California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones takes his job very seriously. Purportedly, he is one of only two persons at the state capitol building in Sacramento who is allowed to carry a gun. I’m not exactly sure why the insurance commissioner needs a gun, so let’s just go with “he takes […]

Jodie Giesz-Ramsay, known to many as Jodie Emery, co-owner of Cannabis Culture magazine and its associated businesses based in Vancouver, BC, is mounting an effort to challenge some of the provisions in Canada’s new adult-legalization law, known as The Cannabis Act, which is scheduled to go into effect in July […]

Concentrates, extractions, infusions – call them what you will – many entrepreneurs in the cannabis space are hedging their bets to play in, if not dominate, that sector of the new market. For decades Americans developed a history of consuming cannabis almost entirely in flower form. But with the liberalization […]

Lori Ajax, head of the California Bureau of Cannabis Control – also known as “The Marijuana Czar” of California – spoke about expectations to new licensing rules for the Golden State to a group of industry professionals at the California Cannabis Business Summit hosted by the National Cannabis Industry Association […]

Maui Grown Therapies and Oahu’s Aloha Green Apothecary are the only two medical cannabis dispensaries legally operating under Hawaiian law, both first opening their doors in August. Like many states working out the kinks of a newly established dispensary system, bureaucratic hurdles hindered the Hawaiian dispensaries initially, but their state […]

The Land of Ideas (Germany), is getting a creative boost – legal cannabis from overseas. Canadian cannabis colossus Aurora, based in Alberta, announced their first shipment of the medicine to German markets this week in to help meet the enormous demand for the plant. Earlier this year, German legislators significantly […]

The world is watching as California comes into the main fold this next year with a full adult legalization policy. The enormity of the market, matched with global regional brand recognition, and California’s propensity for bureaucracy make an interesting confluence for cannabis. Farmers have been operating, some for decades, in […]

Members of the Canadian House of Commons health committee have been hearing testimony this week about the planned roll-out for Canada’s cannabis legalization program, which is set to go into effect in July 2018 – not a long time from now, for those familiar with the cannabis industry. Investors and […]

Yesterday, Governor David Ige and state Financial Institutions Commissioner Iris Ikea of Hawaii, made a public announcement yesterday, Sept 12, which is sure to please the dispensary owners in his state. Governor Ige announced a plan for the first state-authorized financial institution which allow cannabis businesses to operate without cash […]

Holy smokes! It’s a quick turnaround, but I just learned that the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is taking comments for recommendations on wording it plans to give in the near future to the World Health Organization (WHO). The comments will be reviewed in advance of a report […]

Pete Sessions, chair of the hugely powerful Rules Committee of the US House of Representatives, committed a highly immoral act. This Congressman, along with others in the committee, blocked several pro-cannabis amendments from full House votes, killing them. For years, medical marijuana users and their industry have been protected from […]

The cannabis community was rocked when the Republican-led House Rules Committee nonsensically prohibited a vote on the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer Amendment, and a whole host of other positive cannabis law reform measures. The Rohrabacher-Blumenauer Amendment, sponsored by Republican Dana Rohrabacher and Democrat Earl Blumenauer, protects state-legal medical marijuana patients and providers from […]

In a late night announcement, US House Representatives Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), co-founders of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, issued a press release announcing a decision to remove from consideration an amendment which would prevent funding to the Department of Justice for prosecution of state-legal medical cannabis operators […]

I guess what they say is true…in the marketplace, supply and demand are related! Who knew? Well, pretty much everyone knew. And when it comes to cannabis, prices have had been artificially inflated over the years due to the high cost of risks, and the limit on supply created by […]

Last week I reported the California legislature was meeting in special session, and that one of the measures moving forward included a somewhat strict prohibition on cannabis branding and labeling. As legalization moves forward and states invent new regulatory frameworks, we seem to be doing a bit of a balancing […]