SB 2765 would only take effect if the Supreme Court strikes down Initiative 65. Seventy-three percent of voters decided in favor of I-65 in November.
The post Mississippi: Lawmakers Advance Alternative Medical Marijuana Proposal appeared first on NORML.
A nice little list was put together over at YardBarker that compiles the best weed comedies ever made.
I agree with most of it, although my top 10 would probably consist of different spellings of The Big Lebowski.
Half Baked
Pineapple Express
How High
Up in Smoke
Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle
Friday
Fast Times at Ridgemont High
Knocked Up
Super Troopers
The Big Lebowski
The Stoned Age
Mallrats
The Breakfast Club (debatable)
Super High Me
Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood
Empire Records
Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny
This Is The End
Reefer Madness
Dazed and Confused
Read the full thing at Yard Barker.
With a new administration seemingly open to marijuana legalization and more and more states taking action themselves, stocks for cannabis companies within and outside the country feel like solid bets.
Therefore cue the WSB army, who just last month ransacked the stock price of Gamestop, AMC, Nokia, and others, leaving very little behind.
In particular, Sundial (SNDL), Tilray (TLRY), and aphria (APHA) have come under intense Reddit scrutiny. Just yesterday, Tilray, a Canadian cannabis company, had its stock rise 36%. However, with the attention of WallStreetBets also comes volatility, and today the stock is plunging back down, now under 41% of where it opened.
And attention already seems to be waning, with many on the subreddit eyeing Bumble as their next victim. Hopefully, this will leave the cannabis sector to itself and back to normalizing, where it’s incremental yet steady climb will continue throughout the year.
In a small hurdle on the way to legalization, a prickly South Dakotan Judge overruled the voters of the state due to a little technicality.
In November, South Dakota voted in favor of legal marijuana, along with Montana, Arizona, and New Jersey (although New Jersey is also having some trouble enacting on this as well).
But with progressive change comes rigid resistance, and Judge Christina Klinger sided with a superintendent of the State Highway Patrol who brought up a case against the amendment. The pro-legalization activists “fail[ed] to submit Amendment A through the proper constitutional process,” according to Judge Klinger.
Apparently in the state, constitution amendments may only concern one subject at a time, and this legalization amendment includes both hemp and marijuana. It’s a small error and something easily fixed, so the technical hurdles brought forth by the anti-legalization side in the state will be no match for time.
Medicinal marijuana, which was also approved by voters, was not affected by this ruling.
Read full story at Vice.
In a graph that says it all, we are shown just how popular the path to legalized marijuana truly is.
A poll by Emerson College Polling shows support for legalization at 61%, with other popular topics like a $15 minimum wage (54%) and a pathway to citizenship (55%) trailing.
The poll took place between February 2nd and 3rd, polling 1,429 adults. It also shows President Biden’s support at 49%, above Trump’s around the same time (his was 44% in February 2017, according to NBC News).
One of the most common uses of marijuana is for getting a peaceful, uninterrupted night’s sleep. Especially those indica strains. But the question has been brought up many times if this is actually a healthy way to combat insomnia.
In a study from the University of New Mexico, a correlation was found between legalization of marijuana and a drop in sales of sleep aides in that region. The public’s preference on medication is clear here.
However, one of the concerns is the reduction of REM sleep when using marijuana before going to bed. REM (rapid eye movement) is the stage in which we dream, and is crucial for allowing our body to rest. In some cases this is the intention – those who suffer from night terrors or PTSD would prefer to leave any dreaming out of their night. But a sustained lapse in the REM stage of sleep can cause longer lasting exhaustion.
In a recent study published in BMJ Journals, chronic pain patients were observed. Overall, the result seems positive as a short term gain in all-night sleep with much less periods of waking up throughout the night. However, over time a tolerance builds.
“[Medical cannabis] use may have an overall positive effect on maintaining sleep throughout the night in chronic pain patients,” study authors concluded. “At the same time, tolerance towards potential sleep-inducing properties of [medical cannabis] may occur with frequent use.”
There is much more research that needs to be done, in particular with the long term effects of reduced REM stages of sleep. However, if the choice is between marijuana and over the counter sleep aides, the answer remains much safer and healthier on the marijuana side.
Read more at the Regina Leader-Post.
“Frankly, red and blue states across the country have moved forward with legalization and there is no reason Wisconsin should be left behind when we know it’s supported by a majority of Wisconsinites.”
The post Wisconsin: Governor Evers Includes Marijuana Legalization in State Budget Proposal appeared first on NORML.
The location most linked to weed is having difficulty growing the plant.
According to the Washington Post, due to a multitude of problems in the country, marijuana has become scarce and more expensive.
The first problem is due to a very active hurricane season followed by drought, drying up the crop.
Second reason is, along with everything else in the world, due to COVID-19. There is a 6 PM curfew in the country, which hinders the farmers from tending their farms at night. This and the lack of many roads to these fields mean the farmers must walk far distances to get to work, therefore drastically cutting down the amount of workable hours in the day.
Although marijuana was decriminalized in 2015, it is still illegal to buy and sell the plant on the island. However anything under 2 ounces is met only with a small fine.
“Last year was the worst year. … We’ve never had this amount of loss,” Tristan Thompson said, a chief opportunity explorer for a brokerage firm in the country. “It’s something so laughable that cannabis is short in Jamaica.”
Read the full story at The Washington Post.
2020 was the first year weed became legal in the state of Illinois, and the demand just keeps coming.
According to the Sun Times out of Chicago, a total of $670 million of recreational marijuana was sold last year. Those are fantastic numbers, but the cherry on top is that this year seems to have the potential to reach the billion dollar mark.
Last January, the amount of marijuana sold was $39 million. Decent profit, but January 2021 reached $88 million. That’s more than double, and if this growth keeps up, a year of $1.2 billion in sales isn’t out of reach.
However, some are saying this upwards trend won’t likely be replicated month to month. “I wouldn’t expect constant upward trends every single month. It will be a combination of more consumers entering the market, some products ‘premiumizing,’ some products falling in price slightly and changes in consumer frequency of use,” says Alyssa Jank, an analyst at a cannabis research firm, Brightfield Group.
Promising signs, and despite apparent headaches during the application process, more and more pot shops are opening up in the state.
Read the full story at Chicago Sun Times.
A study has been released showing positive signs for us older potheads.
While the studies based on humans had less control than ones done on rodents, both point to a lack of long term adverse effects in cognition.
It seems that as long as the THC levels are relatively lower, humans over 50 years old don’t have much to worry about in terms of additional cognitive decline (beyond, you know, the natural kind).
Better-controlled rodent studies indicate that the relationship between ∆9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cognitive function in healthy aging depends on age and level of THC exposure. Extremely low doses of THC improved cognition in very old rodents. Somewhat higher chronic doses improved cognition in moderately aged rodents.
Too early to really draw any blanket conclusions from this, but yet another good sign that moderate marijuana use has a serious lack of harm attached. Keep your joints lit.
Read the study here.
