The global cannabis market is expected to reach $90.4 billion by 2026, according to a MarketsandMarkets report. This equates to a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 28% from the cannabis market’s $20.8 billion evaluation in 2020.
Within the cannabis market, concentrates are projected to have the largest CAGR through 2026 due to the wide variety of different types of concentrates including shatter, budder, rosin, wax, oils, and tinctures.
The medical cannabis sector is expected to dominate the market with the growing list of countries embracing medical cannabis and the increasing use of various types of CBD, the report says.
Additionally, the North American market is expected to continue expanding: Canada legalized adult cannabis use in 2018, the legalization process is in the works in Mexico, more U.S. states pass adult-use cannabis laws each year, and medical cannabis treatments across North America have never been more popular. The presence of large cannabis corporations like Canopy Growth Corp, Aurora Cannabis Inc., and Medical Marijuana Inc., will also spur investment in the North American market, the report says.
In Europe, Germany is moving forward with plans to legalize adult-use cannabis while Malta — the European Union’s first member nation to pass legalization — recently shipped its first medical cannabis export.
American marijuana businesses could pump up to $130 billion on an annual basis into the U.S. economy by 2024, a staggering figure that highlights the true reach of the nation’s cannabis industry.
Estimates published in the newly released Marijuana Business Factbook show the total economic impact of legal cannabis sales increasing from $38 billion-$46 billion in 2019 to $106 billion-$130 billion by 2024 – a 181% increase.
By comparison, the $130 billion figure is similar to the 2019 gross domestic product of Nebraska, which stands at $129 billion, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.
The estimates reflect the marijuana industry’s rapid transition from an illicit market to a mainstream economic juggernaut, generating scores of new jobs, providing fresh business opportunities and creating significant ripple effects across the country.
Though the coronavirus pandemic has added a significant amount of uncertainty to the equation, the fundamentals of the cannabis industry remain strong – meaning any short-term disruptions aren’t likely to derail the long-term economic impact of marijuana sales.
The economic impact of the marijuana industry is not the same measurement as total revenues along the cannabis supply chain, which can be used to estimate the total size of an industry.
Rather, the economic multiplier paints a picture of the impact the industry as a whole has on the broader economy, showing how revenue generated by cannabis businesses permeates through communities, cities, states and the nation.
The Marijuana Business Factbook estimates use an economic multiplier of 3.5 to quantify the industry’s overall contribution to the economy.
In other words, for every $1 consumers/patients spend at dispensaries and recreational marijuana stores, an additional $2.50 of economic value will be injected into the economy – much of it at the local level.
Following are examples of how marijuana businesses affect the economy:
- Tourists often visit rec states to purchase and consume cannabis, while marijuana business professionals who travel for meetings, conferences and market research infuse tourism dollars into a state.
- The creation of cultivation sites, dispensaries/rec shops and infused product companies spurs real estate and construction activity. Many grows, for instance, occupy warehouse space that was previously vacant, while a fair share of retailers took over and renovated dilapidated storefronts.
- Cannabis businesses collectively pay hundreds of millions of dollars in state and local taxes, which fund projects such as roads and rural hospitals as well as government programs such as education.
This information is particularly valuable when trying to show the benefits of legalization, as it can help lawmakers, regulators and public officials understand how important the cannabis industry already is to the larger U.S. economy – and how much more important it will become.
On Wednesday, July 8, 2020, a bipartisan group of sixteen state treasurers, led by Oregon Treasurer Tobias Read, sent a letter to congressional leaders requesting that the next piece of COVID-19 relief legislation include the SAFE Banking Act.
The letter prominently cites both the well-known and new safety issues that come into play when forcing so many to operate on a purely cash basis:
"This provision would not only address new safety issues created by the COVID-19 crisis, but also those caused by the existing conflict between federal and state cannabis laws. The 28,000 cannabis related legitimate businesses and their 243,700 employees, who already faced significant burdens before the pandemic, are now confronting dangerous new obstacles as they attempt to address the changed circumstances. To keep workers, patients and consumers safe, it is essential that we reduce the use of cash by creating access to financial services for these state-licensed businesses."
Those new obstacles include forcing cannabis businesses and users to continue engaging in all-cash transactions without the option of “no-contact exchanges” – which obviously gives cause for concern given CDC and WHO guidance that suggests the coronavirus can live on surfaces for extended periods of time. And, when considering how many caregivers and users would classify as high- or higher-risk, it becomes even more worrisome.
They also point to the steep economic downturn, highlighting the ironic fact that the majority of states have continued to permit cannabis sales and classify cannabis-related businesses as essential, but preclude their ability to obtain federal relief funding:
"Due to the conflict with federal law, these businesses are ineligible for SBA lending programs or employee retention tax credits. Passage of the SAFE Banking Act would allow these businesses to seek needed capital from banks and credit unions and provide lending options for their employees during the economic recovery."
Treasurer Read’s office issued a statement regarding the letter: “With millions of dollars in cash transactions putting employees, patients, and consumers at risk, it is vital that Congress act swiftly to pass this important legislation.”
We previously reported that the House did pass the SAFE Banking Act late last year, but it has remained pending before the Senate Banking Committee since then. Although some remain hopeful the standalone bill will pass sooner than later, the state treasurers’ letter only highlights the need for change now.
Retail sales of medical and recreational cannabis in the United States are on pace to eclipse $15 billion by the end of 2020, an increase of approximately 40% over 2019 sales figures, according to exclusive projections from the 2020 edition of the Marijuana Business Factbook.
Total U.S. sales could rise as high as $37 billion by 2023, according to exclusive projections from the latest Factbook, which was released Monday at MJBizConNEXT Direct.
The coronavirus pandemic, however, has thrown a huge curveball at projections.
To date, spending on adult-use cannabis in markets that aren’t tourist-driven has increased, as have sales in nearly every domestic MMJ market.
However, this increased level of spending comes as unemployed workers continue to receive an additional $600 per week in unemployment benefits. This additional assistance, however, is set to expire at the end of July.
It remains an open question how cannabis sales will fare if no – or limited – additional financial stimulus is provided to the tens of millions of unemployed U.S. residents.
Despite short-term uncertainty, the long-term potential of the cannabis industry remains intact.
Sharp sales increases in recently launched medical marijuana programs – as well as continued gains in adult-use markets – are expected to fuel much of the industry’s growth over the coming years.
New MMJ markets including Florida, Maryland, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania are booming, more than offsetting lost medical sales in markets that have legalized adult-use sales, such as Illinois, Massachusetts and Michigan.
Oklahoma is especially notable, as more than 8% of the state’s population has registered as MMJ patients – a figure that far exceeds even the most optimistic initial projections.
MMJ sales in Florida and Oklahoma are expected to surpass $1 billion each by 2021, placing them among the most valuable and rapidly growing cannabis markets in the United States – medical or otherwise.
On the recreational side, sales growth rates in mature markets such as Colorado and Washington state rose or remained flat after several consecutive years of decline.
While there’s no definitive answer, data suggests consumers from Generation Z – those born in 1997 and later – and consumers who continue to transition out of the illicit market and into the licensed, legal channel contributed to the growth.
New adult-use markets in Michigan and Illinois – the first recreational marijuana markets in the Midwest – came online in late 2019 and early 2020, respectively. Though the number of retail stores in both states is low, access is slowly improving, and each market is expected to eclipse $2 billion in annual sales by 2024.
California’s massive adult-use industry continues to struggle with high taxes, local licensing restrictions and a cumbersome bureaucracy, making it difficult for licensed businesses to compete with the state’s entrenched illicit market.
Even though the state has so far underperformed, sales in 2019 still reached nearly $3 billion – generating more revenue than Colorado and Washington state’s adult-use markets combined.
California’s recreational industry is expected to improve in the coming years as businesses adapt to the states’ unique regulatory environment and more municipalities allow these businesses to operate in their jurisdictions.
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Overall sales in the legalized cannabis industry in the United States were expected to hit $13.6 billion in 2019, a 32% increase of the 2018 total of $10.3 billion, according to New Frontier Data of Washington, D.C., a data provider for the cannabis sector.
Total combined legal sales in the states allowing medical marijuana and adult-use marijuana are projected to grow at a compound annual growth rate, or CAGR, of 14%, reaching $30 billion by 2025.
Other predictions:
► Combined U.S. sales of medical cannabis are projected for a 17% CAGR, from $4.4 billion in 2018 to $13.1 billion in 2025.
► Total legal adult-use sales are projected for a 16% CAGR, from $5.9 billion in 2018 to $16.6 billion in 2025.
► While total sales of illicit cannabis nationwide were worth an estimated $64.3 billion in 2018, projections call for the U.S. illicit market to decline by nearly $7 billion (11%) by 2025.
TEL AVIV, Israel and BETHESDA, Maryland, Jan. 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/PRESS RELEASE -- Cannabics Pharmaceuticals Inc. (OTCQB: CNBX), a leader in personalized cannabinoid medicine focused on cancer and its side effects, announced today that in a series of tests conducted at the company's High Through-put Screening (HTS) facility in Israel, it has been shown that the cannabinoids CBC (cannabichromene) and CBG (cannabigerol) both exhibit anti-tumor properties, tested on human gastrointestinal cancer cells.
CBC is an additional non-intoxicating cannabinoid and is one of the naturally occurring phytocannabinoids. It bears a host of potential positive therapeutic qualities and may promote antimicrobial, anti‐inflammatory, analgesic, and neurogenesis activity. It is particularly found in younger cannabis plants, albeit in small quantities.
In these tests, the HTS platform was utilized to screen the necrotic effects of a variety of cannabinoids on human gastrointestinal cancer cells, in addition to other cancer types previously tested. CBC and CBG were both shown to induce significantly higher rates of necrosis in these cancer cells compared to other cannabinoids, thus strengthening previously obtained results.
Dr. Yaakov Waksman, the company's head of cannabinoid research, said, "My working assumption is that these results show that a correlation may exist between a cannabinoid's Topological Polar Surface Area (TPSA) value and its ability to induce anti-tumor activity, diminishing cancer cell's viability rates. CBC and CBG, as neutral cannabinoids, were both found to have a TPSA value which allows the cannabinoid molecule to penetrate a cancer cell's membrane, whereas their acidic form (CBCA and CBGA) - do not. This could explain the difference in anti-tumor activity rates demonstrated".
Dr. Eyal Ballan, CTO and Co-Founder, commented, "Gastrointestinal cancers are amongst the leading and most wide-spread causes of cancer-related deaths worldwide. We are intrigued by the results we have obtained in the lab, and our aim is to consider placing an emphasis on this organ system, and to further explore the differential anti-tumor properties of cannabinoids. We believe that these preliminary results vindicate our vision; which is to bring personalization into cannabinoid-based cancer treatments."
BOULDER, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--PRESS RELEASE--Legal cannabis sales grew 45.7% to $14.9 billion in 2019, led primarily by adult-use markets in Canada, California and Massachusetts, and supplemented by the unique approach to medical markets in Florida and Oklahoma, according to the “2020 Update to The State of Legal Cannabis Markets” (SOLCM) report released from Arcview Market Research and BDS Analytics.
This worldwide growth estimate is on par with the forecast in the original SOLCM, released in June 2019, and reflects the highest annual growth rate to date. This new data is in stark contrast with the mere 17% growth seen in 2018, due in large part to the shrinkage in California following the launch of adult-use sales on Jan. 1, 2018. As a result of expected growth in key adult-use markets in the U.S. and Canada, Arcview Group has updated their 2024 forecast to $42.7 billion in worldwide legal cannabis sales.
“The legal cannabis market grew by 46% in 2019 despite challenges caused by overregulation and overtaxing in the two biggest markets: California and Canada," said Troy Dayton, founder and chief strategy officer of The Arcview Group. "That is a true testament to just how popular cannabis is among consumers and the ongoing impact of new markets coming online and maturing. The possibilities are boundless as political progress opens up more markets across the world, and struggling markets sort out their regulatory framework.”
“By loosening product restrictions and adopting a more free-market approach to licensing, Florida, for example, has started to realize the potential of medical cannabis sales in a populous state,” said Tom Adams, managing director and principal analyst at BDS Analytics. “However, what we’re seeing in Oklahoma is a light regulatory touch and low tax rates, which allows citizens to access the health benefits of cannabis, out-perform the illicit market, and create a healthy tax revenue stream directly to the state’s government.”
Other key trends analyzed in the 2020 Update to The State of Legal Cannabis Markets include:
- Bustling activity in states such as Illinois, Maryland and Oklahoma helped boost overall spending growth nationwide, which came out to $12.2 billion across the United States and an anticipated compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.7%.
- New licensed retailer openings in Ontario and other populous provinces have smoothed out supply chain kinks, creating a better product flow and ultimately improved sales in 2019. “Cannabis 2.0” also expanded product offerings beyond flower and oil in mid-December 2019, with limited impact on sales in 2019, but projected sales acceleration in 2020.
- Legal medical cannabis spending beyond the U.S. and Canada more than doubled in 2019, from $367 million to $840 million, driven by Germany and Mexico’s markets.
In an effort to save money on logistical costs, a cannabis company has announced its plans to deliver product to Seattle businesses with drones. The high-flying partnership was publicized last month by GRN Holding Corporation, which is carrying out the plan by purchasing the aggressively-named Bellevue, Washington company Squad Drone.
The drones could be hoisting marijuana above your head for test deliveries as quickly as February or March.
“We anticipate the entire industry will adopt this where applicable,” said GRN Holding Corporation CEO Justin Costello in a December press statement, which estimates that the drones will dramatically cut down on the costs associated with getting cannabis to where it needs to go.
“All the flights will be monitored by a command center in Seattle and operated by a licensed pilot,” Costello continued. “We expect hiring about 20 employees in the various cities to hook the drones into charge ports, calibrate them, and ensure the safety totes and computer systems pass flight requirements.”
The company is not the first to announce that it will be dabbling in drones to deliver products. Drones have already been delivering snacks and healthcare products in Christianburg, Virginia, as well as in countries such as Australia and Finalnd.
Amazon has been forecasting drone deliveries for years via its so-called Prime Air program. The mega corporation says that the air system will shave time off its deliveries to customers.
Are Drones More Environmentally Friendly?
Drones have been hyped as an environmentally friendly alternative to ground deliveries, but the reality is that the veracity of the statement depends on certain factors. For one, where the energy comes from that is required to charge their batteries. They also may be more environmentally effective in certain types of delivery networks. Studies have shown that trucks, for example, may consume less energy when serving product to densely located destinations.
MarketWatch reports that GRN Holding has been in the process of testing and customizing six drones over the past year. The machines will be able to manage 40 kilograms of product, and are equipped to operate over a range of 10 kilometers, courtesy of a “GPS navigation system and digital signature interface.”
Currently, the drones are slated to distribute to other businesses, not individual customers. And yes, they’ll be able to take businesses’ money, thanks to the installation of an iPad with CannaTrac’s cashless payment system.
“Basically the cost to run and operate a drone is 1/10th of a van or sprinter,” said CannaTrac CEO Tom Gavin. “So this is not some move to change an industry on just policy or technology, this will change an industry based on safety and cost savings as well.”
A local radio host expressed his concern for the safety of the cannabis drones.
“I wonder how many young toughs out there are going to bring out the old slingshots and try and shoot down a drone carrying pounds of weed,” said Seattle FM show KIRO Nights host Aaron Mason. “I don’t know, but I assume someone has thought about this.”
The Tullis family has a lot to celebrate this holiday season.
Following more than six years of Liz Tullis advocating on behalf of her son to the Texas Legislature and area medical doctors, 16-year-old Conrad has for the last several weeks been taking prescribed cannabidiol (CBD), giving him relief from debilitating seizures.
Conrad, who suffered a severe traumatic brain injury at two years old following a near-fatal drowning, has extremely limited mobility and is unable to speak. The frequent seizures he experiences as a result of the injury impact his ability to make sounds and facial expressions, which is how he communicates, Tullis said.
“Before taking CBD, Conrad would have seizures that were so bad his eyes would roll into the back of his head and continue to flutter hours after the seizing stopped,” Tullis said, noting that he would have seizures every day, and big seizures at least once a week.
“I would have to give him Valium because he was suffering so much aftershock after big seizures. But in the last month, I haven’t had to give him one. That’s huge.”
Initially, CBD prescriptions were limited by law to epilepsy patients, and even when a bill was signed to extend the list of qualifying conditions, Conrad’s diagnosis and type of seizures didn’t meet the prescribing criteria.
Dr. Carter Richards, Conrad’s neurologist with Texas Pediatric Specialties and Family Sleep Center, said a turning point for patients like Conrad was in September 2018, when the Drug Enforcement Administration issued an order listing all drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration that contain CBD – but no more than 0.1 percent of the chief psychoactive agent in cannabis – as Schedule V drugs, those with the least potential for abuse.
“In the past, all marijuana-based substances were listed as Schedule I drugs,” those that have a high potential for abuse and the potential to create severe psychological or physical dependence, in the same category as cocaine and heroin, Richards said. “Changing the way we deal with Schedule I drugs led to the fast-tracking of several different CBD-based products.”
This includes Epidiolex, the country’s first FDA approved medication to contain CBD, which Richards now prescribes for Conrad.
“GW Pharmaceuticals produces a CBD product that is completely free of [tetrahydrocannabinol] (THC), the actual chemical that gets people high from marijuana,” Richards said. “It still has the helpful CBD that hits CBD receptors in the brain that helps with seizures” by quieting an excess of electrical and chemical signals.
Richards said that when it came to using CBD to treat patients, he was initially a “massive skeptic.”
“Most neurologists are skeptical people, and it’s largely because we deal with extremely sick patients. So, when something comes out as the next best thing, we usually approach with caution.”
What fueled interest in CBD to treat patients who have seizures wasn’t the “hype” surrounding the products, rather, it was patients who forced that hand, Richards said.
Tullis is included in that group.
“I’m just like any other mother who wants the very best for her child. If there was something that was going to give Conrad some relief, I was going to fight for it,” Tullis said.
Conrad is now one of nearly 40 children who suffer from seizures being prescribed Epidiolex by Richards and his neurology partner.
“What we have found is that it is remarkably effective in a specific population of people. There aren’t any other drugs that hit that receptor chain that I am aware of,” Richards said. “When someone has failed medications for seizures, you don’t usually find something that stops them. Being able to do that for a certain set of people is remarkable.”
Since taking Epidiolex, Richards said Conrad has had a “dramatic reduction in seizures, and at least moderate improvement in stiffness and ability to move.”
Tullis said in addition to the reduction in seizures overall, “he is becoming even more aware.”
“He is making so many sounds, like he is finding his voice. He’s not saying any words, but he is being more vocal, and he gets even more engaged because he doesn’t have seizures all the time. That’s the big thing I am excited about,” Tullis said.
While Conrad has myriad medical concerns as a result of his traumatic brain injury, it hasn’t stopped him from making friends and enjoying life as a teenager.
The Rivard Report recently met up with Conrad and two friends from school, Henley Johnson and Sam Hodgson, at the Pearl, where they went to have lunch at the Bottling Department Food Hall before going to see a scary movie.
Sam said that he and Conrad met on the first day of kindergarten, and when they moved to first grade, Conrad was the only familiar face in the class.
“It has been really nice to get to know him for so long, and to be friends with someone for so long,” Sam said.
Tullis said that as Conrad has moved through grade levels, she has made sure to advocate for him to be included in regular classes in addition to those in the special education department. And it is in those regular classes where he has met some of his closest friends.
“He is really funny, and it’s always an adventure when we hang out,” said Henley, who met Conrad at Alamo Heights High School.
Tullis said her son is so close to some of his friends, that instead of driving Conrad to football games and other social outings, she started letting them drive her wheelchair-accessible van themselves.
“I want Conrad to have a really full life. A lot of times parents with special needs kids feel this kind of weight of inequality, but I just try to help others be a part of his life when they show me they want to,” said Tullis.
If Conrad’s friends want to hang out without a caregiver there, they have to learn how to give him food through his feeding tube, and what they have to do if he has a seizure.
Sam said that while Conrad is a friend who he “has to take more care of,” including bringing the lunch box filled with the food and accessories, being on alert for any discomfort, or knowing how to deal with a seizure should it take place, it is “something he would do for any good friend.”
Tullis hopes that Conrad continuing to take Epidiolex will help him to have even more moments of joy than he was previously.
“I’m just trying to give him as normal a life as possible, and help him get around any limitations, just as I would for my other son,” Tullis said. “As a mom, it’s exciting to see your kid do well. It’s exciting to see Conrad have improvement after suffering for a long time and having seizures really disrupt his day.”
Hemp stakeholders and lawmakers supporting hemp in the USA have labeled proposed hemp rules from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) as too restrictive, and called for tolerance up to a full 1% THC.
The U.S. Farm Bill, which became law last December, sets the THC level for hemp at no more than 0.3 percent THC on a dry weight basis, but USDA rules allow for tolerance levels up to 0.5 percent THC. Any hemp crop with amounts of THC over that limit would violate the regulations. Proponents say that level should be increased to 1%.
Range of concerns
In a recent letter to the USDA, Oregon Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley suggested several changes to USDA’s proposed rules, noting the problematic THC level, and suggesting changes to other specific regulations.
The Senators called for alternative testing methods that only assess delta-9 THC levels rather than the full spectrum of THC, and argued that private and other laboratories should be approved to test hemp. Under the USDA proposal only Drug Enforcement Administration registered laboratories could carry out such tests.
They also backed the argument of many farmers who’ve noted that USDA’s proposal that hemp be tested within 15 days before harvest makes for an “impossible obstacle for growers to overcome,” urging that period be increased to 28 days.
Senate leader calls for extension
Another lawmaker, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, the top Democrat in the U.S. Senate, last week told The (New York) Daily News: “Some people believe the [THC] level they set is way too low, because it’s way below the harmful level.”
“They need to look at these rules and re-examine them,” Schumer said in calling for an extension of the 60-day public comment period for USDA’s proposed hemp rules, which were made public at the end of October. That means the comment period would end just before the new year.
“This (hemp) has tremendous, tremendous potential, and all the excitement about growing and processing hemp, and creating lots of jobs, could go away if these rules are done in too narrow and restrictive a way,” Schumer said.
All 5 investors on Shark Tank teamed up to buy 30% of Richardson's breakthrough "LifeStream pain relief" formula for a staggering $2.9 million dollars.
Here's what it's all about...
In 2016, Dr. Jamie Richardson sold over 1.9 million bottles of his family's secret pain relief formula, Noble Hemp, after a congressional bill legalized the sale of CBD products in all 50 states.
Noble Hemp is made from Cannabidiol (CBD), the non-psychoactive ingredient in cannabis. It is an ingredient in cannabis that relieves pain and fights inflammation along with a slew of other miraculous benefits.
Noble Hemp has been called "Nature's Oxycontin" because it quickly relieves even the most agonizing pain and reduces inflammation allowing the body to finally heal.
Millions of Americans are already using Noble Hemp on a daily basis. Many say it works like magic. Some say it works better than prescription painkillers like Vicodin and Oxycontin.
Here at Fox News, we received hundreds of emails about whether Noble Hemp is a legitimate alternative to potent painkillers, and if it carries any unwanted side effects. We wanted to find out...
Is "Nature's Oxycontin" The Real Deal... Or Just Another Gimmick?
The story of how Noble Hemp was created is fascinating.
Noble Hemp was discovered by 92-year-old Mary Richardson, Jamie's mother, and a retired doctor from Yuba City, California.
Mary had been battling horrible arthritis pain for years, which she was barely able to control.
Enduring this mind-numbing pain was bad enough but what happened next was nothing short of a nightmare.
Without warning...
Mary suffered two major strokes in 67 days!
Miraculously, Mary survived, but her arthritis raged hopelessly out of control as a result of the strokes.
Doctors pumped her full of their strongest drugs, but her pain sprang to unbearable levels.
Desperate for relief, Mary began looking for answers on her own.
Twelve agonizing months later, she stumbled upon a surprising pain remedy used by ancient healers.
Mary was surprised the major ingredient turned out to be concentrated Cannabidiol extracted from the marijuana plant (CBD).
Mary re-created the formula… and the results were instantaneous! She calls it her…
Noble Hemp: LifeStream In A Bottle!
Mary was flabbergasted. This discovery changed her life- literally overnight.
The formula seemed to melt away the pain -in her words - “just like it was never there.”
At the urging of her son, Jamie, Mary began sharing her secret formula with other hurting folks.
Unfortunately, Mary could never publicly give away her LifeStream formula. At the time, the US Government classified CBD as a schedule 1 drug, meaning Mary could face over 60 years in jail if she were ever caught.
Regardless, Mary would secretly ship bottles of her pain relief formula to those in need.
Since then, Mary's formula has helped thousands of people find relief from arthritis... sore muscles... inflammation... swollen joints...and injury pain.
Luckily, Congress introduced a new federal bill in spring 2017 to reschedule marijuana and CBD as a schedule III substance, meaning CBD could be freely distributed for medical and research purposes!!
That's when Jamie, Mary's oldest son, took his mother's secret healing formula and improved it. Now, it's a widely used treatment for pain and inflammation as well as many other conditions.
What Jamie Richardson Did Next Started a Medical Breakthrough
Jamie Richardson knew he could not sell his mother's LifeStream formula right away without further research. He needed to prove to the public that CBD was an effective solution for pain management with little side effects.
So, Jamie applied for a research grant to run the first ever FDA approved clinical trial involving CBD.
With the help of Harvard researchers and medical doctors, Jamie led a clinical trial studying the effects of CBD on pain and inflammation.
The results were astonishing. Through their research, they discovered a multitude of other health benefits of CBD they never anticipated. Richardson's team ran additional follow-up studies that concluded CBD is nothing short of a real medical LifeStream.
Jamie knew he had to get this news out to the millions of Americans suffering from pain, inflammation and other illnesses.
So he teamed up with his group of Harvard researchers to create Noble Hemp, a brand of medical grade CBD supplements developed through thousands of hours of research and clinical trials.
Jamie warned everyone the medicinal and recreational cannabis boom has also brought a huge rise in the number of different cannabis producers. Most operating under fluctuating, often ill-defined regulatory standards.
"We've got a lot of 'garage scientists' in the industry, who are well-meaning people--I don't think anyone gets up in the morning, goes to the garage, and thinks they’ll make something poisonous that could hurt people," Richardson explains.
"What makes Noble Hemp different is our CBD is extracted from cannabis plants using the 'green method' of supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) with CO2, noted that "the butane, hexane used to process much of the consumer-grade cannabinoid that others use can leave unwanted traces behind."
Noble Hemp has produced incredible results in every single clinical trial...
Big Pharma Vowed To Shut Jamie's Company Down!
The big Pharmaceutical companies tried everything they could to stop Noble Hemp from reaching the masses. They lobbied to congress, spread fake news on the dangers of CBD, and even sued Richardson's company!
Yet, their attack had the opposite effect. In trying to shut down Noble Hemp, the Pharma industry ended up raising even more public awareness for the pain relief and healing power of CBD.
Eventually, Hollywood celebrities started trying Noble Hemp for their ailments, and once they saw how well it worked, they started spreading the word to millions of fans.
Now back to Richardson's pitch to the Sharks.
When the investors reviewed Noble Hemp sales numbers, clinical trial results and celebrity endorsements, they were absolutely floored.
When the investors reviewed Noble Hemp sales numbers, clinical trial results and celebrity endorsements, they were absolutely floored.
All 5 Sharks jumped on the opportunity to invest in Noble Hemp with confidence, calling it the...
"Natural LifeStream Cure That Will Bring Down Big Pharma"
Yet here at World Health, we needed more proof Noble Hemp is really the LifeStream cure it claims to be.
Just because 5 of the wealthiest business people in the USA endorse the product, does not mean it's a holy grail. So we decided to try it for ourselves. And boy we're glad we did.
Last month, our senior editor Taylor Wellington volunteered for our experiment. Taylor was chosen because of her history with Rheumatoid Arthritis, a painful autoimmune condition doctors don't yet have a complete cure for.
Below is her story...
Taylor's Real Life Experience With Noble Hemp
"My name is Taylor and I'm a 49-year-old mother of three from Alabama. I have a history of anxiety attacks and chronic arthritis, which has prevented me from living a normal life. On top of that, I accidentally slipped on our family vacation a few years ago and have been experiencing chronic back pain ever since.
Since my diagnosis, I tried various exercises for my back pain. I spent hours every day meditating to help with my anxiety attacks. I was even given a high dose of Vicodin to help manage my pain, but they made me nauseous, foggy headed and always craving for more.
I tried natural supplements but none of them worked. I tried various therapies like massages, chiropractic adjustments and acupuncture yet those didn't help either. At one point, I was even considering a $5,000 surgery! But I read about horrible side effects from others online. Plus, I couldn't afford to dig myself deeper into financial debt. So I decided to keep searching.
One day, while watching an episode of The Doctors, I heard Dr. Travis Stork talk about a natural solution to pain management and inflammation that's even more effective than prescription meds. Of course, the solution was CBD and the brand he recommended was Noble Hemp.
At first, I was hesitant because I didn't want to get "high" but through more research, I discovered CBD has no psychoactive effects, so I can function as normal. So I decided to order a risk-free sample and give it a shot.
Within a few weeks, my pain completely disappeared and my normal panic attacks began to subside. I was amazed! Most of all, my back pain was much better and I was even able to take my 3-year-old son in my arms for a walk for the first time in years! I not only saved thousands of dollars, but also the hassle of doctor visits and therapy sessions thanks to Noble Hemp.
Will Noble Hemp Work For You?
Noble Hemp is absolutely safe and legal in all 50 states. You can skip the long wait for doctors appointments and the frightfully expensive bills by using Noble Hemp instead.
People are increasingly more interested in CBD—or cannabidiol—than other health trends such as acupuncture, apple cider vinegar, exercise and veganism, according to a new review.
In fact, the non-intoxicating cannabis compound has risen in popularity so much that people Google it nearly as much as they do for yoga and e-cigarettes.
In a paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on Wednesday, researchers said that an analysis of Google search data from January 2004 to April 2019 showed stagnant results for “CBD” and “cannabidiol”—up until 2014, when searches spiked and continued to grow year over year.
Searches for the terms increased 126 percent in 2017 compared the previous year, were 160 percent higher in 2018 versus 2017 and they’re expected to rise again by 117 percent this year over 2018’s figures “based on observed and forecasted volumes.”
“The findings of this longitudinal cross-sectional study indicate that interest in CBD across the United States has increased considerably and is accelerating. While our study is limited in that Google searches may reflect interest in CBD rather than interest in use, search trends are associated with many health-related behaviors, including the rise of electronic cigarettes, years ahead of traditional data,” the study authors wrote. “Thus, our findings suggest that investigation into CBD should become a public health priority to catch up with the public’s interest.”
In addition to urging more in-depth studies on who uses CBD and for what purposes, the researchers suggest that “product safety standards must be developed” because products on the market today are often mislabeled or adulterated. They also advocated that “marketing practices around CBD should be standardized, as marketing that misleads the public could erode trust in evidence-based medicine.”
Americans searched for the compound, which was federally legalized in December so long as it’s derived from hemp, about 6.4 million times in April 2019 alone. People in Vermont, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Colorado, New Hampshire and Oregon have searched for CBD the most this year.
“Searches for CBD during April 2019 eclipsed those for acupuncture by a factor of 7.49, apple cider vinegar by 5.17, meditation by 3.38, vaccination by 1.63, exercise by 1.59, marijuana by 1.13, and veganism by 1.12,” the paper states. “Searches for CBD are now rivaling searches for yoga and electronic cigarettes, with 0.96 and 0.85 of their respective search volumes, and are searched for more than half as much as dieting (0.51).”
The spike in interest in CBD seems to coincide with an increase in usage of the compound, as Gallup released a survey in August that showed one-in-seven Americans consume cannabidiol products.
A significant amount of data has been generated in recent years showing that cannabis access is associated with reduced levels of opioid use and abuse. But emerging data also indicates that many patients similarly substitute marijuana for a variety of other substances, including alcohol, tobacco and benzodiazepines.
Last month, a team of researchers from Canada and the United States surveyed over 2,000 federally registered medical cannabis patients with regard to their use of cannabis and other substances. (Medical cannabis access has been legal across Canada for nearly two decades).
Investigators reported that nearly 70 percent of respondents said that they substituted cannabis for prescription medications, primarily opioids. Forty-five percent of those surveyed acknowledged substituting cannabis for alcohol and 31 percent of respondents said that they used marijuana in place of tobacco.
Among those who reported replacing alcohol with cannabis, 31 percent said they stopped using booze altogether, while 37 percent reported reducing their intake by at least 75 percent. Fifty-one percent of those who reported substituting cannabis for tobacco said that they eventually ceased their tobacco use completely.
This documentation of cannabis substitution is not unique. A 2017 study of medical cannabis patients similarly reported that 25 percent of the cohort reported substituting cannabis for alcohol, while 12 percent substituted it for tobacco. A 2015 paper published in the journal, "Drug and Alcohol Review" also reported that over half of patients surveyed substituted marijuana in lieu of alcohol. A placebo-controlled clinical trial performed by researchers at London’s University College reported that the inhalation of CBD — a primary component in cannabis — is associated with a 40 percent reduction in cigarette consumption.
Numerous studies also indicate that legal cannabis access is associated with reductions in overall prescription drug spending. While much of this reduction is the result of the reduced use of opioids, studies also report decreases in patients’ consumption of other prescription drugs, such as sleep aids, anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medications. A 2019 study by a team of Canadian researchers reported that the use of marijuana is associated with the discontinuation of benzodiazepines. (The popular anti-anxiety medication was responsible for over 11,500 overdose deaths in the United States in 2017, according to the US Centers for Disease Control). In their study of 146 subjects, the initiation of medical cannabis resulted in significant and sustained reductions in patients’ use of the drug.
By the trial’s conclusion, 45 percent of participants had ceased their use of benzodiazepines. In a separate study, also published this year, of over 1,300 US medical cannabis patients suffering from chronic pain conditions, 22 percent reported substituting marijuana for benzodiazepines.
These scientific findings run contrary to the so-called "gateway theory" – the long-alleged notion that marijuana exposure primes users to ultimately engage in the use of far more intoxicating and addictive substances. By contrast, for many people cannabis appears to act as an "exit drug" away from potentially deadly pharmaceuticals, booze, cigarettes and even other illicit substances such as cocaine.
As more jurisdictions move away from cannabis prohibition and toward a system of regulated access it will important to monitor the degree to which these trends continue and to assess their long-term impacts on public health and safety.
From the FDA’s first-ever hearing on CBD to major retail chains carrying infused products, here is a summary of how hemp and CBD have progressed since federal legalization.
Following 4/20 and 7/10 on the calendar, the next industry holiday is a newcomer: National CBD Day, celebrated on Aug. 8 to recognize the cannabinoid that has experienced explosive growth in popularity since the 2018 Farm Bill federally legalized hemp.
National CBD Day was founded by cbdMD, a vertically integrated CBD company, to bring awareness to CBD and the benefits it provides, according to the National Day Calendar. The National Day Calendar Registrar added National CBD Day to its list of more than 1,500 national days and proclaimed it be observed annually starting on Aug. 8, 2018.
To commemorate the holiday, here is a look at the evolution of the CBD industry since the 2018 Farm Bill was signed into law in December.
Farm Bill Federally Legalizes Hemp
President Donald Trump signed the 2018 Farm Bill into law Dec. 20, officially legalizing the nationwide cultivation and sale of industrial hemp, which is defined as cannabis containing less than 0.3-percent THC. Congress passed the legislation Dec. 12 after months of preparation and debate.
The new law removed hemp from the Controlled Substances Act and allows farmers to pursue federal hemp cultivation permits. Individual states can regulate the industry within their borders as they see fit, and already, several states, including Florida and Texas, have passed laws to legalize and regulate hemp and CBD.
Federal Agencies Take Up Regulations
In late December, just after the Farm Bill was signed, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner at the time, Scott Gottlieb, said the agency was looking for “pathways” that would legalize CBD in food, beverages and supplements, but quickly followed that announcement with a statement clarifying that the FDA considers CBD as a drug ingredient, and that it is therefore illegal to add the compound to food or health products without FDA approval.
Also casting a shadow over the newly legal industry was the government shutdown in the early days of 2019, which prevented the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) from approving state hemp program regulations and kept the FBI from performing the background checks required to license prospective hemp farmers.
Since then, a regulatory gray area has left room for unanticipated challenges. For example, in late January, Idaho State Police arrested Denis Palamarchuk and charged him with felony drug trafficking after officers discovered 6,700 pounds of hemp in his truck, which was being transported from one licensed company to another.
In April, the USDA issued its first official guidance on the legal hemp industry by authorizing hemp seed imports. The department rolled out additional guidance in June with a memo indicating that hemp can legally be transported across state lines.
On May 31, the FDA held its first-ever public hearing on CBD to receive public comment on the compound, although it has yet to release any official policy or guidance for the industry. A more thorough report is expected sometime this fall.
Meanwhile, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) updated its cannabis policy in May to allow travelers to bring certain CBD products on flights. The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) quickly followed suit on June 6 when it provided new mailing standards that allow certain products derived from cannabis and industrial hemp to be shipped under specific conditions.
In addition, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) clarified in May that hemp businesses can apply for trademark registration, as long as their operations comply with the FDA’s regulations that hemp-derived CBD cannot be used as a food or beverage ingredient.
According to industry stakeholders, the new policies issued by TSA, USPS and USPTO signify the normalization of hemp and CBD products.
Industry Group Unveils Certification Program
In March, the U.S. Hemp Authority awarded its first Certification Seals to 13 companies that met the standards of its program, which is aimed at ensuring the safety, consistency and accurate labeling of hemp-derived products.
While some industry stakeholders saw the certification program as a positive step forward for the industry and a way to show the public that their businesses take proper steps to provide safe and quality products, others had concerns about the U.S. Hemp Authority’s work in the space. Some even signed off on an open letter that outlined the reasons that they opposed the Certified Seal program.
The U.S. Hemp Authority Technical Committee is developing the organization’s Guidance Plan 2.0 in an effort to improve the program and plans to incorporate public comment into its new program.
Big Retail Enters CBD Space
Last fall, before the passage of the Farm Bill, Brightfield Group issued a report predicting that the hemp-derived CBD market would reach $22 billion by 2022, and that the rapid growth would be supported by an anticipated increase in distribution channels for CBD products in the next few years.
This forecast sprang to life as chain retailers began entering the space in early 2019, when CVS announced in March that it would start selling hemp-derived CBD products in eight states. Days later, Walgreens announced that it, too, would enter the market, and unveiled plans to sell CBD creams, patches and sprays in nearly 1,500 stores in select states.
Kroger, a Cincinnati-based grocery store chain, began offering a variety of topical CBD products in several states in June, and Dillard’s announced in mid-July that it will carry a wide range of CBD wellness and beauty products from CBD For Life, a brand owned by iAnthus Capital Holdings Inc.
While medical marijuana is legally available in 36 states and Washington DC, the fragmented nature of the industry – each state creates its own set of rules – means each market grows at a different rate.
The new quarterly release of the Marijuana Business Factbook presents updated profiles of each state market, highlighting the growth occurring in each.
An analysis of state markets that release patient counts on at least a quarterly basis reveals several key takeaways:
- Oklahoma is the fastest-growing medical marijuana market in the average number of daily patient increases, and MMJ patients represent 4.1% of the state’s total population – one of the highest rates in the nation. Growth is bolstered by low barriers of entry, including the fact there’s no list of qualifying conditions for patients.
- Florida is the second-fastest-growing market in terms of patients joining the registry, with registered patients making up 1.6% of the state’s total population. This leaves room for further growth, which may occur from the recent legalization of smokable flower and continued wide access to dispensaries.
- Despite having operational markets for only a few months, Arkansas and Ohio have reached a statewide proportion of medical marijuana patients on par with mature markets such as Illinois, New Jersey and New York.
- After a strong first year of sales, Maryland’s medical marijuana program continues to grow, and regulators are evaluating a second round of business license applications for 10 processors and four cultivators to meet demand.
- Arizona and New Mexico continue to post solid growth and may benefit from recent developments in each state. New Mexico regulators expanded the state’s list of qualifying conditions for patients, are increasing the number of plants allowed to be grown by the state’s 35 vertically integrated operators and may be forced to allow for out-of-state reciprocity. Arizona regulators extended the life of medical marijuana cards from one year to two, and the state Supreme Court recently ruled that marijuana extracts are legal, ending nearly a year of confusion over the legality of sales of edibles, concentrates and other infused products.
The open house featured cannabis-infused chocolates, gummies, and other snacks by Pantry. Jason Weiss / Guest of a Guest
- Weed is teaming up with the $165 billion real-estate industry.
- A Los Angeles luxury real-estate agent recently held a "cannabis open house" at a $3.5 million home, his publicist told Business Insider.
- About 100 guests gathered to enjoy cannabis-infused chocolates, gummies, and other edibles, kombucha cocktails, vape pens, and CBD cream massages in a space artfully staged with hemp plants and marijuana paraphernalia.
- The agent got an offer on the home three days later, and it went into escrow within two weeks.
With cannabis and CBD becoming multibillion-dollar industries, it was only a matter of time before they teamed up with another lucrative industry: real estate.
Early this month, Rodeo Realty partnered with Society Group PR and the Mota Group — a members-only club for cannabis creatives — to hold what they say is the first-ever "cannabis open house."
At a $3.5 million home for sale in Los Angeles, 100 guests gathered for an event called "The Greenleaf Cannabis Laboratory." The open-house event featured cannabis-infused chocolates, gummies, and other edibles, kombucha cocktails, vape pens, and CBD cream massages. Hemp plants and marijuana paraphernalia were staged around the home.
Guests could get massages with CBD cream. Jason Weiss / Guest of a Guest
The house, listed by Ben Quibrera of Rodeo Realty for $3.495 million, sits on Greenleaf Street in Sherman Oaks, an affluent, family-friendly Los Angeles suburb with upscale shopping malls and manicured parks, where the median price of a home is $1.14 million.
Alexander Ali, founder and CEO of Society Group PR, which helped put on the open house, said that although recreational marijuana has been legal in Los Angeles for over a year, people are still wary of it.
"So I said, let's brand an entire house with cannabis," Ali told Business Insider. "We'll put cannabis plants in the MLS photos, we'll have a trimming open house where brokers can get up close and personal with a cannabis plant and learn how to trim and cure it. And then we'll throw a huge party where we have a bunch of cannabis activations from all these new brands and show people the evolution of cannabis."
The open house offered vape pens in addition to CBD products and cannabis-infused foods. Jason Weiss / Guest of a Guest
On the Monday following the Friday event, Quibrera said he got an offer on the house, and now it's in escrow.
"This cannabis and CBD open house is the tip of the iceberg for luxury real estate in Los Angeles," Quibrera said in a press release.
According to Ali, it's high time people see how the world of cannabis has changed in recent years.
"This isn't bongs and tie dye," he said. "Billions of dollars are being poured into this industry."
Indeed, with cannabis becoming a multibillion-dollar industry, its foray into real estate shouldn't come as a surprise.
"Since Colorado legalized the drug in 2012, the previously illegal plant has birthed multibillion-dollar public companies, minted billionaires, and brewed social change not seen since the end of Prohibition," Jeremy Berke recently wrote for Business Insider.
In California in particular, legalization has bolstered an already thriving wellness scene.
As Dana Goodyear wrote in The New Yorker last year, "among an affluent demographic of Californians — heavily invested in optimizing personal experience, micro-regulating moods and appetites, states of pain and creative flow — cannabis is part of a booming wellness industry."
And Mota Group, for example, is opening a private club for cannabis creatives in Downtown Los Angeles later this year. Think the "SoHo House of cannabis," Ali says.
As far as whether cannabis open houses will be a passing trend or become commonplace in real estate, only time will tell.
Researchers have uncovered how marijuana plants produce pain-killing molecules that are 30 times stronger than aspirin — a property that gives them medicinal promise as a substitute for opioid pain relievers, which can lead to crippling addiction, researchers said.
“There’s clearly a need to develop alternatives for relief of acute and chronic pain that go beyond opioids,” said Tariq Akhtar, a University of Guelph biology professor and author of the study, in a statement on the newly released research.
Those pain-relieving molecules in cannabis, called cannflavin A and cannflavin B, cut down on pain by fighting off inflammation but are not psychoactive, in contrast with the chemicals that give marijuana its mind-bending effects, Canadian researchers said in a Tuesday news release on their findings. The study appears in the August edition of the journal Phytochemistry.
“Being able to offer a new pain relief option is exciting, and we are proud that our work has the potential to become a new tool in the pain relief arsenal,” said Steven Rothstein, another biology professor at the Ontario university who worked on the study.
Even though the molecules’ properties have been known for decades, it wasn’t until now that researchers actually mined the genome of a cannabis strain to determine just how the plant’s genes create those two so-called “flavanoid” molecules — both of them found in only trace amounts in the plants, researchers said.
“If you know what you’re looking for, one can bring genes to life, so to speak, and piece together how molecules like cannflavins A and B are assembled,” Akhtar said, describing the process as “a relatively straightforward exercise these days.”
The researchers said increasingly permissive attitudes toward cannabis — and legalization — are to thank for the research push, the Toronto Star reports.
Opioids relieve pain by blocking pain signals in the brain, whereas a cannabis-based alternative relying on the cannflavin molecules would target inflammation itself, researchers said.
But creating a medicine isn’t without its obstacles.
“The problem with these molecules is they are present in cannabis at such low levels, it’s not feasible to try to engineer the cannabis plant to create more of these substances,” Rothstein said.
As writer Christine Sismondo put it in the Star, “you’d have to consume Cheech and/or Chong levels for it to work as an effective anti-inflammatory.”
But now that the gene processes that create the chemicals have been identified, Rothstein said they’re “working to develop a biological system to create these molecules, which would give us the opportunity to engineer large quantities.”
To that end, Guelph researchers have teamed up with Anahit International, a Toronto-based pharmaceutical company, to create “effective and safe anti-inflammatory medicines from cannabis phytochemicals,” the company’s chief operating officer, Darren Carrigan, said in a statement released by the school.
It’s not just opioids that a cannabis-based painkiller might have the edge over — a natural alternative could also have advantages over ibuprofen with its kidney risks, or acetaminophen with its associated liver problems, the Star reported.
“What’s interesting about the molecules in cannabis is that they actually stop inflammation at the source,” Akhtar said, according to the Star. “And most natural products don’t have the toxicity that’s associated with over-the-counter pain relief drugs, which, even though they’re very effective, do come with health risks. So, looking at natural products as an alternative is a very attractive model.”
Presidential candidate Sen. Kamala Harris is teaming up with House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., on a comprehensive marijuana reform bill that would decriminalize marijuana at the federal level, expunge prior marijuana-based convictions and fight against discrimination for those who possess or use it.
"Times have changed -- marijuana should not be a crime," said Harris, D-Calif. "We need to start regulating marijuana, and expunge marijuana convictions from the records of millions of Americans so they can get on with their lives."
The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act announced Tuesday morning would remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act, thereby decriminalizing marijuana for previous and pending convictions. States could then set their own marijuana policies, similar to what's currently in place for alcohol.
The bill would also require resentencing for prior marijuana-based convictions.
The policy is a 180-degree turn from Harris' past positions on marijuana. When Harris was California's attorney general from 2011 to 2017, tens of thousands of Californians were arrested yearly for marijuana infractions, according to a 2016 Drug Policy Alliance report.
For months, she's also expressed being in favor of legalizing marijuana: a position she laughed at just five years ago when asked about it during a local TV interview in Sacramento, California.
While she's yet to propose legalizing marijuana, she said in an interview with "The Breakfast Club" in February she would do so as president.
"There are a lot of reasons why we need to legalize," Harris started saying, before being asked if she had ever smoked weed herself.
"Yes," she said. "It was a long time ago."
"Listen, I think it gives a lot of people joy, and we need more joy," she added, to laughs.
Harris and Nadler's bill would also put in place discrimination protections, including prohibiting landlords from denying federal housing related to tenant marijuana use or possession, and prevent immigration authorities from being able to use marijuana possession/use to target people.
The bill would also authorize Congress to use half of the yearly tax revenue from the marijuana industry to reinvest in communities impacted by the war on drugs, small businesses in the marijuana industry controlled by low-income individuals and make marijuana licensing easier for those negatively affected by marijuana criminalization.
"As marijuana becomes legal across the country, we must make sure everyone -- especially communities of color that have been disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs -- has a real opportunity to participate in this growing industry," Harris said.
With Nadler on her side, a Harris aide said the bill is expected to be taken up for a vote.
The US Postal Service confirmed in an expanded policy update last week that hemp products are legal to mail under certain circumstances because the crop is no longer a federally controlled substance.
In a guideline published in the agency’s Postal Bulletin, USPS said that it has “received numerous inquiries from commercial entities and individuals wishing to use the mail to transport cannabidiol (CBD) oil and various other products derived from the cannabis plant” since the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, which legalized hemp.
Accordingly, the institution circulated internal guidelines on the matter in March and is now externally clarifying what it considers legally mailable. Here’s the language of the new policy:
“Hemp and hemp-based products, including cannabidiol (CBD) with the tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) concentration of such hemp (or its derivatives) not exceeding a 0.3 percent limit are permitted to be mailed only when:
a. The mailer complies with all applicable federal, state, and local laws (such as the Agricultural Act of 2014 and the Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018) pertaining to hemp production, processing, distribution, and sales; and
b. The mailer retains records establishing compliance with such laws, including laboratory test results, licenses, or compliance reports, for no less than 2 years after the date of mailing.”
That update is actually less restrictive than what some hemp industry advocates recommended.
In April, the US Hemp Roundtable sent a letter to USPS stating that the agency should allow hemp-derived CBD and other hemp products to be mailed, but it said mailers should proactively produce a “signed self-certification statement” containing information affirming that the product meets the federal definition of hemp and also a copy of a certificate from a laboratory testing analysis in order to use USPS services.
USPS, on the other hand, is simply requiring mailers to keep those records on hand for up to two years.
“A mailer is not required to present the documentation at the time of mailing, but such documentation may be requested either at that time or on a later date if there is doubt about the item’s mailability or the addressee’s ability to legally receive it,” USPS wrote. “This process is consistent with existing regulations governing questions about mailability of restricted matter.”
The agency said that issues surrounding the mailability of hemp products are likely to be further clarified after the hemp legalization provision of the agriculture law is fully implemented.
“With this revision, the Postal Service intends to provide mailing standards that sufficiently address the current environment with regard to the domestic commercial transportation of cannabis-based products as well as those changes anticipated from the full implementation of the 2018 Farm Bill,” USPS said.
“I believe we can get this done.” Those were the words from Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., Wednesday in support of removing marijuana from the Schedule I classification as labeled by the Controlled Substances Act.
A group of experts testified on Capitol Hill Wednesday in favor of changing federal laws to allow for the legal sale and use of marijuana, which was largely embraced by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle throughout the hearing.
Topics ranged from racial disparities among incarceration rates for possession, to the economic impact of legalizing the plant’s use.
Cannabis Trade Federation CEO Neal Levine, who represents companies within the industry, noted “the state-based cannabis industry today is not only serving consumers, but has also become a driver of economic growth and tax revenue in states across the country.”
But having a federal law in the books making the product illegal has proven difficult for people who make their living in the legal sale and consumption of marijuana.
“This gap between state and federal law also creates a tension for cannabis workers and employees who must show up to work every day knowing their activity could put them in danger of federal prosecution,” Levine said.
According to his research, Levine noted estimates of more than 200,000 people who currently work in the industry.
In Colorado, he noted, since 2014, legal sales of the product have raked in $6.5 billion since 2014 and $1 billion in tax revenue from fees.
State legal cannabis sales are expected to exceed $20 Billion in 2019, according to Levine.
He believes the federal law stops workers from getting mortgages, car loans and even has business owners paying an effective federal tax rate higher than 70 percent.
“Cannabis businesses struggle to obtain and maintain accounts with financial institutions due to the underlying activity being illegal under federal law,” Levine testified.
The experts on the panel and even lawmakers pushed for Congress to come to a consensus on legalizing the drug, claiming it is difficult to legislate the end of marijuana prohibition if lawmakers aren’t on board.
“If we further divide out the movement, then I fear that we’ll continue to fall victim to that which has plagued other Congresses where we won’t get anything done, ” said Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla.
Gaetz and others are pushing for the passage of the States Act, which would protect businesses from federal prosecution as long as they adhere to the regulations of their respective states pertaining to cannabis sales and consumption.
“As an industry, we are not only concerned with how the policy is shaped, but how it impacts our businesses, our employees and our state and local economies,” Levine advised.
“The situation has become untenable.”
“My concern is looking at the industry as a cash cow and applying all sorts of exorbitant taxes upon it is the same effect as prohibition. It will drive what should be legal commerce back into a violent underground economy,” said Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif.
“Our main competition is the criminal markets,” Levine admitted – while still noting that, in his opinion, “regulation works better than prohibition.”
Lieu put his position on the table: “My view is that it is a huge waste of federal resources to criminalize marijuana.”
“Everything in politics seems impossible until it happens,” he said.
That sense of optimism was shared by Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., who called the hearing “historic.”
“I’ve been working on this issue for 40 years, and it’s just crazy that we don’t just get it all done.”
When Scott McCarron returned to his locker after a round in the 2018 Boca Raton Invitational, a bottle of CBD oil pills had been placed in the cubby by Functional Remedies EndoSport. It’s not unusual for professional golfers to have various products given to them to sample, but this one in particular was intriguing to the No. 1-ranked player on the PGA Champions Tour.
McCarron didn’t know a great deal about CBD oil, but he knew enough from research and talking to other athletes who had taken cannabidiol (CBD), a supplement derived from the hemp plant, to realize that it might be able to help with some of his ailments.
“I went and tried it about two weeks later when I went home. I measure my sleep with a device called WHOOP,” McCarron said. “That’s a sleep and strain device. Major League Baseball, NFL and Olympic athletes use the device. For the first time in about two years that I’d been wearing the device, I was taking the CBD oil, started on Monday and had sleep in the green, which is fantastic sleep, for seven days straight the first time I took this CBD oil at night to help me sleep.”
McCarron has now been using the products for nearly two years and is among a growing list of PGA Champions Tour players using CBD oil for various reasons, including sleep, recovery, anxiety and inflammation. Through word of mouth of the perceived benefits, the products have spread on the Champions Tour.
Despite its open popularity among the senior players, it has taken longer to surface as an acceptable practice to discuss publicly with the PGA Tour players. That is rapidly changing, though, as the perception of and education about the product are growing as well.
What used to be a taboo topic, and a product quite a few players on the Tour were using but were reluctant to talk about, has become a growing industry—now diving into sponsorships and ambassador programs with high-profile players from both tours, including McCarron, Bubba Watson, David Toms, Vaughn Taylor, DJ Trahan, Kenny Perry, Tom Kite and Scott Piercy, among others.
Part of the reason CBD oil has been more popular early on in the Champions Tour is because the players are older, with rapidly changing bodies, and are looking for ways to continue competing at a high level with their grueling schedules.
A big reason the senior players are more open to discussing CBD use than their younger counterparts on the PGA Tour, however, is because they are not drug-tested in the same way as the under-50 crowd on the PGA Tour.
CBD is derived from the hemp plant, which is a strain of cannabis, but it is grown and used to make the products because it typically contains less THC, the psychoactive ingredient that causes a high, than the marijuana plant.
THC is a substance banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency, and because the CBD products are not regulated by the FDA, there is a level of uncertainty about what is actually in the product. It raises questions about whether the THC levels are low enough to keep the Tour players from failing a drug test and if the listed ingredients are actually what make up the CBD oil.
“I think everybody [on the Tour] was taking a wait-and-see approach,” McCarron said. “They want to make sure it is legal and there is nothing in it. One of the things with the Tour, to their credit, they put out a statement saying it’s not illegal to take this substance, but you better make sure you know what’s in it.
“There’s so many CBD companies out there right now, that you might not know what’s in it. So if you’re on the PGA Tour, you better do your homework and make sure there’s nothing in it that can give you a positive test.”
That’s why Steve Patterson, the director of sales at Functional Remedies EndoSport, was apprehensive at first about whether the Tour players would accept it when the company decided to go beyond the Champions Tour in the fall of 2018.
The company now has 50 players on the Tour who are using their products, which include a salve to rub on the skin, oil to take orally and pills.
“The players are comfortable with a low THC count. That was the main thing I had a hesitancy about, what is their response to putting something in their bodies that’s new?...” Patterson said. “But it’s also a natural product, so then word of mouth, it really took off. That’s where the popularity and acceptance has come in.”
The PGA Tour’s stance on CBD, according to Andy Levinson, the senior vice president of tournament administration, is that it falls under the same category as permitted supplements. The Tour warns its players that any supplement is to be taken at their own risk and that there are potential pitfalls to taking products that could contain ingredients not listed on the package.
“There’s very, very little FDA regulation over the supplement industry as a whole, so if a player wants to take any supplements, whether it’s CBD, or a multivitamin, or a protein powder, they need to understand that there is risk associated with that regardless of the manufacturer, because there is very little FDA regulation over the industry,” Levinson said. “There is no guarantee that what is on the label is actually contained in the product.”
Because the CBD products are considered supplements and not a drug, the manufacturers are not allowed to make any medicinal claims of benefits, either. The players have noted that they have seen improvements in sleep, recovery, anxiety and focus, and that’s where the word-of-mouth testimonials have benefited the companies.
Those testimonials started to spread quietly, as more and more players were using the products but were still mainly unwilling to talk about it publicly—until some bigger names came out and openly endorsed a few products.
The biggest was Bubba Watson, who announced a partnership with cbdMD in April and displays the company’s logo on both sides of his visor in tournament play.
Similar to Functional Remedies, cbdMD manufactures its own products, which allows it to monitor the THC levels, and it gave Watson a level of comfort to openly use the products.
“Just because of, I’m getting older,” Watson told TheStreet. “The inflammation in my body, waking up with better sleep. That was the two things I focused on. With a 7-year-old and a 4-year-old at the house, and playing golf all day, I needed some energy fast.
“For me, it was all about sleep and trying to get the body right.”
There are still misconceptions about the products that have made some Tour players hesitate to publicly announce they use CBD oil in any form. For example, the product is derived from hemp, not marijuana. Also, hemp is produced for high CBD content and marijuana for high THC content.
That’s the challenge some companies are still facing. But as more and more players are seeing an impact with the natural remedy, more golfers are willing to use it. And as education about the products continues to spread, and as the companies are doing more to ensure they meet the standards for each sport’s governing body, that hesitancy is likely to fall as well.
“We’re also working on getting what is called NSF for sports certification. Once we get it, we’ll be in baseball in particular, because those guys are so paranoid about putting anything in their body,” Patterson said. “But once you get the certification, it’s basically a vetting process. When you have the logo, players know that your products are safe, they’re not contaminated, and they feel comfortable taking them.”
Levinson is quick to note that no cannabis product has NSF certification for sports, but he says that if a company were able to obtain it, that is considered the gold standard by the PGA Tour in terms of consistency and knowing what is in the product.
It would be a vote of confidence for the brand to achieve the certification, and the PGA Tour only considers supplements that are NSF-certified for sports for any marketing partnerships or business-related relationships, let alone recommending them for players.
“The risk here [currently] is that you really don’t know what’s in a product,” Levinson said. “Taking a supplement that you really don’t know what’s in it may or may not be better for you. There’s no substantive science behind the claimed benefits of these products, whether it’s inflammation or anti-anxiety, or what have you.
“Without FDA regulation, a lot of these companies are able to make these pretty broad claims about the health benefits without any science behind it whatsoever.”
McCarron was comfortable using the product before many others were and didn’t need the certification or studies after doing his own research. He acknowledges the lack of long-term studies on effects and impact CBD oil can have, but he has also seen the effects of other medicines and remedies his fellow professional golfers have used to help heal their bodies and minds.
Players using Ambien to sleep and ibuprofen to control their pain are now turning to CBD products as a more natural way to feel relief.
“You would take Advil like candy sometimes, not knowing the effects or what it could do to your kidney and liver,” McCarron said. “I hardly take any anti-inflammatories anymore because I don’t feel like I need to. That’s a huge positive for athletes, because taking a little bit of Advil or Aleve, that’s fine, but if you’re dependent on it to function every day, that’s a problem.”
It’s a problem many athletes face, including golfers at every level.
McCarron even believes CBD could help the average golfer who deals with the anxiety that comes from playing the sport recreationally. Alcohol is the drug of choice for the everyday golfer, and McCarron thinks there is a borderline abuse issue stemming from golfers thinking they need to drink while playing to cut the anxiety.
Naturally, the products are being aimed at the average golfer as well. Functional Remedies is now selling its products in 125 golf shops, with 12 sales representatives selling to golf courses around the country.
Stress and anxiousness are amplified at the professional level, which is why some of the athletes are taking CBD.
“Between the mental focus and overall clarity necessary to play a solid round, golf is a challenging sport,” said cbdMD director of public relations Dillon Kivo. “That’s where CBD can come into play. Again, although research is still in the early stages, there seems to be support behind the idea that CBD can be utilized to help aid mental functions, as well as work to reduce overall stress. The idea is that CBD helps calm some of those intense bodily responses that may result in further health complications, all while working to naturally relax the mind and body.”
Those claims are still unfounded scientifically, but the proof may just be in how many golfers continue to get on board with using the products and openly touting how their bodies feel.
The Champions Tour might have been the guinea pig, but as the products are becoming more widely accepted, and as players gain more knowledge about what they’re putting into their bodies and the potential impact it could have on their performance and recovery, we are heading to a point where more and more Tour players will be comfortable publicly saying they are utilizing a form of CBD.
“What the perception was, when someone said CBD initially, [was] is it THC, is this marijuana, is it legal?” McCarron said. “I think there was a misconception of what it really was, a hemp oil. I think there was a lot of buzz about it, but people weren’t really sure. I wasn’t really sure what to think of it. But when you find out what’s really in it, what isn’t in it, that it’s natural and that the levels of THC are so minute, I think it’s going to continue to take off.”
Tom VanHaaren, ESPN
A major congressional subcommittee will hold a hearing on marijuana policy next week, Marijuana Moment has learned.
Though few details about the meeting are currently available, the House Judiciary Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security Subcommittee is expected to discuss various legislative proposals to allow states to set their own cannabis policies without fear of federal intervention.
Several sources who did not wish to be be identified shared with Marijuana Moment the names of witnesses expected to soon receive formal invitations to testify before the panel on Wednesday, July 10. Given the backgrounds of these individuals, it seems apparent that committee members will be discussing not whether the U.S. should end federal cannabis prohibition, but will focus primarily on how to do it.
Witnesses are anticipated to include Malik Burnett, a physician at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who previously served as the Washington, D.C. policy manager at the Drug Policy Alliance’s Office of National Affairs, where he helped lead a successful ballot initiative campaign to legalize cannabis in the nation’s capital in 2014.
Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby, who announced in January that her office would no longer prosecute cannabis possession cases and would work to clear the records of certain individuals with prior marijuana convictions, is also being invited to testify.
David Nathan, a physician and board president of the pro-legalization group Doctors for Cannabis Regulation (DFCR), will also appear before the committee.
He told Marijuana Moment that he looks “forward to discussing the evidence-based health effects of cannabis, the failure of prohibition, the inadequacy of decriminalization, and the public health and social justice benefits of effective regulation.”
“DFCR physicians have successfully fought for legalization in states around the country,” Nathan said. “Now DFCR is proud to advocate for the broad majority of Americans—both Republicans and Democrats—who want our government to remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act and finally end the specter of federal interference with state cannabis laws.”
Finally, Neal Levine, CEO of Cannabis Trade Federation, will be the minority witness—which is noteworthy in and of itself, as Levine advocates for legalization, while one might expect the minority Republican party to invite someone who shares an opposing perspective on ending prohibition.
“I cannot comment on what has not been announced publicly by the committee, but I would welcome the opportunity to share the perspective of our members,” Levine, who previously served as a staffer for the Marijuana Policy Project, told Marijuana Moment. “We are especially well positioned to discuss the challenges arising from the inconsistency between state and federal cannabis laws.”
After this story was initially published, the subcommittee posted an official notice for the hearing. It is titled “Marijuana Laws in America: Racial Justice and the Need for Reform” and will begin at 10:00 AM ET.
While lawmakers aren’t expected to vote on any particular bill at the hearing, it will nonetheless be one of the most significant congressional developments on marijuana reform to date.
The Judiciary Committee, under which this subcommittee falls, wields particular influence in advancing broad changes to federal drug laws, and Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) designated it as the panel to bring about the end of cannabis prohibition in a blueprint to legalization in the 116th Congress.
“For the first time in recent memory, there will be a candid conversation in the Judiciary Committee about the failures of marijuana prohibition in the United States and how people have been impacted,” Justin Strekal, political director of NORML, told Marijuana Moment. “We look forward to working with the subcommittee to best inform the conversation and the public at large.”
Legislation that could be marked up by the panel in the future includes the Strengthening the Tenth Amendment Through Entrusting States (STATES) Act, the Marijuana Justice Act, the Marijuana Freedom and Opportunity Act and the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, is also said to be working on his own bill to end federal marijuana prohibition, but no details have yet been announced.
Notably, every single Democratic member of the full Judiciary Committee, including the chairman, voted in favor of amendment protecting cannabis programs in all states, U.S. territories and Washington, D.C. from Justice Department intervention last month. Six Republican members of the panel joined them in support of the measure, which was attached to spending legislation that has since cleared the House. The bipartisan nature of that vote indicates that further reform legislation stands a strong chance of passing in the committee.
Besides Blumenauer’s House-passed amendment protecting cannabis programs, this Congress has also seen several other hearings on cannabis issues. The House Veterans’ Affairs Committee discussed four pieces of legislation concerning veterans and marijuana last month, and the House Small Businesses Committee also convened to address opportunities and barriers for small cannabis businesses under the federal framework of prohibition.
In March, a bipartisan bill that would provide protections for banks that service cannabis businesses cleared the House Financial Services Committee following a hearing on the issue, and a full floor vote on that legislation could be coming soon.
Unlike the new Judiciary hearing, the minority witnesses at the Financial Services and Small Business hearings—representatives of the prohibitionist group Smart Approaches to Marijuana and the Heritage Foundation, respectively—opposed legalization.
Marijuana Moment
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) said it will introduce federal hemp rules in August, speeding up the release from previous plans to roll out the guidelines next year.
The announcement comes as farmers and processors across the U.S. are in full swing with their 2019 production.
The USDA rules making is a next step in developing the legal framework for hemp after its legalization as a farm crop under provisions of the 2018 Farm Bill. That framework must be followed by individual states as they set local hemp laws.
The USDA has indicated that the regulations will address such things as land usage, standards for testing, disposal, law enforcement compliance, inspections, and certification for both products and industry workers.
States moving ahead
Pushed by hemp stakeholders, many states are champing at the bit to set up legislation, with some state lawmaking bodies already working on such laws. In some cases, those schemes may have to be adjusted once the USDA’s federal rules are issued.
And stakeholders may likewise be scrambling this autumn to meet any restrictions on processing under USDA rules now planned to come out in the middle of this year’s harvesting season.
The advanced timetable for issuing USDA rules was announced in a recently published notice in the U.S. Federal Register.
Fears market could overheat
Meanwhile U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, the USDA’s head, recently said he fears the market for hemp may get overheated once his Department’s rules are in place. Noting that hemp has gained “a lot of interest nationwide,” Perdue added: “I’m concerned they may overproduce like they do a lot of things in that way and the price may go down.”
hemptoday.net
CBD would be considered a natural health product under Canada’s Food & Drugs Act — and not be subject to the federal Cannabis Act — according to a proposal from government agency Health Canada. The strategy is aimed at developing the “market for cannabis health products that would not require practitioner oversight,” the government said.
A new classification, Cannabis Health Products (CHP), would be established that would give producers leeway for making some health claims about their CBD products provided evidence exists to back them up, according to Health Canada.
Less regulation
The designation would in effect create a class of less-regulated, non-intoxicating cannabis products that would be sold in retail locations such as pharmacies, health-food stores, and pet stores.
Stakeholders and the public and may comment on a consultation that frames the proposal through Sept. 3, 2019.
Canada, which only recently opened the market for CBD by allowing farmers to sell hemp flowers and leaves, is expected to emerge as a major global CBD producer.
Hemp Today
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Sixty-six percent of Americans now support legalizing marijuana, another new high in Gallup’s trend over nearly half a century. The latest figure marks the third consecutive year that support on the measure has increased and established a new record.
Legalizing the use of pot was an unpopular idea when Gallup first asked Americans about it in 1969—just 12% at that time said it should be made legal. Support grew in the 1970s but stagnated in the 20% range until the new millennium, when momentum for legalization picked up again. Since 2000, support for legalizing marijuana has trended steeply upward, reaching majority support for the first time in 2013—a year after Colorado and Washington voters legalized recreational use of marijuana via ballot initiatives, making them the first states to do so. Marijuana use continues to be illegal at the federal level.
The Oct. 1-10 Gallup poll was conducted before Canada last week became the second country in the world to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. In the U.S., voters in four states are voting this year on measures to allow for recreational or medical use of marijuana.
Support for legalization in the U.S. has continued to grow, even as Attorney General Jeff Sessions has pledged to crack down on marijuana at the federal level. But Sessions’ own department has done little to actually carry out his demonstrated opposition to legal marijuana, and states have continued to legalize it since Sessions took on his role. Moreover, President Donald Trump undermined his attorney general’s pledged mission over the summer when he indicated he would likely support a bill to allow states to determine their own marijuana policies.
Among Republicans, Newfound Majority Support for Legalization Remains
Sessions’ opposition to legalization is further undercut by shifts in attitudes among his own political party. Gallup found last year that a slim majority of Republicans supported legal marijuana for the first time, and this year’s figure, 53%, suggests continued Republican support.
Views that pot should be legalized have also reached new peaks this year among Democrats (75%) and independents (71%). Democrats reached majority-level support for legalization in 2009, and independents did so in 2010.
Majority of Older U.S. Adults Now Support Legal Pot
Among Americans aged 55 and older, views that marijuana should be legalized now surpass the majority level, with 59% support, up from 50% last year.
Meanwhile, solid majorities of younger adults have supported legalization for several years. Support is strongest among adults aged 18 to 34, at 78%, while nearly two in three adults aged 35 to 54 (65%) approve of legalizing marijuana.
Across All U.S. Regions, About Two in Three Support Legalizing Pot
In 2009 and 2010—before any state had legalized pot—support for legalization reached the majority level in only one U.S. region—the West, at 56%. And in most polls since, residents in the West, along with Eastern residents, have led the remaining regions in favoring legalized pot.
But attitudes about legalization have changed more recently: In 2017 and 2018, support for legalization of marijuana is about even in the East (67%), Midwest (65%), South (65%) and West (65%).
Bottom Line
Like support for gay marriage —and in prior years, interracial marriage —support for marijuana legalization has generally only expanded, even if slowly, over the course of multiple decades—raising the question of where the ceiling in support might be. As the percentage of Americans who favor legalizing pot has continued to grow, so has the number of states that have taken up legislation to allow residents to use the substance recreationally. States that permit use of medical marijuana are even more prevalent in the U.S. than states allowing recreational pot are.
After this year’s elections, recreational pot use could be allowed in two more states, depending on what voters decide in North Dakota and Michigan. Both of these states border Canada, whose adult residents now have access to legal marijuana nationwide. Meanwhile, state lawmakers in New Jersey are moving closer to passing legislation to legalize pot, and neighboring New York might not be far behind after the state’s health department conducted a study that led to its recommendation that marijuana be legal.
But even as many states take action to legalize pot, to date, no Midwestern or Southern states permit legal recreational use—though medicinal marijuana is allowed in a few of these states. Now that public support is consistent across U.S. regions, legalization could spread to new areas in the future.
Justin McCarthy, Gallup
Gov. Kay Ivey finally signed the Senate Bill 225 on June 10, allowing pharmacies to sell CBD based products containing no more than 0.3% THC. The Pharmacy Board said that it is the responsibility of the pharmacy to ensure by trustworthy and scientifically reliable testing that the CBD based products sold will meet the criteria.
Gov. Kay Ivey finally signed the Senate Bill 225 on June 10, allowing pharmacies to sell CBD based products containing no more than 0.3% THC. The Pharmacy Board said that it is the responsibility of the pharmacy to ensure by trustworthy and scientifically reliable testing that the CBD based products sold will meet the criteria.
Until this bill was signed, pharmacies in Alabama were prohibited from selling the products, even if you could access CBD based products from regular gas stations or quick marts. The uneven distribution and unregulated framework for CBD products can cause a significant damage to the consumer market, however if controlled in a precise manner, CBD can be a potent medicinal drug that can improve people’s lives.
CBD or cannabidiol is a compound found in large quantities in the hemp plant, a cannabis genus plant. CBD is a non-psychoactive compound which doesn’t alter the state of mind, unlike THC, tetrahydro cannabinoid which has psychoactive effects and is responsible for the “high” that people feel while smoking pot.
CBD is an anti-inflammatory drug which helps treat pain, inflammation, swelling, acute pains, chronic ache, sleep disorders, anxiety, depression, insomnia and even reduces the severity of life-threatening diseases such as epilepsy, Alzheimer’s and cancer. People have started relying on CBD and using it as an alternative to regular prescription drugs.
Many people have reported significant improvement in their health after taking CBD only for a few weeks or even days in some cases. According to Susan Alverson, Director of Regulatory Affairs for the Alabama Board of Pharmacy, the prohibition on sales of CBD products in pharmacies was due to the former classification of CBD as a substance drug.
CBD was still registered as a Schedule 1 controlled drug in Alabama even after the federal government reclassified CBD and CBD oil as a safe drug for consumer market. Pharmacies report to the Board of Pharmacy, and the board could not allow pharmacists to sell CBD since the state law had not changed and still considered it as a prohibited drug.
The U.S. House passed the Farm Bill in December 2018, allowing hemp derived CBD with a maximum concentration of 0.3% THC, thereby removing it from the list of Controlled Substances Act. Technically, the bill changed the legal status of hemp derived CBD from a controlled substance to an agricultural commodity which can be manufactured, processed, sold and consumed by consumers. The bill meant that people could now cultivate, buy and sell CBD legally.
In its earlier guidance, the Alabama Board of Pharmacy made it clear that until the Alabama Department of Public Health removed hemp derived CBD based products from the list of Schedule 1 Controlled Substances, Alabama pharmacies and pharmacists are not allowed to manufacture or sell any form of CBD.
When asked about why people could buy CBD at a gas station and not at a pharmacy, the board promptly replied that while the Board of Pharmacy abides only those who have a permit with the board, and do not regulate entities that work outside its permit. They also added that though they can regulate what are sold at pharmacies, they can not change the status of a controlled substance directly.
Alverson said that the growing use of CBDs continue to raise concerns amongst law enforcement officials and other stakeholders. There are ample of questions surrounding CBD that need to be answered, especially related to the components contained within the oil and the long term effects of it. While there are many claims about its healing ability, there is no real documentation for most of the claims.
The ambiguity raises many questions; is it safe for people to use on a regular basis? Does it have any long term side effects? Is it alright if people use CBD and have no benefit? Or is it OK if people use the CBD oil as an alternative to prescription drug and have no impact with the CBD?
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration held a public meeting on May 31 to discuss about CBD and its effects. The agency allows only one prescription drug which is used to treat severe, rare forms of epilepsy. Dr. Amy Abernathy, prinicipal deputy commissioner of the FDA said that they want consumers to be aware of what they are getting into by taking CBD and that there is only limited information available about CBD, including its effects on the body. Among many questions, the FDA is yet to decide on the safe levels of daily CBD consumption and its possible side effects, if any.
Ivan Green, Cannabis Radar
Illinois lawmakers passed a bill that legalizes the possession and commercial sale of marijuana in the state earlier this month.
Governor JB Pritzker, who made marijuana legalization a core component of his campaign for the governor’s office, signed the bill into law on Tuesday.
The bill contains a sweeping criminal justice component, expunging the records of potentially hundreds of thousands Illinois residents who have previously been convicted for possessing marijuana under previous laws. Up to 770,000 Illinois residents may qualify for expungement, according to ABC News.
The bill will also proactively create opportunities for minority business owners to capitalize on the new industry.
Legal marijuana sales in the state are expected to start on January 1, 2020, as the states’ 55 medical marijuana dispensaries will be permitted to flip to recreational sales, reports The Chicago Tribune.
“The state of Illinois just made history, legalizing adult-use cannabis with the most equity-centric approach in the nation,” Pritzker wrote on his official Facebook page. “This will have a transformational impact on our state, creating opportunity in the communities that need it most and giving so many a second chance.”
For its part, Illinois will be the first state to legalize marijuana sales through the state legislature — rather than a ballot initiative — once Pritzker signs the bill into law.
The past year has been a banner year for marijuana legalization.
In last year’s midterm elections, Michigan became the 10th state to legalize recreational marijuana, and Utah and Missouri voted to legalize medical marijuana. Deep-red Oklahoma also voted to legalize medical marijuana last year, joining numerous other states that have such laws on the books.
Vermont became the first state to legalize marijuana posessions — not sale — through its legislature last year as well, rather than a ballot initiative when the governor signed the bill into law.
And, President Donald Trump also signed the bipartisan Farm Bill into law last December, which legalized hemp — a plant that’s roughly identical to marijuana but doesn’t contain THC, a psychoactive compound in marijuana — nationwide.
Hemp is also a source of CBD, or cannabidiol, a popular, if scientifically untested ingredient in many cannabis-infused products.
Eleven states and Washington, DC, have now legalized marijuana for recreational use for adults over 21. And 33 states have legalized medical marijuana.
And last October, Canada legalized marijuana federally, becoming the first G7 country to do.
Mexico’s Supreme Court also ruled that marijuana prohibition is unconstitutional, paving the way for the country’s new leader, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, to follow Canada’s lead.
Marijuana prohibition began 80 years ago when the federal government banned the sale, cultivation, and use of the cannabis plant. It remains illegal at the federal level.
Overturning prohibition is one of the few hot-button topics with widespread support.
A recent poll by the Pew Research Center found that 62% of Americans, including 74% of millennials, said they supported legalizing marijuana.
Jeremy Berke and Skye Gould, Business Insider
SAN FRANCISCO—Under one interpretation of US law, Bharat Vasan is a drug-dealing kingpin. But to the hundreds of investors, entrepreneurs, opportunists, experts and executives hanging on his every word inside an airy event space one Tuesday last month, the CEO of Pax Labs was something else entirely.
A business mogul. A role model. A man who saw the future.
Never before had I seen so many people dressed so nicely, gathered in such a swanky spot, to talk about marijuana.
It was an overcast afternoon in the Dogpatch neighborhood, a strip on the city’s east side in the late stages of gentrification. The new home of the Golden State Warriors is under construction nearby. Vasan was on stage to open CannTech 2019, a summit hosted by early-stage venture firm DCM in the hopes of bringing together “cannabis, tech and capital.” It was early May, barely two weeks after Pax closed a $420 million VC round to help finance its popular cannabis vaporizers—a stunning (and apt) amount for a company whose product is still illegal under federal law.
But that might not be the case for long. The times they are a-changing, and they’re a-changing rapidly. Medical marijuana is now legal in a majority of US states. A majority of US citizens now support full legalization. It seems less a question of “if” than “when.”
“It’s hard to put the genie back in the bottle,” Vasan said.
The prospect of a massive new legal marketplace worth tens of billions of dollars is enough to make investors up and down Sand Hill Road swoon. But it also raises questions. About regulation and product quality, yes—but also moral questions about VCs swooping in to capitalize on a substance that for decades has been demonized and criminalized. The idea of selling marijuana to the masses isn’t new; it’s just that for most of the past century, doing so was often punished by a lengthy stint in jail. In 2019, though, the dealers have moved from the street corner to the C-suite.
The cannabis revolution is here, and VCs are taking notice. In 2013, startups in the sector drew just 11 venture investments worth a combined $16 million; by last year, those figures had exploded to 146 deals worth $982 million, per PitchBook data. In just the first four months of 2019, the value of VC deals in the space ballooned to $1.2 billion.
What exactly the high-flying future will look like, though, is still a hazy question.
“It’s kind of like the Wild West,” said Twitch co-founder and investor Justin Kan during one panel discussion at the summit.
If that’s the case, then CEOs like Pax’s Vasan are settlers staking their claims. To many, Pax might best be known as the former parent company of Juul, a spinoff focused on nicotine vaporizers that was recently valued at a jaw-dropping $38 billion. But Pax had already banked more than $100 million in VC backing of its own before this year, and the business announced its presence in a major way with that $420 million funding in April at a $1.7 billion valuation, far and away the highest for any company in the cannabis industry.
Vasan was at the summit to talk about growth—in business terms, not botany. The legal cannabis space is, of course, still in its infancy, with countless problems to be solved. Some of the major ones Vasan identified are related to quality, control and predictability. In other words, consumers should be able to go to a dispensary, describe the effect they’re looking for, and get it. But such consistency has been difficult to establish.
Along with problems, the youth of the cannabis space also presents opportunities. The industry is a blank slate, which means companies can be whatever they want to be. It’s a rare chance for marketers to establish brand identities from scratch amid a landscape where the competition is still relatively scarce, and where many potential customers still don’t quite know what to make of it all.
“We want to establish cannabis as a force for good,” Vasan said. “Figure out what the story is. Any time you’re building a brand, there needs to be a story around it.”
It’s a message that’s certainly been taken to heart by another panelist at the summit, Gunner Winston, the CEO of Dosist. His company is also concerned with issues of quality, control and predictability: Dosist makes disposable vaporizers that provide precise quantities of THC and CBD—the two main compounds derived from cannabis—aiming to bring small doses to a higher-end, distinctly non-stoner clientele.
A former hedge fund pro, Winston took the helm of Dosist in 2017 and immediately, as he described it, “put brand ahead of business.” Winston pruned the list of stores that sold the company’s products, focusing on finding the right partners to sell Dosist products rather than the most partners. Sales took a temporary dip, but he says it’s been well worth it in the long term.
“If you think this space isn’t going to get more competitive, you’re tricking yourself,” Winston said. “And so you have to prioritize brand.”
The latest example of that prioritization is Dosist’s first storefront—a fashionable open-concept space in Venice, CA, decorated entirely in white. It’s reminiscent of an Apple Store, which Winston cited as evidence for the importance of linking a product to the location where it’s sold. The future of buying marijuana isn’t knocking twice at a locked door in a back alley.
“We’re an aspirational brand,” Winston said. “We’re looking to inspire people.”
The summit also included a pitch competition featuring six different founders. One of them—Dorian Morris of Undefined Beauty—presented a similar idea of inspiration, but from a slightly different angle. Morris is a black woman, which is relevant for a couple of reasons. One, it makes her stand out in a cannabis space where only 5% of executive roles are held by women of color, according to Marijuana Business Daily. And two, it ties in with her company’s goal of using CBD-infused skincare products as a vehicle for “empowering women and minorities.”
For decades, a disproportionate number of men and women arrested and jailed for marijuana-related offenses have been people of color. Now, a disproportionate number of those banking huge profits from the plant are white. It’s a dichotomy Morris can’t ignore.
“The cannabis industry was built on the backs of black and brown folks. A lot of people aren’t taking that into account, and I am,” she said. “I want to take something that was negative and bring a lot of positivity to it.”
It was a message echoed in part by Jim Patterson, the chief executive of Eaze, which operates an on-demand cannabis delivery service in California and Oregon; the company was valued at $315 million with a $65 million round of VC funding in December. In an effort to build what Patterson described as “a sustainable and just industry,” the company recently partnered with Code for America to build software that identifies people with cannabis-related offenses that could be expunged.
“These are just low-level possession offenses,” he said. “But the problem is, when people have that on their record, they’re unable to get jobs—it really affects them moving forward.”
Patterson also talked about the illegal marijuana that still very much exists, and the need for both regulators and companies in the space to do a better job of stamping it out. It was a bit of a surreal experience to listen to a CEO cheerfully discussing the price of an eighth of weed on the streets of Los Angeles and the vagaries of different varieties of Blue Dream. But in Silicon Valley, that’s the new reality. You got the sense that some of the attendees at the summit couldn’t quite believe it.
“Even in the most recent history, there was obviously the war on drugs and the federal government really leaned into trying to suppress this plant,” Patterson said. “There were those activists that risked their freedom.”
The era of marijuana users in the US risking their freedom might soon be over. Which means the era of venture capitalists risking their cash in pursuit of massive returns in the cannabis space has only just begun.
By Kevin Dowd
June 21, 2019
This story is featured in the 2Q issue of the PitchBook Private Market Playbook.
Former U.S. House Speaker John Boehner announced a new, industry-funded group to lobby for marijuana reform in banking, taxes and research, a move that will put a political heavyweight behind the MJ industry’s efforts to overhaul federal cannabis policy. The National Cannabis Roundtable will consist of members representing all aspects of the industry, including growers, processors, retailers, investors and entrepreneurs, Boehner told reporters. The lobbying group will represent cannabis businesses in 23 states and the District of Columbia, Axios and The (Cincinnati) Enquirer reported. “As the cannabis industry grows and matures, it’s vital that we work together for a commonsense legal framework for cannabis policy,” Boehner said in a news release. He will advise the group and serve as an honorary chair, but he will not work as a registered lobbyist. Boehner, a Republican, is a former marijuana opponent who had a change of heart, last year joining the advisory board of New York-based multistate cannabis operator Acreage Holdings. Since then, Boehner has been outspoken about how the federal government shouldn’t interfere with state-legal businesses. Acreage will be among the National Cannabis Roundtable’s clients, according to The Enquirer. The roundtable comes at a time when several different groups are going hard at federal reform. Recent developments include:
• The Cannabis Trade Federation, formed last year, hired 15 lobbyists for an all-out press at passing the States Act – legislation that would allow states to develop their own marijuana policies without federal interference.
• The National Cannabis Industry Association is throwing its weight behind legislation that would enable legal cannabis businesses to have access to banking services without fear of repercussion. The industry group is collecting written testimony in advance of a hearing on a draft marijuana banking reform bill Feb. 13 held by a subcommittee of the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services.
• Attorney General nominee William Barr has pledged a hands-off policy toward state legal marijuana businesses. While Barr remains an opponent of marijuana legalization, he wants the disparity between state and federal laws to be resolved.
Bank officials and others urged Congress on Wednesday to fully open the doors of the U.S. banking system to the state-legal marijuana industry, a change supporters say would reduce the risk of crime and resolve a litany of challenges for cannabis companies, from paying taxes to getting a loan. California Treasurer Fiona Ma, whose state is home to the nation’s largest legal marijuana market, called the proposed so-called SAFE Banking Act a critical step for the rapidly expanding industry. Gregory Deckard, who spoke on behalf of the Independent Community Bankers of America, said the cloud of legal uncertainty was inhibiting access to banks while creating safety hazards for businesses. The proposal, he said, “would offer the needed clarity” for more financial institutions to welcome the marijuana industry as customers. But others had concerns. Republican Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer of Missouri said the proposal would create confusion while marijuana remains illegal at the federal level. With the banking legislation, “we are putting the cart before the horse,” he said. Legalization advocates have reason to celebrate that the hearing simply took place at all before the Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions Subcommittee. The proposal, or similar versions, have languished for years.
U.S.-based cannabis multistate operators (MSOs) – both public and private – have hit the ground running in 2019 as they race to gain market share and establish a dominant brand.
In 2018, a record number of U.S. cannabis firms turned to the Canadian Securities Exchange to fund their aggressive expansion plans, many of which are under way now, according to data from Viridian Capital Advisors that’s included in the latest issue of MJBizDaily Investor Intelligence, released today.
MSOs accounted for the top five raises on the CSE – totaling $1.52 billion. That trend is expected to continue in 2019, as MSOs are poised to deploy hundreds of millions of dollars as they hustle to open new operations and dispensaries in key states, including:
- Florida, where the state’s massive medical marijuana program is poised to continue to grow.
- New York, where leaders are pushing forward on plans to legalize recreational marijuana.
- California, Massachusetts and Michigan, where newly launched recreational markets are opening up a host of attractive investment opportunities. Learn more about the investment outlook for cannabis in our quarterly report, available now as part of our Investor Intelligence subscription. Scott Greiper, president of Viridian and a pioneer in cannabis investing, will share his views on what to expect in 2019 and how recent moves are already having an impact on market developments in the coming year.