With the increasing demand for completely organic cannabis flowers, indoors or outdoors guano is receiving accolades from organic ganga growers worldwide.

Believe it or not there is a direct link between bats and big buds. Those adorable big-eared nocturnal mammals with creepy veiny membranous wings and a face like a screwed up piece of paper are responsible for producing one of the best organic cannabis superfoods known to the contemporary grower.

WHAT IS GUANO

Jose Toconas picks at branches hanging in rows from the roof of his marijuana drying house and smells their spiky flower buds.

In two days he will strip them from their stems, trim the dark green florets into neat little balls and hand them over to dealers working with Marxist rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

"This doesn't make me a drug dealer. I'm a farmer," says Toconas, 45, who earns about 2 million pesos ($640) a month growing weed at his small mountain farm in Tacueyo, a hamlet in Colombia's southwestern Cauca province. "They come to my door, pay me and leave. If coffee or beans paid me more, I'd grow coffee or beans, but they don't."

A group of 53 farmers in Colombia have created the country’s first medical marijuana co-operative. Colombia recently became the fourth state in Latin America to legalise marijuana production for medicinal use. In an attempt to move away from illegal production, the country has started granting licences to pharmaceutical companies that want to cultivate the plant to generate marijuana derivate products.

The Olympics opening ceremony in Rio de Janeiro has been many things: An introduction to Brazilian culture; a parade of many, many nations; and a collection of entertaining moments. Naturally, Twitter users have been on the case all Friday night long, not letting the smallest details go unnoticed. There was a moment when the tops of those silver, cheese grater-looking boxes exploded to reveal green plants that formed the Olympic rings. Now, I don't know about you, but to me and many viewers on Twitter, those green Olympic rings looked like weed.

South American Gold Corp. (OTC PINK: SAGD) announced yesterday that the continued growth and development of the domestic cannabis markets have the company more committed than ever to their business model and revenue goals.  On July 5, 2016, Jane, the express ordering kiosk that helps cannabis retailers sell their products, joined the American Trade Association of Cannabis and Hemp. "We're proud to join ATACH and hopefully help shape the industry's dialogue around proper compliance and responsible banking behavior," commented David Ellerstein, CEO of Jane.

Paraguay is South America’s largest producer of cannabis. Despite drug law reform in other parts of the Western Hemisphere, from Canada to Chile, the conservative administration of President Horacio Cartes continues to wage an old-school “war on weed,” sending out elite counter-narcotics special forces to destroy vast quantities of the soft drug. The policy of prohibition and repression has been blamed for fueling corruption and human rights abuses while failing to stem the flow of cannabis to Brazil and other markets around the region.

Paraguay and Brazil authorities say they destroyed nearly 67 metric tons of marijuana in a joint operation, but the figure pales in comparison to Paraguay's estimated pot production.

Authorities of the neighboring countries found and destroyed 57.8 metric tons of loose marijuana and a further 9.1 metric tons of pressed marijuana over 12 days of aerial and ground operations, Paraguay's Anti-Narcotics Secretariat (Secretaría Nacional Antidrogas - SENAD) reported.

Starting August, legal marijuana in Uruguay will be dispensed in "normal bags" of 10 grams without advertising and with information on its composition and its effects, said EFE Secretary General of the National Drug Board, Milton Romani.

Recreational cannabis bags will not be on public view in the pharmacies that are authorized for marketing and these can store a certain amount of marijuana a week, which has not yet been stipulated, Romani said.

The fact that the 'stock' is accounted for weekly matches that the users have a weekly purchase limit of 10 grams (40 per month).

While prices have not yet been set, it is expected to be marketed at $1.2 per gram with establishments acquiring it for $0.9.

Bolivia Police seized about 1.5 tons of marijuana, one of the biggest this year, that was destined for Chile and held that the drug was valued in international markets at $ 2.2 million, reported the government on Friday.

"Staff of the departmental head of Potosi (southwest) carried out the hijacking of 1,485 kilos 600 grams of marijuana," said Minister of Government (Interior), Carlos Romero, showing hundreds of packages in the form of bricks.

He added, according to the government news agency ABI- that "illegal goods in foreign markets have a cost of $ 2,227,500, taking into account that one kilo outside Bolivia is worth $1,500."

The seizure is one of the biggest this year.

Licensees for distribution began planting and harvesting this week. The product will be delivered to pharmacies in packs of 5 and 10 grams

The two companies responsible for the production of legal marijuana in Uruguay are collecting about 300 grams per plant in the first harvest that began this week, reports the local publication Ecos.uy, working with government sources.

The president of the National Drug Board (JND), Juan Andrés Roballo, told reporters "soon will be the first harvest of the successful tenderers (ICCorp and Simbiosys)" which since February have been working in the fields of the Institute of Regulation and Control of Cannabis (IRCCA) for the production of the plant.