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Malaysia plans to learn from the cannabis policy of neighboring Thailand in its effort to legalize use of the drug for medical purposes, a health ministry official said on Wednesday, in a country where possession can bring the death penalty now.
The comments came after the Thai health minister said he would meet his Malaysian counterpart during a meeting of APEC health ministers next week where Thailand will showcase its work in legalizing medicinal marijuana.
With a tradition of using cannabis to calm pain and fatigue, Thailand legalized medicinal marijuana in 2018, becoming in June the first Asian nation to decriminalize cultivation of marijuana and its consumption in food and drink.
DESIGNED TO FAIL BY BILL BLAIR!!!!
OCS MONOPOLY LEADS TO PRODUCT SHORTAGES
CALEB MCMILLANAUGUST 18, 2022
ALL ABOUT CANNABISBUSINESSCANNABIS CANADACANNABIS LEGALIZATIONCANNABIS NEWSCANOPY GROWTHEDITORIALFEATUREDINTERVIEWLATEST LEGALIZATION NEWSLAWMARIJUANA LEGALIZATIONMARIJUANA NEWSPOLITICSPOLITICSTHC NEWS0 VIEWS
Do you see what happens? Do you see what happens when you put all your cannabis eggs in one basket? You get a government monopoly called the Ontario Cannabis Store (OCS), which experiences a cyberattack which leads to product shortages.
The cyberattack has reinforced the belief among many that Ontario doesn’t need a central government planner. That, licensed producers of cannabis should be able to deliver direct to retailers without going through a central distribution system.
OCS Cyberattack Leads to Product Shortages
OCS Monopoly Leads to Product Shortages
Vivianne Wilson, the founder of GreenPort, a cannabis retailer in Toronto, said, “I lost thousands of dollars. That’s the reality.”
“Right now they have a complete monopoly on the industry. They don’t work with retailers as partners and that’s a huge failing,” she said. “Instead of building a system that can support the entire province, they’ve built a very tiny monopolized process that’s clearly inefficient.”
The province has only one distribution centre, located in Guelph, Ontario.
That means cannabis producers in, say, Thunder Bay, for example, must send their cannabis to Guelph before it can get shipped back to Thunder Bay to be sold at a local retailer.
That’s an almost 3,000-kilometre (or a nineteen hundred mile) round-trip. And for what reason? So-called “public health and safety.”
Wilson says this system is not “financially responsible or environmentally responsible.”
Wilson, like other retailers, says after this experience, the OCS monopoly needs to rebuild their trust.
Elisa Keay of K’s Pot Shop in Toronto said: “When you’re my only wholesaler, and you’ve got a firm grasp on who can get delivery and when we can get delivery, it leaves us zero options. We’re totally at their mercy.”
“I don’t like to order massive quantities of any one thing because I rotate a lot of things through, so when I get disrupted, it means that the shelves are going to be bare,” she said.
“It means that some customers are going to come in, shake their head, upset they’re not getting what they want and they’re going to go somewhere else because they don’t want to hear that it’s not my fault.”
OCS Monopoly Favours Big Business
OCS Monopoly Leads to Product Shortages
The OCS monopoly is favouring big business over smaller retailers. Whether intentional or not, that is the direct consequence of having a single monopoly distributor.
Larger retailers have been able to move their supply from slower-volume stores in smaller communities to higher-volume ones in the city.
Small businesses cannot do that. They are at a competitive disadvantage but not due to poor business decisions on their part. They’re losing thousands because of a cyberattack on the government distributor.
It’s similar to the Chinese-style authoritarian lockdowns Western leaders imposed on the populace in 2020 and 2021. The intent may have been “public health,” but the result was small businesses shutting their doors forever. At the same time, large companies like Amazon made record profits.
As economist Thomas Sowell wrote, “Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good.”
What works is private enterprise. What works is entrepreneurs competing with each other for customers. And with private property rights. The ability to conduct your business without some government bureaucrat breathing down your neck.
But when it comes to cannabis, Ontario went with what they thought sounded good. Government regulation, government distribution and government health and safety.
Or, to quote Sowell again, “It is hard to imagine a more stupid or more dangerous way of making decisions than by putting those decisions in the hands of people who pay no price for being wrong.”
The OCS will pay no price for this cyberattack. No one is losing their job. If anything, they’ll receive more taxpayer money to fend off future cyberattacks.
Solutions to the OCS Monopoly
Nima Derak of Leafythings calls the latest OCS cyberattack “disastrous.”
“Local Canadian cannabis growers and farmers have made up the independent supply chain for 40+ years,” she said. “They are members of the public, they are Canadians, and they have been neglected and removed from the current process. Canada is to marijuana cultivation as Belgium is to chocolate. Over-regulation and financial barriers coupled with monopolization of the cannabis supply chain in Ontario is causing major distress to independent Canadian growers and retailers and is locking them out from operating successfully.”
Adding, “The role of government should be held to regulating cannabis, not creating an unnecessary role as the distribution middle man.”
“It is not in the benefit of the Canadian taxpayer to take an industry that already existed, ignore it, and put a new system in place that ignores the other 50% of consumers. Let’s call it as it is: the OCS as the sole monopoly distributor and online store has acted only as another broken and redundant arm of the government.”
Nima Derak said she’d like to see a system where companies order directly from independent manufacturers. She says a system resembling how grocers get their food should be the goal. Some food goods come from the manufacturer. Others come from various, multiple, and competitive food centres.
“There is no way to put this in a politically correct fashion,” Derak says. “Cannabis is proven to be safer than many non-regulated household goods and medications, and it is time we start acknowledging this.”
OCS Response
OCS - Ontario Cannabis Store
OCS has not responded to CLN’s requests as of this publication.
However, OCS CEO David Lobo did release a statement:
“Our focus is now on working our way through the backlog of wholesale orders and getting trucks on the road delivering to Ontario‘s authorized retailers who count on us.”
“We are working urgently around the clock to get products on the shelves of as many retailers as quickly as possible. We again apologize to our retail customers for this disruption and are taking every measure to fulfil and ship orders promptly.”
In other words: we’re sorry you feel that way.
That’s not a genuine apology. And unless Mr. Lobo is visiting Premier Doug Ford with plans to dismantle the OCS monopoly, many cannabis small-business retailers don’t want to hear it.
The OCS monopoly has lived out its usefulness. If it was ever useful, to begin with.
Marijuana Is 67,200 Times Stronger Than It Used To Be (According To The Media)
By:
Dana Larsen
August 18, 2021
Marijuana Is 67,200 Times Stronger Than It Used To Be (According To The Media)
You've heard the warnings. Today's marijuana is stronger than ever! Weed used to be mild fun, now it's mind-blowingly potent and dangerous! Could it be true?
I've been running a personal trial of cannabis potency with heavy daily sampling since 1988, and my experience is that the holy herb is pretty much the same now as it always was. But what do I know? Maybe smoking dozens of phat joints a day for 12,000 days in a row has addled my mind to the point that I can't tell how much danker the ganja is now than it used to be.
I wanted to find the truth (with science!), so I analyzed 80 years of potency reports from scientists, law enforcement, politicians, and the media. I'm here to tell you that the numbers are in. Modern weed is actually 67,200 times more potent than it was in the 1930s. Damn, I just spoiled the ending. Read the article anyway?
Imagine my surprise; it turns out I built up my tolerance so much that I never noticed how cannabis flowers had gotten so potent that people can probably get a contact high just by looking at them. It's science! Read on and be amazed ...
1990s-2019: Tripling In THC-Ness
Way back in 2019, an era now known as the Before Times, Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams explained that cannabis had become three times stronger than it was in the '90s.
"This ain't your mother's marijuana. Not enough people know that today's marijuana is far more potent than in days' past." – Dr. Adams
US Surgeon General Jerome Adams in 2019
DHHS
Thinking about your mom smoking weed was the top health crisis of 2019.
If our weed is three times stronger now, then the stuff they smoked in the '90s must have been pretty soft? Let's see what they were saying about pot potency at the time.
1980s-1990s: 40 Times The Firepower
Joe Biden was the sleepy Senate Judiciary Committee chair in 1996. Here's what he had to say about the growing power of cannabis flowers back then. "It's like comparing buckshot in a shotgun shell to a laser-guided missile."
Boom. One toke of nineties weed could take out a neighborhood. I'm not sure what Biden's been up to since then, haven't heard much from the guy.
White Sands Missile Range
DHHS
The warhead is six pounds of primo Kush
We need solid numbers here, not vague military metaphors from some forgotten politician. What else do we got?
"Marijuana is 40 times more potent today than 10, 15, 20 years ago." – US Drug Czar Lee Brown, 1995
That's better. Real science demands real figures. 40 times more potent? I guess the stuff they were smoking back when RoboCop got started executing evil drug dealers must have been decaf.
So, what did they say about cannabis potency during the '80s?
1970s-1980s: Sevenfold Surge In Stonedness
Well, the '80s is when Reagan was informing his fellow Americans that cannabis was "probably the most dangerous drug in the United States." Nothing like telling kids that if they can handle a joint or two of the devil's weed, then meth and heroin should be a breeze.
But this isn't precise. Numbers, we need numbers.
"The potency of marijuana has increased sevenfold in the past eleven years. Smoking one marijuana cigarette now is equivalent to smoking seven cigarettes nine or ten years ago." – National Institute of Drug Abuse, 1986
Holy bong blasts, Budman! '80s weed was seven times more potent than it was in the '70s. If we do the math, this means our modern herb is 840 times stronger than the stuff Cheech and Chong were blazing in Up In Smoke. 840 is a double 420; talk about flower power.
Up in Smoke
Up in Smoke
“Did you hear that man? There’s no good weed until 2019!”
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1960s-1970s: 20 Times The Toketasticness
Surely this means that in 1975 they were smoking some extremely wimpy weed? Nope! As we know from the documentary series That '70s Show, schoolkids at the time were using wacky tobacky way stronger than what their stoner moms ever puffed on. Here's what the media was saying at the time:
"The grass kids are buying in the schoolyard parking lot for $10 a 'lid' is not what it used to be. The potency of the Jamaican Colombian variety is 15 to 20x stronger than our 1960s variety." – Paul Harvey, national columnist, 1975
What the hemp? 20 times stronger? So then the stuff they toked in the '60s must have been weaker than a bag of oregano, right?
Why would anyone even bother to inhale the fumes of smoldering cannabis buds when there were only teeny-tiny trace levels of THC? How did people enjoy the lyrics in Beatles songs before there was marijuana strong enough to appreciate them?
Yellow Submarine
United Artists
Oh yeah, they had LSD.
1930s-1960s: Quadriplication Of Cannabosity
"A more potent strain of marijuana - reportedly capable of addicting those who use it - is now being smuggled into the United States." – Associated Press story, 1967
Way back in 1967, they were warning about the new marijuana that was dangerously potent compared to the stuff they used to smoke in the good old days. This was the first time the "experts" started saying legalization shouldn't happen because of a new, more potent cannabis variety.
The Associated Press didn't give a number for the increase in strength, so for our mathemagical purposes, we'll be conservative and assume that the new, "addictive" marijuana of the '60s was only twice as potent as the non-addictive, mild stuff from the '50s.
Mad Men
AMC
It still took several seconds for the Janis Joplin to kick in.
Well, the cannabis from the '40s must just have been some kind of placebo then? Not according to Narcotics Bureau agent John Tully, who said the newly developed varieties of marijuana in 1947 were stronger than ever:
"The Mexican crop of stronger, newly developed marijuana weeds... is believed to relax muscular and mental tension, and permit musicians to play faster." – St. Louis Globe-Democrat, 1947
Rehearsing for the violin concert
Chuttersnap/Unsplash
This is why we need drug testing for competitive orchestra.
Agent Tully goes on to say that this new, more potent pot was being peddled to "musicians and youthful juke-joint hangers on ... by the Al Capone of the St Louis tea business." He explains that "corrupted teen-agers" could be found "swaying and chanting to the music of 'jive' recordings."
Again, they don't give an exact multiplier, so we'll conservatively assume the "stronger, newly developed marijuana weeds" of 1947 were only twice as potent as the broke old stuff from the '30s.
Get Out The Cannacalculator
Okay, let me spark up a joint and do the cannaculations; I only know mathijuana, so bear with me here. Two doublings of dankitude equals a quadrupling in cannabosity, times twentyfold toketasticness makes four twenties. That potiplied by a sevenfold surge in stonedness times 40 shotgun blasts with a further tripling in THCness makes a sum of four twenties plus four twenties times 420. Wow, nice how that worked out.
Calculator
The mathemagical cannacaulator never lies.
In layman's terms, that's 2 x 2 x 20 x 7 x 40 x 3 ... thus, it's clear as a cloud of sweet sativa smoke that one modern cannabis cigarette is the equivalent of precisely 67,200 cannabis cigarettes from the 1930s!
I know, I shouldn't have told you the total back at the beginning; I got too excited and ruined the big reveal!
Still, that 1930s stuff must have been like a bucket of moldy hempseed compared to our modern mind-melting megajuana. Seems weird that Jamaicans would start a whole religion in the 1930s based on how much they loved smoking ganja, considering how undank their nugs must have been.
I wonder what the media was saying about marijuana in the 1930s?
Reefer Madness
G&H Productions
That wackass pseudo-pot from the 1930s was some powerful stuff – "a deadly scourge that drags our children into quagmires of degradation."
After banning the kind buds for almost a century, what have we accomplished? Now weed is 67,200 times more potent than the insanity-inducing hell herb our great-great-grandmothers used to smoke. Scandalous.
All of this makes me wonder, what the heck were these fellow travelers toking on 2500 years ago?
Washington Post
Postscript: The Peculiar Problem Of Pot Potency
Now that my buzz has worn off a bit, there are a few final points here worth considering when it comes to measuring the precise potency of dried cannabis flowers.
While the lovely letters THC followed by a number and a percentage sign might seem simple and precise, the reality is that cannabinoid claims are incredibly complex and open to a great deal of interpretation. There are many reasons to question how meaningful any of these THC tests really are in the end. Well, there are six reasons actually, and I'm going to quickly explain them to you now, in list form.
I bet you didn't expect to find a surprise listicle hidden all the way down here, but hey, hey, today's your lucky day! It's my bonus gift to you for making it this far.
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6
Varying Samples
Trying to determine a pattern from decades of test results can be deceiving. Some samples are from live plants cut down before they were ready to harvest. Sometimes early cannabis samples had been slowly degrading in a police storage locker for years before being analyzed. Some years a big seizure of particularly high or low potency cannabis could skew the average. When you take these factors into consideration, some researchers even see a decline in potency during years that others claim potency was rising.
Related: 5 Wild Things I Learned Analyzing 23,000 Illegal Drugs
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5
Seeds And Sinsemilla
When cops seize a batch of bud with seeds in it, the lab doesn't take out the seeds before analysis; they grind it all up together and measure the overall THC level in the blend. This will produce a much lower potency result for the batch, even though once the user had picked out the seeds, the cannabis buds themselves might actually be high quality. Sure, seeded weed is less potent by weight, but the user experience would be the same in the end.
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Unseeded "sinsemilla" marijuana only started to emerge in the early 1980s and took decades to become widespread. (To produce sinsemilla, male plants must be pulled out before they can release pollen to fertilize the female flowers. Without seeds, the female buds will produce more resin by weight.) If the cops seize an outdoor crop that has male plants, they also go into the mix.
D-Kuru/Wiki Commons
Giving mixed weed its seedy reputation.
A report from the scientists who analyze cannabis confiscated by the cops confirmed that the only reason they found an increase in average pot potency from 1995-2014 was because the DEA had been seizing fewer male plants and fewer seeded buds. "The increase in the proportionate number of sinsemilla samples has been the cause of the overall increase in potency."
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4
Testing Methods:
Different methods of analysis can also produce different results. It turns out the "gas chromatography" method used for decades to analyze cannabinoid levels can destroy THC while heating up the sample, producing an inaccurately low result. Many labs now use liquid chromatography instead. This makes it hard to meaningfully compare results from different eras when they have been using different methods and technologies.
Related: 5 Awful Torture Methods (Invented For Humanitarian Reasons)
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3
THC Inflation:
Modern marijuana marketers are motivated to get the highest THC test results they can, so they can charge a higher price for what is presumably a more mind-melting product. This has resulted in "THC inflation" as legal pot producers shop around for a lab that will give them the test result they want and is giving the false impression of brain-bogglingly high THC levels in some commercial cannabis flowers. Sadly, claims of inaccurate tests, fraud, corruption, and completely fake results are widespread in the cannabis testing industry, rendering any claims about modern THC trends completely meaningless.
Related: How to Deal With Someone With Inflated Self Esteem
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2
Other Cannabinoids
THC level doesn't actually equate to potency, as it's just one of dozens of cannabinoids with complex interactions and psychoactive effects. Blind judging and scientific studies are showing that the cannabis with the highest level of THC is not always considered the strongest or most desirable by users.
The "entourage effect" is a term used to describe how the mix and ratios of many varied cannabinoids are more important than any one in particular. There are also aromatic molecules in marijuana called terpenes which have therapeutic and additive effects with cannabinoids in ways we're still coming to understand. So just pointing to THC level doesn't really say anything definitive about the user experience.
HBO
The Entourage Effect: Cannabinoids are nothing without their cannabros.
Related: 6 Slacker Behaviors That Science Says Are Good For You
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1
Extracts And Edibles
Humans have been making cannabis flowers into a potent hash and oil extracts for a very long time. High Times magazine was advertising the "Isomerizer" home cannabis oil extraction kit from their first issues in the 1970s, based on extraction technology from the 1800s. Gram for gram, these concentrated cannabis products will always be substantially more potent than the buds they were made from.
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Plus, as long as there have been people inhaling cannabis, there have been people eating it. Cannabis edibles are well-known to cause psychoactive effects far more intense than even the most epic bong hit. All of this means that it's always been pretty simple to produce powerfully potent pot products from "low potency" cannabis if you really want to.
By the way, even if cannabis was somehow a zillion times stronger now than it used to be, so what? That would just mean you don't need to use as much to get the same enjoyable effect.
Dana Larsen has sold more marijuana to more people than you have. He wrote a book about The History of Cannabis in Canada and another one called Hairy Pothead and the Marijuana Stone. He tweets about stoner stuff at twitter.com/DanaLarsen.
Top Image: D-Kuru/Wiki Commons
Replying to
@matt_lamers
and
@MJBizDailyCAN
But cannabis-related charges are way down in Canada compared to before legalization.
2019-2021: 6,259 cannabis-related charges
2017: 47,992 cannabis-related offences
2016: 55,000 cannabis-related offences
Cannabis Amnesty Retweeted
Matt Lamers ????
@matt_lamers
Thousands still being added to this list every year. RCMP laid 6,259 cannabis-related charges since legalization in Canada since late 2018.
2019-20: 3,139 charges
2020-21: 3,120 charges
Scientists observed fewer cases of avian bronchitis and superior meat after chickens given cannabis
A Bangkok restaurant.
A chicken and rice restaurant in Bangkok. The cannabis-fed chickens will sell for a higher price at the farm’s restaurant in Lampang. Photograph: Bonno/EPA in Bangkok
Wed 15 Jun 2022 15.32 BST
It all began when Ong-ard Panyachatiraksa, a farm owner in the north of Thailand who is licensed to grow medicinal cannabis, was wondering what to do with the many excess leaves he had amassed. He asked: could his brood of chickens benefit from the leftovers?
Academics at Chiang Mai University were also curious. Since last January they have studied 1,000 chickens at Ong-ard’s Pethlanna organic farm, in Lampang, to see how the animals responded when cannabis was mixed into their feed or water.
The results are promising and suggest that cannabis could help reduce farmers’ dependence on antibiotics, according to Chompunut Lumsangkul, an assistant professor at Chiang Mai University’s department of animal and aquatic sciences, who led the study.
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Chompunut observed the chickens to see what impact cannabis had on their growth, vulnerability to disease, and to see if their meat and eggs were different in quality, or if they contained cannabinoids. The animals were given the plant in varying intensities and in different forms – some were given water that had been boiled with cannabis leaves, while others ate feed that was mixed with crushed leaves.
No abnormal behaviour was observed in the chickens, Chompunut said: “At the level of intensity we gave them, it wouldn’t get the chickens high.”
The levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the plant’s psychoactive substance which makes people feel high, and cannabidiol (CBD), a compound that does not give users a high, in the leaves ranged from 0.2 to 0.4%. “I try to find the suitable level for them that could help them to improve immunity and performance without any bad effects,” said Chompunut.
The results are yet to be published but Chompunut has observed positive signs. Cannabis-supplemented chickens tended to experience fewer cases of avian bronchitis, and the quality of their meat – judged by the composition of protein, fat and moisture, as well as its tenderness – was also superior.
The medicinal and cooking benefits of cannabis have long been recognised in Thai tradition, said Chompunut: “It is the local wisdom of Thai people to use cannabis [leaves] as a food additive – mixing it as an ingredient to make chicken noodles. People put it in the soup to make it taste better.” She wanted to investigate the science behind such practices.
Villagers eat marijuana-infused chicken Tom Yum soup in Nakhon Pathom province, Thailand.
Villagers eat marijuana-infused chicken Tom Yum soup in Nakhon Pathom province, Thailand. Photograph: Rungroj Yongrit/EPA
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Thailand has relaxed its laws on cannabis over recent years, first legalising marijuana for medical purposes and later allowing companies to sell products infused with hemp and CBD. This month, the Thai government removed cannabis and hemp plants from its narcotics list, although the public has been warned not to smoke in public. Extracts that contain more than 0.2% of tetrahydrocannabinol remain illegal.
Officials say they want to boost agriculture and tourism by tapping into a growing interest in infused food and drinks, and medical treatments.
It is not clear why the cannabis had positive effects on the chickens, said Chompunut. It’s possible the bioactive compounds in cannabis may have stimulated the chickens’ gut health, immunity and thereby enhanced their performance elsewhere.
Further investigation is needed to observe if cannabis could replace antibiotics in chicken farming, Chompunut said. She is planning a second study that will use cannabis extracts with a higher intensity to observe what impact this has on disease and fatality rates among the chickens.
Thai activists rally in Bangkok in April to promote the legalisation of marijuana for recreational use
Thailand to ease cannabis rules but smokers warned over smell ‘nuisance’
Read more
“The trend of [rearing] chicken these days is going forwards to cleaner, more organic growing with less antibiotic usage,” she said. There is also a desire to make use of byproducts and to produce less waste. Using cannabis in chicken farms could help achieve such goals, said Chompunut.
Ong-ard said the price of cannabis is still too high in Thailand for farms to easily incorporate it into chicken feed, but that recent legal reforms may change that. “As time goes by and we can grow more, it’s going to get better,” he said.
The chickens that have been fed with cannabis will sell for a higher price at the farm’s restaurant, he added. Chicken generally sells for 60 baht (£1.40) per kg, he said, but his chicken would go for double.
There are no traces of cannabinoids in the chicken meat or its eggs, however, according to Chompunut’s findings.
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It's time to erase cannabis convictions
Cannabis was legalized nearly four years ago. Why are past convictions for simple possession only being pardoned?
Bonno
August 16, 2022
(Illustration by Pete Ryan)
Annamaria Enenajor is a litigator at Toronto’s Ruby Shiller Enenajor DiGiuseppe, Barristers, where she practices criminal defence, regulatory, constitutional and civil law. She is the founder and executive director of the non-profit Cannabis Amnesty.
In late may, Health Canada approved a three-year pilot project in British Columbia that will effectively decriminalize the possession of small amounts of drugs, like opioids, MDMA, methamphetamines and cocaine, in the hopes of curbing overdose-related deaths. The program takes a more compassionate approach to addiction than the punitive one favoured by governments in the past. This decision makes me feel hopeful much in the same way as I did four years ago, just before cannabis was legalized. Back then, the Trudeau government said it intended to adopt a similar public-health approach to the drug. I thought, This is a wonderful opportunity to undo all the harms that have been caused by criminalization. But when I got around to reading through the Cannabis Act, I was disappointed to see that it made no effort to address the unequal enforcement of cannabis law among racial groups. It also left past possession convictions intact—for everyone—when those convictions should have been eliminated altogether.
The news was all about stocks, speculation and how much money would be made in the forthcoming green gold rush. I wanted to say, “Well, this is actually a piece of criminal legislation.” In advance of legalization, I worked with friends and activists on an awareness campaign designed to take focus away from profit and return it to the lives that had been destroyed or put on hold because of cannabis-related criminal convictions. In April of 2018, we founded Cannabis Amnesty, which began as a petition project to push the government to expunge the records of all individuals with cannabis possession convictions. We’re still working on it.
A charge of simple possession means that a person had drugs on them, but no intent to traffic. Even after legalization, the consequences of having this conviction on one’s record are huge: people can’t get jobs, can’t take out loans, can’t volunteer for their kids’ soccer teams and can’t cross the border. In cities like Ottawa, where police services offer “crime-free multi-housing” programs, a prior cannabis conviction can prevent someone from qualifying to live in certain public-housing properties. The Prime Minister himself admitted to using cannabis while he was a sitting member of Parliament and faced no punishment. Meanwhile, my clients’ lives—and the lives of thousands of Canadians—continue to be disrupted by crimes of the past.
Canada has taken some positive steps toward righting this wrong: in 2019, thanks to Bill C-93, the federal government began allowing those with a criminal record for simple possession of cannabis to apply for expedited record suspensions, or pardons. (As of March, 852 applications had been submitted to the Parole Board, and only 536 suspensions were issued. An estimated 250,000 Canadians have convictions for cannabis possession.)
Bill C-5, which cleared the House of Commons in June and will be studied in the Senate this fall, is a step in the right direction. It would remove mandatory minimum sentences for a number of drug offences, and would automatically sequester records related to all simple possession convictions two years after the passage of the bill. This could be good news for hundreds of thousands of Canadians, and is in the same general vein as what I’m proposing—but it doesn’t go far enough.
There is a difference between these proposed pardons and full expungements. A pardoned offence—while not visible on, say, a background check done by an employer—can still be reinstated by the Parole Board of Canada in certain cases. Bill C-5 offers free and automatic pardons, but it is not a permanent wipe.
What I’m proposing is true amnesty, which means the deletion of all criminal records relating to simple cannabis possession offences, at no cost and with no application. Even with recent fee reductions, down from $631 to $50, pardon applicants are also still required to pay for the ancillary costs associated with their applications. This includes paying to get their fingerprints taken, ordering certified copies of court documents and undergoing local police checks, all of which can cost up to $250, depending on the jurisdiction.
To make these expungements happen, our system for storing and retaining criminal records requires a major overhaul. These records are not contained in a single database, which is a major problem. Some are kept locally and some are kept provincially. Some are stored electronically and some are scattered among boxes in warehouses. Others are available to the American government via the Canadian Police Information Centre, which is our national repository of all criminal information. In fact, for most Canadians, the worst consequences of lingering simple possession charges relate to travel. A Canadian pardon means nothing to the American government; you’re still a criminal in its eyes. Expungements would, of course, eliminate the need for this consolidation—but you can’t delete something if you don’t first know where it exists.
Cannabis amnesty is also a gateway to broader reforms in the criminal justice system. In 2015, when I started working in criminal defence, I noticed that law enforcement treated a lot of my Black clients—particularly Black men—much more harshly for possession and consumption of cannabis than clients who were white. Police officers have a lot of discretion in how they handle drug cases, particularly for “victimless crimes,” like people enjoying cannabis on a medicinal or recreational basis. Cannabis use is relatively equal across racial groups. Yet in Halifax, for example, Black people were four times more likely to be charged, pre-legalization, than white people for cannabis possession; in Vancouver, Indigenous people were nearly seven times more likely. Outcomes within the criminal justice system are not just about individual actors and their individual responsibilities for individual acts. They are also the result of historical, political and socioeconomic realities—especially in the case of drug crimes.
The existence of new legislation like Bill C-5 shows that people are starting to question the way we think about drugs. We used to see addiction as a failure of character. Reality is much more complicated than that. Many substance users are dealing with mental illnesses that are genetic in nature. Some are reckoning with childhood abuse or sexual and gender identity issues that they are unable to process in hostile environments. In the past couple of years, we’ve been forced to look at the legacy of colonialism and how it’s created trauma that is too difficult for communities of colour to bear. I think we’re heading toward a point where, when we see someone dealing with an addiction to drugs or alcohol, our first question isn’t “Why the addiction?” but rather, “Why the pain?”
Judges and lawyers see the same people— and the same addictions—in and out of the same courtrooms day after day. It’s clear that we can’t fix everything with criminal law, and we need to stop trying to, with cannabis or any other drug or socio-economic issue. People don’t deserve to be punished in perpetuity for something they’ve already served time for, and in the case of cannabis, something that is now legal. We should clear these records. And now is the moment.
Drinks will save Crappy Growth from doomness... lol
Fact is drinks are non healthy.
Drink is not what folks want.
Drinks are for newbies... (read : no sales).
They might purchase a Martha on their way out but.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, legacy,s pumping out AAAA bulk for cheap.
Act now if you really care for mankind!
https://cannabisamnesty.ca/legalizeus/
Breeder Steve
@breeder_steve
·
Aug 16
Possibly the worst advice I've seen on twitter is for Colombia to copy the California model of cannabis regulations.
They definitely haven't talked to any Cali growers.
Did you know that my crew and I were advising the Colombian gov in 2016?
The Santos gov was being enthusiastically reasonable at the time, but Duque's dismal chumps poisoned it shortly thereafter.
The same friend who set this up has just asked me to advise the new gov, too.
Breeder Steve
@breeder_steve
Replying to
@marijuanacomau
I do it freely, because I have seen and operated under more incarnations of regulations than most, and I know how it plays out, whichever paradigm they choose.
Obviously, I lean to leaving the people alone, but can tolerate a few concessions, as long as it's inclusive.
7:14 PM · Aug 16, 2022·Twitter for Android
Marijuana
@marijuanacomau
·
22h
Replying to
@breeder_steve
We need #AUSPOL to start listening to new voices that are not aligned with the broken pharma 1st model that was being pushed by the previous (now proven to be corrupt) government. Social equity and access need to be the priorities of cannabis policy. ??#HomeGrowAmnesty #SAPARLI
Tomas Maldonado E
@TomasMaldonadoE
·
11h
Replying to
@breeder_steve
?? hope they take your good advise
Followed by some Tweeters you follow
Captainelk
@FisforPhrank
·
4h
Replying to
@breeder_steve
You look great in a suit!
Steve does it again. Dude is a hard working straight razor duder.
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Breeder Steve
@breeder_steve
Amazingly, yesterday alone I agreed to 7 new production projects.
- 2 more in Thailand
- 5 more in Colombia (Sucre, Boyacá, Cundinamarca, Magdalena, Cali)
Minimum of 100kg monthly per site to start.
My % take (of gross sales or actual product) climbs with milestones achieved.
Breeder Steve
@breeder_steve
See new Tweets
Breeder Steve
@breeder_steve
Cannasseur.
Bred fine Cannabis, 89-03, 2017-???? #sweetskunk #sweettooth #shishkaberry #tropicaltreat #tropicanna #bluedomino #blockhead #strawberryblonde #NP4P
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Peter Grinspoon, M.D.
@Peter_Grinspoon
·
19h
“there is something very special about illicit drugs. If they don’t always make the drug user act irrationally, they certainly cause many nonusers to behave that way.” -- Dr. Lester Grinspoon
(I love this quote from my dad.)
#cannabis #psychedelics
Where does the Colombian product go?
1:32 PM · Aug 16, 2022·Twitter for iPhone
Breeder Steve
@breeder_steve
·
Aug 16
Replying to
@kmaxtastic
Those 5 new ones are destined for adult Colombians (and visiting adults) under the coming regime.
My separately licensed med project down there, once EU GMP certified, will be exporting just about everywhere possible, crashing prices with mechanized production.
Breeder Steve
@breeder_steve
·
Aug 16
Replying to
@kmaxtastic
Those 5 new ones are destined for adult Colombians (and visiting adults) under the coming regime.
My separately licensed med project down there, once EU GMP certified, will be exporting just about everywhere possible, crashing prices with mechanized production.
Breeder Steve
@breeder_steve
·
Aug 16
Each place will be for different flavours, but they will all be available direct to consumers (legally/domestically) through the same website.
Breeder Steve
@breeder_steve
·
Aug 16
Each place will be for different flavours, but they will all be available direct to consumers (legally/domestically) through the same website.
Breeder Steve
@breeder_steve
·
Aug 16
I may divest myself of the licensed projects I have in heavily regulated regimes. They're worth something, but not worth the red tape, to me, any longer.
For this old goat it's time to #MakeCannabisFunAgain!
Legacy tules.
Breeder Steve
@breeder_steve
Amazingly, yesterday alone I agreed to 7 new production projects.
- 2 more in Thailand
- 5 more in Colombia (Sucre, Boyacá, Cundinamarca, Magdalena, Cali)
Minimum of 100kg monthly per site to start.
My % take (of gross sales or actual product) climbs with milestones achieved.
1:31 PM · Aug 16, 2022·Twitter for Android
Health Canada is not canna friendly folks, never was.
Forced to act by legacy,s many COSTLY court challenges.
LP,s still waiting on Ottawa,s bureaucrats… lol
whereismysixpack.ca
Thanks for the tip, but i will keep on reporting from legacy.
Those big boys as you called them are boneheads without a clue. I,m done with them assholes. I live high not down.
I,m done sitting at some Bill Blair bs or this Ottawa bureaucrat.
They have set it up to fail and it does fail!
Emery, Larsen, Lawyers, Legacy Growers were all there every day for 3 real costly OTTWA months, all for nada.
Columbia has legalized the right way.
No permit to grow/sell needed. Everybody wins.
Thailand is doing ok.
Apart for Fowler, all lp,s CEO are canna naive & boring as shit.
I only find confort in legacy farmers & heads.
Thanks to all the home growers pushing the enveloppe.
Croptober is coming big time. Light Dep dudes are on 2 crop.
They blew it making cannabis a stock market caper.
Doomed!
Cannabis News
CANNABIS
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THE COVID CANNABIS BUBBLE HAS POPPED
CALEB MCMILLANAUGUST 15, 2022
BUSINESSCANNABIS 101CANNABIS CANADACANNABIS LEGALIZATIONCANNABIS NEWSFEATUREDMARIJUANA LEGALIZATIONMARIJUANA NEWSPOLITICSTHC NEWS63 VIEWS
In March 2020, when governments worldwide – even in so-called “liberal democracies” – put their citizens under house arrest, people started consuming many more substances, including cannabis.
This boom was artificial, though. Fuelled by stimulus checks, unemployment insurance, and general fear and hopelessness about the future – the great cannabis boom of 2020 is now over.
Sales are softening, retail businesses are closing their doors, financing is drying up, and consumer demand has returned to pre-covid levels.
In other words, the COVID cannabis bubble has popped.
What the Data Says
The COVID Cannabis Bubble has Popped
The data comes from Headset, which uses real-time sales reporting by cannabis retailers using their point of sale systems.
What they found was staggering. U.S. cannabis markets in Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington are declining in year-over-year sales growth.
From March 2020 to 2021, Colorado’s sales grew by 25.8%. In the first few months of 2020, Colorado saw a 63% increase.
But now, average monthly year-over-year sales in Colorado have declined by 11.3%.
The same is true in Oregon. Despite a 36.6% year-over-year growth between March 2020 and March 2021, Oregon has been experiencing recent declines of up to 20%.
Yet, despite these declines, the long-term trends are showing positive growth. The data shows that there was indeed a COVID cannabis bubble. One that has now popped.
The COVID Cannabis Boom Bubble
The COVID Cannabis Bubble has Popped
The above graph looks at monthly sales in Colorado, Nevada, Oregon and Washington before and after the first year and a half of COVID.
As we can see, cannabis sales exploded in the first six months of the pandemic. Colorado’s sales grew by 63% compared to 43% in 2019 over the same period.
Sales remained high through the rest of 2020. There was a surge of growth in Q2 2020, followed by continuous 20% to 40% year-over-year increases into early 2021.
But then sales started to decline.
COVID Cannabis Bubble Begins to Deflate
In the second half of 2021, especially in the United States, COVID was retreating into the background. Governments lifted restrictions, stimulus cheques dried up, and the sense that it was the end of the world faded from memory. Life began to return to some semblance of “normal.”
And cannabis sales began to drop. This trend continued into early 2022. During Q2 2021, year-over-year growth began to plummet as sales stabilized.
By July 2021, Colorado, Oregon and Washington experienced negative year-over-year growth, with Nevada and California joining soon after.
You can see from the graphs how dramatic this increase was during 2020 and what it means now that sales are returning to pre-pandemic levels.
It may look as if sales growth since June 2021 sits at -10%. But the long-term trends are hopeful.
What if the COVID Cannabis Bubble Had Never Happened
Somewhere in an alternate universe, there’s no First World War and no Federal Reserve. So the remaining 20th century is one of prosperity, innovation, and liberty instead of constant wars, genocide, and centralizing states.
In this alternate universe, no sane citizen of a republic or constitutional monarchy would permit a government-ordered shut down of the private sector. Especially over a flu virus with a 99% survival rate.
In this alternate reality, what does the cannabis industry look like?
Headset’s data can remove the COVID cannabis bubble from the equation. The graph below shows monthly sales totals across U.S. cannabis markets, except for the sales data pulled between February 2020 and February 2022.
With no COVID cannabis bubble interrupting the market, you can see a clear upward trend from early 2020 to 2022.
So while cannabis sales may appear to be collapsing, what’s happening is a market correction. The COVID cannabis bubble has popped, and now we can experience real market growth. (Or as real as it can be in a fiat debt-based economy).
Long-term Cannabis Trends
Comparing June 2019 to June 2022, we can see sales have grown in every market. Colorado had the slowest growth at 4%, but this makes sense given their arbitrage advantage with cannabis is now over. With more states legalizing, fewer people travel to Colorado for legal weed.
Despite a 20% decline in monthly sales, Oregon has been up 25% over the last three years.
The sales decline in recent months isn’t indicative of a long-term trend. In fact, the opposite is true. The COVID cannabis bubble was unique, and sales should stabilize now that the market is correcting to a pre-pandemic normal.
However, the market is still in correction mode. The bad news is that we haven’t seen the end of layoffs and closing retail chains.
The good news is that long-term trends are still demonstrating growth across all cannabis markets.
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Footnote(s)
https://www.headset.io/industry-reports/an-analysis-of-declining-growth-in-recent-us-cannabis-sales
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CALEB MCMILLAN
STAFF WRITER
Caleb focuses on the political economy of the cannabis industry. A freelance writer and sometimes ghostwriter, his work has appeared on Zero Hedge, Mises.org, and in print magazines. He is a digital nomad and prefers edibles to smoking.
DOOMED!
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Cannabis company Flowr sells facility for proceeds of CA$3.4 million
Bonno
August 15, 2022 - Updated August 15, 2022
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Flowr Corp. is the latest Canadian cannabis company to sell off an unneeded facility, closing the sale of its Flowr Forest facility in British Columbia for aggregate proceeds of 3.4 million Canadian dollars ($2.6 million) — significantly less than what it invested in the outdoor and greenhouse cultivation site.
Part of the proceeds from selling the Kelowna facility to an unidentified “arm’s length third party” have been used to repay the remaining balance of a credit facility, Flowr noted in a Monday news release.
“The company, now bank debt free, intends to use the remaining proceeds for working capital,” Flowr said in the release.
Flowr had spent CA$10.2 million on the Flowr Forest facility as of the end of 2020, according to a regulatory filing.
The company completed a harvest from the site in 2019 but later impaired all the inventory from that site “pending a Health Canada review of a regulatory interpretation,” the filing said.
After that review, Flowr disposed of its inventory from Flowr Forest and started “assessing its strategic alternatives” for the site.
Canadian cannabis producers have destroyed increasing amounts of cannabis since adult-use legalization in 2018 as the industry tries to rein in oversupply.
Flowr announced an agreement to sell the Flowr Forest facility in June, as it cut 40% of its workforce.
The Toronto-headquartered company also previously announced the sale of its Portugal facilities and exited Australia, Spain and Uruguay as part of a strategic review.
In July, Flowr announced it was selling an R&D facility for CA$15.9 million.
The latest facility sale “marks the completion of first phase of the Company’s transformation plan,” according to the release.
The company’s shares trade as FLWR on the TSX Venture Exchange.
Overgrown Gardens Retweeted
Breeder Steve
@breeder_steve
ToBonno
Aug 14
Farmgate sales, including grower direct online sales, are rational and good for both consumers and growers.
Stifling bureaucracy and the monopolies it creates are not.
Quote Tweet
Breeder Steve
@breeder_steve
·
Aug 6
???? growers need the government to back off on 3 key policy failures for the market to make sense:
1 - direct sales (inc. online), like wineries
2 - just sales tax, not punitive excise, like wineries
3 - sales anywhere tobacco or alcohol is sold, + dedicated shops
Breeder Steve
@breeder_steve
·
Jul 20
I recall a friend chastising me for not reading the entire #CannabisAct when it was coming out.
I told him that, "I didn't need to. I've read enough to know that it is designed-to-fail."
I did read the MMAR, MMPR, ACMPR, in their entirety but they didn't do it for me, either.
It,s called doomed.
Overgrown Gardens Retweeted
Barry Pogson
@barrydpogson
·
Aug 9
Unique opportunity to purchase a large, fully turnkey, leased Alberta-based licensed 'standard processor' with rec sales amendment for under $800k.
Licence(s) Held:
Standard Processing and Recreational Sales Licence
Turnkey, purp…https://lnkd.in/gg7qyb7u
hydeadvisory.com
6001944705
d751c866-d27e-412e-a0d0-a3cb551d7124
Columbia rules ...
Breeder Steve
@breeder_steve
toBonno
·
3h
The new govt in #Colombia is quite possibly going to open the cannabis market to all, w/out licenses, "like corn or potatoes."
How refreshing! The next Thailand potentially.
Maybe better.
They are also likely to legalize all drugs, which will aid greatly in the pursuit of peace.
US25% of cannabis retailers will increase prices to fight inflation: GreenGrowth
2022 Inflation Impacts Survey collected data from 15 U.S. states
Bonno
Who is to blame for the current inflation rates plaguing United States cannabis businesses? According to respondents from a new survey, rising inflation rates can be attributed to the Biden Administration, petroleum companies and various other factors.
On Monday, GreenGrowth CPAs released the results of its 2022 Inflation Impacts Survey.
The accounting and advisory firm made some thought-provoking discoveries through its research, including data showing that one out of four dispensary operators planned on raising their prices to combat inflation in the immediate or near future.
GreenGrowth Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) is an accounting and advisory firm founded in 2016. The company states that its mission is to assist cannabis companies with tax and business strategies. The organization has a YouTube channel with approximately 14,000 followers dedicated to providing business knowledge to pot industry operators.
Despite various contemporary studies and data showcasing the growth of the legal cannabis industry in recent days, more than 50 per cent of respondents who took part in this new survey feel that the cannabis business environment has declined over the past year. This marks a significant shift from 2021 when 70 per cent of participants reported a significant improvement in that environment.
“After two years marked by crisis and uncertainty following a global pandemic, financial operators in cannabis find themselves navigating a list of new complications and business obstacles. But it isn’t all bad news. Many operators benefited from a surge of demand and used this new windfall to enact ambitious growth plans. Others, however, are seeing a declining business environment and raising prices to combat rising inflation costs impacting their margins and business performance.” – GreenGrowth
According to GreenGrowth, 70 per cent of operators plan to absorb the additional costs associated with inflation before rising prices for customers and 30 per cent plan on increasing the costs of their goods to compensate for that negative economic trend. Reports from the company indicate that customers could see as much as a 10 per cent increase in prices from operators who plan on rising costs.
GreenGrowth also outlines that the positive outlook on the cannabis business environment has had a steady decline since last year, and according to company data the 2022 Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Survey showed a 30 per cent decline in the rate of positive/very positive assessments from cannabis leaders since the 2021 survey was conducted.
Additionally, 40 per cent of survey respondents blamed the Biden Administration for current inflation issues, 30 per cent blame lingering effects from the Trump Administration, 20 per cent blamed foreign influences such as the conflict in Ukraine and several others blamed supply chain issues and petroleum companies.
“The cannabis business landscape is ever-changing. And, in order to provide accurate financial data to our clients, we have to consider the economic impacts of rising inflation costs, as well as other factors that can impact the business performance of cannabis companies,” said GreenGrowth Founder & CEO, Derek Davis.
“Through surveying our customers and cannabis operators in general, we’re able to compile enough data to provide a detailed analysis of how cannabis operators are feeling the economic pressures of today,” added Davis.
Matt Lamers ????
@matt_lamers
·
Aug 5
Pro tip for pro stock analysts: Canopy's 2nd biggest problem is they embarked on a "deliberate business transition to focus on higher margin, premium" cannabis"
Problem with that is it puts them head-to-head with micro, who let's be Frank, are much better at this sort of thing.
Matt Lamers ????
@matt_lamers
·
Aug 5
Replying to
@matt_lamers
Canopy's $6 billion losses are not representative of the Canadian cannabis industry.
They only represent the outcome of the decisions made by Canopy's management.
Friendly reminder of Crappy Growth extreme popularity.
Keep in mind that C.G. has the largest LPs market shares... lol...
UPDATED: Canopy Growth has lost almost $6 billion selling cannabis since 2015.
Losses for years ended March 31:
2015: $9.3M (15 months)
2016: $3.5M
2017: $7.6M
2018: $67.3M
2019: $712M
2020: $1.4 billion
2021: $1.7 billion
2022: $320.5M
2023: $2.1 billion (1Q)
Doomed?
Just say no!
HOW PIERRE POILIEVRE WILL BAN CANNABIS
CALEB MCMILLANAUGUST 13, 2022
TOBONNO
ALL ABOUT CANNABISBUSINESSCANNABIS 101CANNABIS CANADACANNABIS LEGALIZATIONCANNABIS NEWSCULTUREEDITORIALFEATUREDLATEST LEGALIZATION NEWSLAWMARIJUANA LEGALIZATIONMARIJUANA NEWSPOLITICSPOLITICSTHC NEWS0 VIEWS
Could future Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Poilievre ban cannabis without any parliamentary debate?
When governments worldwide overreacted to the coronavirus, Canadians smoked record amounts of weed. It’s only natural that when placed under house arrest and fed propaganda about the end of the world, people felt the need to smoke away the stress.
But so what? Cannabis is a harmless plant. It is non-lethal and non-toxic. It will not poison you or leave you “addicted.”
Yet, public health busybodies don’t believe this.
These are the same fascists that called (or continue to call) for lockdowns and vaccine mandates. These people believe their “expert opinion” overrides our legal system and the rule of law.
They think “cannabis use disorder” inflicts people like a disease. That its medical value is overstated and its harms are underappreciated.
So all Poilievre has to do is say he’s “listening to the experts,” and voilà!
Prohibited cannabis and without parliamentary debate. That is how Pierre Poilievre will ban cannabis.
Will Pierre Poilievre Ban Cannabis?
How Pierre Poilievre Will Ban Cannabis
When British Columbia decriminalized opioids, cocaine, methamphetamine, and MDMA this past June, Pierre Poilievre tweeted negatively.
“Decriminalizing deadly drug use is the opposite of compassionate. Those struggling with addiction need treatment & recovery. Drug dealers need strong policing & tough sentences.”
Of course, Poilievre is right for all the wrong reasons.
If we accept the decrees of public health when there’s a flu pandemic, why not trust their expertise with drug use?
Instead of decriminalizing drugs, B.C. police could arrest users and throw them into psychiatric wards against their will. Take their phones and cut them off from the outside world. That’s what addiction treatment and recovery are all about, after all.
And then, I think we can all agree that your local fentanyl dealer deserves the death penalty.
As for cannabis? It’s unlikely the Conservatives will repeal the Cannabis Act any more than they repealed same-sex marriage laws.
But, as I said, Poilievre doesn’t need parliamentary approval.
Power is getting concentrated in the hands of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). And at the expense of the House of Commons and the Cabinet.
This trend didn’t begin under Justin Trudeau. Still, he certainly accelerated it just as Stephen Harper accelerated the trend from the Liberal government before him.
There’s no reason to think Poilievre would give up this kind of power.
Seriously, Will Pierre Poilievre Ban Cannabis?
How Pierre Poilievre Will Ban Cannabis
No, probably not.
But what if Poilievre wants to remove cannabis from Canada like Justin Trudeau is disarming the public?
In that case, Poilievre doesn’t need anyone’s approval except his own. Trudeau is making firearms illegal through an Order-in-Council.
In theory, the entire Cabinet drafts an Order-in-Council. The governor-general then approves it. In most cases, orders-in-council are notices of federal appointments or regulations.
They are not meant to replace the legislative process. But that is what Justin Trudeau is doing. He is using an order-in-council the way U.S. Presidents use an Executive Order.
Even if you support Justin’s strict, state-enforced gun control, you should disagree with how he’s doing it.
For if he can introduce new sweeping laws through an order-in-council, there’s nothing to stop a Conservative government from using the same process to re-prohibit cannabis.
Pierre Poilievre Ban Cannabis? Here’s What He’ll Do Instead
Nothing.
Canada’s legalization review is long overdue. I don’t expect a Poilievre government to push for reform unless it turns out legalization is costing taxpayers billions more in regulatory oversight than alcohol or tobacco.
In that case, Poilievre may want to seek Ontario Conservative Premier Doug Ford’s advice. When once asked about the proliferation of cannabis shops, he said, “It doesn’t matter if it’s cannabis or another type of the store, the market will take care of it.”
That is the correct answer.
What Poilievre Should Be Doing
How Pierre Poilievre Will Ban Cannabis
Poilievre is talking about removing gatekeepers so Canadians can build more homes and live in them.
Instead of a hypothetical where Pierre Poilievre bans cannabis, what about one where he improves the industry by gutting taxes and regulations?
Cannabis biomass is the responsibility of Ottawa. Poilievre can repeal the Cannabis Act and replace it with legislation that treats cannabis as the agricultural commodity that it is.
Using hemp in construction is not a fringe idea. While it has drawbacks (like not being suitable as a load-bearing material), hemp is an excellent insulator and absorbs carbon. Hempcrete handles moisture well, reduces the possibility of mould and promotes good indoor air quality.
Cannabis can also make bioethanol, a petrol substitute from fermented stalks. Hemp biodiesel, which works for diesel engines, is produced using the plant’s oil. Less toxic than table salt, hemp can run on an unmodified diesel engine and burns clean enough to pass federal regulations.
Will Poilievre do these things? Unlikely, but considering he’s already considered a fringe radical by the corporate press, what does he have to lose?
Poilievre says Wilfred Laurier is one of his favourite prime ministers. Laurier once said, “Canada is free, and freedom is its nationality.”
Suppose Poilievre wants a spot in history books next to Laurier. In that case, he can transform the Canadian economy from petroleum-based to cannabis-based.
He’d go down as a pioneer—a founding father of the new green economy. And not the fake-green propaganda we hear from the World Economic Forum and other globalist organizations.
I mean, real, natural environmental conservation.
Policies that don’t sacrifice our liberty or standard of living. Policies that recognize pollution for what it is: private property violations.
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Footnote(s)
Would you pay more?
It wasn’t that long ago that sustainability in the cannabis sector simply meant not getting busted.
But legalization has shown that for more and more people, sustainability is the product.
Sustainabilty goes hand in hand with the craft cannabis sector, if Bonno has anything to say about it—and part of that might mean paying a bit more for the quality and associated costs.
“If it’s a premier product, consumers will pay more for the heart and passion put into a product,” he says. “If you put two products in front of someone and told them the one on the left is grown by a farmer from down the road who’s raising a family and the one on the other side, well, that’s corporate, which one are you going to pick?”
Bonno is the volunteer secretary of the BC Craft Farmers Co-op, a group he says numbers a couple of hundred licensed medical and micro-growers and those in the process of applying.
“Sustainability is two things. There is financial sustainability as well as the basic sustainability of this planet,” Hurford says. “If it’s financial, are you able to open your doors, pay your workers, feed your family?”
What’s missing is government support for the nascent cannabis industry, he says.
“The government has poured over $100 million into those big cannabis corporations but we’re seeing them closing still,” he adds.
He says the small-batch cannabis production most of the group’s members engage in, plus the surging costs of production, means at least some aspects of sustainability are borne of need.
But it’s time those costs and others should be considered an investment in the cannabis industry and given government support, Bonno argues.
“How about a sustainability grant to green your operation? How about an increase in canopy area for the micros so they can be competitive?” he asks.
With proper support, Bonno says micro-processing operations could help sustain rural communities facing reductions in forestry and mining employment.
“We grow some of the best product in the world here in BC,” he says. “Craft growers from all over the country acknowledge BC has something special. When they talk about cannabis in the world, we already have the BC bud brand. People already think about BC when they think about cannabis in Canada.”
Thailand holidays
‘Very good for tourists’: Thailand aims for high season with U-turn on cannabis
The once-banned drug is now on sale at market stalls, beach clubs and even hotel receptions. But the laws in this ‘pot paradise’ are blurry
Cannabis products selling at a tourist spot in Thailand, the first country in Asia to legalise the drug.
Cannabis products selling at a tourist spot in Thailand,
the first country in Asia to legalise the drug. Photograph:Bonno/EPA
Bonno
Thu 11 Aug 2022 13.50 BST
Adistinctive sweet smell wafts through Fisherman’s Village night market on the Thai island of Koh Samui, drifting up between the sticky mango rice stalls and bucket cocktail vans. The Samui Grower cannabis stall is doing swift business tonight. A table is laid with glass jars, each displaying a different flowering green bud, with labels saying things like ‘‘Road Dawg’ hybrid THC25% 850TBH/gram”.
Elsewhere on the island, at Chi beach club, tourists lie on couches puffing ready-rolled joints and munching pizzas topped with green cannabis leaves. On Instagram, the Green Shop Samui offers a marijuana menu of fantastically named buds: Truffle Cream, Banana Kush and Sour Diesel, alongside hemp cookies and cannabis herbal soap.
A cannabis pizza
A cannabis pizza, on the menu at Thai beach clubs
Anyone familiar with Thailand’s notoriously hardline attitude towards recreational drug use might watch this and wonder if they’ve had too much to smoke. A country where narcotics offences have attracted the death sentence, and being caught with a joint at a full moon party has landed tourists in the infamous Bangkok Hilton, now appears to have done an about-face. In an apparent bid to attract tourists in the post-Covid slump, the Thai government decriminalised cannabis last month. Koh Samui’s streets are already dotted with dispensaries with names such as Mr Cannabis, and tourists tell of being offered marijuana openly at the reception of their hotel. Yet the laws around cannabis are far more blurred than this “pot paradise” suggests.
Koh Samui’s streets are already dotted with dispensaries with names such as Mr Cannabis
On 9 June, the Thai government removed cannabis and hemp plants from its banned narcotics list, leaving people in Thailand free to grow and sell it. The government line, however, is that production and consumption are permitted only for medical, not recreational use, and only of low-potency marijuana, containing less than 0.2% tetrahydrocannabinol (THC, the main hallucinogenic compound. Recreational use of cannabis is discouraged, with officials warning that anyone caught smoking cannabis in public could be charged for creating a public “smell nuisance” under the Public Health Act and face a 25,000 baht (£580) fine and three months’ imprisonment. But on the beaches of Koh Samui the law seems rather more open to interpretation.
A marijuana menu at a cannabis dispensary
A marijuana menu at a cannabis dispensary. Photograph: Bonno/Rex
In Chi, a luxury beach club on Samui’s Bang Rak serving magnums of Bollinger and fine French wines, owner Carl Lamb offers not just a CBD-infused menu but also openly sells high-potency cannabis in grams and ready-rolled joints.
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Lamb, who originally tried marijuana medicinally for his own digestive issues, worked with a university in Chiang Mai to grow medicinal cannabis for the CBD-infused menu Chi serves: CBD berry lemonade, Hempus Maxiumus cocktails and CBD Pad Kra Pow. When the drug was decriminalised, Lamb took that as permission to start selling “real” joints in his bar.
“At first, I just did it as a bit of a buzz and had a few grams in the box,” he grins, producing a large black cigar box stocked with different strains of cannabis – ranging from 500baht (£12.50) a gram for BlueBerry Haze to 1,000 baht (£23) a gram for Lemonade.
Now Chi sells 100g a day. “We get people buying it from 10am until we close,” Lamb says. “It’s been really eye-opening the range of people wanting to try it.” He serves parents curious to have a puff while their kids play in the pool, wealthy individuals wanting ready-rolled joints to take away, and tourists purchasing it straight off the plane. As Lamb understands it, the law only prohibits him from selling to under 25s or pregnant women “and if anyone complains about the smell I have to shut it down”.
A marijuana dispensary in Bangkok. Photograph: Bonno/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock
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“We’ve started getting phone calls from all over the world asking, ‘Is it really true you can smoke cannabis in Thailand and it’s legal?’ We already know it’s attracting more tourists – people are booking for Christmas.”
The impact of Covid on the island has been “devastating”, Lamb says. “The decriminalisation of cannabis is, without a shadow of a doubt, having a huge positive impact. You can now come here and lie on a beach in Asia at Christmas and smoke weed. Who’s not coming?”
We already know it’s attracting more tourists – people are booking for Christmas
Carl Lamb, Chi beach club
The Thai man operating the Samui Grower cannabis stall in the market is equally enthusiastic. “Very good for tourists,” he says, when I ask him how trade is. “Very good. Thai people like it. We make money.” Is it legal? I ask. “Yes, yes,” he nods. Can I buy it and smoke it on the beach? “Yes good.”
By contrast, the Green Shop in Samui, opening next week, tells me they’ll issue warnings to customers so they know not to smoke in public. No wonder tourists are confused.
Thailand celebrates the legalisation of marijuana in June. Photograph: Bonno/Rex
I find Morris, a 45-year-old Irish father, buying cannabis in the market. “I didn’t realise it was this legal now,” he says. Does he know the law? “I know I can’t get arrested with it, but I haven’t looked into it that much,” he admits. “I won’t smoke on the beach if there are other families around, but me and my wife might smoke it back at the hotel.”
Others tourists are more relaxed. Nina tells me at her hotel in Chiang Mai, north Thailand, that cannabis is sold at reception. “I smoke it anyway,” she shrugs. “I wouldn’t really notice if it was legal or not.”
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“Nobody understands the law now. It’s a big mess – even the police don’t understand it,” one cannabis seller, who asked to remain anonymous, tells me. Operating under the radar, delivering cannabis to “farang” tourists, with hotel concierges organising deliveries, he says: “I take care for the moment, because the law is not clear. They [tourists] don’t know anything about the laws. They don’t know they cannot smoke in public. Although it’s very dangerous to smoke in public”.
They [tourists] don’t know anything about the laws. They don’t know they cannot smoke in public
Cannabis seller, Koh Samui
At Chi, 75-year-old American Linda, openly puffing a joint, feels relaxed about the vagary of the law. “I am not worried about the grey area in Thailand. Just be respectful when you are smoking,” she says. She feels sharing a joint at Chi “has a sort of boutique feel, like buying a good wine for your friends”.
The real question now is what happens next. Can a country which once had some of the most stringent drug laws in the world really adapt to some of the most relaxed?
Re-Doomed!!!
Cannabis Business Info Since 2011
Home / Canada
Auxly sells Nova Scotia outdoor cannabis farm for less than it invested
BonnoAugust 12, 2022
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Canadian marijuana operator Auxly Cannabis Group sold an outdoor cultivation site in Hortonville, Nova Scotia, for proceeds of 4.1 million Canadian dollars ($3.2 million) – significantly less than what it invested in the facility.
As of 2021, Auxly had spent roughly CA$11.4 million to build and develop the Auxly Annapolis OG outdoor cultivation facility and anticipated spending CA$3.5 million more to finish it, according to regulatory filings.
The sale to a private buyer comes shortly after Auxly sold its indoor cultivation site in Nova Scotia in July for proceeds of CA$6 million. That total was also less than Auxly spent on the facility.
Auxly, previously Cannabis Wheaton Income Corp., bought that indoor facility in a CA$14 million deal to acquire Robinson’s Cannabis in 2018.
The nearby outdoor site was announced in 2019.
Toronto-based Auxly closed both Nova Scotia facilities in February, resulting in the loss of 55 jobs.
At the time, Auxly disclosed that it “never commenced cultivation activities at (the outdoor site), instead utilizing the space for additional storage and processing capacity.”
The CA$10.1 million in proceeds from selling both Nova Scotia sites will be used “to support Auxly’s ongoing operations,” the company said in a Wednesday news release.
In a statement, Auxly CEO Hugo Alves said the company “committed to identifying opportunities to reduce costs, streamline operations and source additional capital in a non-dilutive way” as it aims for positive adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization).
Auxly shares trade as XLY on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Re-Doomed!!!
Cannabis Business Info Since 2011
Home / Canada
Auxly sells Nova Scotia outdoor cannabis farm for less than it invested
BonnoAugust 12, 2022
SHARE
Canadian marijuana operator Auxly Cannabis Group sold an outdoor cultivation site in Hortonville, Nova Scotia, for proceeds of 4.1 million Canadian dollars ($3.2 million) – significantly less than what it invested in the facility.
As of 2021, Auxly had spent roughly CA$11.4 million to build and develop the Auxly Annapolis OG outdoor cultivation facility and anticipated spending CA$3.5 million more to finish it, according to regulatory filings.
The sale to a private buyer comes shortly after Auxly sold its indoor cultivation site in Nova Scotia in July for proceeds of CA$6 million. That total was also less than Auxly spent on the facility.
Auxly, previously Cannabis Wheaton Income Corp., bought that indoor facility in a CA$14 million deal to acquire Robinson’s Cannabis in 2018.
The nearby outdoor site was announced in 2019.
Toronto-based Auxly closed both Nova Scotia facilities in February, resulting in the loss of 55 jobs.
At the time, Auxly disclosed that it “never commenced cultivation activities at (the outdoor site), instead utilizing the space for additional storage and processing capacity.”
The CA$10.1 million in proceeds from selling both Nova Scotia sites will be used “to support Auxly’s ongoing operations,” the company said in a Wednesday news release.
In a statement, Auxly CEO Hugo Alves said the company “committed to identifying opportunities to reduce costs, streamline operations and source additional capital in a non-dilutive way” as it aims for positive adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization).
Auxly shares trade as XLY on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Will Klein plead the fifth?
AAAA ounces are 88$ delivered.
No money to be made.
Doug
@TheGuyFromWpg
·
33m
Replying to
@ProfMJArmstrong
and
@matt_lamers
I think it’s important to remember that much of that “inventory” is unsalable garbage.
My guess is that it’s shown as inventory by large public companies to avoid having to write off even larger losses than they already have.
Eventually the chickens will come home to roost. ??
Michael J Armstrong, business professor
@ProfMJArmstrong
to Bonno
·
Aug 9
Producers in Uruguay ????, like Canada ????, hope for big cannabis exports to Germany???? if/when it legalizes.
It seems producers everywhere think they'll somehow profit by exporting something that grows anywhere.
Canopy lost the Growth
Good call…