The Pothead Diaries is proud to announce a partnership with The Cannabis Marketing Lab, the cannabis industry’s premier digital marketing firm. The Cannabis Marketing Lab will increase awareness of The Pothead Diaries /PHD through an integrated online strategy.

“We’ve heard wonderful things about The Cannabis Marketing Lab,” said Pothead Diaries Co-Founders Peter and Gianni. “Celeste Miranda has some great relationships in the business, and we plan to leverage her incredible knowledge of branding and social media marketing for the marijuana demographic. We really believe this joint venture (pun intended) is a giant step forward for The Pothead Diaries.”

The Pothead Diaries is  “Branding the Modern Romance Between Young Adult Culture and Cannabis”

DENVER, June 1, 2016 -- Over 100 Colorado retailers are using LeafLink.com, an online ordering platform for the cannabis industry, to order products from more than a dozen marijuana infused product brands, including Keef Cola, Dixie Elixirs, Cannapunch, Wana Brands, Foria, and ZOOTS. The platform, which launched in March, is designed exclusively for the cannabis industry, meaning that each retailer on the platform must have a valid license from the Colorado Marijuana Enforcement Division (MED).

Convicted pot felons that want to own a legal marijuana business in Oakland will now be prioritized under new, radical permit rules designed to make amends for the United States’ war on drugs.

The city’s new Equity Permit Program calls for 50 per cent of all licenses for medical marijuana facilities to go to Oaklanders imprisoned for a pot offence in the last 10 years, or to residents of six neighbourhoods that police have excessively targeted for drug arrests.

“Communities of colour have been negatively and disproportionately impacted by disparate enforcement of cannabis laws,” reads the ordinance introducing the rules.

Oakland city council voted unanimously to approve the program — the first of its kind in the U.S. — last month.

LINCOLN, Neb. — Researchers in Nebraska are one step closer to starting research on using hemp as a field crop.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s agronomy and horticulture department received a permit last week that will allow it to research hemp, the Lincoln Journal Star reported. But they’re still waiting for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency to approve the importation of seeds from Canada-based Parkland Industrial Hemp Growers Cooperative.

It’ll likely take at least three weeks to get the seeds after the DEA signs off on the paperwork, said Héctor L. Santiago, assistant dean of the Agronomy Department’s Agricultural Research Division.

LANSING, Mich. —

A group trying to legalize marijuana in Michigan says it has submitted about 354,000 valid signatures to the state just before the deadline.

Whether the state considers that many signatures submitted Wednesday as valid remains unclear: A bill presented to Gov. Rick Snyder on Tuesday would stop such groups from counting signatures older than 180 days.

Current law allows them to count older signatures toward the roughly 253,000 they need to put the measure before voters. However, neither Snyder's office nor the Secretary of State's office would say whether the bill before Snyder would apply to the marijuana advocacy group.

There’s some good news and some bad news for pot smokers everywhere. The good news: Just as many of them surely contend, long-term marijuana use doesn’t cause the types of health problems that cigarettes do, such as lung cancer and heart disease. The bad news: It does cause poorer gum health.

Two years after Colorado began its first retail sales of cannabis, towns and cities across the state are enjoying the benefits in a number of ways. With sales this year expected to reach $1 billion, local governments are seeing windfalls of tax revenue, which is funding education, recreation, infrastructure improvements, and even aid to the homeless.

The small town of Mountain View may be able to dispel its reputation for collecting revenue through speeding tickets, now that two pot shops reside there.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WICS) —

Post-traumatic stress disorder could soon be on the list of qualifying conditions to receive medical marijuana in Illinois.

The bill is part of the measure the Illinois House passed to extend the medical cannabis program until 2020. The bill would also add terminal illness to the list of qualifying conditions, and make patient's cards valid for three years instead of one.

HCI Alternatives says one thing overlooked in the bill is changing the language of how doctors can prescribe the drug.

The United Nations held a special session on drugs at the General Assembly in New York in April, and cannabis industry attorney Christian Sederberg was there to see it.

Billed as “UNGASS,” the United Nations General Assembly Special Session was “a big deal,” Sederberg says, as it was the first time in more than 20 years that this kind of conversation on drug policies and tweaking of treaties has taken place.

Sederberg points out that since the UN process “moves at a glacial pace,” nothing that happened in the session will change drug policy or affect the marijuana legalization movement anytime soon, but the discussions there about cannabis were a step in that direction.

The cannabis industry has shown tremendous growth over the past few years and new markets are appearing right in front of our eyes. With all of the publicity and legalization in various states, cannabis is becoming less taboo and turning into big business, and many enthusiasts are looking for ways to work in this budding industry. 

Just like the food, wine, and spirits industries have their specialized experts, connoisseurs, and sommeliers, it’s time for the Cannabis industry to employ true quality searchers and finders.

Tasting