WeedLife News Network

In many states, dispensaries are essential businesses during the pandemic. Here are some of the most common safety measures they’ve implemented.

Even though dispensaries are considered essential businesses, the pandemic has still affected them. Just like any other business, marijuana retailers are enforcing new safety measure to keep you COVID-free. Here are just a few of the precautions they’ve implemented.

Adapting to shopping trends

Unlike other businesses that have had to cope with less customers during the pandemic, dispensaries have been experiencing more visits and larger orders. While sales aren’t exactly as robust as they were when COVID first hit, don’t be surprised to see more people than usual in your dispensary or notice that some products have gone out of stock.

In order to keep people safe, dispensaries are limiting the amount of costumers they let inside, allowing for social distanced waiting lines that are usually held outdoors. Some dispensaries might also be implementing shopping schedules.

Implementing social distancing

Photo by Heath Korvola/Getty Images

Bill O’Reilly eyed my brother and me like a hungry lion looking over a couple of lambs. He twisted his face into the trademark O’Reilly sneer and scolded us with a tone of triumph: “Come on, you know what the ruse is, you know what the scam is.”

I’d known the comment was coming. It’s standard procedure for hostile journalists. They all think medical cannabis is a fraud.

My own cannabis recommendation is technically for chronic pain, but I used it for many other purposes. Some were unquestionably therapeutic, like helping me sleep. Others, like shaking off nervousness or sadness, seemed borderline. But there were some that just didn’t fit my definition of medical use, like enhancing the enjoyment of a meal or a piece of music.

Like most people, I used to be locked into an outdated illness concept of human health that views us as either sick or healthy. If we are sick, we go to the doctor, who writes a prescription or recommends a procedure, after which we are supposed to recover and go back to being healthy — if we’re lucky.

But over the last few decades, it has become evident that human health actually operates on a spectrum of wellness. That spectrum occupies the space between perfect health and acute sickness, and it is where most humans spend the majority of their lives.

Many creative people claim cannabis plays a key role in their creative process, but whether it boosts creativity probably depends on the personality of the creative person.

“Where the drugs are concerned, and alcohol, they do seem to open a window for you. They do seem to broaden the vistas—at first,” comedian George Carlin once said. 

Steve Jobs claimed that smoking cannabis made him feel relaxed and creative, while Alanis Morissette said that it helps keep her creative juices flowing. And you probably already knew that Charles Baudelaire, Amedeo Modigliani, and Louis Armstrong used cannabis too.

It begs the questions, is there something special about the most popular illicit substance in the world that makes it more conducive to creativity? And, is a lack of creativity a treatable condition?

One hypothesis is that, because drugs can lower our inhibitions, they help to silence the self-editor that tends to harshly criticize what we create, allowing us to overcome writer’s block or simply the fear of creation.

Cannabis lovers have been lining up outside of Illinois’ dispensaries this week as, for the first time in its history, the High Times Cannabis Cup is including the general public in the judging process. 

Those interested can purchase testing kits in dispensaries across the state of Illinois and vote on their favorite strains from the comfort of their own homes. 

The High Times Cannabis Cup was founded in Amsterdam in 1988 by editor Steve Hager and has since become the world’s most famous cannabis festival – an event where both vendors and weed lovers gather to celebrate marijuana.

The pinnacle of the Cannabis Cup is the blind competition for the best weed strains, along with several other categories, with the top prize being the Cannabis Cup trophy. 

Previously, select panels consisting of several dozen expert judges voted for the winner, however, the coronavirus pandemic has changed the concept of the now-virtual event.

The self-care industry has experienced a wildly explosive boom the past few years, and the cannabis market has been paying attention. You can walk into any dispensary and find as many skincare products as stoney edibles. 

But self-care isn't just for the body, it can contribute to overall well-being. Simply caring for yourself and setting up a routine can boost self-esteem. No need to make it elaborate — washing your hair with your favorite shampoo or preparing your favorite meal can help build you up.

In these long days of quarantine and coronavirus, self-care may have taken a backseat in your day-to-day life. Time begins to blend together, and the overwhelming news cycle can start to feel like a constant buzz — so much of this can make everything feel a little hopeless and grey. But these are the times when self-care is most important. 

To understand the need for self-care and CBD, we spoke to Tamara Anderson, founder of Culinary and Cannabis, an ongoing event forum that provides cooking classes and cannabis education from “healthcare professionals, advocacy groups and food & wine experts within the community for a great cause.” 

Also a nurse, Anderson knows how important it is to care for the body and mind, and understands how cannabis may help manage pain and bring relief to a variety of patients. Seeing how self-care and cannabis go hand-in-hand, she's set up virtual “CannaSpas" where you can buy wellness kits and follow along as she or other educators create candles, lotions, edible treats, and various CBD-infused self-care goods. 

Vaping has become a leading topic of conversation among smokers in recent years. While there are still many unknowns about vaping, initial studies show that it’s better than smoking in a variety of ways.

If you’ve been considering the switch from smoking to vaping, you may have a few questions. Here are four things you need to know about vaping before making the switch.

Vaping is Less Harmful than Smoking

While inhaling anything other than oxygen into your lungs isn’t optimal for health, vaping is better for you than smoking. The primary reason for this difference is that vaping has a lower combustion point than smoking. In many vaping apparatuses, you can alter the combustion point to your preference.

The lower combustion means less heat entering your lung tissue. There’s also reason to believe that the lower combustion point limits the release of tar and ash, which are toxic to the lungs.

Additionally, the lack of second-hand smoke and residue makes vaping safer for the people around you as well. For these reasons, vaping is a safer alternative to smoking.

Crop Declines

CBD is a popular skincare additive, with many brands creating expensive products that highlight the compound. Here’s what dermatologist think about that.

CBD’s good reputation and pervasiveness is a good sign because it represents the progress that cannabis has gone through in recent years, but it also raises some red flags, particularly for skeptics. How can a compound that treats pain and provides stress relief also be used to treat skin when applied topically?

To make matters worse, CBD products in the beauty industry tend to be expensive, with some small bottles of cream and serums starting at $100. Ouch.

Celebrity endorsed brands that feature CBD in their products make broad claims, highlighting the fact that the compound is a calming agent and that it can reduce stress and irritation on the skin. While anti-inflammatory results have appeared in different tests conducted on CBD (mostly when its ingested), there’s no sufficient research available on CBD’s effect in skincare.

The Huffington Post spoke with several dermatologists and asked for their opinion regarding CBD skincare products. Most of them agreed that while CBD does sound promising, there’s no way of knowing right now if the compound does what the brands are saying.

Vegan cooking competition show High Cuisine recently debuted on Amazon Prime Video. The 12-episode series taps into cannabis culture by challenging Los Angeles-based vegan chefs to create the most innovative dishes after getting high, while discussing the creative culinary inspiration they get from their use of cannabis. Challenges include creating the world’s largest burrito, turning Thanksgiving dinner into a sandwich, and making sushi for dessert. The chefs make use of everyday vegan ingredients as well as products from national brands such as Beyond Meat, Dandies, The Herbivorous Butcher, and Follow Your Heart. 

“We wanted to do a fresh take on the traditional cooking show. High Cuisine has all of the trappings of a competition show you might find on network television, but with the added fun that stoned chefs bring to the kitchen,” High Cuisine executive producer Asher Brown said. “Plus, we’re aiming our show at a wide audience. You don’t have to be vegan to appreciate how creative great chefs can be when they’re cooking with plants. And you don’t have to smoke [marijuana] to appreciate High Cuisine either. The weed is in the chefs, not in the food, so we’d love everyone watching at home to wonder what a fruit roll-up enchilada tastes like and be able to follow along when a chef tries to make beet cupcakes—and then get inspired to cook some awesome weird plant-based food themselves.”

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, many people are dealing with stress, anxiety and boredom, and some San Diegans' coping mechanism has shown in sales.

"I personally use it a lot to manage my anxiety and my stress,” said San Diegan Jackie Bryant, referring to marijuana, “and it’s been a really huge help for my mental health during the pandemic.”

Blake Marchand is the owner of marijuana dispensary, March and Ash in Mission Valley. He compared the initial rush of marijuana sales during the beginning of the pandemic to that of some other popular items.

“It was similar to how people ran to Costco to grab you know, all the toilet paper that they could. I think in the first couple weeks, you know, a lot of customers are coming in and just grabbing, grabbing enough just in case we were to be shut down," he said.

Any situation where a child ingests even the smallest amount of THC is just not good. Here’s how to keep them safe.

Parents have been getting high since the dawn of time. It used to be one of those situations where old mom and dad might buy a dime bag to have on the weekends after the kids went to bed. Until then, they might stash it in their underwear drawer alongside a small collection of sex toys and dirty magazines, or they might even hide it in the refrigerator inside a can of Folgers coffee.

There’s no way the kids would ever look in any of those places and discover that their parents were going against the wishes of Nancy Reagan by Just Saying YES to drugs. But times have changed since then. 

Now, marijuana is legal for medicinal and recreational use in more than half the nation, and the kids, well, they apparently know no boundaries when it comes to sniffing out the parental stash. That’s right, mom and dad, not even the tried and true underwear drawer is safe anymore. 

It seems that every time we turn around a new report has emerged, showing that more children are being admitted to hospital emergency rooms all across the country to be treated for marijuana-related poisonings. Most of these cases are the result of little Jimmy getting into his mom’s THC-infused candies and biting off way more than his small body and mind can handle. 

If you grow marijuana for a dispensary or personal use, you should know these tips. This guide lists 7 marijuana growing tips every grower needs to know.

In case you didn’t know, CBD is now legal in 33 states, and medical marijuana in the remaining 17. That means that you can grow your own marijuana and make a living out of it. However, making a killing off the trade isn’t as easy as throwing marijuana seeds on the ground and harvesting liters of CBD oil.

Any serious marijuana grower knows that growing marijuana is incredibly difficult. Growing quality marijuana takes lots of diligence, commitment, and resources.  With the right marijuana growing tips; however, growing your own marijuana will be a piece of cake.

Even the most seasoned marijuana growers sometimes have a hard time getting a good yield. However, here is a couple of invaluable marijuana growing tips for both newbies and experienced growers.

You don’t have to be a master marijuana grower to know that your marijuana is only as good as its genetics. The first step to growing some good marijuana is finding an excellent cannabis strain, and there are plenty to choose from. So the million-dollar question is, where do I find quality marijuana strains?

Cannabis shouldn’t create anxiety. Depending on the strain you use, it should ease anxiety, so let’s start there.

As marijuana’s popularity spreads, more people are open to trying it. Perhaps they’ve heard that their medical condition is eased or treated by medical marijuana. Maybe it’s simply time to try something other than a glass of wine at the end of the day. No matter the reason, it’s important to get the dosage right.

The thing is, like most mind-altering substances, cannabis effects people in different ways. And with the myriad of choices as to how one can imbibe, it can become complicated. Cannabis shouldn’t create anxiety. Depending on the strain you use, it should ease anxiety, so let’s start there.

Indicas, Sativas And Hybrids 

These are the three types of marijuana plants that are harvested. Indicas are known for sedation and appetite stimulation, while sativas create more of a “heady” high: cerebral, creative and more active. A hybrid is a cross between sativa and indica and many people new to pot start with a hybrid. Though it’s sativa dominant, a very good strain for newbies is Jack Herer. Its uplifting high is a good start for almost anyone. If you’re looking for something more indica dominant, Bubble Kush is a very popular choice.

Ways to get cannabis into one’s system vary. From smoking, vaping, and dabbing to edibles, tinctures and topicals, it can be tough to know where to start. Especially if the newcomer is enthusiastic. The best advice is don’t try everything at once, because you may freak out. The biggest risk with marijuana is the potential panic attack from being “too high.” It’s easily avoidable, however, if you just follow a few rules.

The cannabis industry is no stranger to automation.

Connected sensors that monitor temperature, humidity and soil conditions help achieve optimal grows; trimming and bucking machines are commonly used for processing; curious consumers can receive advice from medical chatbots; and, increasingly, automated budtenders are popping up in dispensaries and other locations.

That was the case last week in Colorado, where “anna”, an automated weed vending machine, made its debut in a Strawberry Fields dispensary in Pueblo, reports the Denver Post. The machines will also be heading to Starbuds, a second Colorado-based dispensary, later this year.

“There are experienced cannabis customers who don’t necessarily need that one-on-one interaction with a budtender,” Matt Frost, founder and CEO of anna, told the Post. “They know what they want before they walk in, they’re ready to go in and out. By doing this, we’re giving more time back to the people who do need hand-holding and want that education from a live person.”

Four machines are up and running at Strawberry Fields. Customers need to show identification to an employee before they can access the machines, which come equipped with a real-time touchscreen menu of what’s available in the dispensary, and allow consumers to pay with cash or card, before dispensing the item. Customers can also place orders ahead of time using the anna app.

With a plethora of cannabidiol (CBD) beverages in the marketplace, it surprises some to learn they are technically illegal. It is not a gray area, nor is it something some states allow. They are illegal, but they are out there. In fact, the CBD drink category had more new product introductions than any other no-alcohol, ready-to-drink beverage category in the first quarter of 2020, according to Beverage Marketing Corp.

Derived from hemp or marijuana, both part of the herbaceous flowering plant known as Cannabis sativa, CBD is a non-psychoactive compound known for its health and wellness properties. Consumption is associated with relaxation, pain relief, improved sleep, positive mood, better memory and stress response. It is not to be confused with delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the compound responsible for the feeling commonly referred to as “stoned.”

In the United States, as of Dec. 20, 2018, hemp-derived cannabis ingredients with less than 0.3% on a dry weight basis of THC may be sold in commercial consumer products such as tinctures or extracts. The US Food and Drug Administration does not recognize CBD as a food or beverage ingredient nor as a dietary supplement; however, the agency is currently not stopping its use in most cases, and innovators are taking their chances.

“The CBD-infused beverage market is currently in limbo as the federal government has yet to issue final guidelines on whether CBD is permissible in food and drink, and, if so, at what dosages,” says Gary Hemphill, managing director of research at Beverage Marketing Corp. “Initial hearings were held in spring 2019, but there still has been no guidance, hampered not only by the inherent slowness of government but also other issues taking obvious priority.

“A recent FDA report seemed to splash further cold water on the segment, claiming that about half of products contain more than 0.3% THC by dry weight, but are not identified as containing THC on labels, and that a majority of the products it tested contained either 20% less or 20% more CBD than what is stated on labels.”

A new kind of vending machine is coming to Massachusetts — a self-checkout kiosk for cannabis dispensaries.

Boston-based anna, which also has a presence in Colorado, announced this week that it would deploy its self-checkout products in two Colorado dispensaries this week. The company is expected to launch in Massachusetts in September, deploying 14 units across the two states within the next eight weeks.

Further rollouts are anticipated in Nevada, California and Canada.

With anna’s devices, customers can browse in-store using the touchscreen interface or use online ordering by scanning their QR code upon arrival, keeping the checkout process to less than a minute.

According to a demo on the company's website, local agents are tasked with verifying customer's ages through their driver's licenses, and approving payment before orders can be processed.

Quite a few adults in the United States have consumed marijuana in the past year. This is according to a new study published in the journal BMJ Open and epublished by the U.S. National Institute of Health. The study is titled Retrospective cross-sectional analysis of the changes in marijuana use in the USA, 2005-2018.

According to the study, almost one our of every four adults who live in the United States say that they have consumed marijuana in the past year. For the study researchers from Harvard Medical School and the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center examined marijuana use from a nationally representative sample of over 35,000 US adults. They found that “Overall, 53.5 percent of the US adult population reported ever using marijuana between 2005 and 2018. The prevalence of lifetime marijuana use, and first use before the age of 18, remained stable between 2005 and 2018. Overall 22.6 percent of US adults reported using marijuana within the last year.”

The full abstract can be found below:

Objectives Understanding trends of marijuana use in the USA throughout a period of particularly high adoption of marijuana-legalisation, and understanding demographics most at risk of use, is important in evolving healthcare policy and intervention. This study analyses the demographic-specific changes in the prevalence of marijuana use in the USA between 2005 and 2018.

Adults residing in states where retail marijuana sales are legally regulated tend to hold a positive impression of the marketplace, according to data published in the journal Addictive Behaviors.

Investigators affiliated with the University of Waterloo, School of Public Health in Canada surveyed 5,530 respondents residing in Alaska, California, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington.

Authors reported: “The current findings suggest generally positive perceptions of the legal cannabis market. Most respondents, including frequent cannabis consumers, perceived legal cannabis to be of equal or greater quality and convenience, and as safer to buy and use than cannabis from illegal sources.”

Commenting on the study’s findings, NORML’s Deputy Director Paul Armentano said: “This data once again affirms that most voters do not experience ‘buyer’s remorse’ following marijuana legalization. In the minds of most Americans, these laws are operating as voters intended and in a manner that is consistent with their expectations.”

Armentano further acknowledged that no state that has legalized the use of cannabis for either medical or adult-use purposes has ever repealed their law.