Author: News Room

With its bold, wrestling-inspired packaging, Real Deal Resin is a name that’s become one of the most recognizable heaters on the California hash scene today. After partnering with LEEF Organics, this Mendocino County-born brand transitioned to the recreational market in 2021 and, along with a handful of other hash makers, experienced the challenges of switching markets in a post-Prop. 64 environment. Today the brand has its own extraction space in Willits and a nearby farm in the Orr Springs microclimate. Still, the founders will always remember what it took to achieve success: a combination of teamwork and identity that’s given…

Six companies in five states have received warning letters from government agencies for selling illegal products containing delta-8 THC made from industrial hemp. The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) targeted the companies for their online sales of products containing the synthetic form of THC. Delta-8 THC naturally occurs in hemp but only in trace amounts. Taking advantage of unclear current laws, shady producers are turning out high-concentration delta-8 by putting hemp-derived CBD through a process in the lab. Delta-8 produces a psychoactive effect that is milder than that associated with delta-9 THC, the…

“We don’t really know what’s going on behind the doors of each and every lab in each and every state.” By Amanda Hernández, Stateline Amid the growing acceptance and legalization of cannabis use across the country, a concerning reality has emerged: The state-by-state patchwork of safety regulations can leave marijuana consumers wandering through a haze of uncertainty, exposing them to potential risks. Under federal law, marijuana is illegal—period. So, it’s up to individual states to determine their own regulations and safety standards. Those inconsistent regulations are part of a broad debate about the U.S. cannabis industry. The 47 states that…

Go back far enough and you’ll hit the future. It’s that exact moment of impact DEFER captures. Simultaneously Paleolithic and extraterrestrial, his “spiritual language” lifts the sleep mask of reality and welcomes one into the land of the sacred and eternal.  There’s a timelessness to it, like Rothko, mixed with a little William Carlos Williams (“The Red Wheelbarrow”). But, of course, he can describe it better than I can: “The thing is,” DEFER said, “some of it has text in it, like typography. But then again, as a kid I did graffiti. So, from that, you get ‘wildstyle,’ where you…

A California Assembly committee has approved a Senate-passed bill that would prohibit employers from asking job applicants about prior marijuana use. About a month after the legislation from Sen. Steven Bradford (D) advanced through the Senate, the Assembly Judiciary Committee approved the measure in an 8-2 vote on Wednesday. It previously cleared the Labor and Employment Committee last week and now heads to the Appropriations Committee before potentially moving to the floor. The bill would build on existing employment protections enacted last session that bar employers from penalizing most workers for using cannabis in compliance with state law off the job.…

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), a 2024 Republican presidential candidate, has signed a bill banning sales of any consumable hemp products—including cannabis “chewing gum”—to people under 21, an expansion of an existing prohibition on young people being able to purchase smokable hemp. The legislation, SB 1676 from Sen. Colleen Burton (R), was signed into law last week and took effect on Saturday. It also creates penalties for businesses that market hemp in a way that’s appealing to children and bans products that look like candy or are manufactured “in the shape of humans, cartoons, or animals.” The bill prohibits the…

“There’s this divide between the federal and the state perspective on the topic that puts banks in a kind of tricky position.” By Rebecca Rivas, Missouri Independent Missouri’s marijuana businesses will have fewer obstacles when it comes to accessing banking, but they must now get fingerprint background checks from all their new employees and contractors, under legislation that Gov. Mike Parson (R) signed on Thursday. Few banks nationwide serve cannabis businesses and their owners—or even their auxiliary partners —because most want nothing to do with a business that sells a product the federal government still considers illegal. That’s true even in…

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) celebrated its 50th anniversary this week—marking a half century of enforcing criminalization laws that have failed to fulfill the mission to eradicate drugs at the same time that nearly half of the country has legalized marijuana and psychedelics reform is also booming. Since its founding on July 1, 1973 through an executive order issued by President Richard Nixon, DEA’s budget has swelled and its workforce has expanded—but illicit drugs remain widely accessible across the U.S., with waves of new, even deadlier substances continually emerging under prohibition while others like cannabis have been increasingly legalized at…

The Scottish government says that the war on drugs has “failed” and it’s time to decriminalize currently illicit substances, while promoting harm reduction services like overdose prevention centers. At a press conference on Friday, Scotland Drugs and Alcohol Policy Minister Elena Whitham called on the government of the U.K., of which the country is a part, to take a public health approach to addiction and abandon the criminalization model. Representatives of the U.K. prime minister—and even the country’s progressive party—have already dismissed the request, however. Scotland’s position on the issue is partly informed by a policy paper that was released…

“More medical patients are finding different access, or just rejecting the idea of seeing a doctor in addition to paying for the product.”  By Sophie Nieto-Muñoz, New Jersey Monitor As sales for the state’s recreational cannabis industry take off, New Jersey’s decade-old medical marijuana program is shrinking every month. Medical marijuana sales are nearly half of what they were six months ago, and more than 20,000 patients dropped out of the medical program since its peak in May 2022, according to state data. Experts say that’s expected for a state now offering recreational cannabis, but they want the Legislature and state agencies to…