The popular TV show "Chopped," as every foodie knows, involves four chefs who face off against one another in a timed cooking contest. The goal is to prepare a three-course meal using four secret ingredients. The one who gets the best score from a panel of judges wins.

A new spinoff of that show is designed to appeal to a cannabis-loving audience. It's one of the surest signs yet of the mainstreaming of cannabis in American culture.

In four years, the cannabis industry’s job growth has increased 161%, quickly beating predictions from other industries 10 years from now.

Leafly’s fifth annual cannabis jobs report showed the cannabis industry to support 321,000 full-time equivalent jobs in 2021! An incredible number for an amazing and highly-deserving industry.

Making predictions about California’s marijuana industry was a challenge even before a global pandemic changed everything.

It’s not just that the legal cannabis market, which launched three years ago in California, is so new. It’s also the singularity of an industry in which licensed, legal operators still compete against a much larger illicit market, even as the industry’s core consumer product — which is medicine for some people — remains illegal at the federal level.

California’s largest wildfire is threatening a marijuana-growing enclave, and authorities said many of the locals have refused to evacuate and abandon their maturing crops even as weather forecasters predict more hot, dry and windy conditions that could fan flames.

The wildfire called the August Complex is nearing the small communities of Post Mountain and Trinity Pines, about 200 miles (322 kilometres) northwest of Sacramento, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Law enforcement officers went door to door warning of the encroaching fire danger but could not force residents to evacuate, Trinity County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Nate Trujillo said.

“It’s mainly growers,” Trujillo said. “And a lot of them, they don’t want to leave because that is their livelihood.”

A California based hemp producer has chosen North Bay as its Canadian headquarters. 

Apothio, will use Canadore College’s Innovation Centre for Advanced Manufacturing and Prototyping (ICAMP) and the College’s DNA lab to conduct the company’s research and development projects.

The company manufactures hemp-derived cannabinoid formulations like CBD oils, and is partnered with institutions of higher education "to conduct workforce development, educational programs, and research outcomes with our patients," according to its website.

Dr. Trent Jones is the Apothio president.

Two recently published studies from California-based non-profit research organization RAND Corporation revealed very interesting data.

The first research deals with why young adults living in Los Angeles County acquire medical cannabis cards.

The second study provides data on how the neighborhood density and storefront signage of medical cannabis dispensaries influence consumption rates and associations among the youth.

A new petition is demanding the government includes criminal justice reform in its legalization plans.

As Canada gets closer to legalizing recreational marijuana, drug policy advocates are fighting to ensure that criminal justice reform doesn’t get left behind. Now, a new petition is circulating from Cannabis Amnesty, a justice reform group that wants there to be more language addressing pardons for people with weed-related criminal records.

Those counting on help from cannabis sales to balance the provincial budget are in for a disappointment.

As far as Statistics Canada can tell, cannabis prices in this country have been dropping for the past three years, perhaps the past dozen years. Since weed-market watchers in the United States have found roughly the same thing, it’s probably true.