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The Seventh Circuit’s ruling is important because courts and legislatures may follow its interpretation of the 2018 Farm Bill with respect to smokable hemp.

The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (“2018 Farm Bill”) legalized hemp by removing hemp and its derivatives from the definition of marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). The 2018 Farm Bill also provided a detailed framework for the production of hemp and directed the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to promulgate regulations and permitted states to maintain primary regulatory authority over hemp cultivated with their border by submitting a plan to the USDA.

In 2019, Indiana passed Senate Enrolled Act 516 (“Act 516”) to bring Indiana’s definition of hemp in line with the 2018 Farm Bill and to establish a regulatory framework for hemp production. Act 516 criminalized the possession of “smokable hemp,” which it defines as any industrial hemp product “in a form that allows THC to be introduced into the human body by inhalation of smoke.” Ind. Code § 35-48-1- 26.6. The law provides that “[a] person who knowingly or intentionally manufactures, finances the manufacture of, delivers, finances the delivery of, or possesses smokable hemp … commits dealing in smokable hemp, a Class A misdemeanor.” Ind. Code § 35-48-4-10.1.

In short, Act 516 made it a crime to manufacture, deliver, or possess smokable hemp.

Days before Act 516 was to go into effect, a group of hemp sellers and wholesalers (collectively referred to here as “CY Wholesale”) filed a federal lawsuit challenging Indiana’s prohibition on smokable hemp (we first covered that here). In its filing, CY Wholesale sought a temporary injunction to stop Indiana from enforcing the smokable hemp ban.

Breonna Taylor was a 36-year-old Black emergency medical worker who was killed in March while police in Louisville, Kentucky carried out a no-knock warrant as part of a narcotics investigation.

“Breonna Taylor died as a result of the war on drugs,” said Josh Alb as he shouted to demonstrators on the steps of Newark City Hall on Friday. “The police went into her house for a no-knock warrant for drugs that were never there. This is one of the biggest pieces missing from the conversation surrounding her.”

The war on drugs was a narcotics prohibition campaign that was created under former President Richard Nixon in the 1970s. Alb said the policy is still being used today to harm Black people like Taylor.

Alb, a William Paterson University student who lives in Newark and works in the cannabis industry, led about 30 demonstrators down Broad Street on Friday while shouting her name. They called for the legalization of marijuana to begin to end the war on drugs.

Legalization could happen soon - at least in New Jersey. Voters will decide if it should become legal on Nov. 3.

In less than two years after the country legalized recreational cannabis, Canada has reached an important milestone. According to a report in BNN Bloomberg, the country's dispensary count crossed the 1,000 mark as of July 17, landing at 1,010.

Of all the country's provinces and territories, Alberta in the West has the highest number, at 494. No. 2 is the province where some of the highest-quality Canadian cannabis has traditionally come from, British Columbia (211 dispensaries).

As any marijuana stock investor can tell you, the past 15 months haven't been pretty for pot stocks. Since April 2019, the vast majority of cannabis stocks have lost 50% or more of their value as growing pains have taken shape. In Canada, supply issues have led to everything from shortages to bottlenecks. Meanwhile, high tax rates on legal product in the U.S. have ensured that black market demand remains robust.

But in spite of these problems, the marijuana industry is slowly but surely finding its footing and maturing before our eyes. This isn't going to be an overnight process, but we're witnessing the initial stages of this shakeout and maturation taking place.

As we motor on through this unprecedented year, here are the five biggest cannabis catalysts you should have your eyes on for the remainder of 2020.

1. The 2020 elections

One of the more intriguing questions to be answered this year is, what's going to happen on the marijuana front come November when Americans head to the polls? No matter who wins the presidency, there's a pretty good chance that legalizing cannabis is out of the question. However, state-level legalizations could provide ample opportunity for the U.S. pot industry.

Right now, we know that three states are, for certain, voting on a cannabis measure come November -- New Jersey, Mississippi, and South Dakota. South Dakota is of particular interest since it's the first state to vote on a separate medical marijuana and adult-use weed measure in the same election.

Low-priced cannabis products will be key to converting consumers from the illicit market to the legal market, but once that’s done they’ll be willing to spend more on pricier items like vape pens and edibles, according to Aurora Cannabis Inc.’s new chief commercial officer.

Cannabis is “unlike tobacco or alcohol because of the presence of this massive black market,” said Miguel Martin, who joined Aurora with its acquisition of U.S. CBD company Reliva LLC in May. “There are some underpinnings to make the pie bigger in a way that you traditionally wouldn’t with discount brands.”

Some Canadian pot companies were caught off guard last winter by avid consumer demand for low-priced flower and had to rush to develop new offerings. In February, Aurora said its market share in flower declined in the prior quarter “as the market shifted significantly towards value brands,” and announced the launch of Daily Special, a cheaper product designed to “compete strongly with the gray market and help grow the overall size of the legal segment.”

In May, Aurora said Daily Special was the top-selling flower brand in Ontario for the previous two months and attributed the company’s 24% quarterly growth in recreational pot revenue to the brand’s popularity.

However, the cannabis market changes rapidly and “what’s popular today may not be popular tomorrow,” said Martin, who was previously president of Logic Technology Development LLC, a manufacturer of electronic cigarettes, and a senior executive at tobacco giant Altria Group Inc. “I do think like with any other category, things will start to settle and then you’ll have the ability to move people up the value chain or the pricing chain.”

The U.S hemp community has been urged to get cracking on signing a petition calling for the legal definition of hemp to be changed to allow for 1% THC.

Under the 2018 Farm Bill, hemp is defined as cannabis not containing more than 0.3 percent of the intoxicating cannabinoid tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). How that percentage was arrived at, which was apparently set by a Canadian cannabis researcher way back in the 1970s, is somewhat a mystery given even at much higher levels industrial hemp still wouldn’t have any recreational value.

The 0.3% limit has cause headaches for the industry as hemp testing above that level must be destroyed. For example, we mentioned yesterday half of Hawai’i’s 2019 hemp crop was destroyed due to elevated THC levels.

Staying below the .3% limit can be somewhat a mixture of science and good luck; particularly where crops are being grown for the extraction of another cannabinoid, cannabidiol. Policy and advocacy group Vote Hemp says the 0.3% level must be boosted to 1% – and fast.

“It is not fair to producers to who are already struggling due to difficult market conditions, to risk losing their hemp crop due to it testing slightly above the current federal limit of 0.3%,” said Vote Hemp President Eric Steenstra.

How July has Set a Stage For Pot Stock Growth Into the Future

The list of pesticides approved for use on cannabis and cannabis products in Colorado has officially been updated by state regulators. Now, AG PAA, Mite-Phite ZM, Fortify Miticide, and VaRx Brand MaxRx have been added to the list of approved pesticides that growers in the state can use. 

MCN explores the evolution of cannabis production as extraction and distillation technologies advance.

Marijuana legalization is heating up again as the US elections get closer. The COVID-19 pandemic paused legalization campaign efforts in some states. However, many states have resumed their signature-gathering efforts amid easing lockdowns. Montana resumed its signature-gathering efforts in mid-May and followed all of the necessary measures amid the lockdown. Let’s take a look at the state’s efforts and where it stands.

Montana works towards marijuana legalization

After facing a string of coronavirus-led challenges, the New Approach Montana campaign is all geared up. The group is behind the legalization efforts in the state. The group resumed its campaign in May and successfully collected the required signatures. A Marijuana Moment article discussed that the group submitted more than 130,000 signatures last month to qualify for the November ballot. Montana’s legalization efforts include recreational and medical cannabis. The group submitted two proposals:

Looking at the number of signatures submitted, it appears that the group collected the required signatures. Voters will decide the fate of marijuana legalization in the state.

The campaign has worked hard to collect the signatures. Overall, the group followed strict health protocols and worked profusely to collect more than the required signatures before the deadline. The support for legalization in Montana is also evident from the signatures collected. As reported by Cannabis Business Times, Pepper Petersen, a spokesperson for New Approach Montana, said, “We can generate tens of millions of dollars of new tax revenue, create thousands of new jobs, and provide a new source of commercial activity for Montana’s existing small businesses.”

Good days ahead for cannabis companies

Besides Montana, Arizona, South Dakota, and Nebraska have also successfully submitted their signatures for the November ballot. Meanwhile, Idaho is working with a federal court and hopes to resume its signature collection. Some states like Florida, North Dakota, and New York didn’t collect the required signatures before the deadline. As a result, they had to suspend their campaigns.

New data from the journal of Advances in Therapy shows that more people now than in the past are using cannabis to treat and cope with chronic pain—and that those who are using it as treatment report favorable results. 

The study, which came from Harvard Medical School, looked at cannabis use trends in pain patients starting in 2011 and ending in 2015. Currently, chronic pain is the most commonly reported qualifying condition by medical cannabis patients who report data back to their state medical programs regarding why and how they consume cannabis. 

“This overall increase is not surprising given that several studies have shown cannabis to be effective in mitigating inflammation and demonstrated benefit to chronic pain symptoms with the use of cannabis, including improved pain, functional outcomes, and quality of life in patients with chronic pain syndromes,” the study explains regarding the results. “With chronic pain projected to increase over the next two decades to a rate of one in three people from the current rate of one in five people, our findings foretell that cannabis use can be projected to increase even more rapidly.”

“Over the course of our study…we identified a significant and progressive increase in the number of patients using cannabis. In patients with chronic pain, cannabis use more than doubled during this period,” the study added. 

The reported average age of chronic pain patients who use cannabis were 45 years old, and most reported users were lower on the socio-economic scale, showing that it could be seen as a more affordable source of pain medication for some who suffer from chronic pain. 

Many government officials are comparatively skittish about supporting cannabis and its synthetic counterparts because of its Class 1 drug status, even for the treatment of COVID-19. That being the case, there was recently some surprising news from an association that may have made some people in the U.S. federal government sit up and take notice.

The independent association, the Creating Options for Veterans Expedited Recovery (COVER) Commission, released its report this past January. Despite the recommendations of its drug policy findings, the document has gone mostly unnoticed by reform advocates and the media.

Chaired by presidential appointee Jake Leinenkugel, the panel of the commission tasked with developing recommendations to improve mental health treatment for military veterans determined that cannabis and psychedelics represent promising mental health treatment options for veterans.

The COVER Commission Report noted that Veteran Affairs officials should work closely with other U.S. federal agencies to research the potential and short- and long-term risks and benefits of medical cannabis and psychedelic drugs. Congress and the executive branch need to promote research into the therapeutic potential of cannabis and psychedelics such as psilocybin mushrooms and MDMA, it added.

The findings cannot be generalized because of sample size and homogeneity issues. Still, studies have shown some promise for treating disorders for which available treatments are insufficient — mood, substance, anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder — using psychedelics, including MDMA,” the COVER Commission report laid out in recommendations.

Since the passage of the Farm Bill in 2018, hemp-derived CBD has opened doors to countless opportunities for businesses, farmers, and consumers alike. But as states across the country continue to capitalize on the tremendous economic growth that the emerging crop offers, California remains at a competitive disadvantage during a time when economic relief is needed more than ever.

As of this Wednesday, Argentina will now allow home cultivation of cannabis and the sale of cannabis oils and topicals in pharmacies, which has not been included under the legal cannabis laws so far. Cannabis patients will also now have access to their medicine free of charge. 

This new regulation was drafted by the Argentinian Health Minister and other key stakeholders, and represents a huge step forward for cannabis in Argentina.  

On Wednesday, the Health Minister met with key actors to close details on a draft regulation that will allow for home cultivation of cannabis and the production of oils and topicals by local pharmacies that can then be sold to qualified patients.

Facundo Garreton, director of YVY Life Sciences, a medical cannabis company from the neighbouring country of Uruguay, said that this is huge for the country, which until now has been overlooked as a cannabis hotspot. 

“Knowing that cannabis can alleviate many people’s suffering and not do anything about it, that’s the true crime,” said Facundo Garreton, director of YVY Life Sciences cannabis company in Uruguay and former House rep for Argentina’s province of Tucumán. “Good regulation will help to know the needs of every person, what to buy, where to buy it, while at the same time controlling the product’s quality. We hope this is the start of a path towards full regulation of the entire supply chain.” 

With several sold-out events under its belt, the ACT Summit is now going virtual by offering free webinars for cannabis cultivators around the globe. “The exclusive live ACT Summit that our group has now hosted for 3 years in Las Vegas has been very popular, so it’s now time to bring this knowledge to the rest of the world. This pandemic has forced us to rethink how we should deliver our educational content.” explains Henry Vangameren of Priva. “Our live full-day events have drawn a lot of attention and attendance but with travel bans in place and trade shows being cancelled, we had to pivot with new ideas so going virtual with webinars was a logical choice”.

The ACT Summit consists of industry suppliers with deep rooted horticultural histories who provide education on the latest cutting-edge technologies and best practices. “This is an educational platform to help cultivators improve operational efficiently and increase overall profitability in today’s competitive cultivation landscape” explains Cinnamon Cantwell of Grodan. “We’re very excited as these webinars will be offered free of charge to help bring this knowledge to a much broader audience of cultivators”.

This first 1-hour webinar from the ACT Summit group will be presented on July 28th by Grodan and Priva. They will share best practices from around the globe for water use efficiency and recirculation in commercial cannabis growing facilities to ensure healthy plants, sustainable growing practices and a healthier bottom line.

Exposure to THC led to decreased social interactions for up to 24 hours in mice, new research found.

Studies have shown that marijuana can help patients feel less lonely and depressed, but that doesn’t equate to cannabis making you a social butterfly. In fact, a new study found the opposite — habitual marijuana use could cause users to become less sociable than others.

The research, published in Nature, was led by Giovanni Marsicano at NeuroCentre Magendie in Bordeaux, France. His team wanted to better understand how cannabinoid receptors works and how they interact with marijuana compounds. Previous studies established that cannabinoid receptors are primarily localized in the cell membrane.

But Marsicano and his team discovered in 2012 that some receptors exist in mitochondria, which are known as the powerhouses of the cell and provide much of the energy cells need. Along the mitochondria membrane lie little star-shaped cells called astrocytes. These astrocytes “take up glucose from the bloodstream to provide energy to the brain, thereby allowing neuronal activity and behavioral responses,” wrote the study’s authors.

Mariscano and his team had an idea: If these astrocytes contained cannabinoid receptors, how exactly did they interact with marijuana?

In the U.S. economy, top tier financial analysts including JP Morgan and lesser-known but equally reputable industry analysts, such as Gartner and Forrester, play a powerful role in the creation, definition, and analysis of various markets.

Phil Murphy emphasized the social justice benefits, as well as the financial ones, to legalizing adult-use marijuana in New Jersey.

Add New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy to the growing list of state lawmakers positioning marijuana legalization as a quick fix to struggling economies. Murphy also emphasized the social justice benefit legalizing would induce, calling the act “an incredibly smart thing to do.”

“We’re not inventing marijuana,” he said during a radio interview Tuesday with the Jim Kerr Rock & Roll Morning Show. “It exists.”

The looming financial crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic means the state will need to find ways to innovate moving forward. A co-host on the program suggested cannabis and Murphy agreed, saying he’s “been on that from day one.” He added marijuana’s importance in criminal justice reform — a Black person is 3.5 times more likely to get arrested for cannabis possession in New Jersey than a white person, despite similar rates of use.

“It’s got a huge social justice piece for me,” Murphy said. “The overwhelming percentage of persons nailed in our criminal justice system are persons of color. It’s a no-brainer in that respect. It’s a job creator, it’s a tax revenue raiser, it checks a lot of boxes. I hope we’ll get there sooner than later.”