WeedLife News Network

Cannabis farms, manufacturers and retailers provided millions of dollars that footed a petition drive to put the proposal on the November ballot and promote it to voters.

In the Czech Republic, hemp products like marijuana, hashish and cannabis oil have been available in pharmacies for years. Prague is now planning full legalization for 2023 and wants to coordinate the step with Berlin.

For years, the cannabis industry flourished through a "green rush." Now, amid plummeting sales, Colorado's cannabis entrepreneurs are struggling as never before.

Jonathan Spadafora knew things were bad when April 20, 2022, the high holy day of cannabis, failed to deliver the windfall Colorado’s marijuana retailers were used to. Across the state, dispensary sales fell around 25 percent compared with 4/20 the year before. But it wasn’t until this past May, when demand continued to plunge, that Spadafora, president of Veritas Fine Cannabis, realized the industry was in a free fall.

For the first time since licensed recreational weed sales began in Colorado in 2014, two years after legalization, the Centennial State’s cannabis sector is experiencing a prolonged downturn. Mid-2022 saw the fourth consecutive quarter of declining sales, a near reversal of the record-setting revenues the industry boasted during the early days of the pandemic. (The medical and retail sectors have experienced nearly identical downturns.) In response to waning demand, dispensaries that had stocked up for 4/20 found themselves stuck with excess inventory and slashed purchase orders to growers such as Veritas, which produces flower and pre-rolled joints for stores around the state. Even big companies are struggling; chains Buddy Boy and TweedLeaf shuttered seven stores each during the summer.

Spadafora believes a number of factors have contributed to cannabis’ tailspin. To start, the pandemic boom was likely a bubble driven by the fact that people were stuck at home—and often bored or stressed-out. “People weren’t in the office,” Spadafora says. “They were at home and had the ability to roll a joint and do their emails all day.” Then there were the stimulus checks, which helped fund the run on nugs as total sales reached their annual peak at $2.2 billion in 2021. Fast-forward to today, and people are worried about inflation, Spadafora notes.

Plus, nine more states have legalized recreational weed during the past two years, putting a dent in Colorado’s cannabis tourism trade, says Truman Bradley of Denver-based Marijuana Industry Group, a cannabis trade association. New Mexico’s entrance into the market in 2021 has been especially painful, corresponding with a 40 to 50 percent drop in cannabis sales in Colorado’s southern border towns.

Veritas, one of the state’s larger marijuana producers, couldn’t weather the downturn without downsizing: In June, the company decided to close one of its three cultivation facilities and lay off 33 staff members—nearly a quarter of its workforce. “It’s tough because these weren’t people who were making mistakes,” Spadafora says. “I think one thing that we’ve learned is Colorado is not a $2.2 billion market. It’s probably a $1.8 or $1.7 or $1.6 billion market.” Growers and sellers alike will simply have to hope the market bottoms out before their companies go up in smoke.

The 2018 Farm Bill left the barn door open for dangerous and intoxicating forms of hemp says the the California Cannabis Industry Association (CCIA).

The CCIA has released a white paper it says details the dangers associated with the growing number of increasingly intoxicating products currently being sold as “hemp” from a myriad of outlets, and has called for urgent reform.

The issue has its roots in the wording of the 2018 Farm Bill, which made hemp legal if it contained less than 0.3 per cent delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol on a dry weight basis. The fact only delta-9 – the most commonly consumed form of THC and the one that provides a high – was singled out gave rise to other forms of intoxicating THC such as delta-8. These can be created by manipulating non-intoxicating cannabidiol (CBD) extracted from hemp.

The white paper notes some of these products are far more potent than their delta-9 counterparts and often contain dangerous chemicals resulting from the manufacturing process. Some of these cannabinoids include THCjd, THC-O, HHC, Delta-10 THC and the most commonly sold (for now), Delta-8 THC.

“With the way these products are sold, it’s easier for a kid to get their hands on them than a six-pack of beer,” says CCIA board Vice President Tiffany Devitt.

Various states have crafted their own laws regarding other forms of THC in order to rein in or stop their distribution, but the CCIA says more action is needed

Up to 40 cannabis consumption lounges could be coming to Nevada as early next year.

The Nevada Cannabis Compliance Board on Monday announced it had received 100 completed state licensing applications during a 10-day window earlier this month.

Nonrefundable application fees had been set at $100,000 for dispensaries; $10,000 for independent applicants, and $2,500 for social equity applicants, those who were negatively affected by marijuana laws before the state legalized the drug in 2017.

Established dispensaries, which would have a lounges attached or adjacent to them, accounted for 20 of the completed licenses. The state did not set a limit to how many such businesses it will be licensing.

But Nevada is only issuing 20 independent licenses, half of which would go to social equity applicants.

That will mean 40 independent and 20 social equity applicants will be left out out following a lottery for the 20 available slots.

PAWNEE COUNTY - Keith Buntin is the fire chief for the volunteer department at Station 58 in Pawnee County.

He took pictures of what appears to be gloves, cans and other trash partially buried under mulch near Keystone Lake. He says he found the mess while responding to a fire a couple months ago.

The Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics confirms they are investigating some of the grows in the Terlton area to make sure they are legal when it comes to who regulates what. They say when it comes to dumping, that is on the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority (OMMA).

OMMA says: “The rules allow licensees to dispose of root balls, stems, fan leaves and mature stalks—parts of the cannabis plant not generally used as medical marijuana or in a medical marijuana product—at their own licensed premises by open burning, incineration, burying, mulching, composting or any other technique approved by the state Department of Environmental Quality.

The licensees must also maintain a disposal log with a signed statement attesting that the plant parts were disposed of lawfully.”

Chief Butin says in the Cleveland and Terlton zip code there are 54 legal and licensed grows or dispensaries.

In recent years, the cannabis industry has been booming. Research has created a new way to treat patients with debilitating health issues, like seizure disorders and chronic pain.

Businesses have created marijuana-friendly spaces such as coffee shops, restaurants and lounges. Cannabis is becoming increasingly normalized in our society and the drug has begun to lose a majority of its negative connotations with younger generations.

The wide variety of cannabis uses is astounding, from medicine to hemp-based products that help to fight pollution, to a recreational activity for those 21 and over. The United States has also made huge legal strides in terms of marijuana throughout the last decade, with 18 states having it fully legalized and 36 states having medical marijuana legalized. Rather than continuing to criminalize marijuana users, states have been able to make a profit from the product and allocate the funds to cities and programs in need.

Yet, there are still 40,000 Americans incarcerated for nonviolent marijuana-related charges. States are steadily continuing the legalization of marijuana but are not releasing people from prison at the same rate. This leaves our prisons overpopulated and underfunded, and ruins the lives of people who are, respectively, innocent.

Studies have found that people of color and white people use marijuana at roughly the same rate, yet people of color are four times as likely to be arrested for using the drug. Data collected from the New York Police Department found that in 2020, 94% of all people arrested on marijuana-related charges were people of color.

The popularization of marijuana usage has focused on white people and has become normalized by white people repeatedly speaking out about the benefits. Less than one percent of all dispensaries across the country are owned by people of color. Recently, a dispensary was under fire for naming a new strain of marijuana, “Strange Fruit.” The name was taken from a Billie Holiday song that was written as a metaphor to describe the abuse African Americans endured in the deep south.

While the draft of Germany’s cannabis laws has received a mixed response, those in the country’s hemp industry have welcomed developments.

Earlier this month the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) confirmed the suspended prison sentences of two commercial traders of CBD flowers. 

This was the latest in a long list of similar rulings with possibly hundreds more similar cases due before the country’s courts – which continue to view hemp/CBD as having narcotic properties.

However, it is understood that the country’s new cannabis regulations are set to finally remove hemp/CBD products from the German Narcotics Act.

Removed From Narcotics Law

This direction of travel has been welcomed by Jürgen Neumeyer, Managing Director of the Cannabis Business Industry Association (BvCW). 

He told BusinessCann that it appears that ‘in the future, cannabis – and thus also commercial hemp and CBD – will be completely removed from the Narcotics Act in Germany’.

South Carolina is one of only 13 states where marijuana is illegal.

But some lawmakers and doctors in the state continue pushing for the legalization of medical marijuana, which they say can be a safer treatment for people with debilitating illnesses than some prescription medications.

An attempt to legalize medical marijuana failed this spring, passing in the state Senate but not the House of Representatives .

Rep. Tommy Pope, R-York County, who voted against the bill, said he thought it went too far.

“My biggest concern is that I feel like it sets up an infrastructure for (full) legalization,” Pope said. “As opposed to focusing on taking care of those that probably need help the most.”

Still, legislators who support medical marijuana argue that legalization could significantly reduce the impact of the opioid epidemic.

SIOUX FALLS - When it comes to marijuana, South Dakota has been a leader among its Great Plains neighbors: one of the first to legalize recreational use, the first to approve both medical and recreational forms on the same ballot and the only one to have its recreational measure reversed.

Legalization is back on the ballot in November, but whether the politically red state will become the first to pass it twice remains in doubt.

It’s facing strong opposition from conservative groups and figures determined to pull the state back from legalizing pot. And though 54% of voters approved a constitutional amendment to legalize cannabis in 2020, that campaign may have benefited from the medical marijuana measure that appeared on the same ballot.

This time, recreational marijuana stands alone on the ballot. And it likely faces a different demographic of voters — older and perhaps less inclined toward the drug — in a midterm election rather than in a presidential year, said Matt Schweich, who organized that campaign and is doing so again this year.

“I think this is a close race,” he said at a news conference to kick off a statewide voter registration tour last week. “We need our people to come out and vote.”

Pot legalization advocates have found success primarily through ballot measures rather than legislatures, especially in GOP-held states. Voters in three states where Republicans control the governor’s office and both legislative chambers — Arkansas, Missouri and North Dakota — are deciding on recreational marijuana this year, as is politically divided Maryland.

At long last, Germany is moving forward with legal cannabis.

A blueprint of the reform was leaked through RND newspaper group and translated by Politico, stating that cannabis will be decriminalized, allowing for its purchase, possession and cultivation. Any advertising promoting cannabis, however, would be banned.

Under the reported plan, adults will be able to buy as much as 20 grams of cannabis sold in shops. There’s a chance marijuana could also be sold in pharmacies and specialty shops like coffee houses.

Some of the proposed limitations include that cannabis will have a THC limit of 15 per cent. And in the case of young adults, aged 18 to 21, they will be able to buy marijuana with a 10 per cent limit of THC.

The plan also makes it clear that cannabis sold in Germany must be produced domestically, sidestepping any international law issues and avoiding conflict.

While many are reportedly celebrating the country’s decision, several German politicians have voiced concerns that the plan is too restrictive.

The city of Detroit received 90 applications for the 60 recreational marijuana licenses available in the first round, which include licenses for dispensaries, microbusinesses and consumption lounges.

Fifty non-equity and 40 equity applications were submitted by the deadline of Oct. 1, with 28 of the 40 equity applicants qualifying for Detroit Legacy status as well, Kim James, director of Detroit's office of marijuana ventures and entrepreneurship, said Wednesday.

The city will issue a total of 160 licenses in three phases. The 60 licenses that will be awarded in the first phase include 40 retail, 10 microbusiness and 10 consumption lounge licenses. Detroit started accepting applications for unlimited licenses — such as for growing or processing cannabis — in April.

Half of all the limited licenses are set aside for "equity applicants." Equity applicants include people who live in communities that have been disproportionately impacted by marijuana prohibition and enforcement. Equity applicants also include those with certified Detroit Legacy status currently living in Detroit or another disproportionately impacted community.

Detroit has faced multiple legal challenges over this piece of its ordinance. After two lawsuits that challenged the ordinance were dismissed in August, the city moved forward with opening its application process for the limited licenses on Sept 1.

Another lawsuit was filed at the end of last month in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, though. That lawsuit claimed the ordinance gave an unfair preference to longtime Detroiters.

Winners of CT cannabis licenses spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to improve chances in lottery.

The businesses that won approval for licenses to grow and sell cannabis in Connecticut spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in total to submit thousands of applications to improve their chances of being selected in the lottery.

The winning applicants for retail and micro-cultivator licenses flooded the lottery system with entries, according to new data from the state Department of Consumer Protection. Take retail licenses as example. SLAP ASH LLC, which lists a business address in Glastonbury, accounted for 850 of the 8,360 applications submitted to the social equity lottery in the initial round, ultimately winning approval for two licenses. 

Cannabis consumers are increasing across legal states, with polls showing that they’ll soon become the new normal.

Marijuana’s increase in popularity continues to surprise everyone over the age of 18, with a new poll showing that the drug is well on its way to becoming the new normal.

The numbers, reported by a study from the University of Michigan, show that more and more young adults living in legal states are regularly consuming marijuana.

Researchers also share that the jump in numbers is driven in large percentages by women. The study’s data show that this change is a marked departure from the numbers belonging to previous generations, when men were the principal marijuana consumers, or, at least the ones who were open with polls about their cannabis habits.

The Hill spoke with several young adults from states where cannabis is on the ballot in November, who shared why they enjoyed marijuana and why their generation was so open to its use. “It really helps with sleep,” said Allison. “It’s great for stress, anxiety. And my generation has huge anxiety problems.”

Earlier this month, the Biden administration issued a pardon for non-violent cannabis offenses, asking governors and state leaders to follow their lead. Per Biden, one of the main reasons behind the pardons is social justice, hoping to benefit minorities and those who’ve been impacted by the war on drugs.

Philippe Reich, partner, and Tiziana Hongler, associate, supported by Tanya Adams and Anna Bachmann at Baker McKenzie in Zurich, investigate a significant development in modernising Switzerland’s legislation on cannabis

On August 1, 2022, Swiss National Day, Switzerland’s revised Narcotics Act (NarcA) entered into force. The revision aims at facilitating medical treatments and improving research and development of cannabis.

Prior to the revised law, patients and physicians had to apply for special authorisation from the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) if they wanted to access cannabis for medical purposes. The amendment will allow numerous patients safe and timely access to cannabis medicines as part of their treatment regime.

According to a study by the Institute for Addiction and Health Research carried out on behalf of the FOPH, 96% of participants reported that the consumption of medicinal cannabis led to an improvement of their symptoms. In light of cannabis’s potential as a medical treatment and the surge in applications and high approval rates of the FOPH in the last few years, the costly and time-consuming procedure physicians and patients had to undergo to obtain authorisation for treatment with medicinal products containing cannabis was no longer justified. This led to the latest revision of the NarcA, which focuses on the legalisation of medicinal cannabis, making cultivation, processing, production and trade thereof subject to the authorisation procedure of Swissmedic in the same way as other narcotics that are used in a medical context.

Key takeaways

The main features of the amendment include the following:

Background

Prior to the enactment of the revised law, cannabis with tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) levels of 1% and above were classified as prohibited narcotics in Switzerland. As a result, cannabis with THC levels of 1% and above could not be cultivated, produced, imported or placed on the market. This limited the medicinal use of cannabis, which was subject to a case-by-case authorisation requirement from the FOPH.

Uber Eats customers in Toronto will be able to order cannabis starting Monday, thanks to a new partnership with Leafly.

Why it matters: It's the first time that marijuana delivery will be available through a major third party delivery platform, such as Uber, according to Leafly.

How it works: Those in Toronto aged 19 years old and over will be able to order in the app as they would from a restaurant, although when searching for cannabis users will be warned they must be of legal age.

Between the lines: Uber had previously partnered with a retailer in Ontario, Canada to allow customers to order cannabis, but under that deal they had to pick up their order themselves.

What they're saying:

MONROE - Louisiana lawmakers are reacting to calls to legalize marijuana.

It comes after President Joe Biden pardoned thousands convicted of federal possession charges and is reviewing how the drug is classified.

“I have been pretty firm in my opposition to any recreational marijuana, and that hasn’t changed,” State Senator Stewart Cathey of Monroe (R-33) told KNOE.

State Representative Travis Johnson (D-21) says he hasn’t given much thought to legalization, but is open to considering it.

“If it were to become legal, it would definitely be a new and improved and much-needed revenue for our state,” explained Johnson.

Cathay, who represents parts of six Northeast Louisiana parishes, previously voted against a bill to decrease criminal penalties for possessing small amounts of the drug.

Cannabis-related exchange-traded funds and stocks were lifted this week after President Biden’s pardon on Thursday of those convicted of simple marijuana possession.

The president also called for a review of how marijuana is categorized under federal law, with the moves boosting speculation that a loosening of cannabis restrictions is on the horizon.

Cannabis ETFs offering exposure to the industry in the U.S. have been beaten down badly over the past few years as the industry takes longer than anticipated to develop. Still, they had record gains Thursday after President Biden’s announcement.

The AdvisorShares Pure US Cannabis ETF (MSOS), the first and biggest ETF offering exposure to the U.S. market, gained 33% Thursday. The ETFMG Alternative Harvest ETF (MJ) added 20% and the ETFMG U.S. Alternative Harvest ETF (MJUS) rose by 26%. The ETFs rose again earlier Friday before coming down from their highs.

Additionally, shares of cannabis companies such as Canopy Growth Co. and Tilray Brands Inc., which maintain the first- and fourth-largest holdings in MJ, also jumped by approximately 22% and 33%, respectively.

“President Biden’s announcement is obviously tremendously uplifting for the industry,” Jason Wilson, cannabis research and banking expert at ETF Managers Group, told ETF.com in an interview.