Tag: cannabis

  • BAT Launches CBD Vapor Product in U.K. Test Market

    BAT Launches CBD Vapor Product in U.K. Test Market

    British American Tobacco (BAT) has pilot-launched its first CBD vaping product, Vuse CBD Zone.

    This new range is available in three e-liquid flavors—mint, mango, and berry—and two strengths—50 mg and 100 mg. Vuse CBD Zone is initially being launched Manchester, U.K., in convenience stores and online (online purchase is geofenced for Manchester residents). Further rollout plans are anticipated for later in the year.

    “With the rollout of Vuse CBD Zone in Manchester, our unique multicategory portfolio now, for the first time, offers products that go beyond nicotine,” said Fredrik Svensson, general manager at BAT U.K. and Ireland, in a statement. “CBD vaping is a new category for us, and we will be using this pilot launch to gain key learnings about consumer and retailer experiences, combined with our extensive expertise and knowledge of vaping, to help inform plans for a potential nationwide roll-out of Vuse CBD Zone later in the year.”

  • Oregon Considers Measures to Stop Another EVALI Outbreak

    Oregon Considers Measures to Stop Another EVALI Outbreak

    Oregon wants some cannabis vape manufacturers to recall products that might cause lung injuries.

    The Oregon Liquor Control Commission is asking for a voluntary recall of two potential cannabis vape ingredients: squalene and squalane. They’re derived from olives and have been used to dilute the liquid that goes into vape pens so it can easily vaporize, according to an article on opb.org.

    lab
    Credit: Michal Jarmoluk

    The agency said the ingredients have been linked with Vitamin E acetate and the safety problems that put thousands of vapers in the hospital with lung damage last year.

    OLCC spokesperson Mark Pettinger said commissioners will meet this week to consider a mandatory ban on the ingredients and, perhaps more importantly, a more stringent product review process.

    “We can go and pull samples of stuff off the shelves and get it tested,” he said. “But if we find ingredients or additives that are injurious, or potentially injurious to public health, there’s very little we can do right now.”

    Much of the recalled product has already been bought and consumed, but some remains on the market. Bulk Naturals LLC, which does business as True Terpenes, used squalene and squalane to make a product called “Viscosity.” It in turn was used to make cannabis vaping products by the Bend company Oregrown.

    Consumers can verify whether items are subject to the recall: They will be labeled “Oregrown PAX Era D9 Elite” and have the identification number 2520. They will also have been made before Aug. 31, 2019.

    Pettinger stressed that Oregrown did not know Viscosity was potentially harmful and stopped selling it as soon the OLCC reached out.

    “Oregrown in this situation is not a bad actor … they are a poster child for a licensee that stepped up,” he said. “When we said, ‘Hey, we believe there’s a problem,’ they were basically, ‘What can we do to help? What can we do to track this down?’”

    The OLCC statement on the recall said: “OLCC recently commissioned a study that determined that when exposed to heat, squalene and squalane produce harmful chemicals. It has also been documented that inhaling squalene has been associated with exogenous lipoid pneumonia. Initial evidence about these additives also suggests a potential for consumer harm similar to that already proven about Vitamin E Acetate.”

    Oregon regulators have been concerned about the presence of undisclosed ingredients in cannabis vaping products and examining non-cannabis additives over the last year.

    At the OLCC Thursday meeting, the commission will consider new rules for cannabis vaping products that would establish greater accountability for non-cannabis ingredients used in cannabis vaping products.

  • Arizona Recreational Marijuana Law Goes Into Effect Today

    Arizona Recreational Marijuana Law Goes Into Effect Today

    Recreational marijuana is legal in the U.S. state of Arizona as of today. Proposition 207, also called the Smart and Safe Arizona Act, was approved by Arizona voters and will legalize marijuana possession and use by adults 21 and older.

    marijuana store
    Credit: Alex Person

    The new takes effect today, Nov. 30, and also allows for the creation of establishments to sell recreational marijuana. However, not all of Arizona’s cities are excited about the new rules. Scottsdale could be the latest Arizona municipality to ban most recreational marijuana sales and cultivation within city limits before Prop 207 goes into effect.

    Scottsdale’s City Council will consider a new ordinance to heavily restrict recreational marijuana sales in the city and ban its use on public property. The proposed ordinance would prohibit the sale and transportation of recreational marijuana except by a licensed medical marijuana dispensary.

    Scottsdale would also ban marijuana testing facilities except for independent third-party labs that are certified and already authorized by the state. Prop 207 allows medical marijuana dispensaries to apply for state permission to sell recreational weed.

    Cities must allow existing dispensaries to “to operate a nonprofit medical marijuana dispensary and a marijuana establishment cooperatively at shared locations,” the new law states. Scottsdale’s proposed ordinance would also ban the use of marijuana in public spaces, including bars, common areas at apartment buildings, entertainment venues, hotels, restaurants and stores.

    Council’s approval of the ordinance would put Scottsdale among a small but growing list of Arizona cities and towns choosing to impose similar bans. Both Gilbert and Sahuarita approved their own bans in October before voters even approved Prop 207.

    Payson Town Council also passed its own ordinance in October allowing existing medicinal dispensaries to sell recreational pot and giving the Council strict oversight over new recreational outlets, according to the Payson Roundup.

    The proposed Scottsdale ordinance appears positioned to pass when it goes before Scottsdale Council on Monday. The ordinance was placed on its consent agenda, which is typically reserved for non-controversial items that require no discussion.

    Councilwoman Kathy Littlefield indicated she would support the measure. “I believe limiting recreational marijuana sales to existing medical dispensaries is reasonable and within the context of the law,” she said.

    Even if Council approves the ordinance, the city could amend it at a later date to allow recreational marijuana operations. According to a City Council report, the quick implementation of Prop 207 necessitates the adoption of strict restrictions at the local level.

    City staff is recommending the proposed ordinance as a stopgap until it can further study the impact of expanded use on the city. “Scottsdale should consider implementing the full prohibitions and regulations Proposition 207 allows now…and come back later to potentially add additional recreational marijuana uses and allowances in the future once the City can better study and analyze how to safely and effectively do so in a way that does not disrupt the public peace, health or safety,” the report states.

    The ordinance is already having a trickle- down effect in Scottsdale. On Nov. 18, the applicant behind a proposed medical marijuana dispensary in the city’s Entertainment District asked the city Planning Commission to delay a hearing on the project, citing the pending ordinance.

  • U.S. House to give Marijuana Legalization Full Floor Vote

    U.S. House to give Marijuana Legalization Full Floor Vote

    A bill to federally legalize marijuana will receive a full floor vote in the U.S. House of Representatives this week, a top Democratic leader in the chamber announced on Friday.

    marijuana buds
    Credit: Christina Winter

    House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said the chamber will take up the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act some time between Wednesday and Friday, according to a story in Marijuana Moment. The floor schedule announcement comes weeks after the leader first confirmed that the House would advance the proposal before the year’s end.

    The bill is first expected to go before the House Rules Committee today, which prepares legislation for floor action and decides which amendments can be made in order for consideration by the full body.

    Hoyer previously said that the chamber would vote on the legislation in September, but that plan was postponed following pushback from certain centrist Democrats who worried about the optics of advancing cannabis reform before passing another coronavirus relief package. Several moderates ended up losing their reelection races this month on the same day that voters in several red states approved legalization measures, however, raising questions about their strategic thinking on the politics of marijuana.

    “I’ve been working on this issue longer than any politician in America and can confidently say that the MORE Act is the most comprehensive federal cannabis reform legislation in U.S. history,” Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) said in a press release. “Our vote to pass it next week will come after people in five very different states reaffirmed the strong bipartisan support to reform the failed cannabis prohibition. National support for federal cannabis legalization is at an all-time high and almost 99 percent of Americans will soon live in states with some form of legal cannabis.”

    “Congress must capitalize on this momentum and do our part to end the failed policy of prohibition that has resulted in a long and shameful period of selective enforcement against communities of color,” he said.

    The House approving the bill during the presidential transition could also raise the pressure on President-elect Joe Biden to embrace legalization—a policy he’s declined to adopt despite supermajority support among Democratic voters.

    As currently written, the MORE Act, whose lead sponsor is Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), would federally deschedule cannabis, expunge the records of those with prior marijuana convictions and impose a federal five percent tax on sales, revenue from which would be reinvested in communities most impacted by the drug war.

    The legislation would also create a pathway for resentencing for those incarcerated for marijuana offenses, as well as protect immigrants from being denied citizenship over cannabis and prevent federal agencies from denying public benefits or security clearances due to its use.

    All of those provisions are subject to change through amendments over the coming week. Earlier this year, the House voted to protect states with legal marijuana.

  • Mexico Paves Path to Largest Legalized Cannabis Market

    Mexico Paves Path to Largest Legalized Cannabis Market

    Lawmakers in Mexico have paved the path for the creation of the world’s largest legal marijuana market. Mexico’s Senate approved a landmark cannabis legalization bill in a landslide vote on Thursday. The bill’s next hurdle is the lower house of Congress.

    Credit: Sharon McCutcheon

    Lawmakers are rushing to secure final approval before the end of the current congressional session in December, according to Reuters. If enacted, the reform would mark a major shift in a country where drug cartel violence in recent years has claimed over 100,000 lives.

    The Supreme Court ruled in 2018 that recreational marijuana should be permitted, just one year after lawmakers legalized it for medicinal use. Socially conservative President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has shied away from publicly backing the legalization push, but neither has he opposed it, and senior cabinet members like Interior Minister Olga Sanchez have openly called for a shift to legalization and regulation.

    Lopez Obrador’s left-of-center Morena party, which backed the initiative, holds a majority in both chambers of Congress with its allies, according to the article. The bill’s text claims its goal is to “improve living conditions” and “contribute to the reduction of crime linked to drug trafficking.”

  • Minton: The Double Standard for Nicotine and Cannabis

    Minton: The Double Standard for Nicotine and Cannabis

    The U.S. House of Representatives may soon vote on a historic measure to end federal prohibition on cannabis. Ironically, just as the public and political leaders realize the folly of prohibiting cannabis, we are rushing toward a new prohibition with many of the same pitfalls.

    Prohibiting nicotine vapor is unjustified by all the science so far, which shows health risks are low. Worse, prohibition would prove tragic for smokers, who will be deterred from quitting their deadly habit, Michelle Minton wrote for insidesources.com.

    When e-cigarettes entered the U.S. market in 2007, opponents argued there was limited evidence about product hazards. That implied opponents would relent if and when scientific evidence could establish e-cigarettes’ relative safety. Yet, as evidence mounted, incontrovertibly proving vaporized nicotine was much safer than smoking, efforts to prohibit vaping have only amplified.

    It should have been good news when research literature established nicotine vaping as a more effective for smoking cessation than traditional nicotine replacement therapies. It should have been good news that e-cigarettes didn’t prove a “gateway” for youth smoking that, in fact, youth smoking is at an all-time low.

    MIchelle Minton / Credit: Competitive Enterprise Institute

    And it should have been good news that research failed to link nicotine vaping with significant negative health outcomes, even for those who never smoked. Smokers who switch to vaping actually show rapid improvements in heart and lung health and reduced risk of smoking-related cancers.

    Thus, converting smokers to vapers could save millions of lives.

    But for opponents of e-cigarettes, this evidence isn’t enough. They demand proof that e-cigarettes are 100 percent harmless, an impossible benchmark for any product. The evidence on cannabis is not conclusive, either. For example, there is limited data on how THC impacts cardiovascular health or how cannabis use in adolescence affects future development.

    But that didn’t stop the public and lawmakers from supporting efforts to decriminalize or legalize the drug. Rightly so. Science has a hard time identifying small effects. Thus, after decades of research and centuries of use, of the failure to establish significant harms from cannabis use indicates the harms are marginal.

    That is, cannabis as typically used poses minimal risks for most people, though risks might be greater for certain subgroups or atypical use.

    Conversely, harms caused by prohibition are large and apparent. Not only did prohibition fail to stop people from using cannabis, it spawned a dangerous illicit market, cost billions in enforcement, fomented distrust of law enforcement, devastated communities, and ruined countless lives. Against these costs, concluding that it’s better to give adults access to a legal, regulated market, is obvious.

    That is the conclusion we should have reached for non-combustible nicotine. After more than a decade of intense research, science has yet to link nicotine vaping to any major negative health effects. Many studies claim to have identified potential risks of vaping, but there are an equal or greater number of studies with opposite conclusions.

    What this tells us is the risks of nicotine vaping are likely marginal. And, as with cannabis, there are clear benefits to use of nicotine vapor in terms of health and recreation.

    Conversely, attempts to ban, restrict and heavily tax vapor products have and will continue to inflict a great deal of harm. Banning flavors, restricting sales, and heavily taxing products pushes consumers toward illicit dealers, knockoff products and more dangerous substances. Such policies also drive people back to smoking.

    Yet opposition to these products has grown more extreme and widespread. Contrary to opponents’ rhetoric, their opposition has nothing to do with science and everything to do with morality. Cannabis use is no longer deemed socially unacceptable. But nicotine, thanks to its association with smoking, has only become more stigmatized and no amount of proof will change the minds of those morally opposed to its use.

    Anti-vaping activists will continue to pursue bans and outright prohibition of these products, no matter how safe the science says they are or how many people will die as a result.

    Michelle Minton is a senior fellow with the Competitive Enterprise Institute. She wrote this for InsideSources.com.

  • Massachusetts Releases Quarantined Cannabis Vapes

    Massachusetts Releases Quarantined Cannabis Vapes

    marijuana in jar
    Credit: Add Weed

    Last September, Massachusetts became the first state to ban sales of all vaping products, for both tobacco and cannabis, in response to a mysterious vaping-related lung illness known as e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury (EVALI). In November, the state’s Cannabis Control Commission ordered a quarantine on all cannabis vaping products, except for products for flower used by medical cannabis patients.

    That quarantine is being lifted, releasing more than 600,000 vaping products manufactured before December 12, 2019, which is when the Commission allowed for new cannabis vaping products to be sold, according to ap press release. The Commission announced Monday that “licensees may retest and release—or destroy—certain products with enhanced warning labels,” under certain conditions.

    “Since the Commonwealth declared a vaping public health emergency last fall, the Commission has dedicated significant energy and resources to investigating the additives, hardware, and storage practices that licensees use to produce and sell cannabis vaporizer products,” Shawn Collins, the executive director of the Commission, said in the announcement. “Fortunately, repeat tests of licensed product samples did not return any detectable levels of [vitamin E acetate]; unfortunately, they did establish that heavy metal contamination may increase in vaping products over time.”

    Vitamin E acetate became the primary culprit in the investigations into the vaping-related illnesses by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    Cannabis licensees have three options when it comes to their vaping products: dispose; retest and release; or reclaim, meaning, “repurposed into other products,” which would also require retesting. Re-released products must have a label indicating that they “passed retesting for heavy metals and Vitamin E Acetate,” and that they, or their contents, were “previously quarantined.”

  • Small Scale, Big Ambition

    Small Scale, Big Ambition

    Zach Gibson Photo Credit: Kaylen Settles
    A small farm in rural South Carolina is producing proprietary hemp that yields high percentages of a proven cancer-fighting cannabinoid.

    By Timothy S. Donahue

    Kura Kuma Farms isn’t a big, fancy hemp-growing operation. Owner Zach Gibson isn’t your typical farmer. He’s a small-scale producer that has the ambition and potential to compete with the major farms in the next few years. His secret is simple. The science behind it is not.

    Genetics within the biometric genome of the cannabis plant can be quite complicated. Certain cannabinoids can be more valuable on the open market. CBG (cannabigerol), for example, can sell for upward of $4,000 per kilo. A lesser known cannabinoid, studies have shown CBG to be effective in killing or slowing bacterial growth.

    It has also been shown to reduce inflammation (particularly in its acidic CBGA form), inhibit cell growth in tumor/cancer cells and promote bone growth. CBG is also said to help regulate mood because of its ability to boost anandamide, often called the “bliss” molecule for the way it boosts positivity in the human body. Gibson explains that CBD tends to be more relaxing while CBG users tend to feel more energetic.

    Most hemp plant strains do not carry very much CBG. To obtain higher yields of CBG, breeders have been experimenting with genetic manipulation and the crossbreeding of hemp plant varieties. “It was the unicorn. We were very fortunate to have come across this genetic material. We took a gamble on some unknown seed stock,” explains Gibson. “We started with hundreds of seeds and narrowed it down to some of the best as far as growth characteristics and health levels.”

    From the final 12 seeds, Gibson said one strain had a very high amount of CBG, nearly 10 times the amount of a typical hemp plant. “Some of them had high THC [the psychoactive component of marijuana] content. Some of them had just a little bit of THC and moderate amounts of CBD but no CBG,” says Gibson. “There was this one plant, though. It had almost 12 percent CBG, which is extremely rare. So, yeah, that ended up being a really big win for our farm. We are very excited.”

    Beyond his current agricultural enterprise, Gibson would like to expand his farm and begin his in-house breeding program. It’s challenging, he explains. “A big part of this is that it’s a new strain, or it’s a new genotype. We are dealing with a specific cannabinoid that has some incredible uses in the market,” says Gibson. “It’s only been the last couple years that growers have started to try to expand these plant profiles (CBG), and it’s typically been 1 percent at the highest. So, anything over 5 percent is huge.”

    To be a successful farmer, Gibson believed that he needed both a variety of products and something unique. He now has both. He didn’t want to be the person selling directly to farms, however, so he needed a partner. While nothing is set in stone, he thinks he is on the right track. “I’m working with a larger company that has a national platform for farmers where, if I’m able to impress them with the genetics that I come up with, they’re willing to bring them onto their catalog and sell them for me,” he says. “I’d rather be more hands-off and just focus on the fun, experimental side of creating new genetics and things like that. And playing in the dirt; I like to play in the dirt.”

    GETTING STARTED

    Gibson honed his skills in

    Photo: Kaylen Settles

    the legal marijuana industry. He learned how to grow hemp from a cannabis farming community in Oregon. “I became friends with some guys that had been longtime medical cannabis growers in the area, and I ended up being taken under the wing of a guy who was a second-generation grower. That led to me working in a couple of cannabis warehouses where I started off doing trimming and other low-level positions,” says Gibson. “I worked my way up to assistant gardener and was helping with the daily chores involved in taking care of the plants. Eventually, I got my license and started my medical farm in 2012.”

    By 2018, Gibson was growing homesick for his home state of South Carolina. His mom had recently passed away, and his sister had just had her first child. “I just wanted to get back closer to family and take steps toward a new direction. I had a great thing going on in Oregon, but I felt like I had hit a ceiling,” says Gibson. “It happened to be perfect timing; it was right when South Carolina was moving into its second year of the [hemp] research program. I applied and was awarded a license to start growing hemp.”

    Gibson received one of only 40 permits issued in South Carolina in 2018 out of an estimated 175 applicants. After the 2018 farm bill passed, legalizing hemp farming, the Palmetto State issued an additional 36 permits. “We started getting the farm ready. There was a lot to do,” explains Gibson. “Last year was our first year growing outdoors on a large scale. We constructed an 80-foot greenhouse, then we did a lot of our own propagation, and that’s really what helped save on our overhead costs.”

    Instead of buying seeds or clones from a major producer, Gibson used plants he had been growing in a smaller indoor operation on the farm. He says it saved him about $30,000 and allowed him to plant nearly three acres. He expects to plant about the same acreage this year. “The industry is flush with biomass right now,” he says. “We need to be doing something specific and in extremely high quality to stand out.” He estimates his 31-acre farm has 5 acres to 6 acres of plottable land for future growth.

    Kura Kuma Farms gets part of its name (Kuma) from a childhood pet of Gibson. Kuroi kuma means “black bear” in Japanese (it sounds the same as Kura Kuma) and Gibson liked the idea of calling his farm something unique for South Carolina. The land has been in his family for more than two generations and has never been an actual farm. The land was used mostly for agrotourism. “My mother and father hosted kids’ birthday parties and would have business meetings and groups of people come out to the farm and just do different sorts of tours,” he says. “We had a bunch of goats and a bunch of different fowl, from peacocks to guineas and chickens, and rabbits. A couple of horses for a while too.”

    The lack of farming on the land means the soil is clean and mostly free of any pesticides or heavy metals. That makes for quality hemp, which acts like a vacuum cleaner and soaks up any impurities in the soil. “Our soil is very clean,” he says. “We have the opportunity and ability to grow some high-grade hemp flower as well as provide quality consumer goods … It’s super exciting.”

    REGULATORY CHALLENGES

    The hemp industry is growing fast. With that growth comes regulation. In late 2019, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) released its guidelines for hemp farmers. Industrial hemp is defined as Cannabis sativa L. and is required to be below a THC threshold of 0.3 percent, according to the USDA. To produce hemp, farmers must first be licensed under a state or tribal hemp program or through the USDA hemp program.

    According to the Farm Bureau (FB), the 0.3 percent THC rule presents a risk to farmers. Seed varieties grown in two different geographical regions, for example, can express certain traits differently. “The same type of seed grown in two different parts of the country can produce one crop with THC concentrations less than 0.3 percent and another with plants above that THC threshold,” according to the FB.

    This means that farmers have a tough time making sure THC levels are right. The consequences for making the mistake of having “hot” plants too often could mean losing your license, according to Gibson. “The new regulations are [that] anything that tests over 0.5 percent total THC, which is the big controversial definition now, is considered negligence,” explains Gibson. “They’re not going to punish you with a fine or take you to jail; however, that’s going to be pretty stressful for a lot of farmers that are working with new genetics for the first time or are still working with genetics that may not be super stable.” At a minimum, if a farmer negligently “violates a state or tribal plan three times in five years, they will be ineligible to produce hemp for the next five years,” according to the USDA.

    Another concern is testing for THC levels, according to Gibson. Regulations require testing to be completed by a U.S. “Drug Enforcement Administration-registered laboratory using a reliable methodology for testing the THC level,” according to the FB. There are two certified labs in South Carolina. “Guess how many there are in Oregon? One. So, they’re not prevalent,” says Gibson. The USDA has said it is working to address the number of labs available for hemp testing.

    Labs are also not testing in the same ways. Gibson says that a laboratory on the West Coast could have the same samples sent to them as another lab on the East Coast, and they could end up with different results because they have different standards. “So that’s a problem,” he says. The FB acknowledges this is still an issue, stating that “the measurement of uncertainty depends on multiple variables, such as the equipment being used, the methodology of the test, the sample size, the sample quality and other variables, and as such, it will vary with each sample that is tested.” The USDA has stated that it is working on a solution.

    Finally, a growing concern for farmers is the amount of biomass entering the market. Gibson says it is making it very difficult for farmers to earn a decent wage. “There was so much biomass growth in 2019, and it flooded the market, which crushed prices. I saw expos where there was beautiful biomass being offered at an extremely low price,” he says. “People still weren’t touching it just because I think it got to the point where the market, as far as demand, it wasn’t able to keep up with the production it was trying to put out there.”

    Gibson says he is hoping growth in consumer demand and some farmers leaving the industry will help alleviate the excess biomass. “Something has to give. It’s probably the industry’s most immediate concern,” he says. “I believe we will see fewer farmers by 2021. I think a lot of people jumped into it thinking, ‘Oh, this is going to be easy. We’re going to make a million dollars growing hemp.’ Now they have started to understand that it’s not as easy as you might think.”

    DIVERSIFIED OUTLOOK

    To better diversify his business, Gibson has started producing and marketing

    Photo: Kaylen Settles

    his CBD products under the brand name Tenaj (a tribute to his mother, Janet). “The urban dictionary says it also means ‘forbidden love.’ So, that was also topic appropriate given the nature of the plant and its history,” says Gibson. Tenaj can be found in several retail outlets as well as online at www.kurakumafarms.com.

    Moving forward, Gibson hopes he can turn over his CBD brand to a third-party manufacturer and focus strictly on his farm. “I’d like to just be the farmer and have the other companies manufacture my raw product into consumer products for me,” he says. “It’s important, but it’s also not something I want to have to constantly worry about managing when I have the farm to work too.”

    Currently, the Tenaj brand has pre-roll products, tinctures and a topical ointment. Gibson says he would like to expand his product line, but right now, he is just trying to keep overhead “low and tight, especially understanding what state the industry is in right now … there are a lot of CBD products out there and way too much biomass on the market.”

    Gibson says that the hemp industry has a lot of variables. For example, he has been seeing media reports about several large hemp processors going out of business. He says that scares him. He’s building the genetics side of his business, which means Kura Kuma Farms is going to be dependent on other farms succeeding. “A lot of people are kind of holding their cards and being extremely cautious about how they’re moving forward next year,” he says. “The future of the hemp industry is not crystal clear. The money doesn’t actually grow on the trees. There’s a lot more to the industry.”

    There is also some hope that South Carolina could legalize medical cannabis in some form in the next few years. Gibson says he believes there is a place for that additional business to become very profitable. “I would grow it all,” he says. “Yeah, and I’ve already talked to some people about being ready for legalization. That would be fantastic news for small-scale farmers. It would help ease the struggle. Farming is in the heart; it’s a lot of hard work and every little bit helps.”

    Picture of Timothy S. Donahue

    Timothy S. Donahue

  • Cannabis Prices Surge in France

    Cannabis Prices Surge in France

    In France, where recreational drug use is illegal, the street price of cannabis has drastically risen due to the lockdown to stop the spread of coronavirus.

    Newly imposed tight border controls to stop the spread of the virus have disrupted the illegal flow of drugs. Illegal cannabis resin in France typically comes from Morocco through Spain, and marijuana comes from the Netherlands.

    “The price of a 100-gram bar of resin went from €280 ($309) to €500 in a week in Marseille,” said Yann Bastiere, a senior police union official who works with counter-narcotics investigators. He noted that similar trends were seen in other parts of the country as well.

    Experts are concerned that the lack of drug availability could lead to serious trouble—rivalries between drug gangs and public disorder in the “deprived zones.”