Just two months into adult-use legalization and Illinois dispensaries are selling more than a million dollars of legal cannabis — per day.

That number is based off revenue from steep taxes on legal sales. The state reported $10 million in cannabis tax revenue for the month of January, Gov. JB Pritzker’s office reported Feb. 24.

The report shows how legalization is off to a roaring start in the Land of Lincoln. 

Click here to read the complete article

David Downs ~ Leafly.com ~ 

Boston’s first pot shop opened Monday, marking the first recreational marijuana store to open in a major East Coast city.

Pure Oasis is also among the few retail stores in the country owned and operated by people of color, who experts say have struggled to break into the industry.

Massachusetts’ ballot initiative was the first to insert specific language aimed at encouraging people of color and others harmed by the war on drugs to participate in the new industry.

Click here to read the complete article

Philip Marcelo ~ Associated Press ~ 

Research teams from eight Pennsylvania medical schools are preparing medical marijuana studies in collaboration with cannabis producers.

Penn State researcher Kent Vrana said the program is unique, because research is funded by the medical marijuana industry.

“This is what has gotten me so excited: The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is finding a way to support quality research without using tax dollars,” said Vrana, who is chairman of the department of pharmacology at Penn State College of Medicine in Hershey.

Click here to read the complete article

Randy Griffith ~ Tribune-Democrat ~ 

About a dozen people gathered around a table in a St. Louis conference room Saturday morning, pulling out notebooks and settling in for a four-hour crash course on growing medical marijuana.

Instructor Zachery Post gave a PowerPoint presentation in the Cortex Innovation District. He explained basic cannabis terminology and how things like temperature and lighting have different effects on the plant.

He’s the president of Elite Home Growers Academy, and he started giving workshops like these last year. 

Click here to read the complete article

Corinne Ruff ~ St. Louis Public Radio ~

Banking associations from 49 states and Puerto Rico sent a letter to the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee on Friday, imploring them to advance a bill protecting financial institutions that service state-legal marijuana businesses.

In the letter to Sens. Mike Crapo (R-ID) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH), the groups stressed that they are not taking a stance on the broader question of cannabis legalization but support House-passed legislation preventing federal regulators from penalizing banks solely because they work with marijuana companies.

They urged a markup of the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act, was was approved along largely bipartisan lines in the House last year.

Click here to read the complete article

Kyle Jaeger ~ MarijuanaMoment.net ~ 

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) recently acknowledged in a report that state-level marijuana legalization reduces instances of illegal interstate trafficking.

In its performance budget submission to Congress for fiscal year 2021, DEA gave an overview of its enforcement efforts and made predictions about future trends.

Buried within the document is a subtle admission that giving consumers legal access to cannabis means that demand for marijuana products sourced from the illegal market decreases.

Click here to read the complete article

Kyle Jaeger ~ MarijuanaMoment.net ~ 

CBD is renowned for its neuroprotective qualities, and clinical researchers in Australia are testing whether this natural cannabinoid can help protect athletes from the devastating effects of traumatic brain injuries.

An Australian healthcare firm is asking mixed martial arts (MMA) fighters to help them test the neuroprotective properties of cannabis.

Starting next quarter, Impression Healthcare (IHL) plans to launch a clinical trial to investigate whether their proprietary cannabinoid formula can help protect MMA fighters from traumatic brain injury (TBI). 

Click here to read the complete article

Chris Moore ~ MerryJane.com ~ 

Veterans Affairs employees can still be fired for using marijuana even in states where the drug is legal, department officials said in a new message sent out to employees this week.

The memo, described as a “self-explanatory, simple reminder” by VA leadership, applies to all department staffers and was signed by VA Secretary Robert Wilkie.

It specifies that employment with the department requires that workers “refrain from using illegal drugs on and off duty,” including marijuana.

Click here to read the complete article

Leo Shane III ~ MilitaryTimes.com ~ 

Nearly 40 months since Massachusetts voted to legalize marijuana, Boston is getting its first recreational pot shop.

Pure Oasis, an adult-use marijuana dispensary located in the Grove Hall neighborhood of Dorchester, announced that it plans to open Monday at 11 a.m., after the state’s Cannabis Control Commission issued the store a commence operations notice Thursday morning.

The dispensary is also the first application to come through the CCC’s economic empowerment program, which offered a faster review process to entrepreneurs from communities hit hardest by the war on drugs.

Click here to read the complete article

Nik DeCosta-Klipa ~ Boston.com ~

Some speculate boom times are ahead for Thailand tourism with medical cannabis now legal. But don’t expect ailing patients to flock there for cannabis treatments anytime soon.

When Thailand’s first official full-time clinic specializing in traditional and alternative cannabis-based medicine opened in January, hopes were high that the greater access to legal medical cannabis could open doors for the country’s tourism sector to reap the economic benefits of marijuana-inspired travel into Southeast Asia.

In a region where cannabis use continues to be a controversial subject approached with caution, liberalization can be said to be happening with some ferocity in Thailand.

Click here to read the complete article

Yixin Ng ~ Skift.com ~

Out-of-state buyers made up about a third of the total sales in February.

Recreational marijuana sales for February weren’t as high as they were in January, according to new numbers released by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.

Not including taxes collected, statewide cannabis sales in February totaled $34,805,072.01 over the 29-day period.

That’s down about $5 million from January, which was the first month of sales in the state.

Click here to read the complete article

Advances in farming technology in general is leading to an industry that will be more sustainable and viable as a business moving forward, helping cannabis cast off its energy-hog reputation of the past.

The cannabis business is changing, and not just because of the laws allowing its sale, both nationally in the form of hemp and state-by-state in the form of marijuana.

The farming of these crops is being modernized with tech like hydroponics, robotics, and artificial intelligence, and this modernization is leading to a whole new market for the products produced from the harvest. 

Click here to read the complete article

Brian Wallace ~ Grit Daily ~

Maine is planning to have its first recreational marijuana shops open in June, three months later than expected.

State budget forecasters are banking on a robust kickoff, however, estimating $5 million in sales by the end of the month.

Maine is “very close” to issuing the first round of conditional recreational business licenses, said Erik Gundersen, the director of the Office of Marijuana Policy.

Click here to read the complete article

Penelope Overton ~ Portland Press Herald ~ 

With spring training now in full swing, Major League Baseball is further clarifying its stance on marijuana.

Players can now consume cannabis without risk of discipline, the league explained in a new memo, but they can’t show up to work under the influence and -- at least for now -- are barred from entering into commercial arrangements with companies in the marijuana industry.

Click here to read the complete article

Ben Aldin ~ MarijuanaMoment.net ~ 

According to the analysts at Headset, the last two years have seen steady growth in the cannabis beverage sector.

As consumers continue to look for new and innovative ways to consume cannabis, the Age of Weed Claws has begun.

And by "weed claws," I mean any of the new, cannabis-infused sparkling beverages recently entering the market (none of which are related to the White Claw brand, by the way).

So what brought us to this current level of hype around these concoctions?

Click here to read the complete article

Given the general hype around CBD, expect to hear outlandish claims about its effect on coronavirus, most likely spread via social media. These claims are not true. There is no solid research on CBD and coronavirus.

The global concern over the coronavirus known as COVID-19 has many people taking precautions against contracting the virus.

Here’s what we know about cannabis and this novel coronavirus.

Click here to read the complete article

Leafly.com ~ 

Utah’s first medical cannabis pharmacy opened Monday, giving patients a long-awaited legal option for buying marijuana treatments without venturing outside the state and sneaking the products back to their homes.

The debut of Dragonfly Wellness at 711 State St. in Salt Lake City marks a milestone for the state’s medical marijuana program, which has been germinating for about 15 months since voters and lawmakers laid the groundwork for it.

“For far too long we’ve been told what we should do and what we shouldn’t do,” Narith Panh, Dragonfly’s chief strategy officer, told reporters at a morning news conference.

Click here to read the complete article

Bethany Rodgers ~ Salt Lake Tribune ~

A compound made by cannabis plants has been found to wipe out one of the most common drug-resistant bacteria in a study on mice, raising hopes of a new weapon in the fight against superbugs.

Public health agencies worldwide have identified antibiotic resistance of disease-causing bacteria as one of humanity's most critical challenges.

Click here to read the complete article

Nikki Hancocks ~ NutraIngredients.com ~ 

Considering the neuroprotective effects of cannabinoids and the anti-spastic effects of cannabinoids in multiple sclerosis patients, it only makes sense to consider their use in ALS. Preclinical work and some patient reports are promising.

ALS causes the degeneration of nerves that control voluntary muscle movement, like those that allow us to chew, speak, and walk.

Charlie Wedemeyer was one of Hawaii’s greatest athletes when he attended Punahou School in the 1960s.

He was the quarterback for the football team, but also excelled at basketball and baseball. 

Click here to read the complete article

The Texas Department of Public Safety said last week that it would not perform testing to distinguish between hemp and marijuana in misdemeanor cases.

The Texas Department of Public Safety is almost ready to roll out its long-awaited lab test to tell if cannabis is newly legal hemp or illegal marijuana.

But DPS Director Steve McCraw notified Texas law enforcement agencies this month of a crucial caveat: The state labs won’t do testing in misdemeanor marijuana possession cases. 

Click here to read the complete article

Jolie McCullough ~ TexasTribune.org ~