MjLink Cannabis Business News and Press

The compound is said to have a mild psychoactive effect, slightly more so than CBD but much less than THC.

This post concerns CBN (cannabinol). Like CBD and THC, CBN is among the 100+ molecules in the cannabis plant.

CBN comes from oxidation and decomposition of THC, meaning that when THC is heated and exposed to CO2 (oxygen), it converts to CBN.

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Vince Sliwoski ~ TheFreshToast.com ~ 

Travelers at either of Chicago’s airports may have noticed something new while passing through security after the holidays.

The bright blue cannabis amnesty boxes were installed at the end of every TSA checkpoint at O’Hare and Midway airports after weed was legalized on Jan. 1.

The boxes are owned by the Department of Aviation, but serviced by the Chicago Police Department, said Maggie Huynh, a CPD spokesperson.

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Alice Bazerghi ~ Chicago Sun Times ~ 

The director of the National Institute of Health explained that federal laws make it very hard to study marijuana in the U.S.

One of the main reasons why cannabis has taken so long to be absorbed into the mainstream is ignorance.

Not only from people who refuse to budge on their outdated opinions, but because that even after the drug became legal in several states, marijuana and its compounds remain a mystery.

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Maria Loreto ~ TheFreshToast.com ~

Tax revenue has continued to rise, helping to fund public service programs and the state’s general fund, but the Fed report’s authors write that experts don’t anticipate the rate of that growth can be sustained in the long-term if sales continue to steady.

The Federal Reserve Bank Of Kansas City recently issued a report looking at Colorado’s marijuana market, ultimately concluding that the cannabis industry is primed to continue to grow as public support for legalization increases, although perhaps not quite at the rate seen in the early years of the policy change’s implementation.

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Kyle Jaeger ~ MarijuanaMoment.net ~ 

The pain of defeat Browns fans experience over and over again can sometimes be too much bear.

According to the State Medical Board of Ohio, someone submitted a petition to add "Bengals/Browns Fans" as a qualifying condition under the Ohio Medical Marijuana Control Program.

During the 2019 petition window from Nov.1 through Dec. 31, the board received 28 petitions for potential new qualifying conditions.

Marked as No. 10 on the list, “Bengals/Browns Fans” was listed as a condition that should be considered.

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Banks are in the business of making money, and the medical marijuana industry is expected to generate a lot of it.

Robbie Guard sees a green opportunity in Missouri’s newest industry — medical marijuana.

He runs the Cape Girardeau office for MRV Banks. The 13-year-old institution has just three locations along the Missouri side of the Mississippi River.

As a relatively young bank with a small footprint, it struggles to bring in new accounts. Guard hopes the newly legal medical marijuana industry will change that.

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At the turn of the new year, a team of Italian scientists announced the discovery of two new cannabinoids found in marijuana.

Although exactly what the compounds do and how they affect the human body largely remain a mystery, the researchers say their findings add to our understanding of the “controversial plant” and highlights just how much remains to be discovered.

Tetrahydrocannabiphorol (THCP) has roughly the same structure as tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) – the main compound in marijuana responsible for its psychoactive properties – but is reportedly 30 times more potent than the well-known compound.

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Madison Dapcevich ~ IFLScience.com ~ 

Smoke more, drink less. That appeared to be the trend among Canadians in the first full year of legal cannabis, when beer volumes fell by 3% through November, according to data from Beer Canada.

“This is far worse than the trends seen between 2014-2018, where beer industry volumes fell an average 0.3%,” and appears to be related to Canada’s legalization of pot in late 2018, said Cowen analyst Vivien Azer.

Domestic beer volumes slid 3.9% through November, while imported beer volumes grew 1.4%. Cannabis consumers appear to prefer mainstream beer “as they pursue better ‘buzz for your buck,”’ Azer said in a note published Tuesday.

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Kristine Owram ~ Bloomberg.com ~ 

More medical cannabis plants are being grown in New Mexico than ever before. But two rural water systems in Sandoval County say the crop may be depleting local water supplies, and they say they have been left powerless to stop it.

The Peña Blanca Water and Sanitation District and Sile Mutual Domestic Water and Sewer Association sent a letter last month to state agencies and legislators describing their concerns.

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Theresa Davis ~ Albuquerque Journal ~

Thailand opened its first full-time clinic specialising in traditional and alternative cannabis-based medicine on Monday (Jan 6), as part of a move by the government towards developing a medicinal cannabis industry.

"This is a pilot clinic, because we cannot produce enough doctors with expertise in cannabis," Public Health Minister, Anutin Charnvirankul, told reporters at the opening ceremony in Bangkok.

Patients will receive treatment free of charge for the first two weeks, he added.

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ChannelNewsAsia.com ~ 

A measure to legalize marijuana for adult use has officially qualified for South Dakota’s November ballot, the secretary of state’s office announced on Monday.

The proposed constitutional amendment, which was submitted by a former federal prosecutor in September, would allow adults 21 and older to possess and distribute up to one ounce of marijuana.

Individuals would also be allowed to cultivate up to three cannabis plants. 

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Kyle Jaeger ~ MarijuanaMoment.net ~ 

“Building sustainably makes sense not just for optics, but as an investment."

Growing marijuana, an energy-intensive activity, is not easy to take “off the grid.”

Yet that is what Solar Therapeutics is planning to do.

This month the marijuana cultivation and retail company will turn on its microgrid, essentially giving Solar Therapeutics its own power plant, which will generate all the energy required to power its 42,000-square-foot marijuana grow facility. 

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The cannabis craze is in full bloom, and some Chicago bar and restaurant owners are experimenting with its non-trippy cousin to capitalize on the buzz, as it were.

At Young American bar in Logan Square, for instance, you can add CBD (cannabidiol), the non-psychotropic relative of weed, to a drink of pineapple shrub, orange blossom water and lemon tonic.

And that's just the start. Derived from hemp, CBD, which some claim helps relieve pain and anxiety, has exploded in popularity since 2018, with consumers increasingly seeking natural products that tout health and wellness benefits.

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Dalton Barker ~ Crain's Chicago Business ~

Years after Mainers voted to allow recreational marijuana, state officials are just now accepting applications for retailers.

Staff at 1 Mill in Belfast are starting 2020 with a steady stream of customers. The owner, Paul McCarrier, hopes to expand from selling medicinal marijuana to recreational, also known as adult use.

“What we’re hoping to see is that this be a Maine based system, much like a lot of our small breweries and we’ve seen that be very successful, so we’re hoping the state will be willing to work hand in hand with us,” he said.

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Amid signs of a renewed push this year to legalize recreational pot in New York state, activists in the city have formed a new organization to lay the groundwork for an orderly, inclusive marketplace -- and avoid some of the problems that have beset legalization in other regions.

The group's organizers say that even with legalization far from guaranteed in this year's legislative session, the potential size of the New York market calls for extensive preparation, and that conversations among the industry's assortment of players need to start now.

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Matthew Flamm ~ CrainsNewYork.com ~ 

A growing aspirational niche is making its way into mainstream retailers.

As the stigma surrounding marijuana continues to shed, more national fashion and beauty retailers are welcoming cannabis brands into their stores.

It was the addition of luxury cannabis company Lord Jones to the Sephora skin care portfolio in 2018 — the first-ever CBD brand for the chain to accept — that market trend expert Jed Wexler identified as the signal of a business opportunity bigger than the dot-com boom.

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Katie Shapiro ~ AspenTimes.com ~ 

More legalization in more states. More product liability risks. More regulations. More M&A. More of many things is what insurance professionals involved in the cannabis industry can expect in 2020.

Insurance Journal asked four experts watching the cannabis and insurance space – an expert from an insurance advisory organization, an attorney who represents insurers, a marijuana legalization advocate and a wholesale broker – for their top three predictions for the year ahead.

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Don Jergler ~ InsuranceJournal.com ~ 

Thanks to the new laws in Michigan and Illinois, the Midwest is no longer a recreational marijuana desert. But what does that mean for the region?

As of January 1st, 2020, two states in the Midwest permit the sale legalized recreational marijuana.

A new law in Illinois, which kicked in on the first of the year, makes weed use legal in the country’s sixth-largest state. Meanwhile, a similar law in Michigan took effect on December 1st, 2019.

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Elizabeth Yuko ~ RollingStone.com ~ 

As a growing number of states legalize cannabis, health officials are increasingly sounding the alarm for technology that can quickly determine when drivers are stoned.

A solution for measuring alcohol intoxication has existed since 1954: the Breathalyzer.

No such technology yet exists for cannabis, but several tech startups and university scientists say they're close to commercializing something resembling a cannabis breathalyzer.

Still, others are quick to caution the answer is not that simple.

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Medical marijuana delivered to your door. Recycling of marijuana product packaging. A “hospitality” license. These are some of the changes going into effect in Colorado’s marijuana industry on Jan. 1, the state’s Department of Revenue announced on Tuesday.

The rules are the product of a handful of General Assembly bills, as well as working groups and public comments.

“We encouraged an even more collaborative approach to rule development where work group participants utilized their experience and expertise within stakeholder teams to engage more directly in the drafting of rule language,” said Jim Burack, director of the Marijuana Enforcement Division.

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Michael Karlik ~ ColoradoPolitics.com ~