WeedLife News Network

(image: credit GKUA Ultra Premium)

If you’ve listened to the music of groundbreaking rapper and entrepreneur Lil Wayne, his love of cannabis shouldn’t be much of a surprise.

Now, Wayne is making a lasting impact in the cannabis space with his cannabis brand GKUA Ultra Premium. 

“I used to just want to get high, now I smoke to get inspired…with GKUA, I’m sharing a feeling that I love,” explained Lil Wayne in an interview with NME Magazine. 

(image: Study: In search of preventive strategies: novel high-CBD Cannabis sativa extracts modulate ACE2 expression in COVID-19 gateway tissues. Image Credit: Dmytro Tyshchenko / Shutterstock)

Researchers in Canada have conducted a study suggesting that novel Cannabis sativa extracts may decrease levels of the host cell receptor that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) uses to gain viral entry to target tissues.

SARS-CoV-2 is the agent responsible for the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic that continues to sweep the globe threatening public health and the worldwide economy.

The team – from the University of Lethbridge and Pathway Rx Inc., Lethbridge – developed hundreds of new C. sativa cultivars and tested 23 extracts in artificial 3D human models of the oral, airway and intestinal tissues.

As recently reported in the journal Aging, 13 of the extracts downregulated expression of the SARS-CoV-2 host cell receptor angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2).

(image: Delta 9 Cannabis Inc.)

A Canadian cannabis Company is rolling out a new take on its growing technology that may help the fight to contain the spread of the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic, which has infected more than 350,000 Canadians and killed more than 11,000. Worldwide, those numbers have surged to 60.6 million cases and more than 1.4 million deaths.

Winnipeg-based Delta 9 Cannabis Inc.(TSX: DN, OTCQX: VRNDF, Forum) has developed and validated new proprietary decontamination equipment, called the “Decontamination Pod”, which can be used to decontaminate medical supplies, personal protective equipment (PPE), and other equipment.

In a media release detailing this news for investors, the Company’s Chief Executive Officer, John Arbuthnot called this technology, also branded as a D-Pod, a likely game changer for governments, hospitals, and care-facilities in the fight against COVID-19, allowing them to decontaminate large amounts of PPE and other equipment, increasing the availability of existing PPE inventories and preventing potential exposures to the virus.

“We are extremely proud of our employees and partners for bringing this technology to this point and look forward to continuing to do our part in providing solutions to this health crisis.”

(image: Cresco Labs)

As the industry standards continue to be defined, this is the packaging every weed company should focus on.

It may come as a shock to you, but most people don't know much about cannabis. A Science Daily study about THC levels in edibles found that most consumers aged 16—30 could not identify if an edible had low or high THC levels based on the label. Add to that the fact that roughly 30% of Americans consume cannabis, which leaves a sizable audience who can benefit from cannabis if they knew more about it. 

(image: Image: Wikimedia - CC BY-SA 3.0)

A new study on the long-term effects of cannabidiol (CBD) on roundworms has been published. Here’s why it has some significance.

Canada’s Canopy Growth announced recently announced its medical division, Spectrum Therapeutics, carried out a study focusing on toxicity and lifespan effects of CBD in Caenorhabditis elegans – roundworms. However, unlike some roundworms, C. elegans is a non-hazardous, non-infectious, non-pathogenic, non-parasitic organism according to the University of Minnesota College of Biological Science.

Caenorhabditis elegans is often used in preclinical lifelong drug toxicity studies given an estimated 60–80% of its genes have a human ortholog (evolved from a common ancestral gene).

While cannabidiol is already in wide use around the world, there had been no life-long toxicity studies conducted to date to determine the impact either way or potential for same of long-term exposure to CBD. Given C. elegans short lifespan of 2-3 weeks, this made it a good candidate for such a study.

(image: Police grew suspicious when they noticed a marijuana smell emanating from his car. / PHOTO BY VMARGINEANU / ISTOCK / GETTY IMAGES PLUS)

50-year-old Irish resident caught with €20k worth of weed.

An Irish resident is definitely in the soup after claiming that the €20,000 ($31,000) worth of weed he had in his vehicle was merely meant as an ingredient for the soup he planned to make.

In fact, after being caught with the substantial stash, Eddy Osagie, 50, initially claimed the weed wasn’t really weed at all, according to EchoLive. Osagie said the paste-like substance found inside a couple of cereal boxes was a completely different material than cannabis.

The explanation failed to convince Irish gardai, who had stopped the man and grew suspicious when they noticed a marijuana smell emanating from his car.

(image: Inside a GrowGeneration hydroponic garden center. Source: GrowGeneration)

GrowGeneration Corp., the largest hydroponic garden-center chain in North America, is on a tear worthy of its name.

The gardening supply company has gained over 700% so far this year, making it the best-performing cannabis stock of 2020 amid a sector-wide rally on hopes the U.S. is poised for federal legalization after the election.

Investors are drawn to the $1.6 billion retailer, which sells equipment used to grow pot, as it’s one of the few U.S.-based cannabis plays listed on the Nasdaq. It’s also free of the legal risks that growers pose as it doesn’t actually sell the plant itself.

Marijuana firm Aurora Cannabis (TSX:ACB)(NYSE:ACB) has entered into one of the biggest medical cannabis supply deals by a Canadian pot grower with an Israeli firm to-date. This comes after the Canadian marijuana firm announced its two-year supply agreement with Cantek, a leading cannabis market player in Israel.

Aurora Cannabis said it “intends” to supply a “minimum of 4,000 kilograms of bulk dried cannabis flower” per annum to Cantek in a two-year deal that could be extended. The volume involved could make the ACB deal one of the largest export deals to Israel by a Canadian firm to-date.

The health permanent secretary said the government plans to allow use of most parts of cannabis and hemp plants in food and cosmetics on Wednesday.

Kiattiphum Wongrajit said the Narcotics Control Committee resolved on Tuesday to exclude the leaves, branches, stems, trunks, bark, fibre and roots of cannabis and hemp from the government’s narcotics list.

This would not include shoots, including flowers, which have high drug content.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) would draft a new public health regulation to this  effect. The public health minister would then approve it and the new regulation would take effect when the Royal Gazette publishes it, he said.

Dr Kiattiphum said use of hemp seeds and seed extract, as well as cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), at a maximum 0.2% content, will also be included .

The common wisdom about cannabis enthusiasts is that they don’t have any common wisdom. The stereotype of the drooling guy “on” cannabis sitting in his parent’s basement playing video games for hours or Instagrammig nonstop is what many of the “straights” still imagine to be true.

Hardly.

In fact, smoking or vaping or eating cannabis—especially certain sativa strains—has quickly become the best way to energize getting chores done. Every busy chore hustler knows that choosing the right CBD/THC sativa combination, with the right terpene profile, can do the trick.

The cannabis connoisseur knows to go for certain strains that fire up their chores jets, such as Strawberry Diesel, Lemon Meringue, AK47, Panama Punch, Mountain Thunder, and Silver Haze, just to name a few.

These strains are generally carefully cultivated for their energizing effects.

After one failed treatment after another, Sharlene Hernandez was at a dead end.

Her 10-year-old autistic son wasn't speaking, barley eating and would play with and spread his feces around the house. Nothing was helping her child.

Commissioners seem ready to close out a bumpy policy-setting process next week with a vote to adopt new regulations that would reshape the legal marijuana industry to include a home delivery aspect, but that decision could give way to a legal challenge in short order.

Through an attorney, some existing marijuana retailers recently threatened to sue the Cannabis Control Commission if it votes to adopt its latest set of industry rules on Monday, as is expected. Though the new regulations affect the entire marijuana industry, the provisions that would allow a new class of licensees to deliver marijuana to customers at home have drawn the most controversy.

Tasmanian Greens MP Rosalie Woodruff has strongly criticised the State Government’s medical cannabis Controlled Access Scheme.

Introduced in 2017, the Scheme only enables medical specialists the ability to prescribe products to patients in circumstances where conventional treatments have failed. It’s a seven-step process:

.. but added to that, all usual Commonwealth exemptions, authorisations or approvals are also required.

It’s a very clunky program and its negative impact is evidenced by the number of authorisations. Under recent questioning from the Greens in Budget Estimates, it was revealed of 39 applications made by specialists on behalf of their patients, only 17 were accepted by the Health Department. The failure rate aside, the number of applications wouldn’t reflect demand – patients would be put off even embarking on the process.

“The exasperatingly low figure divulged today is yet more evidence of the Liberals’ ideological opposition to medicinal cannabis,” said Ms. Woodruff. “It follows a Senate Committee singling out Tasmania as the only state that has refused to join the national scheme for access.”

If passed, the measure will improve Mexico’s living conditions while reducing drug trafficking crime. However, cannabis advocates and legal experts have several concerns.

The common wisdom about cannabis enthusiasts is that they don’t have any common wisdom. The stereotype of the drooling guy “on” cannabis sitting in his parent’s basement playing video games for hours or Instagrammig nonstop is what many of the “straights” still imagine to be true.

Hardly.

In fact, smoking or vaping or eating cannabis—especially certain sativa strains—has quickly become the best way to energize getting chores done. Every busy chore hustler knows that choosing the right CBD/THC sativa combination, with the right terpene profile, can do the trick.

The cannabis connoisseur knows to go for certain strains that fire up their chores jets, such as Strawberry Diesel, Lemon Meringue, AK47, Panama Punch, Mountain Thunder, and Silver Haze, just to name a few.

These strains are generally carefully cultivated for their energizing effects.

Commissioners seem ready to close out a bumpy policy-setting process next week with a vote to adopt new regulations that would reshape the legal marijuana industry to include a home delivery aspect, but that decision could give way to a legal challenge in short order.

Through an attorney, some existing marijuana retailers recently threatened to sue the Cannabis Control Commission if it votes to adopt its latest set of industry rules on Monday, as is expected. Though the new regulations affect the entire marijuana industry, the provisions that would allow a new class of licensees to deliver marijuana to customers at home have drawn the most controversy.

"Put simply, the Commission's adoption and implementation of the Proposed Regulation would be in direct contravention of its own governing and enabling statute which clearly and unambiguously states that only Marijuana Retailers, as defined in the statute, are permitted to deliver cannabis products to consumers," Howard Cooper, an attorney with Todd & Weld LLP, wrote in the letter earlier this month.

Cooper added, "Given the clarity of the law here, please understand that our clients will have no choice but to challenge the Commission's Proposed Regulations in court if adopted. We write in hope of avoiding a legal dispute."

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(image: Shutterstock)

The Detroit City Council approved an ordinance on Tuesday that will permit recreational marijuana retailers and other adult-use cannabis businesses to operate in the city. The ordinance, which includes provisions to ensure that at least half of recreational pot businesses are owned by city residents, was introduced last month by Councilmember James Tate.

On Tuesday, Tate said that the ordinance is the product of two years of work “to identify ways to make sure there’s success” for residents of the city. Currently, only four of Detroit’s 46 medical marijuana retailers are owned by people who live in the city.

“We’ve seen around the country where individuals who live in the municipality where the industry is located are frozen out and not having an opportunity to participate,” Tate said.

Legacy Applicants To Get Priority

Although regulated sales of marijuana to adults began in some Michigan municipalities last year, city leaders in Detroit were determined to craft legislation that supports ownership of cannabis businesses by longtime city residents. Under the approved measure, at least 50% of licenses will be awarded to applicants with “Detroit legacy” status. Detroit legacy applicants are those who have lived in the city at least 15 of the past 30 years, or 13 years if the applicant is low-income. Those with a marijuana conviction who have lived in Detroit for 10 of the last 30 years also qualify.

Hemp is touted as a potential green solution for everything from building materials to plastics — and that's precisely where they have value in the automotive sector. A car entirely made from hemp would save a lot of non-renewable materials from their inevitable fate in the junkyard. 

Many would like to see cars become more sustainable overall, though they're surprisingly recyclable. Almost 95% of the materials used to build a car can be recovered according to the World Economic Forum. Though cars can be recycled, they are still not always used to their full potential. 

Cars themselves are also unpopular with the environment, churning out emissions like there's no tomorrow. If carbon pollution continues unchecked, soon there won't be an environment to write home about. The fuel to power cars is a primary source of these emissions, and the shift to electric power has not been large enough to peel back the greenhouse effect. 

What if all of these green innovation boxes could be ticked off with cannabis? According to one of the car's biggest backers, Henry Ford, it could be done. 

Ford, fuel, and renewable energy

Henry Ford set out to create a car loaded up with hemp and other fibers to reduce both the plastics and metals used to build it. One research paper looking back on this fiber research noted, “As early as 1940, Henry Ford produced a pioneering composite car from hemp fiber and resin under the motto: 'ten times stronger than steel.'” A 1938 issue of Popular Mechanics chronicled a future where hemp was used to make "fish nets, bow strings, canvas, strong rope, overalls, damask tablecloths, fine linen garments, towels, bed linen and thousands of other everyday items."