Montana Supreme Court Delays MMJ Program Restrictions

4/26/2016

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Montana’s Supreme Court will delay enforcing the severe medical marijuana restrictions it upheld in a February ruling until Aug. 31.

In that case, the court ruled in favor of a Senate Bill 423 – a 2011 state law that limited dispensaries to supplying cannabis to just three patients.

State Health officials argued for the delay on the grounds that it would take them at least four months to update the registry and notify patients, according to the Associated Press report. Chief Justice Mike McGrath, who was in the majority for the February decision, wrote that “immediate implementation of the court’s opinion will cause serious disruption” of the medical marijuana program, and allowed the delay.

The Montana Cannabis Industry Association had challenged the February decision, saying it would leave patients without legal access to their medicine and force dispensaries to close.

“This is devastating for cancer patients, seizure victims, people in hospice, and other Montanans and their families across the state,” Kate Cholewa, an association spokesperson, said.

Advocates are hoping to rebuild the system decimated by the ruling through a signature drive for a new initiative, I-82, which would appear on November’s ballot.

The initiative would undo the three-person limit and add post-traumatic stress disorder to the list of approved conditions for cannabis therapy. I-82 also aims to establish licensing fees to pay for the program, require licensing for providers and calls for yearly dispensary inspections.

Medical marijuana infrastructure was permitted in Montana following a 2004 initiative. The legislature all but gutted the program by passing SB 423 in 2011, but key provisions, such as the three patient limit, went unenforced as it underwent legal challenges.

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Dope Cup 2016 in Seattle; Winners and Photos

4/26/2016

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The annual Dope Magazine Dope Cup happened in Seattle, WA last week and was yet again a fabulous party. Of all the things that Dope Magazine does well, putting on stellar events is at the top of the list. There is always enough room to dance but not too much room, the performers they bring in really get the crowd moving and the award winners seem deserving.

There was a bit of intrigue this year when headline performer Waka Flocka Flame posted to his Instagram that he required paramedic help after getting too stoned. We are not all that surprised because Waka was saying after every song how totally baked he was — yet kept taking monster hits off a giant blunt he was passing around with the crowd.

A good night was had by all due to the “open consumption” agreement Dope Magazine secured from the City of Seattle, which allowed attendees to puff. It was pretty cool to be at an all-cannabis event with no beer vendors.

We look forward to this event again next year. Dope Cup winners and photos of the event below.

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Interviews

Florida Anti-MMJ Effort Seeks $10 Million

4/26/2016

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Anti-marijuana political mogul Mel Sembler has announced plans to raise $10 million in order to block this year’s voter initiative to legalize medical cannabis in the Sunshine State.

Sembler said in an interview with The Tampa Bay Times that the business boom from legal cannabis is only another hurdle. “It’s always a challenge, particularly when there’s a major profit on the other side and there’s no profit on our side.”

Sembler is, along with his wife, a founding member of the Drug Free America Foundation. In 2014, the pair helped raise the $7.5 million used to defeat that year’s medical marijuana ballot initiative.

“We’re trying to save lives and people’s brains,” Sembler said. “It’s not a medicine.”

Because there is a presidential election this year, however, experts predict a larger turnout of younger and Democrat voters, both of which will play to the advantage of marijuana reform. Recent polls have indicated that more than 60 percent of Florida voters are in favor; 60 percent is the threshold for success in a Florida ballot initiative.

United for Care campaign manager Ben Pollara said in a statement:

“Mel Sembler can spend whatever he wants to try and deny sick and suffering Floridians relief in the form of medical marijuana, but the will of the people is stronger than his money. United for Care will wage a statewide campaign to counter Sembler’s dishonest attacks and medical marijuana will pass in November.”

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Washington’s Douglas County Proposes Banning Outdoor Cannabis Production

4/25/2016

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A proposal in Douglas County, Washington seeks to limit the state-licensed marijuana production in the county to only indoor locations.

The proposal also targets odors originating from cannabis companies of all types. “No marijuana producer, processor or retailer shall emit excessive odors detectable at any lot line of the property of the marijuana production, processing or retail sales,” reads one section of the drafted county code amendments.

The legislation shines light on an unfortunate and ongoing bias against legal cannabis that has been propagated by elected officials, some of whom would rather see the industry pushed underground and out-of-sight than have it flourish in plain view.

Jedidiah Haney, Board Secretary of The Cannabis Alliance, said in a phone interview that such a move would only perpetuate some of the industry’s most alarming environmental impacts, specifically in regards to energy consumption. “If you put this in the agricultural spectrum, this is pretty crazy — it’s pretty extreme,” he said.

According to Haney, the growing costs of indoor cannabis already amount to one percent of the national energy infrastructure. “You can’t sustain indoor agriculture on those rates,” he said.

Farmer Tom Lauerman of Farmer Tom Organics believes the outdoor ban would be “missing out on a lot of job opportunities.”

Lauerman, who is known for his advocacy work on behalf of heritage cannabis growers and the smaller marijuana farms that have struggled to persevere through Washington’s flooded retail market, said that “With the amount of cannabis that’s being sold out there on the recreational market, any county that turns down [outdooor growing] is really taking a step backwards.”

There will be an informational open house on the subject that will lead into a more formal public review process — these events have not yet been scheduled, however.

The full draft of the proposed Douglas County Code amendments is available online.

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Making Cannabis Plants Thrive with Phosphorus

4/25/2016

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Phosphorus (P) is an essential macro element, required for the success of all known life forms, including cannabis plants. P is especially important for early stage root development, stem strength, resistance to disease, nutrient uptake, flower formation and yield. All aspects of cannabis growth and development are explicitly dependent on P availability.

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Phosphorus acts as a catalyst to support important biochemical reactions required for new cannabis growth, such as: photosynthesis, cannabis metabolism and nutrient uptake. For example, the most important chemical reaction in nature, photosynthesis, utilizes light energy to generate chemical structures called adenosine diphosphate (ADP) and adenosine triphosphate (ATP). These high-energy phosphate containing molecules drive all the necessary biochemical reactions (using a process called phosphorylation) to support internal energy transfers – facilitating cellular division (i.e. cannabis growth) throughout the entire life cycle of the cannabis plant from seedling to bloom.

Nutrient uptake is another critical function that is facilitated by ATP (energy), because this process requires the active transport of nutrients to oppose osmotic forces within and outside the plant cell membrane. ATP is also the energy source that allows for the synthesis of many key cellular components, including phosphoproteins, phospholipids, and sugar phosphates.

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Phosphorus is vital in order to maintain the cannabis plant’s genetic integrity from one generation to the next. For example, P is a primary component of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), which is a molecule that stores the genetic instructions used for cannabis development and reproduction. Phosphorus is also a component of ribonucleic acid (RNA), the compound that reads DNA (i.e. the genetic code) to build structural, functional and reproductive compounds used across the cannabis plant life cycle – from early stage cellular development to later stage bloom production. Both DNA and RNA are linked together by phosphorus bonds. Healthy cannabis development is explicitly linked to its genetic make-up – which is unconditionally dependent on P availability.

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Phosphorus deficiency can impair the plant’s ability to take up other essential nutrients, and can significantly reduce cannabis health, immunity to disease, crop quality and harvestable yield. Cannabis plants that are deficient in P often exhibit stunted growth and may display symptoms such as leaf discoloration. This happens because, when P is deficient, sugars accumulate and cause anthocyanin pigments to develop, sometimes producing a reddish-purple color.

Real world phosphorus challenges in production

Phosphorus is one of the most globally limiting nutrients for crop productivity. The largest natural deposits of rock phosphate mined for commercial agriculture are limited to a few countries, including: China, Russia, Morocco, and USA. This is a challenge, because inorganic P fertilizer is used in most commercial – agriculture fertilizer programs across the world. Due to increasing agriculture demand for P- along with the finite global supply of rock phosphate- finding sustainable technologies to deliver P to plants is a major challenge that scientists across the world are actively focused on solving.

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Although P is widely distributed in natural systems, it mostly exists in mineral forms or as organic matter that cannot be directly taken up by plants. Rock phosphate is used as the primary source of inorganic P fertilizer for traditional commercial agriculture; and manure is the primary source of P used in organic agriculture management practices. However, these forms of P need to be broken down into dissolved orthophosphate (P043-) to be utilized by the plant. A challenge that limits cannabis P uptake is the inherent chemical binding characteristics of most growth media such as soil, peat, and coco. For example, up to 70% of P applied to these types of growth media can become almost immediately unavailable for plant uptake due to natural chemical binding and chemical transformations. In practice, most growers apply excessive P fertilizer to soils and growth media in order to deliver ample P for plant growth. Optimizing cannabis plant nutrient use efficiency (defined as yield per unit P input) is a challenge that most indoor and outdoor cannabis producers commonly face.

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Many studies have cited that harnessing the natural power of soil microbes can help maximize nutrient use efficiency and plant P uptake. Soil microbes can be utilized to naturally unlock bound nutrients, transforming nutrients back into plant available forms, maximizing P availability to significantly increase plant P uptake and in turn maximize the phenotypic potential of the cannabis plant for optimal growth, quality and yield.

While most growth media contain some microbes capable of cycling P, there are now commercially available organic microbial formulations with superior P-mobilization functionality. The future success of cannabis productivity depends on these new biological solutions to sustainably deliver P to cannabis plants. The adoption of microbial biostimulants (i.e. beneficial bacteria) in cannabis production can greatly increase plant P uptake, leading to increased cannabis health, quality and yield. The development and adoption of innovative biological technologies in cannabis management practices such as superior P-mobilizing beneficial bacteria will likely drive improvements in cannabis quality and productivity over the next 100 years. Functionally targeted microbial inoculants also represent the next-generation of green revolution technologies which will support agriculture management across many crops to help farmers increase production to meet global food demands.

Editor’s Note: This article was written by Colin Bell, PhD. — co-founder of Growcentia, co-inventor of Mammoth Microbes and a former research scientist at Colorado State University. If you’d like to hear more from Colin, check out the recent Ganjapreneur podcast episode in which he discusses taking the leap from academia to entrepreneurship and how to foster teamwork in a start-up environment.

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DEA, FDA Approve Trial Testing Cannabis as PTSD Treatment

4/25/2016

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The California-based non-profit Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies has been awarded a $2.156 million grant to test the effectiveness of marijuana as a post-traumatic stress disorder treatment. The study has been approved by the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Food and Drug Administration, marking the first time federal agencies have approved a trial involving smoking “botanical” marijuana, according to a MAPS press release.

The study, funded by the Colorado Department of Public Health, will test the efficiency and safety of flower cannabis as an option to help veterans manage treatment-resistant PTSD. Seventy-six U.S. military veterans will participate in the randomized, triple-blind, placebo-controlled study.

“We have been working towards approval since we opened the Investigational New Drug Application with the FDA in 2010,” Amy Emerson, executive director and director of clinical Research for the MAPS Public Benefit Corporation, said. “We are thrilled to see this study overcome the hurdles of approval so we can begin gathering the data. This study is a critical step in moving our botanical drug development program forward at the federal level to gather information on the dosing, risks, and benefits of smoked marijuana for PTSD symptoms.”

The trial will gather data on four potencies of smoked marijuana with different ratios of THC and CBD. Researchers expect to gain information on dosing, composition, and side effects.

According to MAPS’ final protocol study, it is estimated that 18 percent of Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans suffer from PTSD and another 75,000 to 225,000 service members will return from duty with symptoms.

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Proposal in Mexico Would Decriminalize an Ounce, Free Some Drug Offenders

4/22/2016

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Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto is pushing for lawmakers in his country to raise the limit on decriminalized marijuana for personal use from five to 28 grams, according to an Associated Press report.

His proposal also asks Mexico’s Congress to free people on trial or incarcerated for possessing up to one ounce and would allow the use and importation of cannabis-based medicine. Possessing larger amounts would remain punishable under the country’s drug trafficking laws.

Last November, Mexico’s Supreme Court approved an appeal by members of anti-crime group Mexico United Against Crime, and marijuana activists Mexican Society for Responsible and Tolerant Consumption. The groups argued that they have the right to grow and distribute cannabis for personal use. The court’s criminal chamber ruled in their favor – recognizing an individual’s freedom to take part in recreational activities harmless to others is a principle of human rights – but the ruling only applies to the groups’ petitions, according to a New York Times report.

“We Mexicans know all too well the range and the defects of prohibitionist and punitive policies, and of the so-called war on drugs that has prevailed for 40 years,” Pena Nieto said. “Our country has suffered, as few have, the ill effects of organized crime tied to drug trafficking.”

According to Peña Nieto, if enacted, the move would effectively decriminalize consumption in the country, and keep pace with a “gradually emerging” worldwide consensus to reform drug policies.

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Prominent Rabbi Rules Cannabis Kosher for Passover

4/22/2016

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A major Ashkenazi rabbi has ruled that using cannabis for medical purposes is kosher for Passover.

In the past, cannabis has been included in the group of legumes, or kitniyos, which, until last December, were banned during Passover (grains remain forbidden).

The Times of Israel, though, has reported that Belarusian rabbi Chaim Kanievsky said that Jews of any lineage may use the drug for medical purposes this Passover.

In a video uploaded to YouTube by the pro-legalization group Cannabis Israel, Rabbi Kanievsky, an 88-year resident of Bnei Brak, a city east of Tel Aviv, blesses a group of cannabis leaves. In the video, two Jewish men, among them another prominent rabbi, inform Kanievsky that the plant and its odor are medicinal before blessing the leaves.

There is precedent for the ruling: Orthodox rabbi Efraim Zalmanovich ruled in 2013 that cannabis was kosher if used medicinally. He said that taking drugs to escape the world is “certainly forbidden,” but that those who use the drug for medical purposes are not breaking Jewish law.

Cannabis use remains illegal for recreational use in Israel, but doctors prescribe it for patients undergoing chemotherapy or experiencing chronic pain.

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D.C. Marijuana Activists to Meet With White House Officials on Monday

4/21/2016

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Adam Eidinger, the activist behind the Washington D.C smoke-in, will meet with White House officials for a “Bud Summit” on Monday, where they will likely discuss changing marijuana’s Schedule 1 status.

The White House confirmed the meeting after Eidinger’s group, DCMJ, announced it via press release, The Washington Post reports.

It appears the smoke-in — during which activists carried a 51-foot replica joint adorned with the phrase “Obama, Deschedule Cannabis Now!” and lit up publicly — caught the attention of officials. Eidinger had previously written letters asking for a meeting but had not received any response.

It is not clear if Eidinger, along with a small group of advocates, will meet with Obama’s Office of National Drug Control Policy, and he declined to comment on who exactly had invited him. Obama’s drug policy advisors have met with other national pro-cannabis groups.

“As a former cannabis (and current?) user, you know firsthand that cannabis does not belong in the Controlled Substances Act,” Eidinger wrote in a letter addressed to the president last month.

Marijuana remains federally prohibited despite its legalized status in Colorado, Washington, Alaska and Washington, D.C. It shares the Schedule 1 distinction with heroin and ecstasy. While it is legal for medicinal use in 24 states, it remains hard to research due to its federal status.

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Cannabis Marketing News

More Than Half of Americans Have Tried Cannabis, Poll Shows

4/21/2016

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A new CBS poll indicates that more than half of Americans have experimented with cannabis.

This is a significant eight percentage point increase from last year’s poll, in which 43 percent of Americans admitted to having tried marijuana. Cannabis use appears to remain most popular among men and citizens under the age of 65.

The poll also found that 56 percent of Americans believe that marijuana should be made legal, a rise of three points from the last time CBS posed the question. Support for cannabis reform continues to be most popular among male voters and voters under the age of 65. The legalization issue also remains split along party lines, with the majority of Democrats in support of legalization and the majority of Republicans opposed.

Legal access to medical marijuana continues to enjoy wide support: nearly nine out of ten Americans believe doctors should be allowed to prescribe small amounts of cannabis if they believe it would be beneficial.

Most Americans believe that legalization should be a states rights issue, and that the federal government shouldn’t play a role regarding the legality of cannabis.

The general poll results list a four point margin of error, and the poll was conducted April 8-12 using a random sample of 1,020 adults from around the country.

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Illinois Senate Passes Bill to Decriminalize Cannabis

4/21/2016

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The Illinois Senate has approved a bill removing criminal penalties for the possession of a personal cannabis stash, reports the Marijuana Policy Project.

Senate Bill 2228 was passed with a 40-14 vote on Tuesday, and now goes to the House for consideration.

The law would make possession of up to 10 grams of cannabis punishable by a civil fine of $100-$200. Jail sentences would no longer be applicable for such an infraction. Also, the civil offense would be automatically expunged from the violator’s record, meaning that small-time cannabis possession will no longer risk staining someone’s permanent record.

“We need to replace Illinois’s current patchwork of marijuana possession laws with a consistent standard that will be applied fairly across the state,” said Sen. Heather Steans (D-Chicago), who introduced the bill. “People should not be sent to jail for an offense that would have been punishable by a small fine if it had occurred a few miles down the road. It’s irrational, it’s unpredictable, and it’s unjust.”

More than 100 communities across Illinois have already reformed the criminal penalties for marijuana possession.

Current state law carries a penalty of up to 30 days in jail for the possession of 2.5 grams of cannabis or less. Between 10 and 30 grams could land a person in jail for a year, in addition to the fines. And no matter the amount carried, the state can currently issue up to $1,500 in fines for possession.

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Jeff Church: Adding Terpenes to Cannabis Products

4/21/2016

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Jeff Church is the Vice President of Research and Process Development at Thinc Pure, a leading extract manufacturer in Washington State. He is a renowned hash expert and helped break the story of Rosin Tech when we reported on the now-ubiquitous extraction method last year. Jeff recently joined our host Shango Los for a conversation about a new cannabis trend: the idea of extracting pure terpenes to add flavors to cannabis products. In the interview, Jeff talks about the finer points of operating an extraction machine to isolate terpenes, why this process is becoming popular, and how people go about adding terps to their cannabis products.

Listen to the episode via the media player below, or scroll down for the full transcript!

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Shango Los: Hello and welcome to the Ganjapreneur.com podcast. I am your host Shango Los. The Ganjapreneur.com podcast gives us an opportunity to speak directly to entrepreneurs, cannabis growers, product developers, and cannabis medicine researchers all focused on making the most of cannabis normalization. As your host I do my best to bring you original cannabis industry ideas that will ignite your own entrepreneurial spark and give you actual information, to improve you business strategy and improve your health and the health of cannabis patients everywhere.

Today my guest is Jeff Church. Jeff Church is Vice President of Research and Process Development at Thinc Pure. Over the last 20 years Jeff has worked with every modern extraction method and enjoys researching ancient hash making techniques. Jeff Church is also know online as Reverend Cannabis and today he is here to talk with me about fortifying cannabis products with extra terpenes. Welcome back to the show Jeff.

Jeff Church: Thanks for having me Shango.

Shango Los: Jeff let’s start at the very beginning by establishing for folks new to the topic why terpenes are so beneficial. Why does your extraction team work so hard to preserve terpenes in the final product that is delivered to your customer or patient?

Jeff Church: Terpenes are really the embodiment of what the different effects are that you’re going to get from different cannabis extracts. The flavor is all in the terpenes. The cannabinoids THC, CBD have their own effects but without the terpenes to modulate that effect you really have kind of a flat effect that is nothing really special.

Shango Los: In the early days I really didn’t get what terpenes were until the first time I came across citrine. I’m like “Oh like citrus.” Just like when I cut into a piece of citrus suddenly I’m feeling stimulated and happy and the world is great. Then I realized that really at the heart of cannabis is aromatherapy.

Jeff Church: Exactly. That’s precisely it. There’s many different terpenes. There’s limonene which is going to give you a really up kind of an effect. There’s myrcene which, I mean limonene — it’s from citrus as well. Myrcene which is from mangos is going to give you a relaxed effect. There’s many, many, many more terpenes: 150 of them that have been tested in cannabis.

Shango Los: Efforts to preserve terpenes began by extractors studying how best to use the technology. If you had an Eden CO2 Extractor, you were twiddling the knobs and working with your time and everything so that you could preserve enough terpenes in the end process. A lot of incredible oil is now being made because of all those efforts and shared intelligence by extractors. Now though some producers want to fortify their products with additional terpenes. It’s moved more towards adding some extra punch to your product so it either tastes better or it has more medicinal qualities. What are some of the sources of these terpenes that are being added to the final product?

Jeff Church: That’s definitely a great question. There’s 2 main categories that I see. Well, 3 really. There’s plant-based terpenes which are extracted from any plant. Limonene can be extracted from citrus. Linalool can be extracted from lavender. Humulene from hops. Myrcene from mangos but there’s also synthetic versions of those that can be created in the lab just to basically be that molecule. Those are the one direction, the one class is the natural and the synthetic.

Then there’s something called cannabis derived terpenes. Those are exactly what they say they are. They’re terpenes derived from different strains of cannabis. All these different cultivars have a unique fingerprint in them so deriving these terpenes from them really carry that effect over into your extract.

Shango Los: Is myrcene from a mango chemically the same as the myrcene that’s in cannabis?

Jeff Church: Yes it definitely is. The effect that you get from the myrcene in cannabis is the effect that you’re going to get from myrcene in mango. One caveat though is you don’t have all of the other terpenes present if you’re just extracting it from mango and you may have some terpenes that would never be present in cannabis at all that are extracted from that mango. When you have this pure myrcene it’s going to be 99.something percent pure. There’s always going to be something else in there that is from its original source.

When you’re smoking these things it’s like you’re smoking a derivative of that plant rather than smoking cannabis.

Shango Los: All right well then I must admit I’m kind of surprised because when I normally think of eating mangos I don’t think about the myrcene effect which is one of the things that I really love about indicas. A little bit of couch lock, a little bit of munchies, a little bit of body relaxation. It actually puts me second guessing my original opinion that I came into this show with that adding terpenes was totally uncool from food sources.

I’ve seen some folks that are doing pet products: CBD from hemp pet products. They’re adding terpenes from food products like mango and other things and they’re calling it “whole plant medicine,” which that’s just patently untrue, but the idea of getting a terpene from a food and then adding it to a cannabis product: I was really against it just because it felt like bringing in something alien. What are your thoughts about that?

Jeff Church: It’s definitely not something that I want to consume myself. I think that there’s a big market out there for nicotine vape pens with all these different fruit flavors and things like that. I think that there’s a market for it. Is the effect going to be there as great as it would be from cannabis? I don’t know. Just as there’s myrcene in mangos there’s going to be other things in there that are going to modulate the uptake of cannabinoids or lessen the effect of the myrcene.

Where eating a mango is not going to knock you out but having a really really myrcene high cultivar of cannabis will bring you down. It’s more of a flavoring thing I feel like when you’re extracting fruit flavors and things like that. You can get the pure terpenes and they definitely have their modulating effects but I don’t know that you’re really going to much further than getting a small amount of modulation with the flavor where cannabis it’s able to modulate the effect quite strongly.

Shango Los: Right on. That’s going to naturally fit into talking about extracting terpenes from “whole plant” cannabis but before we do that let’s hit the intentional flavoring of cartridges for a second. We’ve all smelled or some people are using nicotine pens and they’ve got Wild Cherry or Honey and Milk or whatever it is. Mostly I smell them when I’m walking down the street and somebody exhales. I’ve had 2 different companies who have intentionally added flavor to their oil cartridges. The first one was mango and I won’t say the name of the company because I didn’t care for it at all.

It tasted really cheap like if there was a mango breakfast cereal. It tasted inauthentic but then I had one last week that I got from the rep of Kurvana down in California and my god the banana. It tasted so good. It also had a terp base of actual cannabis flower so it was everything I know and I love and am familiar with with a regular cannabis terpene but then it had this little “umph” of banana and it tasted really authentic.

I was getting this information second hand and so from what I understand they actually extract their own bananas to create their own terpenes so that it tastes really good. I was like “Man while I probably wouldn’t be using a banana cartridge all the time” … it was treat. When I passed it around to people who were with me they were like “Wow. That’s really good.”

I guess while it may not be my personal preference I definitely can see the attraction to it.

Jeff Church: Exactly. It’s not like you’re going to find … actually nowadays there’s a strawberry banana flavored cultivars of cannabis. There’s many different flavors of cannabis for sure so banana is not completely foreign to the whole equation but you really hit it on the head. It has all of those other terpenes that are in the cannabis plant. If they extracted it really well, tried to preserve those terpenes the best they could, and then added in this banana flavor that they extracted in a really nice method so that you’re really getting the full embodiment of the banana then it’s going to be a pleasurable experience.

Now is the banana going to add to the modulation of the effect that you get? That’s questionable. The modulation can happen just by your enjoyment, right? If you’re really enjoying something a lot then that’s going to be pleasurable for you. It’s going to make the whole experience feel a lot better.

Shango Los: I think that’s probably the same thing that people do with banana daiquiris right?

Jeff Church: Exactly.

Shango Los: Because even though the banana is not adding anything to the modulation it’s like “Hey my drink makes me feel like I’m on a tropical vacation so I’m feeling even more festive even though I’m just at my local Mexican restaurant or whatever.”

Jeff Church: Exactly. It’s not medicinal. It’s more recreational I feel like but all recreation is medicine in my mind as well but it’s kind of weird. We have these 2 different classifications. We have the medical and we have recreational. I also believe in spiritual. I think that that would be in that recreational class of extracts.

Shango Los: Yeah I agree with you. I’m one of those people who believe that we’re all patients because even if we’re buying at a recreational store and even if really our goal is just to get high, well we’re getting high as an anti-anxiety because the rest of our life is so stressful and we want a little bit of respite and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. We’re going to take a short break and be right back. You are listening to the Ganjapreneur.Com podcast.

The Ganjapreneur.Com podcast is going to sound a little bit different going forward. We are now producing our podcast in-house so we can have more control over how they sound. We want to make them an even better listening experience for you. That means the show is going to sound a little bit less produced and whiz bang and a bit more down to earth and pleasant on the ears. We didn’t used to control the commercial content and we and many of you thought it sounded out of sync with the rest of the vibe of the show. Going forward during the commercial breaks we’re going to bring you companies that we believe in. We’re going to tell you about them. We’re going to tell you how to get in contact with them and then we’ll get right back to the show. Pretty simple really.

This change also means we are booking our own commercials now. If you want to reach out and connect with our audience in the most personal way we can offer, drop us an email at grow@ganjapreneuer.com and we can talk about you becoming a commercial sponsor of the podcast. It is our hope and intention that these changes will make the podcast an even more pleasant listening experience. Thanks for listening and be a part of the Ganjapreneur family. Now back to the show.

Welcome back you are listening to the Ganjapreneur.Com podcast. I’m your host Shango Los and our guest this week is Jeff Church of Thinc Pure. Before the break we were talking about the nature of terpenes, why we extract them and use them, how they can influence us like aromatherapy. We talked about bringing in terpenes from food sources and different sources. I want to talk specifically now about extracting terpenes from whole plant cannabis because that is absolutely the rage right now.

People are talking about it in forums everywhere and the idea is that you are going to remove the entire flavor profile of a particular strain say for example Gorilla Glue and you’re going to take that whole terpene profile so that the liquid terpenes that you end with smell and taste just like Gorilla Glue. Jeff why don’t you tell us a little bit about how that found its way into extraction coolness now so people have got a little historical frame for this discussion?

Jeff Church: I think it really all started when people started to try and preserve their terpenes in their extracts. Every extraction method that there is whether it’s alcohol, CO2, Butane, Propane — you’re extracting terpenes but you’re also extracting the cannabinoids. This movement to really have just pure terpenes is the new phase of evolution in extraction. There’s many many many different ways to extract cannabinoids and terpenes together and there’s probably just as many ways to extract just terpenes.

You can do steam distillations. You can do vacuum distillations. There’s cold trapping that you can do. You can do your distillations with heat. You can do them in a cryo distillation. There’s many many many different ways to slice it but essentially what you’re doing is extracting the essential oils of the plant. Just like you would have lavender essential oils you’re extracting the essential oils of cannabis.

That smell, that taste really carries over. It’s completely potentized into something where if you have one drop of it and you smoke that on a nail it tastes like you just smoked a whole gram or so of extract.

Shango Los: I first got a good understanding of the power of it when … oh actually I was with you. It was at Emerald Cup this past year down in Sonoma County at the fairgrounds and you said “Oh man you’ve got to see this” and we went over to the United Cannabis booth and Tony Verzura was doing his demo and the place was packed.

There were all these heads all around and he was kind of explaining to people and showing how he did it and then he was painting people’s slabs. If you’ve never seen this this is something pretty cool. He was taking this really small amount of raw terpenes that he had extracted with this tiny little paint brush and then people were going up to him with slabs of oil that they said “Oh. This oil is mediocre.” Shatter or wax or something. He was painting along the slab and you could tell that there was something going on there because it was changing the coloration of it.

The person who’s slab it was was getting all super excited. Then they’d pass it back and we’d smell it and I’m like “Oh my gosh. This suddenly went from smelling like mediocre oil to the best Gorilla Glue oil everywhere.” People were really jazzed about it.

Jeff Church: Yeah I think it’s a really cool concept. You can take pretty much any extract that you have whether you’ve got a vape pen or you’ve got a slab of BHO or Rosin or Dry Sift or Bubble Hash it really doesn’t matter what it is. You can add the terpenes to that and the really cool thing about it is if you’re smoking this one extract that you have all the time you’ll hit this level where you’re not feeling the effects as much as you had been before. It’s effective. It definitely does what it’s supposed to do but you don’t really have as great of an effect.

If you just add a little bit of terpenes to it that effect is amplified quite a bit and you really get the effect of the cultivar that it was extracted from. Where you’re really used to this one kind of hash per se, adding the terpenes to it will make it a whole new world where it’s just like smoking another strain that you haven’t been smoking.

Then adding a different strain of terpenes to it will affect you in a whole different way. Whatever the effect of that original cannabis was it’s going to be mirrored in this. I think that’s really what has got a lot of people caught up in this and really turned out a lot of terpene fan boys out there.

Shango Los: Yeah. I actually saw that first person at Emerald Cup. I was hanging out in the chill room behind the Forever Flowering tent there with Eric Branstad and he had a whole bunch of really hardcore Humboldt heads there and they were passing around one of the small terpene vials that Tony was selling. I don’t remember what the strain was but they painted some onto some oil and one by one they were doing dabs and you could just see this look on their face of like salvation like the sky was going to open up. They’re like “Ah! This is a perfect terpene experience.”

It was really astonishing to see people with a really exceptional taste in cannabis to be so overjoyed by having such a flavorful dab. People were being converted right there instantly into fan boys.

Jeff Church: It is definitely the holy grail of modulation of cannabinoids. Like I said you get stuck on one variety because you’ve got a whole bunch of it and adding one drop of this just makes it a whole other world. People really look for flavor in their cannabis. They want that to carry over into the smoke. It’s really part of that enjoyment that you get from smoking cannabis. It’s the flavor. Without that it’s just a high that’s kind of flat and really not as enjoyable.

Shango Los: Right on so let’s kind of shift gears. Let’s talk a little bit about how to use these terpenes as a product developer. We’ve talked about people have been extracting terpenes in all these different ways and there’s a lot of ways that you can go about it but once you have the terpenes in your possession I’m sure that there’s more to do with it than just simply painting onto a slab at home. What are some of the applications that you have seen product developers in licensed cannabis using the terpenes for?

Jeff Church: I actually haven’t seen much in the licensed arena like 502 recreational. I haven’t really seen much at all except for terpenes that are extracted from other plants. If we’re talking cannabis derived terpenes it’s mostly been done in the medical states. I would say that Tony Verzura has been the pioneer in all of this. He’s created what he calls terp melt which is full melt bubble that he adds a drop or two to every gram and he mixes that all together. I just changes the flavor completely.

There’s terp rosin as well. People add it to their vaporizer cartridges. Some friends of mine down in California have a product that they make that’s a distillate of cannabinoids so basically the most refined cannabinoid experience that you can have out there that’s pretty much free of terpenes and then they derived from cannabis terpenes and add that back into it and put that into their vape pens. They have these cannabis derived distillate vape pens that are extremely popular because it tastes better than any dab that you’ve had before honestly.

Vaporizing it at that lower temperature is really nice. That’s another thing just as a little side note. People tend to dab in the 600 to 800 degree range, 800 being way way too hot for my taste when you’re talking about regular cannabinoids and terpenes but if you are going to dab just straight terpenes which is kind of the thing that people are doing a lot of nowadays you want to be down in the 400 degree, 4 to 450 to really get that full flavor.

There’s many different products out there. There’s people that are even putting these terpenes into edibles, not like a brownie but like a capsule. You’re adding them in there so that the modulating effects are present when you’re eating that capsule. Where before I feel like a decarbed cannabis oil where you’ve decarbed it completely. You’ve boiled most of the terpenes out of there so the effect is going to be pretty flat. It’s going to be just the THC effect with a little bit of modulation of whatever terpenes were able to make it through that whole decarb process but if you add just a little bit of these terpenes to that product you get all of the modulating effects that you would be getting from smoking the different strains.

It’s really a game changer. I think that the future of extracts at least is purification and addition of these cannabis derived terpenes.

Shango Los: That just begs the question to me about where does that fall on the line with whole plant medicine? We’d been saying that you need to use the whole cannabis plant because all of the small and discrete and not really researched parts are all essential for the entourage effect so that you get the best medical impact possible from the cannabis.

What we’re talking about is doing a whole plant terpene extraction and then adding it hopefully to a whole plant product. How do you see it? Do you see it as no longer being whole plant or are we now like super whole plant, we’re beyond whole plant?

Jeff Church: I see it as a whole plant extract but at the same time it’s not like FECO. It’s not like the Rick Simpson Oil type thing. That’s really a whole nother classification and honestly Rick Simpson Oil people are really into it being a full plant extract. It’s devoid of a lot of the terpenes because you have to boil out the ethanol that you’ve used to extract it and anything that’s volatile at less than the boiling point of ethanol, is going to be lost in the equation.

It is really super whole plant but at the same time I think that it’s more getting to a point where you’re trying to take these different classes of chemicals from within the plant and refine them into their most pure forms, leaving all of the things that you don’t want in your smoke: waxes, chlorophylls, and things like that that are harsh to smoke. Leaving all of those behind and then recombining these things together to make something that’s the most enjoyable extracts that I’ve every smoked.

Shango Los: Wow. Well there you go. We’re going to take another short break and be right back. You are listening to the Ganjapreneur.com Podcast.

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Welcome back. You are listening to the Ganjapreneur.com podcast. I am your host Shango Los and our guest this week is Jeff Church of Thinc Pure. Before the break we were talking about all the different applications for extracted terpenes that you can add back into a cannabis product to fortify it to make it both a stronger modulation experience as medicine and also just a damn good dab for recreation and just fun.

In your last bit before we went to a commercial you said something that totally jumped up for me. You said that some people are dabbing terps. Do you mean that they’re dabbing just straight terps and so they’re not dabbing THC?

Jeff Church: That’s exactly what I mean. It’s a really interesting concept. If you’re all about the tastiest flower, the tastiest extract, this is really the pinnacle of cannabis is dabbing its terpenes. Tony Ferzura from United Cannabis really popularized this. He has a terpene dab bar that he sets up at the different cannabis festivals. You know the Emerald Cup. He was doing it as well down at High Times in San Bernardino. People just line up for low temperature dabs.

What’s really really interesting about it is you could have a dab of terpenes as your first dab of the day and you’re going to feel high. There’s certain qualities to the terpenes where they kind of act as solvents on the cannabinoids that are sitting on the receptors and your cannabinoid receptors can be somewhat blocked to where they’re packed with cannabinoids on the surface. When you add this terpene in there it really loosens that up a bit and allows for the cannabinoids to pass through the membrane and hit those receptors in a more efficient way where you’re feeling more effect from the cannabinoids that you had in your system from smoking last night.

You’ll really feel high one way or the other and it’s very strain specific but it’s all about the flavor. People are all about the terps nowadays so doing this is something really exciting. I would caution that smoking pure terpenes may not be the healthiest thing for you.

Shango Los:I was thinking about that too man. We were already talking about dabbing a concentration of terpenes, people potentially getting terpene toxicity and being part of the “Oh he dabbed too hard and then he fell over,” right?

Jeff Church: Yeah I don’t know it’s going to be “dabbed too hard and fell over” but really damaging your lungs is something that can happen by smoking too much terpenes. You really want to be careful. There’s a threshold where you don’t want to pass that too much or else it’s going to be a harsh smoke. It’s going to not be enjoyable. It’s enjoyable the moment you’re smoking it but down the road when your lung capacity is being diminished by smoking these pure terpenes it could become an issue.

Shango Los: It’s not really the kind of a thing that somebody’s really going to abuse though is it or do to much of? I can understand how dabbing some terpenes. It’s your first one of the day or kind of mix it in with your dab session or something like that. That might be enjoyable but it’s not really the kind of thing that somebody’s going to be dabbing terps all the time just straight is it?

Jeff Church: That’s definitely what a lot of people are getting into. I think that the most popular thing is really taking a dab and dipping it into the terpenes.

Shango Los: Right on. That I get.

Jeff Church: Then you’re talking maybe 10, 15% of your dab is going to be terpenes and the rest is just going to be cannabinoids and other constituents that are in the smoke so it’s kind of deluded. Just like you wouldn’t take a lot of essential oils and apply them directly to your skin it’s the same sort of thing. Essential oils a lot them you really want to cut them in another oil, a carrier oil, before you put it onto the skin so that there’s not too high of a concentration in any one spot on your skin. Same can be true for your lungs as well.

Shango Los: You also mentioned the other product was RSO because of course the terps are very volatile and they are burnt off from heating, making RSO and FECO. It makes me curious about doing a distillation at the beginning of the plant material you’re going to use to remove the terpenes at that point and then go ahead and make your RSO. Then stir back in the terpenes at the end and somehow maybe kind of Frankensteining back together a whole plant FECO extract. Have you seen anybody do that yet?

Jeff Church: It sounds like you need a patent. I have not seen anybody do that with FECO, with a full plant extract. I have seen people doing that and I’ve done it myself with the distillate where you have the cannabinoids and then you have the distillate or you have the terpenes that they’re extracted then you have the distillate of the cannabinoids that you extract from the same type of material.

There’s a company down in California that’s doing it. There’s actually a whole bunch of different companies down there in California doing it right now.

Shango Los: I think that’s one of the problems with trying to patent any of this is that there’s so many different people working on it at the same time in parallel and people are sharing the science with each other that it makes it really hard to secure originality on paper.

Jeff Church: Right. I was mostly joking.

Shango Los: It is happening even though we joke about it. Right on. One more thing I want to hit on too: where do you see the direction this is heading in? I know this is already bleeding edge stuff but where do you see this idea of extracting the terps and fortifying cannabis products heading here in the next couple years?

Jeff Church: I really see a lot more extraction of terpenes and the re addition of those into other lines of already existing extracts that are out there just like Tony’s been doing with the terp rosin and the terp melts and other companies been doing with the distillate added with the terps. I think that that’s really what it is is us finding out what we like in cannabis and what we don’t like in cannabis.

I don’t like to smoke an oil that has a whole bunch of chlorophyll in it like an RSO. I would much rather smoke something that has a higher purity of cannabinoids in it. The same is true with terpenes. I think adding these purified elements back together and creating the ideal extract that is devoid of all of the parts that we don’t want it really the future.

Shango Los: Right on so that’s all the time we have for you today. Thanks for being on the show again Jeff.

Jeff Church: Definitely. It’s a pleasure to be here. Thank you.

Shango Los: You can follow Jeff Church on Instagram @CannabisReverend. You can find out more about his company at their website ThincPure.Com and that’s “think” with a C, no K. Finally if you want to hear more from Jeff you’ll find an earlier Ganjapreneur podcast episode with him about rosin oil in the podcast archives and a presentation he made on rosin at CannaCon Seattle this year in the video section of the Ganjapreneur.Com website.

You can find more episodes of the Ganjapreneur podcast in the podcast section at Ganjapreneur.Com and in the Apple iTunes store. On the Ganjapreneur.Com website you will find the latest cannabis news, product reviews, and cannabis jobs updated daily along with transcriptions of this podcast. You can also download the Ganjapreneur.Com app in iTunes and GooglePlay. Do you have a company that wants to reach our national audience of cannabis enthusiasts? Email grow@ganjapreneur.com to find out how. Today’s show was produced by Pat Packett. I am your host Shango Los.

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President of Mexico Supports Medical Cannabis Legalization

4/20/2016

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In an about face from his previously vocalized opinions, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto said on Tuesday that he is open to the idea of medical cannabis legalization in Mexico, and that government officials would be announcing new measures that reflect this change of heart in the coming days.

Peña Nieto’s announcement was made in a speech given at the United Nations General Assembly on international drug policy, which is taking place this week in New York. “I am giving voice to those who have … expressed the necessity of changing the regulatory framework to authorize the use of marijuana for medical and scientific purposes,” he said. Drug use should be addressed as a “public health problem,” he said — not as a criminal offense.

“We should be flexible to change that which has not yielded results, the paradigm based essentially in prohibitionism, the so-called ‘War on Drugs’ … [which] has not been able to limit production, trafficking nor the global consumption of drugs,” said Peña Nieto.

Peña Nieto had been previously outspoken against any reform of Mexico’s marijuana laws, though mounting pressure from the public, as well as a Supreme Court ruling from late last year that established a legal right to the cultivation and personal consumption of medical cannabis, have apparently eroded his opposition.

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Canadian flag flying against the sun.

Canada Announces Plan to Decriminalize Cannabis by Spring 2017

4/20/2016

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The Canadian Liberal Party will introduce legislation to decriminalize and regulate recreational cannabis nationwide by the spring of 2017, Health Minister Jane Philpott announced on Wednesday at the U.N. General Assembly on international drug policy in New York.

According to a Reuters report, Philpott said Canada’s new marijuana laws would keep cannabis out of the hands of children and keep marijuana profits out of the hands of criminals. “We will work with law enforcement partners to encourage appropriate and proportionate criminal justice measures,” she said. “We know it is impossible to arrest our way out of this problem.”

Earlier this month, Canada’s Minister of Public Safety Ralph Goodale said in an interview that the federal government was working to establish a task force that will figure out the best way to end cannabis prohibition. The task force would include representatives from the federal, provincial, and municipal governments.

Nationwide legalization was a major running platform for current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during last year’s election, though international drug laws made it unclear how and when Canada would be able to carry through on that promise. Mr. Trudeau warned earlier this year that undoing cannabis prohibition could be a long and complicated process, but it’s heartening to see the Liberal Party’s continued commitment to its promise of legalization.

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Maine Could Be First State to Add Addiction as MMJ Qualifying Condition

4/20/2016

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Maine could become the first U.S. state to approve medical cannabis as a treatment for opioid addiction.

A group of medical marijuana patients and caregivers gathered on Tuesday at a public hearing to lobby for the change, CBS News reports. The hearing was ripe with personal stories of how cannabis has been a safe and effective method of kicking more dangerous drug habits, such as pharmaceutical painkillers or heroin.

One 23-year-old student said marijuana helped her kick a heroin habit that she developed while studying in Morocco. “Marijuana saved my life for sure,” she said.

Supporters argued that medical cannabis is already prescribed to help with addiction in states with more relaxed marijuana laws, such as California and Massachusetts — but this would be the first time that state laws would be updated to specifically allow for such treatment.

The hearing was called by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services after a successful petition from one of Maine’s medical cannabis caregivers.

The medical establishment in Maine does not support changing the law, however, and argues that there’s insufficient scientific evidence supporting the claims that cannabis can treat addiction. Leah Bauer, psychiatrist and medical director for the Addiction Resource Center at Mid Coast Hospital in Brunswick, argued that such a change could lead addicts to another “toxic and habit-forming substance.”

“In fact, [addicts] using marijuana may be like pouring gasoline on the fire,” she said.

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Waka Flocka Flame Has Bad Edibles Experience at Dope Cup

4/19/2016

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On Sunday Ganjapreneur attended the Dope Cup, hosted by Dope Magazine at Dockside Cannabis in Seattle. It was an open-consumption event complete with a retail cannabis store, food trucks, and a reggae and hip-hop concert featuring Waka Flocka Flame as the headliner. The weather was perfect for a night of fun with friends and fellow cannabis enthusiasts, and the vibe was excellent because Dope Magazine always puts on a great party. According to a post on his Instagram account, however, Waka Flocka Flame had a bit of a rough night after his set, as he apparently wound up calling the paramedics after having a bad experience with some edibles.

When Waka first came out for his set, both he and his DJ repeatedly mentioned how high they were from the very beginning. First, Waka thanked an anonymous person who offered him a blunt when he walked in to the event. Then, mid-way through the opening song, he was passed an enormous joint from someone in the front of the audience, which he proceeded to take 5 or 6 hits off of before passing it back into the crowd.

Waka Flocka Flame Edibles at Dope Cup

Waka went on to finish his set and gave an amazing, energetic performance, and the crowd was jumping the whole time (despite everyone being super stoned). Apparently, though, after the performance Waka accepted some medicated edibles and wound up calling the paramedics as a result.

In his post, Waka suggested that the paramedics were called because the edibles contained GMOs, which he avoids (he is also a vegan). This claim may sound a bit dubious to anyone who has ever had a bad edibles experience, however. We think it is more likely that Waka simply over-medicated and had to sit through the discomfort and dizziness that so many of us have gone through at some point.

For us, this is a great example of how even seasoned cannabis consumers need to know their limits, and to be aware of the potency of the products they are consuming.

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Cannabis branches hanging out to cure after harvest season.

Colorado Law to Further Restrict Cannabis Advertising

4/19/2016

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The Colorado House gave tentative approval on Friday to a law expanding restrictions on medical cannabis advertisements, according to an Associated Press report.

The restrictions introduced in House Bill 1363, which prevent retailers from directing medical marijuana advertisements at patients under 21, have been described as a commonsense safeguard. Similar restrictions already exist for recreational cannabis, and the bill was drafted at the request of Colorado’s Department of Revenue.

The Colorado cannabis industry doesn’t appear to oppose the tightening of the rules. “It really just harmonizes the medical law with what is in the recreational law,” said Kevin Fisher, co-owner of the Rocky Mountain Remedies cannabis retailer in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. “The last thing we want to do is market to kids.”

The Colorado Press Association, however, have announced their opposition to the legislation. They argue there is no evidence that marijuana advertisers have ever targeted their efforts on minors, and also argue that defining what is and what isn’t considered appealing to children can be overly complicated.

“It’s the basic concept of it’s a violation of commercial speech under the First Amendment,” said Greg Romberg, a lobbyist who works for the CPA.

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Oregon Rec. Licenses Coming Soon

4/19/2016

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Oregon entrepreneurs have submitted nearly 900 applications for the state’s recreational cannabis business licenses.

As of April 19, data from the Oregon Liquor Control Commission listed the following totals:

  • 610 recreational producer licenses
  • 155 recreational retailer licenses
  • 70 recreational processor licenses
  • 43 recreational wholesaler licenses
  • Five laboratory licenses
  • One research certificate

That adds to 884 total completed applications. There are an additional 409 applications in “draft” form.

Oregon has been operating a recreational marijuana market since October, after lawmakers passed emergency legislation to allow medical dispensaries to sell flower and clone products to adults. Many dispensaries that opted in to the temporary recreational market are likely to pursue a recreational license, according to a Marijuana Business Daily report.

Oregon marijuana laws don’t limit the number of business licenses that the state can award, so every legitimate and completed application should be successful.

The Oregon legislature recently opened up the cannabis market to out-of-state investors. With licenses expected to be awarded within the next few weeks, out-of-state cannabis companies have been eyeing the Oregon market for potential expansion opportunities. Colorado companies Sweet Leaf, Mary’s Medicinals and Dixie Elixirs have all announced interest in the Oregon market, according to The Oregonian‘s Noelle Crombie.

The Oregon market is not without its pitfalls, however, evidenced by Harborside Health Center’s — one of California’s flagship medical cannabis companies — pulling out of the state entirely this month to refocus its efforts on the California market.

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A doctor organizing their work via a touchscreen tablet.

Doctors Launch Pro-Legalization Advocacy Group

4/19/2016

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Breaking away from the American Medical Association’s official position, a group of more than 50 physicians have formed Doctors for Cannabis Regulation, endorsing adult recreational use of marijuana.

The group is founded by David L. Nathan, an associate professor at Rutgers’ Robert Johnson Medical School and American Psychiatric Association fellow, and includes former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders, who served under the Clinton Administration.

“Doctors should affirmatively support this,” Nathan said in a Washington Post report. “If you’re going to make something against the law, the health consequences of that use have to be so bad to make it worth creating criminal consequences. That was never true of marijuana. It was banned in 1937 over the objections of the American Medical Association.”

When cannabis was banned in 1937, it was still being used to treat some medical conditions. At the time the AMA was concerned that outlawing marijuana would “deprive the public of the benefits of a drug that on further research may prove to be of substantial value.”

Recently the AMA has publicly encouraged researching the medical benefits of cannabis, calling on the Drug Enforcement Agency and Food and Drug Administration to create a “special schedule and implement administrative procedures” to allow grant applications and conduct clinical research trials.” The association, however, does not support state-based medical programs or legalization.

“We want to build a group of physicians who are going to be out in the public making the case for marijuana legalization to physicians, medical associations and the public at large,” Nathan said.

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Dispensary Feature: Portland Best Buds

4/18/2016

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Ganjapreneur recently toured the Portland Best Buds dispensary, one of the latest ventures to pop up in the famously community-oriented St. Johns neighborhood of Portland, Oregon.

Doubling as a cannabis dispensary and local art gallery, Portland Best Buds strives for quality above all else — a quaint, neighborhood-centric location, personable and friendly budtenders, and, naturally, a hand-picked selection of some of Oregon’s finest cannabis strains.

The store was easy to find, and we found parking available on the side of the building. If that fails, however, there’s also ample street parking in the surrounding neighborhoods. The sidewalk bustled with foot traffic, many of them shoppers from the massive New Seasons grocery store located directly across the street.

“We want to be more than just another pot shop,” dispensary owner Paul Pedreira explained as we met in the Portland Best Buds waiting room. The walls here were lined with colorful paintings by a local artist. A note on the wall shared a message discussing the various pieces, and offered contact information for the artist featured that month. The artist on display during our visit also worked for the dispensary as a budtender — now that’s an encouraging work environment.

The walls in Portland Best Buds are lined with top-shelf cannabis selections.

As we perused the selections, we were very impressed with the many varieties of high-quality cannabis on display. It was clear from the options, and from the amount of information the working budtender could share about each strain, that a lot of thought went into the products stocked at Portland Best Buds. Paul explained that it was a group effort: each strain was openly discussed by the employees before the dispensary would agree to carry it, and that general quality was the #1 factor in every such decision. After several whiffs of tantalizingly attractive offerings, it was clear their method has been working.

Flashy, hand-written labels list strain names, cannabinoid content and a brief description for anyone unfamiliar with a particular strain.

The only drawback worth mentioning is that their emphasis on perfect pot comes with a price. So if you’re looking for some mediocre product for $5 to $8 per gram, look again. Prices range from about $12-$16 per gram and there is an ongoing special available, where three pre-rolls of high quality flower cost $10.

Other offerings at Portland Best Buds include infused edibles, beverages and other goodies.

PBB has no aspirations to become known as Portland’s next big cannabis emporium. And it should be obvious that, unless you have legitimate medical concerns (or if you’re Snoop Dogg), you should expect to pay an extra buck or two if you want to really push the boundaries of quality Oregon cannabis — which is what PBB is all about.

And we are happy to report that if you do have legitimate medical concerns (i.e. a patient in the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program) then your prices at PBB will be 25 percent lower — and that discount will never go away, Paul explained. Even if regulatory officials ultimately decide to meld the state’s medical and recreational marijuana industries, PBB will honor OMMP cardholders.

Vape pens and cartridges are also available.

As an institution of St. Johns, Portland Best Buds strives to offer as much as possible to the local community, which appears to have graciously and enthusiastically accepted the cannabis retailer. The dispensary is now an ongoing participant in monthly First Thursday events, in which art galleries across the city host open houses in celebration of local artists.

This antique freezer was rescued and refurbished from PBB’s original location. It currently stores infused beverages and other perishables.

It was a bumpy road to reach this point, however. During the dispensary’s earliest months, complaints from an uptight neighbor uprooted the business from its original location and sparked a long and expensive process of moving to a different, nearby building, Paul said. We walked to the old location, which was only about four blocks away. Even after such a short distance, the area was significantly more residential than the shop’s current, bustling location on Lombard St. To learn more about the story behind his struggle, check out our recent interview with store owner Paul Pedreira, in which he shares his experience battling against efforts by city and state officials to shut down PBB in a series of sweeping, regulatory blows.

Portland Best Buds also offers a selection of cannabis clones for consumers who are interested in starting their own garden.

While it was a painful and unfair moving process, it appears to have ultimately worked in PBB’s favor: the shop is now located on one of North Portland’s main thoroughfares, a brand new New Seasons grocery store has opened up across the street, and Paul said that sales have quadrupled since relocating.

Harlequin — one of PBB’s high quality, CBD-rich strains.

We can happily recommend that anyone who is looking for truly top shelf Oregon cannabis — or anyone that is of-age and interested, who finds themselves in the neighborhood — should definitely check out Portland Best Buds. It’s well worth your time and consideration. Check out their website at www.portlandbestbuds.com or stop by for a visit in person at 6313 N. Lombard St. in Portland, OR.

And thank you Paul for the fantastic tour and for sharing your excellent strain choices with the Portland community.

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Medical Marijuana Amendment Added to VA Appropriations Bill

4/18/2016

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Veterans could soon be able to talk to their Veterans Affairs doctors about using medical marijuana after the Senate Appropriations committee approved an amendment to the fiscal 2017 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies appropriations bill, the Military Times reported.

The amendment, sponsored by Sen. Steve Daines (R-Montana) and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) would let VA doctors discuss marijuana as a potential treatment and recommend use in states where it is legal.

So far, there has been no research in the U.S. on whether or not marijuana is effective in relieving symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disordeer, but a Feb. 2016 report from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs acknowledges that while “marijuana use by individuals with PTSD may result in short-term reduction of PTSD symptoms…continued use…may lead to a number of negative consequences.”

The VA recommends “evidence-based” practices to treat mental and physical health issues such as PTSD, depression and pain. In January, 19 Democrats and two Republicans wrote to VA Secretary Bob McDonald pushing to allow VA doctors to discuss and recommend marijuana.

A similar amendment was approved by the Senate in the fiscal 2016 VA appropriations bill but was pulled from the final version of the law. The amendment would also prohibit the VA from using funds to interfere with veterans’ ability to participate in medicinal marijuana programs.

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Hawaii Postpones Medical Cannabis Licensing Due to Paperwork Delays

4/18/2016

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Hawaii’s Department of Health has postponed awarding their medical marijuana licenses until April 29, after experiencing delays with applicant fingerprinting and background checks.

The health department was due to name the license recipients on April 15, according to the Marijuana Business Daily report.

Peggy Leong, supervisor for the state’s Medical Marijuana Dispensary Licensing Program, said that the applicants have been very responsive and cooperative. The majority would submit their fingerprints and consent forms by April 19, she said. Nearly 60 applications were submitted, including one by actor Woody Harrelson.

“A small number of applicants are traveling abroad and unable to respond as quickly as we had hoped. In addition, it also came to our attention that many business entities, such as limited liability corporations, corporations and trusts failed to submit the consents and fingerprints of the individuals involved in the entities,” Leong said in a press release. “The department sent an email to all applicants clarifying the requirements of who is subject to a background check.”   

Eight medical cannabis licenses will be divvied out among the four islands: Big Island and Maui will have two each; Oahu will have three, leaving one for Kauai. Each organization will be permitted to operate two grow sites and two dispensaries.  

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Pennsylvania Becomes 24th State to Allow Medical Cannabis

4/18/2016

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Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) signed the state’s Senate- and House-approved medical marijuana law on Sunday, making it the 24th state to legalize cannabis for medicinal purposes.

The program will roll out in the next 18 to 24 months, after which patients with their doctor’s approval will be able to legally acquire and consume cannabis products in the treatment of several specific conditions, including “cancer, HIV/AIDS, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord damage, epilepsy, inflammatory bowel disease, glaucoma and PTSD.”

According to Gov. Wolf, opening up another treatment option “will improve the quality of life for patients and their families throughout Pennsylvania.” Gov. Wolf had been lobbying lawmakers to pass the law for months.

The new law will allow a maximum of 150 cannabis dispensaries and the state will be collecting a 5 percent tax on all medical marijuana sales. Furthermore, officials anticipate up to $10 million per year in application and registration fees for the industry.

The bill was first proposed nearly one year ago, and has persevered through several iterations, bouncing back and forth between the Pennsylvania Senate and House until the House finally concurred last week with the Senate’s bill.

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Canadian Feds Working Toward National Legalization

4/15/2016

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The federal government of Canada is making moves toward the national legalization of recreational cannabis.

In an interview with CBC News’s Stephen Quinn, Canada’s Minister of Public Safety Ralph Goodale said that officials are working toward legislation that will “ultimately involve the legalization of marijuana, trying to take the whole profit element out of the hands of organized crime.”

“The present regime with respect to marijuana has obviously failed and failed miserably,” he said.

According to Goodale, the government’s first step is establishing a task force of federal, provincial, and local government representatives to address the issue. “Municipalities and provinces want to be involved in how this is structured and how this is done,” said Goodale. “They want it done right and they want to be engaged in doing it right. That task force involving the provinces and municipalities will be announced very shortly. We’ll have a detailed announcement coming in the next several weeks.”

Canadian research analyst Noel Atkinson of Claurus Securities predicted in a recent email that this news may ultimately benefit the country’s licensed medical marijuana producers, asserting that “the licensed producers are positioned to be the primary wholesale suppliers to a government-regulated retail network for recreational marijuana.”

Marijuana legalization was a main feature of the Liberal Party’s successful campaign. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has recommitted the party to legalization since the election; in January, however, he also warned that there remain several international barriers blocking full legalization in Canada.

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