Hemp growers look to oil, rather than fiber, to make good money

The Oregon Department of Agriculture will resume issuing licenses for hemp growers in late February just as the industry is veering away from industrial uses and toward the more lucrative market of medical marijuana products.

Hemp is a hybrid cousin of marijuana but with low levels of THC, the chemical that produces the high. It has been used over the centuries for fiber, clothing, food, oil and other industrial purposes. But since the legalization of medical marijuana 18 years ago, growers have found that hemp's high levels of cannabidiol can provide patients with some of the same medical benefits as marijuana but without the psychotropic effects.

Greenhouse Ventures is a Philadelphia-based startup accelerator program that seeks to bring new ancillary businesses to fruition.

There are a few business accelerator programs that currently exist in the cannabis space, but Greenhouse Ventures (GHV), based in downtown Philadelphia, seeks to fill a gap in helping ancillary businesses get off the ground. Through a ten-week, 90-hour curriculum, program, Greenhouse Ventures assists startups by increasing their business model sophistication.

There is now a stronger arsenal available to those states working to bring down the scourge of marijuana prohibition in their neck of the woods. Earlier last week, a federal judge dismissed the charges against Pueblo County and a legion of Colorado officials in a lawsuit suggesting that marijuana legalization violated a number of statutes overseen by the thugs in the District of Columbia.

Although the case does not appear to have national implications, the outcome should provide some level of solace for other regions of the United States wishing to reform their pot laws without the risk of being litigiously accosted by a ministry of naysayers.

A Utah church is suing the feds for seizing marijuana it mailed to a cancer patient, citing protections afforded by its Indian spirituality. But activists call the church a mockery.

An Oklevueha Native American Church medicine woman from Oregon mailed a 5-ounce package of pot—the sacrament of cannabis—to an ailing church member in Ohio on Dec. 10, 2015.

The package never made it. It was seized by law enforcement, as Joy Graves discovered when she used UPS’s online tracking option to track her package. Graves and the church, founded by James “Flaming Eagle” Mooney, turned around and sued for the company and the federal government for their weed and the right to ship it wherever they please, citing federal religious freedom laws as the basis.

Legal cannabis is now growing faster than any other industry in the U.S. The enterprise deemed the "next great American industry" by the ArcView Group, a California-based investment and research firm, has grown from $1.5 billion in 2013 to $2.7 billion in 2014, the Huffington Post reported.

Del Rey Oaks >> Besides holding the distinction of being the only city in Monterey County to have a medical marijuana dispensary, Del Rey Oaks seems poised to be the only city on the Peninsula to allow the cultivation and delivery of marijuana for medicinal purposes.

“I anticipate that will be the case,” said Del Rey Oaks City Manager Dan Dawson of what will happen Tuesday night as the City Council votes on whether to allow the delivery and personal cultivation of medicinal cannabis within city limits.

Cities throughout California have been in a frenzy to get municipal codes on the books to control marijuana dispensaries, cultivation and delivery.

DENVER, Colorado — Colorado’s legal marijuana business boomed last year, with total sales in the state nearing the $1 billion mark, according to current estimates.

Official figures for marijuana sales in December won’t be available until next month, but Ricardo Baca, a staff writer for The Denver Post’s The Cannabist, reported on Jan. 13 that total marijuana sales, including for both recreational and medicinal purposes, had reached $895 million by November.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) is constantly finding ways to bypass state laws that sanction medical marijuana and harass providers who are operating under those state laws. They are overt and obvious with their application of federal laws.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which operates under the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), still classifies marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug, a rating that classifies it medicinally useless, dangerous, and addictive. Strangely, the pharmaceutical drugs that are the most dangerous and addictive are Big Pharma's expensive and toxic opiate based pain killers.

Americans for Safe Access (ASA) issued “Medical Marijuana Access in the US: A Patient-Focused Analysis of the Patchwork of State Laws,” today. The annual report evaluates the array of differing state medical cannabis programs across the country from a perspective often overlooked in policy debates: the patients’ and provides policy makers with model legislation and regulations. With dozens of states already seeing legislative and regulatory proposals in 2016, this  groundbreaking report will provide state lawmakers with timely tools they need to improve their medical cannabis programs to truly meet the needs of the patients they are meant to serve.

Standing desks. Flex hours. Unlimited vacation policies. Working from home. In 2016, employers are more open than ever to to new approaches for a happier, healthier, more productive workplaces. So, what about the new wave of employers allowing - and even encouraging - employees to consume cannabis on the clock?