Mj news for 03/02/2016

[7greeneyes]

URL: http://fortune.com/2016/03/02/cannabis-companies-turn-to-pot-friendly-social-media/

Banned by Facebook, Cannabis Companies Turn to Pot-Friendly Social Media​

“Brand awareness is where it’s killing everyone.”

On a Friday morning in early February, Joe Hodas awoke to find the Facebook page he’d carefully cultivated for Denver-based Dixie Elixirs—as well as the company’s 11,000 Facebook followers—had vanished. Facebook administrators offered little in the way of explanation. A notification stated that content posted to Dixie Elixirs’ Facebook page violated the social network’s community standards. “We remove any promotion or encouragement of drug use,” it read.

Dixie Elixirs, a producer of legal cannabis products for Colorado’s state-sanctioned medical and recreational marijuana market, is one of dozens—and perhaps hundreds—of legal cannabis-related companies that have seen their social media accounts threatened or taken offline in recent months. Dixie Elixirs’ Instagram account was suspended under equally vague terms in January. Dozens—and by some estimates, hundreds—of cannabis-related companies operating legally within their respective states have suffered similar account suspensions in recent months, instantly losing social media followings that in some cases took years to develop.

“Facebook and Instagram were critical for us from a marketing perspective and for keeping in touch with our customers,” said Hodas, director of marketing at Dixie Elixirs. “It really cuts off an arm, so to speak.”

Industry representatives say Facebook and Instagram have been particularly aggressive in suspending the social media accounts of cannabis-related companies, and Apple has suspended certain cannabis-related apps from its App Store as well. The uneven and seemingly random account suspensions have created an uneven playing field within the industry and stripped legitimate cannabis-related businesses—and some that don’t actually sell cannabis products at all—of an important advertising and marketing tools, business owners and industry advocates argue.

It’s also spawning a new and growing strain of social networks tailored specifically to cannabis culture—a culture that is expected to generate $6.7 billion in legal U.S. sales this year alone and could potentially grow into a $21.8 billion industry by 2020.

That revenue potential isn’t lost on Silicon Valley. In January, Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund joined a $75 million funding round for cannabis-centric private equity firm Privateer Holdings, signaling to many in the legal cannabis industry that pragmatic and progressive Silicon Valley stood in the cannabis industry’s corner. (Thiel was an early investor in Facebook, which acquired Instagram in 2012.) But faced with the legal gray area in which the legal cannabis industry operates, Silicon Valley has thus far chosen to play it safe given that U.S. federal law still technically deems the sale of cannabis products illegal.

As such, Facebook’s community guidelines prohibit content that promotes the sale of marijuana regardless of state or country. “In order to maintain a safe environment on Facebook, we have Community Standards that describe what is and is not allowed on the service,” a Facebook spokesperson told Fortune via email. “Anyone can report content to us if they think it violates our standards. Our teams review these reports rapidly and will remove the content if there is a violation.”

For Hodas and Dixie Elixirs—which produces everything from candy bars to beverages to topical creams, all infused with cannabis—the case might seem open-and-shut. But Hodas insists the company’s Facebook and Instagram pages have not violated community guidelines for either social network. Dixie Elixirs used its social media pages to engage customers with its brand, but strictly avoided any promotion of the sale of cannabis products or imagery that would run afoul of community guidelines. It also placed an age restriction on its page, Hodas says.

The lack of clarity surrounding why one account is suspended while another is not has become a common complaint around the cannabis industry. “We feel like we’re following the guidelines,” said Andrew Boyens, the owner of Natural Remedies, a cannabis dispensary operating legally in Denver. “But they’re pretty broad.”

Natural Remedies’ Instagram account was suspended in October. The company set up a new account and tried to rebuild its following, only to be shut down again two weeks ago. Its Facebook page was also suspended in January. Boyens said Natural Remedies’ Facebook page was age-restricted and the company never advertised or promoted the sale of cannabis on its profile.

“Brand awareness is where it’s killing everyone,” said Olivia Alexander, founder and CEO of The Crystal Cult, a vendor of fashion and lifestyle accessories that dovetail with cannabis culture. The Crystal Cult more or less started with an Instagram post, Alexander said, and now boasts 109,000 followers on the platform. “Anyone who says Instagram isn’t the number one platform right now is a liar, and what Instagram has done to our industry feels like a war on legal cannabis.”

Along with running her own company, Alexander handles marketing and social media accounts for a number of cannabis-related brands. For the most part, she’s able to keep those brands and a network of her own Instagram pages—accounts with names like @Buddfeed, @TheKushQueens, @EatWeedLove, and @Weed.bae—out of trouble. “But every post is something of a dice roll,” she said. “My brands that I rep, I make sure they have two or three accounts. And you’re just ready to be deleted anytime.”

This uneasy relationship between the legal cannabis industry and traditional social media has pushed companies like Dixie Elixirs toward a new breed of industry-specific social networks tailored to cannabis users and the companies vying for their business. Founded in 2013, MassRoots MSRT 0.00% is like a cannabis-centric Facebook, allowing users and companies to create profiles, following trending news, share images and other media, and—perhaps most critically—advertise.

MassRoots now has a $44 million market cap and more than 725,000 users. Founder and CEO Isaac Dietrich said the company has fulfilled most of the requirements for listing on the NASDAQ, and he hopes to be listed later this year as its user base tops one million. “That’s when mainstream advertisers start to take you seriously, at one million users,” he said. “We’re hoping this year will be the year major national brands start advertising in the cannabis space.”

Though MassRoots was first to market with a cannabis-centric social network, it’s not alone. Social app Duby operates like an Instagram for cannabis culture, allowing users to circulate image-based posts referred to as “dubys” (pass the duby—get it?). Startup Social High launched late last year marketing itself as “Facebook for the Cannabis Community,” and it has amassed a small but growing community of users in 50 states and 65 countries, according to CEO and co-founder Scott Bettano. Powered by a third-party cannabis database known as Leafly, users can converse over and compare various marijuana strains much as wine connoisseurs might talk grapes, terroir, and vintages.

In a kind of meta-drama, these cannabis-centric social networks have had their own troubles dealing with their mainstream counterparts. Social High’s app was rejected from the Apple App Store over its logo (the logo has since been changed and the app accepted to the App Store). MassRoots’ app was also briefly banned from the App Store last year before being reinstated. Last month, Instagram deleted MassRoots’ profile on the photo sharing network, costing the company some 390,000 followers. It has also received warnings from Facebook regarding its profile on that network.

For Hodas and Dixie Elixirs, the constant threat of account banishment and the persistent challenge of rebuilding its social media followings—only to likely lose them again—has pushed the company to re-evaluate how it prioritizes its social media marketing in the future. Dixie Elixirs plans to focus its energy on its MassRoots presence, Hodas said, despite the fact that MassRoots can’t provide the same vast reach as Facebook or Instagram. “On MassRoots we’re talking to people that are already aware,” he said. “It’s different, and we will miss some of that [Facebook and Instagram] audience.”

Others in the industry see this is as a critical moment for U.S. legal cannabis companies to demand that the broader technology industry take them seriously, both as legitimate businesses and as a collective multi-billion dollar market.

“I think we have to unify, we have to use our voice, and we have to continue to try to operate like a normal business,” The Crystal Cult’s Alexander said. “I can only speak for myself and my brands, but we will never stop. If they delete us, we will keep coming back.”

 

[7greeneyes]

url: http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/far...urged-to-grow-cannabis-for-medicinal-purposes

New Zealand urged to grow cannabis for medicinal purposes​

New Zealand should grow medicinal cannabis because of its potentially good returns, a Massey University scientist says.

Dr Mike Nichols, who has also researched hemp growing, said New Zealand risked losing out on a profitable industry, in the same way it once turned down the chance to grow poppies for legal codeine and morphine.

Even though New Zealand scientist Ralph Ballinger was the world's lead researcher into poppy growing in the 1950s, his work never resulted in an industry.

Instead, Tasmania now supplies 40 per cent of the world's legal codeine and morphine, earning more than $200 million a year for the state.

Just why the decision was made to discontinue the work is uncertain. Nichols blames "political" forces.

"The frustrating bit is he [Ballinger] was in the same rest home as my brother and sister-in-law in Blenheim and when I used to go over to see him I never asked him the hard questions," Nichols says.

Ballinger died last year at the age of 99.

Nichols says he does not see a lot of economic value in hemp growing, but he believes New Zealand's horticulture innovation and technology would give it a competitive advantage when it comes to medicinal cannabis.

And gram for gram, cannabis would outdo most exports.

"It costs a lot of money to send a log to China and you don't get much for it. But you could send 1 kilogram of medicinal cannabis and you'd get thousands of dollars for it," he says.

China would be a likely market because the Chinese are keen on using natural plant products for medicine.

That said, no-one in New Zealand has carried out a cost: benefit analysis of the crop.

In the meantime Australia and other countries are already stealing a march on New Zealand with their work.

Wealthy Australian couple Joy and Barry Lambert recently donated $36.3 million to fund medicinal cannabis research at Sydney University.

Nichols said there were two methods of growing it: either in a totally controlled plant factory or a greenhouse.

"Factories seem to be the way things are going because you don't want to use pesticides on it [cannabis], therefore you have to keep bugs out, and you're more likely to do that in an enclosed system where air is filtered in."

He is soon to visit Ontario, Canada, where producer Aphria is growing medicinal cannabis in a greenhouse.

Nichols said Aphria's 12 varieties sell for about $9 a gram, or half the price of illegal cannabis in New Zealand.

As with poppy growing, no research can be carried out in New Zealand on cannabis without government approval.

Under current legislation this approval is wanting.

"If someone wishes to cultivate cannabis for consumption, injection or smoking for other than research and study purposes, for example commercial production of a medicine, this could not be licensed under the current legislation," says Michael Haynes, manager medicines control with the Ministry of Health.

Any changes in legislation would need to take into account the requirement of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs 1961 which requires signatory countries, such as New Zealand, to establish an agency that purchases and takes physical possession of the crop as soon as possible, but not more than four months after the end of the harvest.

Plenty of "home research" has been carried out over the years but none of it has been peer-reviewed, Nichols says.

Only UK company G W Pharmaceuticals has conducted "acceptable" medical trials with medicinal cannabis, he maintains.

There are a lot of unanswered questions over how to best grow it.

Nichols speculates a hydroponic "ebb and flow" system might give a better yield than growing in soil.

But he is unsure over the nutrient mix, optimum plant density and lighting (its intensity and wavelength), and whether to use a greenhouse or plant factory.

On a visit to a plant factory in Holland several years ago, he saw high pressure sodium lights being used. Now long life and more efficient LED lights would be used.

From his days researching hemp, Nichols knows they are not very nutrient-hungry plants, but he notes there would be a big difference in returns if yields were increased with the addition of fertiliser.

Cannabis has several important attributes: while there are male and female plants, the drug content is found largely in the unpollinated female flower heads.

This means plants should be grown from cuttings from "mother plants"; these cuttings are then encouraged to produce flowers by artificially giving them short days, using blackout curtains.

In a plant factory under artificial lights, as many crops a year as wanted could be produced.

Nichols, who was a team leader for the New Zealand Hemp Industries Association from 2001, says hemp was not economic for the three purposes it was grown: to take nutrients out of the soil, as an oil seed, and for fibre.

"The problem is hemp is an annual crop, so as a 'mop crop' it's more expensive than a perennial like willow which you harvest but regrow.

"For oil seed and fibre, you have to get the ground prepared every year, seed is attractive to birds, and possums like hemp," Nichols said.

His views are not shared by hemp enthusiasts who say the same could be argued about any annual crop.

Regarding the view that medicinal cannabis will open the door to recreational cannabis, Nichols says the same could be said about any drugs. Some people become addicted to painkillers which are freely available.

Besides ameliorating childhood epilepsy and being an effective painkiller for other ailments, cannabis is a far safer drug than alcohol, he says.

"In New Zealand the producers and purveyors of alcohol may receive knighthoods, while the equivalent cannabis suppliers may receive a prison sentence."

 

[7greeneyes]

url: http://registerguard.com/rg/news/lo...e-closing-because-of-clean-air-rules.html.csp

(Oregon) Portland’s Cannabis Cafe closing because of clean air rules​

PORTLAND — The owner of the World Famous Cannabis Cafe announced she will close her doors next week after another warning by public health officials that the establishment violates indoor air rules.

The cafe will host its final Stoner Bingo session March 7, said Madeline Martinez, a longtime marijuana legalization advocate and owner of the business, which offers people 21 and older a place to socialize and use cannabis.

She doesn’t want to face fines for violating the law, she said.

The decision follows an unannounced visit last week by Erik Vidstrand, a Multnomah County tobacco program specialist, to the Southeast Foster Road cafe, Martinez said. Vidstrand pointed out ashtrays and remnants of smoked joints and reminded her that smoking is not allowed in the cafe under state law, she said.

“I told them they are infringing on my constitutional rights,” said Martinez, whose patrons must bring their own marijuana to consume at the club. “I have a right to gather peacefully. That is what I am exercising. They are very concerned about the toxicity (of cannabis smoke), which is ridiculous.”

Lawmakers expanded Oregon’s Indoor Clean Air Act last year to prohibit the use of devices such as vaporizer pens and e-cigarettes in public areas and workplaces. Marijuana was also added to the law, which initially targeted only tobacco.

The indoor clean air law includes exemptions for two types of businesses: cigar bars, where patrons may smoke cigars, and smoke shops, where tobacco consumption is allowed. Both kinds of businesses must be certified by the state.

Oregon is home to a small number of cannabis clubs where people generally pay a membership fee to smoke, dab and vape the drug in a social setting. Another Southeast Portland club, the Other Spot, closed recently over concerns about the clean air provisions.

Sen. Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, introduced an amendment during the Legislature’s 35-day session that would have exempted cannabis cafes from the clean air law, but it did not have enough support to pass.

Rep. Ann Lininger, D-Lake Oswego, said she heard from public health advocates and local government officials who worry about exempting pot clubs from clean air rules. Lininger serves as co-chair of the joint legislative committee on the implementation of marijuana legalization.

The Coalition of Local Health Officials did not take a position on the amendment but submitted testimony to the joint committee detailing its concerns about efforts to weaken the clean air law.

“We are concerned about the potential air quality in these proposed cannabis cafes,” the testimony states.

The Oregon Health Authority also submitted testimony spelling out its concerns about cannabis cafes and a potential increase in youth use of marijuana. The agency compared the establishments to hookah lounges, which “led to a marked increase in youth use of hookah in counties where hookah lounges were located.”

Lininger said the current short session, which is winding down, didn’t offer enough time to work on the issue. She said she’s open to reviving the issue next year.

“I think the idea of cannabis cafes makes sense, especially if we allow cigar bars, but the concerns of public health advocates are real,” she said. “We need to make sure that if we allow the creation of cannabis cafes we do it in a way that is safe for workers and that is going to require some careful thought and discussion among people who care about the issue.”

Martinez said she plans to shift her focus to lobbying for a change to the clean air statute in 2017.

For now, marijuana consumers hoping to drop in at the World Famous Cannabis Café’s regular Stoner Bingo nights and jam sessions are out of luck.

“They are not happy,” she said. “They are asking me where are they going to go.”

 

[7greeneyes]

url: https://www.newcannabisventures.com...is-benchmarks-to-its-commodity-data-platform/

GlobalView Adds Cannabis Benchmarks to its Commodity Data Platform​

STAMFORD, Conn., March 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ — Cannabis Benchmarks®, a division of New Leaf Data Services, LLC, announced today the launch of its Professional Service in partnership with GlobalView.

“For the first time ever investors, traders, analysts and other industry participants can conduct detailed monitoring and analysis of cannabis price data in the broader context of agricultural commodity market data, macroeconomic data, weather data, regional electricity prices, and more using a highly flexible and customizable set of tools,” said Jonathan Rubin, CEO of New Leaf Data Services.

GlobalView is an internationally-established leader in commodity data aggregation, distribution and analytics. Rubin continued, “The fact that a premier player is embracing this emerging market is a milestone of commercial acceptance of historic importance. It will bring tremendous credibility to the cannabis industry as a whole.”

“The introduction of cannabis price data into our MarketView® product suite is unprecedented and demonstrates that cannabis is becoming a viable alternative for traditional commercial farmers facing the millennia-old question of crop switching and rotation,” saidCharles Trauger, Global Director of Agriculture at GlobalView. He continued, “From farmers to traders, participants along the traditional farming value chain will want to understand the opportunities that cannabis presents and how it may impact their current businesses, including the cost and availability of competing inputs/feedstocks.”

About Cannabis Benchmarks®
Cannabis Benchmarks® is a division of New Leaf Data Services, LLC. Our mission is to bring transparency and efficiency to cultivators, dispensaries, investors, traders, and other cannabis market participants through validated production cost data and standardized wholesale price benchmarks. As the sole provider of U.S. Spot and Forward wholesale cannabis price assessments, Cannabis Benchmarks® is the trusted source for pricing information that allows market participants to make informed business decisions. For more information, please visit: www.cannabisbenchmarks.com.

About GlobalView
GlobalView has been providing innovative market data solutions since 1996 to commodity professionals around the world. Its mission centers on delivering timely and reliable support alongside its MarketView suite of tools to help corporations track and analyze commodity market data for smarter trading, risk management, and compliance decisions. GlobalView offices are in Chicago, Houston, Calgary, London, Singapore and São Paulo. Learn more at www.marketview.com.

For all press inquiries, please contact:
Salar Communications Group
Cynthia Salarizadeh, CEO
+1-856-425-6160
[email protected]

GlobalView
Jaenneke Wolf, Marketing Director
+1-312-628-2948
[email protected]

SOURCE New Leaf Data Services, LLC

Original press release: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-rele...commodity-market-data-platform-300228957.html

 

[7greeneyes]

url: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/307249.php




I don't know how I feel about this....:smoke1: :rofl:

Cannabis use affects processing of emotions​

Scientists are only just starting to understand how cannabis affects the brain.

Cannabis consumption is known to cause immediate, residual and long-term changes in brain activity that can affect appetite and food intake, sleep patterns, executive function and emotional behavior.

Conflicting evidence has suggested that it can intensify both positive and negative mood states.

Lucy Troup, assistant professor of psychology at Colorado State University, and her graduate students wanted to look at how, if at all, cannabis use impacts a person's ability to process emotions.

For nearly 2 years, the team has been conducting experiments using an electroencephalogram (EEG) to measure the brain activities of about 70 volunteers.

All the participants identified themselves as chronic, moderate or non-users of cannabis. They were all confirmed to be legal users of marijuana under Colorado Amendment 64, either medical marijuana users aged 18 years and above, or as recreational users aged 21 years or older.

An EEG can record a wide variety of generalized brain activity. In this study, the researchers used it to measure the "P3 event-related potential" of the participants.

P3 refers to the electrical activity in the brain that is triggered by noticing something visually. P3 activity is known to be related to attention in emotional processing.

Marijuana use may reduce ability to empathize
While connected to an EEG, participants responded to faces wearing four separate expressions: neutral, happy, fearful and angry. The team collected P3 data that captured the reactions in certain parts of the brain when subjects focused on the face.

Cannabis users responded more intensely to faces showing negative expression, particularly angry ones, compared with controls. Conversely, their response to positive expressions, represented by happy faces, was smaller than that of the controls.

Little difference was observed between the reactions of cannabis users and non-users when asked to pay attention to and "explicitly" identify the emotion.

However, cannabis users scored lower in a task that asked them to focus on the sex of the face and then to identify the emotion. This suggests a reduced ability to "implicitly" identify emotions and to empathize on a deeper emotional level.

The researchers conclude that cannabis affects the brain's ability to process emotion, but that the brain may be able to counter the effects, depending on whether the emotions are explicitly or implicitly detected.

Troup comments:

"We're not taking a pro or anti stance, but we just want to know, what does it do? It's really about making sense of it."

She explains that the aim of the emotion-processing paradigm was to see if the reactions in people who use cannabis would be different from those who do not.

In further studies, Troup is looking into the effects of cannabis on mood disorders like depression and anxiety, and one of her team members is investigating the effect of cannabis on learning.

Medical News Today recently reported that cannabis use could put young people more at risk of schizophrenia.

 

[7greeneyes]

url: https://www.leafly.com/news/industr...and-licensing-allows-cannabis-companies-to-ex

‘Just Add Weed’: How Brand Licensing Allows Cannabis Companies to Expand Across State Lines​

Federal cannabis prohibition is a buzzkill on many levels, but for cannabusinesses in legal states, it’s an especially frustrating hurdle to expansion. When a brand outgrows its home turf, it can’t just start shipping packages of product to the next state over.

Despite the difficulty, a number of companies have managed to cross state lines. Colorado’s Dixie Elixirs has products in Washington, California, and Oregon. They recently launched in Nevada, and Chief Marketing Officer Joe Hodas says the brand is close to inking a deal in Arizona.

“It is super-challenging,” Hodas told Leafly. “It is super inefficient, and it is the single biggest focus-yet-challenge that we have at Dixie.” Despite the challenges, Hodas said it’s worth it to take “that path toward national recognition and being a leader in multiple markets and not just one.”

Mary’s Medicinals, another Colorado brand, is already in Washington, California, Oregon, Arizona, and Vermont. DB3, one of Washington’s largest edible makers, just announced Colorado expansion plans and is looking to cross international borders with a venture in Vancouver, B.C., according to Patrick Devlin, the company’s vice president of marketing.

How are they doing it? By using a clever workaround: brand licensing.

An alternative to direct investment, brand licensing offers original owners access to new revenue without having to hold a piece of the out-of-state business or handle cannabis products.

“Since no cannabis ever crosses state lines, all production and distribution has to be set up in each state,” explained Mary’s Medicinals CEO Nicole Smith. “Everything is arranged through a [Mary’s-owned] management company that licenses intellectual property and trademarks to legally licensed manufacturers in other states.

“The management company sets up the team with equipment, [non-cannabis] supplies, training, and support so that they can manufacture and distribute within their state,” she explained. “Then they simply pay a small royalty on each product back to the management company.”

The process is often more involved than simply charging a fee to use an existing brand. Washington state’s DB3, for example, didn’t just license their well-known Zoots mark in Colorado. They also acted as a paid consultant, showing their Denver-based partner how to use the company’s proprietary “Cypress Extraction Method.”

Alison Malsbury, a Seattle intellectual property lawyer who specializes in cannabis, cautioned that a strong, clearly worded legal agreement is crucial to any successful licensing deal.

“It’s not something you can just pull from the internet,” she said. “There are different concerns when you’re dealing with something that’s federally illegal. You really have a lot to lose.”

Ensuring that revenue is handled properly is also an important consideration, Malsbury added. In Washington, an out-of-state brand owner entering into a typical royalty fee structure with a Washington-based partner would be seen as having a direct financial interest in the partner’s company, making the brand owner a true party of interest and subjecting that owner to the state’s current residency requirements.

In states where source of revenue is an issue, Malsbury said, brands have to make sure their licensing agreement is careful not to tie the two companies too closely.

“Rather than having a traditional, royalty-based payment structure, they just set up a flat-fee structure,” she said. “That’s tough because it forces you to guess at what sales or profits might be.” Another route, she noted, is to generate revenue by selling branded packaging and pre-made ingredients to the manufacturing partner.

But even that can be tricky compared to a flat-fee arrangement. Allowing a partner to return excess packaging or ingredients could be construed as an improper link, Malsbury said, and setting a price point for packaging can be a complicated decision.

“Pricing should be commercially reasonable,” she said. A company can’t artificially inflate the price of branded packaging. On the other hand, they might not need to. “That’s really the value of building a brand and protecting your IP for any company. If you build that brand up to be something that’s worth a lot of money, in theory at least, you should be able to charge people more to use that brand.”

The legal pitfalls are daunting, but perhaps the biggest risk a cannabusiness faces with licensing is to its reputation. The potential lack of oversight involved with licensing might not be a deal breaker for celebrities, whose attachment is more to their personal brand than to product quality, but for most producers and processors, quality control is key.

“We see our product as the product itself, not the brand,” said Devlin at DB3. In the absence of direct control, he said, vetting your partners and being overinvolved in the production process is the next best thing.

“We’ve been fortunate enough to create a brand that speaks to people,” he said. “They’ll seek us out, and then it’s a matter of finding the right partners that you think are going to maintain the quality standards that you’ve established.”

Brad Gengler, sales manager for Washington-based Mirth Provisions, whose popular Legal brand of cannabis sodas is also available in Oregon, agreed. Selecting trustworthy partners, he said, is Mirth’s foremost concern in out-of-state ventures.

“We wanted to expand and maintain the aspect of quality that really sets us apart,” Gengler explained. “The most difficult thing is finding people that are going to represent your brand well. It’s tough to weed out the bad characters.”

Mary’s CEO Smith said that, though the regulatory environment and legal climate of a new state were important, finding a solid partner was one of the most important factors in choosing which states to expand to.

“We choose new markets based on several factors,” she said, including “current size, regulatory environment, growth potential, as well as availability of the right partners. It is very important to us to work with partners that can not only uphold all of our quality standards, but also bring additional skills, expertise, and/or experience.”

Processors looking to partner with well-established brands have to be amenable to a little micromanagement. DB3’s Washington-based executives can’t handle Colorado cannabis directly, but they can and do keep a sharp eye on everything else.

“We don’t just license,” said Devlin. “We have quality standards related to the brand.” DB3 handles all the large-scale logistics and non-cannabis ingredient purchasing for its partner in Colorado.

The only ingredients DB3 doesn’t provide are H20 and THC. “Just add weed,” he said.

The same is true for Mirth. The only ingredient required of its Oregon partner is cannabis oil, and even with that Mirth has a say in what gets used, according to Gengler.

“We looked at the Coca-Cola model,” he said. “Basically it’s franchising.”

“With Oregon, for instance, we’re just shipping them the juice that we supply in the area, from Yakima Valley. We’re shipping them ready-to-go product, it just doesn’t have any [cannabis] extract in it.”

Hodas said Dixie builds quality control oversight directly into its licensing agreement.

“The agreements are structured such that we have certain processes and procedures that they are required to follow,” he said. “For example, with our mints we have a specific formulation that’s pre-packaged with the non-THC ingredients.”

The legal agreements might be unusual, but the end goal is the same as that of global brands like Starbucks or McDonalds: Customers, no matter where they buy, should get the same quality product they’ve come to expect.

“Someone could buy a Legal in the state of Washington,” Gengler said, “and it would have the same effects as one they drank last week in Arizona.”

 

[7greeneyes]

url: https://www.washingtonpost.com/life...11caba-da07-11e5-925f-1d10062cc82d_story.html

These famous athletes are advocating for marijuana as a workout tool​

The District recently marked the first anniversary of its legalization of recreational marijuana. And as the city is home to so many fitness-minded people, it’s likely that at least a few of them are wondering whether it makes sense, or whether it’s even safe, to incorporate pot into their exercise regimens.

Given the long-standing illegality of marijuana, there is not a large body of evidence about its effects on the human body. However, I spoke with a professional athlete who offered his own large body as testimony to the benefits of engaging in physical activity while stoned.

Activity hardly gets more physical — and grueling — than professional wrestling, and at 45, Rob Van Dam not only has been at it for well over two decades, he has performed at the highest level it has to offer. Van Dam’s real name is Robert Szatkowski. He was given his ring name by a promoter who thought he resembled the Belgian martial-arts movie star Jean-Claude Van Damme (not his real name, either, by the way). Van Dam once held the Extreme Championship Wrestling and World Wrestling Entertainment championships simultaneously, and, as one of the most acrobatic performers pro wrestling has ever seen, he remains a fan favorite to this day.

Another aspect in which the *6-foot, 235-pound Van Dam has stood out is his predilection for marijuana, which not only became a major part of his ring persona but also forms a very real part of his daily life. When reached by phone at his home in California, he explained to me that he doesn’t think of it as a performance enhancer so much as a “life enhancer.”

“I’ve been known to apply smoking to everything throughout the day,” he said. In particular, marijuana has helped him in “thinking good thoughts, because . . . in front of millions of people that paid to see you at your best, who expect you to be in action-figure shape and condition on that particular night for that moment, you’ve got to deliver.”

There is widespread agreement that marijuana can put users in a relaxed and positive frame of mind (although some can experience feelings of anxiety and paranoia), and for that reason, it can be considered a performance-enhancing drug, providing an athlete serenity and confidence he or she might not otherwise have had.

However, some of the science on marijuana also points to physical impairments. Gary Wadler, a noted authority on drugs in sports and an official with the World Anti-Doping Agency, has acknowledged marijuana’s role in “decreasing anxiety” but has also written that use adversely affects motor skills, reaction times, eye-hand coordination, perceptual accuracy, maximal exercise capacity and concentration.

A 2006 article in the British Journal of Sports Medicine stated that THC, the primary psychoactive compound in marijuana, “engenders a certain heaviness, marked relaxation, and excessive fatigue of the limbs.” The article also noted that, because the product is usually smoked, that practice can have “detrimental effects on the lungs, oral cavity and upper respiratory tract.”

On the other hand, a 2012 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found, for all but the heaviest users, “no evidence that increasing exposure to marijuana adversely affects pulmonary function.” In fact, the study found some evidence of increased lung capacity, possibly because of users’ penchants for taking and sustaining deep inhalations.

Of course, no one needs massive lung capacity more than Olympic swimmers, and arguably the greatest of all time, Michael Phelps, was infamously photographed taking a bong hit, for which he apologized repeatedly. But while Phelps has called his actions “regrettable,” several other sports stars have, like Van Dam, become cannabis advocates.

Ross Rebagliati of Canada won the first Olympic gold medal ever handed out for snowboarding, in 1998, then briefly had it taken away when he tested positive for marijuana, before officials realized that it wasn’t (yet) on their list of banned substances. Rebagliati subsequently went into the medical-marijuana business, and when reached by phone in British Columbia, he said, “The focus and the motivation combined [that cannabis provides] gives you a better workout, more often.

“As an athlete, there’s a lot of repetitive working out that goes on,” said Rebagliati, 44, “and going to the gym two, three hours a day for five days a week for years on end” gets monotonous. “To be able to spice it up in a natural way for an athlete is the best possible thing.”

He added that, “as far as focus is concerned” while high, he had “never seen anything like it.”

“All the distractions of your phone, the people next to you working out, it just goes away, and you’re just going to pound out the workout,” he said.

Another athlete moving into the world of marijuana entre*pre*neur*ship is Cliff Robinson, who had an 18-year career in the National Basketball Association and was the 1993 Sixth Man of the Year. Robinson was suspended twice for marijuana use, causing some wags to change his nickname, “Uncle Cliffy,” to “Uncle Spliffy,” and now he is using the latter moniker as the name of his new Oregon-based venture, which promises to produce “marijuana designed for athletes, also known as Sports Cannabis.”

Van Dam, too, was once suspended from his sport, after a 2006 incident in which police found him to be in possession of a large quantity of marijuana. That incident effectively ended his nascent reign atop the WWE, but it hardly made him less determined to promote cannabis. He points out that marijuana comes in different strains and that some, particularly in the sativa species, are better suited for high-energy activities, while others, often in the indica species, are more associated with classic “stoner” (i.e. couch-potato) behavior.

“If I want to relax and just chill out, consuming cannabis can help with that,” Van Dam said. “If I want to be active, if I’m going to go work out or have a match, then it can help with that, too.”

Some warn that marijuana’s propensity to elevate users’ heart rates poses a threat of cardiovascular events that can be increased through exercise. Rebagliati speculated that significant heart-rate problems might be a result of consuming too much marijuana in given sessions.

“There’s a sweet spot for everybody,” he said, noting that athletes getting into marijuana should start with “one small puff.”

Rebagliati also posited that marijuana can increase metabolism and referred to a recent study that concluded that, counter to the traditional perception of pot, it helps users lower their average body mass index. That study suggested those reductions in weight were, for younger users, most likely attributed to choosing marijuana over high-calorie alcohol.

For older users, the study suggested that they were getting pain-relief benefits, contributing to “an increase in physical wellness and frequent exercise.” And if there is a topic on which Van Dam is an expert, it’s pain management.

Pro wrestling matches sometimes stretch to exhausting lengths of up to half an hour, during which performers subject themselves to “the dives, the crashes, the falls to the floor, the slams, the suplexes, the power bombs through the tables.”

Van Dam estimated that he undergoes the equivalent of “50 car crashes in 10 minutes in the ring” and has had “hundreds of concussions.”

Of course, folks thinking about getting high for, say, their evening runs don’t have to worry about that kind of damage. They also might not react to marijuana as positively as Van Dam and Rebagliati have — everyone has his or her own internal chemistry — but the pair at least offer examples of athletes who were able to reach impressive heights while getting high.

 

[7greeneyes]

url: http://fortune.com/2016/03/02/canada-marijuana-medical/

Canada's Illegal Marijuana Stores Are Pinching Legal Rivals​

Canada is yet to move against unlicensed dispensaries.

Canada’s medical marijuana growers say a jump in the number of illegal marijuana dispensaries as the federal government decides how to regulate the drug is costing them customers.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised during last year’s election campaign that his Liberals would legalize recreational marijuana, following Washington and Colorado in the United States.

While there are no official figures, industry experts say the pledge has encouraged illegal store fronts that compete with licensed producers to provide marijuana to Canadians with a medical prescription.

“They’ve definitely been emboldened with the election and you’ve seen a huge growth,” said Aaron Salz, analyst at Dundee Capital Markets who follows licensed producers including Mettrum Health and Aphria Inc

Licensed producers, who distribute marijuana by mail, note they must comply with rules set by the former Conservative government, increasing their relative costs.

“We’re basically competing against a store that buys their product from whoever is growing it in their basement,” said Denis Arsenault, CEO of producer OrganiGram.

Former Toronto police chief Bill Blair, the government’s point man on legalization, emphasized the current laws remain in effect, but dispensaries have multiplied.

A Canadian court decision that medical marijuana patients have the right to grow their own cannabis is seen further encouraging dispensaries, which often buy their product from such growers.

Also called compassion clubs, dispensaries have long served patients with illnesses such as cancer. Proponents say they have the advantage of immediate convenience and Canadians also do not always know they are illegal.

“Because of this confusion, they are a source of competition,” said Greg Engel, CEO of producer Tilray.

OrganiGram’s Arsenault estimates that about 30 percent of new patients in the industry every month are going to dispensaries. He said he is not against dispensaries if the government forces them to buy from legal sources, but expects they will be shut down quickly if they are not included in the government’s new framework.

At the Ottawa Medical Dispensary, members with the required documentation can view products laid out beneath a glass case and discuss their needs one-on-one with a “budtender”.

The dispensary, which opened last November, has more than 500 members, said co-founder Shady Abboud. He said its mission is to provide pain relief and clients are encouraged to use the licensed producers as well.

“I’m not here to become a millionaire or anything. In the end, it’s everyone’s personal choice,” said Abboud.

 

[7greeneyes]

url: http://www.pressherald.com/2016/03/...lood-level-limit-for-marijuana-using-drivers/

(Maine) Lawmakers considering bill to set THC blood-level limit for marijuana-using drivers​

A public hearing is underway in Augusta on a proposal to set a blood-level limit to determine when someone is driving under the influence of marijuana.

The bill being considered by the Legislature’s Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee would set the level for operating under the influence at 5 nanograms of THC per 100 milliliters of blood. The level would be zero nanograms for drivers under 21. If approved, Maine would join a half-dozen states with similar restrictions.

How to deal with impaired drivers was anticipated to become a more pressing issue as Maine considered joining four other states and the District of Columbia in legalizing marijuana for recreational marijuana, but that issue will not be put to voters this year. The secretary of state announced Wednesday that a citizens’ initiative to legalize recreational marijuana did not qualify for the ballot after it fell short of the required number of signatures by about 10,000.

The marijuana OUI bill, LD 1628, stems from recommendations made in December by a working group charged with looking at the issue. The group was convened by the secretary of state in response to an earlier bill that would make it a crime to drive a car while having a THC level of 5 nanograms or more per milliliter of blood.

Members of the study group recommended that the state pass a law setting a blood-level limit that determines when someone is driving under the influence, but were split on what level of THC in the blood would show impairment. Some members pointed out that the scientific community is divided on the issue and said uncertainty could lead to false convictions.

So far, six other states have set legal limits for the concentration of tetrahydrocannabinol – or THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana – in the blood. Colorado, Washington and Montana have set an intoxication level of 5 nanograms or more of THC per milliliter of blood.

Maine’s law against operating under the influence already prohibits driving a motor vehicle while impaired by marijuana, but there is no specific breath or blood-level limit like there is with alcohol.

Recent research into the effect of marijuana use on drivers is mixed, although many studies indicate drivers are less impaired by marijuana than by alcohol and tend to make fewer risky choices than drunken drivers. The National Institute on Drug Abuse maintains that marijuana significantly impairs judgment, motor coordination and reaction time, but other research shows drivers impaired by marijuana overcompensate by driving more slowly and avoiding passing other cars.

There is no simple roadside test for marijuana similar to the breath test used to determine blood-alcohol content. Police officers currently use a drug recognition exam on the roadside to detect impairment from drugs. But some say officers need better tools to stop drugged driving as the culture becomes more accepting of marijuana use.

This story will be updated.

 

[7greeneyes]

url: http://www.eastbayexpress.com/Legal...esidency-means-for-marijuana-law-reform-worry

What A Trump Presidency Would Mean for Marijuana Law Reform: Worry​

Last night’s string of electoral primary victories for Republican candidate Donald Trump could go down as a pivotal point in US history. Like the 2000 Republican primaries that gave us George W. Bush, and his subsequent invasion of Iraq, the consequences of Trump’s Super Tuesday wins may affect the trajectory of the country for at least a generation. It’s an ominous sign that America may have taken one step too far down the road toward an Idiocracy where entertainment and shock value are paramount.

So what might a Trump Presidency mean for the medical cannabis movement and the associated adult use effort? In true Trump fashion, the man is all over the place, and could at best become a lukewarm ally for state’s rights, or at worst, the leader of a new pot pogrom akin to that of Ronald Reagan.

"Do I want Donald Trump in the White House determining marijuana policies? Absolutely not," said Isaac Dietrich, CEO of pot social network MassRoots, in a VICE interview. “If we elect a president that's anti-marijuana, he could choose to enforce federal law here in Colorado. He could go around and shut down all these dispensaries and put tens of thousands of people out of work and decimate local economies, so it's a huge gamble."

Trump's positions on pot have been erratic. In the Nineties, he was for the legalization of all drugs.

"We're losing badly — the war on drugs," Trump reportedly said at the time. "You have to legalize drugs to win that war."

But in June 2015, he said he strongly opposed Colorado legalization. "I think it's bad, and I feel strongly about that," Trump said, adding, "They've got a lot of problems going on right now in Colorado, some big problems."

Then in October, Trump said, “in terms of marijuana and legalization, I think that should be a state issue, state by state."

Trump has repeatedly supported the medical use of marijuana. "Marijuana is such a big thing," Trump said. "I think medical should happen — right? Don't we agree? I think so."

Last week on The O’Reilly Factor, when asked about his level of concern regarding legal Colorado pot leaking into other prohibition states, Trump reportedly said “I would really want to think about that one,” Trump said. “Because in some ways I think it’s good and in other ways it’s bad. I do want to see what the medical effects are. I have to see what the medical effects are, and, by the way, medical marijuana, medical? I’m in favor of it a hundred percent. But what you are talking about, perhaps not. It’s causing a lot of problems out there.”

A President Trump who believes state legalization is "creating a lot of problems" is unlikely to continue the current administration's hands-off approach to state-legal pot activity.

Cannabis' deep history is marked by cycles of tolerance and oppression. We are twenty years into a cycle of tolerance marked by California legalizing medical cannabis in 1996.

As nativist, protectionist, xenophobia sweeps across America, the notion of tolerance appears to be waning.