WeedLife News Network

Cannabis and empathy? You might be wondering, “what does empathy have to do with cannabis? I thought stoners were supposed to be apathetic.” Well, the answer might surprise you.

Studies suggest cannabis actually positively impacts our ability to process emotions. Cannabis opens up the potential to understand others better and be more aware of their feelings, according to experts.

However, we are not saying that you are a joint away from sainthood. As experts point out, such cannabis-induced empathy depends significantly on the cultivar type, user intention, and the amount of cannabis consumed. Take too much, and you may in turn suppress your emotions.

Note that I have used the words “empathy” and “compassion” synonymously for this article. Accordingly, it is essential to note what empathy means and what is its physiological nature.

Our neural networks let us be more receptive to the needs, experiences, and desires of other people. It enables us to appreciate other people’s emotions and feel at one with them, understand their point of view, and understand how and why it differs from ours’.

Sleeplessness. Night sweats. Anxiety. Irritability. Aches and pains.

Would smoking a little pot help women deal with these common symptoms of menopause?

A good number of middle-aged women apparently think so, because they've been turning to marijuana to help handle the change of life, a new study reports.

"Midlife women within the menopause transition period of their life are using cannabis, and they're using it for symptoms that tend to overlap with menopause," said lead researcher Katherine Babyn, a graduate student at the University of Alberta in Canada.

There's just one drawback -- little to no research has proven that pot can effectively treat menopause-related symptoms, said Dr. Stephanie Faubion, medical director of the North American Menopause Society (NAMS).

California’s state fair has struggled with two years of COVID cancellations. But planning is already underway for next year’s event.

And among the livestock and food competitions, there will be a new award handed out for top pot. We’re getting answers on just how the cannabis competition will be judged. The state fair is a Sacramento summertime tradition.

Along with all the food and fun, its purpose is to recognize the best in California. Annual competitions are held to pick the top wine, cheese, olive oil, and craft beer. But next year, a new category is being added: cannabis cultivation.

“It’s a big milestone for the cannabis industry,” said Brian Applegarth, CEO of Cultivar Brands.

Cal Expo’s board of directors approved the top pot competition.

Although Tracey Medeiros insists her new cannabis-focused cookbook is not a party book, it definitely includes a recipe for a favorite treat: pot brownies.

“I couldn’t resist,” Medeiros said of the fudgy, deeply chocolate recipe. The nod to pot brownies is just one of 125 recipes in “The Art of Cooking with Cannabis,” a handbook for understanding how elements and products of the cannabis plant can be incorporated into the kitchen. Recipes range from desserts to starters (sweet corn and cashew chowder) to mains (chicken and kale meatballs with cherry tomatoes and cannabis pesto; and mussels with roasted corn puree and peppers).

The Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) has provided an update on its position on the use of hemp and hemp byproducts in animal feed, calling for more research.

In the USA, animal feed is regulated at a federal level by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration – Center for Veterinary Medicine (FDA-CVM). AAFCO is a non-regulatory body promoting the uniform regulation of feed throughout the country, working on the recommendations of the FDA.

At a state level, feed is usually regulated by each state’s Department of Agriculture. An example of a state that has allowed some hemp to be used in animal feed is Montana, but livestock (pet and horses only) fed hemp in Montana cannot enter interstate or intrastate commerce as the animals would be considered “adulterated” at a federal level.

Hemp is not yet permitted at a federal level as a stock feed. In its latest position statement, AAFCO says while it understands the enthusiasm for using hemp, stakeholders need to consider “the potential adverse impact” of allowing it in animal food before necessary research is carried out and legal processes observed demonstrating it is safe.

“Rather than unilaterally approving the use of hemp as a feed ingredient, in conflict with AAFCO’s century-old model for animal food ingredient approval, advocates should support continued research and development, and promptly submit applications to AAFCO and the FDA for review and approval on a national level,” says the body.

Stem Holdings, Inc., the first multi-state, vertically integrated Farm-to-Home™ (F2H) cultivation and technology omnichannel cannabis company, announced today that it has acquired Artifact Extracts, a premier cannabis extraction company based in Oregon known for its award-winning concentrates, as well as two dispensaries. (As Originally Seen On Benzinga)

The transaction closed on September 17th. Stem issued 8,209,178 shares of common stock at a deemed aggregate value of US$ 2,925,000.

The Las Cruces city council voted to pay the state back $400,000 that was going to go to a new hemp manufacturing company.

The city planned to invest $150,000 of its own funding in addition to $400,000 that the New Mexico Economic Development Department gave the city for 420 Valley, LLC.

The city's decision to retract the money was due to the fact that 420 valley was unable to meet its hiring goals.

"They we’re going to provide up to 55 jobs at a certain income level by 2023, December 31st," said Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima. "And then there was also another stipulation that they would have at least 18 jobs by December 31st of 2020 and we don’t believe that they’re going to fulfill that.”

“We started reaching out to people for the hiring process, getting it lined up, but we didn’t have anybody that was fully committed to come work for us," said Rick Morales the co-owner of 420 Valley.

Referendum to call for Italy to liberalise cannabis.

Italy is set for a referendum on liberalising the use of cannabis after activists gathered half a million signatures, the threshold required to trigger a public vote.

The petition gathered 500,000 signatures in the first seven days, a result described as "extraordinary but not surprising" by organisers who said the "speed of mobilisation confirms the desire for change on cannabis."

Pro-marijuana advocacy groups are calling for "15 per cent more signatures" to be added to the petition to ensure it will be accepted for approval by the Supreme Court of Cassation, Italy's highest court of appeal, by its 30 September deadline.

Antonella Soldo, from the association Meglio Legale ('Better Legal') said almost half of those who signed were aged under 25.

More people are in the emergency room for uncontrollable vomiting, also known as cyclical vomiting syndrome (CVS), following marijuana legalization, according to a new study.

According to the analysis published Friday in JAMA Network Open and sponsored by The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), Colorado has seen over 800,000 emergency room reports of vomiting between 2013 and 2018, a 29 percent uptick since the state legalized marijuana. The study also found that more than a third of the vomiting cases were in people under the age of 25.

Reviewing 820,778 patients in Colorado emergency departments, this study connected cannabis legalization with an increase in vomiting-related health care visits. This increase was seen primarily in Colorado counties without existing medical dispensaries prior to legalization.

This analysis suggested the vomiting is a symptom of cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome (CHS), a condition marked by uncontrollable vomiting after cannabis use and usually occurs in long-term marijuana users. A 2020 study in Neurogastroenterology and Motility also found that 1 in 5 sufferers of cyclic vomiting syndrome were regular cannabis users.

Marijuana ironically has been used as an anti-nausea aid for those undergoing chemotherapy, where up to 75 percent experiencing it get nausea or vomiting.

Seed & Smith has launched a new collaboration for cannabis and music lovers, partnering with Colorado band Big Gigantic to release limited-edition THC cartridges for the company's popular line of Dart vaporizer pods.

A brand encompassing dispensaries, in-house cannabis cultivation and extracted products, Seed & Smith has worked with a handful of musicians and artists over the years, but chief operating officer Brooks Lustig is particularly excited about the Big Gigantic project.

“The one thing that was exciting about this one is the fact that Big Gigantic wanted to do something that was for charity, that could help out the situation here in Colorado,” Lustig says of the Boulder-based musical duo.

A Wood River Valley based hemp insulation manufacture plans to build a production facility in Jerome County along the interstate beginning this fall. Southern Idaho Economic Development said Hempitecture Inc., based in Sun Valley, intends to build a plant at the Northbridge Junction near the Interstate 84 and U.S. Highway 93 junction; a groundbreaking ceremony is set for early October. This is one of the first major business announcements made since a bill was signed into law earlier this year allowing the production and transportation of industrial hemp in Idaho.

While cannabis is still classified as a highly dangerous drug on the federal level, there’s no denying bud is big business.

Cannabis is one of the fastest-growing industries in the country, with a record $17.5 billion in sales last year, up 46% from the year before. Since an ounce of marijuana can cost hundreds of dollars, you may be keenly interested to know whether your home insurance would protect you if your cannabis was ever stolen or destroyed. After all, most policies cover trees and houseplants, so why not cannabis?

You might be familiar with the practice and poses of yoga, but have you ever heard of yogajuana? 

For millennia, yoga has been used to heal the mind, body, and spirit. Some use it for strength training or flexibility, but now, some members of Southwest Florida’s medical marijuana community are taking yoga to a deeper level by incorporating cannabis.

“We come to yoga to work on our own individual areas, whether we are trying to let go of something or conjure up something, heal something, so that’s really the concept,” said Tara Mina, a yoga instructor and cannabis advocate, also known as “Yoga Mama.” “It’s not so much about cannabis, it’s about treating the symptoms of why we choose to use cannabis.”

Members who attend Mina’s private yogajuana classes are prescribed medical marijuana. They don’t sit around in a circle and smoke a joint or pass around edibles. One of the main points of yogajuana is breaking the stigma that still exists around marijuana use. 

Mina recommends participants use their cannabis on their own terms as prescribed, then use yoga to hone in on the benefits. 

Indoor cultivation of cannabis consumes tremendous amounts of electricity and causes high greenhouse gas emissions. California Lightworks, an LED manufacturer, says the cannabis industry can increase yields, decrease costs, and reduce climate impact by using its MegaDrive technology. Industry uptake of new LED technology caused average energy consumption of indoor grows to decline by more than 20 percent between 2018 and 2020. Cannabis Reporter cites the Environmental Protection Agency that LED technologies “offer the potential for cutting general lighting energy use nearly in half by 2030.”

“California Lightworks is committed to addressing climate change and the issues resulting from outdated technology,” said George Mekhtarian, CEO of California Lightworks. “Our MegaDrive technology helps reduce the costs, increase the yields and help cultivators reduce the heat generated in their facilities.”

California Lightworks’ MegaDrive technology increases the mass, both in terms of grams per square foot and grams per watt, and quality of yielded crops. The advanced LED technology reduces fixture costs by up to 30% and installation costs by up to 80%. And, the benefits come at a 50% lower operating cost than traditional high-pressure sodium (HPS) lighting systems.

Mekhtarian says his company is expanding its philanthropic activities as well to help make a positive impact on the environment.

“We are happy to see our technology have a positive impact on our climate and environment. Innovation brings about improvement in our environment,” said Mekhtarian. “We are not only doing this through our business, but we are doing it through charitable work too and will be announcing more on that in the near future.”

Michigan’s hemp industry could get up to $100 million in federal funds to help it compete globally under a proposal pushed by a nationwide growers association.

The state is one of four with emerging hemp industries targeted by the National Hemp Association, along with Oregon, New York and Florida. The funding would be for developing a “regional super site” in each state to aid in the industry’s growth, said Geoff Whaling, the association’s chair.

Hemp is a cannabis plant with a very low percentage of THC, the psychoactive element of marijuana. Developing the industry could benefit Michigan environmentally and economically, Whaling said. The plant has many uses, but the state’s auto industry is what makes it a target for development.

“The biggest potential use for hemp today, outside of food, is the automotive industry,” Whaling said. “That’s why we’ve called for $100 million of that money to be allocated specifically to Michigan.”

For example BMW is planning to reduce its carbon footprint by using hemp bioplastics, a renewable resource, in production, Whaling said. The growth of electric vehicles means more opportunities because hemp rope is lightweight and can hold an electric charge like copper.

A Wood River Valley based hemp insulation manufacture plans to build a production facility in Jerome County along the interstate beginning this fall. Southern Idaho Economic Development said Hempitecture Inc., based in Sun Valley, intends to build a plant at the Northbridge Junction near the Interstate 84 and U.S. Highway 93 junction; a groundbreaking ceremony is set for early October. This is one of the first major business announcements made since a bill was signed into law earlier this year allowing the production and transportation of industrial hemp in Idaho.

Professional golf is one of, if not the most, cannabis-friendly globally played sports today. While Olympians and athletes in other sports continue to be suspended for cannabis use, several pro golfers and the Professional Golf Association (PGA) have largely embraced CBD and its $2.8 billion global market value.

Still, skepticism remains as the bond between pro golf and CBD seems to forge stronger over time.

Kadenwoodand its athlete-centric brand Level Select added 2015 Players Championship winner Rickie Fowler as a brand ambassador in 2020. In 2021, Catriona Matthews OBE signed on as a brand ambassador for the UK’s Golfers CBD brand.

Some are taking their involvement further. Ten-year LPGA pro, Amelia Lewis became an investor and vice president of CBD brand Zeal Pure — a brand operated by her mother. Others include Darren Clarke, 2011 Open Championship winner, who launched his Darren Clarke CBD brand in July 2021.

An exciting crowd funding cannabis cultivation project is scheduled to start this week for Grow Space Orange, the Massachusetts company that develops cannabis cultivation facilities that are leased to licensed growers. Grow Space Orange, Inc, is a wholly owned subsidiary of New England Agriculture Technologies, LLC ("NEAgTech") in which investors are able to get in on the ground floor of an asset-based cannabis business with planned above-average returns plus the exciting possibility of being an owner of a prosperous cannabis cultivation operation. Full details of this and other NEAgTech projects including financial forecasts is on the investor section of the GrowSpaceNE.com website.