CBD maker Elixinol Global has acquired German CBD brand CannaCare Health GmbH as it executes its strategy to pursue market opportunities in Europe. Elixinol said it is buying the company for 3 million euros in cash ($3.6 million) plus 6 million euros in Elixinol shares ($7.2 million). The deal calls for Elixinol to pay up […]
Today a trailer for Demi Lovato’s new Youtube Series “Demi Lovato: Dancing With the Devil” was released, along with more information she reveals in the actual series.
One of the sticking points has been the revelation that Lovato is no longer sober. From Entertainment Tonight:
“I’ve learned that it doesn’t work for me to say that I’m never going to do this again… I know I’m done with the stuff that’s going to kill me, right?
“Telling myself that I can never have a drink or smoke marijuana, I feel like that’s setting myself up for failure because I am such a black-and-white thinker.
“I had it drilled into my head for so many years that one drink was equivalent to a crack pipe… [I’ve] been smoking weed and drinking in moderation.”
Although I have not seen the series, this confession comes off extremely brave.
The stigma around a “moderation” option as opposed to sobriety is understandable. If you’re allowing yourself some leniency, who’s to say it would stop there? Wouldn’t the boundary just continually get pushed further?
Of course it’s possible, but moderation can work for some. It seems the most integral part of the process has less to do with moderation or abstinence, and more to do with community. As long as your support group is strong, compassionate, and free of judgment, you’re ahead of the game no matter what road you’re traveling down.
Demi Lovato’s admittance of moderation will hopefully shed light on the many options. Some see sobriety as too steep a hill to climb, therefore resist help. Hopefully someone like Lovato, with the large platform she has access to, can enlighten people to other ways forward.
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A new study is getting published in the Journal of Adolescent Health that will report findings on the danger of cannabis vaping.
While it’s not out yet, a report was written over at University of Michigan that sheds light on how the findings were studied.
The researchers compiled self-reported symptoms from a sample of adolescents between 12 and 17 years old from the “2016-2018 Wave of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Healthy Study.” They were looking for symptoms like wheezing, chest whistling, dry coughs, chest illness, etc.
Those who vaped marijuana were twice as likely to report wheezing and whistling.
It should be noted this is a survey, with very little control, and MUCH more research needs to be done in the field, but still fascinating to see that marijuana vapes are not the healthiest of alternatives, despite marketing and common understanding. Maybe that good old fashioned flower is still the way to go.
“Future studies need to assess if it is the combination of vaping both nicotine and cannabis that is creating so many respiratory issues,” says Philip Veliz, University of Michigan research assistant professor of nursing. “It may be the combination of vaping cannabis along with smoking cigarettes is what leads to the high rates of respiratory symptoms among youthful marijuana vapers.”
Read the original here.
We had written an article about the complexities that occur after weed becomes legal in a state, and a new article at Asbury Park Press pretty much takes the cake.
In Massachusetts, there’s concern that there won’t be any spaces to smoke weed in public, but the saving grace has always been that you can just take the weed home with you, smoking peacefully in your living room.
However, the way the marijuana bill in New Jersey was written up, there’s an option for property owners to ban smoking on their properties, which would include individual units.
That’s 37% of citizens of the state who are potentially within this ban.
Smoking indoors is quite commonly prohibited indoors in signed leases, so it’s not out of the question for marijuana smoking to become targeted.
The fines associated are $250 for the first offense, $500 for the second, and $1,000 for every offense after that. This money would go to the state, not the landlords.
The problem here is more associated with the smoke itself, so things like edibles are still on the table. And while many of us renters have smoking bans already written into our leases, of course there are ways to hide the act (which I’m not condoning!..kinda), but still, the knowledge of your habit being prohibited can linger in the back of your mind. It’s not always the most pleasant.
Read the full story at Asbury Park Press.
The next hurdle we’re coming up against as a nation with many states passing legal marijuana is the regulation phase. It varies from region to region, and is all around a confusing mess to wrap your head around.
The first difficulty is the disparity between legal marijuana and legal consumption of marijuana.
An article in the Boston Globe tackles this problem for Massachusetts.
In the state, it’s illegal to smoke marijuana in public, yet with the growing number of pot shops popping in crowded areas, alleyway smoking and subsequent fines are all but inevitable.
So State Senator Julian Cyr is trying to combat this problem by introducing a bill that would allow “social consumption” venues. Basically, cannabis lounges.
“I pretty much know that at some point this summer, the Provincetown police chief is going to call me and say, ‘This is an issue,’” Cyr tells the Boston Globe. “What we’re trying to do here is anticipate what we know could be a problem, and I think social consumption [venues] will do a much better job of addressing nuisance issues and promoting public health than the police giving people $100 tickets.”
This kind of venue is also in the works or available in other states, including California, Alaska, Colorado, and Nevada.
New Jersey has also had its fair share of complications on the road to legalizing pot. After months of problem after problem popping its head out before a bill could be signed, a couple weeks ago, marijuana was finally legalized in the state.
A new and probably temporary issue is the question of whether marijuana users can be fired from their job due to their smoking habits.
According to law, they are a protected class, but Asbury Park Press has an article detailing the uncertainty as to when this becomes operative.
From Asbury Park Press:
“As written, the employment provisions in the marijuana laws ‘take effect immediately’ but ‘do not become operative’ until the Cannabis Regulatory Commission sets forthcoming rules and regulations, a process that could take months.”
There’s also disagreement in the state as to how much sway a drug test should hold, despite it no longer being grounds for termination. It becomes more difficult to discern if someone is high on the job as opposed to having smoked on their off time. Along with a drug test, an officer from the Drug Recognition Experts must come in to determine the workers level of intoxication.
But according to APP, the timing of their stepping in and the kind of test they use are all up to question.
These are all complications that will eventually find answers, but for many states, it’s only the beginning of the new cultural acceptance of marijuana, with many more areas having to face a need for public areas of consumption and an end to workplace discrimination.
Read the source stories at Boston Globe and Asbury Park Press.
I’m just gonna piggyback off of another article today, but there’s some good content here.
CannaTechToday put together a list of some Weed influencers who are coming at the subject from different perspectives and tastes. It’s pretty cool!
With over 170K followers, this 23-year-old Orange County native is a fan favorite on TikTok, where she posts daily hilarious videos involving cannabis.
Sativadiva1997 has gained a massive following due to her weekly videos, called Baked Takes, where she gets high and evaluates different popular movie characters and how they would react in hypothetical situations.
For example, in her latest Baked Takes, the TikTok influencer evaluated Shrek characters based on whether or not she thinks they would be able to obtain a driver’s licence in California.
These out-of-the-box scenarios make you wonder, “how did she come with this?” and quickly click follow.
This cannabis influencer has a whopping 27.1K followers on Instagram, where she lives up to her title as,“Thee Vibe Queen,” by posting fun weed content promoting cannabis brands and other creators.
@shadesofsyd, real name Sydni Smiley, also created the Medicated Melanin (@medicatedmelanin), where she sells her highly sought after hemp lip gloss, which she even created a music video for.
Morgan Leigh English, widely known as @thiscannabislife on Instagram, is also the founder of Stoned +Toned, which are a series of virtual cannabis workout videos made specifically for the 420-friendly fitness community.
@thiscannabislife is perfect for those who love to pair weed with exercise, and her glamorous photographs of her daily life aren’t too bad to look at either!
Alice Moon is an innovative thinker, whose cannabis insights have been featured in the likes of High Times, LA Weekly, Civilized, and she appeared in Viceland’s Bong Appetit.
Moon gained widespread acclaim when she created the 2017 app Swallow, which guided customers on finding the right edible based on dietary restrictions.
Moon’s Instagram is light and bubbly, but also dives deep into more serious topics, such as the nausea-inducing Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome, which she was diagnosed with in 2018.
For more information on the condition, follow her instagram dedicated to the subject: @cannabinoid.hyperemesis
You’re not a true Floridian until you’ve visited @muv.fl.
Marina Mikkelsen is the Assistant Director of Cultivation at Muv Florida Dispensaries, and was even featured in the November 2020 @highlifemagazines Women in Cannabis issue.
Want your feed to look a little more green?
Mikkelsen’s instagram features dozens of gorgeous photographs detailing the different strains of cannabis offered at Muv during cultivation.
This account will make you want to plan your next trip to your local dispensary.
Hayley420 has over 851K subscribers on her YouTube channel, and once you start watching her addictive, unique video content, you’ll soon understand why.
Hayley uses her YouTube to review cannabis strains, partake in fun weed challenges, such as smoking a $300 blunt, and even hitting a bong made out of Starburst candy.
Hayley is the adventurous weed influencer we all aspire to be.
Smoking in an active volcano?
She’s been there, done that, and there’s already a video about it.
A study done at the Imperial College London thoroughly explored the very popular activity of microdosing LSD.
According to The Guardian, this was the “largest-ever placebo-controlled investigation into the potential benefits of psychedelics”.
In its conclusion, the study found that the positive benefits found from microdosing were equal to the benefits found in the control group, meaning the placebo is either as effective, or is the only actual benefit.
Balàzs Szigeti, the lead author of the study, said “Our findings confirmed some of the beneficial psychological effects of microdosing from anecdotal reports and observational studies, such as improved sense of wellbeing and life satisfaction. But we see the same improvements among participants taking placebos. This suggests that the improvements may not be due to the pharmacological action of the drug but can instead be explained by the placebo effect.”
The study was done with 191 subjects who were already microdosing LSD. They each sorted out doses, some of them being placebo, some not, and shuffled the deck. They never knew if they were taking LSD or not that day.
The scientists themselves accepted that the study wasn’t perfect, and needed a “laboratory-based placebo-controlled clinical study” to truly understand the data, but that won’t happen until LSD is taken off of the Schedule I category.
Nonetheless, the results were positive, placebo or not.
Read more over at The Guardian.
In a super fascinating article over at InsideHook, we get a glimpse into why exactly sex gets that extra bump from being high.
Of course the main difference is the awareness, which is much more acute while high.
“Terpenes (the perfumey bouquet of smells that often accompanies a strain, with names like Limonene and Myrcene) are responsible for things like those energetic and uplifting feelings or that deep body buzz just after ingestion, while cannabinoids (the chemical compounds found in THC, CBD, etc.) activate and communicate with specific receptors within the Endocannabinoid System,” Michelle Mendoza, a Head Buyer at Sweet Flower tells InsideHook. “Together, they produce the entourage effect that equals the sum of its parts and your very individualized experience.”
But in particular, it acts as a “vasodilator” which means that it makes sensitive parts of the body extra sensitive. Orgasms are improved and sex drive is maximized all because of increased blood flow to these parts of the body.
Because of this pretty clear link between being high and good sex, the market has opened up for products that seem almost specifically catered for heightened sexuality, be it micro-dosed drinks, chewables, weed lube, and even some edibles.
Read the story at InsideHook.
It’s definitely a fun little exercise to go through the list of cannabis nicknames we’ve all accrued in our lexicon, and right at the front of that list is “weed”. The most stigmatized, loaded, meaning-drenched of the nicknames. It means something different to everyone.
Well a nice little article over at Greenstate dives into some of the titles, and where they came from. Although not the most thoroughly researched, it still has some nuggets (another one!) of interest.
“[Weed] was first listed as one of the “new words” for cannabis in the 1929 edition of “American Speech.” At the time, there were only two widely-used terms for marijuana in the U.S. – the English term, “hemp,” and the scientific word, “cannabis” – so canna-lovers were experimenting with new names to avoid being discovered.
The nickname “weed” didn’t exactly hit at first – mostly because the more exotic term “marijuana” infiltrated the American lexicon in the ‘30’s. It wasn’t until the early 2000’s that it really became popular, according to Google search records. Some speculate this is because millennials needed an alternative to their parent’s hippie nicknames, like “grass” and “flower.””
Kind of an ingenious way to get the authorities to lose interest–who cares about some random weed the kids are gushing over.
Another fascinating one in the article is “Dope”. “It comes from the 19th century Dutch word ‘doop,’ meaning ‘thick dipping sauce.’ Originally a cooking term, it eventually became synonymous with a thick-headed or slow person.”
“When semi-liquid opium became popular around 1889, the word ‘doop’ was first used in reference to narcotic stupefaction – A.K.A., getting stupid high.”
Check out the article for more on the origin of “reefer,” “marijuana,” or “grass,” and feel free to act like a total smart ass next time you get high with your friends.
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.
