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A study led by researchers at Syracuse University in the USA looked into the ability of CBD to reduce pain along with placebo effect impact, with interesting results.

A placebo is a substance or treatment that has no therapeutic value, but which can still trigger a positive or negative response – pretty much through the power of suggestion that it will have an effect. Placebos are often used during studies to help researchers understand the effect a medicine or treatment might have on a particular condition. Some participants in the study group will be given the real medicine, the others the placebo – and usually the participants won’t know which they have been given.

When it comes to cannabidiol (CBD), the non-intoxicating cannabinoid that has shown so much promise, there is still plenty of debate as to whether the benefits CBD users claim to experience are due to pharmacological or placebo effects; or a mixture of both.

A study carried out by Martin De Vita, a researcher in the psychology department at Syracuse University’s College of Arts and Sciences, and Syracuse Emeritus Psychology Professor Stephen Maisto involved the use of equipment that safely induces experimental heat pain.

Participants were tested for initial response, then CBD or a placebo was administered, but also the information provided to participants was manipulated. Some who received the CBD were told it was placebo and vice-versa.

The trend on public support for legalization of marijuana in Pennsylvania is clear, with support growing for the eighth year in a row.

Pennsylvania has only legalized medical marijuana, but the numbers make it look as if it is adult use cannabis driving the sales. Cannabis data company Headset recently expanded its reach into Pennsylvania and published its first full market report based on consumer insights and real-time market data.

The report found that over the past twelve months, Pennsylvania’s medical cannabis sales have escalated, and between April 2020 and March 2021, Pennsylvania’s medical markets brought in $909.4 million. Medical sales grew 120% in the first quarter of 2021 to $267.8 million from last year’s $121.5 million for the same time period.

Photo by Ethan Miller/Staff/Getty Images

The report also determined that Pennsylvania stands out among other U.S. markets with the largest average basket sizes so far this year, at $123.88 per basket. In addition, Pennsylvania’s average basket size was two times as high as Michigan’s and one-and-a-half times as high as Oregon’s.

Marijuana legalization has gone mainstream. In November, voters in four states approved recreational cannabis, and legislators in Virginia, New Mexico, and New York followed suit in early 2021, sending bills to all three governors' desks.

But the term legalization obscures vast differences in how states regulate marijuana businesses and consumption. Oklahoma arguably passed the most free market medical marijuana rules among the states. Michigan's recreational marijuana regulations largely embrace free and open markets, while Colorado's have steadily liberalized since legalization. Unfortunately, most other states are choosing highly restrictive market structures that undercut their ability to foster economic growth and quash the black market (we're looking at you, California!).

Wielding statutes such as possession limits, allowance for home growing, tax levels, licensing regimes, and testing and labeling requirements, states are targeting real political problems or imagined market ones. But such wrangling ensures that legal markets lose out to black markets. Even in polite Canada, only 28 percent of cannabis consumers buy legally, possibly beating out some U.S. states. Here are the four biggest mistakes states make, time after time, when creating legal marijuana markets.

1. Caps on Licenses

Most states where marijuana has been legalized arbitrarily cap how many businesses can be licensed to grow, manufacture, or sell. Advocates justify these caps to limit excess supply from bleeding into black markets, despite every recreational marijuana program's extensive state-monitored inventory tracking, which uses radio frequency identification on every plant or package and mandatory continuous video surveillance. If each product from every licensed facility is tracked, why cap licenses? 

A more pernicious motivation may lurk under the surface: excluding aspiring competitors. In Nevada, which permits only 120 dispensaries statewide, regulators accepted bribes from applicants, then manipulated the application process in those applicants' favor. In Illinois, which permits only 30 cultivators in a state with more than 11 million residents, license caps created systemic shortages, raising prices well beyond those found on the black market.

To say the cannabis industry has experienced change over the past few years would be a serious understatement. Every element — from growth engineering and legalization to marketing and delivery — seems to be witnessing a revolution.

However, cannabis packaging is undergoing one of the most significant changes. As cannabis products receive more mainstream attention, retailers and packaging organizations are shifting their focus from mere shelf-presence to brand identity. 

Whether you’re looking to treat a specific skin condition, or simply want to improve your health regime, there’s a lot that hemp seed oil can do!

This article is sponsored by Real Tested CBD.

How old are you?

The number of years you’ve been alive doesn’t necessarily tell how old you are on a biological level. An international study found that some people age up to three times faster than others.

Some of the participants in the study were 38-years-old but had a biological age of close to 60! The results prove that age-related decline is already happening in young adults who haven’t even begun to encounter age-related diseases.

Photo by Tinnakorn Jorruang/Getty Images

Cannabis businesses have transformed from clandestine ventures to glossy lifestyle brands in a matter of years, thanks to an evolving regulatory and business landscape.

The majority of states now have some form of legalized cannabis, whether for medical or recreational use. The 2021 U.S. cannabis market is valued at $33 billion , according to an analysis by market research firm Grand View Research. That number is forecast to balloon to $84 billion by 2028. These trends indicate a fertile environment for seeding a new cannabis venture.

2 Marijuana Stocks To Watch Before Next Month

As marijuana stocks still battle to reach higher market levels some are still holding a decent market position. Many investors are worried about the uncertainty with the current downward trading cannabis stocks are facing. Now, this is not to say some many new and seasoned investors haven’t been loading their portfolios up with top marijuana stocks.

The new cannabis shop on Route 66 had a spa aesthetic: light-colored wood, spacious layout, greenery. Two miles outside Asbury Park, Zen Leaf Neptune was greeted warmly the other day by tourism officials of the iconic Jersey Shore town.

“It’s a revenue driver,” said Sylvia Sylvia, (@sylviasquared) executive director of Asbury Park’s Chamber of Commerce. “It’s a legal business, and that’s what a chamber of commerce does. We support businesses. We support tourism.”

But don’t look for Stone Harbor to become Stoned Harbor any time soon.

With clear evidence that cannabis can improve quality of life, more and more people are engaged in its medicinal purposes. Furthermore, states are taking into consideration the laws for the consumption of cannabis. This also explains why there is a high demand for medical marijuana autoflower seeds that leads to the supply of medical cannabis across America.

According to a CBS report, Americans over 55 frequently consume cannabis, many of them living in areas where weed is legal.

Benefits of Medical Cannabis

In other words, the use of cannabis among the elderly is on the rise. Medical researchers have found it to be safe compared to opioid drugs.

Common Diseases Of Elderly People Who Can Be Treated With Medical Cannabis

The cannabis plant contains over 100 cannabinoids, interacts with the ECS, thereby regulating pain, memory, etc. Recent surveys indicate that the number of medical prescriptions has decreased considerably following the legalization of cannabis for medical purposes in many US states.

Alzheimer’s Disease

About 5.8 million Americans live with Alzheimer’s disease. By 2050, that number is expected to reach 14 million. Patients usually forget important dates, events, etc., and ask the same repeatedly.

From the robots that fail miserably at their jobs to the robots dealing with our literal crap, Mashable’s Crappy Robots dives into the complex world of automation — for better or worse or much, much worse. 

Cannabis farm production is at an all-time high, but it's unlikely that robots will take over the process anytime soon.

The stereotypical weed farm is either a sprawling expanse of crop tended to by free-spirited stoners, or a clandestine basement operation built on information gleaned from online forums. Modern cannabis farm facilities, with their climate-controlled grow rooms and automatic irrigation techniques, are a stark departure from pop culture's preconceived notions of what a weed farm looks like. Though far more clinical than its cliché predecessor, the modern cannabis farm still does the bulk of cultivation by hand. Few, if any, other agricultural spaces use human labor over that of a machine's to the degree that cannabis farms do, but the quality-driven nature of weed requires fine motor skills and age-old intuition that technology hasn't adapted to yet. 

While the agricultural industry has relied on machinery for centuries, automation falls short in the cannabis sphere. The rise in states legalizing marijuana and the 2018 Farm Bill that legalized hemp ushered in a "green rush" of farmers who could grow cannabis, and consumers who could finally buy it. Despite the growing demand, high-quality bud is a fragile crop, and machinery used in conventional agriculture isn't gentle enough to handle it. 

Outdoor farming is limited to areas with consistent sunlight and temperate climates, so most brands farm their weed indoors. Marijuana Business Daily reported that in 2018, more than 80 percent of California's recreational marijuana production capacity was from indoor facilities. But even indoor facilities, unencumbered by outdoor farming's natural limits and boosted by modern technology, require people to do a majority of the work. That isn't because the technology or machinery doesn't exist, but because a trained human being just does the job better than a robot. Agricultural technology may be leaps and bounds ahead of at-home grows 20 years ago, but reaching a Monsanto-level scale of operations is out of the picture for cannabis farms. For now, ensuring high-quality bud still requires significant human involvement. 

Due to the months spent indoors due to the pandemic, a lot of people can relate to new habits brought on by loneliness or stress.

For some, it has been eating more or drinking more alcohol, and others have begun trying out substances such as marijuana.

A provider of addiction recovery resources and information, Recovery.org, polled 3,000 respondents and found that over 1 in 5 Texans, 22%, say they now have a more relaxed view towards recreational marijuana use after experiencing a year of lockdowns.

Being stuck inside has also resulted in many celebrities sharing their substance use during the pandemic: as a virtual guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live! in April 2020, Seth Rogen said he was smoking cannabis and doing pottery to get through lockdown days.

Although many activities were limited during lockdowns, some states such as California, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, Oregon, New Jersey, and New York deemed cannabis dispensaries an essential service.

Montana moved a step closer to implementing its voter-approved recreational marijuana program last week.

On Friday, lawmakers in the Montana Senate passed a bill establishing a framework for the nascent program, including a provision that “would reserve tax revenue from sales for addiction treatment and statewide conservation efforts,” according to the Associated Press.

The bill, which passed the Montana Senate by a vote of 34-16, now heads back to the state House, where lawmakers will vote on the state Senate’s amendments. Lawmakers in the state House passed legislation to implement the new legal pot program earlier this month.

Voters in Montana passed the legalization ballot measure in November, one of four states to pass legal weed proposals in last year’s elections. Shortly after the election, Montana officials announced that they anticipate licenses being available in the fall of this year.

“There’s a lot of work ahead before the first legal sale of non-medical marijuana in Montana, and before the first license is issued,” said Gene Walborn, director of Montana’s Department of Revenue, which is overseeing parts of the new cannabis program. “We look forward to working with the public and all interested parties as we develop guidelines around this new industry to move it forward, while also protecting public safety and raising revenue for the state of Montana.”

Rules taking effect this week in the U.S. could cause serious headaches for companies making hemp-based vape products due to broad definitions in a law aimed at curbing vape sales to minors — perhaps putting a crushing burden on small producers.

The Preventing Online Sales of E-Cigarettes to Children Act (2020) comprises revisions to a previous law, the 2010 Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking (PACT Act) which bans direct sales of cigarettes to consumers through the mail.

Birmingham, Alabama Mayor Randall Woodfin announced on Tuesday that blanket pardons would be issued for cannabis convictions going back more than 30 years, giving up to 15,000 people even more reason to celebrate on 4/20. And in another move by state leaders to mark the high holiday, the Alabama Democratic Party called on lawmakers to legalize cannabis for both medical and recreational use.

In a statement from Woodfin, the mayor noted that Birmingham kicked off a Pardons for Progress program in 2019 that was designed to make it easier to have past cannabis convictions pardoned and the records sealed. But those eligible for pardons were required to apply for the relief and only nine convictions have been cleared since the program’s inception.

Under the new plan announced by Woodfin on Tuesday, closed cases from 1990 through 2020 that resulted in a conviction for misdemeanor marijuana possession charges will be automatically pardoned. Cases still pending before the court would have to be closed before a pardon could be issued. The pardons, however, will not result in a reduction or refund of any fines or fees paid to the court.

Woodfin noted that the new campaign for justice was being initiated in an effort to address the disproportionate impact of convictions for minor marijuana offenses.

“Here’s why we’re doing this—no one should be held up by a single past mistake,” Woodfin wrote in a statement from the mayor’s office. “No one should be denied job opportunities or freedoms due to missteps from the past. No longer will these residents be bound to their past. They deserve a chance to be part of our workforce, to provide for their families, and to achieve success on their own. That new life starts rights here, today, with forgiveness and redemption.”

When Colorado legalized the retail sale of marijuana in 2012, savvy entrepreneurs saw an opportunity beyond setting up shop in population centers like Denver and Boulder. 

They realized if they opened cannabis businesses in small towns along the state’s borders, they could attract customers from Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Texas, Utah and Wyoming, where pot remained against the law but was still plenty popular. 

“The border model was a great model,” said Josh Bleem, who lives near Fort Collins but owns CannaCo in Trinidad, one of the first dispensaries people pass as they enter Colorado on Interstate 25 from New Mexico. “We took advantage of that.”

When Will The Senate Approve The SAFE Banking Act?

A well-respected Senate chairman is working to level out the expectations about a vote in his panel. This is in regards to a bill that would protect banks that work with state-legal marijuana businesses from being penalized by federal law. Recently The SAFE Banking Act was approved by the House approved aside largely bipartisan lines.

It is neither a Sativa, Indica, or hybrid. The only aspect that counts when a plant is being termed a sinsemilla is that it must be feminized and unpollinated.

Times have truly changed. In the 1970s almost every cannabis farmer, as well as users, could explain something about sinsemilla.

Now, less than a quarter of cannabis consumers worldwide can give a direct answer to this question, most especially the current generation of users. They have most likely not heard the word before.

Most times, the few that have an answer say “sinsemilla is a strain of cannabis,” but they’re wrong.

1.What are CBD Gummies?

CBD has grown to be the talk of the town in recent years. According to a study, approximately 64 million Americans have tried it in the last 24 months. Among the 64 million Americans, 64% used it as pain relief, 49% used it for coping-up with anxiety, and 42% found it helpful for insomnia. Sunday Scaries CBD gummies come under the list of products that contain Cannabidiol oil. They are edible candies that come in varieties of colors and sizes. They are available in many flavors and offer an easy way to intake Cannabidiol. It is an effective way of marketing it among its users. However, the strength and purity of these gummies vary between different brands. As far as FDA approvals are concerned, it approved a CBD product named Epidiolex. It is helpful for the treatment of epilepsy. Companies developing such products claim that they can help with depression, anxiety, pain. They even help in improving sleep. But there is not strong evidence that CBD gummies work like that. Numerous users have claimed that consuming gummies make you feel relaxed and lend a sense of comfort. It is a non-psychotropic substance because it is devoid of THC. Therefore, the usage of these gummies is increasing daily because of their positive effects. Studies also confirm that consumption of CBD ensures health benefits to the individual.

Here are six tips highlighting the benefits of CBD consumption.

1.1 Can Reduce Anxiety and Depression 

Studies have shown that high consumption of CBD may reduce anxiety and depression. There are two types of receptors present in the human body. The adenosine receptors are responsible for anxiety and uneasiness, while the serotonin receptors are accountable for depression. Cannabidiol interacts with these two receptors to help patients cope-up with anxiety and depression. The lack of efficiency in these two receptors might result in anxiety and depression in an individual. Consuming it helps both the receptors achieve an efficiency of 100 percent, thus reducing anxiety and depression. They can help induce a calm mindset.

420 was predicted to be a huge day for cannabis sales and it certainly didn’t disappoint. Akerna said that by the time Tuesday hit, the daily retail sale of legal cannabis was expected to gross $95 million nationally, bringing total 4/20-related sales to $370 million in the U.S. if Akerna’s data proves accurate.

Planet 13

Nevada-based Planet 13 Holdings Inc.(OTCQB:PLNHF)  a leading vertically-integrated Nevada cannabis company, announces record sales day on April 20, 2021 (“420”). The Company generated $543,000 in single-day sales with gross margins during the month in excess of 50%.

“The demand and acceptance for cannabis is growing across the country, and nowhere is that more evident than in Las Vegas. For tourists returning to Vegas, Planet 13 is synonymous with cannabis and an incredible entertainment experience,” said Larry Scheffler, Co-CEO of Planet 13. “The demand is so overwhelming that even with the many improvements we have made to streamline throughput, we still can’t capture all of the demand. I’m excited for the relaxing of COVID restrictions on May 1st and our expansion which doubles our sales floor and points of sale to handle the unprecedented surge in customer traffic.”

Planet 13 said it is also hiring over 300 workers to staff its Vegas dispensary expansion (doubling points-of-sale/registers to 85) and to staff its new California SuperStore.

During a year that saw hundreds of thousands of American deaths and widespread suffering, so-called vice industries thrived. Whether for mental health needs, self-medication, or pure recreation, the consuming public hoarded alcohol and other substances in an apparent effort to cope with the outbreak and social isolation over the past 12 months. And one of the biggest beneficiaries was the cannabis industry, which saw explosive growth in 2020 that’s expected to continue into the next decade and beyond as an increasing number of states legalize recreational marijuana use.

On weed enthusiasts’ high holiday of 4/20, cannabis analytics and tech provider Akerna projects that legal cannabis sales will cross $95 million on that day alone. Perhaps that’s not surprising on a day that encourages excess. But it’s also representative of a larger trend.

“Americans purchased $18.3 billion in cannabis products over the past calendar year, $7.6 billion more than the $10.7 billion in sales the previous year,” writes the cannabis-focused Leafly in a report compiled from marijuana state tax and revenue records.

Some of that is clearly linked to the increasing number of states that have legalized marijuana, either recreationally or for medical use, in the past few years. New York this year became one of the largest states in the nation to legalize recreational marijuana. Of all 50 states, 48 allow for some form of medical marijuana; 16 states have legalized it recreationally, including the entire West Coast.

But the pandemic clearly had an effect on marijuana sales that may persist into the future. Americans may have been stocking up to limit interactions with dispensaries that may have closed down, and an influx of new customers in states legalizing the drug affected the revenue growth. “New consumers and patients, and newly legal states, played a role in 2020’s cannabis boom. But the main driver was an increase in the average purchase size of established consumers, who increased their average monthly spends by 33%,” according to Leafly.