Category: Marijuana News

“I am a little nervous about our total signature count. I think it’s really important that supporters of cannabis reforms are not complacent.”

By John Hult, South Dakota Searchlight

Cannabis advocates in South Dakota hope the weekend’s unofficial pot holiday and its associated concerts and dispensary discounts will improve the odds of getting recreational marijuana on the general election ballot in November.

April 20 is widely celebrated in the cannabis community as 4/20, and dispensaries in South Dakota took advantage of the date to offer special deals to medical marijuana patients.

The number began its evolution from an inside joke into an international code for pot culture after 1971. That was the year a group of high school kids in California began to meet at 4:20 p.m. after school to smoke marijuana. One of those students wound up working with the band The Grateful Dead, whose members and fans adopted the shorthand. The number eventually caught the attention of a reporter for the marijuana-centric High Times magazine, who put it in the publication and presented it to a wide audience.

Events double as petition drives

The events in South Dakota extend beyond dispensaries. Big’s Bar in Sioux Falls hosted its

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For Nick Rinella, CEO of Missouri-based Hippos Cannabis, Saturday’s 4/20 Day was the best of the times and the worst of times.

The best: Customers lined up at Hippos’ three dispensaries in Missouri, which includes locations in Chesterfield, Springfield and Columbia. “A lot of customers showed up,” Rinella says. “We had DJs there and fun activities.”

The bad news is that Hippos’ point-of-sale system, Dutchie, crashed. Rinella says the dispensaries were not able to check out customers at a normal pace over a period that stretched to a frustrating five hours. At one point, people were waiting as long as 40 minutes for their purchase to be completed.

Perhaps the surprising thing is that some people did stay — but certainly not everyone. “We probably lost $150,000 to $200,000 in sales,” Rinella says. That number goes up even higher if you calculate lost sales at the dispensaries across Missouri that Hippos supplies, many of which also rely on Dutchie. “We have over 100 different retail customers we sell our products to, and they were down as well so they couldn’t sell our products. We probably lost a couple million dollars across our system.”

Indeed, Dutchie’s woes were not limited to St. Louis, or

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Former Minnesota Governor and ex-professional wrestler Jesse Ventura is the latest celebrity to start a cannabis brand. Ventura served as Governor of the Land of 10,000 Lakes from 1999 to 2003. One could say that no other Governor serving during the late ’90’s or early 2000’s had quite the extensive background in variously different forms of popular entertainment as Ventura, with the exception of a certain former bodybuilder from Austria and “Governor-nator” from California. Fun fact, both of those former Governors starred in the 1987 action blockbuster Predator.

Celebrities and cannabis ventures

Celebrities have been putting their hats into the further mainstream cannabis industry in droves by starting cannabis ventures, to greatly varying degrees of success. Some award-receiving cannabis brands such as Willie’s Reserve (by country music legend Willie Nelson) have become mainstays at dispensaries across the states. Legendary hip-hop artists and cannabis connoisseurs Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa have each had multiple forays into the billion-dollar industry of their favorite plant. Athletes like Mike Tyson, who created the wildly popular Tyson 2.0 cannabis brand, have also found success in the space.

Jesse Ventura: a diverse background

Long before Ventura became politically involved, he served

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The historic opening of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians marijuana dispensary on the Qualla Boundary on April 20 brought the drug to market for the first time in North Carolina.

Though only currently available for medicinal purposes, the sale of recreational marijuana could soon become a reality.

The EBCI Tribal Council is inching closer to passing legislation that would allow for the recreational sale of the drug. A Tribal Council member suggested a recreational marijuana law could pass by June.

Marijuana is not legal for medical or recreational use in North Carolina. It is legal for medical sale from the Great Smoky Cannabis Co. dispensary on the Qualla Boundary, home of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

During an April 15 Tribal Council work session on an adult-use cannabis resolution, Tribal Council member Boyd Owle noted the progress they were making toward passing the legislation.

“Maybe come June, we can get it going and approve recreational,” Owle said during the meeting.

While the EBCI held a referendum in September on the legalization of recreational marijuana, Tribal Council has yet to pass an ordinance updating the regulations on adult use.

Nearly 70% of EBCI voters supported the recreational marijuana referendum, the Citizen Times previously reported. The next

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Law Director John Hatcher said the Ohio Legislature is still deciding on marijuana laws. Scott Truxell/Van Wert independent

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

Clarification on marijuana consumption was made during Monday night’s meeting of Van Wert City Council, but the matter of allowing recreational marijuana dispensaries appears to be far from settled.

During a special “Council of the Whole” meeting held before the regular meeting, council members discussed both topics and listened to input and questions from members of the public who attended the meeting. Approximately 20 people showed up for the meeting, but not all spoke.

Many of the people in attendance seemed to agree on prohibiting marijuana consumption at places like city parks. One person suggested posting times when marijuana consumption would be allowed at parks, while another suggested treating consumption much the same as DORA (Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area), which is highly regulated.

Council members later amended proposed legislation dealing with cannabis consumption and heard the second of three readings. The proposed ordinance was renamed “an ordinance banning the consumption of cannabis on all designated city properties.” The list of designated properties includes Smiley Park, Jubilee Park, Franklin Park, Fountain Park, Rotary Park and the reservoir, along with city-owned

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Cannabis may be losing the negative stigma long associated with it, according to the Harris Poll’s State of Marijuana 2024 report, which found 64% of Americans agreeing that “Marijuana no longer carries the stigma it used to have.” The poll found 72% of Americans believed cannabis is only going to get more popular, with 70% saying it would someday be accessible for everyone.   

Smoking cannabis remained the most popular consumption method, the Harris report found, with 81% of parents with children under 18-years-old and 78% of Gen Z and millennials saying smoking is the most common way they consume cannabis. Another 62% of respondents said they preferred edibles, 56% said vaping, and 42% said dabbing. Fifty-six percent of respondents said they “seek out people who use marijuana the same ways that I do for social circles” and 47% said that “Living comfortably with a partner means sharing mutual acceptance of marijuana usage.”

In a press release, Libby Rodney, the Harris Poll’s chief strategy officer and resident futurist, said the numbers found by the firm, “speak volumes.”  

“With four in 10 Americans using marijuana, it’s not a trend – it’s a cultural shift.

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From 2019 to 2023, Japan’s hemp cannabinoid market has expanded sixfold to ¥24 billion ($154 million), according to a Euromonitor International report outlined by the Japan Times. The growth is attributed to a growing demand for CBD products. 

Euromonitor International estimates there are 588,000 current CBD consumers in Japan. The nation still criminalizes the use and possession of intoxicating cannabis products. 

In December, Japan’s parliament passed legislation to revise the nation’s Cannabis Control Law for the first time to decriminalize the use of cannabis-derived medical products. The law also closed a loophole in current regulations by explicitly banning cannabis use.   

Aya Suzuki, a senior analyst at Euromonitor International, told the Times that major companies, including UHA Mikakuto and Cheerio have already launched CBD-infused gummies and drinks in certain regions and sales channels. 

“The liquid containing CBD (vapes) is the most common product type, but we expect large businesses to enter the market by launching food, beverages and dietary supplements.” — Suzuki to the Times 

Suzuki added that it is “normal” for Japanese companies to source CBD product ingredients from abroad and that some business owners importing ingredients “have increasingly” seen their

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A dispensary called Good Day Farm has filed a lawsuit against Arkansas, saying advertising laws are too restrictive.

Author: localmemphis.com

Published: 10:21 PM CDT April 22, 2024

Updated: 10:21 PM CDT April 22, 2024

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Marijuana enthusiasts all over the country celebrated 4/20 Day on Saturday, April 20, and where there’s a celebration, a hangover sometimes follows.

That was the thinking of the those who operate the OKAY Cannabis Dispensary on Chicago Avenue in Evanston. The dispensary operates in the same space as the West Town Bakery, which does not sell cannabis products. Joe Kinsella is the general manager of the Evanston operation of OKAY and the West Town Bakery (there are several locations in Cook County). He said that 4/20 is a big occasion for celebration in the pot-smoking community and figured that many partiers would be feeling under the weather the next day. 

“One way to cure yourself of a hangover,” he said, “is to get high.”

He came up with the idea of a low-key, day-after Sunday brunch. The affair was held at the Palmhouse event space next to the Peckish Pig gastropub on Sunday. Attendees paid $30 a head to partake of brunch fare provided by the Pig, and to receive a swag bag with some products from the dispensary. Most people just chatted

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The Red Wing City Council is looking to the recreational cannabis industry to potentially diversify city revenue. 

Council President Kim Beise is putting together an ad hoc committee to study the topic after most councilors were supportive of researching the city’s options on April 22. 

The ad hoc committee is slated to research a cannabis dispensary, the financial impact it could have for the city and discuss whether operating a dispensary is in the city’s best interests, said Marshall Hallock, the city’s administrative business director. 

With the state’s licensing structure coming together and more cannabis legislation coming, Red Wing is at a point where “significant decisions” are needed on city policies regulating cannabis, Hallock told the city council.

“The city council needs to decide how the city should approach this issue,” Hallock said.

In addition to potentially adding to city revenues to decrease its reliance on property taxes, a municipal cannabis dispensary may enhance community safety by creating a strict regulatory process in Red Wing, according to Hallock. 

Several city councilors met with the Prairie Island Indian Community’s Cannabis Regulation Commission earlier in April to discuss opportunities to collaborate. PIIC is working on its own cannabis dispensary, Island Peži, which is slated to open this summer.

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