic stress and depression, concurs: “Chronic stress is one of the major causes of depression,” Haj-Dahmane says. “Using compounds derived from cannabis — marijuana — to restore normal endocannabinoid function could potentially help stabilize moods and ease depression.”

Happy Presidents Day! The Founding Fathers and Cannabis

Did George Washington smoke cannabis to alleviate chronic pain? Did Thomas Jefferson grow the plant on his Monticello estate? Rumors that our Founding Fathers enjoyed cannabis abound — and every year, they resurface on the internet in viral, Presidents Day-themed articles that paint America’s earliest leaders as bona fide enthusiasts.

The truth is a bit more nuanced but no less intriguing. And this Presidents Day is a fitting time to reflect on that history.

Some blogs and websites allege Washington used cannabis to soothe the pain from his bad teeth and clunky, pre-industrial dentures. No historians of the period have found reliable accounts to support this claim. But our original commander in chief did cultivate hemp for industrial purposes on his estate at Mount Vernon, according to preservationists in charge of maintaining the site. The plants Washington farmed would have had few, if any, psychoactive properties. Instead, they would have been valued for their strong, coarse fibers, which were then processed to produce rope, fabric, and other consumer goods. (For a deeper dive on the differences between cannabis and industrial hemp, this Leafly article has the full scoop.)

What about our third president? A popular quotation attributed to Thomas Jefferson portrays the man as an avid cannabis connoisseur. But no record exists of Jefferson ever having enjoyed the benefits of cannabis on his back veranda — or anywhere else, for that matter. Still, like Washington, Jefferson oversaw acres of hemp cultivation on his property, writing about his crop frequently in letters and diaries.

Washington and Jefferson weren’t unusual; all of their contemporaries viewed hemp, alongside wheat, corn, and oats, as an ordinary, everyday crop. John Adams, the second president, referenced hemp in his personal correspondence. James Madison, the fourth president, is also said to have farmed the plant. And although he never became president, Founding Father Alexander Hamilton sparred over hemp import duties as the first-ever secretary of the treasury.

Our Founding Fathers were publicly outspoken about hemp’s utility and potential. They used hemp products in their own households and corresponded with farmers and merchants about hemp cultivation and trade. Jefferson even developed a special machine to make hemp cultivation more efficient. He and his peers would be aghast at the laws in place today that stifle industrial hemp cultivation.

Most likely, they wouldn’t be fans of cannabis prohibition, either. Were he around today, Washington, no stranger to chronic medical woes, might find medical cannabis a preferable alternative to his era’s more popular therapeutic remedy: leeches. Jefferson, ever the inventor, would appreciate the industry’s emphasis on high standards, technological innovation, and scientific research. And the potential economic and social benefits of ending prohibition would be hard to deny.

The bottom line? Our earliest presidents probably weren’t cannabis enthusiasts, but were they alive today, they’d probably be enthusiastic about cannabis.

6 Tips for Flying Solo This Valentine’s Day

You can’t walk into a grocery store without seeing at least one aisle overflowing with red-and-white hearts, stuffed animals, cards, candy, and various love-related accoutrements. Yes, it’s that time of year — Valentine’s Day. For those of us who are single, in a long-distance relationship, solo poly, or some other version of not-going-to-be-with-a-partner-on-V-Day, this is for you. Some people find this time of year incredibly stressful. Others find it alienating and lonely. Still others find it empowering. Here are my top tips for self-care (and self-pleasure!) if you’re flying solo on Valentine’s Day this year.

1. Do something that brings you joy.

Do you love horseback riding? Going to the spa? Playing video games for hours on end? Do it! The best part about being alone on V-Day is that you can take all of that money/time/effort that you may have showered on another person and use it for yourself! Take a painting class, or a cooking class, or a scuba lesson!

2. Practice self-care.

That can look different for different people, but a few self-care ideas might include taking a hot bath with a THC-infused bath bomb, meditating, reading a book, getting a massage, connecting with people you love, gardening, singing out loud to your favorite playlist, or playing in the snow. Self-care could mean doing nothing at all. I mean it. Stay in PJs, lay around in bed, and binge watch Netflix. No one is judging you. As my friend and fellow sex educator Bianca Jarvis notes, “I love turning down invites and obligations to focus on what I really need. Alone time is key. I have a tendency to overcommit both socially and professionally due to FOMO: fear of missing out. But cutting my plans in half does wonders for my sanity, and sometimes turning off my devices and spending the night lying in bed, relaxing, reading and listening to music is more enjoyable than going out. I find that edibles can really help me slow down enough to focus on self care instead of an obsessive need to feel busy all the time.”

3. Treat yourself.

Buy that high tech vaporizer you’ve been coveting. Go to your dispensary and get the best cannabis you can afford. Try something new, like live resin, which some call the caviar of concentrates. Be self-indulgent, in whatever ways feel best.

4. Laugh.

Laugh until your sides hurt. Laugh until you have tears streaming down your cheeks. Laughter has been proven to decrease stress, improve your immune system, and even relieve pain. Go to a comedy show. Watch your favorite stoner movie (How High and Half Baked are two of my favorites). Get on YouTube and watch animals doing cute things. Make plans with your best friend and do something fun and silly. I recently got super stoned and went to the Long Beach Aquarium. I cannot explain to you how absurd blowfish look when you’re high.

5. Be gentle with yourself.

It’s easy to feel dejected and frustrated when everyone around you seems to be having the time of their lives. Just remember, you’re comparing your life to everyone else’s highlight reel. Think about the proportion of your life that you share on social media as compared to the totality of your life. It’s a pretty small percentage, right? Try to keep that in mind when you’re seeing all of the gushy romantic stuff circulating on your Facebook feed. If it does bring things up for you, give yourself permission to feel whatever you’re feeling. Journal about it, smoke about it, laugh about it, cry about it, then reflect on how you can find joy and contentment today. Yes, today. Not when you get that promotion, not when you get in shape, not when the kids are grown. Today.

6. Practice self-love.

Yes, that kind of self-love. Get some quality lube, light some candles, and spend some time finding all of your hot-button spots. Perhaps you like slow, gentle touch. Maybe you prefer the touch to be rougher or with more pressure. You might even like a little bit of both. Experiment! Try new things! Buy a sex toy! In the words of sex geek Reid Mihalko, “professional tools yield professional results.” Using a toy offers a chance to experience new sensations like vibration or temperature play.

Even if you’re not with a partner, there are a plethora of things you can do to make V-Day an enjoyable experience. How do you make Valentine’s Day fun and relaxing when you’re on your own?

Our Top Canna-Crushes of 2016

Valentine’s Day is here, and we’ve decided to go public with our big ol’ canna-crushes of 2016. From researchers to lawmakers to pioneers in the cannabis industry, we’ve rounded up our favorite canna-celebrities who fight for a good cause — and look damn fine doing it!

Carl Hart

For all those sapiosexuals out there, Dr. Carl Hart’s sexy brain is sure to strike your fancy. As a professor of psychology and psychiatry at Columbia University, as well as a neuroscientist who specializes in evidence-based research on drugs, he’s well respected in his field, and for good cause. From the streets of Miami, Hart is the first black tenured science professor at Columbia University. If you don’t know who this fine fella is, please, take a moment to read up on his inspiring work.

Jodie Emery

The Princess of Pot may be considered royalty in the Canadian cannabis community, but don’t underestimate this savvy connoisseur. She’s run for office multiple times and was elected director-at-large of the British Columbia Green Party back in 2010. She’s a major advocate not just for cannabis policy reform, but also for nonviolence, environmental awareness, and affordable education. Swoon and a half!

Cory Booker

U.S. Cory Booker is our idea of a good politician: kind, conscientious, dedicated to ending prohibition, and sexy to boot. This first-term senator from New Jersey called out the hypocrisy of his colleagues for having used cannabis but refusing to budge when it comes to considering marijuana legislation. Not only that, but his introduction of the CARERS Act last year signaled a clear shift in how the federal government views cannabis. Although the CARERS Act has yet to move forward, its very existence was revolutionary, and we have one sexy senator to thank for that.

Sarah Silverman

With her biting wit and quick retorts, Sarah Silverman can make anyone laugh, whether you’re stone sober or exhaling a big ol’ bong rip. In Hollywood, she’s famous for whipping out a vape pen on the red carpet and is vocal about her preference for cannabis over alcohol – still a bit of an anomaly for Tinseltown. Is there anything sexier than someone who can make you laugh? Someone who can make you laugh so hard you choke on your smoke.

Gavin Newsom

The ruggedly handsome lieutenant governor of California first entered the spotlight as mayor of San Francisco, when he began issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples back in 2004. Now he’s ready to make headlines again, this time by leading the effort to legalize recreational cannabis statewide. He’s organized the Blue Ribbon Commission on Marijuana Policy advisory panel to make sure the process is done right. He’s taking charge and steering his state forward, all while we fan ourselves from the sidelines.

Ilana Glazer

Broad City‘s resident cannabis connoisseur makes you wish she was your best friend… and maybe something more? She’s as adventurous as you can handle, she’s always down to smoke you out, and she’s a true friend. She’s funny, sexy as all hell, and she’ll provide cannabis carried lovingly in her “nature’s pocket” — whether you’re into that or not. Let’s parallel play sometime, Ilana.

Justin Trudeau

No list would be complete without Canada’s sexiest boxer-turned-polyglot politician. This culturally sensitive, hella swoonworthy prohibition fighter is the one, the only, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. His hot-Hogwarts-student looks aside, this guy’s bringing so much more to the table than just his (breathtaking) physical features. He ran on a platform devoted to legalizing cannabis and has already proved to be a humble humanitarian by welcoming Syrian refugees with open arms. He’s ready to revolutionize an entire country and he’s making an entire nation thirsty while doing it.

Image Sources: Simon Fraser University Communications, Internet Week New York, Shiny Things, Gage Skidmore, and Alex Guibord via Flickr Creative Commons, Ani Avakians via Jodie Emery and Cory Booker via Facebook.

2016 SoCal Medical Cannabis Cup: How Cannabis Will Save The NFL

After participating in a panel at the 2016 SoCal Medical Cannabis Cup, former NFL players Kyle Turley, Nate Jackson and Eben Britton sat down with HIGH TIMES editor-in-chief Dan Skye to discuss how pot can help football players recover from a wide range of injuries, including concussions.

Sweet 16: The 16 Best Strains for Valentine’s Day, As Told by Leafly Reviewers

Valentine’s Day weekend is officially upon us – and as you’re already good to go on recommendations for canna-themed gifts and cannabis lube, it’s time to think about what strain you’ll be consuming tomorrow, whether with a newfound sweetheart or your longtime spouse.

It’s easy to browse our Strain Explorer and find plenty of arousing strains, but we also scoured Leafly user-submitted reviews to find some of the most romantic strains for this holiday in particular. Some are subtly sensual, while others are incontrovertibly sexy, but they’re all great options for V-Day (or really any day spent with your lover). Pick up a gram of one of the following and let cannabis play Cupid.

“Just gives you an absolute inner warmth and adoration and love for everything around you. A perfect strain for romance, music, or anything wonderful and happy. This strain simply creates love inside of me.”

–xenocryst

“Went and had sex with my boyfriend and was…melting for four straight hours.”

–zulchini

“Just the right mindset for getting naked, creative, and connected. It’s not a pornographic aphrodisiac – more a tantric.”

–hughsnotwar

“OFFICIAL STRAIN OF ST. VALENTINES DAY…Enjoy, young lovers of all ages.”

–CaptJack

“It hits you right upfront, making you feel like you have drunk 2 or 3 glasses of wine. The arousal comes on strong! Grab your lover and get on it! Overall this strain is great for chilling by a fire or having sex, or even better both of those at the same time.”

–TheColdOne

“Great for those warm romantic & cuddly night, making music and movies come alive.”

–LeroyBrown420

“Makes sex out.of.this.world…Makes orgasms last 5-8x longer… Unbelievable. A drug company wishes it had this in a pill.”

–EssJayEss

“I smoked half a bowl and was escorted to the pinnacle of happiness and amazement. I had no idea that a plant could make you feel so good. Euphoric. Happy. Intense but not overly. It was a truly beautiful experience…It aroused the shit out of me about 45 mins in. This should be called the sex strain. Wow. This strain should be sacred.”

–Morecowbell

“I was happy…and then I had sex….and was happy again…and then I had sex again…and I was even happier! And amazed…amazed that I had been happy, had had sex, had been happy again, had had sex again and had been even happier…and then I thought I should tell this to someone else so they’d know. And that someone else is you! Yes, you!”

–Scirzo

“My husband and I had the best sex of our relationship on this strain.”

–MGomsrud

“Berry White seductively invites you to take your clothes off and climb into bed…”

–OGB

“This strain should be renamed SEX GODDESS…should not be used with someone you are not in love with because the sex while on this strain will make you fall in love with whomever your partner in the sheets happens to be.”

–James Bond

“Wow. So my girlfriend and I bought this, completely not making the connection between the name and effects. Needless to say, it’s done great things for both of our libidos.”

–sammipear

“Far and away THE BEST strain ever for sex…massages, spas, etc. Immense feelings of empathetic connectivity allows you to enjoy giving as much as receiving – which is no small benefit!”

–weazal

“This is my girlfriend’s favorite strain for sex. And my girlfriend’s favorite strain for sex is my favorite strain for sex.”

–spacejunkOG

“#SexyAF.”

–DrGrim

Comments edited for length and clarity.

The Shake: Don't Bogart That Vape, Congressman

A Denver judge tossed a class action lawsuit against a top Colorado cannabis retailer. A pair of consumers had sued LivWell, alleging the company inappropriately used Eagle 20, a pesticide that contains myclobutanil, which isn’t approved for use on cannabis in the state. But Denver District Judge J. Eric Eliff threw out the case, the Denver Post reports, saying plaintiffs “bought the cannabis and consumed it” without harm. “There are no allegations that the product did not perform as it was supposed to,” Eliff wrote. LivWell owner John Lord called the lawsuit “a public relations ploy.”

California wants to tax medical cannabis. A newly proposed law would set a 15 percent tax on medical marijuana and funnel that money to public programs. The bill comes on the heels of new cannabis laws that establish statewide standards for the industry (even though nobody can agree how they work). The proposed tax, which is similar to what would be imposed under recreational laws on the ballot in November, could bring California more than $100 million in new revenue. To pass, it will need support from two-thirds of the state Legislature.

A ex-judge wants Obama to commute the harsh sentence he gave. Paul Cassell, who as a federal judge sentenced a Utah music producer to 55 years in prison for bringing a gun to cannabis deals, is calling on the president to undo the sentence. Due to mandatory minimum sentencing laws, the judge said, the offender got a longer prison term than people convicted of crimes such as kidnapping, rape, and second degree murder.

Trump’s drug policies are getting dumber and dumber. The Chicago Sun Times compiled a collection of Trumpisms illustrating the presidential candidate’s radical shift on drug policy over the decades. “We’re losing badly the war on drugs,” he said back in 1990. “You have to legalize drugs to win that war.” Today, however, he opposes cannabis reform, having flip-flopped completely. On the campaign trail he said he’d solve the nation’s drug problem by building a wall at the U.S.–Mexico border — conveniently, also his solution to immigration.

Rubio’s policies might be even worse. The Republican presidential hopeful is keeping things simple, and stupid, when it comes to his stance on drugs. At a campaign event yesterday, he told voters he’s against legal cannabis “because this country already pays a terrible price for the abuse of alcohol.” Reassuring to know that the man wielding such razor-sharp logic might one day run the country.

Two Washington state cannabis producers face fines over pesticide use. Regulators temporarily barred New Leaf Enterprises and BMF Washington from selling products back in December, Tobias Coughlin-Bogue reports, pending an investigation into possible use of prohibited pesticides. Observers have questioned the state’s enforcement of pesticide rules in the past, and the penalties against New Leaf and BMF show regulators could be stepping up their game.

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) took a defiant puff in Congress. He hit a vape pen at a House Transportation Committe hearing on Thursday as lawmakers considered a proposal that would ban vaping on airplanes. “There is nothing noxious about this whatsoever,” he told his colleagues, theatrically loosing a cloud and thereby undermining his whole point. Cannabis wasn’t part of the discussion, but whatever rules Congress adopts for e-cigarettes would likely also apply to legal cannabis products. No dice for Rep. Hunter, though — or anyone with dreams of one day vaping their way to the, uh, mile-high club. The measure passed.

QUICK HITS: The DEA raided an Oregon extract maker. No charges have been filed yet, but it’s a reminder the feds aren’t as hands-off in legal states as they claim. * Cannabis-related DUI arrests in Colorado are down. Overall, the number of people cited for driving under the influence of drugs fell 1.3 percent. * A U.K. man diagnosed with terminal cancer says his use of illegal cannabis oil has prolonged his life. * CV Sciences pushed back against this week’s FDA warning letters to marketers of cannabidiol products. The agency says it’s determined that CBD isn’t a “dietary supplement,” but CV, which makes hemp-derived CBD for use in consumer products, argues the warnings are “inapplicable” on technical grounds. * Medical marijuana in Florida could be a $1.5 billion industry by 2020, according to a new report. Voters will decide in November whether to legalize medical cannabis. * Don’t try singing “Smoke Weed Everyday” in Tunisia. Lawmakers there are considering plans to crack down on “public incitement to commit drug-related offenses,” which could make it illegal to even talk about cannabis.

New Strains Alert: Mai Tai Cookies, Purple Tangie, Sputnik, Go Time, and More

This week’s newly added strains are a mix of Los Angeles Cannabis Cup winners, classic genetics, and varieites that are fairly new to the game. Find out if they’re available near you by checking the links below, and don’t forget to leave reviews for the ones you’ve tried.

1. Mai Tai Cookies

Mai Tai Cookies is a CBD-rich hybrid strain bred by Terraform Genetics, who crossed Alien Orange Cookies and ACDC. She took 1st place for “Best CBD Flower” at the 2016 High Times Cannabis Cup in Los Angeles. This hybrid is very frosty compared to most CBD strains and has a unique aroma of cherries and orange peels. With a high that is very relaxing and yet functional, patients would typically choose this strain for pain and anxiety. Her flowers have a dense structure similar to that of Girl Scout Cookies and are ready for harvest after a flowering cycle of 50-55 days.

2. Purple Tangie

A spin on the citrus-loaded Tangie sativa, Purple Tangie is a flavorful strain that invigorates the spirit with uplifting euphoria. In a show of its quality, Purple Tangie took 1st place in the “Best Medical Sativa Concentrate” category at the 2016 High Times Cannabis Cup in Los Angeles. You may find that Purple Tangie offers an energetic kick to your social skills, but this strain can certainly be enjoyed in isolation, especially when you’re occupied by creative projects.

3. P-51

P-51 is a piney, earthy indica strain that crosses a Tahoe OG male and a Blackberry mother. Created by Clint Pipkin, a grower in both Humboldt County and Northwestern Washington, the male was flowered in a window sill on the Key Peninsula in Pierce County. Thousands of seeds were created during this cross, and Washington producer Rootworx narrowed this strain down to the best cut from 70 phenotypes. This has become Rootworx’s signature strain, resulting in DOPE Magazine’s “Strain of the Month” in June 2015. This deeply relaxing indica has also been deemed “The Tranquilizer Dart” in recreational retail shops throughout Washington State.

Click here for a full list of locations currently carrying P-51

4. Go Time

Go Time is a sativa-dominant hybrid strain bred by JinxProof Genetics. A cross between Norton and JOG Kush, this uplifting strain is perfect for perking up moods, stimulating focus, and coercing arousal. Zesty lemon aromas combine with sour, skunky diesel notes with an earthy, hashy finish. As pretty as it is potent, Go Time flowers erupt with bulging calyxes of pastel purples, pinks, and greens underneath a snow-white coat of crystal resin.

5. Sputnik

What happens when you cross a space-themed Apollo 13 strain with Black Russian? You get Sputnik, a strain named after the satellite the Soviet Union launched into a quick orbit around the Earth in 1957. Sputnik has an aroma of a sweet fruit with hints of sour and diesel when exhaled. Patients typically look to Sputnik for relief of chronic pain, anxiety, and insomnia.

Click here for a full list of locations currently carrying Sputnik

6. KC 36

Cultivated by KC Brains, KC 36 is an indica strain bred specifically to flourish at high latitudes. A cross between White Widow and KC 606, these frosty and compact buds deliver full-on body relaxation alongside a sweet and spicy floral aroma. The peaceful, introspective qualities of KC 36 make this indica a perfect pair for meditation and enjoying nature.

7. Queso

Created in 2011 by Kannabia Seeds using Cheese and Afghani genetics, Queso (Spanish for “cheese”) is a hybrid strain that provides powerful body effects and mood elevation. This potent strain is typically used to relieve pain, stress, anxiety, and insomnia. Growers, take note: Queso requires a minimum flowering cycle of 7 weeks , but optimal yields arrive after 8 weeks.

Click here for a full list of locations currently carrying Queso

Browse through other new strains that were added recently to the Leafly Explorer or check out last week’s newest additions!

Is Cannabis Lube Better Than Mainstream Brands? Our 'Research' Concludes…

“I need you to review this lube.”

This isn’t how we typically begin our editorial meetings at Leafly (unfortunately), but on that particular day, the brand Foria had delivered a little gift to us ladies: arousing cannabis spray. Some of us, being skeptics, wondered whether the special ingredient actually made a difference in arousal or if it was just a novelty, so we took to our bedrooms to investigate a question that most people wouldn’t even think to ask: Can a cannabis oil enhance sex better than traditional lube?

We lined up four different products for this experiment:

• Foria cannabis spray (oil-based)
• Swiss Navy (silicone-based)
• Wet Naturals for Senstive Skin (water-based)
• K-Y Warming Liquid

Each was selected because it brought something unique to the table: K-Y with its warming sensations, Swiss Navy with its silicone base, Wet Naturals for its all-natural water-based formula, and Foria for – you guessed it – the THC. So which one reigns supreme?

1. Foria

Call us predictable, but Foria was the unanimous favorite.

Foria isn’t exactly “lube” in the traditional sense. You wouldn’t just slather it on when you’re ready for business. It’s an oil-based spray — which means do NOT use this with a latex condom — that stimulates arousal. Some of us would argue that it will, so to speak, eliminate the need for lube altogether anyway. But if you still got the Sahara Desert going on down there, it might be a good idea to supplement with a proper lube (keep reading for our recommendations below). You can also use organic, virgin/unrefined coconut oil as an all-natural lubricant if you need a boost.

The first few spritzes from the tiny Foria spray bottle are a mist so delicate and gentle, you almost have to giggle. Its effects aren’t immediate, but in time you’ll start to notice a warm sensation radiating from your lady bits. Sensitivity continues to escalate slowly and steadily until you feel something like a crazed animal in heat. Mind you, the sensations are localized and non-psychoactive unless swallowed (though, let’s be real, that’s a likely scenario for many of us).

The ingredients label lists three items: cannabis, coconut oil, and love. If there are no added chemicals, where does that glorious, warm sensitivity come from? Love? Probably, but also the THC. The vagina contains cannabinoid receptors that THC readily binds to when absorbed through the mucous membranes. THC acts as a vasodilator, opening capillaries and increasing blood flow for enhanced sensitivity (thanks, science).

The analgesic properties of THC can also ease pain caused by penetration, and that alone can be quite the game changer for a lot of couples.

2. Swiss Navy

Next up is the silicone-based lubricant Swiss Navy. Call us lube noobs, but few brands we’ve tried hold a candle to the amazing slip-‘n’-slide qualities this one has to offer. Swiss Navy is a heavy-duty lube meant for dry-climate vaginas, but it does lack the arousing, warming sensations we loved from Foria. Though much oilier than water-based formulas, Swiss Navy doesn’t feel overly greasy and lasts a lot longer. That’s great news for those of us who enjoy taking more extensive trips to Pound Town.

3. Wet Naturals for Sensitive Skin

With packaging laden with Papyrus font and ’90s-era splash bubbles, Wet Naturals may not look like the most upscale, deluxe lube out there. But don’t judge a book by its cover: This glycerin- and paraben-free lube is the perfect companion for anyone with sensitive, easily irritated skin. Being water-based, it also doesn’t feel greasy or leave an oily mess in the sheets. The one and only drawback we experienced was this lube’s duration. You may feel like you need to re-apply several times, and let’s face it, ain’t nobody got time for that when you’re in the heat of it.

4. K-Y Warming Liquid

This K-Y product is similar to Foria in that it’s supposed to bring on warming sensations and is often used in small amounts for arousal rather than as a lube. But, as our canna-sexpert Ashley Manta points out, there’s a world of difference when it comes to safety and quality. The chemicals that cause that warming sensation can cause intense burning, and it also contains glycerin and propylene glycol which are known to cause sensitivities (and in some cases, infection).

While thankfully none of us experienced the painful burning sometimes reported, we had our own gripes about this one. The consistency is runny and sticky, leaving you and your partner feeling like you just smeared corn syrup all over each other (but even that would taste better than this chemical paste). Some of us did find the K-Y liquid to provide some warm tinglies, but others noticed no heating sensation at all.

Thus concludes our first ever Leafly lube experiment. Needless to say, we’re waiting with eager anticipation for more cannabis-based lubricants and arousal liquids to hit the market and elevate sex lives nationwide. Foria is currently available in California and Colorado, but don’t despair if you’re not a resident of those states; your local shop may carry other cannabis-infused brands, so keep an eye out and ask around.

Have you ever tried cannabis lubes or arousal sprays? If so, what did you think? And if not, what’s your go-to lube for when the hoo-ha is experiencing some post-cannabis dryness?

Image Sources: Foria, Amazon, Amazon, K-Y

US OR: Editorial: Study Cannabis In Oregon, But Not Yet

The Mail Tribune, 10 Feb 2016 – A state task force has recommended that Oregon create an independent institute for research into the medical uses of marijuana. The reasons for doing so are sound, and lawmakers should follow the recommendation. But not right away. The task force, created by the 2015 Legislature under the auspices of the Oregon Health Authority, issued its report Monday. The report recommends creating the Oregon Institute for Cannabis Research. The institute would conduct studies both within the university system and outside it, and would raise private funds as well as relying on a dedicate source of state funding.

Cannabis Science 101: The Complex Chemistry of the Bong

What’s going on in that bong?

Seriously. What is the science behind the water pipe? Are those bubbles actually making your toke any healthier? It’s complicated.

A couple things are happening. Burning cannabis produces a smoke stream that contains all the things you want — activated THC, CBD, other cannabinoids and terpenes — and a lot of things you don’t, like hot smoke, tar, and fine particulate matter, a.k.a. ash. “Tar” is a catch-all term for the hundreds of nasty compounds produced by cannabis combustion. Aside from nicotine, cannabis smoke is qualitatively similar to tobacco smoke, with a lot of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) you don’t want in your lungs. There is epidemiologic evidence that tobacco smokers who use a water pipe have a much lower incidence of cancer than those who smoke cigarettes or regular pipes. So clearly there’s some good filtration going on. (Too much cannabis smoking can harm the lungs in a number of ways, but despite decades spent looking for it, researchers have never found a link between cannabis smoking and lung cancer — a story for another day.)

The bong, a.k.a. water pipe, immediately cools the smoke by passing it through water, resulting in a smoother toke. The water also filters out any ash that might otherwise blow into your mouth or airway. There’s also a certain amount of tar filtration that goes on. That’s why the water eventually turns sickly brown.

That’s about the extent of agreement, though. “There’s a great debate about whether bongs actually filter effectively,” says Kenji Hobbs, manager at Uncle Ike’s Pot Shop in Seattle. “Studies in California have shown bongs filter more water-soluble psychoactive cannabinoids than tar and polycarbons, which means the user has to smoke more weed to get an effective high, because the tar-to-cannabinoid ration is now more skewed towards tar.”

Nobody’s sure exactly how much cannabinoid filtration is going on, though. “Those who are familiar with and work in cannabis extractions know that water, as a polar solvent, doesn’t do a good job of dissolving cannabinoids, terpenes, or waxes,” says A.J. Fabrizio, director of research for Los Angeles-are medical cannabis company Terra Tech. This is why homebrew concentrate makers use non-polar solvents such as butane, not water, as a solvent. (We shouldn’t have to say this, but: Please don’t homebrew concentrates using solvents. It’s illegal and people could die. Try making rosin instead.)

“Are you losing any cannabinoids or terpenes as the gas passes through water?” says Fabrizio. “Yes, but it’s negligible. The water will preferentially filter particulate matter and potentially solvate polar molecules, over the cannabinoids and terpenes, which have virtually zero water solubility.”

It’s not a one-way exchange, though. What’s in the water can also change the nature of the smoke. “If you’ve inhaled through dirty bong water, you know what happens,” says Fabrizio. “It tastes like dirty disgusting resin.” Further, “if the water has been chlorinated, that chlorine flavor will carry through.” That’s because the gas is absorbing denatured constituents from the dirty water, such as plant-based molecules that have been fully oxidized during combustion, and that exchange comes through the bubbles. It’s a two-way interaction. “This is why people talk about cleaning your bong — and it’s also important with dabbing too. You need to make sure that chamber and that water is pretty clean if you want to ensure an unadulterated flavor”

The gas-liquid exchange occurs only between the surface area of each bubble and the surrounding liquid. “Really big bubbles offer relatively low surface area to volume ratios,” Fabrizio explains. “A diffuser that produces a lot of smaller bubbles offer a relatively high surface area to volume ratio allowing for greater exchange between the gas and liquid,” and presumably a greater degree of filtration.

Does it make sense to use alcohol — vodka and such — in the chamber? “Not advised, or safe,” says Fabrizio. “Huffing alcohol fumes is toxic.” In addition, cannabinoids and terpenes are more likely to dissolve in alcohol than water, so you’re essentially stripping the smoke of its more desirable compounds. It’s also a nasty inhalation experience, as our Leafly testing team recently found in The Great Bong Experiment of 2016.

Very few studies have been done on cannabis and water pipes, and those studies have turned up curious data. That “California study” Hobbs, of Uncle Ike’s, referred to was carried out in the mid-1990s by Dale Gieringer, NORML’s California state coordinator, in association with MAPS, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies. They wanted to test the effectiveness of bongs, joints, and vaporizers. They found that unfiltered joints actually outperformed the bong — by quite a lot. The bong, they reported, “produced 30% more tar per cannabinoids than the unfiltered joint.” The vaporizer — at the time, one of the earliest on the market — vastly outperformed them all, delivering far more cannabinoids per unit of tar. One of the problems, Gieringer wrote back then, was that the researchers were forced to use poor-quality marijuana supplied by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, with THC levels of 2.3 percent. (Today’s legal cannabis typically ranges between 15 to 25 percent THC.) That little detail matters, because it requires consumers to burn more leaf – and inhale more unwanted byproducts – to obtain the desired level of cannabinoid intake. “We were surprised and a little disappointed at the time,” Gieringer recalled last week. “But we learned that vaporization looked good, even with what was at the time a really crude device.”

Also in the mid-1990s, University of Wisconsin pharmacologist Nicholas V. Cozzi penned a literature review of past water pipe studies, mostly from the 1960s and 1970s. He found that the devices “can be effective in removing components from marijuana smoke that are known toxicants, while allowing the THC to pass through relatively intact.”

The conflicting results were puzzling, to say the least, and pointed out the need for further study. Unfortunately, further water pipe studies were not forthcoming. Researchers instead focused their attention on studies of vaporizers as a more healthy vehicle for cannabis dosing. In the meantime, Gieringer had a tip for those looking for a healthier form of intake: Consider more cannabinoids per unit of vegetable matter.

“The easiest way for most smokers to avoid harmful smoke toxins,” he wrote, “may be simply to smoke stronger marijuana.”

The Shake: Roseanne Gets in the Biz, Chris & Carly Get Out

Senate bill coming: Aid reinstatement for students with drug convictions. Capitol Hill observers are expecting the introduction of a bill in the U.S. Senate this afternoon that would repeal the longstanding ban on financial aid to students with drug convictions. The Stopping Unfair Collateral Consequences from Ending Student Success (SUCCESS) Act would eliminate the drug conviction question on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). It’s the college student version of President Obama’s move to “ban the box” (the requirement that job applicants check a box if they have a criminal record) last year. It’s a big deal. Behind the bill are Sens. Bob Casey (D-Penn.), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.). The presence of Hatch, a longtime anti-cannabis drug warrior, as a co-sponsor marks this as a bill with a real chance of passage. Stay tuned.

No more finger-wagging from Chris Christie. The most openly hostile (to cannabis) Republican candidate throws in the towel after a poor 7 percent showing in New Hampshire. “Today, I leave the race without an ounce of regret,” he wrote on Facebook. Interesting choice of words from a man who bear-hugged the war on drugs at every whistle stop. Not even a gram of regret? Or a dab? We could go on. But the governor will not.

Also, Carly Fiorina dropped out. Did you even know she was still in? She was. Got 4 percent in New Hampshire — double Ben Carson’s total, and he’s still in the race! We’re pretty sure she was against cannabis too but never cared enough to really check. Clare Malone’s got a nice piece at FiveThirtyEight on the Fiorina blip. Anyway. Now she can go back to developing her CNBC pilot, America’s Scariest Bosses.

Elizabeth Warren tells CDC: Study cannabis to tackle opioid epidemic. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) sent a letter to Dr. Thomas Friedan, director of the Centers for Disease Control, urging his agency to ramp up its efforts to combat the nation’s opioid crisis. Those steps, she wrote, should include looking at the “effectiveness of medical marijuana as an alternative to opioids” and the impact of legalization on opioid overdose deaths. We’re not sure if Sen. Warren wants the CDC to conduct those studies or just read the 2014 University of Pennsylvania study showing 25 percent fewer opioid-related deaths in states allowing medical marijuana. Either would be a start.

FDA tells CBD product producers to knock it off. Alan Brochstein reports that the FDA has sent letters to six companies producing products with cannabidiol (CBD), warning them that the agency has determined that CBD doesn’t fall under the legal category of “dietary supplement.” Claims that CBD can be used “in the cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease,” FDA officials wrote, could violate the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. We’re not sure if the FDA is more concerned about the presence of CBD, or the claims for its use as a medically efficacious drug. Interesting legal territory here, we’ll be keeping an eye on it.

QUICK HITS: St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister wonders if legal cannabis crops could replace the island nation’s ailing banana industry. * Wyoming balks at the teensiest tiniest cannabis reform, rejecting a bill to decriminalize an ounce of the drug. * Comedian and longtime cannabis advocate Roseanne Barr has invested in a licensed dispensary in Santa Ana, California, the Orange County Register reports. Yes! The same city made famous last year by its edibles-noshing police department and its “nub”-kicking ways. We’d like to see the video when the cops bust through the door on Roseanne’s shop. There’d be some nub-kicking, all right.

We Ride Along as Marley Natural Descends on L.A.

Atop the Hollywood Hills, overlooking the Sunset Strip and the sprawl of lights that is Los Angeles, a steady drumbeat emanates from an illuminated mansion. The Marley Natural launch party is pulsing to life. Guests filter in beneath a tree uplit in blue, past a patient-identification check, and up a flight of stairs. A high-ceilinged entryway opens onto a rear balcony, which affords access to a lower lawn and a stunning view of the city. The crowd, a mix of L.A. scenesters, celebrities, and reggae musicians, is abuzz with anticipation.

It’s an odd scene, with Rasta garb interwoven with L.A. chic. “I had no idea what to expect,” says Chloe Bertles. She works in the skateboard industry; she’s here because her boyfriend shoots video for Vice. “I kind of thought it was going to be a bunch of people sitting inside, like, a tent, smoking weed and listening to reggae. And it definitely isn’t that.”

There are a number of open bars set up around the grounds, generous plates of Jamaican-inspired food, and a rotation of live music and DJs. There are celebrities around, too, Bertles tells me, identifying Lake Bell and Rose McGowan. “This is the fanciest weed party — only weed party — I’ve ever been to,” she says. “It definitely has set a high bar.”

It’s the night of Saturday, February 6. Had he lived, this would’ve been reggae legend Bob Marley’s 71st birthday. Marley died in 1981, of course, so what we’re celebrating tonight is his legacy. Or at maybe a rebirth of his legacy. Marley Natural, a brand created through a partnership between the Marley family and Seattle-based Privateer Holdings, hopes to become one of the first global cannabis brands. (Full disclosure: Privateer is also the parent company of Leafly.) There are Marleys everywhere you look — Bob’s sons and grandsons — and their excitement is palpable.

“We wanted to launch on Bob’s birthday,” says Deidre Dyer, Marley Natural’s content manager. “We wanted to celebrate his life and celebrate his legacy and the trail that he blazed in legalizing cannabis and the herb.”

To Bob Marley, cannabis wasn’t cannabis — it was herb. Herb was universal, binding. It brought people together and facilitated community and focus. “Herb is the unification of mankind,” he once said.

That quote now appears on Marley Natural’s website above the company’s cornerstone products: a selection of sun-grown flower, smartly packaged in glass jars with bamboo stoppers.

Whether flower or concentrate, both lines offer four choices: Marley Gold, a sativa; Marley Green, a hybrid; Marley Black, an indica; and Marley Red, a high-CBD strain. At launch the strains were, respectively, Blue Mountain Fire, Girl Scout Cookies, Sensi Star, and C3PO, but Marley Natural says those will likely vary from market to market. Eighths of flower are being offered for $50, and cartridges for $40 — pricier than most of the L.A. market but less than premium, top-shelf bud.

I visit two of the three dispensaries that are hosting simultaneous Marley Natural launch events today. Each features a reggae soundtrack and a hands-on display that boasts the full line of Marley products: cannabis and vape pens, smoking accessories like a bubbler and pipes, and a line of hemp-based body care products.

All three shops are well established in L.A.’s roiling marketplace and are known for their efforts to comply with local laws. One, Los Angeles Patients and Caregivers Group (LAPCG), in West Hollywood, claims the title of oldest operating collective in L.A. County. Another, Studio City’s Buds & Roses, has a similarly sterling reputation. In what’s become a politically charged and volatile cannabis scene, Marley Natural carefully picked its friends.

Outside another dispensary, Green Goddess, located not far from the Venice boardwalk, Jeannie Herer smiles through rectangular eyeglasses, her gray bangs hiding her forehead. What brings the cannabis activist and widow of the legendary Jack Herer, author of The Emperor Wears No Clothes, out in a sweater on a balmy winter afternoon?

“I wanted to see Rohan Marley in person,” she says excitedly. “I wanted to see Bob Marley’s kids up close!”

Marley Natural staff shuttle between the dispensaries all day. I do my best to keep up. Across town from Green Goddess, at LAPCG, Jill, a middle-aged woman who declines to give her last name, is examining Marley’s line of walnut-and-glass smoking accessories and various balms and lotions (which, no, aren’t yet cannabis-infused). When she first heard about the new brand, Jill tells me, her big question was how the Marley family felt about it. “That was my number-one question,” she says. Learning the family is on board was reassuring. “It warms my heart to come in here and see a product that is honoring Bob Marley.”

While Marley, the man, is widely adored for his music and message of peace, Marley, the brand, hasn’t escaped heat from critics. Bob Marley means a lot to people, and some have accused the company of exploiting Marley and Jamaica for profit. On the other hand, it was the Marley family that began reaching out to possible business partners through its entertainment rep, Creative Artists Agency, as the family began to see cannabis legalization coming to both the United States and Jamaica. It’s hard to imagine investors not noticing.

Later that night, at the launch party, I ask one of Bob’s sons, Rohan Marley, how he feels about all this. “In anything you do, you need partners,” he tells me. “And in what we’re trying to do, you need real people who have integrity and are about doing something serious that can really make change.”

Marley Natural spent millions to develop, manufacture, and market its products. As prohibition continues to fall away, the company has aspirations to become one of the biggest cannabis brands in the market. Today its products are in three dispensaries (out of hundreds) in Los Angeles. But with states across the country considering both medical and adult-use legalization, Marley is looking at the L.A. market as a launch pad.

Perhaps the most surreal part of the night comes when medical patients trade in vouchers for their choice of either an eighth of Marley flower or one of the new vape pens. Before long, strangers are milling about, introducing themselves, trading strains, and discussing the nuances of what they’re smoking — a group behind me is negotiating how to divide their haul of flower, vape pens, and prerolls. The joints, filled with Jack Herer, aren’t currently being offered by Marley Natural, but it’s possible they will be soon. Privateer’s vice president of business development, Anton Albrand, tells me the Marley team is already hard at work on a second wave of products.

There are, obviously, hurdles to launching a global cannabis brand on a globe where only a handful of countries, much less U.S. states, allow cannabis. To Marley, cannabis was herb. To California, it’s medicine — and partygoers are patients. (If the state’s full adult use measure passes in November, future partygoers will only have to be 21 or older.) If Marley Natural tried to throw this kind of launch in New York, where the company is based, fewer than 669 patients across the state could’ve smoked Marley’s medicine.

But here, in Los Angeles, it feels like the epicenter of a burgeoning cannabis brand ecosystem. There aren’t many more prominent places to promote a new company. The night before Marley Natural’s launch, less than 100 miles away, at the High Times Cannabis Cup, rapper Wiz Khalifa, who’s announced his own line of cannabis products, stutter-stepped across the stage as hundreds of patients did free dabs at vendor booths. In L.A. it feels like prohibition has already ended.

As Stephen Marley, a Grammy-winning reggae artist and another of Bob’s sons, is getting ready to perform some of his father’s hits, I run into another musician by the pool. Rocky Dawuni, 47, is a Grammy-nominated Ghanaian singer. There’s a crowd smoking around us, but Dawuni tells me cannabis for him is sacrament. “I only use herb when I want to meditate,” he says.

“Some people it’s recreational, some people it’s medicinal,” Dawuni continues, “so everybody approaches it from a different place.”

Dawuni says he’s wary of how big business might influence cannabis culture. But the way he sees it, that’s all the more reason for the Marley family and others with connections to Rastafari to get involved. “Rastas have been talking about the benefits of herb for a long time,” he says. “The people who nurture the the culture and also use music as a tool to fight for the recognition of this plant shouldn’t be left out of the economic boom.”

It’s a pivotal time in history. “Commercialization, there’s going to be a lot of things that are lost in translation,” Dawuni says. “But I know that right now this herb is in the consciousness of the whole world.”

He sounds hopeful when he says it. And I realize it’s the same hope I saw in Jeannie Herer’s eyes outside Green Goddess — a hope that the storm of prohibition may have finally broken, that the countless benefits of the plant they love so much might finally be realized.

Before I leave the party, I ask Rohan Marley which of the new line’s accessories is his favorite. The “big plate,” he eventually replies, referring to the Marley Natural large tray, a slab of black walnut with a cutout corner for pouring ground herb and a wooden scraper that attaches with a hidden magnet. I ask Rohan why he picked that — a nice piece, but not some eyepopper like the Marley bubbler. His answer comes quickly and sounds like it could be a response to any number of questions:

“It’s just a nice platform, man, to start with. That’s the first thing you need, is a platform. Everything else you can add to that.”

Image Sources: Alexander Drecun

Patient Advocates Bring Medical Marijuana Issues To United Nations

Today Executive Director of Americans for Safe Access (ASA), Steph Sherer, and Michael Krawitz, Executive Director, Veterans For Medical Cannabis Access will join organizations from across the globe at at the UN Headquarters to continue preparations for the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS 2016) on drug policy to be held April 19th-21st They

What It's Like to Live in Your Own Illegal Idaho: A Special Report

Idaho is an anomaly, an island of prohibition in a sea of legal cannabis. Two of its neighbors, Montana and Nevada, allow medical cannabis. To the west two others, Washington and Oregon have embraced recreational legalization. Even famously conservative Wyoming and Utah have laws allowing high-CBD strains. Idaho is the rare holdout. It’s a long, tough road for cannabis advocates working in a strictly illegal state. We got some insight last month into exactly how difficult it could be to turn this famously red state green.

Serra Frank & New Approach Idaho

It all started with a simple public meeting. In an effort to raise awareness about cannabis, New Approach Idaho, the group behind an Idaho medical marijuana initiative, organized a town hall meeting to debate legalization’s pros and cons. There were to be three pro-cannabis speakers and three anti-cannabis speakers. The meeting would be held on the Boise State University campus. But things didn’t go quite according to plan.

Bill Esbensen from New Approach Idaho and the Boise State University chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy helped organize the town hall forum, which was attended by Idaho canna-activist Serra Frank. Frank is well known for her activism in Idaho. She has a long history of fighting for her parental rights as a medical cannabis user. And she helped organize a New Year’s Day smoke-out this year at the Idaho Capitol, which law enforcement shut down.

“They gave me two tickets,” Frank recalled. “One was for possession of marijuana — it was a joint — and then possession of paraphernalia for the doob tube.” She now faces a year in jail and a $1,000 fine for each charge. The previous week she was written up for possession. “Once you invoke your rights in Idaho, they’ll arrest you for obstruction,” she said. “So now I’m facing up to four years in jail and $4,000 in fines for two incidents of merely possessing the only medicine that works for my condition, interstitial cystitis.”

The charges haven’t deterred her.

“I hope I get to go to court. It’s time for us to go to court, honestly,” she said. “I don’t think the people of Idaho believe that I, a disabled mother of two children, should be in jail for using medicine that helps me be a mother to my children.”

Marijuana Town Hall Forum at BSU

The New Year’s Day incident became the backdrop for the Boise State forum. Frank assembled a hodgepodge group of Idaho-based speakers to represent both sides of the argument.

She contacted the state’s drug czar, Elisha Figueroa, who directs the Idaho State Office for Drug Policy. Figueroa agreed to represent the anti-legalization side along with the Idaho State Police Lt. Brad Doty and Sgt. Jason Cagle.

Finding pro-legalization speakers wasn’t so easy.

Boise State University criminal justice professor Cody Jorgenson agreed to speak, but only on an “anti-Drug War” platform. Former state Rep. Tom Trail, R-Moscow, who had supported hemp legislation in the past, was also booked for the event. Rounding out the pro-legalization side would be Russ Bellville, a.k.a. “Radical Russ,” a radio personality. Bellville runs his show, Cannabis Radio, out of Portland, Ore., but was born and raised in Idaho. He even attended Boise State University, where the forum was to be held.

As it initially stood, it was a strong lineup. A state official, two law enforcement representatives, a former legislator, an academic, and a radio-jock wild card.

Unfortunately, it didn’t last.

First, Trail, the former state representative, fell ill and cancelled. Organizers scrambled to find a replacement. They booked Inge Fryklund, a former Chicago prosecutor and current member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. Fryklund also happened to be a former Idaho resident.

When SSDP informed Elisha Figueroa, the state drug czar, that she’d booked Fryklund and Bellville, Figueroa balked.

“There has now been the last minute addition of another radical speaker from out of state,” she wrote in an email to the organizers. “It has become clear that what was billed as a college forum for meaningful discussion has turned into a choreographed pro-marijuana rally.”

With that, Figueroa canceled her appearance. The other two legalization opponents followed suit. And like that, every speaker on the anti-cannabis side of the debate had vanished.

Leafly reached out to Figueroa and Doty for comment. Figueroa would say only that the event “changed from what it was billed as, as a forum for the balanced discussion on the issue of marijuana legalization, to more of a pro-pot rally.” She declined to comment further.

Doty responded more fully. “We believed that we could dispel the misconceptions about how the current law is enforced by [state police] and share the experiences that our troopers and detectives see every day about the effects of drug use in our communities,” he said. “When the final list of participants was distributed the day before the event, the event appeared to have become something different.”

Jorgensen, the criminal justice professor, said he was disappointed with law enforcement’s absence. “My students and I weren’t too pleased by this, because we were interested in hearing their arguments and justifications for maintaining Idaho’s policies regarding marijuana, which are some of the harshest in the nation.”

Bellville, who showed up to the forum as promised, downplayed Figueroa’s claim that organizers had hired “radical” speakers from out of state. “It’s hard to find pro-marijuana speakers who actually live in Idaho, because they’re terrified of being above ground,” he told Leafly. And while he lives out of state now, he was born in Idaho, went to high school and college there, and spent most of his adult life around Boise.

When Bellville saw the message from Figueroa denouncing the forum as a pro-marijuana rally, he scoffed.

“The only thing that makes it a pro-marijuana event is that the anti people didn’t show up,” he said. “Kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy, right? Her charge of “radical,” out-of-state speakers is a swipe at me because my nickname online is Radical Russ. It was kind of shocking to me, because when Elisha Figueroa was getting her degree at Arizona State, I was skateboarding on the campus of Boise State. I have far more Idaho ties than this drug czar does.”

The organizers decided to go on with the show. “Because they canceled, it did turn into a pro-marijuana event,” Frank said. “We had three pro speakers and three empty chairs on the other side. We had the debate, but there was no rebuttal. We are planning to have another forum, and we’ll invite them again and hope they come down. We’ll just keep inviting them. It just shows that they have no weight to their argument if they won’t come down and debate with us.”

The forum was held in the BSU Student Union Building, with about 150 people in attendance. Another 8,000 or so listeners tuned in via a Cannabis Radio livestream.

With no opponents to debate, Bellville downloaded the Idaho Office of Drug Policy’s fact sheet on marijuana and went through it, point by point, arguing against the office’s supposed facts one-by-one. The event ended around 9 p.m., and the crowd dispersed.

Then things really got interesting.

A Knock At The Motel Room Door

After the event wrapped up, Bellville and New Approach organizer Bill Esbenson headed out.

When Bellville arrived at his hotel, he checked into his room with the night manager. “There’s hardly anyone in the parking lot and none of the rooms next to me are booked,” he said he remembers thinking. “It’s pretty empty for a Tuesday night in Boise.”

He changed his clothes, flipped on Jimmy Fallon, and was singing along with the TV when he was startled by a heavy knocking at the door, he said.

“Who is it?” he called through the door.

“Probation and parole,” said the voice on the other side.

“Who?” Bellville turned down the volume on the TV and looked out to see a man and a woman wearing official-looking jackets.

“Probation and parole!” The voice was more insistent this time.

Bellville cut to the chase. “What do you want?”

“Could you open up the door? We just want to talk to you.”

“No, I’m not going to open the door,” Bellville said firmly. “I’m not on probation or on parole. What do you want with me?”

“We’ve got a woman who’s on probation who’s registered for your room and we just need to check to see if she’s in there. Could you just open the door up so we could see?”

“There’s no woman in this room. I’m the only here and I just registered here today.”

They repeated their request. “Could you just open the door so we can talk about this?”

“No, I’m not going to open this door. I’m not on probation or parole. You guys can go get a warrant if you want me to open this door.”

Mention of the magic word, “warrant” was enough to change the demeanor of the officers at the door.

“Look,” Bellville recalled the male cop saying. “We know you’re smoking pot in there and that’s your own personal business and we don’t really care, but we’ve got a bunch of people on probation and parole here and we don’t want to see you fuck it up for all of them, so you just take that shit elsewhere.”

Because there was no arrest, there is no official documentation regarding the incident. Bellville didn’t record the officers’ names, so Leafly was unable to confirm the incident through official channels.

Bellville didn’t open the door. The officers eventually went away. But the encounter left him shaken. He wondered if he would wake up to a pounding at the door at a later hour, this time with warrant-bearing cops.

“You wanna know why it’s so hard to get an in-state Idaho speaker to speak up for marijuana?” Bellville told Leafly. “It’s because the cops just might follow them from the event and bust them.”

An Island of Prohibition

Why has Idaho been so adamantly prohibitive? A number of factors figure into it. First, there’s a heavily Mormon population. Idaho contains the second highest percentage of residents belonging to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints of any state in the U.S. after Utah. But even Utah has legalized low-THC cannabidiol oil for medical use.

Idaho’s lack of cannabis legalization isn’t for a lack of trying or support. A 2010 found that 74 percent of Idahoans support the use of marijuana for medical reasons. And yet time and time again, when legislators like Tom Trail would introduce medical marijuana or industrial hemp bills, or when voters would gather signatures for a marijuana initiative, inevitably the legislation would hit a roadblock or lack of action from the conservative, Republican-dominated legislature.

The most recent legislative effort, Senate Bill 1146, would have legalized CBD oil for patients and caretakers. It represents a bare minimum of assistance to patients. Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas have passed CBD-only laws. But in Idaho, even that was too much. Gov. Butch Otter vetoed the measure. When confronted with the indignation of voters, Otter agreed to allow only a limited CBD study for children with epilepsy.

We asked Serra Frank about why she thinks Idaho has been so reluctant to allow even the slightest cannabis reform.

“I’m sure it has to do with investments in things like private prisons and pharmaceutical companies,” she said. “When our CBD law came up, the governor vetoed it. After he vetoed it, one of the local newspapers did a report about who his donors are, and the majority of them were pharmaceutical companies. So that kind of tells us why we’re still stuck in the past.”

Otter’s campaign contributions indeed include a number of pharmaceutical companies as well as Monsanto, Altria and Reynolds American (major tobacco players) and Anheuser-Busch. Taken together, those contributions compose a significant portion of Otter’s overall funding.

Serra Frank’s parting words reflect the deep divide she feels between access to medicine and the state she’s called home for most of her life.

“Everyone says, ‘Welcome to Idaho, time to change your clocks back 30 years. Come to Idaho on vacation, leave on probation,’” she said.

“Our criminal justice system here is a giant machine, just an assembly line in a lot of places. I used to live in Washington and Oregon, and I lived that medical program. I’ve seen the dispensaries. I know what we could have in Idaho, and I’m on a mission to bring that home.”

Frank’s difficulties with Idaho’s powers that be have left her undeterred. She’s already planning New Approach Idaho’s next big event: the first annual Boise Hempfest celebration, on April 23 at Julia Davis Park. Frank and her fellow volunteers will be collecting signatures and educating the masses, against all odds.

The Shake: A Cannabis Record Store and America's Cheapest Bud

Colorado sold a billion dollars in cannabis last year. Well, $996,184,788, to be exact. That’s a big gain from 2014’s $699 million in sales, thanks largely to more stores opening across more markets. All that business raked in more than $135 million in taxes and fees last year, more than $35 million of which is earmarked for school construction. Sales peaked in August and December, with a lull in early autumn. All told, legal sales across the U.S. soared to 5.4 billion last year.

Australia could legalize medical cannabis grows nationwide. A bill introduced today would establish a national licensing and permit scheme to supply patients with chronic conditions . Odds for passage look good, as the main opposition party has already pledged its support. If all goes well, it could become law by April. The country already grows a large number of medical poppy plants for use in prescription painkillers. Crikey!

Washington health officials aren’t keen on medical cannabis specialty clinics. The state Department of Health recommended against any plan to establish the clinics, which would “allow for the authorization and dispensing of marijuana to patients” and would have the health department certify prescribing doctors. Officials cited conflicts with the federal Controlled Substances Act and a lack of accepted protocols around medical cannabis.

Mormons vs. MMJ battle heats up in Utah. The Mormon church’s stance against medical marijuana (officials announced their opposition Friday, citing a fear of “unintended consequences”) hasn’t deterred Utah state Sen. Mark Madsen. A member of the church, Madsen vows to push forward with his medical cannabis bill in the state Legislature. “It would be immoral to back down,” Madsen said. (Cue Tom Petty, please.) Apparently nothing moves in the Legislature without the church’s approval, because some are already talking about taking the issue directly to voters with a ballot initiative. Tea Party member and legalization supporter David Kirkham says: “If the church is going to do this in smokeless back rooms, then we need to light some fires for the people in broad daylight.”

QUICK HITS: MarketWatch finds the cheapest legal cannabis in the country in Oregon, where the average ounce goes for $214. Prices rise as you go south and east, with Los Angeles clocking in at $269, Phoenix at $286, and Detroit at $282. Most expensive? Grand Rapids, Mich., where a medical ounce will run you $392. * Oregon ordered the removal of mite-control pesticide Guardian. In its announcement barring further sales in the state, the state Department of Agriculture said Guardian’s product label seems to have misrepresented its ingredients. * Twenty members of parliament proposed legalizing medical cannabis in Greece. The lawmakers, who belong to the radical left SYRIZA party, are also pushing the benefits of industrial hemp, noting its potential to spur the Greek economy. * The Berkeley record store Amoeba Records could sell cannabis after being named a finalist for the city’s fifth dispensary license. Amoeba owners in say the long-term slide in record sales has left them looking for “supplemental income.” If the shop lands the license, it would add a dispensary to the jazz room.

Image Source (curves, color balance, graphic overlay): Sara Nichols via Flickr Creative Commons

Investors at Risk with Med-X $15-Million Crowdfunding Campaign

New Cannabis Ventures reported that investors interested in participating in the Med-X crowdfunding campaign should read the offering circular. Unfortunately, most investors don’t bother with the fine print. In this case, that would be a very bad idea.

According to the article:

Here are 18 key points potential investors should consider before handing over their cash to Med-X:

The company’s most updated financials, from June 30th, indicate no sales to date and there has never been mention of any sales at all.  Why not?

As of June 30th, the book value (assets less liabilities) was just $369K

In addition to the 25mm shares the company intends to sell, there are 90mm shares that have been given as founder’s stock to the company’s insiders, mainly COO and President Matthew Mills, who received 60mm shares. About 2.4mm shares  have been sold to investors at $0.50), leaving a current total of about 117.4mm shares

Oddly, the CEO was given only 3mm shares, less than the the company’s lawyer, who got 5mm.

At $0.60 per share, the company is being valued at over $70mm! “The offering price of the shares of common stock has been determined by management, and bears no relationship to our assets, book value, potential earnings, net worth or any other recognized criteria of value.”

Of the $15mm being raised, the company will keep only $13mm, with $2mm in expenses (mainly marketing)

The company will spend all of the money within the next two years, with the largest portion, $4mm, going into its media property MarijuanaTimes.org, which currently heavily promotes this offering

The company is not focused, with initial efforts aimed at the media property, a natural pesticide, an extraction business, R&D on strains, a cannabis pharmacy automation project and a cannabis cultivation facility

The people behind the company are all involved with Pacific Shore Holdings (OTC: PSHR), a company that failed in its effort to become a publicly-traded company six years ago

The CEO is a practicing physician with many additional responsibilities

Information is very limited with respect to PSHR, which has failed to provide any SEC filings to the public since raising money in 2010.

“On August 7, 2013, the California Department of Business Oversight issued a Desist and Refrain Order (the “Order”) against Pacific Shore and Matthew Mills. The Order asserted that in June 2011, the respondents had offered shares from the State of California by calling a person with whom they did not have a pre-existing relationship. Respondents believe that this Order stems from the same facts as the Pennsylvania Order that was rescinded. The California Order stated that the respondents were to cease and desist from further offer or sale of securities in the State of California until qualification is made or unless the offer and sale are exempt from qualification. In October 2013, Pacific Shore commenced a private placement of common stock in compliance with Rule 506(c) of Regulation D of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, which is exempt from qualification in California and permits general solicitation.”

The first product, Nature-Cide, is licensed from PSHR, which holds a royalty-free license from Matthew Mills, with limited details provided. “Making contracts and conducting business with Pacific Shore Holdings, Inc., an affiliate, creates conflicts of interest in negotiating terms and enforcing covenants, since the agreements are not made at arm’s-length.”

There is absolutely no guidance or goals given with respect to the revenue potential from any of the operations the company is pursuing, nor does Med-X provide any sort of valuation analysis relative to comparable companies

The company website presently points only to the crowdfunding website – why is there no website for the company’s potential customers?

Rather than invest in sales and marketing, R&D or any other value-creating position, the company pays only one employee, its head of investor relations, who earns $120K per year

There are no protections against massive dilution, with the shares authorized numbering 300mm and the company controlled by a non-independent board of directors

There is no guarantee that these shares will ever trade on an exchange – investors could be stuck in them just like the PSHR shareholders from 2010.

Click here to view the full report. 

The post Investors at Risk with Med-X $15-Million Crowdfunding Campaign appeared first on Investing News Network.

US AK: OPED: Cannabis Clubs Provide A Valuable Service

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, 09 Feb 2016 – Cannabis clubs have been in the news a lot, from the front page of the News-Miner to the top news story on TV to the community perspectives on the opinion page. It is a new industry, and the new business is causing some concern and trepidation. But very little has been said about why Fairbanks needs a cannabis club, and what such a business has to offer. AS 17.38, passed by the majority of Alaska voters, legalized recreational marijuana use and possession and set out guidelines for how much a person can grow at home and posses in public.

Colorado Sold Just Shy Of One Billion Dollars Worth Of Cannabis In 2015

At the beginning of 2015 a lot of people were estimating that Colorado would sell over one billion dollars worth of cannabis. Recreational marijuana became legal to sell in Colorado at the beginning of 2014, with a regulated medical marijuana system already in existence. The roll out of recreational marijuana sales took a bit to

First Times: Balancing Football and Cannabis with ex-NFL Lineman Eben Britton

I’ve spent most of my life in football. Everything I did from the age of twelve to twenty-seven was dedicated to the game. In the weight room, on the practice field, and in the film room, I did all I could to be a great football player. I ate right. I worked hard to get good grades. By my final year of high school, that hard work had turned into scholarship offers from universities around the country. I wanted to make everyone proud. And I was terrified of getting into trouble.

That said, I have often felt an affinity for cannabis. I don’t know where this feeling came from exactly, but I do know that for as long as I can remember I have had an interest, a curiosity. I have wanted to explore what the plant had to offer.

I imagined what it would be like to be high before ever trying it. The shamanistic allure of cannabis spoke to me. I wanted to know how this herb could shepherd the mind to other pastures of thinking or consciousness.

I remember the first time I smoked as if it were a dream. It was a Friday. I was a senior in high school. Captain of the football team and committed to the University of Arizona on a full football scholarship. The final football season of my high school career had ended two weeks earlier. I felt proud, I felt mighty. I was seventeen and excited for a rare Friday night without football.

A girl I knew invited my buddy Juan and I over for an afternoon smoke. Juan had been my best friend since sixth grade. What we didn’t know was that we would be joined by her older friends, a group of veteran stoners. Juan and I were as green as could be.

We sat down, and out came a gigantic bong. Everyone took a turn. I had no idea what I was doing. Someone had to light it for me. I pulled too fast and got a blast of white smoke, some bong water finding its way into my mouth. The excitement I felt earlier burned away in the back of my throat. I felt self-conscious and out of place.

As the bong went around, an elder prepared a blunt. After a couple of awkward hits from the bong, I was relieved when we transitioned to something else. The blunt smelled sweet, rolled with the traditional grape Swisher.

There were about five of us passing it around at first. Then I noticed the other three had faded out of the circle and it was just Juan and me passing it back and forth.

We finished it. The Beach Boys started playing. Wouldn’t it Be Nice. Juan, melting into the couch, smiled from ear to ear as he flipped through a copy of Better Homes and Gardens. My mouth dry. A burning in my throat and chest. My body felt like a heavy suit trapping my soul.

I’ll get a drink, I thought.

But, I don’t know where the kitchen is, I don’t really know who these people are, oh my god, I think I’m…

“Where’s the kitchen?” The words bumbled out of my mouth as if I’d never used them before.

“Right over there to the left.” One of the girls pointed out the doorway in a hooking motion.

The afternoon sun was sinking. The house was getting dark. Rays of yellow light filtered through the window above the sink. I found the biggest cup in the cupboard and filled it to the brim. This’ll do. I gulped the water and filled it again.

I sat for a moment. The music was too loud. One guy I didn’t know was looking at his phone. Another person was weirding me out. I drank more water and felt it swirl down the hole. I had come to the bottom of my psychological descent. I was the do-no-wrong football player. I didn’t belong here. I writhed in my skin.

“Juan, we gotta get outta here.”

“What?”

“We gotta get outta here dude. Like, now.” My anxiety ramped into a slow panic. The song was too loud and people were noticing that I was freaking out.

“Hey man, just chill, we’re just chillin’.”

“Nah, I gotta go.”

I stumbled out of the smoky den. Sixty ounces of water sloshed in my stomach. I grabbed our backpacks and turned to see our host approaching me, trying to calm me down. Blue wings sprung from her back. Lines came over objects. I flung the front door open and threw up the entire contents of my gut in her front yard. I could feel neighbors watching in horror. Juan walked up behind me.

“Oh shit, are you alright, Eb?” Juan said, grabbing his backpack.

“Yeah, I’m good. Let’s go home” My face was hot, my vision blurred by tears.

We started the long trek home. It was probably two miles. In that moment I dreaded that walk as if we were about to cross the Serengeti.

The late afternoon sun hung below the tree line. Trees looked like skeletons against the fall sky. I was high as hell for the first time in my life. I felt like an astronaut walking on the moon. My consciousness heightened. We took our first steps down the road.

We walked lazily, gliding through the streets of our southern California suburb. I fought against it. I wanted to run away from it. The stigma of the drug hung with me, weighing heavily on my high. It was new and it scared me. What I thought were hallucinations subsided and I went deep into myself.

Juan and I finally made it home. I sent a text to my buddy, Greg, the only one of our friends with a car. I felt an urge to go and see my mom at her work. Like I had to confess my highness.

There was a knock at the door. Juan, motionless, kept melting into the couch. He’d switched over to watching HGTV. I worked myself out of the chair. Opened the door. It was Greg. I swung the door open and sat back in the chair. Greg stood in the doorway, confused.

“Would you take me to Mom’s work?” I asked.

Greg wasn’t sure whether he should be amused or concerned. “Are you insanely stoned?”

Here I was, stoned out of my skull for the first time in my life. I was in shambles. I crumpled in Greg’s car seat like a newborn puppy. So high, I didn’t know what to do with myself. So high, the only thing I can think of is to find my mother to bring me down.

As we pulled up to the antique shop where she worked, I laughed and remembered that we left Juan, alone at the house, on the couch watching HGTV. I walked in the store.

“Mom, I need to talk to you,”

“What happened honey, is everything okay?”

“Yea, yea, I, uh, I smoked weed, and I think I smoked a little too much.” The words brought immediate relief. The high began to dissipate.

She laughed and raised an eyebrow. “You drove here to tell me that?” She says, “Go home. Order a pizza. We can talk about this later.”

I couldn’t tell if she was pissed or not.

Whether the stuff we smoked was laced or not I cannot say. But after that night, and throughout my career, I learned that weed wasn’t something to fuck around with. It was powerful. I spent the next ten years focusing on my life as a football player. After four years at the University of Arizona I went on to play for the Jacksonville Jaguars and Chicago Bears. I was responsible in my cannabis consumption, never testing positive for marijuana on any drug test, ever.

Cannabis helped me through periods of intense pain during my six-year career as a professional football player. Through the dislocated shoulder and the herniated disc. It became my preferred method of pain management.

I have had experiences with other drugs. Pharmaceutical painkillers and anti-inflammatories were commonly prescribed to help players like me deal with daily pain. In my years of coping with major injuries, I learned they do nothing good for me. I have never had a good experience taking them.

I used marijuana because I hated the way the pills made me feel. I never felt much physical relief from the painkillers. They made me irritable and angry. Instead of walking around in pain, I was an asshole walking around in pain. Cannabis relieved the physical pain, but it did more—it soothed my psychological state and enhanced my spirituality. It is incredibly stressful to be injured. I have to thank marijuana for keeping my mind intact through my years in the game.

My first experience was not at all what I had anticipated. It was much more real than I thought it would be. The experience was altering. The way I thought about things would never be the same. The way I saw the world would never be the same.

The Shake: Bernie, CannaCups, and D.C.'s Homegrow Boom

Cannabis finally a hot issue in New Hampshire. On the day of the primary, the Chicago Sun-Times wonders if Bernie Sanders’s pro-legalization stand will win him voters. “Marijuana is ripe for reform in New Hampshire, and pro-reform candidates might see that pay off with primary voters,” says the paper. Meanwhile, Chris Christie doubles down on the crazy, telling a questioner at a Manchester, N.H., town hall: “Get high now, because when I’m president, it’s over, buddy.” We think something else may be over after tonight, Gov, and it ain’t legal consumption.

Suddenly everyone’s a farmer in Washington, D.C. Reuters describes what happens when you allow people to use cannabis but not sell it. “Sales of pot-growing equipment have boomed,” writes Ian Simpson. Capital City Hydroponics reports that it “now sells as many starter kits in a day as it did in a typical week before legalization.” Washington, D.C. famously legalized cannabis in 2014, but Congress has blocked the city from enacting rules regulating cultivation and sales. Advocates estimate that 500 to 1,000 people are now growing in the District. “All walks of life come in here, young to old, all classes, all creeds and colors,” said Capital City clerk John Diango said. Despite that fact, Reuters chose to illustrate the piece with a photo of a sketchy-looking white dude sucking a joint in Canada in 2014. Go figure.

Minnesota’s MMJ program brings “wonders, worries.” The Minneapolis StarTribune takes stock of the state’s medical cannabis program six months on and finds successes and problems. The problems aren’t the usual reefer madness fears, though. The main problem seems to be the state’s ban on smokable leaf, which has left patients with only higher-cost oil, pill, or liquid options. “Of the people I’ve certified, somewhere between 20 to 30 percent have not obtained medical marijuana because of the cost,” one doctor says.

Shinnecock Nation to develop medical cannabis program. Newsday reports that the Shinnecock tribe in New York intends to contract with an outside developer to cultivate and sell medical marijuana on the tribe’s reservation near Southampton, on Long Island. Tribal Trustee Chairman Bryan Polite told the Southampton Press that the tribe’s project will be “coextensive” with the New York State Compassionate Care Act which, like Minnesota, does not permit smokable leaf.

Will we ever see CannaCups? Beantown business tech site BostInno tracks the progress of Massachusetts-based CannaKorp, which has raised $375,000 to bring a Keurig K-Cup–like cannabis vaporizing system to market. CannaKorp got a flurry of press last fall with the release of a cool, animated “single-use, pod-based cannabis vaporizer system.” We’d call this a pipe dream except for the fact that CannaKorp CEO Dave Manly was formerly a senior VP at Keurig Green Mountain. It’s an exciting idea. Can we have a demonstration, Dave?

QUICK HITS: Facebook restored the pages of two New Jersey medical cannabis dispensaries after the operators deleted price lists and photos of the plant. * Rhode Island considers adding PTSD to its list of qualifying MMJ conditions. * And finally, London’s Evening Standard reports that “an elderly hippy” will run for mayor of London on a legalization platform. Lee Harris, a 79 year-old grandfather and onetime friend of Allen Ginsberg and Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones, owns a head shop on Portobello Road and is backed by philanthropist and drug reformer Paul Birch. Not that anybody asked, but here’s our vote: We be for Lee.

Image Source (curves, graphic overlay): Gage Skidmore via Flickr Creative Commons

Rising Popularity of Medical Marijuana Extracts Highlights the Advancement of Best Practices in Extraction

This article is sponsored by Tilray, one of the largest and most sophisticated producers of premium medical cannabis in the world. Tilray is dedicated to providing safe, consistent and reliable products to patients and furthering clinical research.

There are several reasons why cannabis extracts are one of the fastest-growing segments in the medical marijuana industry. For one thing, the ability to formulate specific dosages with precise levels of various cannabinoids and terpenes is invaluable to maximize the medical benefits of cannabis to address an array of conditions. Once formulated, medical cannabis extracts are often capable of offering consumers longer-lasting effects than other means of consumption. Furthermore, extracts can generally be consumed in ways that avoid the difficulties or health concerns associated with other consumption methods, such as smoking.

“We’ve seen a dramatic shift toward extract-based products; they’re now primary products over flower, and consumers are preferring them,” says Joshua Eades, chief science officer for the Nanaimo, B.C.-based medical cannabis producer Tilray. In addition to supplying flower to medical patients across Canada, Tilray has been shifting its product development focus over the past several months to include cannabis extracts. The simple fact that patients deserve the sorts of choices that cannabis extracts afford them has driven the category into the spotlight of late. And as it’s happened, best practices in extraction have been evolving alongside the products themselves.

Building a State-of-the-Art Extraction Program

Though it’s a simple concept to grasp, extraction itself isn’t easy. “At a very basic level, you’re taking a solvent that dissolves cannabinoids and pushing it through the plant material,” says Eades, “but it’s a very high-tech process. We’ve spent a lot of time trying different extraction methods to determine the ones that let us pull out the compounds we want, and leave behind the ones we don’t want.” On a team like Tilray’s, it takes several chemists, botanists, horticulturists, and other Ph.D.-level scientists working together to lead the charge in developing new extracts. The team must weigh the benefits and drawbacks of each possible extraction method and steer clear of any that could raise toxicity concerns. And regardless of their collective expertise, they would be unable to create high-quality extracts on any viable scale without a world-class laboratory. Equipment, upgrades, and the facility to house them can cost would-be producers hundreds of thousands of dollars before product development ever begins.

“This field, which is really so new, is wide open in terms of things to be learned and figured out and developed,” says Eades, who holds a doctorate in biology and biochemistry. “To have the resources to invest in equipment and people and all of that to blaze a trail is pretty amazing.” He also emphasizes the importance of hiring experts in their fields, rather than attempting to start from scratch. “When you look at all the licensed producers in Canada,” says Eades, “you can probably count on one hand the number that have invested in this level of equipment and capacity.” He believes that this ability to control the extraction process all the way from the sourcing of plant matter to the ultimate testing of extract potency is invaluable to the outcome of the product.

Best Practices in Cannabis Extraction

With great power comes great responsibility, and as medical cannabis extracts gain traction in the market, the discovery and adoption of best practices in extraction is vital to patient health as well as to the long-term viability of the product category as a whole. To ensure quality, Tilray, for one, has adopted the processes and stipulations laid out by the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) certification, the international standard by which pharmaceutical manufacturers must abide. “It’s an overall quality system approach,” explains Eades, who says that adoption of these standards and regulations are one of the main characteristics that differentiates Tilray in the industry. “We treat our products the same way that pharma companies treat a drug they’re developing, carefully documenting our steps along the way … so we know that those end products that we’re selling are essentially pharma-grade products.”

Once extracted, products are tested for chemical contamination, solvent residue, comparative levels of constituent compounds, and final overall potency. Due to the fact that the field of third-party cannabis testing is as young as the cannabis industry itself, third-party results are still indisputably prone to error, so at Tilray testing occurs both in-house and through independent laboratories to ensure a combined level of accuracy that many third-party labs still struggle to guarantee on their own. Meticulous records are kept documenting the exact chemical makeup of every batch of extract.

While many would expect that this attention to detail would be customary, Eades says that in fact strict guidelines are lacking in the Canadian cannabis industry, and some standards have yet to evolve even to the level of food-grade manufacturing. “There needs to be an elevation of the expectations,” he says. “I do think the industry will move in that direction, and I think that Tilray is leading the charge in that regard.” As this evolution occurs, medical patients will continue to both demand and look forward to ongoing advances that push cannabis extracts to an ever higher level of quality.

Image Souces: Tilray

High NY: The Next Generation Of Cannabis Leaders

I came across a cool event today. It’s an event geared towards the next generation of cannabis leaders, which is something that I always support. I was once a young activist, and it’s only because of the efforts and mentoring from previous generations of activists that I’ve been able to navigate a gauntlet of chaos

West Virginia Veterans For Medical Cannabis Rally Is Wednesday

There is a rally occurring in West Virginia on Wednesday. American veterans deserve to use medical cannabis and shouldn’t be forced to use harmful pharmaceuticals if they don’t want to. Below is more information about the rally via the event’s Facebook page: Sign the petition! http://actionnetwork.org/petitions/support-our-troops-west-virginia-veterans-for-medical-cannabis We are uniting at the West Virginia State Capitol

Polls Show Support for Legalization on the Rise: The Leafly Roundup

Here’s what’s happening in the cannabis world: California’s rush to regulate medical marijuana has had an unintended negative effect, and one elected offical is working to fix it; New Orleans’ cannabis penalties may soon be reduced; Missouri is trying for a medical bill but the sheriffs are against it; recent polls indicate unprecedented support from both New Mexico and Virginia in favor of full adult use legalization; and a study from Mexico shows how much legalization could hurt drug cartel profits.

U.S. News

California

• California’s attempts to regulate the medical marijuana market are causing cities and counties to impose their own moratoriums on cannabis businesses. A typo in a new law gave cities and counties the option to ban marijuana businesses, but only if they have a local ordinance on the books by March 1. This sent dozens of municipalities scrambling to pass hastily written laws — in most cases, bans — while growers and dispensary owners watch their livelihoods disappear. Assemblyman Jim Wood, D-Healdsburg, who co-authored the original medical marijuana legislation, is now offering a fix in the form of Assembly Bill 21, which would repeal the deadline and slow the onslaught of municipalities prohibiting cannabis. The bill gained the support of the Senate, as well as the League of California Cities and the California Association of Police Chiefs, although its passage does nothing to repeal the many cultivation bans already enacted.

Louisiana

• Cannabis laws in New Orleans may receive an upgrade (or a downgrade, as it were) if a proposed ordinance is adopted. New Orleans City Councilwoman Susan Guidry has introduced a measure to reduce penalties for cannabis possession in the city. A first infraction would merit a verbal warning, a second offense would earn a written warning, and a third offense would mean a $50 civil fine. Under current law, a first-time offender in Louisiana faces a $500 fine and up to six months in jail. Were the ordinance to pass, New Orleans police could choose whether to enforce the laws according to the state or city law. Guidry previously passed an ordinance in 2010 that allows officers to issue a summons rather than arrest those in possession of small amounts of cannabis, a change that resulted in a 50 percent reduction in related arrests.

Missouri

• Campaign group New Approach Missouri has begun collecting signatures for a medical marijuana bid. Organizers will need to gather 160,000 valid voter signatures within the next four months to qualify for the November ballot. New Approach is hoping to hire a professional signature-gathering firm to assist with the effort. There are already signs of stiff opposition: The Missouri Sheriffs Association released a statement that its membership would actively oppose any measure, legislative or voter-initiated, to legalize marijuana for any purpose whatsoever. To support Missouri’s medical marijuana proposal, contact New Approach Missouri.

New Mexico

• A recent phone survey, commissioned by the Drug Policy Alliance and conducted by Albuquerque-based Research & Polling, found that 61 percent of respondants would support legislation to legalize, regulate, and tax the sale of cannabis to adults 21 and older. State Rep. Bill Camley, D-Las Cruces, introduced House Bill 75, the Cannabis Revenue & Freedom Act. No action has been taken yet. This isn’t the first attempt at legalization in the state; last year McCamley introduced House Bill 160, which contained similar language but didn’t pass. McCamley reintroduced his legislation in spite of comments from Gov. Susanna Martinez, who has said she would veto the bill if it makes it to her desk.

Virginia

• A new poll out of the University of Virginia shows strong support for cannabis legalization and for criminal justice law reform. The poll asked 931 adult Virginians about their attitudes toward cannabis and found that 62 percent of Virginia respondents support legalization for recreational use. An even larger majority, 78 percent, support reducing penalties for marijuana possession to a $100 fine rather than a misdemeanor. The last Virginia legalization poll found that 54 percent of Virginians supported cannabis legalization, a sign support is growing the swing state.

Puerto Rico

• Puerto Rico has adopted draft regulations that will allow the cultivation, processing and distribution as part of the U.S. territory’s new medical marijuana program. Smoking and cultivating cannabis for personal use will remain a crime, however. Officials are emphasizing that the only forms of cannabis that will be available to medical cannabis patients will be pills, creams, patches, and oils. The Puerto Rico Department of Health will be implementing a seed-to-sale tracking system for the program and is planning to issue licenses to doctors and private companies. All samples and products are slated to be tested through a third-party laboratory. The program could be operational as soon as the end of the year.

International News

Mexico

• A recent study from the Belisario Domínguez Institute found legalization would cut Mexican drug cartels’ cannabis profits by 15 to 26 percent. The institute is responsible for performing research studies to support decisions being considered by Mexico’s Senate. In its latest study, the institute determined that legalizing cannabis for medicinal or recreational purposes would cause significant financial damage to drug cartels, particularly the Sinaloa cartel, headed by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who was recaptured on Jan. 8. It’s estimated that as recently as 2008, Mexico provided more than 65 percent of all cannabis in the United States, but since the rise of medical and recreational legalization, those numbers have dropped to between 30 and 50 percent.

Reminder – Cannabis Lobby Day At The Oregon Capitol Today

If you are near Oregon’s capital today and don’t have to work, you should attend the cannabis lobby day. This is going to be a very, very important session, and Oregon’s legislators need to hear from cannabis patients and supporters. There are a lot of proposed changes to the OMMP this session, with more on

Marcus Musante Announces California Congress District 44 Campaign At High Times Cannabis Cup

Marcus Musante, Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney, launched his highly anticipated campaign for California’s 44th Congressional District this weekend from the High Times So-Cal Cannabis Cup, announced Musante campaign strategist and CA GOP Associate delegate Jason Aula. “I don’t always campaign for a Democrat, but when I do they will have the stand on the

How Mexican 'Herbolarias' Transformed Hemp Into Psychoactive Marijuana

Historian John Charles Chasteen provides a brief global history of cannabis in his new book, Getting High: Marijuana Through the Ages. Best known for his studies in Latin American history, the University of North Carolina historian retraces the history of cannabis from today’s legalization era back to Neolithic times. Along the way he unearths broad patterns of use and cultivation that carried the crop around the world. One mystery is the plant’s apparent transformation from common hemp into psychoactive “mariguana,” discussed in the following excerpt for Leafly. Getting High will be published later this month by Rowman & Littlefield.

Where did psychoactive marijuana come from?

We know marijuana came to the United States from Mexico in the early 1900s. After months spent chasing Pancho Villa and his men, American soldiers returned home and brought with them packets of grifo, mildly psychoactive Mexican cannabis. At the same time, Mexican laborers brought marijuana with them as they migrated north.

But how did it get to Mexico? It’s not an easy mystery to unlock. The entirety of knowledge about the history of cannabis in the Western Hemisphere prior to 1850 would probably fit on a couple sheets of paper. By piecing together the evidence we can see that the story went something like this.

In the 1530s, one of the Spaniards led by Hernan Cortes set his forced indigenous laborers to planting Spanish hemp in the highlands around Mexico City. The historical record is sparse, but there are scattered mentions of hemp production on a modest scale through the 1760s. In the 1770s, the Spanish Crown launched a campaign to foment hemp production in Mexico. This met with indifferent success.

By the 1770s, though, another kind of production had quietly taken off. A priest of the Central Highlands by the name of Jose Ramirez learned that indigenous people not far from Mexico City were consuming preparations that they called pipiltzintzintlis, concoctions that gave them access to the spirit world.

Fearing pagan idolatry, the priest acquired a bit of the mysterious pipiltzintzlis and found to his amazement that, as far as he could see, it was simply the leaves and seeds of Cannabis sativa, or European hemp.

The hemp that European colonizers introduced throughout their North and South American colonies had never been used to get high. Although commercial hemp production never had much success in colonial Mexico, indigenous people continued to cultivate the plant for something other than fiber. When officials seeking cordage and sailcloth for the Spanish Empire asked Ramirez where they could find hemp seeds in Mexico, Ramirez told them. Go to the marketplace, he said, and ask for pipiltzintzintlis. Look for the indigenous herbolarias, the herb dealers.

Religious specialists among the indigenous people had used psychoactive substances for many centuries before the arrival of the Spanish. The Catholic Church condemned the use of pipiltzintzintlis, peyote, and teonanacatl because they represented the competition, so to speak–access to a religious experience outside the strict confines of the church. Therefore Mexico’s spiritual users of psychoactive cannabis kept a low profile.

The question remains: How did hemp develop into psychoactive pipiltzintzintlis? Apparently, between the 1530s and the 1780s, when commercial hemp production was fizzling, there nonetheless had been subsistence cultivation of Cannabis sativa, a few plants here and there in rural kitchen gardens. Mexico is one of the world’s hot spots of plant domestication. Corn, a Mexican creation, is a prime example. Domestic corn constitutes a triumph of early bio-engineering, entirely transformed from its wild progenitors. These botanical wizards also had experience with hallucinogenic flora that gave privileged access to the spirit world.

Anthropologists believe that the New World has so many more known hallucinogens than the Old–roughly ten times as many–not because it was providentially endowed with more, but because New World people were better at identifying and cultivating them. They gained this ability, hypothetically, by migrating through so many different climate zones to populate the Americas.

In view of all this, we shouldn’t be surprised if ten generations of indigenous Mexican botanists, aided by the blistering tropical sun, were able to discover and cultivate the psychoactive potential in European hemp.

Oddly, Ramirez’s discovery of pipiltzintzintlis was soon forgotten. Not until the 1840s does one find further evidence that marijuana existed in Mexico. And then, there it is: In 1846, the Mexican Academy of Pharmacy published a national pharmacopeia that registered the existence of two separate Mexican strains of cannabis: sativa, listed for its “emulsive seed,” and “Rosa Maria,” used for its “narcotic leaves.” Another name for Rosa Maria was a word that first appearance in print in the pages of the 1846 pharmacopeia: mariguana.

Within the next decade, a pharmacist of the University of Guadalajara mentioned that Rosa Maria was smoked in cigarettes, the first mention of that practice. (Pipiltzintzintlis seems to have been eaten. It was, in a sense, the original edible.) Further references followed in the 1860s and 1870s, as the word marihuana gradually became familiar to readers of Mexican newspapers.

Marijuana was very far from being a universal of Mexican life, however. Little known in the cities before 1850, it grew widely in the countryside, and the smokers of it were poor country people and mestizos, people in the not-Indian, not-European category of cultural/racial in-between-ness by which Mexicans increasingly defined their national sense of self.

Though not illegal, smoking Rosa Maria was considered un-Catholic. The innocent-sounding name was a reminder of the need to blow some smoke, so to speak, when mentioning the drug. The young rural men who gathered to pass a marijuana cigarette from hand to hand were not doing anything religious, not divining the future or gaining access to the spirit world. They were using marijuana more as a cheap substitute for pulque, a fermented beverage made from the maguey plant. And yet, the idea that marijuana was a “devil weed,” the idea that it was a bit pagan, that it produced madness and unholy violence–that had not completely vanished, either.

Then populations mixed. Beginning in the 1860s, national upheaval and war, followed by a period of rapid economic growth, stirred things up in rural Mexico. Soldiers and workers moved around the country. Along the way migrants passed through growing towns. These travelers were young men with zero years of schooling, jostled loose from tiny, traditional villages, now far from home, willing to try their hands at anything. They landed in the army, in labor camps, in rough neighborhoods where homeless drifters go to spend the night. Often they got in trouble for fighting. It was a commonplace belief that marihuana, like pulque and tequila, made them do it.
Prisons and military barracks were the two places most associated with marijuana smoking in Mexico by 1900. We should be clear about what that means. Marijuana had not turned these conscripts into soldiers, obviously, and neither had it turned them into prisoners. Rather, prisons and barracks created the ideal conditions for marijuana to substitute for pulque. Compared with alcoholic drinks, marijuana was much more easily smuggled and consumed. Prisons and barracks were also places of tough masculine society where the “devil weed” reputation could even be a plus. So “prisoner” and “soldier” were the most frequently mentioned identities of early marijuana users in the Mexican press. Other descriptors applied in print were lower class, degenerate, thieves, Indians, social dregs, and revolutionaries–along with various references to women, such as herbolarias, prostitutes, and soldaderas. The denizens of Mexico City’s underworld were said to loiter at cheap cafes smoking grifos and drinking coffee laced with cane liquor. Finally, there were also some middle-class dandies who dabbled with marijuana. A group of young dandies was said to meet at night in the shadowy cloisters of an abandoned convent, decorated with symbols of occult spiritualism, to smoke marijuana and read poetry.

Some women smoked marijuana, but press reports provide good evidence that men outnumbered them twenty to one. Women appear in the press reports much more often as suppliers than users. Herbolarias were not supposed to sell marijuana, but they remained the chief source of it for the urban population. Soldaderas, who traveled with soldiers to cook for them and take care of them in various ways, could be described as prostitutes or as soldiers’ sweethearts, overlapping categories at the time. Getting marijuana from the herbolaria and sneaking it to her man in a jail or a prisonlike barracks was a routine chore for such a woman, who may never have smoked it herself.

Mexican press accounts from the turn of the twentieth century present marijuana as a substance that turns smokers into homicidal maniacs after exactly three puffs. Here, in article after article, we find the origins of the “reefer madness” image later publicized in the United States by Harry Anslinger’s Federal Bureau of Narcotics. It’s an open question how much this “social script” influenced the behavior of the young men who were smoking the stuff. Did they feel themselves possessed by a devilish influence that made (or allowed) them to run amok? Press descriptions of fights under the influence of marijuana don’t differ much, in fact, from descriptions of similar fights under the influence of drink. Mention of alcohol in such accounts was twenty to a hundred times more common. And yet the Mexican press had absolutely nothing good to say about marijuana, whereas alcohol was a different, more complex story.

Alcohol was the active ingredient of lower-class pulque, but also of champagne and cognac, symbols of European chic in a country whose better-off citizens yearned for Europe. Only a smattering of bohemian middle-class Mexicans dabbled with marijuana, but all social classes drank. Immigrant families of German brewers were beginning to produce excellent beer in Mexico. Consequently, grisly murders, described with lurid detail in the yellow press, could not define the entire social meaning of alcohol, only its lowlife pathology, for the Mexican reading public. But they could, and did, define the entire meaning of marijuana. and marijuana’s indigenous image only made matters more embarrassing for the Mexican middle class, by reminding them of a Mexico that they preferred to forget.

All this gives us a much better picture of the backstory of marijuana smoking in the United States. The U.S.-built railroads that were stirring up the Mexican countryside also hired many Mexican workers and carried them north to the U.S. border. U.S. mining and ranching interests in northern Mexico wanted more strong young men with zero years of schooling, and soon U.S. labor contractors were signing them up to repair track or pick peaches north of the border. Nobody but the young men knew they smoked marijuana, until they got into fights…and the rest is history.

Now we can understand why Pancho Villa’s soldiers sang about marijuana, why migrating workers kept the stuff under wraps, and why respectable Mexican Americans had not the slightest interest in defending it. Finally, we can see where Harry Anslinger got the idea of promoting the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 by showing congressmen pictures of mangled corpses. It had all happened before, to powerful effect, south of the border.

Cannabis Lobby Day At The Oregon Capitol On Monday

Below is an event that is happening at the Oregon Capitol on Monday, via the event’s Facebook page: Come join our rally and let your voice be heard! Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp (CRRH), along with several other cannabis organizations, will be participating in Cannabis Lobby Day at the Oregon State Capitol

The Real Cannabis Culture (Video)

I have never been to the Emerald Cup before. I know, I know. It’s definitely something that I don’t have a good excuse for. I have always wanted to go and am very hopeful that I’ll make it to the next one. WeedMaps recently released a video recap of the last Emerald Cup. It’s a

Viral Hit: Gwenevere Tries Cannabis Oil

The folks over at Collective Evolution captured a heart-wrenching and ultimately inspiring story about a little girl in Canada whose life has been transformed by the use of cannabis oil. From the first, heartbreaking shot of a little girl seizing on the ground with a desperate dad watching helplessly, through a metamorphic transformation during which little Gwenevere gains comprehension and basic speaking skills.

This video left us with tears in our eyes and we hope you’ll enjoy it as much as we did.

Marley Natural Debuts New Line of Cannabis Products

With great anticipation, the cannabis world has waited to see the debut of Robert Nesta Marley’s new collection of unique cannabis strains, accessories, and infused lifestyle products.

Marley Natural (owned by Privateer Holdings, the parent company of Leafly) came into existence with the blessing of the late reggae pioneer’s surviving family, and is dedicated to preserving the memory of Bob Marley’s Jamaican roots. Each product was designed with genuine respect for his legacy, based on his belief in the power of the herb to heal and inspire the masses.

The Marley Natural products include four new cannabis flower strain lines:

• Marley Green: Hybrid strains recommended for people beginning their journey with cannabis. Marley Green strains have balanced levels of THC that combine the cerebral effects of sativa with the physical relaxation of indica. Marley Green strains are appropriate for anytime use.
• Marley Gold: Sativa strains that offer energetic, uplifting effects that may produce a more cerebral experience compared to other cannabis strains. Marley Gold strains are appropriate for daytime and nighttime use.
• Marley Red: CBD-rich strains that combine CBD and THC in a beneficial ratio. CBD-rich cannabis is frequently reported to provide patients and consumers with anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and anti-anxiety properties without the psychoactive effects of strains high in THC. Marley Red strains are appropriate for anytime use.
• Marley Black: Indica strains recommended for connoisseurs seeking a more physical, full-body experience. Marley Black strains are high in THC and are appropriate for nighttime use.

All Marley Natural cannabis flower and oils are locally sourced, sun-grown, and pesticide-free, in addition to being tested and labeled for potency, purity, and safety.

A naturally-derived line of botanical body care products will offer the moisturizing power of cold-pressed hempseed oil rich in essentially fatty acids and infused with classic Jamaican botanical scents such as ginger, lemongrass, turmeric, and cerasse. These products will be available nationwide through the Marley Natural Shop and will be available at select retailers soon.

Arguably the most beautiful part of the Marley Natural design comes in the form of a carefully and lovingly designed American Black Walnut wood and glass collection of accessories for smoking, preparation, and storage. The collection includes a taster, a classic spoon pipe, a steamroller, a bubbler, grinder, prep tray, and storage devices.

If herb is the healing of the nation, then let this nation be healed and remember: “When you smoke the herb, it reveals you to yourself.”

Image Source: Marley Natural

Andrew Sullivan Tells Leafly How to Poop Without Your iPhone

You may be familiar with Andrew Sullivan: author, essayist, editor, public intellectual. The British expat, long ensconced in America, all but invented the professional blog with The Dish, his influential platform on politics and culture that thrived from 2000 to 2015.

You may not know Sullivan as one of the intellectual pioneers of the legalization movement. But back in 2009, when adult-use legalization was a dream still years away, Sullivan devoted an extraordinary amount of space in The Dish to serious considerations of legal, regulated use. That work was later collected in a groundbreaking book, The Cannabis Closet, edited by Sullivan and Dish editor Chris Bodenner, which collected the stories of everyday, non-stereotypical cannabis consumers. (You can still find it online, published by Blurb.com.)

Sullivan will be speaking at the International Cannabis Business Conference in San Francisco next weekend (Feb 13-14), along with an eclectic lineup that includes Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, Tommy Chong, and former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders. I caught up with him in a phone conversation a couple weeks before the event.

I wanted to know what got him thinking about legalization seven years ago. “There were two things,” he said. “One was my own experience in the AIDS epidemic. I know people alive today who wouldn’t have survived without cannabis. It allowed them to tolerate the crazy amounts of medication we were given in the mid-nineties. I found it intolerable that the government would actively prevent people from saving their own lives.

“The other thing was this: I’ve always had a libertarian instinct. I genuinely believe people should be able to treat themselves as they see fit. Especially if it’s not fatal, and has been shown to be safe.”

The Cannabis Closet was one of the first books to present cannabis use as something other than the main ingredient in a stoner comedy. That came about, Sullivan said, “because we wanted to counter the stereotypes. We wanted to relay the experiences of completely middle-class American pot smokers.” Sullivan has often written of his own experience as a gay conservative Catholic, and he saw parallels between the LGBTQ struggle and the cultural presentation of cannabis consumers. “The parallel with the gay story is there,” he said. “There are a lot of stereotypes” that kept the drug war at a fever pitch.

In a way, he argued, the connection between cannabis and comedy has undermined the fight to address legalization as a serious issue. “The humor is an obstacle,” he said. “When people talk about weed in the United States, they giggle and make munchies jokes. Nobody ever makes jokes about someone doing heroin. There’s been a strange disconnect between the way people talked about it, and the way the law and public debate was constrained around it.

“I’m a huge fan of stoner comedy and stoner culture,” he added. “I don’t mean in any way to disparage them. But in some ways it’s become an unwitting way of deflecting, of missing the point. If it’s only funny, then why the hell are we locking up god knows how many people a year for merely possessing it? Let alone the racial question, which is overwhelming and shameful.”

Long known for his biting political commentary, Sullivan is closely watching the legalization initiatives moving toward the November 2016 ballot. “That’s the key, the November vote,” he said. “The marriage equality parallel is interesting. Once we only had Massachusetts” as a marriage equality state, he said. “We knew if we went to federal court and only had two or three states behind us, it would be a harder push.” By the time the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide with its 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision, some version of marriage equality existed in 38 states and Washington, D.C. A similar dynamic could play out with cannabis legalization, Sullivan said. “Once you get a critical mass—especially adding a state like California—then I think we’re in a whole new ballpark.”

It’s been a year since Sullivan announced the retirement of The Dish—fifteen years left him fairly exhausted—and since then he’s been thinking and writing a lot about “the culture we live in, which is a culture of mass distraction,” he said.

“Nobody is safe from the endless torrent of Tweets, emails, Facebook updates,” he said. “We’re in a constant distracted state of mind, and it renders us more tired, depressed, and irritable.

“I think the new popularity of weed is related to that,” he said. “I think people feel the need for space in their lives that is calm. They need something that will get them out of that constant reactive, on-edge feel that information overload is providing us. I think we’re self-medicating, and I think weed is particularly effective in tricking our brains into escaping that constant state of alert anxiety.

“It’s become incredibly hard to stay sane in this culture. Our heads are jerking with distraction. No one even takes a shit anymore without looking at their phone.” I laughed. “I’m serious,” he said, chuckling, “this didn’t happen ten years ago. We took a shit easily ten years ago, enjoyed the moment. That’s what I think weed does. Gets us off the phone and allows us to enjoy the moment.”

US CA: Column: Defining Craft Cannabis

Boulder Weekly, 04 Feb 2016 – Skywalker OG. Sour Diesel. LA Confidential. With dozens of different strains available to choose from, each emitting a different aroma and promising a different high, it is hard to remember that it is all just one thing – cannabis. With one ingredient served up in dozens of different ways, it can paralyze a consumer, but for a grower, it’s an innovative paradise. “It almost feels like it’s never been done before,” says Stephen Lipton, general cultivation manager of Boulder dispensary The Farm. “I guess because it really hasn’t. Before it was a black market thing, and now that it isn’t there is a high level of experimentation and ingenuity going on that you just can’t deny anymore.”

New Strains Alert: White Smurf, Arctic Sun, Titan's Haze, God's Bubba, and More

Check out the cannabis strains recently added to the Leafly database! While they might be new to our strain Explorer, some of these have been making it around the market for a while now. If you’ve come across any of them before, write a strain review! Otherwise check the links below to see if they’re offered at a shop near you.

1. White Smurf

The Cannabis Cup People’s Choice winner in 2000, White Smurf is a hybrid strain bred from a Northern Lights x Skunk #1 female and a pure Dutch sativa male. Wonderful smells of fresh citrus fruit will entice you as accents of orange pistils and dusty white resin stand out in a sea of green. This strain is a great choice for social butterflies to lounge out to after a nice dinner.

Click here for a full list of locations carrying White Smurf

2. Titan’s Haze

Bred by Flying Dutchmen, Titan’s Haze is sativa cross of Haze and Skunk #1. This strain brings a powerful cerebral rush that sativa connoisseurs crave with the smell and flavor of herbal spice. It’s a go-to hybrid for creative minds looking for that stimulating and energizing buzz during daytime hours. These plants fare well in high humidity or dry climates and have proven resistant to pests and molds.

3. God’s Bubba

Bred by Jordan of the Islands, God’s Bubba is an indica cross between two hefty parent strains, God Bud and Pre-98 Bubba Kush. Potency, a compact stature, and heavy harvests are what these breeders aimed for, to the delight of commercial growers and consumers with stubbornly high tolerances. Indica lovers will appreciate the tranquilizing qualities God’s Bubba has to offer, especially those treating pain and insomnia.

Click here for a full list of locations carrying God’s Bubba

4. Arctic Sun

Cultivated by Flying Dutchman, Arctic Sun is a 60/40 sativa-dominant hybrid of Skunk #1 and White Widow. These two crosses create a pungent fuel-like tang with floral undertones. When consumed, a robust burst of euphoria and energy comes through, stimulating both social interaction and creativity. Patients often look to this strain for relief of chronic pain, sleeplessness, and muscle spasms.

Click here for a full list of locations carrying Arctic Sun

5. In The Pines

From Aficionado Seeds comes In The Pines, a sativa-dominant strain bred by crossing Pineapple Thai, Master Kush, and Pineapple. Tropical fruity flavors activate on the inhale and usher in this sativa’s invigorating, active effects. Clear creativity comes alive as the senses sharpen, making In The Pines the perfect companion strain for hobbies and productive afternoons.

Click here for a full list of locations carrying In The Pines

6. Bronze Whaler

An 80/20 indica-dominant strain bred in Australia, Bronze Whaler gives off the sweet smell of fruit with distinct tropical overtones. Awarded 2nd place at the Sydney Cannabis Cup in 2002, this dense, compact bud produces an abundance of fine white pistils that turn to a bronze hue on upon maturing. For patients seeking long-lasting relief from pain and stress, this nighttime strain is ideal.

7. Alaska Thunder Grape

From Sonoma County comes Alaska Thunder Grape, a hybrid strain that balances genetics from Matanuska Thunder Fuck and Grape Ape. With floral flavors of lavender and hibiscus, Alaska Thunder Grape delivers heavy euphoric effects that promote rest and relaxation.

Click here for a full list of locations carrying Alaska Thunder Grape

Browse through other new strains that were added recently to the Leafly Explorer or check out last week’s newest additions!

Earl Blumenauer And Barney Frank To Be Honored In Portland On Sunday

I was lucky enough to meet Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR)late last year at an event hosted by the National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA). I have admired Mr. Blumenauer since well before I co-founded this blog in 2010. He is absolutely a champion of justice in my book. Just this week Earl Blumenauer was part of

Why One Ex-Chicago Prosecutor Changed Her Thinking On the Drug War

“Part of what bothers me the most about whole the war on drugs is the sheer intellectual dishonesty of it,” Inge Fryklund says as she rattles off a brief history of prohibition. Cracking down on drug users can score political points or justify outsized police budgets, she continues, but rarely does it actually solve problems.

For five years, Fryklund supervised criminal appeals in the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. Living in Chicago her view on drug policy began to shift. Later she spent almost five years in Afghanistan working with the legal system and advising national, provincial, and municipal governments. In both areas, she saw violence and corruption — the unintended consequences of hardline prohibition. She’s now a member of the group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, or LEAP.

Drugs carry risks, Fryklund acknowledges, but many of the consequences of the war on drugs stem from prohibition itself. Establishing a legal, regulated market, she argues, is the best way to minimize harm.

As part of Leafly’s ongoing effort to include the voice of law enforcement in the cannabis conversation, we spoke to Frykland about cannabis and prohibition. In the interview, she touched on the experiences that changed her mind on drug policy; the policies she’s paying attention to in Oregon, where she now lives; and why she thinks concerns about driving under the influence of cannabis are “bogus.” Here’s an edited transcript of the conversation:

Leafly: What experiences as a prosecutor encouraged you to take a public position on cannabis?

Inge Fryklund: I was a prosecutor in Chicago in the 1980s. At that time there was a great deal of gang violence. We were running about 900 murders per year. A lot of it was simply fighting over drug territories. This was kind of my first foray into anything having to do with drugs. I thought, Gee, drugs are bad. These people are dealing drugs, so they deserve to get locked up.

But over those five years, I saw more and more of the damage. One of the things that really struck me was that the vast majority of the people who were being arrested were black. And even though the drug use statistics are pretty similar across racial and ethnic groups, somehow all the criminal justice apparatus was coming down on lower-income and minority populations.

We’d also see the same people coming in month after month. I’d look at the rap sheets —multiple pages — all these arrests and convictions, mostly for drug offenses. And you knew that this person was never going to get a job in the legitimate economy. All we were doing was making it more likely that he was going to have to go back to the drug economy as the only income source. We were putting a lot of public resources into all this arrest-and-conviction machinery, but we weren’t changing the picture. If anything we were just making it worse because we were cementing people further into the drug economy.

Another thing I noticed was the police reports. Far too often the same thing was being cited: When police approached, defendant dropped a bag of something on the ground. Well, that seems pretty unlikely for defendants to be doing this, and we really got to wondering about the honesty of the police. The kind of impunity, lack of accountability, anything to get a conviction — the attitude that we’re seeing now in the Chicago Police Department — I think a lot of it has its roots going back a couple of decades to the war on drugs. Our war on drugs has promoted disrespect for the law on the part of the people who happily want to use marijuana, and it’s promoting disrespect for the law on the part of the people who are supposed to be enforcing our laws. This whole thing is just a lose-lose-lose proposition.

Things are certainly different today in Oregon, where you live now. What are you watching in terms of how legalization rolls out?

I was very involved in Measure 91 two years ago to get this legalized, and now we’re hashing out exactly how it’s going to work. It was only a few weeks ago that the Oregon Liquor Control Commission started taking applications for retail outlets. It’s just barely gotten off the ground.

Unfortunately, the law now says that cities and counties that voted more than 56 percent against Measure 91, can locally vote to prohibit [cannabis businesses]. And virtually the entire eastern half of Oregon has voted to prohibit it. That’s something not generally known.

I’ve noticed that, too. Even in legal states, a lot of municipalities seem to want to keep cannabis out. What’s your take on that?

A couple months ago I went out to Ontario, which is way east, almost to Idaho, to testify before their City Council. There were probably 150 people in the room, mostly elderly. I’m 69, so I’ve been fighting this one for a long time, but these people were impassioned about the damage caused by drugs. They talked about how they don’t want this in their community, they’ve got problems with heroin, therefore let’s ban marijuana. Very emotional arguments. We’ve so demonized drugs that it’s hard to get people to think about, Hey, it’s the illegality that’s killing you.

At that same meeting in Ontario, they voted to legalize two more liquor stores on Main Street — in a town of 11,000 — with no discussion. So there are huge cultural differences, and I suspect that’s going to take a while to change. It’s been helpful to see that the sky did not fall in Colorado. All these fears about all the terrible things that were going to happen [but] turned out not to happen! We’re digging our way out from under two generations of demonizing drugs.

Interesting what you say about illegality being the killer. Can you explain what you mean?

People see families and lives destroyed because of drug use. This is true. But how much of the problem or the inability to treat it is because it’s illegal?

When my son was a junior in high school in Chicago — he’s now 35, so this was a while ago — one of his classmates died of a heroin overdose. I and the other parents found out about it when we were invited to the memorial service. The kids knew something about this, but nobody talked to the parents. I don’t think 16-year-old kids understand either addiction or the finality of death or how it’s going to affect the family, but they sure know you don’t rat on your friends to the Chicago Police Department. This kid died of the war on drugs. If it had been something legal but really stupid, it could’ve been dealt with openly. He too now could be 35 years old and long since past whatever was upsetting him back then.

What about decriminalization?

Decriminalization is essentially what our policy was back during alcohol prohibition. It was perfectly legal to drink, you just couldn’t legally buy it. All the sales were by people who were criminals and had every incentive to adulterate their product.

One reason that prohibition of anything is a sheer fantasy — you know, “a drug-free America” — it’s like cats with catnip: They’re built to go for the stuff. If there is any substance on the planet which can be brewed, fermented, smoked, distilled, ingested, to produce some elevated effect, human beings have tried it. There’s some archeological evidence that we had the gene to metabolize alcohol 11,000 years ago. So humans are like cats. I can’t talk my cats out of going for the catnip, so the idea that somehow we can ban all of this or somehow remove it from the planet, you know, we would have to remove every single fruit crop, juniper berries, potatoes, rice, barley — you name it. It simply is not possible. Instead of pretending that we are some other species, let’s acknowledge the fact that humans tend to go for exciting stuff. Then figure out how to manage and regulate it so we minimize the damage.

There’s a lot of talk, especially by politicians, about “nonviolent” drug offenders. You don’t like that distinction. How come?

We keep hearing this phrase. It’s something I worry about us getting sort of hung up on, as though, Oh, nonviolent people are OK, violent people aren’t OK. But when a substance is illegal, this means that violence is inevitable. People cannot go to court to resolve their disputes. If you’re in a legal business, you go to court. You sue the other side and sort it out. But when it’s illegal, you have to turn to extrajudicial enforcement to resolve normal business disputes. During the 1920s, part of what Al Capone provided was enforcement services. In an illegal enforcement regime, there aren’t too many options about what to do. You can say please or break kneecaps, and then you shoot them.

I spent a good bit of my adult life in Chicago, and memories there are still current. The day prohibition was repealed, all the beer distributors with franchise area disputes took their cases to the circuit court of Cook County, and the mafia lost market share. So as long as we insist that not just marijuana but everything else be illegal, we can expect that there’s going to be violence. That’s just the way it works. We can’t say, “Oh, we’re going to keep it illegal but we won’t charge the nonviolent offenders.” There are always going to be some nonviolent offenders, but we’re going to keep generating an unending supply of violent defenders.

Instead of trying to draw a distinction between violent and nonviolent offenders, let’s just clean the whole thing up and let the marijuana dealers take their dispute to court and have legal contract enforcement.

There’s a lot of consternation around driving under the influence right now. What’s your take?

I think it’s kind of a bogus issue, for this reason: Except for the occasional sweeps that police do where they’ll stop every single person at a roadblock to see if they’ve been drinking, there is no systematic screening of drivers to see what they’re high on. Instead, police pull people over if they’re weaving in and out of traffic, going too fast, or doing something erratic. So behavior is the trigger for stopping them.

I hear police in Oregon say, “Oh, we’ve got to have a test for this before we can have it be legal because we don’t want people driving while high.” That strikes me as just kind of an excuse to oppose marijuana. If people are driving erratically, pull them over. Get them off the road. But if you want to prosecute, that’s a different issue.

You said your experience as a prosecutor led you to your current stance. If they see what you see, why do so many other law enforcement officers still oppose legalization?

There are a number of reasons. A good rule in almost any investigation is: Follow the money.

You’re familiar with the 1033 Program, [through which] the Pentagon gives excess military equipment to state and local law enforcement. This was first authorized in 1997, specifically for fighting the war on drugs. Later on, an amendment reauthorizing it also added terrorism, but how many terrorism things are actually going on in small towns? Something like $4.3 billion has been passed out since ’97. And there are now small cities, like my small town of Bend, Ore., 80,000 people — police have got an MRAP. These are the mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicles that were developed for Iraq.

I spent five years total in Afghanistan, where I was licensed to drive a Humvee. They’re a lot of fun. There’s a powerful incentive for people to get their hands on this stuff because it’s neat. They’re all kinds of fun to drive and makes you look, you know, like you’re part of the armed forces rather than some local police jurisdiction. You only get that if you can argue that you’re going to fight the drug war.

To be a little bit charitable, there are some police officers who genuinely see the problems that heroin has led to and think, my God, we’ve got to prohibit this. You get that if you are so up-close that all you’re seeing is day-to-day. You’re not seeing the forest for the trees. But if you step back a bit, most of these problems arise because of the illegality.

At the Drug Policy Alliance conference in November I really noticed the number of European countries that have gone to harm reduction and heroin-assisted treatment. Ever since ’94, the Swiss have allowed any self-described addict to go to a government clinic and shoot up with pharmaceutical-grade heroin. Their deaths and usage rates have dropped dramatically, HIV-hepatitis rates are way down, crime is down. And in the U.S., where we vigorously prohibit heroin and insist that people go clean, the latest figures I have my hands on are from 2013 when we were up to about 8,000 deaths a year from heroin. We’ve been running 3,000 to 4,000 for years, and now it’s spiked up. With a lot of those heroin overdose deaths, it’s not so much the heroin itself, it’s the completely unknown quality and potency. There’s so much stuff on the street that’s cut with whatever, because people in the illegal market, what the hell, they’re not going to be prosecuted by the FDA for adulterated product or consumer product labeling. So it’s the illegality that is driving a lot of our problems.

Image Souce: Inge Fryklund

BREAKING: Federal Bill Would End Postal Service's Cannabis Ad Ban

A bill introduced in the U.S. Senate on Thursday would allow written marijuana advertisements in states where cannabis is legal. Oregon Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley joined with Reps. Earl Blumenauer and Suzanne Bonamici to introduce the Marijuana Advertising in Legal States (MAILS) Act, aimed at overturning a U.S. Postal Service ban on newspapers containing cannabis ads.

The ban came to light last December when the Postal Service sent out a memo to newspaper offices in legal states, warning them that printing paid advertisements for cannabis could be a violation of federal law.

The bill would amend the Controlled Substances Act so that restrictions on advertising would not apply to cannabis-related activities that are in compliance with laws at the state level.

Wyden introduced the bill to protect “law-abiding Oregonians and small business owners” to and address concerns from local and federal officials from legal states.

“Our bill updates the federal approach to marijuana, ending the threat to news publications that choose to accept advertising from legal marijuana businesses in Oregon and other states where voters also have freely decided to legalize marijuana,” he said.

Merkley also spoke out against federal regulations that limit the capabilities of legitimate cannabis companies:

“Oregon voters have made it clear that they support marijuana legalization, but in area after area, federal regulation makes it difficult for legitimate marijuana businesses to operate. It’s time the federal government starts updating its rules and regulations in states where marijuana is now legal.”

The bill came swiftly on the heels of a letter sent to the Postal Service by the same group of lawmakers asking the agency to identify the statute that gives the USPS the authority to restrict advertisements for businesses that are legal at a state level.

In addition to the Oregon Congress members, the bill is being cosponsored by a pair of bipartisan cannabis supporters from California, Reps. Jared Huffman, Democrat, and Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican.

This One Chart Captures Everything Wrong With NYC Cannabis Arrests

Here’s the good news: In 2015, cannabis arrests in New York City plunged to their lowest levels in 20 years. Police in the five boroughs recorded 16,590 arrests last year, down from more than 26,000 in 2014, and down significantly from the 50,000 arrests tallied in 2011.

The bad news: Police made 16,590 arrests even after New York Mayor Bill De Blasio’s November 2014 announcement that city police would de-prioritize cannabis and treat possession of less than 25 grams with a summons, not arrest.

The worse news: Even as arrest figures dropped, racial disparities show no sign of going away. In 2015, black or African-American New Yorkers were eight times as likely to be arrested for cannabis as white New Yorkers. That’s twice the national arrest disparity, as calculated by the ACLU in a 2013 report.

Black and African-American New Yorkers make up about 23 percent of the city’s population but accounted for 50 percent of cannabis arrests in 2015. Thirty-three percent of the city is white, but white people accounted for only 8 percent of cannabis arrests.

“Seventeen thousand is a lot of people; the numbers are still very high,” Kassandra Frederique, director of the New York policy office at the Drug Policy Alliance, told Leafly. The DPA obtained the arrest data earlier this week from the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services.

“It’s incredible to see how far we’ve come in a few years. But it’s very sobering to know that we have a lot more to do.”

The racial disparities in the arrest data are especially troubling. This is the second report in the past month that showed a dramatic decline in arrests but no improvement in closing the gap in racial differences. Last month a report on cannabis in Oregon found that possession charges dropped by more than half between 2011 and 2014, but black or African-American Oregonians remained 2.3 times more likely than whites to be arrested on cannabis charges. Between 2011 and 2014, that disparity had not changed.

In announcing his November 2014 policy change, De Blasio promised the new attitude toward cannabis “will certainly be good for New Yorkers of color, and particularly young people of color.”

That’s true in terms of overall numbers. Arrests continue to decline. But “the arrests are still racially biased,” said DPA’s Frederique. “That’s why it’s so important for marijuana reform to be comprehensive. De-prioritizing marijuana doesn’t automatically translate into de-criminalizing young people of color.”

ICBC Is A Stand-Out Cannabis Event Among A Sea Of Conferences

ByDon Fitch It seems that everywhere you turn these days there is a another cannabis conference popping up. They seem to be a trend, as of late. One thing we all know about trends is that they don’t last. The International Cannabis Business Conference (ICBC) was one of the first on the scene and is

Ex-Lineman Kyle Turley on NFL Cannabis Ban: 'This Whole Thing Has To Change'

During his ten-year NFL career, offensive lineman Kyle Turley was known as a tough, passionate, and ferocious player. He may be most remembered for flinging Jets defender Damien Robinson’s helmet during a game (though to be fair, Robinson had just committed a vicious penalty against Turley’s quarterback). Turley played the game in the trenches, where knocks to the head came with every snap.

After retirement in 2007, Turley turned to music, releasing an album of power country called Anger Management. He never forgot his football roots, though. Turley donated part of the proceeds from album sales to the Gridiron Greats Assistance Fund, which provides assistance to the retired NFL players who built the league into the powerhouse it is today.

That work with Gridiron Greats ultimately led Turley to create the Cannabis Gridiron Coalition in late 2014. He saw the need for a treatment center for former NFL players, and he knew from his own experience that medical cannabis can be a positive option for those dealing with debilitating football-related conditions. Over the past year, the Coalition has become a leading voice advocating for a change in the NFL’s cannabis ban, with Turley often joined by former players Nate Jackson, Ricky Williams, Eben Britton, and others.

“Football is a dangerous game,” Turley said in a recent interview with Leafly. “And, inherently, you’re going to have injuries, which come with a lot of pain. As a professional athlete who is expected to earn his contract, it pressures players into using these high-powered medications. And these doctors, in the era I played in, they gave out medications without concern for addiction.”

But for Turley, now 40, it was the neurological issues he feels were brushed under the rug that posed the most danger to him and his family.

He first started experiencing bouts of vertigo during his rookie year. Though team doctors suggested a battery of tests, they never encouraged him to get a brain scan. He didn’t receive his first MRI until a year after he retired, in 2008, when he was rushed to the hospital after passing out in public. (At the time, his vertigo had worsened and was accompanied by episodes of rage and heavy depression.) The test results weren’t surprising, considering the number of concussions he’d suffered over his decade in the NFL.

“There was this big blurred mass that matched up very evenly with the areas of contact on my football helmet,” he recalled.

Doctors prescribed a series of psychiatric drugs — and that’s when the real trouble started. Wellbutrin, an antidepressant, caused him to nearly commit suicide by jumping out the third-floor window of his house in Nashville. Another psychotropic drug, Depakote, kept his condition in check for nearly six years. But eventually even massive 1,000-mg doses weren’t doing the trick. Turley believes the chemicals in those drugs and the injuries to his brain were a volatile mix.

“Maybe they could work for people who just have psychological issues, but giving these types of medications to someone whose brain is damaged, that is something I found nearly killed me,” he said.

“It was getting worse and worse, and I was like, I need to talk to someone about this and find a drug that works. And that’s ultimately what I found in cannabis.”

Since February 2014, Turley has sworn off all prescription medication in favor of marijuana. He and his family moved from Kansas City to California, where medical cannabis is legal and accessible, and he has pinpointed the strains that work best for him. Among his life savers are Jack Herer, a sativa-dominant hybrid that he finds eliminates light sensitivity, anxiety, and depression. “I find one joint lasts through the day until you need it at night,” he says.

His “God strain,” as he calls it, is San Fernando Valley OG, another sativa hybrid. “I use that when I really need to get my mind straight,” he says.

Turley hadn’t used cannabis in high school or college. During his rookie year with the New Orleans Saints, though, the pressure of being a first-round pick set in. He began having trouble sleeping. “One of my teammates rolled me a joint,” Turley recalled. “I was nervous. I told him, ‘I don’t want to jeopardize my career.’ But I never had a better sleep in my life. After I used it as a medicine, I knew there was something to it.”

While Turley has used marijuana to get off the opiates that he believes nearly killed him (“God gave me a gift,” he said), he finds it frustrating that he had to search through the various strains on his own to find his perfect match. Even in 2015, and even in Colorado, the vast majority of physicians aren’t knowledgeable enough about cannabis to be able to help their patients use it effectively. Many of those who are knowledgeable remain fearful of losing their medical licenses because of confusion involving federal law.

“I’ve got all these issues, and I’ve found strains of cannabis that have resolved these issues like no synthetic drug I’ve ever been given by a normal doctor,” Turley said. “This whole thing has to change.”

Image Sources: Tim Pickett via Flickr Creative Commons

Emerging Markets Update: New York Might Double Dispensaries

What’s happening this week in states breaking into the medical and recreational scene: Alaska’s lieutenant governor signed off on recreational regulations, Hawaii legislators are trying to restrict home cultivation for patients, Illinois dispensaries are struggling with too few patients, Maine’s legalization initiative qualified for the November ballot, and one New York assemblyman wants to double the number of dispensaries in the Empire State. The details:

Alaska

• On Jan. 22, Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott signed the final marijuana establishment regulations, which will go into effect on Feb. 21. The state’s Department of Law pointed out that cannabis testing, which is required by the new rules, could present an issue because of the state’s access and transportation issues. Many rural growers don’t have access to roads, and the Federal Aviation Administration frowns upon transporting cannabis to testing labs via air freight. In trying to address the issue, state lawyers found the statute’s language to be too vague and left the issue unresolved. The Alaska Marijuana Control Board will begin accepting license applications for cannabis businesses on Feb. 24, with licenses to be issued beginning on May 24.

Hawaii

• State Rep. Marcus Oshiro, D-Oahu, introduced House Bill 1680, a measure that could change the way Hawaiian patients access medicine. The bill would prohibit patients from growing their own cannabis, instead requiring them to obtain it from newly licensed state dispensaries. If the law passes, it would go into effect July 1, 2017, one year after dispensaries are slated to begin distribution.As the law is currently written, Hawaii’s caregiver program will cease to exist as of 2018.

Illinois

• Twenty-two Illinois dispensaries are licensed and fully operational today, but without a significant increase in the number of patients, leaders in the Illinois cannabis industry are worried they won’t be able to stay in business. When the program was devised, state officials expected 30,000 registered patients by this point. Today’s reality: Fewer than 5,000 patients are registered, which has left the industry unstable.
• Despite concerns and pleas from patient advocates, the director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, Dr. Nirav Shah, rejected requests to expand the list of qualifying conditions. The decision goes against the advice of the state’s Medical Cannabis Advisory Board, which had recommended eight conditions be added to the list of qualifying ailments, including autism, irritable bowel syndrome, osteoarthritis, post-traumatic stress disorder, and multiple types of intractable pain.

Maine

• The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol in Maine (Regulate Maine, for short) is now the official campaign for legalization in in the state, having joined forces with Legalize Maine. The campaign has turned in 103,115 signatures, well over the 61,123 needed to qualify for the November general election. Campaign leaders report that they’ve received more than $334,000 in contributions to date. The initiative would allow adults 21 and over to possess up to 2.5 ounces of cannabis and grow a limited number of plants at home.

New York

• New York Assemblyman Richard Gottfried has introduced Assembly Referendum 9151, which would double the number of medical marijuana manufacturers and dispensaries in the state. The law currently allows five organizations to operate 20 dispensaries in 13 counties. That leaves 49 counties unaccounted for and makes for only one dispensary for every 978,000 New Yorkers. Under the proposed legislation, the state health commissioner would be allowed to reconsider medical marijuana applications submitted last year, and the Department of Health would have to authorize five more organizations by Jan. 17, 2017.

US: Agency Told to Track Its Monitoring of Cannabis

Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 02 Feb 2016 – (AP) – The Government Accountability Office says the Justice Department needs to better document how it’s tracking the effect of marijuana legalization in the states. In a report Monday, investigators noted that the department said in 2013 it would allow states to regulate marijuana for medical or recreational use, as long as they meet federal law enforcement priorities that include keeping pot away from children and keeping criminal organizations out of the industry.

Oregon Recreational Marijuana License “Temporary Rules and Application Process” Video

I came across this video from the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) via the Cannabis Collaborative Conference’s website and felt it was worth passing along. I know there are a lot of people getting their rec apps in order in Oregon, and even if you aren’t, it’s still an interesting video to watch. Permanent rules

The Cannabis Collaborative Conference Starts Tomorrow, Tickets Still Available

I have heard from several people that attended the Cannabis Creative Conference that it was one of the best organized and well run cannabis industry events of all time. The amazing people behind that event are back with a second installment, the Cannabis Collaborate Conference, which starts tomorrow in Portland, Oregon and goes from 9:00

Polish Rapper-Turned-Politician Introduces Medical Cannabis Bill: The Leafly Roundup

What’s up this week: On the medical front, Alabama, Georgia, and Kansas are considering expanding their limited programs, while New Hampshire’s still working to launch a medical cannabis program of its own. As far as full legalization goes, Arizona faces an uphill battle against reluctant lawmakers, Maine’s dual organizing efforts have joined forces, and a Kentucky senator is hoping legalization could help curb an epidemic of opiate-related deaths. Internationally, a Polish rapper-turned-politician has introduced a bill for medical marijuana. And based on the polling numbers, it may actually have a chance.

U.S. Cannabis News

ALABAMA

Carly’s Law, passed in 2014, created a pilot CBD-only program run by the University of Alabama, with the school distributing cannabidiol oil to patients who suffer from seizure disorders. It didn’t quite work out. The Youngs, a family that campaigned strongly for the law, discovered their daughter, Leni, didn’t qualify for the pilot program. So Amy Young packed up and took Leni to Oregon for treatment. After Leni began receiving regular doses of cannabis oil, her situation improved immensely — her seizure frequency dropped from dozens daily to fewer than one a month. Alabama Rep. Mike Ball, R-Madison, who was instrumental in passing Carly’s Law, has taken it upon himself to draft what is now known as Leni’s Law in order to expand access for so-called medical refugee patients who leave their home states to seek treatment where cannabis is legal.

ARIZONA

Rep. Jay Lawrence, R-Fountain Hills, introduced House Concurrent Resolution 2019, which would amend Arizona’s medical marijuana regulations to make the program more restrictive. The measure would prevent naturopathic and homeopathic doctors from recommending medical cannabis and would require patients to renew their status (and pay subsequent renewal fees) every six months instead of every year, as is currently required. The resolution drew protests from patients across the state and highlighted a deep divide in Arizona: Even as campaign organizers collect signatures in favor of expanding legalization to include recreational use, Arizona lawmakers continue to take steps in the direction of prohibition.

GEORGIA

There are seven cannabis-related bills on the state Legislature’s docket this session, but one in particular stands out. House Bill 722, sponsored by Rep. Allen Peake, R-Macon, would expand the Haleigh’s Hope Act that was signed into law last year. The current law allows patients who suffer from qualifying conditions to legally possess cannabis oil, but it offers no legal avenue for patients to obtain medicine. HB 722 aims to expand the law to include more qualifying conditions, such as Alzheimer’s, HIV/AIDS, intractable pain, and post-traumatic stress disorder. The bill would set up an infrastructure similar to Minnesota’s for the manufacture and distribution of medicine. For more, check out our interview with Peake on the future of cannabis in Georgia.

IDAHO

Last week’s Boise State University town hall meeting to discuss cannabis legalization was eventful, even if it was missing a few key players. Idaho Office of Drug Policy Director Elisha Figueroa canceled her appearance the day of the event, as did representatives from the Idaho State Police, offering no explanation for their absences. The remaining speakers included Oregon anti-prohibition advocate Inge Fryklund, cannabis radio personality Russ Bellville, and BSU criminal justice professor Cody Jorgenson. Idaho voters interested in legalization efforts can find the petition for Idaho’s New Approach to Cannabis citizen’s initiative here. The campaign needs to collect 47,623 signatures by April 30 in order to qualify for the November ballot.

KANSAS

The Senate Corrections and Juvenile Justice Committee last week approved a bill that would reduce penalties for cannabis possession and allow very limited use of cannabis for medical reasons. The measure now heads to the full Senate floor. It would reduce the first penalty for possession from one year in jail and a $2,500 fine to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. The bill also includes a stipulation that the second possession offense would no longer be a felony. It would allow individuals with severe epilepsy or seizure disorders to possess and use CBD oil derived from hemp, and would set up a medical research program to study the clinical benefits of hemp and hemp-derived products.

KENTUCKY

Sen. Perry B. Clark, D-Louisville, introduced the Cannabis Freedom Act. The bill would completely repeal Kentucky’s longstanding prohibition of cannabis and create a regulatory framework “designed to promote public safety and responsible” adult cannabis consumption. Clark says he’s concerned about the number of opiate-related deaths in Kentucky, which have grown at an alarming rate. “I don’t personally care about using cannabis. I just know that these laws are outdated and negatively affecting our state, our citizens, and it’s ridiculous,” Clark told LEO Weekly. “What we’re doing right now to combat this problem isn’t working, but you can see in places where they implement medicinal marijuana and decriminalization laws, that there is a reduction in prescription and opiate overdose deaths, and those amazing numbers are lives being saved.” The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to consider the bill on Feb. 3.

MAINE

The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol announced it’s collected 103,115 signatures, far surpassing the 61,123 signatures needed to qualify its legalization initiative for the November ballot. Although there were initially two legalization efforts, the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol and Legalize Maine, the groups have joined forces in a push to legalize. It’s not the first time Maine has been in the spotlight for legalization: In 2013 the city of Portland voted to legalize cannabis for adult use (though the vote was later overturned by authorities). Could it be time for the entire state to follow suit?

NEW HAMPSHIRE

In 2013 Gov. Maggie Hassan signed legislation to create New Hampshire’s Therapeutic Cannabis Program, but patients have faced a long and arduous wait for the program to become operational. New Hampshire cancer patient Linda Horan sued the state in November to obtain her patient registry card, and the court ruled in her favor. The state issued her a patient card in order to visit a Maine dispensary, as New Hampshire’s first licensed dispensary, Alternative TLC, isn’t slated to open until March 2016. In the meantime, advocates are also hoping to expand the qualifying medical conditions to include post-traumatic stress disorder and combat the Granite State’s ongoing battle against opioid addiction. State lawmakers are also considering a bill that would decriminalize the possession of up to half an ounce of cannabis, reducing the penalties to a civil fine of $100.

Sadly, Ms. Horan passed away earlier this week from her battle with stage 4 lung cancer.

International Cannabis News

POLAND

Polish member of parliament Piotr Liroy-Marzec, who dominated the airwaves in the 1990s as a rapper called Liroy, has introduced a draft bill to legalize medical marijuana. In July, an independent survey from the PBS agency found 68 percent of Poles favor legalization for medicinal purposes. The same proportion, 68 percent, said that denying access to cannabis is “cruel” and violates patients’ rights to healthcare.

Image Sources (cropped, logos removed): Wojewódzki Ośrodek Animacji Kultury w Toruniu via Flickr Creative Commons

CTE in Professional Football Players, and the Potential of CBD to Address the Crisis

This article is sponsored by CW Botanicals. CW Botanicals is the exclusive supplier of Charlotte’s Web^TM products, the World’s Most-Trusted Hemp Extract. CW Botanicals’ mission is to provide products of the highest possible quality and purity, while contributing to the sustainability of the communities they have the privilege of serving.

The Charlotte’s Web line of high-cannabidiol (CBD) cannabis extract products first began to make headlines three years ago with its ability to effectively reduce seizures in pediatric epilepsy patients. Now, CW Botanicals extracts are being studied as a means of addressing a condition affecting a completely different demographic: retired professional football players suffering from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, also known as CTE.

The Science and Politics Behind CTE

As described by Boston University’s CTE Center, “[CTE] is a progressive degenerative disease of the brain found in athletes (and others) with a history of repetitive brain trauma, including symptomatic concussions as well as asymptomatic subconcussive hits to the head…[This] brain degeneration is associated with memory loss, confusion, impaired judgment, impulse control problems, aggression, depression, and, eventually, progressive dementia.”

With an ever-present stream of head injuries on the field, and an ongoing off-field discourse over the safety of the sport, the topic of brain damage in football has been spending more and more time in the spotlight. This has only been accentuated by the release of the movie Concussion, which tells the story of Dr. Bennet Omalu, who discovered the link between CTE and football in 2002. The same topic, as well as the extent to which professional football’s governing body sought to obfuscate it, was brought to light by a Frontline investigative documentary in 2013.

As the surge of CTE research and media attention has brought the public’s eye to the seriousness of the issue, studies demonstrating the neuroprotective and neurogenerative properties of CBD have suggested that this cannabinoid may have the potential to treat those suffering from CTE. At the same time, professional football players both retired and active have been expressing their discontent with the fact that cannabis – medical or otherwise – remains on the league’s list of banned substances.

CBD as a Potential Treatment for CTE

“What we do know are that the symptoms of CTE include memory loss, depression, and aggression and that CBD is proven to benefit the endocannabinoid system, which regulates a variety of physiological process in the human body, including mood and memory,” says Ryan Kingsbury, Chief of Strategy for CW Botanicals. “Based on this it’s reasonable to presume that the use of CBD could prevent or at the very least delay the progression of CTE.”

To investigate this hypothesis, CW Botanicals has partnered with Realm of Caring (ROC), a Colorado-based non-profit that focuses on advancing CBD research. “When you look at the research with regards to CBD as a neuroprotectant, I think that’s what should be very exciting for current players, former players and [the league] in general,” says Heather Jackson, CEO of ROC. “There’s not a lot of research specific to CTE yet, but we’re hoping to change that and lead that effort.”

Over the coming months, ROC will be working with Johns Hopkins University to develop a large-scale study investigating CBD’s impact on individuals affected by CTE, and Jackson especially hopes to focus on football players in these efforts. “We know that CBD modulates neurons, says Jackson. “We know that it acts on the receptor 5-HT1A. It acts on the opioid receptors. It enhances adenosine. New research is suggesting it increases bloodflow. We know all of these things, and they all relate to the symptoms of CTE.” With regard to professional football, she continues, “We need to get more [professional football league] players using it…the system needs to change, and this needs to be on their approved substance list.”

“Changing the Face of Cannabis”

Though players are informed during the season of upcoming drug tests – allowing them to discontinue use in preparation for these tests, and suggesting that the league is aware of the widespread consumption of cannabis products among its players – a positive test is still grounds for fines, suspension, and even dismissal from the league. The fact that cannabis use is punished more harshly than domestic violence charges has brought harsh criticism upon the league over the last two seasons.

“[Professional football’s governing body] has always been concerned about its public image, but when it comes to cannabis they’re really misinformed. The league is largely run by older, wealthy men who grew up hearing about the evils of cannabis so there’s a generational gap to contend with,” says former professional football tight end and New York Times bestselling author Nate Jackson. “Let’s see what happens when the league is presented with a study showing the effects of cannabis use on its players and comparing the results to what the opiates and other league-approved pharmaceuticals, which are passed out like candy, do to players.”

Activism has been fomenting via organizations like the Gridiron Cannabis Coalition (GCC), whose mission statement demands consideration of cannabis’s potential to fill the void of non-addictive treatments for ailments that plague American football. Meanwhile, a growing number of former professional football players have spoken openly about using CBD supplements like Charlotte’s Web.

“Since I started taking CBD regularly, there are no more slow-moving, dreadful days with headaches, joint stiffness and wandering thoughts” says Jake Plummer, former professional football quarterback. “I feel as if I’ve stopped aging since taking [Charlotte’s Web].”

Realm of Caring CEO Heather Jackson believes cannabis has great potential to help football players. “[Football’s governing body] has stated publicly that they will follow the research on this,” she says. “As we continue to show them the science, they are going to have to acknowledge it. The players are going to be instrumental in that…One of the things we are doing is changing the face of cannabis.”

Plummer adds, “What the Realm of Caring is doing cannot be overlooked by [the league] if they are serious about the long-term mental and physical health of their current and former players. CTE is a serious condition and CBD could be the answer.”

Image Sources: NPR

Kings of Pain: Watching a Broncos Game with Ex-NFL Player Nate Jackson Will Lay You Out

Playing in the NFL is dangerous. Smoking cannabis is not. So why won’t the NFL allow its players to use a substance with proven pain-relieving properties — even in states where it’s legal? Leafly writer Rod O’Connor met up with former Denver Broncos tight end Nate Jackson in the Mile High City, at a Broncos game, to discuss the pain inherent in America’s most popular game and the hypocrisy of the NFL’s continuing ban on cannabis.

Nate Jackson remembers his first injury as a football player: He was playing receiver for Pioneer High School in his hometown of San Jose, Calif., and a linebacker crushed him as he was cutting across the middle on a passing route. Boom! His young body gave out, crumpling like a cheap suit. Concussion.

It was the 1980s. Injury protocols were decades away. “I know now that it was [a concussion] — because I couldn’t get up for two minutes and I had a headache for a week,” the former Denver Broncos tight end tells me. “I got laid the fuck out. I think it was a fateful coincidence that I started smoking weed at the same time I started playing football. I think it actually protected my brain in the long run.”

Jackson and I are sitting on the back flap of a classic hardtop pickup in Section J of the parking lot of Sports Authority Field at Mile High. It’s a gorgeous Sunday afternoon in mid-November. The Broncos crazies are out for today’s tilt against the division rival Kansas City Chiefs. Until a few weeks ago Denver had been undefeated, the team’s stingy defense masking the accelerated downslide of legendary quarterback Peyton Manning. A three-point loss to the Colts the previous Sunday has done little to dampen the enthusiasm of the orange-clad tailgaters.

With the sun shining down as he sips his pale ale, Jackson, 36, seems to be enjoying himself. He doesn’t keep in touch with many ex-players, but Jake Plummer, the quarterback who tossed him his first NFL touchdown, is an exception. It’s Plummer’s truck that Jackson is resting on when I find him. He’s sporting a dark beard, a Cali-style flat-billed hat, and an orange-and-blue striped T-shirt. Jackson now lives in California but maintains a house in the Denver suburbs. He’s excited to be hanging out with his old pal Jake “the Snake,” who lives an hour away in Boulder.

As players, both carried themselves a little differently. They bonded over their shared iconoclasm, their determination to maintain some semblance of free thinking amid the military-like rigor of professional football. In recent years Jackson and Plummer have also urged the NFL to change its zero-tolerance policy toward marijuana. Jackson has spoken publicly about the issue as a member of the Gridiron Cannabis Coalition, a group dedicated to the advancement of medical marijuana as a treatment option for injuries and illnesses. He and Plummer have argued that the medical benefits they experienced from using it should be open to all players, not to mention the general public.

Since retiring in 2008, Jackson has attended only two NFL games. This will be his third. He still loves football, but his relationship with the game and the NFL is complicated. “[There are] a lot of complex emotions,” he says. “Not that I’m trying to avoid them.” Still, he seems excited to revisit the field where he carved out a solid, six-year career.

When Jackson suggested we meet at a tailgate party I expected a private VIP affair. But that’s not how Jackson rolls. The other attendees at our modest gathering include a couple of friends he met through Plummer. Shortly before we head into the game, former Broncos wide-out Charlie Adams, another ex-teammate, pops by and offers Jackson sideline passes. “I’ve got extras if you’re interested,” says Adams. But Jackson declines without giving it a second thought. Today he’s hanging with me in the nosebleeds.

Over the past few years the connection between cannabis and pain relief has become impossible to ignore. In 2012, a series of randomized clinical trials at the University of California Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research (CMCR) found that “cannabis significantly reduced pain intensity.” Those results are consistent with last year’s findings from McGill University Health Centre in Montreal, which deemed medical marijuana a safe treatment option for pain. And back in 2011, a study from the University of California San Francisco showed that patients suffering from chronic pain experienced greater relief when they added cannabinoids — the main active ingredient in cannabis — to an opiates-only treatment.

Cannabis-based pain medications are already approved in Canada and in some parts of Europe. Even the U.S. government, which demonizes marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug, holds a patent on the use of cannabinoids as neuroprotectants, helpful in the recovery and regeneration of the nervous system in sufferers of strokes and other traumatic injuries, such as concussions. And yet for NFL players, the only way to experience these benefits is in the shadows. Those who get caught are punished with suspensions, lost paychecks, and career setbacks.

As game time approaches, Jackson locks up Plummer’s truck — the Snake decided to head in early — and Jackson and I amble toward the turnstiles. Jackson enjoyed six seasons as a Bronco, but he’s anonymous among the fans in the security line. That is, until a guy in his late 20s wearing an old-school Broncos cap recognizes him. “Nate Jackson! I really dug your book,” says the young dude, referring to Jackson’s entertainingly gonzo 2013 memoir, Slow Getting Up: Life at the Bottom of the NFL Pile.

“Thanks man,” Jackson says. “Thanks a lot.” He seems genuinely appreciative. Unlike other ex-jocks who trawl for endorsements and milk their past glories, Jackson is committed to having a second act of his own choosing. “You have to figure out who you are outside the NFL or else you’re going to be carrying water for them the rest of your life,” he tells me. These days, he sees himself first and foremost as a writer. And he should — he’s a damn good one. His book, about his longshot tenure in the NFL, is honest and hilarious, profane and poignant. His byline has appeared in the New York Times and on Deadspin, and his second book, which he tells me has something to do with fantasy football, hits the shelves later this year.

With the health of football players becoming a front page issue — whether it’s the concussion crisis or the class-action lawsuit from ex-pros alleging the NFL illegally pushed dangerous painkillers — Jackson’s voice has become a vital one in a battle between the league and its players.

Clearly, many current players are already using cannabis. You only need to glance at the ever-growing list of NFL players suspended for positive marijuana tests — even names from Denver, Seattle, and Washington, D.C., where it’s legal. Jackson and other former players have estimated that at least half the players in the NFL consume marijuana in some form. But to truly understand why a substance with analgesic benefits and powerful neuroprotective properties remains outlawed by a league populated with the very men who stand to benefit from them the most, Jackson says you have to consider the cultural and institutional bubbles that professional football players live in.

“Really, marijuana is about choice,” Jackson says as we climb the stairs toward our 500-level seats. “And these guys,” he says, speaking of the players stretching below us on the field, “don’t have a choice. The food they eat, the plays they run on the field, the medicines they take … this is all predetermined for them.”

To most fans, NFL players are disposable characters, gladiators who don’t bleed. But once you start to think about those gladiators as real people (and especially if you sit down and talk with one), you begin to understand the freedoms they relinquish to keep their NFL dreams alive.

One of the first pieces of autonomy they forfeit, Jackson says, is their freedom to choose the best treatment for their constant, unrelenting pain. “Based on the condition of their bodies, NFL players could go to any doctor in this city and get a prescription for [marijuana],” he says.

“The interesting thing about football is, there are very few industries that you know [that there’s a good chance] you’re going to get a brain injury,” he adds as we reach our seats in the second-to-the-last row, which is almost literally in the clouds. (It takes me a minute to catch my breath, but I take solace in the fact that Jackson, who has stayed in solid shape after his playing days, also needs a moment to recover.) “And [studies now show that marijuana] helps the brain heal. The NFL might be acting negligibly by not studying it and denying it to players. Instead, they get pushed into the arms of more dangerous products.”

From the league office to the team doctors to coaches and players, the winning-is-everything culture of the NFL has created a system geared toward getting injured players back on the field at whatever cost. That means pills. Lots and lots of pills.

“The anti-inflammatories were always something I took without question,” Jackson tells me. “I finished those bottles. But the Vicodin and Percocet I didn’t really like. They made me feel high and slow and dreamy. And that’s not how I want to be.”

So after a game or practice, Jackson would fire up a joint, replacing as much of his opiate cocktail as he could with cannabis. “I used it to let my mind and body escape,” he says. “My body always healed very fast. I’m not going to say that it’s because of cannabis, but I think it helped.”

What about before a game? I ask him.

“I would never smoke weed and go into work,” he says, emphatically. “But I never took pain pills before work, either. Football is high alert all the time. I needed to be sharp.”

[Football] was the most violent, visceral, emotional part of my life — and weed helped me deal with that.

A majority of Americans now believe that marijuana’s outlaw status is absurd. A 2015 Pew poll found that 53 percent believe marijuana should be legalized. But cultural change often moves at a glacial pace. Until, of course, it doesn’t. On issues ranging from gender equality to marriage rights, the federal government eventually caught up to shifting public opinion.

Don’t look for the NFL to embrace that change anytime soon, though. Jackson believes the NFL will likely remain one of the last holdouts when it comes to medical marijuana. Why? Look at the commercials that air on most Sunday afternoons: big pharma ads pushing boner pills and drugs that combat opiate-induced constipation. Two years ago NFL commissioner Roger Goodell promised that the league would “follow the science” on medical marijuana. Some read that as a sign of thaw. But for now the league appears very comfortable with the status quo.

“[The NFL’s] constituency is old-school America — right wing, with, generally, more conservative sensibilities,” say Jackson. “It’s [about] cultural fear: What does it mean to be a marijuana user? [To some], it’s a group of thugs, smoking blunts in the corner with their pants sagging, about to harass some white grandma.”

“They’re definitely not going to be ahead of the curve,” he adds. “They are going to wait until they have to do it.”

After settling into our seats for a few series, I hail the beer guy for two Coors Lights. While Jackson locks in on the action on the field, I strike up a conversation with a young couple sitting in front of us. Based on their comments, the NFL’s feet-dragging on the issue might not be the smartest move if it wants to appeal to the next generation of season ticket holders.

“If it’s something a team doctor could get credentials to prescribe, then I think it makes sense,” says Owen Diver, a 21-year-old Denver University student wearing a Champ Bailey jersey.

Jazz Lahsaizudeh, a fellow student wearing a Broncos knit cap, puts in more bluntly: “If you’re good enough to be a professional athlete, you should be able to make the call as far as what you want to do after a professional football game,” she says. Just then, the Broncos quarterback tosses a wobbler that the Chiefs’ Sean Smith picks off.

Diver, irritated and sounding a little drunk, turns around again and interjects. “But, if you told me that Peyton was using medical marijuana right now, I’d be pissed,” he says. “The way he’s playing, at least he would have an excuse.”

Mile High Stadium — I still can’t make myself say “Sports Authority Field” — is a fantastic place to watch a football game. I soak in the scene of downtown Denver in the distance, sprawled along the high plains on the eastern edge of the snow-capped Rocky Mountains. Jacked up by high-energy tunes, the crowd cheers every hit by the Broncos defense. But every time the offense takes the field, there’s a sense trouble is afoot.

After a promising 7–0 start, Denver’s season is suddenly looking shaky. The fans aren’t confident that Peyton Manning can make it through the next game, let alone the rest of the season. Today’s start offers little assurance. The game has barely started and he’s already thrown his first pick. He redeems himself a few minutes later by offering the fans a piece of history: Manning completes a three-yard pass and breaks Brett Favre’s all-time yardage record. By the end of the first quarter, however, the cheers turn to boos as another feeble toss is intercepted.

“Oh no!” Jackson exclaims, gasping alongside the two old-timers sitting next to him. Jackson puts his hands over his face, barely able to look. Manning is imploding.

This being my first Bronco game, I’m surprised by how quickly the stadium is turning on the future Hall of Famer. “I thought Bronco fans would be more forgiving,” I say.

Jackson takes his hat off and flips it around. He’s felt that heat before. “They’re spoiled is what it is,” he says. “They’re rabid, but they expect perfection.”

Nimble second-stringer Brock Osweiler soon replaces the hobbling 39-year-old veteran, who has been nursing a series of injuries all year. This too may be a piece of history, though not one any of us wanted to see. We may be witnessing the end of Peyton Manning’s career.

Jackson nods in sympathy with Manning. “Football guys are tough guys,” he says. “They don’t tell you when they’re hurt. The guys who make it the furthest are the ones who endure it the best. That’s the culture. To move up the ladder, you don’t show pain.” Or, in Manning’s case, you have to fight through lingering foot, neck, and rib injuries to stave off the young, mobile heir apparent.

Chart Source: National Football League

Jackson played for Menlo College, a small Division III school near his home in San Jose, and landed with the Broncos as an undrafted free agent. He lived a very different football life than the celebrated Manning, a No. 1 draft pick who became one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. What they shared, however, was an unnatural ability to endure pain.

“Look at those guys,” he adds, motioning toward the Chiefs as they line up to punt on fourth down. “This is their frequency. It’s flight or fight.”

“So, at this point in the game, how banged up would you feel?” I ask him.

He glances at me with a look that says, You have no idea what you’re asking about, do you?

“I never felt pain during a game. You don’t feel pain while you’re playing. But, you come home and your adrenaline goes down. And then you feel it. Everyone does.”

When he was down there on the field, a special teams play like this was Jackson’s bread and butter. To prove his worth as a nonstarter, he had to make an impression — so he didn’t hold anything back when he went screaming down the field to crush the return man.

In fact, when I ask him his favorite memory as a player, he doesn’t recount his first touchdown catch or his first experience lining up as a pro. “There was never, like, this one moment,” he says. Instead, he talks about the strange allure of the physicality and violence that’s inherent to the game.

“You become desensitized,” he says. “And that’s something you have to adjust to” in life after football, he says.

I enjoyed contact. I enjoyed the banging. I enjoyed fucking somebody up. It felt good to me. I didn’t mind being hurt.

That’s a good thing, because he was hurt a lot. By the time Jackson’s playing days were over, his medical file looked like a dictionary. Over six years, he shattered his left ankle, broke his right wrist, crushed his ribs, suffered multiple shoulder separations, popped his groin off the bone, and tore both hamstrings. Those were the major ones. The minor were too numerous to recall.

“I just couldn’t stay healthy,” he tells me. “It was so frustrating. But you are pushing yourself to do things on the field that aren’t natural. You’re trying to go further every time … until your body doesn’t want to do it anymore. And that’s what a lot of these [players] do. They keep doing it until they snap.”

And when they do, there’s a team doctor waiting to get them back onto the field, pronto. “The medical attention is very good,” says Jackson. “But they might not always tell you what’s going on in a way that allows you to make the best decision for yourself.” They’re called team doctors — not player doctors. “They have the team’s best interests in mind, not necessarily the player’s.”

By the fourth quarter, the jolt of enthusiasm provided by Osweiler’s fresh legs starts to wane, and the reality of the 29–13 deficient sinks in for Bronco fans. All around us, the seats start to empty. Across the row, a guy in a floppy orange hat and an Ed McCaffrey jersey is talking on his phone with his feet kicked up. Ironic clapping accompanies any positive yardage. No one could have predicted they would see the first-ever benching of Peyton Manning’s career. A few weeks later, these same fickle fans will embrace the old workhorse when the tide turns and a second-string Manning leads a comeback against the Chargers. That win would ultimately spark the Broncos’ improbable Super Bowl run — and the chance for the great Manning to follow the path of Broncos legend John Elway and ride off into the sunset a champion.

But today, less than a week from Thanksgiving, the mood in Denver is cold as the mountain chill that overtakes this once-glorious day. As the game staggers to a finish, Jackson and I bond not over football, but about the grind of the writing process.

Jackson says he writes for four hours every day, usually in the morning. I tell him that reminds me of Hemingway’s writing regiment. Papa was a stickler for getting words down on the page early, before heading out into the world to fight, drink, and fish. I ask Jackson how he got into writing, and he opens up about about how he used to write for his high school newspaper, how he’s kept a journal since he was 19.

“I’m going through a new phase of my life, learning new parts of myself,” he says. “The words are just pouring out of me right now.”

With eight minutes to, we decide to abandon ship. Jackson is unfazed by the home team’s poor performance. He’s more interested in talking with the woman sitting behind us, in the black bangs and leather jacket. She kicked him with her suede boots in the second quarter — and hasn’t stopped chatting him up since.

Throughout their flirtation, Jackson never plays the ex-jock card. In fact, he messes with me a bit and tells the woman and her friends that I’m a famous writer. “Watch what you say in front of this guy,” he says, smiling broadly. When I let them know that Jackson used to play for the Broncos, they laugh. They don’t believe me.

And that’s how he likes it. Walking anonymously among the fans who once cheered him, Nate Jackson can be himself, not the former gladiator who sacrificed his long-term health for their game-day pleasure.

As we continue down the concourses toward the exits, I think I see Jackson struggling to walk a bit. Earlier that day, I’d asked him how his body was holding up these days.

“I had an ankle surgery a few months ago to get rid of some old bone spurs,” he told me. “My hamstring’s not great. I have some other aches and pains that pop up every once and a while. But, for the most part, I’m pretty good.”

Unlike many other ex-players, Jackson has been able to not only survive, but thrive after living through the NFL meat grinder. He doesn’t have a peer-reviewed study to prove that marijuana was responsible, but it certainly seems to have been a factor. Now he wants to give the guys who came after him a fair and legal shot at something that’s still too elusive: a healthy life after football.

Reminder: FREE Cannabis Career Readiness Workshop In Portland Tomorrow

Oregon is home to some of the best cannabis companies on the planet. It’s a very exciting time to work in Oregon’s industry, especially with full recreational marijuana licenses coming later this year. If you are trying to get into the industry, there is a free job fair and cannabis readiness seminars tomorrow in Portland,

Georgia: 4th Annual Cannabis Awareness Day On March 2nd

If you are in Georgia, check out the following event which is taking place on March 2nd from 9 AM to 3 PM at the Georgia State Capital. Below is more information, via the event’s Facebook page: Atlanta GA: Georgia C.A.R.E. Project is pleased to announce the 4th Annual Georgia Cannabis Awareness Day at the

Fundraiser To Support Show-Me Cannabis Tomorrow In Denver

This is a reminder that there is a fundraiser for Show-Me Cannabis tomorrow in Denver. The event is being put on by Vicente Sederberg LLC.Below is more information about the event, via the event’s Facebook page: Join us on the evening of Tuesday, February 2nd from 5:30-7:30 PM as we celebrate and support the efforts

Puffs and Pappardelle: Inside Top Chef's Hosea Rosenberg's Latest Cannabis-Paired Dinner

If you’re not a cannabis consumer, you may be surprised to learn the ways it’s becoming more infused into our culture. Side industries are stemming from the rapidly-growing cannabis industry. Weddings, for instance, are starting to feature cannabis bars and other canna-friendly touches. You’ll find the plant working its way into yoga sessions. And cannabis-friendly accommodations are opening around the world, making it easier for visitors to come and consume.

But what to do if you’re a newbie to partaking in cannabis? Wandering into a dispensary and knowing what to buy, how much to use, and where you can use it can be overwhelming. Luckily, there’s a creative company out there making this prospect possible: Mason Jar Event Group, a Colorado-based event planning organization that hosts elegant farm-to-table meals (among other events) with cannabis pairings. These events are the perfect opportunity for a non-smoker like me to give it a try. And so, I did.

On Thursday, January 28, I boarded the event shuttle to Shupe Farm in Longmont, Colorado, for a farm-to-table experience called simply “Winter.” On our way we stopped at Headquarters Cannabis Co. to pick up our pre-assembled goody bags for the evening.

The Leafly-designed bag contained:

• A Strawberry Cough rolled joint from Headquarters Cannabis Co.
• Cannabis-infused rosemary parmesan crackers from Love’s Oven
• Canna-Tsu from Headquarters Cannabis Co.
• Rolling papers from Headquarters Cannabis Co.
• Cannabis-infused toasted marshmallow drops from Canyon Cultivation
• Marley Coffee
• A lockable goody bag by Anonymous Bags
• Sunglasses from Headquarters Cannabis Co.
• A lighter

Once everyone was outfitted for the evening, we continued our trek to the farm. The building looked lovely with twinkle lights on the trees and fire pits blazing outside the barn, and the interior resembled a beautiful winter wedding reception venue. To my right was a large fireplace surrounded by lit Christmas trees. To my left was a long bar surrounded by professional people making up a spectrum of ages and career fields, chatting and drinking.

I headed straight for the bar in search of a little something to take the edge off since I had no idea what I was in for this evening. Craft cocktails by 3 Chicks Bartending were flowing — some sort of strawberry jalapeño concoction — and they were delicious. A perfect way to start the evening.

Servers floated about the room with plates of delicious pork cheek empanadas — warm and flaky. I wandered around a bit and chatted with a few strangers until a friend pulled me outside to a nearby fire pit. A pungent, yet sweet, smell hung in the air. Several people were enjoying the Strawberry Cough joint from their goody bags. The strain is known for delivering an uplifting cerebral euphoria, offering a great start for this buzzing event.

Soon, a soft ringing bell sound floated out the door. Dinner, catered by talented chef (and season 5 Top Chef winner) Hosea Rosenberg’s Blackbelly Market, was about to served. Two long dining tables were filled with beautifully mismatched glassware resting atop layers of antiqued linens. Earthy beetle-kill pine disks served as chargers or placemats made of stitched together slim sticks. Tall floral arrangements protruded from wooden vases. A smooth jazz band played in one corner of the room, providing the perfect mellow score for the evening’s activities.

The first course was a rust-colored roasted red pepper soup, which paired nicely with the rosemary parmesan bite-sized crackers from Love’s Oven. With only 10 milligrams of active THC each, the crackers were the perfect treat to keep the buzz going. Table talk was engaging, with the diverse crowd making its way to the fire pits and back to the tables again throughout the evening.

“Winter” served its second course, roasted organic winter brassica salad, in large bowls to be passed family style. The seasonal flavors of Brussels sprouts, Romanesco, and broccoli with sweet, crisp apple and dates exploded in my mouth.

The dinner paced nicely, offering time between courses to make a trip outside or to visit the vape bar where you could enjoy a nugget of Canna-Tsu from your treats using Healthy Headie’s PAX2 vaporizer — the only form of smoking allowed inside the building. Wine pairings mysteriously appeared before me thanks to the quick, quiet event staff.

Blackbelly’s main course was a hearty coq au vin with pappardelle on the side. It, too, was served in large dishes passed family style among the neighbors I was getting to know at my table. With each new course, I found myself more and more pleased with the entire experience. I had a gentle buzz going, as did everyone else in the room.

By the time dessert rolled around, I was bowled over. The dense chocolate torte with caramel and sea salt melted in my mouth. Coffee was served with a dash of chocolate liqueur for the final pairing of the evening: cannabis-infused toasted marshmallow drops. What better treat than s’mores to round out a decadent evening?

Clinging to the final minutes, I was happy to chat with Kendal Norris, the woman behind Mason Jar Event Group, and creator of the trendy cannabis parties. From my experience, these events will skyrocket in popularity as out-of-staters and more professional individuals look for ways to enjoy fine food, fine company, and fine cannabis.

Image Source: Mason Jar Event Group

US WA: Pot Shops Sue State, Call Licensing Process 'A Mess'

Seattle Times, 30 Jan 2016 – Several longtime Seattle medical-marijuana businesses filed a lawsuit Friday against the state Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB) alleging that regulators are not following their own rules in issuing a new round of licenses for retail stores. At issue is the process of bringing medical businesses into the state’s licensed recreational-retail system. The Legislature last year gave the LCB authority to license new stores, with priority given to longtime medical players seen as good actors, in following rules and paying taxes.

Reciprocity, Baby: Leafly's Medical Cannabis Guide to Las Vegas

Nevada isn’t the only state to recognize out-of-state medical marijuana cards, but it is the most permissive, and its enormous tourist trade has made it the most visible test case for MMJ reciprocity. The state’s first dispensaries opened last August, and they’ve seen a steady flow of fly-in traffic.

“Our patients are about 50 percent out-of-state,” Las Vegas ReLeaf co-owner Al Fasano told me recently. Fasano and I were talking in the upscale, club-like atmosphere of his dispensary on Paradise Road, in the shadow of the Stratosphere tower. It was a Thursday afternoon, and Fasano’s budtenders were bustling.

Dispensaries like ReLeaf are likely to get even busier. About 11,000 medical-card holders live in southern Nevada, but Las Vegas welcomes 40 million visitors a year. If only 1 percent of those tourists hold MMJ cards, that’s a potential market of 400,000 patients.

The state sparked fierce competition when it earmarked 12 dispensary licenses for the city of Las Vegas. Applicants were graded in a host of categories — security, financing, environmental plan, etc. — and the most robust business plans won the coveted licenses. For patients, that means the dispensaries are well financed, beautifully designed, and expertly managed.

Stepping into a Vegas dispensary, in fact, can be a jarring experience. Outside might be a gritty, sun-blasted streetscape or an obscure strip mall, but push through the door and you’ll enter a plush, upscale retreat. Las Vegas ReLeaf features modern lounge seating and a massive, flat-screen menu. Sahara Wellness, just up the street, has the cool feel of a destination medical resort. “We wanted the interior to be respectful, safe, clean, and comfortable,” Sahara Wellness co-owner Brenda Gunsallus told me. Behind us, a water feature burbled down the wall. “We wanted to offer a calming effect when people come in.”

Vegas is known for its cutthroat competition, but so far the dispensary business runs counter to that vibe. “This industry is still so small here,” Gunsallus said. “We’re in the same business, but we’re not really competitors. We had one guy run out of bags last week, and we all pitched in to help him out.”

What to Know If You Go

• Valid MMJ cards from all medical marijuana states are accepted. You’ll also need to present government-issued ID.
• Purchase limit: 2.5 ounces every 14 days. Your purchase will be entered into a state database with real-time tracking, so you’ll be denied if you try to exceed the limit. Calculating flower is easy, but it gets tricky when you start adding edibles and other products. One-on-one budtender consultations are essential.
• There are odd state rules regarding product touching in the dispensary, so take it slow, don’t grab, let your budtender guide you through the process. Just like table games at the casino.
• As in other states, public consumption is illegal.
• Product selection is a little limited, as producers and processors are still ramping up. A variety of flower strains, edibles, topicals, tinctures, transdermals, and concentrates are available.
• Prices are higher than Colorado, Washington, and Oregon patients are used to. The $18 gram is common here.
• Nevada has weird regulations. It’s illegal to water ski or surf while under the influence of medical marijuana. Not a joke. Also illegal to possess a firearm while under the influence. Also illegal to “embark on an amusement ride.” So if you’re medicating, maybe skip the SlotZilla Zip Line.
• Nevada has tough DUI laws. Its blood level per se limit is 2 nanograms per milliliter, which is far below the 5 ng/ml of Washington and Colorado. Nobody should be driving in Vegas anyway. Nothing good can come of it. Uber or cab it, always.

Some of our favorite dispensaries are located near the northern end of The Strip, not far from the Stratosphere. Las Vegas ReLeaf remains one of the most popular, with budtenders who know how to handle the lively, out-of-state trade. Sahara Wellness, which just opened this week, features a female-friendly, patient-centered vibe, more spa than club. Coming soon: Essence Vegas, the first dispensary actually on Las Vegas Boulevard (aka The Strip), which expects to open in early March.

Leafly Recommends

Las Vegas ReLeaf

2244 Paradise Rd.
Las Vegas, NV
702-209-2400
11 a.m. – 8 p.m. Sunday – Thursday
11 a.m. – 10 p.m. Friday – Saturday

“Things were slow in the beginning, but as you can see, people are now flowing in,” Las Vegas ReLeaf co-owner Al Fasano told me during my visit last month. He ain’t kidding: On its first day, ReLeaf saw a grand total of eight patients. Those days are over — ReLeaf is now one of the most popular dispensaries in the city. “We had to adjust a little,” Fasano said. The shop originally opened at 8 a.m., but this city doesn’t stir till noon. “So now we’re open at 11 a.m. and it seems to work out.” ReLeaf stocks flower from Green Life Productions, one of Nevada’s most visible up-and-coming grow operation, and stocks a number of familiar brands: Dixie tinctures, JuJu Joints, and Mary’s Medicinals CBD patches.

Distance from Bellagio Fountain: 2 1/2 miles north
Vibe: Where the experienced California MMJ patient shops
Look for: High-quality flower and an expanding line of concentrates

Sahara Wellness

420 E. Sahara Ave
Las Vegas, NV
702-379-7817
10 a.m. – 7 p.m. daily

If you’re not deep into cannabis culture, don’t worry. Neither was Sahara Wellness co-owner Brenda Gunsallus. “When we found our location two years ago, we didn’t even give the address a second thought,” she said with a smile. “We didn’t know what 420 meant!” Gunsallus, a former tennis pro, came to cannabis through adult friends who found medical relief from seizures. After looking into the medical research, she found her calling. She and her business partners took over an old gold-exchange building on Sahara Avenue and gave it a radical makeover, with warm weathered-plank walls, water features, artwork, and a calming atmosphere. “We want to spent time with our patients, get to know them. I’m in this industry to help people,” she told me. “We’re going to focus on high-quality CBD, maybe not the highest THC,” she said. “A lot of our patients are managing glaucoma, PTSD, and anxiety disorders. We want this to be a warm, welcoming place for them.”

Distance from Bellagio Fountain: 2 3/4 miles north
Vibe: Female-friendly Sahara caters to patients who want a little more consult time at the counter.
Look for: Expanded line of high-CBD products, topicals, tinctures

Image Source: Las Vegas ReLeaf

Do Cannabis-Infused Suppositories Actually Work? We Put One to the Test

If you’re one of the approximately 3.4 billion women on Earth, you recognize that awful, all-too-familiar feeling. Each month, your monthly visitor “Auntie Flo” comes to visit and your uterus basically explodes.

As a female of child-bearing age, I am no exception. It was “that time of the month,” when abruptly during my workday, I became aware of a terrible sensation in my gut. My inflamed uterus had expanded and my entire midsection began cramping, leaving me feeling bloated, nauseous, and generally uncomfortable.

I couldn’t help picturing that scene from Alien, only with my uterus as a sentient being, trying to forcefully rip itself through my stomach. Or perhaps it had transformed into a personified cartoon, complete with ovaries as fists – “Quit hitting yourself! Quit hitting yourself!” My reproductive organ was being a total bully.

Thankfully, I may have had a solution to my cramping. Foria, the makers of an arousing cannabis-infused pleasure spray for women, recently debuted a new product called Foria Relief.

The Product

In Foria’s own words, Foria Relief is a cannabis-infused suppository “intended to maximize the muscle relaxing and pain relieving properties of cannabis without inducing a psychotropic ‘high.’” Each serving contains 60mg of THC and 10mg of CBD, and is designed to be inserted vaginally to deliver the dose as close to where the discomfort and cramping is originating as possible.

Admittedly, I was wary to try this new product. Just the word “suppository” brings to mind awkward connotations, but by the end of the day I was desperate and ready for relief. Assuaging my trepidation was the suppository’s ingredient list, which contained only three items: organic cocoa butter, CO2 distilled THC oil, and CBD isolate.

The Experiment

Once home, I immediately consumed a cannabis-infused edible, hoping the analgesic effects of therapeutic THC might also help soothe my angry womb.

Upon carefully reading the instruction booklet, I popped the suppository into the freezer for 15 minutes to make sure it was firm (and therefore unlikely to dissolve too quickly upon insertion).

At this point, my significant other arrived and I informed him of my intention to insert 60mg of THC straight up into my honey pot. He didn’t seem fazed by the idea, but then again, when you’re dating a cannabis writer, even the most ridiculous concepts induce a blasé reaction.

I opened the packet to reveal a small, white, pearl-sized bullet. It was a slippery little devil, and I was glad I’d taken the extra step of freezing it so it didn’t dissolve in my hand. My first impression was that it reminded me of a tiny torpedo on a fast track to my cervix.

Then I noticed the scent, and so did my partner. We both noted that it smelled ahhhhh-mazing, like creamy, buttery chocolate and coconut.

I leaned back and inserted the little white torpedo, lifting my hips with a pillow for full effect, as recommended. As we waited for the full effects, we watched true crime documentaries and snuggled.

My S.O., kind soul that he is, offered to rub my back and neck while we were waiting, knowing that this is one of my favorite activities and would help put me at ease.

As he stroked my neck and hair, I began to feel the effects of the Foria. The combination of the edible I’d eaten earlier with the massage and the suppository began to work magic on my internal organs. Warm, golden waves emanated from my vagina throughout the rest of my body.

All of the muscles that had been cramped and clenched so tight gradually released and my body relaxed. Where I had been painfully aware of every inch of my midsection, suddenly it felt as though I had no midsection at all. From my waist down to my thighs, it was almost as if my groin had simply dissolved and was floating in some galaxy far, far away.

It’s important for me to note here that although Foria Relief promises no psychoactive effects, I cannot speak to the truth of this as I tainted the experiment when I consumed an edible ahead of time. I can say that for the experienced cannabis consumer seeking relief from menstrual cramps, the combination of the two was spectacular.

I laid back and closed my eyes, letting the waves wash over my body. After a day of constant disruption from my inflamed internal organs, the relief was palpable and pronounced. The only downside was that the feeling was unfortunately short-lived. It takes about 20 minutes before you begin to feel the effects, which, for me, lasted a little less than an hour. But what a glorious hour it was.

The Conclusion

If you suffer from debilitating cramps, I cannot recommend this product highly enough. It was absolutely worth the cost and if it’s available in your area (currently only in California and Colorado), do yourself a favor and take a chance by diving (figuratively) into the great unknown.

Also, it made my crotch smell delicious.