by
Dan Mitchell on January 20, 2021
Before the runoff U.S. Senate elections in Georgia earlier this month, most pot advocates were ready to accept that the GOP and Mitch McConnell would hold on to the upper chamber, meaning that any substantive reform of federal cannabis laws would have to wait at least two years. Those advocates were–completely understandably–pessimistic.
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by
Dan Mitchell on January 13, 2021
Cannabis and spiritually have always been intertwined, with various degrees of validity and seriousness. It was used as an entheogen (a psychoactive substance used in religious practices) as far back as ancient India, and some Hindus still consume bhang, an elixir that contains cannabis, in their spiritual practices. The Buddhist Mahakala Tantra…
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by
Dan Mitchell on January 6, 2021
The pandemic has brought the cannabis industry a strange mix of outcomes—things that were to be expected alongside surprises both good and bad. Now, as a vaccine rolls out, few know what to expect in 2021 and beyond. It wasn’t surprising cannabis sales took off after stay-at-home orders were issued last spring…
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by
Dan Mitchell on December 30, 2020
As 2020 dawned, most observers of the California cannabis industry expected it to be an eventful year for the legal-weed business and it was–but not in a way that anybody expected. Over a swoon-inducing couple of weeks in March, when Bay Area and state officials issued shutdown orders as the Covid-19 pandemic…
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by
Dan Mitchell on December 23, 2020
Research, or the lack of it, is one not insignificant reason the cannabis industry is in the strange stage of limbo it’s lived in for years: bifurcated, highly restricted with different rules from state-to-state and without much opportunity for grants to deepen our understanding of the plant.
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by
Dan Mitchell on December 16, 2020
As 2020 crawls to a close, the California pot industry is looking back with a mix of relief and chagrin at a year that was supposed to be filled with big strides, but was instead filled with relatively small wins. Industry relief comes in the form of the state deeming pot an…
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by
Dan Mitchell on December 9, 2020
The U.S. House last week passed the MORE Act, marking the first time a federal legislative body has voted to remove cannabis from the criminal code. Just weeks ago, the move might have been called a historic event, but an empty exercise, because the Senate as it’s currently composed is unlikely to…
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Earlier today I had to call 911 from the brand new VTA/BART Berryessa station. When the operator asked me for the address, I could only give the bus stop ID number because it didn’t have a street address and there wasn’t one listed at the building. Fortunately, help had been called but…
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by
Dan Mitchell on June 3, 2020
Over the weekend, one or more large groups of armed men targeted and robbed a long list of Bay Area cannabis dispensaries in what appears to be a long-planned spree. Remarkably, most of the dispensaries in Berkeley, San Francisco and Oakland seem to have been hit, reportedly along with some manufacturing and…
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by
Dan Mitchell on May 27, 2020
There’s been lots of chatter over what the cannabis industry might look like after the Covid-19 pandemic passes. Most of the time, the attention is focused on how business is doing. So far, things are looking somewhere between “not bad” and “actually pretty good, considering.” Or, people wonder, will states hold off…
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