Author: CannabisNewsWire (CNW)

About CannabisNewsWire CannabisNewsWire (CNW) is an information service that provides (1) access to our news aggregation and syndication servers, (2) CannabisNewsBreaks that summarize corporate news and information, (3) enhanced press release services, (4) social media distribution and optimization services, and (5) a full array of corporate communication solutions. As a multifaceted financial news and content distribution company with an extensive team of contributing journalists and writers, CNW is uniquely positioned to best serve private and public companies that desire to reach a wide audience of investors, consumers, journalists and the general public. CNW has an ever-growing distribution network of more than 5,000 key syndication outlets across the country. By cutting through the overload of information in today’s market, CNW brings its clients unparalleled visibility, recognition and brand awareness. CNW is where news, content and information converge. To receive SMS text alerts from CannabisNewsWire, text “CANNABIS” to 21000 (U.S. Mobile Phones Only) For more information please visit https://www.CannabisNewsWire.com Please see full terms of use and disclaimers on the CannabisNewsWire website applicable to all content provided by CNW, wherever published or re-published: http://CNW.fm/Disclaimer

420 with CNW – The DEA Seeks Equipment to Distinguish Hemp from Marijuana

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has published a notice asking interested parties to express interest in supplying it with equipment that can be used to determine whether a given cannabis plant is marijuana or federally legal hemp.

The notice that was issued last week indicated that such equipment was necessary since the 2018 Farm Bill made it federally legal to grow hemp but federal laws still consider marijuana to be an illegal substance/plant.

Note that hemp and marijuana are all cannabis plants, so one can only tell them apart by subjecting samples to tests for their THC content. U.S. federal law sets the maximum THC limit for hemp at 0.3 percent. Any cannabis plant with a higher THC content is marijuana, according to the current legal definition of those two plants.

The DEA wants to identify a supplier who has field kits that can help the agents of the law enforcement agency to tell those two plants apart.

The DEA is interested in procuring portable yet rugged equipment which will stand up to the harsh field conditions where rapid tests will be needed before a decision is taken to arrest possible offenders or impound a given consignment.

The agency also wants to buy the latest versions or models of such a product, and the number of units purchased will depend on how the equipment performs during its evaluation and what the needs of the agency will be at that time.

Why would the DEA need such equipment when the 2018 Farm Bill shifted matters of hemp to the Department of Agriculture?

It is true that the DEA falls under the Justice Department and they would ordinarily no longer be interested in matters to do with hemp. However, the DEA still has a mandate to enforce marijuana laws around the country, so the agency anticipates that it will encounter difficulties while trying to decide whether a given plant is hemp or marijuana. The test kits can help to clear the air when such a distinction is required.

The DEA has set a deadline of March 15 for interested companies to give it the information it needs to decide the details of the procurement process.

Meanwhile, pressure is mounting on the DEA to expedite the process of approving the companies that had applied to manufacture research-grade cannabis. Only Mississippi University is currently licensed to grow and process marijuana for research purposes, and its shortcomings have created the need for additional cultivators/manufacturers.

The Flowr Corporation (TSX.V: FLWR) (OTC: FLWPF) and The Green Organic Dutchman (TSX: TGOD) (OTCQX: TGODF) applaud the foresight of the DEA in seeking testing equipment long before conflicts arise regarding what a given plant is during the law enforcement activities of the federal agency.

About CannabisNewsWire

CannabisNewsWire (CNW) is an information service that provides (1) access to our news aggregation and syndication servers, (2) CannabisNewsBreaks that summarize corporate news and information, (3) enhanced press release services, (4) social media distribution and optimization services, and (5) a full array of corporate communication solutions. As a multifaceted financial news and content distribution company with an extensive team of contributing journalists and writers, CNW is uniquely positioned to best serve private and public companies that desire to reach a wide audience of investors, consumers, journalists and the general public. CNW has an ever-growing distribution network of more than 5,000 key syndication outlets across the country. By cutting through the overload of information in today’s market, CNW brings its clients unparalleled visibility, recognition and brand awareness. CNW is where news, content and information converge.

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420 with CNW – Northern Michigan University Now Offers Marijuana Degree

Northern Michigan University has admitted its first lot of students for its medicinal plant chemistry degree program. The students will have a chance to major in marijuana. So far, 300 students from across the country have enrolled for this pioneer program.

Analysts predict that the legal marijuana industry will create nearly half a million jobs by 2022. Recent research shows that more than 211,000 jobs have already been created, so the half a million jobs projected by 2022 could even be an underestimate.

Northern Michigan University wants to do its part by preparing lab analysts, quality assurance directors, cannabis dispensary operators, cannabis master cultivators, and so many other professional-level jobs.

Many universities across the country, including in states where cannabis is still illegal, have added some form of training in the cannabis industry to their offerings. For example, Ohio State University and Harvard University have started training students in cannabis policy and law.

The program offered by Northern Michigan University is the first to get students a detailed training on cannabis from seed to sale. However, the students will not be working with cannabis directly.

Rather, they will study other plants like hemp and St. John’s wort. They will extract medicinal ingredients from these plants and analyze them in a lab. This training can easily be applied to cannabis.

Additionally, as part of their training, the Northern Michigan University students enrolled on the program will do internships at medical marijuana dispensaries. By the time they graduate at the end of the four-year program, the students will be ready to excel as employees or entrepreneurs in the marijuana industry.

Brandon Canfield, a professor of chemistry at Northern Michigan University, revealed that the idea of the program came to him when he was attending a cannabis event and heard industry players lamenting that they aren’t getting the skilled employees that they need.

That conference led Canfield to propose that the university starts a major in therapeutic plant chemistry, and the course was born. Canfield is convinced that the graduates of the program will have an easy entry into the cannabis industry, with some of them even earning more than $70,000 a year right after graduation.

Grace DeNoya, one of the pioneer students on the program, agrees that the cannabis industry offers opportunities that no other industry may be offering at the moment. Getting in now as the industry is just taking off promises to be an exciting prospect with huge opportunities in the years to come.

Sugarmade, Inc. (OTCQB: SGMD) and Supreme Cannabis Company Inc. (TSX.V: FIRE) (OTCQX: SPRWF) congratulate Northern Michigan University for being proactive and doing what they can to respond to the demand created by the cannabis industry.

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420 with CNW – Facebook May Shift its Position on Marijuana

Cannabis businesses and those affiliated to the industry have grown used to waking up and finding that their Facebook pages have been deleted or suspended due to being flagged for carrying unacceptable content (read marijuana). However, this may soon change if the internal discussions going on within the platform bear the desired fruit.

The social media platform is reportedly thinking about amending its rules so that Facebook users can promote the cannabis products that they sell. The existing policies don’t permit the sale of marijuana and other controlled substances on the platform.

If the changes are made, the sale of medical and recreational marijuana products in jurisdictions that have legalized cannabis will be permitted by the social media giant.

One of the big issues that Facebook has to work out is how the platform can decide whether a Facebook page belongs to an entity that is legal within the jurisdiction where it is based or operates.

Another dilemma for the platform is how it can stop access to minors if legal businesses or entities are allowed to sell cannabis or its products on the platform. This issue is compounded by the fact that different jurisdictions define their own minimum age at which someone can use weed legally.

Facebook also has to think about how a policy shift regarding marijuana will be perceived by the users of the platform in the different regions of the world. For example, some regions are strongly opposed to cannabis, and these areas may pushback against the platform for allowing companies to promote or sell marijuana on Facebook.

The task of thinking through all these issues has been assigned to an internal working group. This group will propose new rules for the platform and assess how practical it will be to implement those new rules.

If the policy shift is approved and implemented by the social media giant, it will mark a paradigm shift for the platform that had for long punished marijuana-related pages with blocked searches or outright bans.

Last year, Facebook lifted its “moratorium” on cannabis the day Canada legalized recreational weed. Cannabis is widely sold online within Canada, so Facebook may have had no choice if it didn’t want to risk losing a significant portion of its users in that country.

Previously, the social media platform didn’t stop companies and organizations from opening cannabis-related pages. However, the platform enforced its restrictions on marijuana so rigorously that government cannabis regulatory agencies and policy advocates often found themselves locked out.

It remains to be seen what form the changed policy will take given that the company insists that it will not allow paid ads and other methods of promoting cannabis content on the platform. SinglePoint, Inc. (OTCQB: SING) and Sproutly Canada, Inc. (OTCQB: SRUTF) (CSE: SPR) (FRA: 38G) hope that Facebook wakes up to the changes in the world regarding cannabis and it stops putting unnecessary roadblocks to the industry.

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420 with CNW – Idaho Police to Procure Equipment That Distinguishes Cannabis from Hemp

A committee of the Idaho State Assembly has approved funding so that the state police can buy the equipment needed to test whether a given plant is industrial hemp or marijuana. This plan comes after the police seized a semitrailer carrying what the arresting officer thought was marijuana while the driver and his employer insisted that the consignment contained hemp.

The owner of the cargo, Big Sky Scientific, tried to get a court order to compel the police to release the cargo since it was deteriorating rapidly as the police continues with its investigations. The company argued that it was now legal to grow hemp and transport it across state lines from the time President Trump signed the Farm Bill 2018 into law.

However, court declined to issue the court order since the state didn’t have a law prescribing how hemp could be grown. Furthermore, the court could not be certain that Big Sky Scientific had grown its “hemp” in accordance with the Farm Act 2018.

This case has captured headlines within and outside Idaho because it serves as an eye-opener of the kind of situations that law enforcement agencies are likely to face now that hemp is legal while marijuana remains illegal at the federal level.

This confusion is likely to arise because there is no difference in the physical characteristics of hemp and cannabis. It is therefore possible for someone to attempt to transport cannabis across state borders while passing it off as hemp. It is also likely that hemp cultivators will face a lot of inconveniences as they jump through hoops to prove that what they are cultivating or transporting isn’t marijuana.

The procurement of the testing equipment was initiated by some lawmakers (not the police department) who felt that it was unsustainable to keep sending samples to Kentucky each time a seizure or arrest was made by the police. The argument of the lawmakers makes sense, because Big Sky Scientific stands to lose its cargo due to the delays created by having to conduct tests outside the state yet the crop is highly perishable and cannot retain its quality while the legal issues are sorted out.

For now, the entire Assembly has to approve the $240,000 funding request before the spending proposals go to the state Senate for approval. Only then can the money be released to procure and install the testing equipment in the police testing facility. Plus Products Inc. (CSE: PLUS) (OTCQB: PLPRF) and Redfund Capital Corp. (CSE: LOAN) (OTC: PNNRF) (Frankfurt: O3X4) call for the speedy procurement of the testing equipment so that additional problems can be avoided later on.

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420 with CNW – The US Cannabis Industry Has So Far Created 211,000 Full-Time Jobs

Because marijuana remains illegal at the federal level, it isn’t possible to get accurate statistics about the jobs available in the industry from federal agencies like the Bureau of Labor Statistics. However, Whitney Economics and Leafly.com decided to painstakingly gather the data from each state where cannabis is legal and their findings are eye-catching.

The data analysts discovered that so far, the legal cannabis industry has created 211,000 full-time jobs within the U.S. This shows that the industry is one to watch if the problem of unemployment is to be tackled.

The statistics collected show that out of the 211,000 full-time jobs created so far, 64,000 were filled in 2018 alone. Not bad for an industry that remains illegal at the federal level.

There is no indication that the increase in cannabis jobs is going to slow down any time soon. For example, 2017 saw a 21 percent increase in the number of jobs created in the industry while that number jumped to 44 percent in 2018. 2019 should show a higher rise in the percentage of new jobs created.

You may be wondering how the cannabis workforce increase compares to other sectors/industries. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, three industries are likely to have the highest increase in jobs over the coming ten years.

The demand for wind turbine technicians is expected to increase by 96 percent while the demand for solar voltaic installers is likely to increase by 105 percent. The need for home health care aides will rise by 47 percent. All these figures predict workforce increases over at least a decade. However, the data collected by Leafly and Whitney Economics shows that the marijuana industry will achieve a 110 percent increase in jobs created in just over three years!

The figures get even more astounding when they are broken down on a state-by-state basis. For example, Florida saw a 703 percent increase in the cannabis jobs created during 2018. New York ended 2018 with an extra 5,000 full-time jobs in the cannabis industry, marking an increase of 278 percent.

Five states (Oklahoma, California, Arkansas, Massachusetts and Florida) are currently in need of thousands of employees in the cannabis sector, and this demand may keep rising over the coming years as the industry matures. Net Element, Inc. (NASDAQ: NETE) and Phivida Holdings Inc. (CSE: VIDA) (OTCQX: PHVAF) welcome the research done by Leafly and its partners since this data proves that cannabis can bring huge economic benefits wherever it is legalized.

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420 with CNW – Signature Gathering Slated to Start on Nebraska Medical Marijuana Ballot Measure

A petition that is intended to put medical marijuana on the ballot in 2020 has received approval from the Nebraska Secretary of State. This clears the way for the petitioners to start gathering signatures in order to have the ballot measure included among the issues to be voted on during the 2020 elections.

Medical marijuana activists, together with two state senators (Anna Wishart and Adam Morfeld) formed a committee last year to explore ways of getting voters to decide on the matter. This was after numerous attempts to legalize medical marijuana through legislative means failed. The senators involved in this petition are both Democrats.

The petition seeks to amend the constitution of Nebraska so that patients can be given a right to use, access, possess and safely use marijuana materials and products in order to alleviate serious medical conditions that a nurse practitioner or doctor regards as something that can be alleviated by the use of medical cannabis.

By law, petitioners are required to submit their petition to the secretary of state so that the wording of that petition can be approved. The advocates duly submitted their petition last month and it was approved on Friday last week (March 1).

Senator Morfeld announced that since the petition had been approved, plans to legalize medical cannabis in the state would now shift gears to the phase of collecting signatures in support of the petition.

That task of collecting signatures isn’t a small one given that the constitution stipulates that any petition must have the support (by way of signatures) of at least 10 percent of all the registered voters in the state.

Furthermore, the petitioners are required to collect signatures from a minimum of five percent of all the voters in at least 38 counties in the state (out of a total of 98 counties).

Senator Wishart has revealed that they will try to push for a legislative solution as they gather signatures for the ballot measure petition.

However, chances are slim for a bill legalizing marijuana to become law in the state. This is because Gov. Pete Ricketts (R) is determined to use his veto powers to block any law that seeks to legalize marijuana in the state. A ballot measure therefore seems the only realistic way to get medical marijuana legalized.

Medical Cannabis Payment Solutions (OTC: REFG) and MustGrow Biologics Corp. wish the petitioners all the best as they try to get medical cannabis legalized so that the patients in the state can have an extra treatment option for their medical challenges.

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420 with CNW – This is How Much Recreational Pot Canadians Bought in 2018

If you were asked to make a random guess about how much weed Canadians bought (and presumably consumed) since recreational marijuana was legalized in October last year, what would you say? Well, Statistics Canada released recreational cannabis sales data and the figures are surprising, to say the least.

The statistics show that in October last year, Canadians bought recreational cannabis worth $32.7 million while November sales amounted to $40.4 million. In December, Canadians bought recreational cannabis products worth $41.9 million.

These figures are considered to be highly reliable because the Canadian marijuana market is highly regulated. You should therefore not doubt that the first three months of legal recreational pot resulted in total sales of $115 million. That is shocking, given all the hype that accompanied the lead up to legalization.

However, a number of factors may explain why annual recreational cannabis sales are likely to be far less than was predicted.

First, the persistent supply shortages have made it hard for all Canadian who would like to use weed to buy the substance as often as they would like. Without weed on the shelves, where would the sales come from? Many licensed producers predict that it may take years for them to ramp up their production to a level that can meet the current demand.

Secondly, Health Canada has also played a part in dampening the performance of the recreational cannabis sector. The regulator has been very slow in processing the applications for the different entities that would like to become licensed producers/cultivators of cannabis in the country. There are claims that Health Canada takes several months or even years to make a decision on an application. This sluggish way of conducting their business has made it hard for enough producers to be active in the country, hence the supply shortages.

Another reason for the low recreational cannabis sales has to do with a shortage of packaging and processing facilities. There are reports that harvested cannabis takes unnecessarily long to reach the shelves of retail outlets because the few processers licensed in the country cannot handle the volume of weed available for processing and packaging.

Not surprisingly, the packaging and processing problem also goes back to Health Canada who have been slow in issuing processing or packaging licenses to interested players.

Finally, the provinces may also have a role to play in the dismal sales statistics. For example, Ontario has only been selling recreational cannabis through the state-run online outlets. While there are plans to open offline stores, the current sale in online stores alone has reduced the potential sales that would have been made in the densely populated cities within the province.

Lexaria Bioscience Corp. (CSE: LXX) (OTCQX: LXRP) and Marijuana Company of America Inc. (OTCQB: MCOA) look forward to a speedy resolution of all the limiting factors above so that the Canadian cannabis industry can reach its full potential.

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420 with CNW – US Federal Government Calls for Input on Marijuana Rescheduling

Following the recommendations by the World Health Organization (“WHO”) that whole-plant cannabis and its resin should be reclassified, the U.S. FDA has issued a notice asking interested parties to submit their views on this matter so that the position that the U.S. takes when the matter comes up for a vote at the UN is informed by the views collected.

While this is the third time that the federal government is asking stakeholders for input on marijuana rescheduling, it is the first time that they are doing so from the time WHO released its recommendations.

The World Health Organization observed that the evidence that was presented before its expert committee didn’t show that marijuana deserved to be in the same category as the other substances in Schedule IV of the treaty setting up guidelines on how various substances should be controlled internationally.

The UN body also made it clear that CBD, one of components of cannabis, should not be subjected to any international controls.

Additionally, the World Health Organization admitted that cannabis and its derivatives had demonstrated therapeutic benefits for a number of conditions, such as pain and multiple sclerosis.

The FDA explained that interested people would have up to March 14 to submit their views for consideration. This deadline was set based on an earlier timeline for the planned meeting of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs. That meeting is expected to be held anywhere between March 14 and March 22 this year.

That original timeline was set because the WHO was expected to release its recommendations in December last year. However, that didn’t happen for unknown reasons.

The FDA therefore expects to extend the period within which members of the public and other stakeholders in the U.S. can submit their comments if the UN communicates that the Narcotics Committee will sit at a later time. The alternative dates for that meeting are in December this year or March next year.

The views collected by the FDA will be analyzed and the findings forwarded to the Department of Health and Human Services. HHS will then formulate a recommendation of the position that the U.S. State Department should take when the matter of reclassification comes up for a vote at the UN.

This call for public comments provides a golden chance for stakeholders to play a role in shaping how the federal government will vote on the matter at the UN. Green Growth Brands Inc. (CSE: GGB) (OTCQB: GGBXF) and Green Hygienics Holdings Inc. (OTCQB: GRYN) call upon everyone with an interest in the cannabis industry to share their views with the FDA so that the U.S. can vote in a way that reflects the wishes of the people back home.

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420 with CNW – New Hampshire House Committee Okays Medical Cannabis Home-Grows

As momentum gathers to legalize recreational cannabis in New Hampshire, a House committee has passed a bill permitting patients enrolled on the medical cannabis program to grow their own marijuana, as well as other measures intended to expand the medical marijuana program.

The Human Services and Elderly Affairs Committee of the New Hampshire Assembly voted on Tuesday last week to allow patients or their caregivers to have three mature cannabis plants, three immature plants as well as 12 seedlings of cannabis.

The bill also included a raise on the cap of medical marijuana that a patient could have from 6 to 8 ounces.

The move to allow patients to grow their own cannabis and also possess higher amounts of the substance is intended to ease the inconveniences that some patients in distant locations were facing in accessing one of the four medical marijuana dispensaries run by the state.

The contents of the bill are also intended to allow patients to customize their medical cannabis without incurring a high cost. For example, one patient (Heather Marie Brown) revealed that she spends $400 each month on medical cannabis to treat PTSD. However, with home-grows now set to be allowed, she will spend approximately $150 to grow all the cannabis she needs for her condition.

There were calls for the committee members to increase the number of qualifying conditions, but this wasn’t acted on because the lawmakers felt that it was premature for them to make a decision on that matter yet a special committee of medical experts set up to advise the State on the qualifying conditions is scheduled to meet this month (March) to discuss that same matter.

One of the qualifying conditions that was being considered for addition to the list is opioid addiction. However, many legislators were hesitant to approve its inclusion because there was insufficient evidence that cannabis could wean people off prescription opioids. Other lawmakers didn’t think it would be good to recommend the use of one potentially addictive substance as a replacement for another addictive substance/drug.

Meanwhile, the entire House is scheduled to vote on a proposal to legalize recreational marijuana across the state. Previous attempts to get recreational cannabis legalized in the state met with dismal failure, but hopes of success are high this time round since Democrats now have control of both the Senate and the Assembly.

For the sake of the patients and the general population in New Hampshire, Global Payout Inc. (OTC: GOHE) and Golden Developing Solutions Inc. (OTC: DVLP) wish for a speedy conclusion to the different bills before the legislators.

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420 with CNW – South Carolina Medical Cannabis Bill Stalls Until Concerns are Addressed

The members of the subcommittee on Medical Affairs in the South Carolina Senate have decided to stall moving a medical cannabis bill forward to the full committee until all the concerns of the different stakeholders have been taken into account. This decision was made on Wednesday (February 27).

One of the proposed changes that may be made to the bill is to include language that makes it clear that smoking medical marijuana will be outlawed. Those interested in this wording say that nothing that may create an impression that marijuana is being legalized for anything other than medical use should be permitted in the bill.

Another issue that needs further consideration is the matter of the qualifying conditions which will be listed in the bill. The legislators want more time to be taken to study the different conditions which can be alleviated by the use of cannabis. Under the current bill, terminal or debilitating conditions, such as chronic diseases and cancer are currently listed as qualifying conditions. Could other deserving conditions have been left out? The legislators want to hear from stakeholders on this before moving forward.

The members of the subcommittee also want to hear more about the fiscal implications of the proposed six percent sales tax that will be imposed on the medical cannabis sold. Will that tax make medical cannabis too expensive for some patients to afford? Are there other ways to collect revenue from the industry without imposing a sales tax? Stakeholders need to inform the members on all these financial implications before the bill is sent to the whole committee.

In its present form, the bill will allow patients enrolled on the medical cannabis program to buy up to two ounces of cannabis (or its equivalent) once a fortnight as long as a doctor has prescribed it.

Representatives of the law enforcement agencies in the state, such as the Association of South Caroline Sheriffs, have said that they would like to review the bill in order to understand the details it contains and the implications of those details. The devil is always in the details, they say.

Such sentiments give further credence to the decision of the subcommittee to wait and hash out all the concerns of the stakeholders so that the bill forwarded to the whole committee reflects the input collected from everyone concerned.

This proactive way of drafting a legalization bill is good for the cannabis industry, including Choom Holdings Inc. (CSE: CHOO) (OTCQB: CHOOF) and Earth Science Tech, Inc. (OTCQB: ETST).

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