WeedLife News Network

To the surprise of many, South Dakota’s Governor Kristi Noem is considering a bill that would decriminalize cannabis in South Dakota. While Noem has been unflinchingly strict on cannabis before, she is now starting to loosen up a bit, though not enough for some advocates.

The legislation, which is being proposed by the governor’s office, would limit the number of plants medical cannabis patients could have, as well as stop the process of incarcerating people for possessing small amounts of recreational cannabis. Up to an ounce, or eight grams of concentrate, would simply get a petty offense charge, no jail time, as long as the person was 21 or older. Repeat offenses would result in a class 2 misdemeanor instead of a felony charge. 

“This is one of several draft bills being circulated for discussion and Gov. Noem has not endorsed any of them,” said Tony Venhuizen, Noem’s chief of staff.

Noem is allegedly concerned about the medical statutes that will go into effect this summer, as they don’t specify a cap for how many medical plants a patient can have in their home. Under this new proposal, the limit would be three.

A competing proposal drafted by cannabis advocates South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws sets the limit for home-grown plants at six instead, and wants less severe charges for those under 21 found to be in possession of cannabis. The competing proposal has some backing from senators who are more pro-cannabis and feel that Noem’s bill doesn’t go far enough. 

When California first passed Proposition 64 legalizing recreational cannabis, voters waited in eager anticipation for natural, quality products to purchase.

What they found instead was 84.3% of sampled cannabis tested positive for pesticide residue. 

The research, conducted by Steep Hill Labs, Inc., further concluded that 65% of cannabis samples submitted to their lab contained Myclobutanil, a pesticide that when smoked or vaporized is converted to Hydrogen Cyanide.

As the name suggests, the chemical is extremely toxic for humans to ingest. 

Discoveries like these underscore the importance of lab testing requirements for cannabis operators.

For more than 80 years, the hemp plant was prohibited and conflated with its THC-rich cousin. Though they are both from the Cannabaceae family, hemp and marijuana were historically used for very different things. Industrial hemp is non-intoxicating, has a long history with humans and has been used for millennia for textiles, paper, food and much more. Cannabis also has a long relationship with humans and is used for less hands-on applications such as medicine, ritual, and enjoyment.  

It wasn't until 2018 that hemp and marijuana became legally distinct in the US with the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, finally defining hemp as separate from marijuana and allowing for its cultivation and distribution. 

Judging by the size of the US cannabidiol (CBD) market and the rapid ascent of cannabis concentrates, consumers are showing an eagerness to try new industry offerings. Now that hemp is legal, that includes smokable CBD bud or “hemp bud” — also called hemp flower or CBD flower. 

What's the difference between cannabis-derived CBD and hemp? Do hemp buds have CBD?

If getting high is what you're looking for, you won't find it with hemp flower. Hemp plants are bred for industrial purposes and to contain very little intoxicating THC. And if a medicinal level of CBD is what you're after, hemp buds are not usually CBD-rich and not a very efficient way to get the cannabinoid. 

However, CBD derived from high-THC cannabis is much more likely to have higher levels of CBD and terpenes, the aromatic compounds responsible for cannabis's distinct scent and flavor profiles. Cannabis-derived CBD offers much more medicinal benefit than hemp-derived CBD and shouldn't get you high, provided it remains below the federally legal limit of 0.3% THC. 

In a budding industry, every year seems to possess a distinct significance. As someone who has traversed the globe advising on all things cannabis for more than a decade, I can confidently say that no two years have been the same. New patterns and market fluctuations come and go rapidly - a fairly common occurrence as a nascent industry builds its foundation.

In April 1990, Jackee Winters and her 2-year-old daughter, Autumn, were driving in their new black Mitsubishi truck when they got hit by a car.

Autumn died that day. Winters was in a coma for a few days and needed to relearn how to speak and walk. Doctors reconstructed her chest after the steering wheel damaged it and bruised her heart.

Winters, who now lives in Idaho City, was eventually diagnosed with depression, and the accident left her with disabilities, pain and nightmares that she has battled since then. She takes a variety of medications for her mental health and traumatic brain injury, according to medical documents.

On a vacation to Oregon several years ago, Winters said she tried marijuana. She said she slept soundly that night. And when her teenage daughter was battling brain cancer, she took her to Oregon to let her also try cannabis. Winters said it relieved her daughter’s pain.

Winters’ daughter is now in remission. Winters said she thought about moving out of the state to access medical cannabis, but she grew up in Boise and loves the area. If her daughter’s cancer ever returned, Winters said she’d likely want to move.

The FDA said in a statement that the products that are the subject of the warning letters have not gone through the FDA drug approval process and are considered unapproved new drugs.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued warning letters to two companies for selling products labeled as containing cannabidiol (CBD) in ways that violate the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act). Specifically, the warning letters address the illegal marketing of unapproved drugs labeled as containing CBD. The companies are Honest Globe and BioLyte Laboratories.

The letter sent to Honest Globe referenced the products “ELIXICURE ORIGINAL PAIN RELIEF with CBD” (roll-on and pump versions) and “ELIXICURE LAVENDER PAIN RELIEF with CBD” (roll-on and pump versions) (hereinafter referred to as “ELIXICURE PAIN RELIEF with CBD” products). The “ELIXICURE PAIN RELIEF with CBD” products were labeled as containing cannabidiol (CBD) and require no prescription.

The letter reads, “Your “ELIXICURE PAIN RELIEF with CBD” products are unapproved new drugs introduced or delivered for introduction into interstate commerce in violation of sections 505(a) and 301(d) of the FD&C Act, 21 U.S.C. 355(a) and 331(d). Furthermore, your “ELIXICURE PAIN RELIEF” products are misbranded drugs introduced or delivered for introduction into interstate commerce in violation of sections 502(a), 502(ee), and 301(a) of the FD&C Act, 21 U.S.C. 352(a), 352(ee), and 331(a).” The FDA also said that although CBD was listed as an inactive ingredient in the labels of the “ELIXICURE PAIN RELIEF with CBD” products, the product labeling clearly represented CBD as an active ingredient, which is a component of a drug intended to furnish pharmacological activity or other direct effects in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease, or to affect the structure or function of the body. Ultimately an inactive ingredient should not exert pharmacological effects.

In addition to the marketing, Honest Globe was cited for production issues. The letter stated, “Your Quality Unit (QU) lacked control over your topical over-the-counter drug manufacturing operations and failed to ensure that you had adequate procedures. In your response, you committed to working with your contract laboratory to investigate the cited OOS results and future OOS results. Your response is inadequate because you did not address your responsibilities to investigate potential manufacturing deficiencies that may have led to the OOS results. Your response also failed to evaluate batches with OOS test results that had been distributed and were still within expiry.”

It’s fascinating how people choose their cannabis products, especially terpenes and flower. It wasn’t that long ago when the only option was cannabis flower via a local unregulated dealer, and likely only one or two options were available at that. The “I will take what I can get” strains were the most popular because, well, that was all that was available.

Zoom forward to today, and cannabis is legally available in several markets for medical and/or adult-use purposes, and the options are staggering.

THC Hunting

Arguably, the most common factor for consumers and patients purchasing flower in legal markets is the THC level associated with the particular flower, rather than terpenes. Veteran consumers typically want the strongest THC flower available. For rookies and newbies, the opposite is often the case.

The problem with that method is that THC testing levels can be misleading. Many producers know that THC levels drive sales, so they will get multiple tests performed and go with whatever test result comes back with the greatest amount of THC, even if it’s not necessarily accurate.

Another popular method for selection is searching for specific strain names and/or indica, sativa, or hybrid designations. Those factors can also be misleading because of how much cannabis crops vary from grower to grower and harvest to harvest. A much more applicable set of criteria is becoming more popular at dispensaries, which is good news for patients and consumers.

In general, it’s wise to spend a bit of time researching different cannabis products and effects and exploring menus so you can get some sense of what you’re looking for. 

Do you want something to help lull you to sleep? A low-dose tincture to take the edge off? Or a high-THC strain that will get you super stoned? There’s not a one-size-fits-all product for anyone — especially first-timers. 

Lantern, an on-demand cannabis e-commerce marketplace and home delivery platform, gives customers the option to answer a series of questions that help steer them to the right products. “Our goal is to empower consumers to confidently navigate the cannabis shopping experience to find which products best fit their goals and needs,” says Eric Lopez, head of operations at Lantern. Unlike a direct order from a retailer, a delivery from Lantern typically takes an hour or less, and the site accepts debit cards. To learn more about Lantern’s delivery service, visit lanternnow.com.

If you know you want to try flower, but aren’t sure whether to buy Purple Urkle, OG Kush, or Sour Diesel, opt for a pre-roll first. A pre-rolled joint gives you the freedom to try different strains before committing to an entire eighth. 

If you’re thinking you might like concentrates or vaping, an all-in-one option that includes the vaping device and the concentrate is a smart bet. These products are relatively inexpensive, ready to use, and usually tell you how many doses you’ll get in each unit.

Many countries around the world have made using cannabis for medical purposes completely legal, and some also legalized the use of marijuana for recreational purposes.

Due to high demand, a highly competitive market has developed. So, what is all the hype about?

It Can be Used to Treat Chronic Pain

Did you know most people who use medical marijuana on a regular basis do it because of chronic pain?

First of all, it can provide them with the pain relief they need to get through the day.

Second of all, it can be an effective and safer alternative to prescription medications.

Australian medical cannabis company Bod Australia Limited (ASX:BDA) has entered into an agreement with Drug Science UK involving a trial of Bod’s MediCabilis product in managing symptoms associated with long-COVID.

“Long-COVID” is a phenomenon where symptoms continue for weeks or months beyond the initial illness. Far from being isolated cases, it appears long-COVID is quite common; but as with the initial illness the impacts vary patient to patient. Even asymptomatic people who had relatively mild cases are reportedly experiencing long COVID.

At the time of writing, there have been more than 122 million cases of COVID-19 globally. It’s estimated 10% of those testing positive will have symptoms for 12 weeks after diagnosis.

Common reported symptoms are lethargy, muscle aches, loss of smell and taste and shortness of breath. For some, it can be debilitating and prevent them from engaging in a normal level of activity. As well as the physical effects, there’s also the psychological impact that may manifest as anxiety.

With the illness remaining a mystery and more people experiencing it as time goes on, there needs to be ways to manage long-COVID.

For the average person, images of sunshine, rainbows, blossoming flowers and lots of green grass usually come to mind whenever it’s springtime. But for people who like to smoke, it’s another excuse to combine to the best of both worlds and indulge in some season-inspired sessions. When it comes to spring smoking, it’s nice to reach for strains that are energizing and uplifting to match the boost in the weather if the sun is out where you live and go for calming strains that help you unwind in the evening to mellow out the hyperactivity of the day.

If you like going on the hunt for strains, keep an eye out for these at your local dispensary the next time you make a trip.

Green Crack

This popular, super potent sativa is an excellent morning smoke that may even rival a cup of coffee with its undeniable kick of get-up and-go. It’s the perfect way to bring in the new spring energy without dreading any sleepiness or laziness after waking and baking. Green Crack could also be useful for a quick post-punch session to give you an extra punch of energy.

Sunshine #4

Blaze your way into your happy place with a hybrid strain that not only helps to boost your mood but can also be highly-effective with alleviating pain, headaches and nausea. Like the name suggests, it’s a bright, euphoric high that’s powerful and instantly noticeable. This is a good fit if you like deep herbal flavors.

Researchers say that cannabis may have been around for about 19.6 to 28 million years. The earliest evidence of the plant’s existence is in the form of fossilized pollen.

Fast forward to modern times, and cannabis has become a $20.5-billion global industry. Market experts project this to multiply by more than four-fold by 2026. If this forecast comes to pass, its value will exceed $90 billion.

A primary factor behind this growth is the legalization of industrial hemp in the US. Scientists also continue to unearth hemp facts that establish the plant’s beneficial effects.

Despite the available literature, there’s still a lot of confusion about hemp. We’re here to set things straight, so be sure to read on to get your hemp plant facts right.

1. Cannabis Sativa That’s Not Marijuana

One of the facts about hemp and marijuana is that both are Cannabis sativa species. That makes them botanically similar, yes, but they have genetic varietal distinctions. It’s because of these differences that people grow and use them for different things.

In 2019, the SAFE Banking Act, a measure that would prevent federal banking regulators from sanctioning banks for working with legal cannabis businesses, passed in the House of Representatives only to languish in the then Republican-controlled Senate. Last week, the bill showed a shred of life when it was reintroduced in the House. Now that the Democrats are in control of Congress and the White House, is there hope that the SAFE Banking Act will finally pass?

The reaction among cannabis professionals has been equivocal, at best. For instance, Nathaniel Gurien, CEO of Fincann, a provider of payment solutions for the cannabis industry, feels the bill is nothing more than a superficial band aid to a larger problem, namely the federal illegality of the plant.  

"If Congress passes simple cannabis de-scheduling or the similar MORE Act, [which would decriminalize marijuana] this summer as expected, then the SAFE Banking Act would be moot," he said.

Yet Gurien has his doubts. “Majority Leader Schumer (D-NY) appears inclined towards more comprehensive legalization, which will likely require a couple years of wrangling with ‘stakeholders’ pushing federal legalization into the next Congress and 2023."

Matt Hawkins, founder and managing partner of Entourage Effect Capital, is adopting a glass half-full perspective. For him, the passage of the bill would be a boon for the industry as it could pave the way for plant-touching businesses to be able to trade on the NASDAQ and the New York Stock Exchange in the future. "This could open the floodgates for institutional investors who have been hungry to invest in this space and could also allow legal businesses to finally tap into capital markets and become closer to operating like mainstream companies," he explained. "Additionally, larger operators and ancillary companies flush with cash could have the buying power to more efficiently scale their businesses throughout the country."

We're soon going to learn a whole lot about cannabis in California.

An often overlooked provision of California's landmark legalization measure — Proposition 64 — set aside funds for research grants to study the impacts of cannabis. Well, the Bureau of Cannabis Control recently announced that it is awarding nearly $30 million in grants of up to $2 million to a host of public universities across the state — including Humboldt State University — to study various aspects of cannabis, including public health, public safety and economic and environmental impacts.

"The research conducted through these public university grants will provide critical information for evaluating our legal cannabis system and its impacts," Bureau Chief Lori Ajax said in a press release. "This research will be a valuable tool to inform future cannabis policy in California."

Included in the grants are some massive studies. For example, the University of California at San Francisco received $2 million to conduct a "comprehensive analysis" of cannabis exposure on the developing brain, while UC Santa Barbara got $2 million to study the impacts of farm practices on the quantity, quality and toxicity of surface water emissions from cannabis cultivation sites. UC Davis, meanwhile, got $1 million to study cannabis use's impacts on early psychosis, while UCLA received $1 million to assess "the feasibility and consequences of implementing a cannabis potency tax in California" and UC Berkeley received $465,000 to explore issues surrounding tribal sovereignty over cannabis permitting on Native ancestral lands.

Closer to home, HSU received $183,000 to study the economic impact of cannabis legalization in rural Northern California. The study will be headed by Sonoma State University professor of economics Robert Eyler and done in collaboration with the Humboldt Business Development Center (HBDC) and the California Center for Rural Policy at HSU.

Suzette Meyers is easy to label. Idaho native. Stroke survivor. Registered Republican.

But the Coeur d’Alene resident is also charging ahead with another label, one she repeats loudly and proudly: medical marijuana advocate.

“I look at people from my hometown in Salmon,” she said. “How many of them have had to suffer from debilitating conditions while people in the states around us have the freedom to choose what goes in their medicine cabinets?”

Meyers returned to Idaho from her lobby work in the Phoenix area last year, where she championed for medical marijuana in the Arizona Legislature, to continue her efforts in Coeur d’Alene. As North Idaho spokesperson for Kind Idaho, the emerging advocacy group that lobbies for medical marijuana legislation, Meyers said she’s eager to get the issue in front of Idaho voters in 2022.

“When you look at these communities so close to the borders, all they’re doing is stimulating economies in other states,” she said from a comfortable couch in Cloud Vapor, a vape shop in Post Falls, less than 5 miles from the Idaho-Washington state line. “We’re stimulating their economies and their agendas. Why shouldn’t we be doing that with our own economy or our own agenda?”

The year 2020 was a good one for cannabis stocks, and 2021 is looking even better. Many investors find it hard to go all in on U.S. cannabis stocks, given that a lack of federal legalization keeps them from trading on the major exchanges. But these over-the-counter stocks have more room to grow as the cannabis industry is rapidly evolving.

Cannabis is still a nascent industry, but it's expanding fast. Buying and holding the right marijuana stocks for the long haul will help you capture that growth for your own portfolio. And there are some U.S. cannabis companies -- those with staggering revenue growth, rising and consistent profitability, and strong balance sheets -- that could bring exceptional profit.

All cannabis greenhouses take advantage of sunlight for plant growth, but building construction and climate control strategies can vary so much that some growers say that “if you visit one greenhouse, you have visited one greenhouse.” To optimize building systems for peak productivity, consider managing infiltration through building envelopes so cannabis can be sun-grown while photosynthesis can be optimized with active climate controls.

Seal the Envelope

Greenhouse construction materials range in performance, and influence how growers can control climates to maintain optimized environments for cannabis plant growth and development. The choices you make for building materials and controls strategies for sun-grown cannabis affect your ability to maximize yield and quality characteristics.

Greenhouse buildings are constructed in many different ways, and to describe them, it is useful to understand some building system terms. Thermal envelopes are sometimes referred to as a building’s skin, or shell; you can think of them like your greenhouse’s coat in the winter and sunscreen in the summer. Weatherization describes activities you can do to improve thermal envelopes. Weatherization activities include insulating , which minimize unwanted heat losses and gains, and air sealing, which reduces the infiltration of outside air. Insulation is rated using R-value (a higher value is better) or the U-value (the inverse of R-value, where a lower value is better). Air leakage from infiltration is rated using the number of air changes per hour (ACH, the volume of air moving through a greenhouse each hour described in terms of the size of your greenhouse) or CFMX, the cubic feet per minute at a pressure change of X Pascals (for example, CFM50 tests air leakage rates at a change in building pressure 50 Pa).

There are two major components to greenhouse envelope performance: external coverings and internal equipment. Greenhouse thermal envelope performance is dependent on the design and construction of the facility: building materials and their insulative quality, and the integrity of the envelope’s seal. Contact your local utilities and efficiency programs; air sealing and insulation projects may qualify for financial incentives in your region for new construction and retrofit projects.

Insulation

Greenhouse materials vary; popular covering types include rigid plastic, film plastic, and glass, and each can vary in cost, durability, light transmission, and insulation. Their insulative quality is dependent on the type of covering and its thickness. Rigid plastic products like polycarbonate, acrylic, and fiberglass are popular as they can feature multiple layers of walls which trap air for higher R-value. Film plastic is attractive due to its low cost, but provides no insulation. Some growers use two layers of film and inflate the house with a fan to maintain an air gap. Glass has varying insulation ratings, and can be very well sealed to the structure compared to plastic materials which experience high levels of thermal expansion, which increase infiltration.