WeedLife News Network

The Glenwood Springs Community Center is seeking more marijuana tax funding to maintain the facility as a “third space” for underserved or at-risk youth.  

If a young person’s first place is their home and their second place is their school, the Parks and Recreation Community Center wants to become a third place for teens and preteens. 

“Support groups I think are the biggest one which is really where this program started out with,” said Brian Smith, Parks and Recreation director. “It’s ‘How do we help at-risk youth, those teens (who) are interested in mental-health issues, school support, navigating through social experiences and identity, buddy connections’ — all those kinds of things.”

Private businesses in Thailand are looking to network with hemp suppliers in order to capitalize on the plant’s industrial and medical potential.

The Thai Industrial Hemp Trade Association (TIHTA) recently signed a cooperation agreement with 12 manufacturing industries to showcase innovations and technology related to the hemp industry later this year.

TIHTA President Pornchai Patthaminthara said this development will promote networking and allow for better access to quality raw materials.

The agreement will also contribute to product research and development, knowledge sharing, improved production standards and planning, and forward management of prices.

SIOUX FALLS - As Sioux Falls officials highlighted their public safety concerns today, some also broached the topic of recreational marijuana.

South Dakota voters will head to the polls in November to decide on the issue with Initiated Measure 27, but if it was up to Mayor Paul TenHaken or Minnehaha County Sheriff Mike Milstead, cannabis would not be legal beyond medical use.

“If we think that legalizing marijuana in the fall is going to lead to a safer community then we have another thing coming,” TenHaken said.

There are three “myths” people will hear coming from the IM 27 camp, TenHaken said.

One is that South Dakota prisons are full of marijuana convictions, which is not accurate, TenHaken said.

“The second is that crime will decreased because we will have legalized a drug that’s caused drug rips and so forth,” TenHaken said. “The absolute opposite happens, and I share that because the data supports that.”

Minnesota's new hemp-derived THC edible law is facing its first major legal challenge from one of the state's medical cannabis companies, which claims it should be able to sell its "chemically identical" marijuana edibles on the open market.

HARRISBURG - A series of investigative stories from Spotlight PA this year has uncovered serious flaws in Pennsylvania’s medical marijuana program and prompted calls for change from doctors, patients, industry leaders, and policymakers.

The coverage — based on months of reporting, dozens of interviews, and thousands of pages of public records — has revealed misleading or dangerous tactics by cannabis businesses, unequal advertising rules, legal gray areas for workers and employers, and inconsistent enforcement by Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration.

Here’s a look at the reporting, its impact, and the issues we’re keeping an eye on:

“Unproven, Unsafe”

A first-of-its-kind review of more than 60 websites revealed that some cannabis companies made statements that multiple health policy and addiction treatment experts called misleading, incorrect, or even dangerous. Spotlight PA’s analysis focused on claims companies made about using cannabis to treat opioid addiction.

Thousands of pages of records obtained by Spotlight PA also showed that state regulators do little to ensure cannabis dispensaries, which require a permit from the state, make accurate medical claims on their websites. Meanwhile, companies that offer to help patients obtain a medical marijuana card operate with little to no oversight.

Impact: One dispensary removed incorrect information from its website after Spotlight PA contacted the company in December.

Conviction for using weed following you around? Check out pardon program.

Your series on the effects of California legalizing recreational marijuana in 2016 missed one of the biggest points of all — continued federal prohibition.

"California has always produced far more cannabis than Californians consume. Oregon as well. That’s because these are export markets. Legalizing weed in California only legalized the in-state part of the business, which was less than 25%.

Until the federal government legalizes cannabis, there will still be incentive for illegal cultivation. Until California can enter into interstate commerce agreements to legally ship licensed cannabis across state lines, legal businesses will continue to fail, the illegal grows will continue to thrive, and so will the corruption and bad actors.

The Pharm, a 320,000-square-foot Dutch glass greenhouse grow operation and cannabis brand based in Phoenix, Arizona, is proud to announce significant investments in eco-friendly production standards that prove that you don’t have to pay more for a premium product that respects the plant, the planet and the people.

Harnessing the power of the ample Arizona sun at their Willcox grow facility, The Pharm also exclusively utilizes eco-friendly growing practices, such as using an underground geothermal well to naturally heat water, recycling runoff water, and composting organic waste to keep energy use low and limit environmental impact.

Plus, The Pharm’s state-of-the-art R&D and highly-trained production teams ensure that each strain is cared for in the most natural way possible, maximizing flavors, taste and quality, while maintaining high yields and strict eco-efficiency standards. All of which combines to make The Pharm the leader in high-quality, affordable and sustainably-grown cannabis.

“Being located here in Willcox is critical to our sustainability,” says Charles Crum, a Cultivation Quality Manager with The Pharm. “We have lots of sun which the plants love, but it’s also a cooler climate thanks to the higher elevation, which creates the ideal growing conditions of a lot of light without too much heat.

Eco-efficiency is at the heart of our operation because we already have these great elements at hand: sun, soil, well water, and very little electricity required.”

This investment also has consumer-facing benefits, as The Pharm partnered with One Tree Planted to put the planet first, one seedling at a time, by planting one new tree with every One Tree Planted stamped product purchase, reaching the goal of planting 200,000 trees by the end of 2022.

New Orleans Police Department says that police recruits who have used marijuana within the past year are not automatically disqualified from becoming cops.

This week, the New Orleans Police Department made a change in their policy as a way of attracting new police officers. While historically, NOPD recruits were disqualified if they admitted to using marijuana, on Monday, the department unanimously agreed to relax this policy.

This marks a significant moment, representing just how much the city has changed in a short span of time. A few years ago, the justice system in New Orleans was handing out long prison sentences for marijuana possession.

While the change in the stance of the NOPD is significant, it’s still not a pro-weed organization. NOLA.com explains that the new policy makes it clear that new recruits won’t be disqualified over marijuana use within the past year, but they still must pass a drug test before getting the job. If accepted, officers must not use drugs while in the force.

New Orleans is currently facing a low number of police officers and high levels of crime rate. This crisis was prompted by the pandemic, where the department reported having under 1,000 cops for the first time in decades. In the case of crime, homicides have soared 141% over the past years.

New Orleans currently has the nation’s highest level of homicides, with 52 homicides per 100,000 residents.

The hemp fiber market is expected to witness market growth at a rate of approximately 6.90% in the forecast period of 2021 to 2028 and is expected to reach USD 0.51 billion by 2028.

Data Bridge Market Research report on hemp fiber market provides analysis and insights regarding the various factors expected to be prevalent throughout the forecast period while providing their impacts on the market’s growth. The rise in the awareness regarding the benefits of hemp is escalating the growth of hemp fiber market.

The product is utilized in the processing and manufacturing of various products such as paper, textile, insulation and construction material, personal care products, nutraceutical, bio-plastics and bio-fuel. It is mostly grown food and beverage and non-food based products with no use of toxic chemicals, pesticides, fertilizers and herbicides.

The rise in inclination towards natural organic products over pharmaceuticals among customers across the globe acts as one of the major factors driving the growth of hemp fiber market.

The increase in demand for hemp fibers in various industries such as automotive, construction, food and beverage, personal care and textile especially in emerging regions and rise in the investment for the production of hemp-based products accelerate the hemp fiber market growth.

The growth in awareness among population regarding the therapeutic properties of the product and the low prices of hemp encouraging farmers to diversify their crop options further influences the hemp fiber market.

Removing mandatory drug tests for railroad workers would encourage more people to apply for positions and offer employees more security

Currently, only one in 20 Denver dispensaries offer delivery services.

With major cannabis companies posting massive losses and investor capital drying up, the fall of fail may be upon us.

Like California fire season, “Croptober”—the term for the annual flood of sungrown cannabis entering the market during the fall harvest and the subsequent price shock, as supply on hand far outstrips demand—is now a yearlong phenomenon. 

But this year aims to be worse for everyone, as October is due to bring bad tidings for c-suite types and investors in Big Weed. With the third quarter closing Sept. 30 and the next earnings reports for publicly traded companies due beginning Oct. 15, “Croptober” is on track to be “Crashtober,” the autumn of major cannabis companies’ serious problems.

Though the cannabis legalization movement in the U.S. has spawned plenty of "bud and breakfasts" and weed-friendly, budget hotels, a handful of boutique hoteliers are targeting the high-end cannabis traveler - no pun intended.

Expansion at the sector's more premium end comes as the number of Americans interested in cannabis-related travel has swelled, according to Brian Applegarth, founder of the Cannabis Travel Association and Cultivar Brands, a strategic marketing agency specializing in the cannabis industry.

In early 2020, just prior to the pandemic, Cultivar partnered with MMGY Travel Intelligence to analyze the burgeoning cannabis traveler segment. They discovered that 29% of all active leisure travelers in the U.S. could be identified as being part of a growing "cannabis-motivated travel audience."

Findings from a recent pandemic-era survey, released this summer, indicate that the size of that audience has increased to 37% of all active leisure travelers, with Gen Z and millennial travelers, in particular, reporting overwhelming interest in engaging in at least one cannabis-related activity while on vacation.

"There's also this sophisticated kind of connoisseur" that's emerging, said Applegarth. "And the data shows, if you look at the median and mean household incomes, the cannabis-interested audience has a very compelling profile when it comes to disposable income."

California leads the way

The trend is being led by properties in California, both an early adopter of relaxed marijuana laws and the nation's top grower of cannabis.

Here are some of the most popular and noteworthy approaches to weed packaging today to help you get a sense of how far this simple afterthought has evolved into a deciding factor in the industry.

Marijuana used to come in little, difficult to open yet easy to rip baggies. If the supplier happened to be in a festive mood, maybe the bag had some trees or smiley faces on it. Times sure have changed.

With the major shifts in marijuana legalization and production over the last decade, it’s easy to forget the old days when it was illegal and there were no frills involved in the packaging.

It's up to province to regulate how cannabis is consumed, says lawyer for Quebec.