WeedHire & Students for Sensible Drug Policy Form Strategic Alliance

Partnership to Foster Education & Marijuana Career Opportunities for SSDP Members & Chapters Nationwide

Fair Lawn, NJ May 20, 2015 – WeedHire International (WDHR OTCPK) today announced a strategic alliance with Students for Sensible Drug Policy http://ssdp.org/ focused on education and providing cannabis career opportunities for both the SSDP membership & chapters nationwide.

Cincinnati's influence on the push to legalize marijuana in Ohio this year grew Tuesday when former state Sen. Eric Kearney announced that he will serve as a senior advisor to the ResponsibleOhio campaign.

"The issue of marijuana legalization is one all Ohioans should take seriously," Kearney said in a statement. "As a former legislator, I know that our state government is not ready to act on this important issue. Ohioans are being unjustly punished for using marijuana, while patients do not have access to medical marijuana for treatment. It's time we reform this failed prohibition, and I'm proud to be part of the effort to do so."

An Australian company is about to start growing and exporting medicinal cannabis from the self-governing Australian territory of Norfolk Island.

AusCann Group Holdings has struck a landmark deal with the Norfolk Island government to grow a high-grade medicinal strain of cannabis from November. It intends to export its entire first crop to Canada by the middle of next year.

An initial one tonne of cannabis will be grown from a protected two-hectare site with production forecast to increase to 10 tonnes by 2018.

It will supply the sativa and sativa-dominant strains, which are unsuitable for growing in Canada’s indoor facilities.

AUGERTIES >> A proposed medical marijuana growing operation could bring 100 jobs to a site just south of the U.S. Army Reserve Center on Old Kings Highway, according to town Supervisor Greg Helsmoortel.

Helsmoortel said Monday that the proposal, by a company called New York Growing Partners, envisions a facility to grow medical marijuana. He said it is unrelated to a previous proposal by a company called Canna Care LLC. “They’re out of the picture now,” he said.

The proposed 12-acre site of the operation, known as the John Mullen shovel-ready site, already has gone through most of the planning process, including water, sewer, archaeological and environmental reviews, Helsmoortel said.

The Interview

“Where do you see yourself in five years?” Cue blank stare and mild internal panic. This is possibly the most cliché question to be asked in a modern day job interview, but a question nevertheless, that I have not once been able to answer honestly as a young professional seeking to be in the cannabis industry.

Colorado’s nascent hemp industry may get a boost from a grower’s plan to use hemp stalks for insulation. Baca County farmer Ryan Loflin said Monday he has formed a partnership with Hollis, Okla.-based Western Fibers for combining processed hemp stalks with recycled newspapers and cardboard to create wall and ceiling insulation.

Hemp is genetically related to marijuana but contains little or no THC, the psychoactive substance in marijuana. Hemp has dozens of uses in food, cosmetics, clothing and industrial materials.

The University of Denver’s law school is blazing a new trail in the professoriate.

Thanks to a $45,000 donation from Vicente Sederberg LLC, a self-described “full-service marijuana law firm” based in Denver, the Sturm College of Law has established what the firm says is the first professorship of marijuana law in the world.

The three-year professorship will be held first by Sam Kamin, a professor and director of the school’s Constitutional Rights and Remedies Program, the firm said in a news release.

“Our state and our school are poised to take a leadership position in this important new area of law and policy,” said Martin J. Katz, dean of the law school, in the release. “The rest of the country is watching. We need to do this right.”

DENVER – It turns out selling weed is pretty hard. Contrary to popular belief, selling it legally, at least, isn’t all THC-infused lollipops and rainbows. Just ask David Schwartz.

The six-year cannabis-industry veteran came to Colorado in the '90s from Long Island, New York, after discovering Boulder on his way to a Rainbow gathering in Wyoming. For him, selling marijuana in a locale known around the nation for its liberalized pot laws is not just about counting money; it’s about taxes, regulatory compliance, inventory management, and above all, staying on the right side of Colorado’s “pot cops” -- the Marijuana Enforcement Division (MED).

Denver • Students at the prestigious and private University of Denver are already studying marijuana law. (For reals, they are.)

In a few months they'll have the opportunity to study cannabis journalism.

"They approved the class, which tickles me a little bit," said Andrew Matranga, who will teach the interterm class "Cannabis Journalism: Covering and Reporting on America's New Normal" starting in mid-August. "That's cool to have that latitude."

In this 2014 file photo, master grower Evan Schick steps lightly as he waters the 750 marijuana plants jammed into his facility, which supplies Walking Raven dispensary. (John Leyba, Denver Post file)

Job growth and pot growth are fueling record high lease rates and low vacancies in Denver's industrial real estate market.

"Competition for industrial space in the Denver market is very aggressive," said Dawn McCombs, senior vice president and industrial specialist at the Denver office of brokerage Avison Young. "The lack of quality options for tenants is driving rental rates higher than I have ever seen."