​A research study by Health Economics finds that states with medical marijuana programs have a lower risk of car accidents.

The study analyzed insurance information and trends from auto companies from 2014 to 2019, and they found that auto insurance premiums decreased in states with medical marijuana programs due to fewer accidents on the road.

The study wrote, “Medical cannabis legalization has reduced auto insurance premiums by $1.5 billion in all states that have currently legalized, with the potential to reduce premiums by an additional $900 million if the remaining states were to legalize.”

Researchers theorize that this is due to drivers substituting alcohol for cannabis. Both substances alter people’s perceptions, but they theorize that alcohol prompts more reckless behavior such as drinking and driving, and marijuana may cause people to be more cautious and choose to not drive while under the influence.

If legal marijuana does cut down on drinking and driving, that could save lives. Statistics show that drunk driving accounts for 10,000 deaths a year.

​More research needs to be done to further investigate the legalization of marijuana’s effect on traffic accidents, and drunk driving in particular.

A collection of 48 different congressional representatives had recently sent a letter calling on the senate appropriations subcommittee.

They asked them to include provisions for marijuana in their budget for the Fiscal Year 2023. Specifically, they asked them to include language that would prevent the Justice Department from interfering with state legal recreational marijuana programs.

But unfortunately that didn’t happen. The new Fiscal Year 2023 spending bill’s text was released on Tuesday, and it did not include the requested protections.

Instead, it simply maintained an existing rider which prevents the Justice Department from using its federal funds to interfere with state medical cannabis programs. They did not extend those protections to state recreational marijuana programs.

​So now it’s back to the drawing board. Cannabis advocate lawmakers will need to try to get such protections included and passed in separate amendments.  

The American Medical Association is the nation’s largest professional association of physicians.

This week they announced they they have approved a resolution which calls for the automatic expungement of arrest and conviction records for cannabis-related offenses which are no longer illegal under new state cannabis laws.

The AMA released a statement which said their goal was “to introduce equity and fairness into the fast-changing effort to legalize cannabis.”

AMA trustee Dr. Scott Ferguson, said, “This affects young people aspiring to careers in medicine as well as many others who are denied housing, education, loans and job opportunities.” “It simply isn’t fair to ruin a life based on actions that result in convictions but are subsequently legalized or decriminalized.” 

The AMA also requested that the expungement be automated. Ferguson said, “It can be a lengthy and expensive process. Automatic expungement would relieve people of having to figure out and pay for the bureaucratic steps necessary for sealing a criminal record.”

​But despite this support for expunging records, the AMA said it, “continues to oppose legalization of cannabis.” 

​Rising inflation is fueling a bear stock market. But some still remain confident about cannabis.

Anne M. Davis Esq., co-founder of cannabis healthcare platform Bennabis, says, "Cannabis is basically recession-proof; there will always be a need and consumers.”

Sweetleaf Madison Capital CFO Kevin Bush expects the sector to be "significantly less" affected by a weak economy than other markets.

Marijuana sales could be similar to alcohol and cigarette sales during economic downtimes. These are industries that seem to be ‘recession proof’, in that people tend to purchase and use more of these during times of stress, anxiety, and depression, which can be brough on by volatile economic times.

Inflation and a recession are less of an impact on cannabis, than the normal factors that effect the industry, which include varying state regulations, the number of retail locations, and the number one cause: over taxation. These are the factors that dominate cannabis pricing far more than the overall economy’s status. 

According to MarketsandMarkets™, the global cannabis market size was estimated to be valued at $20.5 billion in 2020.

They project that market size to reach more than $90 billion by 2026.

​The concentrates segment is estimated to be growing at the fastest rate, due to the varied number of forms of concentrates, such as shatter, rosin, wax, crumble, oil, dabs, and tinctures.

​Recently, there has been instructions for federal employees that not only can they NOT use marijuana under any circumstances, even medical usage on their off time, but they can’t even invest in it.

Federal documentation has clarified that they may not invest directly into any cannabis companies. They may not invest in EFT’s or mutual funds focused on cannabis. They can, however, invest in mutual funds or EFTs that cover a variety of industries, and won’t be punished if cannabis happens to fall into one of these.

Those who are effected include people who work directly for the federal government, or have a job that requires federal security clearance, or anyone who serves in the military.

According to ClearanceJobs, a network for professionals with federal security clearance, the level of your investment and your knowledge of the investment are both major factors.

In regards to owning a mutual fund that happens to invest in marijuana stocks, the site states that “unless you’re personally selecting those stocks, clearance holders likely don’t need to be concerned.”

The White House held an internal executive branch presentation which stated that job “eligibility may be negatively impacted if an individual knowingly and directly invests in stocks or business ventures that specifically pertain to marijuana growers and retailers.” Their reasoning was that willingly investing in such companies could show “questionable judgment” and “an unwillingness to comply with laws.”

For those in roles within the federal government, it is important to remember that your finances can be evaluated at any time, not just when you are first hired. According to military.com, “Clearances now undergo continuous evaluation, so your ownership of such stocks may pop up and raise a big, red flag at any time.” The article even suggests you could lose your clearance and even your job.

​There’s a good chance that the federal laws will be changing in the near future, but for now, federal employees and the military need to be careful and stay out of cannabis investing.

​The Mississippi Supreme Court has upheld a life sentence for marijuana possession. The high court ruled that it was not a violation of the Eighth Amendment and was in line with state statute.

The man in the case, Allen Russell, was sentenced to life without parole in 2019, after he was found guilty of being in possession of 43.71 grams of marijuana, which is roughly 1.5 ounces.

Normally this type of conviction would have carried an up to three-year sentence, but because he was considered a ‘habitual offender’, the state rules require an enhanced life sentence, and this is what the high court upheld.

The defendant had previously been convicted of two separate charges of house burglary and one charge of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. Mississippi Code required the judge to give him a life sentence on this, his latest conviction.

Russell appealed that sentence to the Mississippi Court of Appeals, which deadlocked 5-5 on a ruling last year.

The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case as a result. In a split decision, six justices affirmed the trial court’s ruling, saying that Russell received “the only sentence available.”

The Justices noted, “that the arrest came while law enforcement was attempting to serve another drug-related warrant on Russell as well as execute a search warrant on his premises”. And that, “Chemical gas had to be deployed to obtain Russell’s surrender.”

Russell, though, said the courts have tossed out life sentences for habitual offenders, including in the case of Jerry Helm, where the U.S. Supreme Court agreed with an appeals court that his life sentence was prohibited under the Eighth Ammendment.

Local justices say Russell’s case can’t compare to Helms, in part because Helm was involved in non-violent offenses, while Russell was considered a violent offender.

​The dissenting justices questioned the violence aspect of his prior charges, and also pointed to the state’s recent legalization of marijuana. They wrote, “Pursuant to the bill creating the program, the difference going forward between going to jail for possessing 2.5 ounces of marijuana and owning it legally would be a prescription.” 

​The state of Florida is being sued for allegedly not following it’s own state laws on cannabis.

A lawsuit just filed alleges that the state cannabis regulators approved a cannabis investment firm’s owning more licenses than allowed under state law, according to the complaint, and, that they have failed to provide public records.

In Canada, where the company is based, an Ontario Superior Court of Justice approved a proposal for the cannabis investment firm Gotham Green to take control of iAnthus in 2020 after iAnthus defaulted on a loan. The proposal, however, does require regulatory approvals from U.S. states. Florida’s medical marijuana laws prohibit an individual or entity from “directly or indirectly” having an ownership stake of greater than 5 percent in more than one medical marijuana licensee.

Florida's Office of Medical Marijuana Use granted an exception to Gotham Green, allowing it to own more than 5 percent of two state-licensed medical marijuana companies: MedMen and iAnthus.

Investor Michael Weisser, a plaintiff in the suit, said, “This is such a blatant violation of the regulations, it’s unbelievable.” His lawsuit says this allowance to Gotham Green "would illegally authorize an ownership structure that violates [state law].”

Patient advocates who are plaintiffs in the suit are concerned that “there is an effort to consolidate and limit the number of opportunities that patients have to obtain [different types of] products." In other words, monopolies.

The second part of the lawsuit is that they state regulators have failed to provide public records. Weisser has been trying to obtain documents through public records requests concerning the excepetion granted to Gotham Green. Weisser says the regulator has not been forthcoming in producing the relevant documents, but did provide a redacted report from a third-party consulting firm. The redacted draft report found that the “proposed recapitalization structure for iAnthus does not appear to meet the requirements of Florida Statute.”

Stephen Menton, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said in an interview that it is highly unusual for a state agency to pre-emptively edit or obscure information from public records. He said typically, a company must submit a request in court to validate a trade secret claim, but in this case, it seems the state regulators “made their own determination” to obscure information from public record. Menton said that some of the other documents the agency provided as part of the records requests were several pages long and “completely redacted.” He added, “We don’t even know what [the document] is."

When asked for comment, Florida's Office of Medical Marijuana Use said, “The Department does not comment on any pending litigation.”

The Plaintiffs lawsuit is hoping to force the department to provide all the (unredacted) documents they’re seeking through public records requests. They’re also asking the court to invalidate the department’s decision to grant the variance and declare that the approval exceeds its regulatory authority.

All across the county, it’s becoming a strong concern that large cannabis corporations are monopolizing the industry.

​There is a similar situation with iAnthus that was just granted in Massachusetts, as well. Weisser said, “We think they’re in clear violation of the regulations in Massachusetts [too].” 

​A new study on the effects of topical cannabis has been published by the University of the Free State and The South African Institute of Dermatology, both in Bloemfontein, South Africa.

The researchers wanted to explore the results of topical usage of a cannabis-based extract, to see if it could be used as a safer and more effective alternative to the usage of topical corticosteroids treating some skin disorders.

​Their results were positive! They found that topically applied cannabis does have anti-inflammatory, anti-itching, analgesics, wound healing and anti-proliferative effects on the skin. Meaning it can stop some disorders from growing.  

​ The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s (CDPHE) Healthy Kids Colorado Survey found that marijuana use among youths has steadily declined over the last few years.

The results showed young people were 35 percent less likely to use cannabis in 2021 than in prior years.

Colorado was one of the first states to legalize marijuana for adult use, and so data on underage consumption has been a focal point for both advocates and opponents of reform.

Advocates say that the survey data over time going back to 2013 reflects how regulating access for adults minimizes the risk of adolescent cannabis use.

Paul Armentano, deputy director of NORML, told Marijuana Moment, “These findings ought to reassure lawmakers and others that cannabis access for adults can be regulated in ways that do not inadvertently impact young people’s habits."

Another interesting point from the study was that youths’ access to cannabis has gone down. Far fewer young people reported being able to find and access cannabis after state legalization, than before when it was an unregulated market.

There has also been an increase in youths’ awareness of cannabis use risks.

​Colorado’s former governor, who currently serves as the U.S. Democratic Senator for Colorado, John Hickenlooper, was initially opposed to Colorado legalizing cannabis. He said, “a big focus for me was I was so nervous about kids.” But, “I think we’ve proven and demonstrated that there is no increase in experimentation among teenagers. There is no change in frequency of use, no change in driving while high—all the things we most worried about didn’t come to pass.”   

The federal government is making moves to set up a national medical marijuana registry, to track what patients purchase, where they purchase, how they consume it, and what their health outcomes are after using it. Specifically, the government agency has announced it will fund a research group to create the registry, and they have put out a request for applications to find the right researchers for the job.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) will be providing $1.5 million in funding for the project. They say their ultimate goal is to “inform research, policy, and clinical recommendation practices on medicinal cannabis, associated conditions, and outcomes.”

In the notice, they said that with variances from state to state on conditions that qualify patients, and products available, the overall data is hard to analyze without some level of standardization. They hope to find such a balance by collecting data from a registry.

Some examples of what sort of data they wish to collect include: what people seek treatment for, what products are used and how, what strains or genetics are used, what cannabinoids are present, how treatment is monitored by a Doctor, how this effects other pharmaceutical use, what outcomes are achieved, and much more.

​The National Institute on Drug Abuse will be accepting applications for the research project through November 16th of this year. 

According to figures published in the DEA’s Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program Statistical Report, agents and their partners confiscated 20 % more cultivated cannabis plants in 2021 than they did in 2020. They also made 25% more arrests, and seized almost double the amount of financial assets.

The Deputy Director of the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws, who’s acronym is NORML, commented on the data. Paul Armentano said, “At a time when the overwhelming majority of voters support legalization, and when more and more states — and even members of Congress — are moving toward this direction, it is troubling to see federal agents and their local partners reversing course and reinvigorating their marijuana-related enforcement activities.”

NORML’s Political Director Morgan Fox also pointed out that putting efforts into marijuana confiscation and arrests is unnecessarily burdensome on federal budgets which are paid for by taxpayers. It also puts law enforcement officers at risk.

It’s interesting timing that this data has just been released, which is just one week after the U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said, “enforcement resources are not put to their best use prosecuting nonviolent, low-level marijuana offenses, even in jurisdictions where marijuana use remains illegal.”

He also said, “With respect to those jurisdictions where marijuana use and sales are lawfully regulated, there is even greater reason to conserve prosecutorial resources so that we can focus our attention on violent crimes and other crimes that cause societal harm and endanger our communities,”

Unfortunately these are not actual Federal guidelines, but rather just the Attorney General’s personal perspective.

As for an official stance by the Department of Justice, Garland wrote, “the Department is examining a range of issues that relate to marijuana and its production, sale, and use, and we intend to address these issues in the days ahead.”

​\Hopefully that information will be coming soon, and marijuana confiscation, arrests, and asset seizures will cease.

​A Russian court has announced that they have sentenced an American to 14 years in prison for marijuana charges.

The Moscow area court released a statement saying, “The American citizen [Marc] Fogel has been found guilty" of committing "large-scale drugs smuggling" and "large-scale illegal storage of drugs without a commercial purpose.”

The conviction and sentencing stem from an August 2021 incident when Marc Fogel and his wife were entering Russia at the Moscow international airport.

The Russian government said that, “During customs checks, the marijuana and hash oil were found in his luggage," hidden in contact lens cases and e-cigarette cartridges.

Fogel, who is in his 60s, worked as a teacher at the Anglo-American School of Moscow. He has insisted the marijuana was for medical purposes and that it was prescribed in the United States after a spinal operation. Russia has not made the use of cannabis legal for medicinal purposes, and Fogel claimed he was not aware of it’s illegal status there.

Fogel said he brought around 17 grams, or just over half an ounce, of marijuana with him to Russia. Russian authorities have not confirmed the amount that he is accused of having, other than to say it was a “large amount.” Russian law defines that as at least 100 grams (about 3.5 ounces) or more. Anything less than that is classified as a "significant amount," which generally carries a much shorter jail sentence and, in some cases, just a fine.

Russia’s Interfax news agency said Fogel has been sentenced to serve 14 years at a maximum security penal colony.

​The court that handled Mr. Fogel’s case is the same court which is handling the case of Brittney Griner, the WNBA superstar who is currently being detained in Moscow for allegedly carrying cannabis oil into the country. 

​With the cannabis industry generating billions of dollars across the majority of states, the likelihood of cannabis advertising is growing.

In the past, the FCC Commissioner have said that they don’t believe current rules allow stations to accept money from cannabis businesses, even in locations where it is state legal. With this in mind, most stations have chosen to not accept any type of cannabis related advertising.

A group of twenty different state’s broadcast associations have created a group called the Safe Advertising Coalition. The group has spent $170,000 on lobbying Washington to bring fairness and equality to cannabis advertising laws.

And now, a proposed federal budget bill for the 2023 fiscal year may do just that. The new budget includes terms that would prevent the Federal Communications Commission from using their federal funding to fine or in any way punishing a station for airing cannabis related advertisements in locations where it is legal. Also, advertising for Hemp and hemp derived products, such as CBD, would also be exempt from fines and punishment.

The proposal is now waiting for consideration by the House Appropriations Committee before going for a House vote.  

​The U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has issued a response to a question asked by a Senator regarding marijuana regulation.

The question was “does the Justice Department’s plan to update and reissue the Cole and Wilkinson memos, " which had offered guidance for federal prosecutors in states where marijuana had been legalized.

The Attorney General did not directly answer the question. First he reiterated his personal point of view, saying, “enforcement resources are not put to their best use prosecuting nonviolent, low-level marijuana offenses, even in jurisdictions where marijuana use remains illegal.”
​
He then added, “With respect to those jurisdictions where marijuana use and sales are lawfully regulated, there is even greater reason to conserve prosecutorial resources so that we can focus our attention on violent crimes and other crimes that cause societal harm and endanger our communities."

Garland’s words here are his personal perspective that he does not think they should be prosecuted, but it’s not actually government guidance.

As for an official stance by the Department of Justice, Garland went on to write, “the Department is examining a range of issues that relate to marijuana and its production, sale, and use, and we intend to address these issues in the days ahead.”

So, all he’s really saying here is that they’re working on it. There is no actual guidance or concrete indication of when that could come.

​And while it’s frustrating to not get a clear answer, it’s good to know they are planning to address the issue soon. 

​A messy, ongoing investigation into cannabis cultivators in Oklahoma has gotten messier.

It started out with one raid on a cannabis farm last year, and now more than 400 cultivators will probably be losing their businesses, along with a pair of attorneys who allegedly spearheaded the scheme, and are now facing pretty big legal charges.

Last April the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics conducted two raids on cannabis farms that led to the arrest of Guochuan Chen, Di Xu Fang, Dao Feng, and Xueli Feng. Officials also arrested a woman named Kathleen Windler, who has since admitted to being a so called “ghost owner” of their business.

Oklahoma cannabis regulations stipulate that a cannabis license must be held by a resident of the state. If partners are involved, there must be no less than 75% of the partnership owned by residents of Oklahoma.

After her arrest, Kathleen Windler filed her own lawsuit, against her former employers, the Jones Brown Law Firm. Ms. Windler’s lawsuit alleges that she was deceived into ownership of shell businesses, and received false legal counsel for medical marijuana grow operations, and because of this, faced felony charges.

Now, after a year long investigation, the Oklahoma Attorney General has announced the indictment of Ms. Windler’s former employers, Jones Brown law firm. Specifically, two attorney’s and co-founders, Logan Jones and Eric Brown. The pair are accused of representing more than 400 fraudulently obtained cannabis grow licenses where they are listed as 75% owners. The felony charges include, conspiracy, false or forged records, and a pattern of criminal offenses.

Kathleen Windler alleged that her former employers would have clients sign a so called “consulting” agreement, and pay $3,000 per license per year. In turn, the law firm would provide the name of a representative to serve as an Oklahoma resident for their license, to meet the residency requirements, but not actually be involved with the business.

Since the indictment against the two attorneys has just been issued, there is no word, yet, on what has become of the 400+ businesses involved with this investigation. It’s not clear if they have already been shut down, or if that’s in process now.

​In any event, that’s 400 less cultivators that legitimate, legal cannabis growers in the state of Oklahoma need to compete with. 

​In February of this year, the Pennsylvania Department of Health recalled all types of vaping products from more than 150 dispensaries in the state’s medical marijuana program.

A Commonwealth Court judge on Wednesday ruled that Pennsylvania medical marijuana companies may now resume selling those vaping products.

After the February recall, some of the vaping vendors formed a group called Medical Marijuana Access & Patient Safety Inc. to fight the recall. They said that regulators exceeded their authority and that the recall was based on an invalid regulation and did not go through proper channels.

An industry group called the Pennsylvania Cannabis Coalition issued a press release which claimed that Pennsylvania’s Department of Health could not find a single example of any person who had been harmed during the state medical program’s five-year run.

​Attorney Judith Cassel, who represented the vaping vendor plaintiffs said, “We are thrilled about this decision.” 

A recent study revealed that enrollment in medical marijuana programs quadrupled over the four years between 2016 and 2020.

The years long research, done at the University of Michigan, looked at medical marijuana enrollment trends, and how they changed as legalization laws changed in the states. They also looked at the reasons people gave for applying for it.

Their conclusion was that the state policies have dramatic effects on how many people might be using cannabis for medical purposes or how they might be able to do so.

For example, in Oklahoma, there was more than a huge jump in patient enrollment. The study found one in 10 residents of the state are medical marijuana patients, which is a record high number. Oklahoma is a stat where they have no specific qualifying medical conditions, they just need a doctor to deem it reasonable. Because there are not tight limitations like in other states, they have a very high enrollment.

Byron Adinoff, a drug addiction research doctor, and president of Doctors for Cannabis Regulation, said that like many doctors, was hesitant for a long time about prescribing medical cannabis, but his views have changed as information like this becomes available.  He said, “I didn’t really buy into it, but, you know, after you talk to several hundred people who have benefited from it, you start to think maybe there’s something to it,” and “Hopefully it will get organized medicine and physicians individually to pay increasing attention to this issue.” 

This research project is titled “U.S. Trends in Registration for Medical Cannabis and Reasons for Use From 2016 to 2020” and published with Annals of Internal Medicine, with Kevin Boehnke, at the University of Michigan.

​Researchers at Chiang Mai University in Thailand have been studying the effects of feeding cannabis to chickens.

Their results showed that the chickens had fewer sicknessews, and higher quality meat.

During their research, the chickens were given cannabis in varying intensities and in different forms, such as directly eating the leaves, or drinking water that had been pre-boiled with cannabis leaves.

The chickens were not observed to have any abnormal behavior. But they were observed to have a much lower rate of sickness, specifically avian bronchitis. This gave researchers hope that using cannabis could potentially reduce the need for feeding the birds antibiotics, like they normally need to.

The researchers say they also observed a superior quality of meat in the cannabis fed chickens. They judged this by the composition of protein, fat and moisture, as well as its tenderness.

​The study was just a first look at the subject, and only involved a test group of 1,000 birds, so much more research will need to be done on this, but the initial findings are certainly interesting!  

The Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), Dr. Rahul Gupta, nicknamed the country’s “Drug Czar”, recently spoke to Financial Times about the President’s stance on cannabis reform.

Gupta spoke about how the Biden administration is watching the states where cannabis use has been legalized. He said, “We’re learning from those states.” and “We’re monitoring the data and trying to see where things go.“

He also gave some hope that there will be some positive change coming at some point, when he said, “But one thing is very clear, and the president has been clear about that—the policies that we’ve had around marijuana have not been working.”

​President Biden had run his campaign on a platform of cannabis decriminalization, but he still remains opposed to adult-use legalization and has yet to take meaningful action on his prior pledges for decriminalization.  

Cancer can be frightening, and even just the treatments alone can be overwhelmingly difficult to endure.

One of the primary focuses in cancer treatment is pain management, and that’s traditionally done with pharmaceutical painkillers. But while they can help reduce pain, they also can cause negative side effects, and be addictive too.

Cannabis advocates, though, have long been sharing the benefits of the plant for pain management, and there are thousands of testimonials from patients about it’s benefits.

Israeli researchers have just published a scientific paper proving that cannabis has the potential to provide chronic pain relief to patients undergoing cancer treatment. The paper notes that while medical cannabis can also have side effects, those effects can be categorized as “mild to moderate” and are generally well tolerated.

The researchers worked with 404 cancer patients and studied their results with cannabis treatment for six months. Over that time, they found that total cancer symptoms were reduced by an average of 18%, while average weekly pain intensity dropped by about 20%. At the conclusion of the study, 40% of the patients voluntarily chose to stop using pharmaceuticals for pain relief.

The research paper’s conclusion was that cannabis does have the potential to provide “mild to modest long-term improvement” in cancer-associated symptoms, including pain. And, the paper states that cannabis for pain management can lead to a reduced use of opioids and other pharmaceutical drugs that often cause unacceptable side effects and addiction.

Studies like these are vital, and more are needed. Because at this time, the US Government still stands by classifying Cannabis as a schedule 1 drug, which according to their definition, means it has no currently approved medical use.   

Kentucky currently is one of the 13 states with no approved recreational or medical marijuana laws.

Legislation in favor of medical marijuana made it’s way through the Kentucky state house in March, but didn’t make it through the Senate.

Kentucky’s Governor, Andy Beshear, responded to that by saying he will personally try to pass medical marijuana through executive order.

This month he’s moving forwared to do just that. Governor Beshear has just appointed 17 people to serve as advisers for establishing a medical marijuana policy for the state.

​Committee members were chosen based on their relevant experience, and will soon begin working on this project.

​The WNBA Super Star, Brittney Griner, who has been detained in Russia over cannabis is having her detention extended.

As a reminder, Griner traveled to Moscow to play basketball in February of this year, just prior to the Russian invasion of the Ukraine. Russian officials said at the airport they found cannabis oil in vape cartridges in Griners luggage. She was immediately held in detention while Russian officials say they are investigating her case.

According to Russian law, if she is found guilty, Griner could potentially be facing up to 10 years in prison. But at this time, the charges have not been verified and the details have never been made clear.

What is clear, though, is that this week is the third time Russian officials have announced that the investigation is extending her detention. After being initially detained in February, officials announced it would be at least March before anything was decided. In March, they said May, and in May they said June. Now, they’re saying it will be at least July 2nd before any more announcements on Griner are addressed.

​Recently a group of WNBA players and representatives met with officials from the U.S. State Department. Referring to the meeting, one of Griner’s teammates on the Phoenix Mercury, Diana Taurasi, said “there is a lot involved in getting her back home and safe.” The U.S. State Department has officially classified her as “wrongfully detained.”

New Jersey recreational adult use cannabis sales launched on 4-20, and since then, sales have been booming! 

But, one thing that isn’t selling there, is edibles. It’s not that customer’s don’t want them, it’s that the state doesn’t allow them.

The problem is that according to New Jersey state law, cannabis products cannot resemble food in any way.

Although they’ve never explicitly explained why, the rule is probably aimed at protecting children from accidentally injesting it, which is something most states have expressed concern over.

Another potential reason for this rule could be the regulations needed to allow for cannabis commercial kitchen regulations. New Jersey wanted to get retail sales going, and the fastest way to do that would be the path with the least amount of legislation that needed revisions and approval.

In all likelihood, New Jersey will eventually address the issue of edibles in the near future. Especially as they see New York open it’s retail stores later this year, and New Jersey won’t want to lose out on the huge sales that the edibles market create.

Just last week New York issued their first set of proposed regulations, which include a ban on any packaging that could attract children. Things like neon colors, bubble fonts, cartoons and any mention of candy would all be forbidden.

Colorado is another state that has legislation aimed at protecting kids. Their law states that no edibles may be in the “shape of a human, animal or fruit.” And they stuck to it, by banning sales of Mike Tyson’s cannabis Brand, Tyson 2.0, when it sold edibles shaped like ear’s with a bite out of them, in reference to the time Mike Tyson bit Evander Holyfield’s ear during a boxing match. Tyson 2.0 reformatted their edibles for the Colorado market by shaping them into a simple letter “T”.  

Source: Why You Can't Buy Edibles In New Jersey - The Fresh Toast

In international cannabis news, a high court in Brazil this week gave authorization to three medical patients to grow cannabis for medicinal pain relief.

Brazilian law currently limits the medical use of marijuana-derived products to imported goods, so this is a big move to allow home grows.

It’s expected that the decision will set precedence to be applied across their country in similar cases.

This court decision follows last weeks demonstration by Brazilian citizens who protested in favor of legalizing medicinal cannabis.

Judge Rogério Schietti said the court had to be the one to finally take action on cannabis, because the government had failed to make a decision on the issue, similar to the current situation with the US federal governments lack of action.

Judge Schietti pointed out how the opposition to cannabis is often basing their reasoning on something that really should have nothing to do with politics, namely: religion and personal moral ideas. He said the arguments against legalizing cannabis are “moralistic. It often has a religious nature, based on dogmas, on false truths, stigmas,”
​“Let us stop this prejudice, this moralism that delays the development of this issue … and many times clouds the minds of Brazilian judges.”