HempTalk - Business Blogs and Press Releases

Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan is co-sponsoring a bill that would direct the Department of Veterans Affairs to research medicinal cannabis.

The bill calls on the VA to look into the “efficacy and safety” of cannabis in the treatment of veterans diagnosed with “chronic pain, post-traumatic stress disorder” and other conditions.

Twenty-nine states have legalized the medicinal use of cannabis, but it still remains illegal under federal law.

That’s why it has been unclear if the VA is allowed to research cannabis, and the bill would specifically authorize the department to do so. 

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A Bradenton woman who says her suffering from ALS is decreased because of smokable medical marijuana gets her day in court Wednesday. She and other plaintiffs are challenging the state's ban on smokable medicine.

As lawmakers debated the rules for medical marijuana, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri was adamant.

“We don’t think there should be smokable marijuana,” Gualtieri told lawmakers in January 2017.

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Mike Vasilinda ~ Capitol News Service via WJGH.com ~

April 30th marks the 43rd anniversary of the Fall of Saigon and the end of the War in Vietnam.

About three million Vietnamese, and more than 58,000 Americans, were killed during the war.

Close to three million American men and women served in Vietnam.

And around one-third of those military personnel, according to recent studies, smoked marijuana.

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Women can have a special place in Vermont's cannabis industry, according to Kathryn Blume, the content and events manager for cannabis advocacy group Heady Vermont.

After all, only female cannabis plants produce the buds that can be smoked, which gives women an "innate connection" with the plant, she explained.

Blume aimed to foster that connection with "Women of Cannabis," a networking event meant to encourage entrepreneurship ahead of recreational marijuana legalization in Vermont on July 1. 

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Katie Jickling ~ SevenDaysVT.com ~ 

'It is time to stop treating marijuana like a deadly drug,' nation's oldest monthly magazine says.

Scientific American, the nation’s oldest continuously published monthly magazine, says it’s time to “End the War on Weed.”

In a story published in its upcoming May issue, the 172-year-old publication made the case for legalization, calling our current federal policy “ill informed and misguided.”

The story, bylined by “The Editors,” details the reasoning behind legal reform and the hypocrisy of criminalizing the plant.

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Across the United States — and among former professional athletes, especially — people are telling stories of how cannabis curtailed their epileptic seizures, helped manage their chronic pain, and gave them their lives back.

The bottle stared at Cullen Jenkins for two weeks untouched on his nightstand, and he stared back at it.

“I thought I was going to be high,” Jenkins says. “I thought I was going to be just tripping the same things as weed. But it wasn’t anything like that. It’s more of a mellow, calming, smooth feeling. I felt pretty good.”

Within just two months of trying Fresh Farms CBD Oil, Jenkins is already a cannabis evangelist. This past NFL season was his first out of football. 

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Gathered under clouds of weed smoke on the University of Michigan Diag, cannabis enthusiasts young and old passed joints and smoked bowls.

Thousands came out for the 47th annual Hash Bash marijuana rally in Ann Arbor on Saturday, April 7.

For two hours, the crowd cheered on speakers including politicians, professional athletes and leading marijuana legalization activists who issued a call for legalizing marijuana in Michigan.

Ann Arbor musician Laith Al-Saadi, who achieved fame as a finalist on NBC's "The Voice," played the national anthem on electric guitar to kick things off, after which speakers took the mic.

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Christine Gordon is battling the Kansas Legislature for access to medical marijuana for her 6-year-old daughter, Autumn, who has a form of epilepsy that leaves her with persistent seizures that have not responded to traditional medicines.

Lenexa resident Christine Gordon can’t stop her daughter’s seizures with any legal product. She’s tried.

Gordon’s daughter, Autumn, is 6 now, but is developmentally like a 2-year-old because of the seizures that started shortly after she was born.

Autumn has a type of epilepsy called Dravet syndrome that so far has resisted all conventional medical treatments. Gordon wants Autumn to be able to try an oil derived from cannabis that, in states where it’s legal, has helped some kids have fewer seizures.

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If you're only familiar with his travel show, "Rick Steves' Europe," you might not guess that the mild-mannered PBS personality is one of America's most prominent advocates for marijuana legalization.

Indeed, the affable TV host and guidebook author has made legal weed a personal crusade, personally donating hundreds of thousands of dollars of his own money to legalization efforts across the country, including in his home state of Washington.

But his push for legalization in the U.S. isn't rooted in a particular personal affinity for kind bud.

Rather, his stance on marijuana stems from his extensive travels overseas and the "pragmatic harm reduction" approach that many European countries take towards the drug. 

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CSR can boost the cannabis sector’s image and bottom line, industry leaders said during a keynote panel at the National Cannabis Industry Association’s Seed to Sale Show in Denver.

The cannabis industry is in a unique position to reshape and redefine Corporate Social Responsibility by creating a better version of so-called “corporate citizenship”– and making it the new standard in a rapidly growing sector.

Industry leaders examined how CSR, a corporation’s efforts to assess and take responsibility for its impacts on the environment and society, can boost the cannabis sector’s image and bottom line Thursday during a keynote panel at the National Cannabis Industry Association‘s Seed to Sale Show in Denver.

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Bruce Kennedy ~ TheCannabist.co ~ 

"We see cannabis not as a gateway drug. We see it as an exit path off opiates."

Ryan Miller describes the year after his leg amputation as the best year of his life. He worked out. He traveled. He tanned. He was done with opioids.

After an explosively formed projectile destroyed his leg and damaged his stomach in Iraq, Miller had been caught in a vicious cycle of surgery and prescribed painkillers.

The wounded Army infantry captain would have a surgery every few months, broken up by unsuccessful physical therapy. 

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State regulators awarded a $1 million, three-year contract this week to a New Jersey-based company to operate a toll-free help line for patients, caregivers and doctors accessing Ohio's new medical marijuana program. 

Direct Success Inc.'s Ohio subsidiary Extra Step Assurance will operate the help line from a call center in Bellefontaine. The call center opened in February 2017 and has since been operating a national toll-free medical marijuana help line.

Direct Success CEO Cheryl McDaniel said the center offers fact-based information but does not give medical or legal advice. McDaniel said the company has pharmacists on call 24/7 to answer questions about drug interactions.

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Jackie Borchardt ~ Cleveland.com ~ 

Legalization advocates in 420-unfriendly states like Kansas and Oklahoma have many hurdles to overcome, but they want the outside world to know they haven’t given up the fight.

2018 could be another historic year for the cannabis legalization movement in the United States.

Nine states have implemented recreational, adult-use legalization, and at least 29 states and the District of Columbia boast some form of a legal medical marijuana program — with several more states expected to vote on legalization later this year.

But there are some parts of the country where the prospect of legalization still seems quite distant, if not highly improbable, due to a combination of regional politics and local cultural values.

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Dennis Peron, the cannabis activist who fired up the movement to legalize medical marijuana in California, died on Saturday in a San Francisco hospital. He was 72.

Also a prominent figure in San Francisco’s gay community, he was credited as a pioneer in recognizing the health benefits of pot during the height of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s.

“A man that changed the world,” was how his brother Jeffrey Peron remembered him on Facebook. “It is with a heavy heart that I announce the passing of my brother Dennis Peron.”

Peron, a friend of slain gay rights activist Harvey Milk, helped push through a San Francisco ordinance that allowed the use of medical marijuana. 

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Last weekend brought Seattle Hempfest—AKA the biggest annual cannabis event on the planet—to the Seattle waterfront, for three days of pro-cannabis outreach, activism, music, mingling, marketing, and glorious sunshine.

Photojournalist Jovelle Tamayo was there for Leafly with a question for attendees: “What’s the most surprising change that you’ve witnessed since legalization?”

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Jovelle Tamayo ~ Leafly.com ~