Episode 4: Post Office Says “No Escape for Shipping Vapes”

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HIGHLIGHTS: US Post Office Finalizes Ban of Shipping Vapes + Luxembourg 1st EU Country to Legalize Adult Use + MORE!

+ MORE = “GOLDEN NUGGETS”: Study says Indica/Sativa is B.S. + 1st Synthesized Cannabinoid-Containing Product Sold + MORE?!?

Hybrid News/Analysis Extract from 420+ Sources: Featuring all the developments this past week in the cannabis world on the federal level, state legalization/implementation, science/technology, business deals, international scene, social equity, celebrity cameos, and miscellaneous ridiculousness.

DISCLAIMER: All opinions are my own, and not those of my law firm Zuber Lawler. Even though I drop knowledge bombs, the show is NOT legal advice.

Send comments to: jp@globalcannabistimes.com

Transcription

WE NOTE THAT THE FOLLOWING TRANSCRIPT WAS CREATED BY A ROBOT THAT MAY NOT HAVE APPRECIATED THE FINE POINTS AND NAMES SPOKEN BY JON, SO PLEASE FORGIVE ANY TYPOS, OR BIAS IN FAVOR OF OUR FUTURE ROBOT OVERLORDS:

Hello, my buds and welcome to our posts. MJ biz con episode, which means I did survive my first MJ biz con. This is the October 20. 2021 episode of cannabis last week, and our highlight stories this week, the United States post office issued final guidance, banning shipping vaping products, and Luxembourg became the first EU country to legalize adult use marijuana in our golden nuggets, which I will explain later, who things, another study debunks, the whole sativa versus indicates.

And a product features a synthesized non plant derived cannabinoid, possibly for the first time. Now they have a global cannabis times. I welcome you to this episode of cannabis last week, AKA the weekend, update a weed just less funny. I’m your host, John period. Now, before we get down to business, I need to make my standard disclaimer, when I’m not Batman at night, I practice cannabis under IP law at the law firms, Uber Lawler.
So I need to note that any views expressed during this podcast are my own and not those Zuber Lawler. For example, if I was to say that setting a strict schedule for MJ biz con is impossible. That would be a fact, actually. Nope. So that’s not my opinion. So that’s a bad example, but I come up with something better for next time.

Now, if you have any feedback, please send it to JP. That’s my initials, jp@globalcannabistimes.com. All right. Onto the news.

Highlight Stories

Now in our highlight story, the United States post office finally issued guidance that confirmed that is not going to permit the shipping of vaping products anymore. This started back.

At the end of the Trump administration, when he signed the Pacifica, which, you know, congressmen really do love their acronyms as much as I do. But basically it was an act to prevent online sales of vapes, specifically e-cigarette vapes to minors. Congress essentially roped in by definition vaping products that relate to cannabis as well.

And so while the USBs initially said that it wasn’t going to commit vapes and according to the bill, they call these things electronic delivery systems or ends. And as an acronym fan, I actually object to this because I have no idea where the end came from. It must be from the neck and electronic. So don’t approve of that acronym, but basically.

So that you can’t ship vaping products. Now that USPSS confirmed that. And the significance of this extends past the us post office because FedEx and ups already confirm months ago that they were following the lead of the post office. Now, one other thing I need to note is that there are exceptions and those include business to business shipments, and also any hemp products that don’t contain flour is not banned.

They can be shipped in international news. Luxembourg was the first country in the EU to permit adult use cannabis. So question whether or not this is one of the first dominoes to fall there. So now the justice minister said that what happened this week was the first step in a process. And what they did this week was permit home, grow, and home consumption of adult use.

Now, well, like to say also is in terms of potentially the next EU country to legalize, keep an eye on Germany. Now, moving on to my golden nuggets. Now, since I pride myself on my analysis and finding the needle in the haystack facts and the news that shows the tip of the spear in terms of a trend. These are my golden nuggets.

Golden Nuggets: DeSkunked

So in my first golden nugget in this, we’re also going to call this an episode of D skunked. As in IMD bunking, a myth that’s in the industry. A new study published in nature plants perhaps published by poison Ivy. The villain from Batman, this new study published in nature plants basically came to the conclusion that the IndyCar versus the TIVA distinction is.

BS. So there’s kind of at this point, this is not the first study that has come to this conclusion that the whole idea of Endeca being 90. Weed and sativa being daytime weed is completely misleading. And so apparently according to the study, the real labeling and effects come from certain types of turpines that contribute to the standard, smells associated with a sativa and indica and the study posits that those are the things that are throwing off the people and the people who are laboring, Liza sativa, and.

Now I’m just going to say the names of these different turpines because I find them fun and they sound like character names from Lord of the rings. If Tolkien was dripping on shrooms, when he came up with them. So myrcene and glial and oodles mall are the turpines that are most associated with indicas and burger, Martine and Farnaz scene are strongly associated with sativa labels.

So this is why I think that this is a golden nugget. We are talking about a shorthand here with sativa versus Endeca that people who are hardcore smokers rely on, but also that the count of curious rely on in terms of anticipating what the effects are going to be. And unfortunately, there is also evidence that there are sativas that caused drought.

And also that there are indicas that are energizing not to mention the fact that people react differently to different strains. And so also we know that, you know, judging potency based purely on Delta nine, THC is also misleading. So if these are not good shorthand, the teacher, the candidate curious, what should they do?

Now in my second golden nugget story, Cronos group, that Canadian company released the first product that contained the cannabinoid that was synthesized in the lab rather than grown from a plant and this particular product, it was CBG, which I’m a big fan of. And it’s essentially. Stem cell of cannabinoids because it occurs early in the plant and then converts and do other cannabinoids such as THC or CBD as the plants mature.

So Kronos released this product apparently in partnership with Gingko Bioworks out of Boston, which synthesize the CBG. And I think that this is important to keep an eye on the story for a couple of reasons, first off and another trend. Increasing amounts of concern or attention, or being focused on the energy consumption of the industry and grows specifically at how much energy those consume.

So there’s a larger focus also on sustainability. And so my question, and perhaps we’ll examine this with scientists at some point, is, does it make more sense to synthesize cannabinoids in the lab because it’ll reduce energy consumption? Is it possible? Engineering, these cannabinoids from a lab would be cheaper.
And also apparently, you know, according to what I read, some of these synthesized cannabinoids would make sense for inclusion in certain types of products, specifically beverages or edibles, according to a scientist.

Federal News: Better Off Fed

Moving on to federal news or better off fed. As I like to say, There was a little bit of interesting news about the FDA.

Everyone has been waiting for the FDA to release some guidance in relation to cannabinoids specifically that everyone’s been waiting for the FDA to release guidance with respect to CBD in food and beverage products. The FDA has purview over CBD and ingestible products because CBD is the active ingredient and a petty, ALEKS and FDA approved.

Now, so the FDA has essentially published another report and it’s quote, unquote cannabis, derived products, data acceleration plan, and quote, which is their way of collecting all the data. So they could come to a conclusion about the safety of CBD or other cannabinoids. So the interesting thing in this most recent announcement is that they’re going to be also looking at unconventional or different sources like Reddit for some news about the effects of CBD.

And the agency also wants to develop a system of finding safety signals and uses patterns associated with emerging CDPs, which is what they’re calling these cannabinoids. So they actually say. That the other cannabinoids that they’re focusing on are Delta eight, THC, which recently the FDA and CDC released a joint statements, a couple of weeks back about how people were being hospitalized because of a Delta aid products since they’re psychoactive.

And the other thing is they’re also looking at Delta 10 THC cannabis. T H C V and CBG they’re keeping particular eye on those, which makes sense. Considering those are the other cannabinoids where products are popping up already.

State News: State of Play

Moving on to our state news or state of play. As I like to say, In Rhode Island, we are apparently getting closer to a compromise amongst legislators that would result in a special session to approve an adult use bill.

Now, keep in mind that going back there was competing bills from the new governor and also the legislature, but apparently we’re getting close here. And so one big change apparently out of these negotiations, which one of the legislature effectively said. The constituents are on a need to know basis. And right now they don’t need to know what’s going on because it’s still sensitive negotiations.

But one thing that we do know that’s happening is while there initially had been 150 dispensary’s according to the bill. Now they’re only going to be 30 to 40 adult use dispensaries, according to this conference. The other thing that they’re talking about is debating whether or not there should be a freestanding entity to regulate the adult use market, or if they should fit the adult use market regulation under the existing department of business regulation, which is monitoring the medical marijuana.

Moving on to my home state of New York. There’s already been a second meaning of the cannabis control board. And there are a couple of things that came out of this meeting. First off, there’s a discussion about gifting, which a lot of people like to ask me about. So they clarify. That if any money changed hands and some of the things that people have been doing as, oh, if you donate money to me as prize, I’ll give you marijuana.

Or if you buy merchandise for me, I’ll give you marijuana as a bonus. Anything like that is explicitly illegal. According to them, there was also more staffing up. They approved all of the. Employees that were nominated in the last meeting and they nominated some more. So these are the people that actively going to be writing the regulations.

So that’s good news in terms of progress. And also as of December, there’s going to be permitted home, grow of up to six plants for medical marijuana patients, three mature. And three immature adult plants per each household. Also, they announced that the website associated with them will list, which municipalities have opted out of adult use dispensary’s and onsite consumption.

The deadline for that is December 31st, which I’ve already flagged, could very likely cause an issue in terms of whether or not their regulations at that point, which could cause a mass opt out as happened in New Jersey or 70% of municipalities. Moving on to Texas, Texas stealthily kind of clarified that it considered Delta eight derived from hemp to be a schedule one illegal substance.

What happened here is the Texas department of state health services or the DySIS as I would like to call it, posted a notice on the agency’s website, clarifying Delta aid status, which has caused a scrambling in a pretty mature market with a lot of products of Delta eight. Moving on to Washington DC, which I’m including in states as a matter of principle, because it has a population larger than at least two states as of 2020, while voters approved adult use marijuana by ballot and DC seven years ago, DC is subject to federal.

And so Congress governs what happens there. And so I’m not going to get into the technicalities, but the bottom line is house. Bill has included it. The Senate hasn’t let her pass on. And right now, actually the house did the same thing. Again, the Senate now approved it, which is kind of in contravention of president Biden’s stated position.

And so we’re, it’s going to be interesting to see what happens now because it is attached to pretty relevant and important. Next moving on. Just one quick note about Ohio, as I mentioned last week, Republican Ohio state representative, Jamie calender announced that he was going to be putting forward an adult use bill.
He did so this week, but as I mentioned last week, the Republican leaders of the state houses already have basically laughed at the idea that he forwarded the bill. And so it was a lot more likely that these ballot initiatives that are being put forward will be the way that Ohio legalizes in 2020.

Another quick note about Mississippi, the special session that governor Tate raised promised long ago has still not happened. And so I guess we’ll say that he is dragging grass in order to slow this process down.

Business News: MariMoola

Now, moving on to business news, or as I’m calling this week, Merimbula. And speaking of Moolah, that is the word that my six year old daughter out of the blue, decided to start calling money and context where she was like, Ooh, once this tooth comes out, that tooth, fairy’s going to really have to show me the Moolah kids say the darndest things.

All right. So now a couple of multi-state operators are making like Popeye and eating up some nice spinach. So MSO Jewishy has entered into a hundred million senior secured credit facility. From a portfolio company of sun stream, which is a joint venture sponsored by sundial growers. There is a 9.5 interest per annum maturing five years from closing on this credit facility and other MSO business news Burano holdings amend an existing credit agreement to secure an additional 120 million in funding at a lower annual interest rate of 8.5%.

I’d also like to note that there is a new 100 million SPAC target in the industry called a Chari Chari, Chari ventures, holding Corp, which is an affiliate of a Chari. Then. Moving over to science and medical and the story that I really hope gets some attention bank of America this week, completely arbitrarily shut down the bank account, a longstanding client Scottsdale research Institute, which conducts medical research in relation to terminally ill patients and veterans.

Now this actually this researcher, what happened recently was after suing the DEA to loosen up restrictions on cannabis research. Scottsdale research Institute was one of the first entities that was given preliminary approval to conduct as expanded forms of research. So apparently after learning of that bank of America, shut down the bank account, even though it was government approved research.

So that is ridiculous and the stories should get out there more.

Social Equity News

Moving over to social equity news. I am very, very pleased to report that New York officials are moving declare over 400,000 past marijuana convictions.

Psychedelics News

And in psychedelics news, I just want to mention that there’s this kind of ongoing trend and movement for cities to step up and announced that they are legalizing adult use cannabis or psychedelics.

We’re seeing a lot in cannabis where four different Ohio cities have recently decriminalized it. And now we’re seeing in east Hampton in Massachusetts is actually the fourth city there to decriminalize certain types of psychedelics and other psychedelic. Johns Hopkins has received $4 million from the national Institute of health to study psilocybin as a tool to quit smoking.

So not just mental health, also as tools for addiction last but not least.

Miscellaneous News

In our miscellaneous news, a poll by real estate company, Redfin found that Americans would rather live in states where marijuana is legal than in those that perhaps. So in the poll, 46% preferred, fully legal states to live in and 22 preferred, completely prohibited marijuana in any form.

So I guess you can no longer say there goes the neighborhood. If you start walking around your neighborhood and randomly smelling weed and with that..I wrap everything up and I say, stay grassy my buds. And I will see you next week.

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