Grow Life 420

Most cannabis lovers have had at least one uncomfortable experience where they ate one too many pot brownies and got too stoned to even move. But a small percentage of people actually can't get high at all from consuming cannabis edibles, no matter how much they take.

These so-called “ediblocked” people can get high from smoking or vaping weed, just like anyone else, but THC edibles or oils have little to no effect on them. Some of these people report that they can't get high from eating weed at all, while others say they have insanely high tolerances to pot edibles. One ediblocked person told the Boston Globe that he only felt slightly stoned after drinking hash tea containing 700mg of THC – roughly the equivalent of eating seven full bags of THC gummies. 

No one currently knows what percentage of people experience this condition, and scientists have yet to conduct clinical studies that could explain why some people are unable to digest THC. Dr. Staci Gruber, director of the Marijuana Investigations for Neuroscientific Discovery programs at McLean Hospital, has come up with a hypothesis that could explain this phenomenon, though.

“We’re only just now starting to understand the cannabinoid system,” Dr. Gruber told the Boston Globe. “And it’s already clear that it’s not just about what and how much you’re using, it’s about how you’re wired.”

Gruber and her colleagues have hypothesized that this condition could be caused by unusual variations in the liver enzymes that are responsible for breaking THC down into its metabolites. It could be possible that some people's enzymes fail to process THC at all, and it is excreted from the body without taking effect. Conversely, these unusual enzymes might be over-efficient, essentially breaking the THC down so quickly that it doesn't have a chance to create the standard psychoactive effect.

This phenomenon could certainly impact the demand for cannabis edibles, but it has even more serious implications for drug testing. An ediblocked person that eats a big batch of weed gummies might not experience any psychoactive effect whatsoever, but they would still test positive for THC on a drug test. And since most states still allow drug testing for employment or driving safety, this means that someone could lose their job or their drivers license even though they were stone cold sober at the time of the test.

Gruber told the Globe that this phenomenon “underscores the need to understand people’s genetic profiles” when it comes to understanding and interpreting drug tests for cannabis. “There are a lot of variables people haven’t considered.”

People with this condition are also missing out on some of the benefits of medical cannabis. Edibles and tinctures are usually the go-to choice for people who need to consume large quantities of THC for medical reasons. But anyone who is unable to experience the medical benefits of edibles will have to consider another method of administration, like vaping or smoking, and this can be problematic for people with certain health conditions.

The US National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has established a standard dose for THC, a decision that will help medical cannabis researchers compare the results of new clinical studies. 

Last March, NIDA published a notice asking scientists and researchers for advice on creating an optimal standard dose for THC. At the time, the agency wrote that “research grows ever more critical to determine both the adverse health effects and therapeutic potential of cannabis and its constituents. Recognizing that a perfect measure may not be attainable at the current time, NIDA still believes that a standard dose would improve measures of outcomes in relation to exposure; and thus, could inform policy and public health strategies around cannabis use.” 

NIDA gave interested parties until May 1st, 2020 to submit feedback on a recommended standard dose. This May, one full year after closing the public commentary period, the agency has finally announced its decision. Effective immediately, the federal standard dose for THC is 5 milligrams. In a new notice, NIDA is advising researchers that they must now measure and report the results of all cannabis research using this standard unit of measurement. 

Researchers have been conducting clinical studies on THC and cannabis for more than fifty years, but without an official standard dose, each individual research team has had to devise its own measurements for weed. In many studies, researchers only kept track of the total number of joints or weight of flower that subjects smoked. Each individual strain of weed has unique levels of THC and other cannabinoids, though, which makes it difficult to draw serious conclusions from these vague measurements.

In a new federal notice, NIDA explained that inconsistencies in measuring and reporting THC levels have “been a major limitation in studies of cannabis use, making it difficult to compare findings among studies.” To resolve this issue, the agency decided that a “standardized measure of THC in cannabis products is necessary to advance research by providing greater comparability across studies of both its adverse effects and potential medical uses.”

Even so, NIDA warns that “the same quantity of THC may have different effects based on route of administration, other product constituents, an individual’s genetic make-up and metabolic factors, prior exposure to cannabis, and other factors.” And since the agency has not established a standard dose for CBD or other cannabinoids, it will remain difficult for researchers to compare studies that use different strains of flower or full-spectrum extracts.

The adoption of this new standard dose is not intended to limit the amount of THC that researchers can use in clinical cannabis research. “Indeed, investigators are free to use more or less than 5mg of THC as appropriate for their study,” NIDA clarified in the notice. “However, for applicable studies, investigators will be required to report the quantity of THC using the standard unit. Investigators may also report the quantity of THC in other units (e.g., milligrams) as appropriate.”

The federal government still considers cannabis a Schedule I drug with no medical use, but NIDA Director Nora Volkow has been working to create regulations like this new standard dose in order to help researchers better understand this complicated plant.

“Although cannabis remains an illicit substance in the United States, the expanded legalization by states requires us to develop the knowledge base that can help states develop policies to minimize risk from cannabis exposures, such as limits on the THC content of cannabis products,” Volkow wrote in a commentary published in the Addiction journal last year.

Lawmakers in Minnesota and Nebraska have just advanced bills to legalize adult-use and medical cannabis, respectively. 

This February, Minnesota House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler (D) and Speaker Melissa Hortman (D) filed a bill to legalize licensed and regulated adult-use cannabis sales. If passed, adults would be allowed to buy and possess up to 1.5 ounces of weed and grow up to eight pot plants per household. Sales would be taxed at 10 percent, on-site consumption and delivery lounges would be legal, and uniquely, the bill would not allow individual towns or cities to ban legal weed businesses.

In his opening statement, Rep. Winkler said that this bill would help “correct wrongs that have been done for too long in Minnesota to communities who’ve been over-policed who have been targeted for cannabis enforcement to further a prohibition of cannabis that does not work,” Marijuana Moment reports. Winkler explained that the bill would also redirect legal weed taxes to “help to address the harm that is caused by cannabis prohibition on our black and brown communities.”

Slowly but surely, the bill advanced through 12 different House committees, eventually receiving approval from all. Along the way, the bill was amended to expand social equity access to business licenses and to include additional warnings about maximum daily doses. Rep. Pat Garofolo (R) also added another amendment that would use weed tax revenue to fund a tax relief account that could reduce the overall state income tax that Minnesotans would have to pay.

“The adoption of this amendment is a gamechanger,” said Garofalo in a press release, according to Bring Me The News. “The Democrat majority accepting this amendment means that if signed into law, this bill will result in lowering taxes Minnesotans are FORCED to pay, financed with the revenue generated from taxes that people are CHOOSING to pay.”

Garofalo's amendment has increased the chances that the bill will be accepted by other GOP lawmakers, but the bill must still be passed by the state House and Senate before it can become law. Winkler said that he plans to schedule a vote on the bill this month, but the state legislature is slated to adjourn on May 17th, so time is running out.

“At the beginning of the year, a House committee had never passed a legalization bill. Now, we’re on the verge of passing a bill off the House floor,” said Winkler in a press email, Marijuana Moment reports. “We have the ability to change laws in a way that improves people’s lives, whether it’s expunging cannabis-related records, targeting economic opportunity for those impacted most by the war on drugs, providing relief for veterans suffering from PTSD and serious health conditions, and more.”

Meanwhile, in Nebraska, lawmakers have advanced a bill to legalize medical marijuana. The bill, which was initially introduced by state Sen. Anna Wishart in January, would allow licensed patients to buy and possess up to two and a half ounces of non-smokable medical pot. The original version of the bill would have allowed licensed doctors to recommend medical cannabis for literally any medical condition, but it was amended to impose a limit of 17 qualifying conditions, including cancer, PTSD, AIDS, chronic pain, and epilepsy.

After four months of debate in individual committees, the bill was finally approved and will come up for debate in the state Senate this Wednesday. Unfortunately, the state's GOP leadership is expected to filibuster the bill, and Democrats will need 33 additional votes to overcome this hurdle. But even if they can pull off this feat, Governor Pete Ricketts still thinks that legalizing medical pot is somehow going to kill children, so it's a guarantee that he would veto the legislation.

Nebraska voters almost had a chance to legalize medical pot via a ballot initiative last year, but state cops managed to kill the measure with a legal challenge. Recognizing the uphill battle that they are facing in the legislature, state Sen. Wishart is now working with other advocates to help place a new medical marijuana initiative on next year's midterm ballot.

A first-of-its-kind Phase 3 clinical trial has found that MDMA-assisted therapy provided meaningful relief from PTSD symptoms in nearly 90 percent of study participants.

This promising new study is helmed by Rick Doblin, Ph.D. and the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), who have been conducting clinical research on using MDMA (aka ecstasy or Molly) to treat PTSD and other serious mental health issues for years. Based on the strength of MAPS' prior research, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted MDMA “Breakthrough Therapy” status, a fast-track approval process that could lead to full legalization of this therapy as soon as next year.

After MAPS’ Phase 1 and 2 trials demonstrated that MDMA can safely and effectively treat PTSD symptoms, the group launched a Phase 3 study to replicate and expand upon their prior research. For this study, researchers recruited 90 patients suffering from severe, chronic PTSD. The subjects were randomly divided into two groups, each of which received three individual sessions of talk therapy. Subjects in the experimental group took a dose of MDMA before each session, while subjects in the control group took a placebo.

Most research into psychedelic-assisted therapy for PTSD has focused on military veterans, but the current trial also enrolled first responders and victims of mass shootings, domestic violence, sexual assault, and childhood trauma. The subjects had been experiencing PTSD symptoms for an average of 14 years, and 84 percent had a history of developmental trauma.

The study, which will soon be published in the Nature Medicine journal, reports that 88 percent of subjects who took MDMA experienced a clinically meaningful reduction in their symptoms. And at the end of the trial, 67 percent of the subjects in the experimental group no longer qualified for a diagnosis of PTSD, compared to only 32 percent of the control group.

“The experience of having been traumatized profoundly alters perceptions; self-experience; and capacity to plan, imagine and anticipate,” said Bessel van der Kolk, MD, principal investigator at the study's Boston site. “For 88% of people who receive this treatment, we can expect to see a treatment response. This can lead to fundamental shifts in our subjects' perspective on self-capacity, affect regulation, and attitude towards those around them.”

“The therapists and expert research team who have brought us here are at the vanguard of what may be a revolution in mental health care,” said Michael Mithoefer, MD, who trained the 70 therapists who provided the treatment in this study. “The success of this pivotal study is a major step toward regulatory approval, and we hope these results will attract many more researchers and clinicians to join the effort to further explore and deliver MDMA-assisted therapy so we can together address our national – and global – mental health crisis.”

Doblin and his fellow researchers initially began exploring the therapeutic potential of MDMA back in the early 1980s, but these studies ground to a halt when the DEA banned ecstasy in 1985. MDMA is currently classified as a Schedule I drug with no medical value, but thanks to studies like this one, that classification is likely to change.

“This is a wonderful, fruitful time for discovery, because people are suddenly willing to consider these substances as therapeutics again, which hasn’t happened in 50 years,” said Jennifer Mitchell, PhD, lead author of the study, to Rolling Stone.

MAPS is now enrolling participants for a further Phase 3 study that will allow another 50 subjects to access this promising new therapy. If all goes well, the FDA could legalize MDMA-assisted therapy next year, which would make it legally available starting in 2023.

If you ever had to sit through one of those anti-drug seminars in high school, then you've definitely heard about how weed is super dangerous because modern pot has way more THC than '60s weed did. As with most cannabis myths, recent research studies have already debunked any claims that super-high-potency weed poses any serious health risk. One aspect of this theory is actually true, though: Modern cannabis products are definitely stronger than ever.

Cannabis businesses and DIY weed lovers are constantly dreaming up new ways to create the ultimate high. Careful breeding has produced strains of flower with THC levels as high as 37 percent, and concentrates regularly boast THC levels of up to 82 percent! But, as powerful as these products are, stoners are always dreaming up new, creative solutions to take that high even higher.

Is Martian Rocks Weed Urban Legend?

According to popular legend, one cannabis product has even managed to achieve a THC content of nearly 100 percent – martian rocks weed.

An Urban Dictionary entry from 2017 claims that martian rocks weed is “the world's strongest bud,” with a lab-tested THC content of 98.2 percent. In order to achieve this impressive feat, high-grade flower is supposedly dipped in hash oil, dusted with kief, and then rolled in CBD extract. After that, the nugs are covered in bud butter, sprinkled with Green Crack and dank dust, and finally dipped in weed jello. Yes, that's eight separate layers of weed.

Martian rocks seem to be a new take on moon rocks, a luxury cannabis item that originally began popping up on the West Coast around 2014. Moon rocks are made by taking a THC-rich cannabis strain like GSC, coating it entirely in hash oil or live resin, and then rolling it in kief. This produces a sticky rock that can be broken apart and smoked in a bong or pipe, or blazed on top of regular flower. With three layers of weed in play, moon rocks can often contain 50 or even 60 percent THC content.

What Other Products Are Like Martian Rocks?

There's also another product called sun rocks, which are even stronger. Instead of using hash oil, sun rocks are made by covering powerful bud with pure butane hash oil extract (BHO). With only two layers of pot, sun rocks look more like regular bud than moon rocks, but the combination of the flower and the BHO can contain as much as 80 percent THC, guaranteeing that a single hit will send you into the stratosphere. 

If you're ready to jump past the sun and moon and go straight to Mars, you can find a few online retailers that sell martian rocks weed for anywhere from $250 an ounce to a truly eye-watering $1,800 per pound. A closer investigation raises some serious red flags, though. Pretty much every website selling these products is just reusing the Urban Dictionary description of martian rocks, word for word. Some of these websites even have product descriptions that look like they have been written by a bot, not a person. 

So, Wait, Are Martian Rocks Real?

So, are martian rocks even real, or are they just an urban legend? It's hard to say, but if you're not down to drop two grand in an attempt to score martian rocks from a shady website, you could always try to make your own, since they are similar to good ol' fashioned moon rocks. 

It’s pretty easy to pick up high-THC items at your local adult-use store, but even so, some crafty stoners still love to grow their own weed and make their own BHO, hash oil, gummies, and other DIY cannabis products in the comfort of their own homes. There are plenty of instructions online for making your own moon and sun rocks, which could serve as a great starting point for your own personal martian rocks weed creations.

Candy and chewing gum conglomerate Mars Wrigley is suing weed businesses in Canada, California, and Illinois for infringing on the trademarks of their classic Skittles, Starburst, and Life Savers candies. This week, the candy giant filed three lawsuits in federal court, asking for millions of dollars in damages and demanding the shutdown of several online cannabis retailers. 

First on the docket is Terphogz, a California cannabis company that sells weed, CBD, and merch under the “Zkittlez'' branding. The lawsuit accuses Terphogz of intentionally copying the brand name, logo, and even the famous “Taste the Rainbow” slogan of the company’s Skittles candy. Mars Wrigley is asking the court to permanently block Terphogz from selling these products, shut down the company's website, and close its social media accounts. 

This lawsuit, which was filed in Chicago federal court, also targets five unnamed cannabis businesses that operate in Illinois. Mars Wrigley believes these companies “purchase Terphogz’s Zkittlez goods and resell them to end users in Illinois,” the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Adult-use cannabis is legal in both California and Illinois, but shipping weed between US states is still a violation of federal law. If the lawsuit uncovers evidence that Terphogz has been shipping weed products to Illinois, the company could find itself subject to further federal prosecution.

On the same day, Mars Wrigley filed another federal lawsuit in Southern California against several online weed retailers that sell THC-infused knockoffs of the company's trademarked products. This lawsuit targets a number of products, including “Medicated Skittles,” “Life Savers Medicated Gummies,” and “Starburst Gummies,” all of which directly copy the names and trademarks of the company’s candies.

Unlike Terphogz, who were at least cautious enough to change the spelling of their product from Skittles to Zkittlez, many of these California knockoffs allegedly copy the candy corporation's trademarks verbatim. The main logo for the “Medicated Sour Skittles” edibles, for example, is identical to the standard Skittles logo, with the exception of a few cannabis leaves and standard THC warnings required by California law.

Mars Wrigley has also extended its sights to Canada, filing a third lawsuit against adult-use businesses that are allegedly infringing on their trademarks. In each of these lawsuits, the company is demanding $2 million in damages for each and every trademark violation. The litigation also demands that these companies cease and desist from selling knockoff products and shut down all associated websites. 

“At Mars Wrigley we take great pride in making fun treats that parents can trust giving to their children and children can enjoy safely,” a company spokesperson told CNBC. “We are deeply disturbed to see our trademarked brands being used illegally to sell THC-infused products, and even more so to hear of children ingesting these products and becoming ill.”

These lawsuits are the most recent installment in an ongoing trademark war between massive corporations and small-scale cannabis producers. The Ferrara Candy Company has been filing numerous lawsuits against companies for selling knockoffs of its popular Nerds rope candies, and Hershey's has sued dozens of companies for ripping off its chocolate products.

Companies outside of the candy industry, including Kool cigarettes, Gorilla Glue, and even the Girl Scouts of America, have also sued cannabis producers and retailers for copying their product names or trademarks.

Colorado Governor Jared Polis just signed a bill that will make it easier for students to access medical cannabis while in school. 

Under current state law, any individual school or school district can prohibit their students from using or storing medical marijuana on school grounds. The new law, which will take effect this fall, will remove that authority, effectively requiring schools to accommodate their students' medical needs. This legislation will allow students access to life-saving epilepsy treatments and other essential medicines, but still prohibits smokable cannabis on school property.

State lawmakers initially introduced this bill this February, and it advanced quickly through the legislature with strong majority support. Last week, lawmakers approved the final version of the bill and passed it along to Governor Polis, who signed it into law this week. 

“This bill is a long time coming,” the governor said at the signing ceremony, according to Marijuana Moment. Polis explained that the bill “finally will treat cannabis the same way as other prescribed medicines” and ensure that “school nurses, teachers and other volunteers can’t be discriminated against for stepping up to administer medical cannabis.”

School boards are now required to draft their own policies for the safe storage of medical cannabis products to be used on school grounds. Any individual school staff member that feels uncomfortable with handling medical pot can excuse themselves from having to personally handle cannabis products, but each school as a whole is still required to comply with the new law.

“Like conventional medications, students who rely on medical cannabis should never be denied access just because they are in a school setting,” said Carly Wolf, policies manager for Colorado's NORML chapter, to Marijuana Moment. “Now, students and their families will never be forced to choose between a child’s health or their education.”

Sadly, the ongoing federal prohibition of cannabis is forcing parents in other states to make that hard choice between medicine and education. Although federal law requires schools to accommodate students with special medical needs, it also mandates that public schools maintain strict drug-free policies. Any school that violates these policies by allowing cannabis on its premises risks losing its federal funding.

This policy has intimidated most schools into banning all students and staff from using medical cannabis, even if legal under state law. Many school districts have even gone so far as to fire employees who are legally using medical marijuana. US Attorney General Merrick Garland has suggested that the justice department will not interfere with legal-weed states, though, so it seems unlikely that the feds would actually revoke a school's funding for allowing state-legal medical marijuana use. 

California, Illinois, Arizona, and Washington, DC, have also recently passed laws guaranteeing that students have full access to their medicine while at school.

US Attorney General Merrick Garland has doubled down on his promise to keep the Department of Justice from interfering with states that have legalized adult-use or medical cannabis. 

In a recent House Appropriations subcommittee meeting, Rep. Mike Garcia (R-CA) asked Garland what efforts the justice department was willing to take to cut down on illegal weed grows set up by transnational drug cartels. Black market cannabis cultivation is a serious issue for California, where high taxes and limited access to legal weed are making it hard for legal businesses to compete with illicit sales.

In recent years, the US Drug Enforcement Agency has been collaborating with California law enforcement to raid illegal growers all across the state. The DEA actually seized more weed in 2020 than it did in 2019, largely due to these increased efforts at cracking down on California's black market. 

In response to Garcia's concerns, Garland answered that the federal justice department is fully prepared to continue raiding and prosecuting any cannabis grow operations that violate state laws. But the Attorney General did take a moment to clarify that he thinks the feds should only be focusing on drug cartels and illegal growers, not individual pot users. 

“The department’s view on marijuana use is that enforcement against use is not a good use of our resources,” he said, according to Marijuana Moment. “And I understand that’s not what you’re talking about. You’re talking about growing and manufacturing at a large scale.”

“It’s probably not a good use of our resources where it is regulated by the state,” Garland continued. “To the extent you’re asking for examples about transnational operations of large amounts coming from Mexico or transnational operators who are coming into the United States to do the growing, these are certainly within our jurisdiction and within our scope of concern.”

Garland's comments fall in line with testimony that he gave during his confirmation hearings back in February. “It does not seem to me useful the use of limited resources that we have to be pursuing prosecutions in states that have legalized and are regulating the use of marijuana, either medically or otherwise,” he said at the time. “I don’t think that’s a useful use.”

“For all intents and purposes, Judge Garland’s responses indicate that he has no intention of curbing the progress being made in the regulation and consumer access of cannabis and for that, we are relieved,” NORML political director Justin Strekal told Marijuana Moment in March, shortly before Garland's official confirmation.

The Department of Justice has taken a hands-off policy toward legal weed states since Obama took office, and despite constant threats of increased enforcement, the Trump administration mostly held true to this policy. And even though President Biden's cannabis reform policies seem to be stuck in the 1990s, Garland’s comments suggest that the feds will continue to respect individual states' rights to enact their own weed laws throughout the current administration.

Swiss lawmakers just advanced a parliamentary initiative that would legalize adult-use cannabis sales throughout the country. 

Switzerland already has a well-deserved reputation as one of the most cannabis-friendly countries in Europe. In 2011, the country legalized the possession, use, and sale of cannabis products containing up to one percent THC content. The following year, lawmakers decriminalized the possession of up to 10 grams of weed, reducing the penalty for possession to a fine of 100 Swiss francs (about $109), with no threat of jail time. 

Last year, Switzerland launched a new five-year pilot program that legalized cannabis sales and use for a limited number of adults. Five thousand Swiss citizens aged 18 or older enrolled in this program, which will allow them to buy and use locally-cultivated pot. All cannabis produced under this pilot program must be organic, and the THC content of all legal weed products is capped at 20 percent. In exchange for access to legal pot, each participant has agreed to have their health regularly monitored for the duration of the study.

The Swiss Federal Assembly expected to hold off on any further debates over adult-use legalization until they could review the full results of this study. Licensed cultivators are not expected to begin delivering pot to participants until next year, though, which means the program will not wrap up until 2027 at the earliest. Lawmakers also gave themselves an option to extend the program even longer, so the final debate over legalization could actually be put off until 2030.

The 5,000 lucky participants in the study are not the only people getting stoned in Switzerland, though. It is estimated that about half a million Swiss people, approximately 6 percent of the country's entire population, regularly use marijuana. With no access to legal pot, these Swiss stoners have turned to the black market, which provides a wealth of unregulated, non-organic, high-THC weed to any buyer.

Rather than allowing this black market to grow unchecked for the rest of the decade, National Council Member Heinz Siegenthaler filed a new initiative that would greatly speed up the process of legalization. Under this new proposal, every adult in the country would become eligible to buy legal weed. The bill would likely keep the other limitations of the pilot program intact, including the organic cultivation guidelines and the 20 percent THC cap.

Late last week, the Health Commission of Switzerland National Council, the lower chamber of the country's parliament, voted 13-11 to advance Siegenthaler's new adult-use initiative. But in order to succeed, this bill must still be approved by the full National Council and the Council of States, the higher chamber of the Federal Assembly.

Ten years ago, the idea that an adult could walk into a store and buy legal weed seemed like a pipe dream. Fast forward to 2021, and adult-use cannabis is now legal in over a quarter of US states, and medical pot is available throughout most of the country. Americans now have unprecedented access to cannabis, but according to a new independent online survey, the average person still knows next to nothing about this plant. 

Data analysis and survey company Invisibly conducted an anonymous survey to discover whether Americans' ignorance towards cannabis was negatively impacting CBD companies' ability to market and sell their products. To conduct the survey, Invisibly recruited over a thousand people from different demographics and geographical regions and asked them to answer five simple questions about cannabis.

Don Vaughn, head of product at Invisibly, expected that most respondents would have a good basic knowledge of the two most common cannabinoids, but he was shocked to learn that the exact opposite was true. “We found 58% of Americans don’t know the difference between CBD and THC,” Vaughn told Boulder Weekly. “I was surprised.” 

Even more surprising was the fact that 62 percent of respondents said they had never used a CBD product before, and 53 percent said they were unwilling to try CBD even once. And among the respondents who had used THC or CBD before, only 36 percent said they understood the difference between these two cannabinoids.

“It’s just much, much less understood than we thought,” Vaughn explained. “Lumping CBD in with the rest of cannabis is harming [these companies’] ability to do marketing.”

CBD has been legal since the beginning of 2019, along with all other products derived from hemp. The US Food and Drug Administration has yet to release final regulations for CBD-infused products, though, leaving them in a legal grey area. As a result, cops are still busting people for transporting, selling, or even possessing federally legal hemp or CBD products, and some companies continue to ban perfectly legitimate companies from advertising their wares. 

“Some exchanges let CBD companies run ads, but other ones will say they’re too close to ‘drugs’ and won’t run into that legal gray area,” said Vaughn to Boulder Weekly. “And small or medium business owners don’t have the political sway to go out there and do much about it right now.”

The fact that most Americans don't understand the difference between legal CBD products and federally prohibited marijuana is definitely not helping matters. The new survey illuminates the fact that CBD companies need to work harder to break down this “information bubble” by educating potential customers about the difference between these common cannabinoids.

But even though most Americans may not understand the facts about cannabis, they are at least warming up to the prospect of weed reform. Last month, four different national polls found majority support for federal cannabis legalization across nearly every demographic. One poll even reported that a shocking 91 percent of all respondents want to see the US legalize adult-use cannabis, medical marijuana, or both.

Multinational tobacco conglomerate Philip Morris International recently announced that it is researching the possibility of getting involved in the legal weed industry. 

Last week, Philip Morris CEO Andre Calantzopoulos told Bloomberg News that it was considering cannabis as a potential element of its new “Beyond Nicotine” strategy. Now that global cigarette sales are on the decline, the tobacco firm is planning to diversify its product range to include botanical sleep aid, energy-boosting, or calming products. And although the company has yet to finalize these plans, cannabis could well fit into that picture.

“We are doing all this work and will determine one day what avenues to pursue,” said Calantzopoulos to Bloomberg. “But our priority is what we’re doing with our smoke-free products, and that’s where I would stay on cannabis.”

Five years ago, Philip Morris invested $20 million in Syqe Medical, an Israeli company that just developed the first cannabis microdosing inhaler to ever receive international regulatory approval. At the time, Philip Morris was only interested in using Syqe's technology to create smoke-free nicotine delivery devices. But now that the new cannabis inhaler has been approved for use in Canada, the tobacco giant is taking a fresh look at the legal weed industry.

Philip Morris is only taking its first baby steps into investigating the legal weed market, but other cigarette firms have already dropped serious coin on this new industry. In 2018, Altria, best-known for making Marlboro cigarettes, spent $1.8 billion buying up a 45 percent stake in Cronos, a Canadian cannabis company. Since the acquisition, the company has filed two patents for weed vapes and hired a lobbyist to advocate for CBD product regulation in Congress.

This March, British American Tobacco (BAT), maker of American Spirit, Camel, Newport, and other smokes, bought a 20 percent share in Organigram, another Canadian cannabis firm. This $175 million deal will make BAT Organigram's largest shareholder, and the company has indicated that it will be focusing its initial efforts on bringing new CBD products to market.

Big tobacco companies' interest in the legal weed industry has been growing so rapidly that Congress has taken notice. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s new cannabis legalization bill will reportedly include provisions to keep massive alcohol and cigarette companies from dominating the US cannabis market.

The Texas House of Representatives just passed a landmark bill to decriminalize minor cannabis possession, concluding a week of serious drug reform legislation. 

The new bill, officially known as HB 441, would reclassify minor cannabis possession as a Class C misdemeanor. If passed, anyone caught with up to an ounce of weed could be hit with a $500 fine, but could not be sent to prison. Anyone charged under this new bill could have their case deferred for a year if they plead guilty and pay their fine. After the year is up, the charge would disappear from the offender’s permanent criminal record, as long as they have followed the judge's orders.

“Texas cannabis bills are on the move and it’s exciting to see bipartisan support for HB 441, which has been carefully crafted to eliminate the threat of arrest and jail time for marijuana possession,” said Heather Fazio, director of Texans for Responsible Marijuana Policy, to Marijuana Moment. “Advocates are already gearing up for action in the Senate. If given a fair shot, HB 441 could earn enough support to pass into law.”

The state House approved HB 441 with a 88-40 vote and passed it on to the Senate. This victory is the conclusion of an exciting week for drug reform in Texas. Earlier in the week, Representatives passed a bill to downgrade the criminal charge for possession of up to 2 ounces of THC concentrates to a Class B misdemeanor. The House also passed a bill to expand the state's limited medical cannabis program, and another that would require the state to research using psychedelic therapy to treat veterans with PTSD.

But although the Texas House is clearly ready to modernize the state's antiquated drug laws, these bills face an uphill battle in the state Senate. Last year, the House passed a similar cannabis decriminalization bill, but Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R), who controls the Senate, immediately declared the bill “dead.” Patrick has repeatedly voiced his opposition to all avenues of cannabis reform, and may well block these new bills from advancing to a full vote.

Patrick has at least acknowledged that he would be willing to consider expansions to the state's medical program, but only if they are minor. “We’re always listening on the health issues, but we’re not going to turn this into California, where anybody can get a slip from the doctor and go down to some retail store and say, ‘You know, I got a headache today so I need marijuana,’ because that’s just a veil for legalizing it for recreational use,” he said in an interview earlier this year, Marijuana Moment reports.

If Senate Republicans choose to shut down these modest drug reform bills, they may well end up losing seats in next year's midterm elections. Recent polls have found that 60 percent of Texans support full adult-use legalization, indicating that they will be more likely to vote for politicians who share their views on cannabis reform.