L’Office of Cannabis Managementthe body responsible for implementing and monitoring the legalization of cannabis in New York State, on Monday issued the first adult cannabis retail licenses to 36 applicants, including 28 who have had clashes with the law and 8 non-profit organizations, including LIFE Camp, the first non-profit organization led by a black woman.

The applicants were chosen from a pool of 903 applicants, each vying for one of the 175 planned cannabis retail licenses in the state.

New York authorities plan to issue 150 of these licenses to businesses, with the remaining 25 reserved for nonprofits. The first wave of licenses was reserved for businesses owned by people who have been disproportionately affected by the war on drugs.

BREAKING: In a historic decision, the #NYCCB has approved the first round of CAURD licenses.

28 Justice-involved individuals & 8 Nonprofit organizations will make the first adult use-sales by New York farmers and bring countless opportunities to our communities. #NYCCB

—NYS Office of Cannabis Management (@nys_cannabis) November 21, 2022

The regulator also posted on Twitter that it would allow qualifying businesses to start with delivery services.

“This will help get sales off the ground and allow these small business owners to generate capital and expand their businesses,” the CMO tweeted. Officials have previously said they intend to launch legal adult-use sales by the end of the year.

New York State legalized adult use of cannabis in March 2021, but had yet to issue a license to sell it.

Among the various reasons for the delay, a Michigan company sued New York State and its cannabis management office last September, claiming it gave preference to companies in the state. However, she was dismissed.

Under pressure from the launch of one of the country’s most anticipated legal cannabis markets, the CMO decided to award some dispensary licenses to entrepreneurs and non-profit groups, a major step that comes then authorities are struggling to arrest unlicensed vendors.

You can read on the following link the outline of the regulation of cannabis for adults in the State of New York.

US President Joe Biden intends to sign the bipartisan cannabis research bill into law. The text was adopted by the US Congress last Wednesday.

The Senate unanimously approved the legislation last week, two months after it was passed by the House of Representatives. This is the first piece of cannabis reform legislation in U.S. history to pass to the President.

“Yeah, he’s going to sign it,” a White House spokesperson told Marijuana Moment via email at Marijuana Moment.

After signing the legislation, the US Attorney General will have 60 days to either approve the request or request additional information.

What does the law contain?

the Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research Expansion Act encourage the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the US food and drug authority, to develop drugs derived from cannabis. One way it does this is to allow accredited medical and osteopathic schools, practitioners, research institutes and Schedule I-listed manufacturers to grow their own cannabis for research purposes.

Under the bill, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the anti-drug agency, would be responsible for approving applications to manufacture drugs derived from cannabis and approved by the FDA. Manufacturers would also be allowed to import cannabis to facilitate research into the plant’s therapeutic potential.

Another section requires the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to review the health benefits and risks of cannabis, as well as policies that impede research on cannabis grown in legal states, and provide recommendations. to overcome these obstacles.

The bill further states that “it is not a violation of the Controlled Substances Act for a state-licensed physician to discuss” with their patients the risks and benefits of cannabis and cannabis-derived products. .

Joe Biden remains opposed to legalizing cannabis at the federal level, but he has campaigned on a number of smaller cannabis reforms, including promoting research, decriminalizing and reclassifying cannabis under the Controlled Substances Act ( THAT’S IT).

Last month, Joe Biden also pardoned Americans en masse for federal cannabis possession offenses and ordered an administrative review of the cannabis classification. The White House recently listed these actions among the president’s “major accomplishments.”

Last Wednesday was held in Brussels the final of the Research Awards for Cannabis in European award of excellence intended to reward and motivate European students to carry out work on the Cannabis plant as part of their European higher education course.

10 applications were reviewed in two different categories – CBD in pharmacy and the social issue of hemp – before a jury of 8 professionals, including Newsweed, elected the 2 winners.

The RACE is organized by the CBD Foundation and sponsored by CBX Medical.

The 10 files

In the pharma category:

• Development and in vitro evaluation of cannabidiol-based formulations administered orally by Ilias El Meziani
• Albumin based nanoparticles for delivery in cancer Treatment by Mandana Heron
• New approaches in the treatment of Gilles de la Tourette syndrome by Manon Van Caekenberghe
• New perspective in the treatment of schizophrenia by Ozdemir Timur
• Cannabis for Medical Use and Parkinson’s by Charlotte La Diega

In the Hemp Social Challenge category:

• Medical supervision of therapeutic and recreational cannabis in France: a priority public health issue? by Tristan Mahé
• Technical and economic study on the cultivation route of two varieties of industrial hemp for the production of CBD and CBG by Arthur Libault
• Cannabis use interrelations: lessons in market design by Davide Fortin
• Medical cannabis in the treatment of anxiety in adults: literature review by Dimitri Allard Demoustiez
• Evaluation of the eligibility of industrial hemp as candidate pant for the remediation of PFAS contaminated soils by simon vandersanden

The 2 winners

After deliberation by the jury, the 2 winners were designated:

Pharmacist Timur Ozdemir won the Pharma category for his analysis of the potential of cannabidiol (CBD) in the treatment of schizophrenia.

Simon Vandersanden, PhD student, won the Social Challenge category thanks to his work on the ability of hemp plants to extract Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from soils, and the compartments of plants that store PFAS.

The 2 winners each won the sum of €2,500.

The next edition of the RACE competition will take place in 2024.

Between phone calls, Francisco Carbó continues to finalize contracts for E-Canna, the hemp processing business he owns in Valencia, Spain. On October 21, the company was the target of an operation by the Spanish Civil Guard, announced by the police as the largest cannabis seizure of all time.

In addition to spending three days in prison, Carbó had his name published by hundreds of newspapers around the world calling him and his employees a “gang”, and suggesting that they are a group of thugs, and not a legal activity authorized and registered since the founding of the company in October 2021.

“There is a national persecution regarding the criminalization and stigmatization of cannabis. For them, everything related to hemp is a crime and it is not the case, the authorities are committing abuses. What is happening here is prevarication,” the businessman said.

The Spanish Civil Guard have been contacted for comment but have informed us that they are not authorized to provide information on this case.

According to Francisco Carbó, the demand for biomass or hemp flowers has increased by 300% in recent weeks. In fact, his phone hasn’t stopped ringing.

“Clients saw that I had been released and that the business was still running, and they understood that we were doing the right thing,” he says, while showing us a series of documents which, according to him, the proof that his company deals only with hemp, and not with cannabis, which the police accused him of.

On November 5, the Civil Guard issued a note stating that theOperation Jardines had seized 32 tons of cannabis, but according to Soraya Calvo, administrative director of the company, who accompanied Carbó to Barcelona, ​​the information was false. Starting with the quantity, which was 25 and not 32 tons, and then, for having classified the raw material as a “drug” before it even passed through the appropriate analyses.

“They arrived hooded and with weapons in their hands, forcing everyone to lie on the ground, as if we were drug traffickers. It was not necessary. Our doors are always open and we report on absolutely everything that comes in and out of E-Canna,” she says.

western spanish

On Tuesday 15, Carbó appeared for the first part of the trial, where he left a stack of documents in the care of the judge, who decided that the flowers would remain confiscated – but not destroyed – and that E-Canna could continue with its normal activities. while he studies the evidence provided by the defence.

The judgment should be announced within a month, and despite the damage suffered by the storage of its product in the warehouse, Carbó keeps the peace of mind of someone who is sure that the sentence will be favorable.

“If it’s drugs, and I’m a criminal, arrest me tomorrow. But if it’s not drugs, release the flowers tomorrow”.

Legally supported by two lawyers since the start of E-Canna’s activities, Carbó opted for preventive law. Every week, he informs the Civil Guard of all company movements.

“Even before I was investigated by state forces, I went to court and said, ‘Gentlemen, this is my business. Here are my documents. If it’s a crime, put me in jail”.

He specified that he had requested legal guardianship, so that the activity of the company would be supervised and protected. This request is still awaiting a response.

Francisco Carbo

“I expected a frontal attack, with normal inspections. I never imagined that this attack would come from behind, with an accusation that came out of nowhere and absolutely does not hold water. »

Among the documents that supported the judge’s preliminary decision in his favor, documents from customs, the tax agency, compliance with the case law on which the activity is based, and samples taken from each batch of hemp.

Soon the judge will receive the analysis regarding the tests of the samples of the flowers seized by the police, which have been sent to a laboratory and will determine the percentage of cannabinoids present, to define whether the material is psychoactive or not. Cases like this are not unusual in Spain, and judges have always tended to interpret European Union laws, which are more permissive when it comes to hemp, rather than Spanish law itself.

Stay focus

With 15 employees divided between the office and the company’s two warehouses, E-Canna serves more than 40 farmers from all over Spain. They are required to have a contract with a processing company to guarantee the traceability of the harvest, in addition to using certified seeds and being registered in the agrarian register of their autonomous community.

“We also advise farmers to report the activity to the Civil Guard. If they don’t have these papers, they don’t work with me, because I have to guarantee the legitimacy of each product. »

E-Canna is today the main link between the hemp produced in Spain and its distribution to other countries in Europe. Switzerland, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands have already purchased hemp flowers processed by the company. According to Carbó, in a few weeks the press will publish the details of a million euro contract he has just signed with a French distributor.

Players in Spain’s cannabis industry, who asked not to be identified, agree that E-Canna’s role in the sector has helped make it a target of this type of operation. The country’s cannabis farmers and businesses have suffered years of government and police persecution, and many have shut down their operations in Spain to resume in neighboring countries, which offer them better juridic protection.

Carbó, however, is determined to resist the raids he faces and is aware that he may face similar raids in the future.

“I am not going to abandon an industry which is growing and which has great economic potential, which is on the verge of being professionalized, because if we, who are professionals, flee, it will remain stigmatized forever. »

The entrepreneur intends to continue, full of new business ideas in mind – one of them, the development of hemp milk, and another, on the distribution of CBD flowers in 1,400 tobacco shops in Catalonia in from next month.

The Polynesian assembly adopted this Thursday, November 17 the legalization of medical cannabis. Local parliamentarians, however, fear the fragility of the text and denounce the opportunism of the State which acted without consultation.

The Polynesian President, Edouard Fritch, is indeed dragging out the legalization of the therapeutic use of cannabis, a policy which is a competence of the Polynesian State and which does not need the approval of the metropolis. Fritch, who regularly speaks of the “perverse effects” of medical cannabis and of a necessary “societal debate”, until recently preferred the results of a study carried out in Polynesia on local varieties of cannabis before to be able to submit a text.

However, the Polynesian government presented a text this week on the modification of the classification of poisonous substances, which would make it possible to set up a derogatory regime in Polynesia for cannabis for therapeutic use, from its production to its marketing.

However, the government’s text would have flaws that could well have it annulled by the courts, according to local reports. Moreover, it is accused both of arriving shortly before important elections and of not having been written in consultation with professionals and social partners. It also short-circuits a more complete bill which was tabled more than a year ago by MP Nicole Sanquer, a notable opposition figure to President Edouard Fritch, without ever having been studied.

For the president of the party A Here ia Porinetia, the country’s law on therapeutic cannabis is a “disappointment”.

“This text has not been the subject of any consultation of local actors, traditional healers, patients themselves even though the president had called for a broad consultation” she explains to Radio1.

According to her, the definitions contained in article 1 are tainted with illegality, and the text could be annulled by the courts, as was the case in 2018.

“The government directly legalizes the use of therapeutic cannabis but does not go through an experimental phase. We saw in the legislative commission that the project was not mature, that the minister [de la Santé] could not answer our questions on the pathologies targeted, on the prescription, on the distribution, all that is vague and moreover the minister said it today, if the bill of the Country is voted today , its application could be postponed for a year or even several years” says Nicole Sanquer, “since for its application the assembly will still have to vote on deliberations and the Council of Ministers will have to validate several decrees. »

The legislator must now approve the text so that it becomes law, which should take place by the end of the year.

The Senate adopted this Thursday, November 17 by a large majority a motion for a resolution on the economic development of the hemp sector in France and the improvement of the regulation of products derived from hemp.

“Throughout my mandate, I have mobilized for the development of the hemp sector in Isère and in all countries” wrote last September the senator Guillaume Gontard, at the origin of the proposal co-signed by more than fifty senators representing all political groups.

The proposal defended 3 main axes:

• full legalization of CBD in all its forms, to end the current gray area
• the development of an agro-industrial sector to offer outlets to farmers while activating a virtuous economic and ecological circle
• government support for the sector, in particular by mobilizing public procurement for hemp derivatives (hemp concrete, insulation, etc.) or with the creation of a label of excellence

A resolution is not binding on the government. It nevertheless marks the expression of a wish or concern of parliamentarians, in particular with such strong support. The proposal garnered 179 votes in favor and 7 against.

The Professional Hemp Syndicate is delighted with this new step.

“This is a strong political signal because this motion for a resolution was adopted by a very large majority. A consensus therefore emerges from this joint decision and shows the will of the Senate to implement the conditions necessary to develop the hemp sector in France. It now remains for the government to listen to this transpartisan consensus in order to develop appropriate regulations”.

InterChanvre, which participated in the development of the proposal with parliamentarians, also shares this satisfaction.

“It’s a great recognition for the plant and the sector that supports it. Much remains to be done but the collective and the support are growing daily, promising great things. »

A bill to decriminalize the personal use of cannabis is expected to be presented to the Dáil, the Irish parliament, in around two weeks.

Dublin MP Gino Kenny, of the party People Before Profittold the Log that this is a relatively short bill, which will change the current legislation on possession of cannabis, namely the Misuse of Drugs Act.

The amendment does not refer to the cultivation of cannabis. But if the bill is approved by the Dáil – and therefore approved by the government parties – the changes regarding the cultivation of cannabis could be added in the next stage.

“The bill will end the criminalization of cannabis for personal use,” said Gino Kenny. ” People Before Profit supports full regulation, but this bill is a stepping stone to getting there. This bill will make it legal to possess up to 7g of cannabis. He added that this corresponds to the legislation of Malta and Luxembourg.

Kenny said the amendment will not result in any financial burden on the state. “It is legally permissible to introduce this bill under European law, we have been informed [par des conseillers juridiques] “, did he declare.

“The only obstacle is that the government could try to block its progress, but we hope to have a good discussion around this question. I think it’s time to have a discussion on drug reform in Ireland, particularly on personal use. »

Asked how he thinks the bill will pan out, Kenny replied, “Some parties don’t have a position on decriminalization, so it will be interesting to see how they go about it. »

He called on members of the Green Party to support the bill.

“I think there’s an appetite in this country to have a different debate about drug use,” Kenny added. “There is a groundswell of opinion in Ireland that we need to do something different from what we are doing. I think there’s a majority of people who think we should do something different. Criminalizing people doesn’t work – it’s counterproductive to me”.

He said the focus should be on harm reduction and finding ways to stop criminalizing drug use.

“The system we have now, it just doesn’t work and it enriches a tiny amount of people in society. It brings all kinds of people into the criminal justice system, and I think state resources would be better used to keep people away from the criminal justice system. »

Former boxing greats Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield were fierce adversaries in the 90s. Now they are collaborating on a cannabis product.

Earlier this year, Tyson introduced the Mike Bitesa line of THC gummies shaped like ears with a bite mark, a nod to the 1997 WBA heavyweight championship, during which Tyson infamously bit off Holyfield’s ear.

Mike Tyson’s Mike Bites

But time has seemingly healed all wounds as Tyson’s cannabis company, Tyson 2.0, will launch on Black Friday. Holy Earsa line of THC and Delta-8-THC infused edibles for US states where THC is still not legal.

The duo also plan to launch Holyfield’s own cannabis range in 2023.

” Of Mike Bites at Holy Ears, Cannabis fans everywhere can now enjoy the same feel-good effects herbal products have given me. It is a privilege to reunite with my former adversary and now longtime friend, and turn years of fights and beatings into a partnership that can positively impact and heal people,” Mike said in Tyson in a statement. hurry.

“Mike and I have a long history of competition and respect for each other. And that night changed both of our lives. At the time, we didn’t realize that even as powerful athletes, we were also in a lot of pain,” Holyfield said in a statement. “Now, almost 20 years later, we have the opportunity to share the medicine that we have really needed throughout our careers. »

Holy Ears will be available next month online and in stores in Arizona, Illinois, Nevada and New Jersey.

Mike Tyson’s Holy Ears

Mike Tyson’s cannabis shift

Tyson has become a cannabis and psychedelic evangelist in recent years. He said in particular: “If I had taken cannabis, I would not have bitten the ear [de Holyfield] ! »

Although Tyson smoked cannabis when he was young, he gave it up for decades after losing a spot on the 1984 Olympic boxing team.

“I was getting drunk like crazy, and people were saying it was better than getting high,” Tyson said, adding that he went back to cannabis because he didn’t like the effect of other painkillers. , such as opiates.

“You can’t shit. There’s nothing you can do,” Tyson said.

Cannabis gummies in the shape of an ear don’t always have more at Holyfield, especially when they launch.

“I didn’t find it funny at first, then I realized Mike hadn’t had any issues in a while,” Holyfield told HuffPost, adding that he appreciates Tyson helping people with his products. .

Holyfield admitted he had never tried cannabis before receiving his first sample from Holy Ears.

Mike Tyson and Evander Holyfield

“I wanted to be sure to go home and not do anything to anyone,” he said. “I ate it and went to bed. I woke up the next morning and I was like, ‘Whoa’”.

Although cannabis is still stigmatized in parts of the United States — “like the Bible Belt,” Tyson said — Tyson 2.0 partner Chad Bronstein said the boxer’s proselytizing of cannabis has helped change the hearts, minds and even ears.

“He’s a destigmatizing voice for cannabis and psychedelics,” Bronstein said. “He’s a ganja god.”

On Wednesday, a senior German opposition figure pressured the European Union (EU) executive to block plans to legalize cannabis in Germany.

Germany’s health minister unveiled the legalization plan last month, but said the government would check with the European Commission whether the plan complies with EU laws. Minister Karl Lauterbach said the government would only legislate “on this basis” if it got the green light.

The centre-right Union bloc, the main opposition party, denounced Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s socially liberal tripartite coalition plan.

The Minister of Health in the conservative Bavarian state government, Klaus Holetschek, met on Wednesday in Brussels with the European Union’s Director General for Migration and Home Affairs to urge the EU to oppose its veto.

Klaus Holetschek said he told EU official Monique Pariat that “the legalization of cannabis planned by the German government not only endangers health, but I am convinced that it also violates EU law”. He argued that two European agreements oblige Germany and other member countries to criminalize the production and sale of drugs such as cannabis, in this case the 1990 Schengen Convention and the framework decision of the 2004 EU on the fight against drug trafficking.

For Holetscheck, “it is therefore not possible to legalize the cannabis trade for recreational purposes on a national basis – even if it were strictly regulated by the state. or for scientific purposes is prohibited in all Member States. »

“Bavaria is strictly against the legalization of cannabis and will also do everything at the federal level to prevent the law if it comes to that,” Holetschek stressed, comments reported by the daily Bild.

The government’s plan calls for cannabis to be grown under license and sold to adults at licensed outlets, to combat the black market. Individuals would be allowed to grow up to 3 plants and purchase or possess 20-30 grams of cannabis.

Karl Lauterbach, the federal health minister, said the new rules could serve as a “model for Europe”.