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Hot off the press cannabis, marijuana, cbd and hemp news from around the world on the WeedLife Social Network.

California On Track To Collect $1 Billion In Cannabis Taxes

California’s booming cannabis industry has been around much longer than many in the United States, and now, the state is on pace to collect as much as $1 billion in taxes from sales made in 2020, a record landmark for the local industry. 

Marijuana sales continue to bring in big bucks for Nevada

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.

Jay-Z Debuts His New Weed Brand Mongram

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. 

What new Arizona marijuana law means for employers

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.

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Thailand gears up for marijuana tour

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.

Hemp Program Lighting Up Florida Agriculture

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.

7 Cannabis Stocks That Should Be Profitable in 2021

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.

Illinois, Iowa farmers betting on the future of hemp

Students at Muscatine Community College had their crop delayed.

It wasn’t rain, but a campus shutdown of one week because of COVID-19 that caused a delay planting their hemp crop. The difference in the weather in that lost week will likely affect the crop’s yield.

“That just teaches the students why timing is so critical, and they’ll know that on the first day of class they’ve got to start everything,” said Shane Mairet, the college's industrial hemp instructor.

What is Cannabis Industry White-Labeling?

Getting a cannabis license and building a brand in the industry can be incredibly complex and daunting – which has many producers utilizing a practice known as white labeling.

White labeling, or white-label branding, is a common practice in mainstream industries in which a company removes their own brand and logo from the end product and uses another company’s brand, usually a more established one with a wider client base. This is common with many well-known brands such as 365 brand from Whole Foods Market, Costco’s Kirkland brand, and Walmart’s Great Value products – all of which are manufactured by numerous other smaller companies.

Canopy Growth beverage head to depart amid sluggish drink sales

The executive in charge of Canopy Growth Corp.'s global beverage unit is leaving less than a year after he joined the company, a high-level departure that comes as the pot giant looks to ramp up sales of cannabis-infused drinks to the Canadian recreational market. 

Andrew Rapsey joined Canopy in January and took on the role of global head of beverages in August. He announced in a LinkedIn post on Wednesday he is leaving the company and plans to return to Alphabet Inc.'s Google in 2021. 

"As I gear up for 2021, I have decided to head back to Google Canada for some unfinished business with a marketing team I adore," Rapsey said in the post. 

California on track to collect $1 billion in cannabis taxes in 2020

California is on pace to collect $1 billion in taxes from licensed cannabis sales in 2020, even amid challenges of the coronavirus pandemic and a still thriving black market for it, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s senior adviser on cannabis business said Thursday.

Mississippi Gets Its First Cannabis Trade Association

Now that Mississippi has officially joined the ranks of U.S. states legally allowing medical cannabis, the next step is more cannabis legislation, as well as a thriving cannabis industry, so the state needs to be prepared. In order to help provide services for those next steps, Mississippi now has an official cannabis trade association

West Texas hemp growers see successful first season as crop is prepared for market

There was a lot of uncertainty surrounding the re-emerging industrial hemp crop in Texas at the start of the year, but now that harvest is complete and more questions have been answered, growers are pleased with the results. 

Hemp hasn't been widely grown in Texas for 80 years, and while three licenses were issued by the Texas Department of Agriculture in the Panhandle and 33 licenses in the Lubbock region, some growers sat this year out to see how it goes for others. 

Kyle Bingham, president of the Texas Hemp Growers Association, has worked on growing new crops and commodities before, and found that hemp has been one of the easier crops to grow. 

Australian Natural Therapeutics Group receives cannabis oil manufacturing license

NSW-based Australian Natural Therapeutics Group (ANTG) has been granted a license to produce large quantities of medicinal cannabis oil for commercial use as the industry booms on the back of good news internationally.

ANTG will commence commercial manufacturing of cannabis oil at its Armidale facility following receipt of the license from the Therapeutic Goods Administration.

Founded in 2015, ANTG already produces four strains of medicinal cannabis flower, and will soon add four oil combinations to its product range following.

ANTG CEO Matt Cantelo said the license signifies a big step in the buy-local movement and will mean price drops in medical cannabis as more of the drug is made on-shore.

How The House Approved MORE Act Would Jack Up The Economy

Despite the proven track record of cannabis sales in the U.S., Senate Republicans still refuse to go down the path toward legalization.

For the first time in history, Congress has voted to legalize marijuana in the United States. Well, kind of.

The House of Representatives approved a piece of legislation (MORE Act) last week to eliminate the cannabis plant from the Controlled Substances Act and work to expunge criminal records and dedicate funds to those communities choking on the bones of the drug war. But the bill is not expected to advance with Senate support. More accurately, it’s probably dead in its tracks.

U.S. Legal Cannabis Market Projected to Double to $41.5B by 2025

New Frontier Data Report Shows Passed Cannabis Legalization Initiatives and the Pandemic Increase Consumer Consumption, Igniting Flourishing Industry

Cannabis grower to deliver 200 jobs

By mid-2021, Pine Bluff is expected to have a new employer arriving in town that will provide as many as 200 jobs paying an average of $19 an hour, and an annual payroll of $9.4 million including benefits.

Good Day Farm Arkansas LLC, a medical-marijuana cultivator licensed by the state, received approval last month from the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Commission to purchase Natural State Wellness Enterprises of Newport and to move the operation to Pine Bluff, according to the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration.

Scott Hardin, spokesman for the department, said the commission took action in two steps.

Planting the buds of growth: Why the UK cannabis industry is a viable investment opportunity

The idea of adding cannabis to your investment portfolio may seem far-fetched. But this once frowned-upon commodity is fast becoming a viable asset for long-term sustainable wealth creation.

 

The demand for cannabis as a medical treatment is growing rapidly, and the Centre for Medicinal Cannabis (CMC) predicts that by 2024, the UK medical cannabis market alone will be worth close to £1bn ($1.3bn) and servicing nearly 340,000 active patients. And that is just the tip of the iceberg.

How Canada’s (Very White) Cannabis Industry Could Learn From Social Equity Programs In The U.S.

Cannabis may be consumed by adults of all races, ages, and genders, but in Canada, those employed in the upper echelons of the nascent industry don’t reflect that diversity. According to a report published by the Centre on Drug Policy Evaluation (CDPE) and the University of Toronto, the leadership of the country’s licensed cannabis producers is made up of predominantly white men.


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