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Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Tuesday blamed small draft errors for a delay in approving a new law that would legalize cannabis and effectively create one of the world’s largest weed markets.

The bill was due to be approved by Dec. 15, but it has been delayed to next year, with the Supreme Court setting a new deadline of April 30 for the law to be passed, according to local media.

Lopez Obrador said legislators requested a delay as time had run out before the current session in Congress ended this month, meaning there was not enough time to review the bill.

“The period was practically over but they are matters of form and not substance,” Lopez Obrador said in his morning daily press conference, adding that the issues will be “resolved” in the next session due to start in February.

The bill, which would mark a major shift in a country bedeviled for years by violence between feuding drug cartels, easily passed the Senate in a vote last month, and would create a huge new legal market for marijuana.

From January to the end of September, Nevada's cannabis dispensaries made more than $588 million in sales.

That's according to a new report by the Nevada Dispensary Association. The industry group that represents cannabis sellers in Nevada said over last year, they have recorded a 14% increase in sales. In September alone, Nevada dispensaries reported $82.6 million in sales — a 43% increase over the same month last year.

September is the latest month that data is available.

Nevada voters legalized recreational marijuana in 2016. The state puts a 15% excise tax on wholesale sales, then a 10% tax on recreational sales to consumers. According to Nevada's Department of Taxation, the state took in nearly $37 million from July through September.

Nowadays, there’s numerous ways to smoke cannabis. Here are some things you should consider before making your purchase.

Buying your first marijuana smoking piece is a big deal. It’s the moment when you say to yourself that you’re committed to your weed habit. Once you own a pipe, bong or other piece of equipment, you won’t need to depend on the whims of your stoner friend, which is a clear step forward.

Despite the excitement you’ll feel over the prospect of buying a cute pipe in the shape of an elephant, it’s important to first do some research. What is it that you’re looking for? Is it something discreet or something geared for premium enjoyment?

Here are some tips that can help you find what you’re looking for:

Pipes

Photo by SharonMcCutcheon via Pixabay

MONOGRAM, Jay-Z's much-hyped weed brand, finally makes its debut after a buzzy introduction back in October. 

Back in October, not much was known about the brand, other than it was the brainchild of Jay-Z and Caliva, one of the largest cannabis brands in California, and that it had a mysterious, vibey website with Fela Kuti, Bob Marley and the Wailers, and OutKast snippets playing as "Sounds from the Grow Room." 

Today, MONOGRAM announced that after 18 months selecting and cultivating strains, “MONOGRAM is finally ready to introduce its core collection of products to the world,” according to a press release. 

Recreational marijuana is now legal in Arizona after voters approved Proposition 207, and that will pose some new challenges for employers, said Julie Pace, a Phoenix attorney who specializes in employment and cannabis law.

There also is confusion about what the implications are for both employers and employees, said Pace, an attorney with Gammage & Burnham, who spoke with Chamber Business News about what business owners need to know in moving forward.

If you’re someone who is suffering from chronic pelvic pain, there’s a decent chance you might have success in treating your symptoms with cannabis.

That’s the takeaway from a new study called Use of Cannabis for Self-Management of Chronic Pelvic Pain. The study, via researchers from the Mayo Clinic and published last month in the Journal of Women’s Health, found that 23 percent of patients who participated in the research reported using cannabis to soothe their symptoms. 

“The majority used [cannabis] at least once per week…Most users…reported improvement in symptoms, including pain, cramping, muscle spasms, anxiety, depression, sleep disturbances, libido, and irritability,” the authors of the study wrote. “Over one-third (35%) stated that cannabis use decreased the number of phone calls or messages sent to their provider, and 39% reported decreased number of clinical visits.”

The researchers said that nearly a quarter of the participating patients “report regular use of cannabis as an adjunct to their prescribed therapy,” and that despite most reporting side effects, most also said that cannabis improved their symptoms. 

“To our knowledge, this is the first study in the United States, which evaluated the prevalence of cannabis use among women with CPP. Our findings show that a clinically significant percentage of women use cannabis in addition to or as an alternative to traditional therapy for chronic pain,” the authors wrote, as quoted by NORML. “[U]sers indicated that cannabis improved CPP-related symptoms, decreased reliance on the health care system, and helped reduce use of opioid medications. Our findings provide important incremental evidence, and we hope to pave the way toward acceptance and consideration of cannabis as a therapeutic option for patients with debilitating pain to improve their quality of life.”

Top Cannabis Gainers: 5 Marijuana Stocks You Should Know

The Tourism and Sports and Public Health ministries in Thailand are ready to launch the first medical marijuana tour in Southeast Asia next year as they finalised a draft programme for plantations across Thailand.

The goal of the tour is to increase awareness of marijuana for medical purposes and inform those who are interested in growing the plant of the laws, said Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn, the tourism and sports minister. Eight provinces have plantations that could be part of the tour, comprising Mae Hong Son, Lampang, Samut Songkhram, Sakon Nakhon, Nakhon Ratchasima, Buri Ram, Phatthalung and Chon Buri.

While not sufficient treatment in itself, research continues to find cannabis is an excellent tool in the war against cancer.  

In a recent study, Thomas M. Clark, Ph.D., head of a recent analysis, found that “the anticancer effects of cannabis outweigh the carcinogenic effects even in the airways and bladder, where carcinogen exposure is high.” 

Clark headed an August analysis directly on the issue of cannabis and cancer, supported by his sabbatical leave from Indiana University South Bend. At first, Clark had three hypotheses: cannabis increases cancer risk, the benefits and risks of using cannabis canceled out, or cannabis lowers cancer risk.  

At the first analysis of the data set, there was a slight association with cannabis and reduced cancer risk. However, by removing data that did not control for tobacco use, defined as data with a high risk for selection bias, and data at risk for performance bias, the association became medium to large.  

Likewise, the data revealed a medium to large association with reduced cancer risk if data related to testicular cancer was removed. However, according to the analysis, “the hypothesis that cannabis use increases cancer risk is not supported by the available data.”  

Lawmakers haven’t given much consideration to how weed will be treated in places like casinos, mostly because everyone involved seems to be under the impression that it will be treated the same as booze and tobacco. 

New Jersey just legalized recreational marijuana in the November election, but don’t bet on Atlantic City’s casinos amending their policies to accommodate people who use the herb. That’s probably not going to happen, according to a report from the Press Of Atlantic City.

Although people have been secretly using marijuana in the hotels for years, people close to these operations say that’s only because management has turned a blind eye. However, now that marijuana is legal, the protocol might get a little more militant with respect to the “no marijuana” restrictions.

“I don’t think there’s going to be any real major change,” Dan Heneghan, an industry consultant and retired spokesperson for the state Casino Control Commission, told the news source. “The blind eye that (casinos) turn to that will just be opened.”

So far, the Casino Association of New Jersey has not come out and taken a definitive stance against marijuana use. But that is likely because marijuana regulations are still being hashed out in the state legislature. The truth is, New Jersey lawmakers haven’t really given much consideration to how marijuana will be treated in places like casinos, mostly because everyone involved seems to be under the impression that it will be treated the same as alcohol and tobacco. 

Over 22 million marijuana arrests later, the political consequences of Reefer Madness are still being hidden from the American people. 

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article solely belong to the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Fresh Toast. 

Parents are understandably concerned about their children being “indoctrinated” as they are supposedly being “educated”, but the general public should also be concerned, especially when the government has been lying to everyone for decades about marijuana. 

Decades of “Reefer Madness” with absurd claims about marijuana endangered children by undermining effective education about really dangerous drugs… and  adults about really dangerous government. Over 22 million marijuana arrests later, the political consequences are still being hidden from the American people. 

For example, in a 2002 interview with the Baltimore Sun,  John Walters, George W. Bush’s Drug Czar was asked about marijuana: 

Nine months following the launch of legal medical cannabis sales in Utah, regulators and industry leaders are hailing the early success of the state’s program and looking forward to 2021 for continued growth. Voters in Utah approved the medical use of cannabis with the passage of a ballot initiative known as Proposition 2 in November 2018. 

But the measure soon came under attack by state legislators, who attempted to tighten restrictions on the law with a replacement bill that caused an uproar from medical cannabis advocates. A measure that was termed a compromise bill by lawmakers was passed in December 2018, although it saw legal challenges and multiple changes in subsequent legislative sessions.

Sales of medical cannabis products finally began at licensed dispensaries, or pharmacies as they are called in Utah, on March 2 of this year, and statewide sales already exceed $2 million monthly. The number of registered patients has risen quickly, surpassing 10,000 in September, six months sooner than regulators expected the tally to reach that milestone.

“It’s been going. It’s been going well, as with all new programs and people starting and really pushing to get up and going like they did early on — and now (producers) are starting to find their traction to be able to keep moving forward,” Cody James, manager of the Utah Department of Agriculture’s Industrial Hemp and Medical Cannabis Program, said at the time.

“I don’t think that anybody had an idea as to the number of patients that Utah was going to see this early,” James added. “I think we’re exceeding all of the studies that we had on the number of patients.”

Cannabis has been popular in Europe for a very long time.

While it’s unclear when cannabis consumption first became popular in Europe, it’s as popular today as ever before.

Parts of Europe such as Amsterdam and Barcelona have been top cannabis tourist destinations among cannabis fans for many years.

Europe has yet to see a country fully legalize cannabis for adult use, although momentum for legalization has gained steam in recent years.

A court decision in Italy, similar to one issued in Mexico, determined that cannabis prohibition is unconstitutional, however, lawmakers in Italy have yet to implement the court’s mandate.

When a new cannabis user asks their budtender a question, they expect to receive an accurate answer.

Given that many doctors still don’t understand the medical science of cannabis, budtenders become even the medical user’s primary resource to understand dosing, cannabinoids and terpenes, and measures of quality. 

But according to cannabis education expert Emma Chasen, most of those budtenders don’t get nearly enough training to be good stewards of cannabis. 

“They go into these entry-level positions expecting some kind of educational opportunity, some kind of upward mobility, some allowance for growth and opportunity in this industry, and they often just don’t get it,” she says. 

Budtenders, she argues, aren’t just any retail workers  — many of them have big dreams of moving up the ranks in the industry, and take on entry level roles expecting to learn the ropes. 

Even the most experienced consumers of alcohol and cannabis can find themselves in that dreaded over-intoxicated space, when a fun night sipping drinks and toking up with friends turns into a greened-out horror show. 

Crossfading, or being high and drunk at the same time, is a difficult thing to master without going over the edge of either one. Most often, crossfaded highs are a terrible experience because they can be disorienting, nauseating, dizzying, and can even bring on anxiety and panic attacks. Motor skills are significantly diminished to the point of putting people in danger.

Some medical experts believe that consuming alcohol and marijuana can be straight up dangerous. For instance, cannabis is an antiemetic, meaning that it helps prevent nausea and vomiting. However, if you've consumed too much alcohol, the most efficient way to get it out of your system is to vomit. In this scenario, cannabis disrupts the body's instinct to rid itself of excess alcohol. 

Cannabis and alcohol are both frequently consumed psychoactive substances, where they alter a person's mental state. Though they exert different effects, the combination of the two often leads to impaired decision making. We all know how dangerous it is to drink and drive, which kills one person in the U.S. every 50 minutes. 

But, hey, you're only human. Sometimes the night simply gets away, and you've found yourself totally wasted, baked, and careening into crossfaded territory. Here are some of the warning signs to keep an eye on.

Hemp is blazing among Florida’s agriculture inventory in the seven months since it was first allowed to be legally grown in the Sunshine State, Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried told business leaders Tuesday. Fried said 22,078 acres are currently licensed for hemp, nearly equal to the acreage in Florida of tomatoes, watermelon and snap peas, and double the strawberry production.

After years of waiting, the big day has finally arrived for North American cannabis stocks. In 2021, more than half a dozen pot stocks are expected to push into the black. This will definitively demonstrate that the legal weed industry is legitimate and can be a serious moneymaker.

In addition to trying to get through the bureaucratic red tape that it takes to get approved to study marijuana, researchers have only been allowed to use weed grown by Uncle Sam at the University of Mississippi.

Politicians, drug warriors and other naysayers of the nug are always complaining that there’s not enough research available to prove the efficacy of medical marijuana for the treatment of various health conditions. But that’s difficult when the United States government continues to ensure that scientists only get the trashiest bud to gauge its therapeutic performance. However, Congress is working on a plan that would allow researchers to have access to higher quality cannabis products.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday afternoon designed to enhance medical marijuana research nationwide. The proposal, which is aptly titled “The Medical Marijuana Research Act (MMRA),” would provide scientists with the same cannabis grown and sold in legal states. It’s a positive step for cannabis researchers who have complained for decades that the government’s research-grade marijuana is subpar to what is available in states where it is legal. 

Democratic Congressman Earl Blumenauer, who sponsored the measure with a number of Republicans, said before the bill’s passage that the time has come to change the antiquated protocols on research marijuana. 

“The cannabis laws in this country are broken, especially those that deal with research. It’s illegal everywhere in America to drive under the influence of alcohol, cannabis, or any other substance. But we do not have a good test for impairment because we can’t study it … This is insane and we need to change it,” Blumenauer said. “At a time when there are four million registered medical cannabis patients, and many more likely self-medicate, when there are 91% of Americans supporting medical cannabis, it’s time to change the system. Our bill will do precisely that.”

South Carolina lawmakers are slated to consider multiple bills next year that could legalize marijuana for either recreational or medicinal use.

Though some Democrats are pushing for complete decriminalization of the plant, there is a bipartisan effort to push legalization of medical marijuana in the state.

Medical marijuana bills prefiled this month in both the House and the Senate tout sponsors from both parties. If either bill — both named the “South Carolina Compassionate Care Act” — were to pass, South Carolina would join 36 other states in allowing the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

But bipartisan support hasn’t been enough to push through marijuana legislation in the past. Last session, two bipartisan bills, one in each the House and the Senate, didn’t make it out of their respective committees.

In the Senate last year, the bill became bogged down by amendments, including one that would only allow cannabis derivatives such as oils and creams. Neither bill resurfaced during 2020, when the session was cut short by COVID-19.