Lp,s are doomed!
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That pearl was from WallWeeD.
Verbatim
CANNABIS RECESSION 2023
Bonno
18-03-2023
Is a 2023 cannabis recession inevitable? While an economic downturn is inevitable, how the cannabis industry weathers the storm remains to be seen.
For sure, saturated retail markets will feel the hit as consumers cut back or make more discerning purchases.
And large-scale industrial grows that have been more about selling equity than weed will feel the impact.
But why? Why has the value of cannabis stocks been removed from fundamentals? Why are small cannabis business owners – through no fault of their own – at the mercy of global economic forces beyond their control?
And what role can cannabis play in reviving the economy?
A cannabis recession in 2023 may be inevitable, but understanding why is a challenge in itself. Look at, for example, the massive money printing that occurred during COVID.
It even sparked a new meme – money printer go brrrr
So, as the new money entered the economy, the currency’s value dropped, and everything rose in price. That’s inflation.
But thanks to propaganda from politicians and the corporate press, the real cause of inflation is “corporate greed.” And, of course, the solution to “corporate greed” is to increase the scope and power of the centralized state.
Likewise, Larry Summers, an economist who worked in both the Clinton and Obama administrations, recently tweeted – accurately – about the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB).
SVB committed one of the most elementary errors in banking: borrowing money in the short term and investing in the long term. When interest rates went up, the assets lost their value and put the institution in a problematic situation.
Sounds reasonable and logical, right? Like a physicist tweeting out that the speed of light is 300,000 kilometres a second.
But the reaction against Summers was swift. In the comments, he “clarified” what he meant by the original tweet. Prompting others, like George Selgin, to reply:
I’m glad to see, upon reading on, that Prof. Summers explains himself in the comments. Still, I was taken aback upon first seeing this tweet by him attributing SVB’s troubles to its having done what all banks always do![url][/url][tag]insert-text-here[/tag]
I’m no Larry Summers fan, but it’s clear his original tweet was sound economics. Of course, he retracted and bent to the will of the mob, as is usually the case on Twitter.
But consider, what banks do daily would land you or me in jail. The trouble with the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) stems from a practice called fractional reserve banking.
Once upon a time, we separated banking into two categories: warehouse banking and investment banking.
With warehouse banking, the bank provides storage services and seamless payment transfers. For this, the client pays a monthly service fee.
Investment banking involves having the bank raise capital by underwriting and selling securities.
Modern banking doesn’t distinguish between the two. Modern banks finance investment banking with money stored in warehouse accounts.
Instead of paying a small fee, the bank pays the warehouse depositor a small return. Of course, the bank’s depositors may want access to all their money simultaneously. This used to cause bank runs and was a powerful tool wielded by the masses.
Nowadays, banks create new money out of thin air.
You can imagine a storage garage working like this. You drop off things like furniture, thinking it’s a warehouse, but behind the scenes, the owner rents your stuff to others. In return, you receive a small nominal payment instead of a monthly fee.
On the surface, there’s nothing wrong with this business model. So long as the customer knows that the storage garage isn’t a warehouse but an investment opportunity. But this isn’t the case with modern banking.
Most depositors don’t realize they’re not depositing anything. They’re loaning money to the bank.
Fractional reserve banking has a scattered history, with the Bank of Sweden (founded in 1668) and the Bank of England (founded in 1694) employing such practices. The first large-scale practice was with the Bank of Amsterdam, established in 1609.
But fractional reserve banking didn’t become widespread until the 19th century. This isn’t something “all banks” have always done.
Canada’s legalization of cannabis is perhaps the clearest example of who governments and banks work for. And it isn’t the average family.
Members of British Columbia‘s cannabis community have been cultivating and perfecting cannabis for decades.
Without their civil disobedience, the Liberal Party would have never considered legalizing cannabis.
But were they rewarded with licenses and welcomed into the mainstream economy? No, they were “organized crime” until further notice.
Ottawa established a centralized system where federal bureaucrats determined who would grow cannabis in Canada. Not surprisingly, well-connected former politicians and cops got licences to establish industrial-size warehouses while B.C. Bud struggled for “micro-grow” licenses.
To be part of Canada’s legal cannabis regime, you need cash. You need tens of thousands in start-up capital and a willingness to place all your hopes, dreams, and aspirations in the hands of Health Canada.
The game was rigged from the beginning.
Who is likely to survive Canada’s cannabis regime in the long run? Large corporate actors or small business owners?
Both groups deal with excessive excise taxes, thousands of pages of regulations written in legalese, sometimes forgoing production to wait on the decisions of some Health Canada bureaucrat, rules against marketing, and government monopoly distributors.
But some have the capital, and others do not.
Anyone over 19 in Canada can buy cannabis just as easily as you would alcohol or cigarettes. But to produce and sell cannabis? You need deep pockets.
The entire industry is struggling. But who is likely to survive the 2023 cannabis recession? Those who have capital.
Who has capital? Your local Mom and Pop pot shop or the corporation connected to Laurentian elites?
This “microeconomic” policy permitting fractional reserve banking has “macroeconomic” consequences. If you ever wondered how cannabis producers like Aurora or Canopy made so much money before producing any cannabis or why their stock value was higher than you could ever get from their weed, look no further.
New money gets shovelled into projects and into investments that otherwise wouldn’t have been made.
Resources get misdirected.
During the downtime it takes to move these resources into new, sounder capital structures, the economy experiences a recession.
Of course, governments and banks interfere with this restructuring process instead of liquidating bad debts and allowing the market to set interest rates.
Banks are supposed to make capital available for businesses through investment banking. They also provide a payment-and-exchange system through warehouse banking.
When a bank fails, like Silicon Valley Bank, it is in a “liquidity crisis.” SVB did not have 100 percent of their warehouse accounts available for their customers.
The United States hasn’t had a market interest rate in nearly 100 years. The U.S. central bank (the Fed) has been dictating interest rates like they were just another government policy.
After ultra-low rates for two decades, the Fed has begun raising rates. SVB has extensive holdings of older U.S. government bonds which lost value when the Fed raised rates.
As the losses mounted and SVB failed to secure money to cover the shortfall, customers realized what was happening and rushed to withdraw their deposits.
This situation is not unique to SVB. They are merely the canary in the coal mine.
SVB is liquidating assets to cover deposits, so this may not signal a nationwide failure of banks like in 2008. But if not now, then later. And if not SVB, then another bank.
The banks have gotten the world economy highly leveraged. No one has resolved the issues that created the 08/09 financial crisis. In fact, the fundamentals are even worse than before.
So what’s the solution? Raise interest rates, bankrupt everyone, and start over? Or lower interest rates and hope this party continues indefinitely?
Of course, a third option, however unlikely, remains the best long-term decision. And that is: stop using flat currency.
Money backed by a commodity – gold, silver or rare shells – is superior to paper money printed by governments and banks.
And this isn’t an opinion – it’s a historical fact.
AVOID A RECESSION BY USING HASHCOIN?
Avoid a Cannabis Recession by using Hashcoin?
Commodity-backed money provides greater stability and predictability in its value. It protects against inflation by limiting the money supply and maintaining the purchasing power over time.
Commodity-backed money inspires greater confidence and trust in the banking system since people know the banks can’t destroy its value by creating more out of thin air.
Commodity-backed money is more difficult for governments, banks, and Wall Street to manipulate. They can’t print more money at will and, therefore, can’t easily repackage bad assets into Grade A investments.
Alongside a blockchain, commodity-backed money becomes a powerful tool in preventing counterfeiting, including official counterfeiting done by the banks. Commodity-backed money protects against corporate and government overreach and abuse of money.
Overall, commodity-backed money limits the power of governments and banks. It creates investment potential for small-to-medium investors that Wall Street have locked out of their casino.
Commodity-backed money – like hashcoin – restores the wealth and prosperity of the middle class.
Any politician that claims to want to help the middle class (as Justin Trudeau does) but doesn’t address monetary policy (Justin says he doesn’t think about it) is a fraud and a stooge for the elites.
Cannabis has the potential to create a green, sustainable world. But first, we need to get politicians and corporate bankers out of the way.
Germany To Introduce Bill To Legalize Cannabis In The Coming Weeks
Bonno
Mar 18, 2023,07:34am
Germany's plan to legalize cannabis has received positive feedback from the European Union, according to Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, who announced that a bill for the legalization of cannabis would be introduced in the coming weeks.
Germany is moving forward with its plan to legalize cannabis for recreational use, aiming to become the first European country to regulate the sale of cannabis products.
But while supranational legal frameworks may pose obstacles to legalization, Lauterbach has received positive feedback from the EU, highlighting that the legislation must comply with EU regulations.
Lauterbach has expressed confidence that his plans to legalize cannabis will be approved by the EU. Speaking in Brussels on Tuesday, March 14, before a meeting with his EU counterparts, Lauterbach said he had received "very good feedback" from the European Commission. As he had concerns about whether legalization would comply with European law, Lauterbach had his project reviewed by the EU Commission.
In addition, Lauterbach announced that a bill regarding the cannabis legislation will be introduced "in the next few weeks."
"We will soon present a proposal that works, that is, that conforms to European law,".
The minister was also optimistic that the proposal would reduce drug-related crime and make cannabis use safer??
"We will achieve these goals," he said.
The bill is likely to be based on the plan to legalize adult-use cannabis, which was approved in October, and on several hearings with experts and stakeholders that took place last year.
The initial plan proposes several restrictions on cannabis possession, including a limit of 30 grams for adults aged 18 and older. The plan also allows for the home cultivation of up to two plants and permits licensed stores and pharmacies to sell cannabis products. Additionally, marketing and advertising of these products will be prohibited, and dispensaries will be required to be located far away from schools and youth facilities. Furthermore, it would be mandatory that recreational cannabis sold in Germany must be grown and manufactured domestically.
However, one of the legal hurdles to regulating cannabis in Germany is represented by international and European laws, which prohibit the legalization of cannabis for recreational use.
Germany is currently awaiting approval from the European Commission, and Lauterbach explained that some changes would be made to the government's initial plan to conform with European regulations. However, he did not specify what those changes would be. He stated that the revisions would take into account what should or should not be notified.
Cannabis is addressed in the Schengen Convention of 1985 and the EU Framework Decision 2004/757/JHA at the European Union (EU) level, which requires member states to combat illicit drug trafficking. Germany's current drug policy is governed by the Narcotic Drug Act (BtMG), but changes to this framework may be necessary for cannabis regulation. If a member country violates the EU's regulations, the EU commission may initiate a formal procedure to demand corrective action. Failure to comply may result in financial sanctions, and the matter may ultimately be referred to the European Court through legal court proceedings.
Furthermore, Germany's plan to legalize cannabis would be incompatible with international treaties, including the 1961 Single Convention.
Therefore, the German coalition government is seeking to comply with European legislation while maintaining its own goals, including reducing crime and making cannabis use as safe as possible by protecting youth.
In fact, public health and the protection of the youth have been the foundation of the so-called Traffic Light coalition when it announced the aim to legalize cannabis after the general elections in late 2021.
However, some experts believe that imposing excessive restrictions on the legal market, such as banning advertising and marketing operations and capping THC levels, may not effectively curb the illegal market.
If Germany successfully overcomes the international and European legal hurdles and proceeds with the legalization of recreational cannabis, it is expected to come into full effect in 2024.
In Europe, cannabis is everywhere…
Reporting on this company has been like observing a slow-motion train wreck over the course of 5 years.
Book about billion-dollar cannabis startup wins $30K award for best Canadian business book
The National Business Book Award recognizes the best business-related writing and research in Canada
A book cover covered in cannabis leaves next to a photo of the authors: two 30something white men with short brown hair and a 50something blonde woman in a pink blazer.
Billion Dollar Start-Up is a book by Julie Beun, left, Sébastien St. Louis, middle, and Adam Miron, right. (Lindsey Gibeau, submitted by ECW Press)
Entrepreneurs Adam Miron and Sébastien St.Louis and writer Julie Beun won the 2022 National Business Book Award for their book Billion Dollar Start-up.
Founded in 1985, the $30,000 annual award recognizes the best business-related writing and research in Canada.This year's finalists included books about diversity, cryptocurrency, start-ups, leadership and overcoming adversity.
The 2022 finalists for the $30K National Business Book Award
Chronicling Miron and St. Louis' lives from 2013 to 2019, Billion Dollar Start-up is a memoir of how the two brothers-in-law created a billion-dollar cannabis company called HEXO.
Documenting Canada's journey to legalization along the way, diaristic entries recount the government hurdles, high competition and excitement of being an entrepreneur in the cannabis industry.
Both Miron and St.Louis are Ottawa-based entrepreneurs and co-founders of HEXO. Billion Dollar Start-up is their first book.
Beun is an Ottawa-based communications and public relations professional. Billion Dollar Start-up is her first book.
An jury chaired by award-winning journalist and former CBC broadcaster Peter Mansbridge selected the winning book.
Please help Tilray!
New: Quebec cannabis producer HEXO's revenue TANKED last quarter, falling 48% in Oct-Dec.
Rec sales ??40% to $33 million
Med sales ?? 35% to $634k
Wholesale sales ??50% $1.8 million
Int'l sales ??100% to NEGATIVE $265,000
U.S. Federal Government Must Force States To Repeal Marijuana Legalization To Comply With International Treaty.
Bonno
16-03-2023
The United Nations’s (UN) drug control body is suggesting that the U.S. is out of compliance with a decades-old international drug treaty because the federal government is passively allowing states within the country to legalize cannabis.
While the UN’s International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) has routinely criticized countries for allowing the enactment of cannabis legalization due to their obligations under the 1961 Single Convention to maintain prohibition, a section of the new annual report report it released last week stands out by appearing to indirectly address state-level reform efforts in the U.S.
“In States with a federal structure, a special issue may arise with respect to whether the federal Government may be held accountable if a federated entity implements legalization, which violates the conventions, while the federal Government does not have the power to compel the federated entity to fulfill the treaty obligations,” the report says.
INCB said the 1961 treaty mandates that member nations must “give effect to and carry out the provisions of this Convention within their own territories,” regardless of whether or not they have a constitutionally federalist system like in the U.S.
The convention states that “unless a different intention appears from the treaty or is otherwise established, a treaty is binding upon each party in respect of its entire territory.”
“The internal distribution of powers between the different levels of a State cannot be invoked as justification for the failure to perform a treaty,” it asserts, without directly referencing state-level legalization in the U.S. specifically.
“The Commentary on the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961 explains that the question of whether a federal State is relieved from obligations under article 36, paragraph 1, of the Convention if it is unable to enact the required penal legislation on account of lack of authority under its federal constitution to do so should be answered in the negative.
In the Commentary, it is noted that the lack of authority under a federal constitution would not free a party from the obligation to adopt the required measures if the states or provinces composing the federal State in question have the necessary powers.”
The practical impact of this analysis is unclear, as other UN member nations like Canada and Uruguay have outright federally legalized marijuana for adult use in clear contravention of the treaty, without any discernible consequences from the international body.
But it remains notable that the international organization is leaning on the six-decade-old treaty provision to imply that the U.S. is shirking its duties to stay in compliance by allowing states to legalize marijuana for recreational purposes without taking enforcement action.
INCB did say that more simple decriminalization of possession without allowing sales “can be considered consistent with the conventions as far as it respects the obligation to limit the use of drugs to medical and scientific purposes and under the condition that it remains within certain limits set by the conventions.”
But allowing full adult-use legalization is “in contradiction to the obligations set out in the drug control conventions,” it said.
Aside from the legalities of cannabis reform under international law, the board offered a number of criticisms against nations that have permitted legalization, and against marijuana consumption in general.
For example, it argued that the “growing availability and potency of cannabis products available on the illicit markets poses an increasing health risk.” And the authorization and expansion of legal cannabis businesses has “contributed to the normalization and trivialization of cannabis use and, consequently, to reduced perceptions of harm associated with cannabis consumption,” it said.
“Criminal organizations linked with large-scale illicit production and trafficking have benefited from the expanding demand for cannabis. This trend represents a growing challenge for the international community, mainly for the States parties to the international drug control conventions, which stipulate that, subject to the provisions of those conventions, any kind of drug use must be limited to medical and scientific purposes and that any use contrary to the provisions of the conventions should be treated as ‘punishable offences.'”
INCB acknowledged that different countries have sought to justify marijuana reform, in part, by maintaining that the policy changes support the convention’s stated goals of promoting health and safety, as well as respecting “human rights principles such as the rights to freedom, privacy and personal autonomy.”
But the board broadly responded by rejecting the arguments. However, it did acknowledge that evidence about the various implications of legalization has been mixed.
“Given this multifaceted and complex picture, it is hardly possible to make general statements and conclusions on the impact of legalization,” INCB said.
For example, the board noted that studies on youth consumption rates post-legalization have produced mixed results, with some research indicating increases in underage use, while others show stabilization or even decreases in such usage.
In the U.S., there have been numerous studies indicating that youth cannabis consumption has either remained stable or declined amid the state-level legalization movement. For example, a federally funded report that was released last month found that teen marijuana use fell from 2019 to 2021—and hit a record low since 2011.
Another concern for the international board is the impact of legalization on the illicit cannabis trade, the report says. While it’s the “objective” of member nations that pursue legalization to minimize the influence of illegal sales, INCB said that there’s a lack of uniformity in the results of that policy change.
It said that “the market for illicit supply persisted in all legalizing jurisdictions, albeit to varying extents, reaching from approximately 40 percent in Canada to nearly 50 percent in Uruguay and 75 percent in California.”
“In the United States, although the legalizing states intended to eliminate or diminish the illicit cannabis economy and the related organized crime, the illicit market continues to thrive,” it says. “It is difficult to fully assess the size of the illicit market because all its activities are ‘underground’ and not well known.”
Missing from the board’s analysis, however, is the fact that prior to legalization, 100 percent of cannabis sales took place in the unregulated, illicit market. And states aren’t turning a blind eye to the problem. California, for instance, has made further stamping out the illegal trade a regulatory priority.
“Legalization has led to a new legal cannabis market in the legalizing jurisdictions, attracting the interest of large corporations, which see the potential for growth and opportunity for investment,” it noted.
“The causality between legalization and statistical changes in the respective jurisdiction is often not clear. However, one can say, in general terms, that legalization has not achieved the objectives pursued by its proponents. It can be observed that legalization has not succeeded in overcoming the drug problems encountered in legalizing jurisdictions and worldwide.
In those jurisdictions, consumption of cannabis is still higher than in others and prevalence of use is apparently increasing more rapidly than in nonlegalizing jurisdictions.
Legalization has not been able to dissuade youth from consuming cannabis.
So far, member nations that have moved forward with legalization have not faced penalties by UN.
In 2020, Canada sent comments to the drug enforcement board defending its legal cannabis law, but that hasn’t moved the needle with the international group.
Those comments came about two years after INCB warned its membership not to take exactly the step that Canada did.
Refer madness is here to stay.
Legacy wins again.
I know a few who made millions.
They pass go and left the rat race to suckers.
Losing your mind on pennies is not worth it.
Headz have more fun.
Scarf them up…
You will be a bi-li-on-air.
March 16, 2023
Bonno
New Jersey is no longer limiting the number of cannabis cultivation licenses, and entrepreneurs are looking forward to supplying the East Coast marijuana market as production ramps up.
However, up-and-coming growers in New Jersey face significant obstacles, including:
A majority of municipalities that have opted out of permitting cannabis businesses.
A competitive market for limited, expensive industrial real estate.
Challenges raising capital in a tough lending environment.
For cultivators who can overcome those headwinds, an attractive market awaits.
Will Perry, CEO of Oregon cultivator Magic Hour Cannabis, is working to launch production in New Jersey, teaming up with a local partner who has access to the necessary real estate.
Oregon marijuana prices have crashed, with the median wholesale price hitting $399. per pound in February.
In New Jersey, however, Perry expects premium marijuana could earn at least $4,500 per pound?
Dude sounds like Linton & St-Louis.
All talk no traction.
He told Bonno that he doesn’t “know anywhere else where there's such a high population, and also factoring in people from New York, also bordering states like Pennsylvania, there's 30-plus million (people).
"And these are all people that have more expendable income than the average person in Oregon."
Not everyone has such a rosy view of the New Jersey market, however… ??
No money, no candy.
KURZNACHRICHTEN
Legalisierung von Cannabis
Lauterbach zeigt sich zuversichtlich
16.03.2023
Bonno
Bundesgesundheitsminister Karl Lauterbach hat sich zuversichtlich gezeigt, dass die EU seine Pläne zur Legalisierung von Cannabis freigeben wird. Er habe "sehr gute Rückmeldungen" von der Europäischen Kommission erhalten, sagte Lauterbach am Dienstag in Brüssel vor einem Treffen mit EU-Amtskollegen. Wegen Bedenken, ob eine Legalisierung im Einklang mit europäischem Recht steht, hatte Lauterbach sein Vorhaben erst von der EU-Kommission prüfen lassen.
Lauterbach kündigte an, "in den nächsten Wochen" einen Gesetzentwurf zur Legalisierung von Cannabis in Deutschland vorzulegen. "Wir werden demnächst einen Vorschlag vorlegen, der funktioniert, der also europarechtlich konform ist", sagte Lauterbach. Der Minister war optimistisch, dass mit dem Vorschlag die Drogenkriminalität zurückgedrängt werden könne und der Cannabis-Konsum sicherer werde. "Diese Ziele werden wir erreichen", sagte Lauterbach.
Der SPD-Politiker hatte im Oktober Eckpunkte zur Legalisierung von Cannabis vorgestellt. Diese sehen unter anderem vor, dass Erwerb und Besitz von bis zu 20 bis 30 Gramm straffrei sein sollen. Lieferung und Vertrieb sollten nur innerhalb eines lizenzierten und staatlich kontrollierten Rahmens zugelassen werden. Der private Eigenanbau soll in begrenztem Umfang erlaubt werden - vorgesehen sind drei Pflanzen pro Person.
Why not wait for pennies?
What is the relationship between Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) – the largest U.S. bank failure since 2008 – and the cannabis industry?
Fortunately, SVB doesn’t (or didn’t?) have any cannabis companies as significant clients. Despite the venture capital investors have pumped into the industry, U.S. cannabis banking remains elusive.
That said, the cannabis industry will feel SVB’s collapse. Here’s how.
Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) & the Cannabis Industry
While SVB has no major cannabis companies on their roster, there were some ancillary cannabis companies.
Still, the issue here is less about the cannabis industry’s direct exposure to SVB. Whether or not your local cannabis industry is (or was?) banking with SVB is irrelevant.
Just as it was irrelevant in 2008 whether Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guaranteed your mortgage, everybody felt the hit—even people in different countries.
Canada’s banking sector often gets undeserving praise for being “stable,” while American banks are reckless. But this fails to consider the secret Fed bailouts the Canadian banks received.
With the SVB collapse spreading, small credit unions will be one of the first causalities. And they will not get billion-dollar bailouts from Washington.
And, of course, cut off from traditional banking services, cannabis companies depend on small credit unions.
But how likely is SVB to spread? Signature, First Republic and Charles Schwab are already following SVB’s steps.
But the Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the banks were “well capitalized,” and he’s supposed to be the expert, right?
WHAT HAPPENED?
Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) & the Cannabis Industry
The cannabis industry will feel SVB’s collapse because every sector will feel the consequences.
Fed Chair Powell is not an “expert,” but a stooge—the media liaison for the corporate-state cartel of money counterfeiters.
Consider what Murray Rothbard, a real expert, writes in What Has Government Done to Our Money?:
The bank creates new money out of thin air, and does not, like everyone else, have to acquire money by producing and selling its services. In short, the bank is already and at all times bankrupt; but its bankruptcy is only revealed when customers get suspicious and precipitate “bank runs.”
An accounting trick places government bonds as either “available for sale” or “held to maturity.” Silicon Valley Bank had $91.3 billion in securities classified as “held to maturity” on its year-end balance sheet.
Held-to-maturity allowed SVB “to exclude paper losses on those holdings from both its earnings and equity.”
In a footnote to its financials, the bank reported the value of those “held to maturity” securities was $15.1 billion below their balance-sheet value.
“The fair-value gap at year-end was almost as large as SVB’s $16.3 billion of total equity,” the Wall Street Journal article revealed.
SVB IS ONLY THE BEGINNING
Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) & the Cannabis Industry
The cannabis industry should take notice; this isn’t a situation unique to SVB. Investment capital is drying up.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) reported that U.S. banks’ unrealized losses on available-for-sale and held-to-maturity securities totalled $690 billion as of September 30, up almost fifty percent from the previous quarter.
FDIC Chairman Martin Gruenberg said in a December 1, 2022, speech:
The combination of a high level of longer-term asset maturities and a moderate decline in deposits underscores the risk that these unrealized losses could become actual losses should banks need to sell investments to meet liquidity needs.
And indeed, SVB’s official reason for selling their holdings was to raise fresh capital. “We expect continued higher interest rates, pressured public and private markets, and elevated cash burn levels from our clients as they invest in their businesses.”
But as Murray Rothbard pointed out,
No other business can be plunged into bankruptcy overnight simply because its customers decide to repossess their own property. No other business creates fictitious new money, which will evaporate when truly gauged.
SVB & THE CANNABIS INDUSTRY
Investors loosing money to Canadian Cannabis
We solved nothing from the 2008 crisis. The banks are still corrupt as hell. And the government is in bed with them.
Occupy Wall Street was a rational response to electing anti-war, anti-bank bailout Barack Obama and realizing he’s on the same payroll as the Bush Family.
Of course, instead of stinking up a park, Occupiers could have implemented some nonviolent strategies.
Hopefully, this time, instead of allowing the corporate press to play the race card effectively, we can unite and realize it’s not black versus white or poor versus rich.
Some earn a living by providing goods and services. That’s most of us. But some people extort wealth, counterfeit money, and manipulate interest rates.
Those people are criminals. It’s time we start calling them as such.
German pharma company lays out job offer for ‘weed smokers’, offers whopping salary of Rs 88 lakh
Company seeks someone who could 'smell, feel, and smoke' cannabis
Bonno
Feb 16, 2023
Chandigarh
German pharma company lays out job offer for ‘weed smokers’, offers whopping salary of Rs 88 lakh
A German pharmaceutical has come out with an uncanny job opportunity for ‘weed smokers’ with a salary of whopping £88,000 (around Rs 88 lakh) at its cannabis testing domain.
As per a report in The Sun, the company will appointing experts to check quality of their product. German pharmacies are served by the Cologne-based Cannamedical company, which seeks a worker who can “smell, feel, and smoke” the product.
As per company’s CEO, they were mulling at monitoring standard of their crops in the countries where they source their products, namely Australia, Macedonia, and Denmark.
Complying with the job advertisement, people have flooded the company with applications for the bizarre post.
However, candidates need to possess valid German marijuana smoking permit to get considered for the post.
Home / Cultivation
Oregon marijuana prices reach new lows amid oversupply issues
Bonno
March 13, 2023
Retail and wholesale prices for legal marijuana in Oregon are at or near all-time lows as a cannabis oversupply continues to affect licensed businesses.
The median price of marijuana at recreational retailers reached a record low of $4 per gram as of February, according to Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission (OLCC) data.
That represents a price decline of almost 16% from February 2022.
The wholesale median price of marijuana sold between adult-use businesses reached a record low of $550 per pound ($1.21 per gram) in December 2022 before recovering slightly to $599 per pound ($1.32 per gram) in February – a year-over-year decline of nearly 25%.
“We have a record amount of overdue accounts receivable, retailers that owe us money,” Mason Walker, CEO of Oregon cultivator East Fork Cultivars, told The Oregonian newspaper.
“That’s happening across the market. It’s causing pain up and down the supply chain.”
Demand in Oregon’s recreational marijuana market was 63% of supply in 2022, the OLCC estimated in a February legislative report on cannabis supply and demand.
The regulator warned that “declining wholesale and retail prices for usable marijuana are due to large stocks of usable poor quality cannabis inventory leftover from previous years, which is likely to continue to put downward pressure on prices.”
The OLCC report said Oregon’s adult-use cannabis market “has proven resilient, but until the federal legal landscape changes, two fundamental facts remain unchanged: in-state supply is boundless, while in-state demand can only grow so much.”
Meanwhile, marijuana multistate operator Curaleaf Holdings announced in January it is bowing out of Oregon.
My hometown of Smiths Falls is being abandoned once again
Bonno
MARCH 10, 2023
Canopy Growth’s Tweed facility in Smiths Falls, Ont., on Feb 13. The cannabis company has laid off workers and will eventually go down to a workforce of around 350 employees.
1545 COMMENTS
Jenn Jefferys is a freelance journalist who was born and raised in Smiths Falls, Ont. She co-hosts the City and Nuuchimii podcast.
“I used to love the way Smiths Falls smelled.
The air near 1 Hershey Dr. was so rich you could taste it.
Inside, there were industrial vats of churning chocolate rhythmic enough to hypnotize you and deep enough to drown in. There was a gallery upstairs for visitors to peer down from behind thick panes of plexiglass at the little people in white coats and hairnets working away below, indifferent to the audience of tourists floating by above them.
In the late 2000s, all those hairnetted staff were let go.
Like a bad dream, everything vanished, apart from the Hershey Kiss lampposts in the big empty parking lot and the devastatingly colourful Chocolate Shoppe entrance that hung on there lifeless, frozen in time.
Too expensive and tedious to repaint, our 100-year-old water tower continued to read “Smiths Falls: Chocolate Capital of Ontario,” along with a happy little cartoon Hershey bar, for years after the company abandoned us.
Cheaper labour was on offer in Mexico, apparently, and the global financial crisis made for an easy out for Hershey’s executive class. Something about “supply chain realignment” (?) if I recall correctly.
Soon, Smiths Falls’s entire municipal economy crashed. The Rideau Canal Museum closed, a long-term health care facility shut down, and what other few blue-collar jobs remained dried up also. We had one small movie theatre that seated 700 people in town and even that was demolished.
There were kids whose parents both worked for Hershey and were now both at home collecting unemployment. You can probably guess why hard drugs and heavy drinking were common place.
Enter Tweed in 2013, with a sweetheart deal for this long-suffering community – promising hundreds of good jobs, tourism, and a lucrative product that’d soon be legal. They brought celebs such as Snoop Dogg to town and hosted charity golf tournaments, a car show and summer yoga festival, and inspired local stores to start selling weed paraphernalia.
Driving into Smiths Falls today, you’ll notice the sign invites you to “Rise at the Falls” – just one piece of a total municipal rebrand the town underwent after Tweed’s arrival. It really cannot be overstated how far Smiths Falls bent to suit this private business.
The staff at the facility – who harvested in their greenhouses, packaged, labelled and meticulously marketed their products just as Hershey’s staff once did – have built this publicly traded multinational brand from nothing. The people of Smiths Falls were proud to pioneer medical and recreational cannabis. They showed up, nurtured and bred billions of plants that have shipped off around the world, and managed to keep profits moving as best they could during the pandemic.
Now, after everything, this same town is bracing to lose its single largest regional employer again.
At the beginning of February and along with its third-quarter fiscal reporting, Canopy Growth Corp. announced what it’s cutely calling its “Canadian Business Transformation Plan.” In other words, a “significant reduction in footprint and headcount” that would spell the end of its flagship cultivation facility at 1 Hershey Dr., and at least 800 staff being put out of work.
What I see through this cloud of smoke and betrayal is a clear message that the working class is expendable. We’ve seen similar boom and bust towns across North America that have lived and died at the hands of one large private employer but rarely does the story repeat itself in the same place.
Economists claim there’s a labour crisis stemming from too many workers quitting or refusing to work – the Great Resignation – but this does not apply to the people of Smiths Falls.
My parents, both in their 60s, still work full-time. This is by choice, but also out of necessity.
Matt Lamers, who covers the international cannabis market for Marijuana Business Daily, points out that Canopy benefited from more than $90-million in subsidies during the pandemic, making it the single largest government-subsidized cannabis producer in the world.
I expect that what my family went through when Smiths Falls’s economy crashed will haunt me for the rest of my life. Neither of my parents worked directly for Hershey, but the local downturn befell us just the same, and it wasn’t long before both my parents were out of work. You absolutely cannot understand that misery until you’ve lived through it.
I worry for the kids growing up in small, working-class towns like Smiths Falls today. I worry they too lay awake late at night, staring up at the ceiling, hearing their parents a room away arguing about money. I worry they too are jolted awake some mornings at dawn, by a broken father sobbing atop a creaky staircase, before rushing off to a failing tool business closing in on bankruptcy.
The people of Smiths Falls have carried this billion-dollar company on their backs. By pulling out of 1 Hershey Dr. during a looming recession, record-high inflation, and a once-in-a-generation health care, housing and affordability crisis, Canopy Growth is sure to send Smiths Falls spiralling back toward the social and economic purgatory and despondency from whence it came.
I don’t smell chocolate or weed in my hometown anymore. I just smell misery.
Pump it.
Dump it.”
United Nations Votes To Reclassify Cannabis In Historic Decision
U.N.: LEGAL CANNABIS HAS RISKS
MARCH 10, 2023
Bonno
The United Nations (U.N.) drugs control board says legal cannabis has health risks. They’re warning of “negative health effects and psychotic disorders” with legalization. They also worry that legalization violates the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.
You’d think after sixty-two years of evidence dispelling reefer madness myths, the U.N. would have an updated view. But alas, they repeat the mantra that cannabis is “highly addictive and liable to abuse,” As per the Convention, it has no scientific or medical use.
“In all jurisdictions where cannabis has been legalized, data show that cannabis-related health problems have increased,” the U.N.’s International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) said.
But what exactly is this data showing?
U.N.: LEGAL CANNABIS HAS RISKS… BUT WHAT ARE THEY?
The U.N. says legal cannabis has adverse risks and cites data to support these claims. But what are these risks?
According to the global busybodies, “The most concerning effect of cannabis legalization is the likelihood of increased use, particularly among young people.”
Remember that no country or state has legalized cannabis for children (unless for medical purposes). So they’re talking about young adults—individuals capable of making their own choices.
But the U.N.’s legal cannabis risks also involve children who have accidentally consumed cannabis products, like edibles. Of course, the data is skewed to legal states since a parent can take their child to the hospital without receiving criminal charges.
And even if they control for this, more children accidentally ingesting edibles is not a valid argument against criminalizing adults who choose to consume cannabis.
We wouldn’t reconsider alcohol prohibition because kids get into the liquor cabinet.
If this was the U.N.’s only concern about legal cannabis risks, we could safely ignore them. Public health busybodies concerned about children accidentally ingesting cannabis are nothing new.
However, the U.N. goes further. It says the “most concerning effect” of legalization is the increased use. Even among adults. They’re concerned that “legalized cannabis products lowers the perception of risk and of the negative consequences involved in using them.”
The U.N. is worried about the “trivialization” of legal cannabis risks.
INCB President Jagjit Pavadia said: “The expanding cannabis industry is marketing cannabis-related products to appeal to young people and this is a major cause for concern as is the way the harms associated with using high-potency cannabis products are being played down.”
So what are these harms?
U.N. SAYS THESE ARE THE LEGAL CANNABIS RISKS
U.N. Legal Cannabis Risks
According to the U.N., “Between 2000 and 2018, global medical admissions related to cannabis dependence and withdrawal increased eight-fold. Admissions for cannabis related psychotic disorders have quadrupled worldwide.”
They also say, “Statistical evidence from Colorado (United States) shows that fatal traffic accidents with drivers under the influence of cannabis nearly doubled from 2013 to 2020.”
We’ve covered a lot of these myths before. But consider the various problems with using statistical evidence.
Correlation vs. Causation: Statistical evidence often shows a strong correlation between two variables but does not necessarily mean one variable causes the other. Policy decisions based on correlation alone may not be practical or have unintended consequences.
Misleading data: Statistics can be manipulated or presented as dishonest, leading to incorrect conclusions and poor policy decisions. For example, almost every study on fatal traffic accidents and cannabis consumption uses a biased sample or selectively chooses data to support an anti-cannabis conclusion.
Incomplete data: Researchers can limit statistical evidence through the availability of data. Government policy decisions based on incomplete or insufficient data can lead to poor outcomes.
Confounding variables: Other factors may influence the outcomes observed in the data. Failure to account for these confounding variables can lead to incorrect conclusions and ineffective policies.
Ethical concerns: Ethical concerns exist around using statistical evidence to inform government policy. For example, the U.N. is infantilizing a group of individual adults due to their status as “young people.”
WHAT ABOUT THE SUCCESSES OF CANNABIS LEGALIZATION?
U.N. Legal Cannabis Risks
While no state or country has gotten cannabis legalization right, it’s clear that not criminalizing people for a plant is a step in the right direction.
Not so, according to the U.N. Despite legal states being in the early stages of this industry, the U.N. has declared cannabis legalization a failure.
Pavadia said: “Evidence suggests that cannabis legalization has not been successful in dissuading young people from using cannabis, and illicit markets persist.”
As well, tax revenue has been lower than expected. Ergo, the successes of cannabis legalization don’t override the adverse severe health risks the U.N. claims to have found.
While the U.N. uses their skewed and incomplete data to make claims about legal cannabis’ alleged harms, they later cite that this data is “limited and often too recent to draw meaningful conclusions.”
The U.N. says governments should embark on studies and research before making “long term binding decisions.” Funny, because you could have made the same argument in the early 20th century when cannabis was initially banned.
The U.N. reminds governments that they have “significant flexibility,” regarding cannabis offences—everything up to actually legalizing it.
Heaven forbid citizens make decisions within their own borders regarding the production and use of a nontoxic medicinal herb.
According to the U.N., the “cannabis industry lobby” wants legalization to “broaden their commercial profit.”
The U.N. also wants medical cannabis regimes to conform to World Health Organization standards.
HOW USELESS IS THE UNITED NATIONS?
U.N. Legal Cannabis Risks
On a scale of one to ten, how useless is the United Nations? I’d say 11 or 12.
This U.N. drug report is also concerned about a surge in cocaine production and trafficking. Of course, the United Nations has been as effective at disrupting the cocaine trade as they were with cannabis.
The U.N. also blames the opioid crisis on “illegal manufacturing and increased drug smuggling,” rather than the illegality of these substances.
If I set out to achieve a goal in 1961 and by 2023, the result was worse than before, I’d have to do some serious soul-searching.
But not the U.N.
They will never win the drug war by focusing on supply. You’d think the U.N. would understand this after all these years, but when your paycheque incentives you to misdiagnose the problem and apply the wrong remedies…
Speaking of which, the U.N drug board is also concerned that not enough nations have a sufficient secure supply of patented pharmaceuticals.
The U.N. report says legal cannabis has health risks and that we should trust pharma. Exactly what you’d expect from this international body.
The United Nations may be the most useless institution ever devised by the human race. Consider this report another nail in their coffin.
Meet the women using medical cannabis for chronic pain
"With cannabis, I sleep through the night now."
March 10, 2023
Bonno
After I close my laptop for the day, and settle into my sofa with my heating pad, ice pack and a new Netflix show, I load my vape with a serving of cannabis, and feel the cloud of chronic pain lift, just slightly, the nausea subsides and the ability to still sit and rest, becomes easier.
I live in Amsterdam, a city predicted by a reputation for recreational drug use and sex work. I buy cannabis from a sweet older couple who run the local coffee shop (the dutch phrase for dispensary) in my neighbourhood. In line to collect cannabis is a man in a postman's uniform, a woman with a crutch, and some American students. There is no stereotypical drug user here. The Netherlands has decriminalised cannabis, and although it is an ongoing and complicated issue, for now, it is accessible to most, and helping me reduce my reliance on prescription pain medications for chronic, debilitating pain.
It is near impossible to sleep when your body fizzes with pain. It is difficult to work, to do chores, and, in general, live your life when movement and even stillness feel like a never ending battle with your body. Chronic pain — a symptom of a myriad of conditions, from endometriosis and fibromyalgia to myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) and plenty more — is notoriously difficult to treat. Many of the people living with these conditions have a record of being failed by their doctors and medicine at large, which has detrimental effects.
A 2011 study(Opens in a new tab) cited that people living with ME, a chronic, incurable, multi-system disease hallmarked by physical incapacity and pain caused by a viral infection such as glandular fever or pneumonia, "has a greater impact on functional status and well being than other chronic diseases such as cancer." The most recent comprehensive survey of chronic pain was collected in 2017 and established 15.5 million people in England (Opens in a new tab)(34 percent of the population) live with chronic pain.
I’ve lived with ME for nearly six years, and have tried a lifetime's worth of treatments in the quest to feel just a little better, like high dose antidepressants and gluten free diets. I’ve also spent a lot of my own money on alternative medicine, because the NHS has no viable and safe treatment options available for this incurable disease.
Traditional medicine will pass out pills, but over time some people (myself included) build tolerance develop stomach ulcers, or become sick of the foggy brain and other side effects they bring. After a laundry list of drug prescriptions, I felt tethered to the pills that caused new symptoms of their own, and was open to trying yet another alternative that would let me escape the brain fog and sleepless nights.
"It is near impossible to sleep when your body fizzes with pain."
Cannabis is a drug known best for its recreational use, there are many connotations with cannabis that perhaps you harbour from your youth; trying it under the slide at a local park, at your first gig, or a weekend trip to Amsterdam.
Cannabis is a flower, a naturally grown substance that is being legalised in many countries around the world, European countries such as Portugal are decriminalizing cannabis, and acknowledging its role as a medicinal tool for many people.
However, in the UK, government scare tactics continue to tell us that weed is the first step to becoming a person with a drug addiction, and many members of the Conservative party want the drug reclassified as Class A group to match cocaine and ecstasy.
Presently a Class B drug under the 1971 Dangerous Drugs act, cannabis it is illegal to possess any amount of cannabis. At present, there are hundreds of people in prison for possession of a personal supply of cannabis. A first time offender will be issued with a warning, if caught again there is a £90 ($108) fine, but after that the police can prosecute an individual with a sentence of 28 days in prison.
The legal battle over cannabis
Nov. 2022 marked the four-year anniversary of a landmark legislation change you likely never heard about. In 2018, the government used a report from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) to change the scheduling (categorisation of a drug that determines the punishment for possession and harm potential) of cannabis. From Nov. 2022 medically prescribed unlicensed cannabis products were legalised for a limited list of conditions in the UK: Dravet syndrome, Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, multiple sclerosis, and nausea developed as a result of chemotherapy treatment.
The law change came about following two court cases of childhood epilepsy in which the families of Alfie Dingley(Opens in a new tab) and Billy Caldwell(Opens in a new tab), both aged six, alongside doctors and activists, proved that the plant, when ingested, drastically improved the physical condition of these children, and were issued with an "exceptional licence," to possess a THC based cannabis oil acquired in Canada.
However, despite much hope from those campaigning for the legalisation of the drug, the NHS parameters for prescription of cannabis remain extremely limited, with very few people able to access a regular prescription. In 2019 the NHS issued only 18 prescriptions for medical cannabis(Opens in a new tab). However, there is a much longer list of chronic health conditions that can benefit from cannabis, and can also be prescribed by private practices, which is creating a two tier access to the treatment.
Ivman whose surname will not be shared for privacy reasons, lives with a traumatic brain injury, or TBI, which causes insomnia and chronic pain. She splits her time between London and Portugal. While she has access to cannabis in Portugal — the country decriminalised personal possession of cannabis, so holding your own supply holds no legal risk — she cannot use it legally in the UK. She attempted to acquire an NHS prescription for the medication but was met with barrier after barrier: "My area, Southwark in London, will only prescribe it for cancer and epilepsy. Although my doctors were receptive after I really pushed and showed them my own research, they landed on the frustrating response that 'the country just isn’t there yet.'"
How medical cannabis works
Doctor and pain specialist, Dr. Neel Umapathy, who works with patients to provide medical cannabis for a range of conditions through the private practice, Mamedica in the UK, explains that medical cannabis prescribed by clinics has a calculated combination of CBD and THC, the two main components of cannabis flower, for the most effective pain relief.
Umapathy explains that: "Cannabis interacts and stimulates the body’s endocannabinoid system (ECS) which is made up of two main receptors: CB1 is located mainly in the brain and CBD2 which is mainly expressed in immune cells in the body." When THC interacts with this system, it binds to our receptors and blocks pain transmission — providing the user with pain relief. Umapathy also says that long term use of cannabis can reduce chronic inflammation in the body, which also contributes to pain reduction. He explains that for many chronic pain sufferers, "THC and CBD work in synergy to support in bringing balance to the body."
CBD oils have become popular in the last five years as a tincture sold in various health stores, but they are sold legally because they contain no or extremely low presence of THC, the component most known for giving a user the 'high' feeling. The strength of what’s sold on the high street and the lack of THC which Umapathy indicates is a necessary part of the plant for pain management, means the products available are nowhere near as effective as the doses prescribed by a medical professional.
So, where does that leave chronic pain sufferers seeking help? After over a decade of Conservative rule that has cut funding across the NHS and community led health services, combined with the ongoing pandemic crisis, The NHS has record delays for treatments and management of conditions like endometriosis. Many chronically ill people are using private care drugs like cannabis. Discussions in online disabled communities are more often about seeking private care both in the UK and abroad for endometriosis surgeries or experimental treatments being trialled elsewhere. A rise in general subscriptions to paid-for healthcare also demonstrates the UK citizens' need for better care, now.
Although cannabis prescriptions are extremely limited on the NHS, private practitioners like Umapathy, are able to prescribe cannabis for pain relief for many more chronic conditions than the four listed by the NHS. However, access to private healthcare is predicated on privilege, those who can afford to pay, and those who must wait in the NHS lines.
The way private clinics circumnavigate the strict NHS prescriptions rules is by diverting from NICE (the national institute that provides guidance for improving UK health and social care) guidelines for specific conditions NHS doctors are required to follow more stringently. The NICE guidelines are reviewed at a much slower rate than advances in medical studies, for example the endometriosis guidelines have not been reviewed since 2017, and list over the counter medication like paracetamol as an adequate pain management tool.
Private doctors can use their own judgement and more recent research, to offer a more tailored treatment plan,to individual patients, which includes trying experimental treatment offerings that are not listed as cures or management drugs for the specific illness a person is diagnosed with.
Jon Robson is an entrepreneur and the founder of Mamedica, one of the private medical clinics in the UK, prescribing cannabis for a wider range of chronic conditions. He spoke to Mashable in order to demystify the prescription process: “In order to receive a prescription, a person first completes an eligibility form online. From here, if they meet the eligibility requirements: the patient has tried two or more licensed medications or treatments which have not provided satisfactory benefit and has no previous record of psychosis and schizophrenia), then an online consultation with a specialist will be scheduled.”
Perhaps in part because of the cultural reputation of cannabis, Mamedica and other clinics impose a rigorous onboarding process before accepting new patients, including identification checks and evidence in medical records. Those with a record of psychosis and / or schizophrenia are more susceptible to future mental health issues whilst using cannabis, therefore there is reason to be cautious.
Following an in depth conversation with a specialist doctor combined with approval of eligibility, a prescription is issued. The prescription is then delivered to your door securely. In my own experience, there is much less rigour involved in acquiring a month of Codeine, which is legal and highly addictivethan what Mamedica and similar clinics ask of their patients, which could be another indicator of the wider view of what we understand as acceptable pain relief sources.
Endometriosis and medical cannabis
Happy (name changed for privacy purposes) is 25 and lives with endometriosis. She initially sought out an alternative to prescription opioids after a COVID infection flared her chronic pain and left her with a high tolerance for the drugs her doctor gave her, and a fear of future opioid addiction: "I felt really uncomfortable with the amount of Tramadol I was taking," she says. "I was hoping for something that would effectively replace my use of opiates and support the other pain management tools I was using, like pelvic floor physio and nerve blockers."
After Ditching Morphine For Marijuana Elderly Man With Arthritis Dances With Grandkids Again
March 10, 2023
Bonno
After 14 Years In Prison For Licensed Medical Marijuana Shop, Californian Finally Released
When medical marijuana was legalized in California in 1996, not everything was made perfectly clear and regulated for those operating in the industry. One of them is Luke Scarmazzo, who with his business partner Ricardo Montes opened the first licensed medical cannabis shop in the Central Valley.
"It was an uncertainty, it was an unknown," Scarmazzo told CBS. "It was something that hadn't been done before so there were a lot of what-ifs. We knew we would get some pushback because the Central Valley tends to be more conservative but we couldn't imagine what ended up happening."
What did happen? Scramazzo and Montes were harshly sentenced to 20 years in prison for running a business that was illegal under federal law.
"There was some loose regulation but nothing that was exactly how you should operate so we took the route of 'Let's go above and beyond on regulation,'" Scarmazzo said. "But when the city realized what they had done they called the federal government."
And while Montes was granted clemency by President Obama and released in May 2017, Scarmazzo’s petition was inexplicably denied.
On Feb. 3 after nearly 15 years in prison, Scarmazzo was released with help from Mission Green, a campaign led by The Weldon Project.
“Today, after serving nearly 15 years in prison for operating a cannabis dispensary, I was granted my freedom,” Scarmazzo wrote on his Facebook page. “The feeling is surreal. We’ve worked toward this day for so long. This was a huge victory for my family, friends, community, and the entire cannabis movement. I’ll take a moment to enjoy this, but make no mistake, there’s still much work to be done—my people need to be free—and that hard work begins now.”
Instead of being resentful, Scarmazzo decided to use his energy to help others who are in the same situation he once was.
"It's very important to me to make sure I get everyone incarcerated for cannabis out of prison," said Scarmazzo. "I don't want any more sons or daughters to lose a parent or son or daughter to a non-violent cannabis offense. It's not right, it's an injustice that continues to happen today."
Delta-8 THC, a chemical component of the cannabis plant, occurs naturally in small concentrations yet can produce mild psychoactive effects similar to delta-9 THC (the compound that gets you high).
New industrial methodologies enable delta-8 THC to be converted from CBD derived from hemp. Products developed as a result of the 2018 federal Farm Bill that legalized hemp are therefore not subject to the same testing requirements as cannabis, creating a legal loophole.
Myles Leon, 17, a Smithson Valley senior was arrested at school in October with what he says was a delta-8 vape pen, writes Texas Tribune, taken to the Comal County Jail and later on released on $5,000 bail. Under the Texas criminal system, Leon is considered an adult and now faces felony charges based on the unproven assumption that the vape pen might have contained delta-9 THC, which is illegal cannabis.
“They instantly just think it’s [illegal] THC. I don’t think they really care about the difference,” Myles said in December. “Because even I said that it was delta-8 and it didn’t matter. They’re still gonna arrest me anyways.”
Teens found with vape pens proven to contain delta-8 face a similar penalty for getting caught with cigarettes or alcohol.
Is cannabis helpful for alleviating arthritis-related challenges? Although there are no ultimate studies that have proven cannabis benefits various conditions, testimony of patients is what matters the most, or should.
When it comes to arthritis, many people swear that medical marijuana helps with painful inflammation. One such person is a 68-year-old man from a town north of London. He wanted to protect his identity and asked for his name to be changed when interviewed by Express.co.uk. Robin, the outlet called him, has two grandchildren and has been dealing with severe arthritis for about five years.
Shortly after being diagnosed, his body “started to deteriorate,” and he ended up on crutches. For four years, Robin relied on morphine to get through the day, but still felt like he was “going downhill.”
Then, things changed when he reached out to Mamedica, a private cannabis clinic in central London.
Great Britain legalized medical marijuana in 2018. The need for cannabis as medicine was highlighted by two cases involving children with severe epilepsy. Billy Caldwell and Alfie Dingley both used cannabis oil with low THC to treat their diseases.
Despite legalization, medical marijuana usage is low. About 17,000 registered medical marijuana patients usually use private clinics, not the NHS, because the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) does not recommend NHS physicians prescribe medical cannabis because of a lack of research proving its medicinal benefits.
For Robin, however, weed was a “life changer.”
"Within three weeks max, I wasn't using morphine, as it had started to kick in properly,” He said. “After five weeks, I thought, woah - I could get around, and everything was changing. The cannabis is much better than any morphine."
"Over the last six months or so, things have changed to such a huge degree,” Robin, who now only relies on a stick for walking, added. “I went out this weekend, and my granddaughters were shocked that I could dance. It's been a life changer."
Mamedica's managing director, Jon Robson, told the outlet there has been a spike of interest in their service, with even younger patients seeking medical marijuana to ease anxiety, stress, and depression, and now accounting for 40% of their prescriptions.
Jerusalem Post Israel News
Prof. Raphael Mechoulam, father of Israeli cannabis research, dies at 92
Bonno
March 11 - 2023
The Bulgarian-born scientist will be remembered for his many contributions to the field of medicinal cannabis.
When the Hebrew University of Jerusalem organic chemist Prof. Raphael Mechoulam was investigating cannabis (marijuana) in the 1960s, it was regarded as a psychoactive drug for getting high but that had no medical benefits.
Yet it so intrigued the Bulgarian-born researcher that he spent his academic life studying it and became a leading expert on medical
HU president Asher Cohen said that most of the human and scientific knowledge about cannabis was accumulated thanks to Prof. Mechoulam.
“He paved the way for groundbreaking studies and initiated scientific cooperation between researchers around the world,” he said. “Mechoulam was a sharp-minded and charismatic pioneer.”
He and his research team isolated ? 9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive chemical found in marijuana, an active ingredient that offers a variety of medicinal benefits including pain relief.
Today, medical cannabis grown and processed without the psychoactive effects has been formulated to provide symptom relief without the intoxicating, mood-altering effects connected to recreational use of marijuana. It is sold in pharmacies around the country, with more than 110,000 license holders according to the Israeli Medical Cannabis Agency (IMCA), operating under the auspices of the Health Ministry.
It is not only smoked but is available in the form of oil, powder, dried leaves and more. The drug is given to relieve not only severe and chronic pain, but also Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis and muscle spasms, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), HIV/AIDS, Crohn’s disease, epilepsy and seizures, glaucoma, severe nausea or vomiting caused by cancer treatment.
It has been prescribed even in a cocktail of low-dose-THC and a high-dose of cannabidiol (CBD) as an effective treatment option for managing symptoms associated with autism, leading to a better quality of life for both the patient and the caregivers.
When Mechoulam sought to obtain samples in the ’60s, he carried five kilos of “superb, smuggled Lebanese hashish” on a bus from Tel Aviv to Rehovot in the hope that he would not be apprehended. Still, cannabis research was easier to conduct in Israel than the more restrictive US.
His life
He was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, in November 1930, the son of a doctor and hospital director and a mother from a wealthy Jewish family. His father was taken by the Nazis to a concentration camp, and after the Communists took over parts of Bulgaria, he and his family emigrated to Israel in 1949, by which time Mechoulam had earned a degree in chemical engineering.
After his aliyah, he earned a master’s degree from HU in biochemistry, followed by a thesis on steroid chemistry to earn a doctorate at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot. After two years of postdoctoral studies at the Rockefeller Institute in Manhattan, he returned to the Weizmann Institute for five years and then returned to HU, where, in 1972, he became professor and the Lionel Jacobson Professor of Medicinal Chemistry three years later.He was named by HU as rector and then pro-rector, posts he filled for a total of six years.
In 1994, he was elected a member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and was one of the founding members of the International Cannabinoid Research Society and the International Association for Cannabinoid Medicines.
His 90th birthday was marked at a four-day symposium during the 31st International Cannabinoid Research Symposium, which Mechoulam helped to establish. It was held in Jerusalem for the first time.
Mechoulam received a large number of significant honors and awards. Twenty-three years ago, he was awarded the Israel Prize in Exact Sciences – Chemistry, and, more recently, the Harvey Prize of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa.
South Africa ‘Concedes’ on Outdoor Cannabis Production for Informal Cultivators
Bonno
10-03-2023
South Africa’s president, in brief remarks, has conceded to demands from Black and Indigenous South Africans. Informal outdoor cultivation and harvesting of cannabis will be allowed for those who have cultivated the crop for decades but don’t have resources for today’s strict licensing.
‘You know it’
“You know it”, “They have been growing this stuff for centuries”, “Its (money) has sent many children to school”, “And you know what stuff I am talking about” .… these were some of the coded words and phrases of Mr. Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s president, when he addressed his country’s parliament in the South Africa’s version of the US’s ‘state of the union’ speech on 9 February.
Effectively, the South Africa president conceded that, legal restrictions or not, Black inhabitants of South Africa were cultivating cannabis and what is occurring under the table or in hidden and unregistered greenhouses, must now be gradually allowed to flourish in open without lots of hindrance.
“There is no prize for second-guessing or interpretation of the president’s words,” Dikeledi Matla, chairperson of the Soweto Cannabis Alliance Forum, a lobby for Indigenous growers in South Africa, tells Cannabis Culture.
“The president of South Africa ultimately chose to bite the bullet and speak out the open secret that – cannabis cultivation is occurring even if his law enforcement officerstry to suppress poorer Black cultivators.”
Major climbdown
This is a major climb-down by South Africa on hemp and cannabis, adds Matla. Though cannabis cultivation was okayed in 2018 in South Africa, fury has grown that the so-called legalization has opened the door to wealthy Western corporations to get an unassailable grab at cultivation, yet thousands of poorer Black residents of South Africa who have farmed cannabis in the last 100 years remain restricted. Cannabis Culture has reported on everything from South Africa’s medical cannabis regulator doling out licenses at snail pace; levying high prices for licenses applications; Western corporate firms capturing most of the available cannabis cultivation licenses at the expense of Indigenous growers; police illegally smashing equipment in home greenhouses and countless South Africans seeing their career and immigration prospects throttled by years’ old cannabis possession ‘offenses.’
Yesterday’s relaxation words by the president changed everything, says O’brien Nhachi, a leading environmentalist and climate campaigner in southern Africa: “My suspicion is that the president advisors looked him into the eye and told him two stern facts: the delay on loosening cannabis laws will see fast-thinking neighboring countries leap-frogging South Africa in revenues and domestic supply chains growth, and secondly, there’s someday going to be a chaotic ‘cannabis revolution’ when the disadvantaged Indigenous growers start to defy restrictionist rules.”
Running out of options
For, Matla the industry player, the president’s warm words towards cannabis in his state of the nation address is born out of desperation. First South Africa’s economy is on its knees and its joblessness rate is the highest in the world. “The government is running out of social welfare money to hand out to millions monthly. Allowing the very poor to start thinking of small commercial cannabis gardens could take off the heat from the public purse and allow small-scale cannabis trades occur in the communities especially where the Black poor live.”
He thinks the South Africa president’s seemingly warm remarks on cannabis in February will likely see police increasingly turn a blind to small-time commercial growers who may not have licenses but can demonstrate that the crop they are cultivating is geared towards earnings for household finances and food security. “I must caution, it won’t be overnight, but I expect police to start being lenient towards needy growers,” Matla tells Bonno
‘No time to waste.’
The South Africa president’s warm words ought to be matched by robust action at state level, ideally, independent economist, Carter Mavhiza. “If I was the president, I would create a cannabis tsar in the South Africa agriculture ministry and say if you are growing cannabis for commercial trading and don’t have a license, there is a blanket amnesty for you if you come out and apply for a no-fee license and promise to keep proper accounting books.”
In South Africa – it is possible to match the president’s recent warm words towards cannabis only if partisan interests are cleared out of the way, says Matla the industry player. Chief among them, he says, are large corporate cannabis firms which he says would love to maintain market dominance for a while as the industry bubbles to growth and would not like to see a competition for land and labor from thousands of small-time growers doing the trade under the table.
“The large corporate growers in South Africa know that land, water and labor in cannabis will feel unease as interest in cannabis continues to grow. Hence, my suspicion from chats with other industry leaders is they (wealthy corporations) are happy for the government to charge high license fees for a while and keep small Indigenous competitors at bay, perhaps for the next ten years.”
More than 150,000 Americans die of alcohol abuse each year. But in more than 10,000 years of usage, no one has ever died from marijuana...
Get that powder ready for next week…
In What States Is Weed Legal Right Now?
Bonno
March 9, 2023
While some states have fully legalized both the medical and recreational use of cannabis, others only allow medical use, and some still have strict prohibition laws.
Despite federal restrictions on cannabis, many states have made significant strides in legalizing and regulating the plant for medical and recreational purposes.
While not all Americans have access to cannabis, 41 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia have established medical marijuana programs, with 23 of those states fully legalizing cannabis for adult use or decriminalizing it.
As of November 2022, here is a comprehensive and up-to-date list of the legality of cannabis and its products throughout the United States.
Alabama: Approved a medical marijuana program in 2021, but as of June 2022, there were no doctors certified to issue prescriptions, no licensed dispensaries, and no legal farming of cannabis products.
Alaska: Legalized medical marijuana in 1998, and since 2015, it has been legal to possess and sell cannabis in the state.
Arizona: legal medical marijuana since 2010, and recreational marijuana will become legal once a legalization measure overwhelmingly passed in the 2020 elections is certified.
Arkansas: Only allows medical marijuana, and cultivation is not legal.
California: The first state to legalize medical marijuana in 1996, and the sale of recreational marijuana was approved by voters in 2016.
Colorado: Legalized recreational cannabis in 2012, and it is also legal to privately grow up to six marijuana plants in the state.
Connecticut: Legalized recreational cannabis on July 1, 2021, and allows home cultivation beginning on July 1, 2023.
Delaware: Decriminalized marijuana in 2015 and legalized medical marijuana in 2011, but only a bill to legalize recreational marijuana sales cleared its first legislative hurdle in 2019.
Florida: Allows medical marijuana but not recreational, and Georgia only allows low-THC oil as part of its limited medical program.
Hawaii: Decriminalized recreational marijuana in 2019 and legalized medical marijuana.
RELATED: Grading Every State’s Medical Marijuana Program — How Well Did Your State Do?
Illinois: Legalized both medical and recreational cannabis, with the state legislature passing the law rather than a ballot initiative.
Iowa: Limited medical cannabis program with only processed cannabis products allowed for sale.
Louisiana: Approved medical marijuana, but only allows certain forms of cannabis for purchase. Maine legalized recreational cannabis in 2016, but retail stores have yet to open.
Maryland: Recently became the 20th state to legalize recreational cannabis, with the program set to go into effect in July 2023, while medical marijuana has been legal in the state since 2014.
Massachusetts: Legal for both medical and recreational use; no reciprocity with other states; adults can grow up to 12 plants.
RELATED: State-By-State Guide To Marijuana Related DUI Rules And Regulations
Michigan: Legal for both medical and recreational use; reciprocity with other states; adults can privately grow up to 12 plants.
Minnesota: Legal for medical use only; possession of small amounts is decriminalized; no reciprocity with other states; no home cultivation allowed.
Mississippi: Legal for medical use only; no operational program yet; limited reciprocity with other states; recreational use is illegal; possession of small amounts is decriminalized for first offense only.
Missouri: Legal for both medical and recreational use; no reciprocity with other states; sales for recreational use expected to start in December 2022.
RELATED: CannaMoms: The Key To Global Marijuana Legalization?
Montana: Legal for both medical and recreational use; no reciprocity with other states; residents can grow up to four plants at home.
Nevada: Legal for both medical and recreational use; reciprocity with other states; medical patients can grow up to 4 plants.
New Hampshire: Legal for medical use only; possession of small amounts is decriminalized; reciprocity with other states; cultivation is illegal.
New Jersey: Legal for both medical and recreational use; no reciprocity with other states.
New Mexico: Legal for both medical and recreational use; reciprocity with other states; home cultivation is allowed for up to six mature plants.
RELATED: 5 Surprising Benefits Of Legalizing Marijuana
New York: Legal for both medical and recreational use; no reciprocity with other states; public consumption allowed in some places.
North Dakota: Decriminalized marijuana possession and approved medical marijuana, while Ohio and
Pennsylvania: Approved medical marijuana and decriminalized possession.
Oklahoma: Approved medical marijuana and allows patients to grow their plants.
RELATED: State-By-State Guide To Cannabis Age Requirements
Oregon: Legalized legalized both medical and recreational marijuana and allows residents to grow their plants.
Rhode Island: Legalized both medical and recreational marijuana, and retail sales are expected to begin soon.
South Dakota: Approved medical marijuana but recreational use remains illegal after a challenge from the Governor.
Texas: Limited medical programs and possession are illegal except for those with medical permits.
Utah: Approved medical marijuana and decriminalized recreational use.
Vermont: Legalized both medical and recreational marijuana and allows residents to cultivate their plants
Virginia: Allows both medical and recreational cannabis use, with a possession limit of up to 1 ounce for adults.
Washington: One of the first states to legalize recreational cannabis, with medical cannabis also legal.
West Virginia: Medical cannabis is legal, but recreational use is not.
Washington DC: Allows medical cannabis and possession of up to 2 ounces of recreational cannabis, but the sale of recreational cannabis is still illegal.
Conclusion
As we have seen, the legal status of cannabis varies greatly across different states in the US. While some states have fully legalized both the medical and recreational use of cannabis, others only allow medical use, and some still have strict prohibition laws. However, the tide is turning, with more and more states moving towards legalization in some form.
As attitudes towards cannabis continue to shift and more research is conducted on its potential benefits and drawbacks, it will be interesting to see how these laws evolve in the future. Whatever happens, cannabis will continue to be a hotly debated topic in the US and around the world for many years to come.
Over the last couple of weeks, both marijuana advocates and opponents in the Sooner State have raised their voices, with significant opposition from GOP lawmakers.
They will protect children.
Bonno
09-03-2023
Oklahomans rejected the cannabis legalization proposal on Tuesday, some five years later after the state legalized medical marijuana. If it did pass, State Question 820 would have allowed adults 21 and older to purchase weed from licensed retailers and would regulate and tax the sales.
Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt (R), who doesn’t support adult-use marijuana legalization by any state, he rather believes the matter should be left to the federal government, was pleased with the voting results. On Tuesday, when the defeat was projected, he said: “I believe this is the best thing to keep our kids safe and for our state as a whole. I remain committed to protecting Oklahomans and my administration will continue to hold bad actors accountable and crack down on illegal marijuana operations,” reported The Washington Post.
Several weeks before the election in an interview published by Tulsa World, he said, “I believe the fed need to make a decision about marijuana,” wrote Cannabis Business Times. Though against a state-by-state marijuana policy, Stitt did allow for Tuesday’s special election, after the petitioners’ failure last fall.
Jeffrey M. Zucker, co-founder and president of Green Lion Partners and the vice chair of the board of the director of the Marijuana Policy Project, commented on the initiative’s failure: “Today’s decision in Oklahoma is heartbreaking, especially considering how many challenges this bill faced before it got to the ballot and how much work advocates put in. We have a long way to go to undo the damage of the war on drugs, especially in a state where more than 4500 people are arrested annually for cannabis possession.”
Advocates & Opponents Crossing Swords
Over the last couple of weeks, both marijuana advocates and opponents in the Sooner State have raised their voices, with significant opposition from GOP lawmakers. In addition to the state Gov. expressing his stance against cannabis legalization, US Sen. James Lankford (R) also recently urged the state resident to vote no on the measure.
One thing that also may have played a role in the outcome of the voting could be a recent report from Oklahoma’s Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (OBN), which revealed there’s a link between sex trafficking, prostitution, and drug trafficking and medical marijuana farms across the state.
Marijuana proponents, on the other hand, were very well familiar with the projected economic benefits that would come from cannabis legalization. Just recently, cannabis law firm, Vicente Sederberg issued a report on the economic impact of adult-use cannabis legalization, projecting that from 2004 to 2028, the state could see $821 million in combined medical and recreational taxes. Out of the total sum, the recreational market alone would account for $434 million. Under the proposed measure there would be a 15% state excise tax, standard state sales tax, and possibly local taxes.
For cannabis advocates, the battle is far from over. Organizers for Yes on 820 campaign to regulate cannabis in Oklahoma said in an email to The Washington Post that, despite the current failure “legalization is not a question of ‘if,’ it’s a question of ‘when.’”
“Our mission from the very start has been about making a more prosperous, just, and safer state,” said Michelle Tilley, campaign director for Yes on 820. “We are moms and dads who want more revenue in our schools, more resources for law enforcement, and more jobs and investment in communities across the state. Unfortunately, tonight we fell short.”
Legalization will go nowhere fast.
Look at Canada…
Years in the making and nowhere to go.
You need an open market like Thailand for cannabis to succeed.
A little tax number for cheap, everybody joins and market regulates itself.
Best weed wins and clients are chill.
lpees are growing stale & expensive bunk weed at scale that nobody wants.
Hence the billions lost.
Maga world.
Everybody is waiting for the us to open up for the same pump and dump.
You will have to be patient… lol
Tic toc.
DID PORTUGAL REALLY DECRIMINALIZE DRUGS?
Bonno
12-03-2023
Did Portugal really decriminalize drugs?
This seems like an obvious answer. In 2001, the European country decriminalized drugs. While possession and use were (and still are) technically illegal, the authorities treat it as a public health issue rather than a criminal offence.
The success of this program has prompted other jurisdictions, such as British Columbia, to try their hand at decriminalization.
However, there are substantial differences between the two. Whereas Portugal has over sixty therapeutic communities designed to eliminate addictive behaviour, British Columbia has zero of these communities.
Instead, the B.C. government is providing a “safe supply” brought to you by large pharmaceutical companies. The same ones that help foster the opioid crisis that requires this “safe supply.”
In B.C., if police catch you with decriminalized drugs, they hand over literature. In Portugal, authorities referred you to a “dissuasion commission.”
So did Portugal really decriminalize drugs? On the surface, yes. But as we experienced with COVID, making something a “public health” issue doesn’t mean you won’t be forced against your will.
Did Portugal Really Decriminalize Drugs?
Since 2001, Portuguese citizens caught with a small amount of illegal drugs for personal use aren’t arrested or given criminal records. Instead, police refer them to a “dissuasion commission” that consists of psychologists, social workers, and legal advisors.
The commission evaluates the individual’s drug use and decides whether they need treatment, education, or advice on reducing their drug use.
As Dr. Julian Somers told CLN, “They’re not saying overcoming addiction means not using drugs anymore. They say overcoming addiction means being socially reintegrated.”
The Portuguese recognized that it wasn’t drug use per se causing social problems. It was the individual’s relationship to drugs.
Cannabis connoisseurs are well aware of how little the pharmacology of the drug matters. When we consume cannabis, some experience joy, euphoria, or creativity. At the same time, others experience paranoia or anxiety. Some are social consumers, while others prefer to use cannabis alone before bed.
Since the Portuguese government accepted this fact about drugs, they were able to craft a decriminalization policy that worked.
But did Portugal really decriminalize drugs? Because decriminalization doesn’t mean anything if a “dissuasion commission” can compel you to behave or act in a certain way.
While the commission can impose fines, they cannot impose jail time or force people into treatment or rehab against their will. But they do confiscate your drugs. And in addition to fines, you may also be penalized with community service.
As opposed to B.C., where they let you keep your drugs and hand you literature, essentially telling you to “Just Say No.”
HAS PORTUGAL SUCCEEDED?
Portugal to decriminalize drugs
In 2001, Portugal’s overdose rates were similar to Europe’s. In the first five years of decriminalization, drug deaths dropped dramatically.
Since then, they’ve been steadily rising. While drug deaths in Portugal remain some of the lowest in the E.U., the overdose trend is similar to the rest of Europe.
Portugal also has some of the lowest drug use in Europe. However, many dispute the data behind Portuguese consumption rates.
Critics of Portugal’s decriminalization also argue that it has failed to address the root causes of drug addiction. Others have argued that it doesn’t go far enough.
Of course, it’s almost impossible to compare one country with another. According to the data, in 2015, there were 33,290 “high-risk” opioid users in Portugal. This is higher than the European average but lower than when Portugal decriminalized in 2001.
So whether Portugal’s decriminalization is successful will depend on your criteria.
But if a public health “dissuasion commission” can impose fines, strongly suggest treatment, or force you to do community service – can it really be said that Portugal decriminalized drugs?
Did Portugal really decriminalize drugs? Technically, yes. But not in the sense of decriminalization being synonymous with legalization. And certainly not in the sense that decriminalization will lead to legalization.
Decriminalization in Portugal was a public health policy. And as we learned from COVID, categorizing criminal behaviours as “public health” disorders isn’t always a step in the right direction.
We have centuries of criminal law and customs to draw from. A public health commission is politically biased. It lacks due process, transparency, and lacks procedural safeguards, such as the right to a fair trial or the right to an impartial tribunal.
Addictive behaviour is a mental health issue. Did Portugal really decriminalize drugs? Yes, but drugs weren’t the issue. The issue was demand, not supply. This is what B.C. has failed to understand.
Suppose the only other alternative to criminalization is the authority of public health busybodies. In that case, it’s not evident that decriminalization is the preferred choice.
A better option is to legalize all drugs.
I think it's super interesting that INCB presidents tend to lean into war-on-drugs paranoia until they are no longer INCB president -- then they join medical cannabis companies!
What changed from one day to the next?
No wonder they lose $ growing weed.
Cops, suits and politicians are the wrong duders for the job.
Home / Canada
Former UN drug policy chief joins Thai cannabis company as president
Viroj Sumyai has been hired as president of the Thai Cannabis Corp.
Bonno
09-03-2023
A former head of the United Nations body responsible for international drug treaty compliance has been hired as president of Thailand’s leading medical cannabis company, lending a significant voice to the global credibility of the industry, especially in Asia, according to experts.
Viroj Sumyai will take the reins of Thai Cannabis Corp., effective immediately.
“Over the last decade, the clinical effectiveness of medicinal cannabis has been scientifically proven,” Sumyai said in a statement.
Sumyai served as president of the U.N.’s International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) from 2017 to 2018, where he voiced criticism of nonmedical marijuana programs and even some “poorly regulated” ones.
Now, Sumyai said, Thai Cannabis Corp. aims to supply Thailand, and eventually the rest of Asia, “with safe, effective and affordable formulations of this ancient Thai medicine.”
International experts said Sumyai might help bring medical cannabis into mainstream circles around the world, especially within conservative bureaucracies.
“It adds credibility for international bureaucrats that have been hesitant on the file,” said Deepak Anand, CEO of Materia Ventures, an internationally focused medical cannabis company based in London.
“I think this will have a significant impact on Asia and how some Asian countries look at this. They have been predominantly concerned with the INCB and the U.N.,” Anand said, adding that this move is not expected to have an impact on recreational cannabis policy.
Julian Nabil Sarwat, an analyst at Vienna-based Cannabis Catalysts, told Marijuana Business Daily that Sumyai’s appointment could “lead to a strong competitive advantage for the company within the Thai cannabis industry, as well as internationally.”
“Viroj Sumyai is a domestically and internationally respected protagonist in the field of controlled substances, and he could strengthen the TCCs relationship to regulatory deciders and industry actors even further.
“He will undoubtedly provide the company with deep insights on effective compliance with international law,” Sarwat said.
Thai Cannabis Corp., founded in 2010 in Chiang Mai, has mostly acted as an informal adviser to Thailand’s government on medical marijuana policy.
Past opposition
As president of the Vienna-based agency INCB, Sumyai was highly critical of cannabis legalization for nonmedical use.
After the Canadian parliament passed adult-use cannabis legislation in 2018, he accused Canada of contravening international drug-control conventions.
“This decision contravenes the conventions and their overarching objectives of safeguarding the health and welfare of people,” he said at the time.
“INCB is very concerned about the public health situation in Canada, which will result from the government’s decision to legalize the nonmedical use of cannabis.”
In a forward in the INCB’s 2018 report, Sumyai took aim at some federally regulated medical programs.
Sumyai criticized “poorly regulated medical cannabis programs” – including Canada’s framework – that “may have contributed to the legalization of nonmedical cannabis use.”
Thailand market
Thailand established a legal footing for medical cannabis last year, and rapid regulatory developments are expected to continue in the months and years ahead.
However, experts note the full commercialization of the sector and liberal access for private businesses is unlikely to be implemented before 2024.
Still, initial steps taken in Thailand to liberalize medical marijuana control is seen as an important precedent for other Asian markets weighing similar moves.
A recent report by Cannabis Catalysts estimates that the Southeast Asian country’s wholesale medical cannabis market could be worth $46 million to $312 million by 2024, depending on a wide range of factors.
“The developing Thai cannabis industry and the government – although expecting high domestic demand – is aware of the international commercial potential of medical cannabis,” Sarwat of Cannabis Catalysts analyst told Bonno.
“This is reflected in the initial law on medical cannabis, which opened the door for exports right from the beginning.”
However, the report noted “a lack of regulatory specifications … Many aspects of the legal procedures are just not defined yet.”
The right man for the job if you ask me…lol
Akin to ex-head buster Chief of police Bill Blair,s Canuk canna “legalization” …
Ex Cop enjoying canna.
Criminal weed grower busted.
Home / Cultivation
Investor in cannabis firm Tilray suing former and current boards, ex-CEO
Bonno
09-03-2023
Tilray Brands is being sued by an investor who alleges the company’s former leadership led investors astray.
The shareholder specifically alleges that ex-CEO Brendan Kennedy and other former Tilray board members misled investors and that the current board failed to take appropriate action in response.
The shareholder’s derivative complaint against the Canada-based cannabis, alcohol and pharmaceutical distribution company was filed March 1 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
The plaintiff – Michael Hudson, a Tilray shareholder since 2018 – seeks a trial by jury.
Tilray did not immediately respond to Bonno,s request for comment.
According to the statement of claim, Tilray’s gross margin declined from 55% in the first quarter of 2018 to 31% in the third quarter.
To mollify shareholders, “the former directors deceived stockholders by both overstating inventory and understating labor costs (both inputs to cost of sales) – thus overstating gross margins,” according to the complaint.
The complaint, citing allegations in the pending lawsuit Kasilingam v. Tilray, alleges that Tilray misclassified unsellable trim – an industrial byproduct from processing cannabis – by wrongly valuing it at more than $40 million.
“Worthless” cannabis oil inventory was also allegedly overvalued.
“All told, defendant Kennedy (with the apparent acquiescence of the board) allegedly inflated the value of Tilray’s inventory by over $68 million … until March 2, 2020, when the company accurately wrote down 44% of its total inventory,” according to the complaint.
Co-branding deal key to suit
The complaint also alleges Tilray’s early 2019 co-branding deal with Authentic Brands Group (ABG) was meant “to prop up Tilray’s stock price,” again citing allegations in Kasilingam v. Tilray.
During negotiations for Tilray’s eventual merger with Aphria, the complaint charges, Kennedy – confronted with the prospect of Aphria’s due diligence – “disclosed the truth in January 2020 and announced that Tilray had renegotiated the ABG agreement,” subsequently writing down 86% of the deal’s value.
The complaint alleges that the ABG-related impairment, along with a major inventory write-down, caused an 18% decline in Tilray’s stock price over two days in early March 2020.
However, the complaint goes on to claim that Kennedy had earned more than $28 million selling Tilray shares and “timed his sales very well: he made most of his sales either within two weeks after he began making false statements or within about two months before the corrective disclosures.”
In February 2023, plaintiff Hudson issued a pre-lawsuit litigation demand to Tilray’s current board, seeking “an independent, reasonable, good faith investigation regarding the allegations.”
Hudson also asked the current board to take action against the former board and Kennedy “in order to protect the company’s interests and recover the serious damages caused to Tilray by their misconduct,” particularly as a statute of limitations for breach of fiduciary duty was due to expire in early March.
Specifically, Hudson asked the board to secure tolling agreements with the former directors, a move that would have temporarily suspended the statute of limitations.
However, the complaint claims that Tilray’s current board, now chaired by CEO Irwin Simon, “simply sat on its hands” and failed to make those agreements in time.
Board ‘acted recklessly’
The board “has either acted recklessly by failing to promptly take the reasonable, basic steps necessary to ensure that Tilray can timely assert its valuable claims, or worse … has deliberately (chosen) to ‘run out the clock’ and protect the company’s former directors from the consequences of their misconduct,” according to the complaint.
The complaint specifically alleges “breaches of fiduciary duties, unjust enrichment, and waste of corporate assets, and violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.”
Another stockholder derivative suit against Tilray management regarding the ABG deal was filed in 2020.
The company reported a net loss of $61.6 million in its most recent quarter and recently dropped its 2024 sales target.
Tilray shares trade as TLRY on the Nasdaq and the Toronto Stock Exchange.
South Africa ‘Concedes’ on Outdoor Cannabis Production for Informal Cultivators
Bonno
09-03-2023
South Africa’s president, in brief remarks, has conceded to demands from Black and Indigenous South Africans. Informal outdoor cultivation and harvesting of cannabis will be allowed for those who have cultivated the crop for decades but don’t have resources for today’s strict licensing.
‘You know it’
“You know it”, “They have been growing this stuff for centuries”, “Its (money) has sent many children to school”, “And you know what stuff I am talking about” .… these were some of the coded words and phrases of Mr. Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s president, when he addressed his country’s parliament in the South Africa’s version of the US’s ‘state of the union’ speech on 9 February.
Effectively, the South Africa president conceded that, legal restrictions or not, Black inhabitants of South Africa were cultivating cannabis and what is occurring under the table or in hidden and unregistered greenhouses, must now be gradually allowed to flourish in open without lots of hindrance.
“There is no prize for second-guessing or interpretation of the president’s words,” Dikeledi Matla, chairperson of the Soweto Cannabis Alliance Forum, a lobby for Indigenous growers in South Africa, tells Bonno.
“The president of South Africa ultimately chose to bite the bullet and speak out the open secret that – cannabis cultivation is occurring even if his law enforcement officerstry to suppress poorer Black cultivators.”
Major climbdown
This is a major climb-down by South Africa on hemp and cannabis, adds Matla. Though cannabis cultivation was okayed in 2018 in South Africa, fury has grown that the so-called legalization has opened the door to wealthy Western corporations to get an unassailable grab at cultivation, yet thousands of poorer Black residents of South Africa who have farmed cannabis in the last 100 years remain restricted.
Bonno has reported on everything from South Africa’s medical cannabis regulator doling out licenses at snail pace; levying high prices for licenses applications; Western corporate firms capturing most of the available cannabis cultivation licenses at the expense of Indigenous growers; police illegally smashing equipment in home greenhouses and countless South Africans seeing their career and immigration prospects throttled by years’ old cannabis possession ‘offenses.’
Yesterday’s relaxation words by the president changed everything, says O’brien Nhachi, a leading environmentalist and climate campaigner in southern Africa: “My suspicion is that the president advisors looked him into the eye and told him two stern facts: the delay on loosening cannabis laws will see fast-thinking neighboring countries leap-frogging South Africa in revenues and domestic supply chains growth, and secondly, there’s someday going to be a chaotic ‘cannabis revolution’ when the disadvantaged Indigenous growers start to defy restrictionist rules.”
Running out of options
For, Matla the industry player, the president’s warm words towards cannabis in his state of the nation address is born out of desperation. First South Africa’s economy is on its knees and its joblessness rate is the highest in the world. “The government is running out of social welfare money to hand out to millions monthly. Allowing the very poor to start thinking of small commercial cannabis gardens could take off the heat from the public purse and allow small-scale cannabis trades occur in the communities especially where the Black poor live.”
He thinks the South Africa president’s seemingly warm remarks on cannabis in February will likely see police increasingly turn a blind to small-time commercial growers who may not have licenses but can demonstrate that the crop they are cultivating is geared towards earnings for household finances and food security. “I must caution, it won’t be overnight, but I expect police to start being lenient towards needy growers,” Matla tells Bonno.
‘No time to waste.’
The South Africa president’s warm words ought to be matched by robust action at state level, ideally, independent economist, Carter Mavhiza. “If I was the president, I would create a cannabis tsar in the South Africa agriculture ministry and say if you are growing cannabis for commercial trading and don’t have a license, there is a blanket amnesty for you if you come out and apply for a no-fee license and promise to keep proper accounting books.”
In South Africa – it is possible to match the president’s recent warm words towards cannabis only if partisan interests are cleared out of the way, says Matla the industry player. Chief among them, he says, are large corporate cannabis firms which he says would love to maintain market dominance for a while as the industry bubbles to growth and would not like to see a competition for land and labor from thousands of small-time growers doing the trade under the table.
“The large corporate growers in South Africa know that land, water and labor in cannabis will feel unease as interest in cannabis continues to grow. Hence, my suspicion from chats with other industry leaders is they (wealthy corporations) are happy for the government to charge high license fees for a while and keep small Indigenous competitors at bay, perhaps for the next ten years Canada style.
Legacy always on top.
Crappy growth pumps thc content in order to TRY to sell bunk.
Doomed.
Ivman is all in.
Bonno
Health Canada is investigating complaints alleging inaccurately-labelled potency levels for some products sold by licensed pot producers, including Canopy Growth Corp.
The Smiths Falls, Ont.-based cannabis producer was called out by a rival in a complaint submitted to Health Canada's Cannabis Compliance Directorate last month.
According to a copy of the document obtained by Bonno the complaint centres on sales of Canopy’s TWD brand that displays a flat 20-per-cent tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) potency for 18 separate batches of its cannabis products.
"The statistical likelihood of this many lots coming back with identical test result potencies of precisely 20.0 per cent is extremely low, which leads us to believe Canopy is employing a static labelling approach," wrote B.C.-based Pure Sunfarms in the complaint. Pure Sunfarms is wholly owned by Village Farms International Inc.
"Our conclusion is further supported by conversations with some of our provincial partners who indicated that certificates of analysis they receive from Canopy on these products do not match the potency found on the TWD labels in question."
Aside from price, potency levels are one of the top criteria that Canadian cannabis users consider in their product purchases.
As a result, cannabis producers try to grow plants that yield potency levels above 20 per cent, which is believed to be the preferred minimum potency among Canadian marijuana consumers.
Canada's licensed producers currently have more than one billion grams of stale cannabis collectively stored in inventory, as they believe it is of insufficient potency or quality.
Executives from several producers, such as Tilray Inc. and Sundial Growers Inc., have frequently stated low THC potency as a weight on sales, resulting in either sizable inventory write-downs or missed revenue opportunities.
Cannabis companies are required to label the THC and cannabidiol (CBD) content and potency levels on the packaging for each respective lot or batch.
However, Canada's cannabis regulations don't set variability limits for THC or CBD for dried flower products. It does set criteria on how edibles and extracts potency can be labelled.
A Health Canada spokesperson told Bonno in an emailed statement that there is no variability limit for dried cannabis as potency levels vary between different parts of the plant as well as between plants within a specific lot or batch.
"All issues and complaints brought to Health Canada’s attention are taken seriously, including any issues with licence holder activities as they relate to the Cannabis Regulations.
If warranted, after further investigation, Health Canada would take appropriate action to correct any potential non-compliance," according to a Health Canada spokesperson.
When asked to comment on the Health Canada complaint, a spokesperson for Canopy Growth told Bonno in an emailed statement that the company complies with Health Canada’s labelling requirements.
"Flower strains must achieve a defined THC and CBD percentage potency. This percentage dictates how the product will be labelled – both as a brand and strain," the spokesperson said.
"The percentage is a representative midpoint of a narrow range of historical test results for that product and strain. Only strains that meet the product-specific cannabinoid targets, as tested both in-house and by independent third-party labs will be sold."
In an interview, Mandesh Dosanjh, chief executive officer at Pure Sunfarms?, said that regulators need to be clear about the rules about labelling cannabis potency to avoid any ambiguity that could be misinterpreted by Canadian licensed producers.
He said that providing flat or static potency figures on labels "flies completely in the face of what's written in the rules and regulations."
He added that Health Canada should create a testing standard that all third-party labs should abide by when calculating cannabis potency levels to avoid any possible discrepancies one lab may have compared to others.
"If we have misinterpreted it like 95 per cent of the industry, there's a significant cost disadvantage to labelling the exact percentage on the bag," Dosanjh said.
"If Health Canada is okay with that, there'd be a significant economic impact to us and many other producers as well as efficiencies in the supply chains of the retailers and the provincial boards."
Burn once twice shy.
Sleezy weed.
Cannabis
San Francisco has a new farmers market just for cannabis
Bonno
March 8, 2023
There's a new type of farmers market in San Francisco, but instead of buying fruits and vegetables, customers get to buy a famous California crop that is best enjoyed smoked.
This market is dedicated entirely to cannabis.
The new monthly event takes place at one of two downtown San Francisco dispensaries: Moe Greens on Market Street and Barbary Coast on Mission Street. The showcases allow customers to learn about dozens of different cannabis strains directly from the farmers who grow them.
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Last month, I visited the farmers market at Moe Greens for the second time. I’d been once before and was so impressed by the experience that I wanted to go again to confirm it wasn’t a fluke. It’s definitely the real deal: During both of my visits, I discovered mind-blowing pot, from weed that smelled so sweet and citrusy that I thought I was smelling fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice to a strain that was as rich as strawberries and cream.
Phil Crew, owner of Mendocino Family Farms, smokes a joint of his own cannabis during a recent farmers market.
I would have never found these strains without visiting the market. Both were grown by family-owned, boutique farms that struggle to get customers to notice their pot in California’s $5 billion legal cannabis market. Looking for this type of weed in most pot shops is like trying to find locally grown radicchio at a corner store.
The farmers market is the brainchild of Susan Tibbon, who teamed up with the owners of Barbary Coast and Moe Greens to create the “meet the farmers” series. Tibbon owns a cannabis topical brand called Lovingly & Legally with her partner Paul Hasbury. Their business and their farming partners were thriving in California’s medical market, Tibbon told me, but since California legalized recreational cannabis in 2016, they’ve noticed how the ensuing regulations make it almost impossible to support small-scale pot farming.
Tibbon said she’s been organizing the farmers market events to try to connect small farms with new customers. She's responsible for organizing which farms participate, and each month, she brings in about a half-dozen farmers to set up booths with jars filled with their weed, ready to be smelled and enjoyed.
“Everybody kept saying we need to do something for the small farmers, so we decided to do something,” Tibbon told SFGATE. “These are the real pioneers of the industry that get their hands dirty to make the genetics and the future of cannabis possible.”
At one of the recent Moe Greens markets, I felt like I’d found the future of cannabis when I smelled a strain called Forbidden Fruit, grown by Perrin Family Farm in Mendocino County. I was walking by the brand’s table when Russell Perrin, the farmer behind the one-man operation, asked me if I wanted to check out some of his pot. He opened up a mason jar, and as I leaned my nose in, I immediately knew I was going to buy some. The scent was sweet and sour like grapefruit, with some pine notes mixed in. It was that rare type of weed that’s so pungent that it smells artificial, but it’s just really good organic pot grown outdoors in one of California’s world-famous growing regions.
After I walked over to the sales counter at Moe Greens and bought some Forbidden Fruit, I rolled myself a joint of my new favorite flower. You can smoke what you purchase at these markets because the events take place in a consumption lounge. I used some of the lounge’s complimentary rolling papers, took a hit and smiled. Forbidden Fruit didn’t just smell good; the grapefruit came through clearly in the flavor of the smoke, a rare feat for even the best weed.
As I smoked my joint, I saw Perrin and the other farmers win over a bunch of new customers.
I saw a construction worker, still wearing his reflective jacket, take a whiff of Perrin’s Forbidden Fruit. His eyes immediately lit up. Three young women walked by, and after Perrin told them to smell the strain, one yelled, “That’s f—king wild!”
Across the room at Sun Roots Farm’s table, I watched owner and farmer Forrest Gauder show off a strain of cannabis that had beautiful purple buds and the fruity aroma of ripe papaya. He called it Magu’s Fruit, and he was showing it to another customer, Amber Belasco, as I walked up. “Isn’t she pretty?” Belasco asked me, referring to the cannabis flower.
“I like coming to Moe’s just for an after-work dab, and when I’m lucky enough to interact with a grower, I’m all about it,” Belasco told me. “... It’s just a really nice way to connect with people who are creating the cannabis that I love to enjoy.”
On the other side of the room, I watched as Phil Crew showed off eight different jars of what he called his “R&D projects” from his Mendocino Family Farm, which he owns and runs with his wife and two daughters. He opened each one and passed them to me so I could smell them, handing me a jar of GMO Cookies that reeked of garlic (yes, cannabis can smell like garlic) and then a sweet jar of Grapes and Cream that left me literally cheering.
Crew told me he’s been growing cannabis for more than 40 years and that he’d even risked his life because he was so passionate about the plant. In 1985, he was arrested in Calaveras County and charged with a felony for growing what the county said was $10 million worth of weed. He was convicted and spent a year in jail. When he got out, he came right back to growing cannabis. “There’s no one that I know that has such a love for this plant,” he told me.
Crew has the type of pot, and the origin story, that you think would be wildly successful in California. He won a gold medal last year at the California State Fair. But he said it’s been a struggle to stay in business in the state’s recreational market, where small farms are not legally allowed to sell their products directly to consumers. That means these boutique farmers have to compete with other companies worth as much as $100 million just to get shelf space at legal dispensaries. Imagine if Budweiser could block your local craft brewery from being able to sell its beer to you — that’s what’s happening with legal weed in California.
“This [GMO Cookies strain] sells itself. You would be out of your mind not to buy it. But it’s hard for me to get it into the stores, because so many people are trying to get into the stores that you get overlooked really easily,” Crew told me.
I have to admit that I, too, had overlooked Crew’s weed. I had never heard of it before I attended the farmers market. But he convinced me, so I purchased some and brought it home with me. It was flavorful and potent in a fun, enjoyable way. And it felt more special than my normal weed-buying experience, like I was making a squash soup with kabocha I had purchased directly from a farmer — showing that even in California’s massive and usually anonymous weed market, there’s still room for connecting directly with the person who grew your cannabis.
Tibbon said she's already seen customers returning to the events month after month. (The next event is scheduled for March 24 from 2 to 7 p.m. at Barbary Coast.) In particular, she said, market-goers appreciate the opportunity to support small-scale farmers who are growing environmentally friendly cannabis. "I've already talked to three people who said 'we're happy to see you guys are back [with another event],'" she told me at the Moe Greens market. "We want to buy weed from these people who are farming sustainably."
Stock market bunk weed is doomed once they run out of cash.
Making money is mui important for a capitalist venture.
Low THC Bunk weed is a bitch.
Grown for non users.
Time to scarf up more Tilray,s share before the word gets out.