John Sinclair - Free the Weed #127

 

A Column by John Sinclair

Hi everybody and welcome to our column for March, which means that April is right around the corner and the spring festivities are about to start, beginning with the 50th Annual Hash Bash at the UM Diag on Saturday, April 2, and the accompanying three-day Hash Bash Cup festivities at a local hotel that weekend, followed later in the month by the annual 420 celebrations everywhere.

My publisher, Ben Horner, has asked me to talk about the Hash Bash in this month’s column in order to introduce our new readers to this exemplary event in Ann Arbor and in marijuana legalization history. Although first celebrated in 1971 under a different name which no one seems to be able to remember, the actual Hash Bash has deep roots in marijuana legalization history and goes back several years from its inception in 1972 to the beginnings of legalization activity in the state.

I can speak of these events with some certainty since I’m the first person in Michigan to raise the question of marijuana legalization and to challenge the role of the police and law enforcement in general in their war against cannabis users and our sources for the substance.

My involvement in the marijuana legalization movement goes back to October of 1964, when I was busted for possession of $10 worth of weed by the gestapo detail of the Detroit Narcotics Squad. 

I was attending graduate school in English Literature at Wayne State University in Detroit at the time and had no previous criminal record (aside from a teen-aged drunk & disorderly conviction in Lansing), so my lawyer was able to plead me out to possession of marijuana and I was sentenced in Detroit Recorders Court to two years’ probation and a $250 fine.

Before my arrest I really had no idea of the severity of the marijuana laws. My crime of selling a matchbook full of pot for $10 could have netted me a mandatory 20-to-life sentence for sales, so I began to realize how lucky I was to be on probation. But this did not deter me in the least from pursuing a life in which marijuana held a most prominent place, and thus I was arrested a second time in August 1966 for the same crime. 

By this time I had stopped dealing pot, but this obnoxious jerk called Louis pestered me for weeks to get him some weed, and I finally agreed to let him drive me over to a guy’s place on the west side where I knew my friend had purchased a pound of worthless marijuana and I thought I would foist off $15 worth on this creep and teach hm to leave me alone in the future.

Louie turned out to be an undercover narcotics agent—no wonder he was so creepy—and I was arrested again for sales of marijuana. This time I engaged a lawyer who I thought would help me fight the law and get it declared unconstitutional since the law specified that marijuana was a narcotic and that allegation wasn’t the least bit accurate. 

But after full consideration of this course of action, my lawyer informed me that he couldn’t defend me this way against the sales charge since if we failed to make our case, I’d have to go to prison for a minimum of 20 years and a maximum of life, and he wouldn’t be able to live with himself afterwards.

This sobering conclusion changed our approach and I pled guilty to possession for a second time, receiving a sentence of six months in the Detroit House of Correction and an additional three years’ probation, plus more fines. I did the time between February 24 and August 5, 1966 and emerged with the determination to continue to pursue legalization of marijuana in the courts, in the legislature, and in the court of public opinion.

I remained free on parole until January 24, 1967, when I was the focal point of a mass drug raid involving 56 people in the WSU area and charged with giving away two marijuana cigarettes to an undercover policewoman, another 20-to-life narcotics crime in the State of Michigan.

It had been the 22rd of December and I was observing the Christmas spirit, although my persecutors may as well have been heathens for all the season meant to them. The lady asked for a joint and I gave her two, not thinking or realizing that this dangerous act fell under the sales or giving away provision of the state narcotics laws. I just thought I was doing her a favor.

This time I spent several days in jail waiting to be allowed to post bond, and upon my release I was even more dedicated to the concept of overthrowing Michigan’s marijuana laws. I tried everything I could think of, including the submission of a pre-trial brief challenging the marijuana laws and calling for an immediate end to the persecution of weed smokers.

My lawyer, the late Justin C. “Chuck” Ravitz, with the careful assistance of his former partner Sheldon Otis and his close friend Kenneth V. “Kenny” Cockrel, marshalled our argument before the courts of Michigan for 2-1/2 years before the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that I had to bring them a conviction in the case before they could rule on its constitutionality.

So finally I went to trial in this case in July 1969 and soon gained a conviction from the Recorder’s Court jury, who sat by while Judge Robert J. Columbo handed down a sentence of 9-1/2 to 10 years in the state prison system, starting at once with my removal to the State Prison of Southern Michigan at Jackson, where I would spend the next three months being screened for a permanent placement in the state prison system.

Judge Columbo accompanied his rigorous, unprecedented sentence with the unheard of denial of appeal bond, insuring that I would do my time in the most severe places with no chance of release except for reversal of my conviction. 

Thus I began to serve my sentence in earnest: three months at Jackson, a year in the Marquette Branch Prison in the Upper peninsula, 600 miles from home, and a second year in maximum security at Jackson, interspersed with six months in the Wayne County Jail because I had a federal case at the same time and needed to have access to my lawyers on a daily basis.

My federal case is another matter altogether, in which we opposed Richard M. Nixon and his Justice Department lawyers and played a key role in the Watergate scandal. But my people organized a massive rally and concert at the 14,400-seat Crisler Arena at the University of Michigan on December 10, 1971 featuring John Lennon & Yoko Ono, Stevie Wonder, Bobby Seale, Allen Ginsberg, Ed Sanders, Phil Ochs, Bob Seger, Archie Shepp and a host of others. The place was packed and I was released on appeal bond by order of the Michigan Supreme Court just three days later.

Shortly afterward, on March 9, 1972, my conviction was reversed by the Supreme Court and the marijuana laws declared unconstitutional. Meanwhile, anticipating the disruption of their concept of criminalization, the Michigan legislature had dreamed up a new classification for the weed, now to be called a “controlled substance” and subject to a reduced slate of penalties.

This new legislation was to take root on April Fool’s Day of 1972, and that’s when we launched the first Hash Bash to stick up our middle finger at the authorities and demonstrate that we would never be satisfied until marijuana was completely legal. That was 50 years ago April 1, we’ve bashed every year since then and we’re still fighting to FREE THE WEED!

Tim Beck - March 2022

 

On February 3rd, Court of Claims Judge Thomas Cameron formalized a temporary injunction issued by Judge Christopher Murray in December, which stopped the Michigan Cannabis Regulatory Agency (CRA) from recalling cannabis products tested by Viridis Laboratories Bay City facility. The CRA’s decision to recall products tested at the corporation’s Lansing operation remained intact. The reason for the recall was public safety.

In the late summer of last year, an aggressive move was made by the Michigan Cannabis Manufacturers Association (MCMA) to destroy the Michigan medical marijuana caregiver system, established by Michigan voters in 2008. The major premise for the caregiver crackdown, is the allegation that caregiver marijuna is “untested” and hence dangerous to the health of the cannabis consuming public. 

In the Spring of 2021, the MCMA and the CRA successfully orchestrated the regulation of Delta 8 THC by the Michigan Legislature. Delta 8 is legal and unregulated under federal law. It is derived from THC and chemically processed from hemp. It has been described as “marijuana lite” because the “high” is relatively mild. Although there was no evidence of anyone in Michigan or elsewhere being harmed by Delta 8, the purported reason for Delta 8 regulation was public safety.

Is there a pattern to all this?

Sheriff Mike Bouchard

To answer this question, we must go back in time to circa 2016, when the Michigan Legislature formally legalized medical marijuana dispensaries in Michigan. This was seven years after medical marijuana was approved by the voters. In 2014, an attempt to set up a simplified dispensary system, supported by all elements of the Michigan cannabis community, was torpedoed by Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard and his friends in law enforcement. This happened during the last hours before the legislative session adjourned for the year. That meant the bill died and the whole  process had to start again cold turkey, with new GOP legislative leaders running the show.

Former Senator
Rick Jones

At that point Senator Rick Jones, the crusty, powerful Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who had been sheriff of Eaton County in another life, (and was loathed by many in the cannabis community), stepped up to the plate. He wanted a “safe” regulated medical marijuana market in Michigan, and he hated the existing system.

To that end, Jones contacted everybody who was anybody in Michigan law enforcement and challenged them to write a bill which they could live with. The result is what passed in 2016. It was complex, control oriented and extreme in the way it tried to tightly supervise everything. The buzz word was “safety” in the most micro-managed sense of the word. 

The cannabis community was strongly divided on this one, and some fought the passage of this law tooth and nail. Others, including myself, held our noses and supported it. Our logic was to set the stage for a well funded recreational cannabis legalization ballot initiative in 2018. We figured if the Legislature passed this law; we could use it as the skeleton for our own legalization plan-- and inoculate ourselves from prohibitionist attacks by pointing out that our model came from the Legislature itself.

Many of us who supported Jones’ efforts and helped make this sausage, believed deep down much of the legislation was hokey. We preferred the more loosely regulated 2014 model, in which caregivers would be the primary suppliers to dispensaries. As far as product safety  testing was concerned, fighting that one was useless. The vast majority of Michigan legislators knew little about marijuana and many were scared. In order to ease their fears, the concept of rigorous testing was created and promoted, to make them think herb would now be “safe” in a regulated setting.

For me personally, having used untested marijuana illegally for many, many years, the heavy duty safety regimen was a joke, along with other provisions benefiting deep-pocketed corporate players. Some of us however, simply wanted to use weed without the threat of getting busted or harassed. The rest of the details were unimportant.

Yes there is a pattern to all this, because we did our job too well. The idea that untested cannabis is inherently dangerous is so entrenched in the body politic, there is no expectation this will  change anytime soon. The law of unintended consequences is galloping rapidly. The Jack in the Box cult of “safety” at any cost has popped out.

These perceptions have led to some dubious episodes in the last year or so.

For better or worse “regulation” of Delta 8 is spilled milk. Whether we like it or not, it is now law, even though there is no proof of any medical harm from the substance.

The economic disaster caused by a massive recall of thousands of pounds of cannabis tested by Viridis Laboratories last year is still not settled. Both Viridis and the CRA blame each other for the debacle. The ongoing litigation promises to be brutal. Is the CRA guilty of overzealous regulation and incompetence? Is Viridis the perp which screwed up badly at it’s Lansing operation? This question will be answered by the Michigan judiciary at a later date.

The CRA does not comment on pending litigation, but Viridis does. In a press release sent by Viridis’ Lansing public relations firm “Byrum and Fisk,” Viridis attorney David Russell of “Swift, Collins and Smith, P.C” stated “we continue to pursue all legal remedies so we can shine a spotlight on MRA’s troubling conduct and improper practices and help ensure the massive disruption and chaos caused by the CRA does not happen again.”

For the record, according to the CRA, there were 18 complaints of adverse reactions from bad Viridis weed. How many of these situations were real or how many were triggered by hysteria when the recall news hit? No one knows. No alleged victims died or suffered permanent injury.

The most cynical exploitation of this public safety craze was a move by the MCMA to destroy the voter approved Michigan medical marijuana caregiver system. This was done to allegedly keep the public safe from untested weed. The real motive was to eliminate competition for the MCMA’s corporate clients. In the fourteen years since caregivers began providing medical marijuana to patients, there is not one recorded incidence of anyone being injured by untested caregiver cannabis. While the MCMA has failed so far in its machinations with the Legislature to change the law; no one expects them to go away.

Ironically, MCMA chief Steve Linder, at a hearing before the CRA on February 16, agreed with Michigan NORML’s Rick Thompson, that the CRA should not be regulating hemp CBD/THC producers. Such regulation could seriously damage MCMA client interests, causing the price of natural grown marijuana to radically drop in cost. Hemp is very cheap to produce and it can be legally shipped from outstate because there is no federal law prohibiting that. 

However, the CRA wants to regulate CBD processing because of public safety concerns. Go figure.

Tinfoil Hat Time! - March 2022

 

“Some things are believed because they are demonstrably true, but many other things are believed simply because they have been asserted repeatedly and repetition has been accepted as a substitute for evidence.”

-Thomas Sowell

The impossible is often only impossible because we believe it to be.  Without actual evidence false truths bore their way into our minds simply because they are accepted and repeated.  Ideas like man never being able to fly with the birds, marijuana being dangerous and illegal, regulatory agencies like the one formerly known as the MRA being set in stone, and sea monsters not existing.  

Yes, sea monsters.  Those legendary creatures that have been spotted for thousands of years, all over the globe.  Unusually large cephalopods, thought to be extinct prehistoric marine life, and other such entities that have been filed under the topic of ‘cryptozoology’ and associated with sleep deprived ship captains, tourist traps, and childish imagination. 

No one has caught a live sea monster and shown it to the world, and no one has scanned and checked every single square inch of every single large body of water at the exact same time and found nothing.  There is no definitive evidence one way or the other, it all boils down to whether one believes the idea to be impossible until proven otherwise, or possible until disproved (and maybe even then).   

The easy (and therefore more commonly accepted and repeated) train of thought is to dismiss belief in the possibility of their existence as foolish.  To embrace the hubris of mankind, seize the intellectual high ground, and assume that if these creatures were out there swimming around we would have found proof by now.  After all, thousands of ships criss-cross our oceans every day, modern technology brings us wonder after wonder, and the internet makes it seem as if the entire natural world is under the watchful eye of science.  When the mind is closed to a concept any arguments against that idea make perfect sense no matter how speculative.  

But when the mind opens up and places sea monsters into the realm of possible, honest analysis takes place free from the thoughtless art of knee jerk dismissal, and their existence seems, based on the same type of speculative evidence, to be much more possible than impossible.

Numbers vary, depending on the source, but only about 5-20% of our oceans have been explored.  Just the surface is an area of well over 300 million square miles.  Estimates place the combined total volume of the water that covers over 70% of our planet at about 49 quintillion cubic feet.  The average depth is around 2.3 miles, with a maximum depth of nearly seven miles.

Setting aside how woefully ignorant we are of the vast majority of what is going on underwater at any given moment, consider what we do know.  Large marine animals do not make homes to sleep in or raise their young.  Do we expect to find sea monster nests?  Beings who exist in water tend to swim, never touching any ground.  Are we going to find sea monster tracks?  Marine animals also tend to have highly adapted senses designed to pick up on subtle vibrations (do not tap on glass), smell things like blood from miles away, and even detect invisible electromagnetic fields.  Do we expect to catch a sea monster unaware in a vibrating smelly motor boat covered in gadgets like radar that work by sending pulses of electromagnetic fields?

Even the idea of increased sea traffic, and therefore more eyes on the water that should have seen something, is not all that sound.  No longer at the mercy of the wind, ships now follow strict lanes as they move from port to port guided by Global Positioning Systems.  While more eyes may be on the water, those eyes traverse the same routes repeatedly.  Noisy oil leaking ships on high traffic highways probably stand less of a chance of encountering a sea monster than silent ships of sail that were forced into varying routes by the winds.

 

As far as science having life under the sea categorized and understood lock stock and barrel, nothing could be further from the truth.  According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), “About 226,000 marine species have been identified and described so far. These are but a small portion of the total: researchers estimate that the ocean may be home to 700,000 marine species, and likely not more than a million,” and “More marine species have been discovered in the past decade than ever before with an average of 2,000 discoveries per year.”  Our best guesses even admit that we know of the existence of less than half of the living things in the oceans.  As recently as January 2021, marine biologists announced the discovery of a brand new 41.5 foot long (on average) whale in the Gulf of Mexico.  Rice’s whale may have as few as 50 total specimens on the entire planet. 

A simple shift in perspective opens the door to ideas which in turn leads to questions and research that then create possibilities.

Before man figured out how to fly, a couple of crackpots from Ohio had to determine once and for all in their own heads that it was even possible.  Only then did serious inquiry occur, which led to the idea seeming quite possible, which led to making it happen, which turned into a multi-billion dollar industry that sends thousands of people soaring through the skies each day.  

Similarly, prior to profiteers openly making millions of dollars selling pot while trying to muscle everyone else out, some grass roots cannabis activists had to believe their beloved plant could even be legal.  Despite the easy to accept and repeated train of thought that it was dangerous and should never see the light of day.  Open minds led to thinking about the ‘how’, rather than dismissing it as never going to happen.

Our next impossibility is the abolition (or at the very least the keeping in check) of the power

hungry government body that spreads misinformation and rules over cannabis with an iron fist, the entire plant encompassing Cannabis Regulatory Agency.  An idea that is immediately shot down and considered not possible by those who just lived through legalization.  Less than ten years after tearing down barriers, changing public opinion, bringing an illegal drug into the light of day, and making millions off it.  

But is it really impossible?  Perhaps all we need is an open mind.

Michigan News - March 2022

 

Package of Bills to Amend the MMMA Grows

House Bills 5300 to 5302 would amend different acts that regulate the medical marijuana market. Among other things, the bills would do all of the following:

• Regulate licensed specialty medical growers.

• Require the statewide monitoring system that tracks medical marijuana sales and transfers between licensees and registered primary caregivers and registered qualified patients to track certain information pertaining to licensed specialty medical growers.

• Prohibit transfers of marijuana from a licensed specialty medical grower to a licensee in the recreational marijuana market.

• Prohibit a licensed grower, processor, secure transporter, or safety compliance facility licensee from also being licensed as a licensed specialty medical grower.

• Reduce, from five to one, the number of registered qualified patients a registered primary caregiver may assist.

• Eliminate provisions barring a registered qualified patient from transferring marijuana

or a marijuana-infused product to any individual and making selling marijuana to someone who is not a registered qualifying patient a felony offense.

• No longer exclude an applicant from meeting the conditions for automatic registration or licensure due to a felony based solely on a marijuana-related offense committed during the ten years immediately preceding an application as a registered primary caregiver or licensed specialty medical grower.

House Bill 5320 would revise a citation in the Public Health Code to account for changes made to the Michigan Medical Marijuana Act by HB 5301.

House Bills 5319 and 5321 would respectively amend the Use Tax Act and the General Sales Tax Act to exempt the sale of marijuana by a registered primary caregiver or licensed specialty medical grower to a registered qualified patient from the use and sales taxes. *

5512 would reverse the Thue decision, that allows medical marijuana patients to use marijuana while on parole or probation. Although this bill is not tie bared to the previously summarized bills. It looks like this could be another lame duck attack on medical marijuana people of Michigan.

*Sourced from Legislative Analysis by the Michigan House Fiscal Agency

MRA Considers CBD as Source for Cheap THC

Soon after the announcement of the creation of the Michigan Cannabis Regulatory Agency by executive order, merging the Marijuana Regulatory Agency and the hemp portion of the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (MDARD), a workgroup discussed introducing the practice of importing CBD distillate made under the hemp laws and widely available on the open market.

CBD can be used to synthesize THC in a lab and can be used for making marijuana products like edibles and vape carts at a fraction of the cost of natural THC extractions from biomass material (trim) from licensed commercial Michigan grows. As seen in the MM Report FOIA response, Andrew Brisbo, Director of the MRA, has sights on creating a national standard for cannabis regulations and centralizing all aspects of every variety of the cannabis plant under government control.

As the amount of commercial cannabis enters the market the wholesale price has gone down in Michigan. If synthetic THC comes into play it will play a factor in both the marijuana and hemp markets. If Michigan wholesale flower is going for eight to nine hundred per pound, and much lower, companies that are cash tight are likely to go under or be acquired.

Tyson 2.0 Cannabis Brand Launches in Three States

Former boxing heavyweight champion of the world, Mike Tyson, takes three big bites of the cannabis market by licensing his brand first in Nevada and Massachusetts, and now in Michigan.

Licensing deals of this nature create a cross branding opportunity for companies that have processing licenses in states that have legalized products like edibles, pre rolls and vape carts that can be branded. Brand ambassadors, like Tyson, are paid not just for the use of his name on their products but also for appearance fees which start at a hundred grand a pop according to event organizers.

Tyson has been advocating for cannabis, and has given testimony of how the plant has had a positive and negative impact on his life. Larry “Ratso” Sloman, writer for High Times, Rolling Stone and National Lampoon, did Tyson’s biography Undisputed Truth, and documented as the world of the cannabis industry began opening up to the retired boxer. In an interview with Dopey Podcast, Ratso shared a story about the origins of the strain Sour Diesel. Tyson had come into an interview session for the biography and he had a dispensary jar of some Sour Diesel. When Ratso said he knew the original grower of the strain and that he could handle introductions, Tyson exclaimed, “Hook me up, Bro!” Tyson’s experience in prison and in the drug world lends credence to the brand.

MI Normal Reinvented

Rick Thompson, self-proclaimed cannabis expert and recently appointed executive director of the Michigan chapter of NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws), is now a go to for mainstream news sources for cannabis issues and lobbying group the MiCIA (Michigan Cannabis Industry Cannabis Association).

In a recent blog, Thompson advocates for multimillion dollar cannabis businesses: One person’s pricing crisis could be another’s bonanza, points out Michigan NORML executive director Rick Thompson. “Our market is in its infancy. Our price structure is in a race to the bottom. We’re at $187 an ounce [for wholesale flower], according to the MRA right now. That is a difficult to sustain business model when you’re doing that wholesale. When you introduce a cheaper price the only companies that could sustain that are MSOs, who can offset their losses in Michigan with profits somewhere else,” said Thompson.

In his parallel reality Rick shows up at local grey market establishments and tries to assert his authority over the caregiver community. Thompson’s cult following among grassroots activists previously comprising of the membership of MI Norml wains in favor of entrepreneurs and progressive democratic operatives searching in all the wrong places for their place in the Michigan cannabis space.

National News - March 2022

 

Cannabis Getting a Win in the NFL

Since 4/20 2021 NFL players have not had to test for marijuana. According to the new rule
players will only be tested for THC when training camp begins and during preseason. Mainly, players won’t be suspended for not passing a pot test.  

The NFL and the players union are also supporting a study to see the benefits of marijuana  particularly for pain management, and also to study if marijuana will lend protection for head concussions. They have given thus far $1 million in grants for the studies. It has been reported that the studies will take three years to complete. 

Snoop Dog discussed the importance of weed for athletes on Jimmy Kimmel in the summer of 2021, “Through the CBD, through the THC, through the marijuana, through the cannabis, they’re able to find a relaxation and getting the medical treatment that they deserve—without having those later side effects—so I push for that in sports.” 

Wisconsin Recreational Laws Linger

Wisconsin is debating and rethinking their marijuana laws. To date their laws are far behind the remainder of the country. Medical and recreational weed is illegal in the cheese state. 37 U.S. states now have legalized medical marijuana.  Two neighbors of the state have medical marijuana laws in place, Iowa and Minnesota.  18 states have legalized recreational cannabis, and Wisconsin is surrounded by two states that have legalized recreational marijuana, Michigan and Illonois. 

According to a family law attorney site in Wisconsin, Reddin and Singer, “Under Wisconsin law, it is illegal to possess or sell drug paraphernalia, which includes any items used to grow, sell, or store marijuana. Typical paraphernalia includes pipes and bongs used to smoke marijuana. Penalties for possession include a fine of up to $500 and up to 30 days in prison. Penalties for selling drug paraphernalia are much more severe, including a $1,000 fine and up to 90 days in jail, or both.” https://www.reddinsinger.com/the-basics-of-wisconsin-marijuana-laws.html

Democratic Governor Tony Evers pushed last year to legalize. Today, there are laws being pushed in the state by both Republican and Democrat leaders for both medical and recreational use, as well as to decriminalize it.  It is reported that no laws will not pass this year. 

According to a University of Marquette Law School poll: “Fifty-nine percent of voters say marijuana use should be legal, while 36 percent say it should not be legal. A substantial majority, 83 percent, say use of marijuana for medical purposes with a doctor’s prescription should be legal, with 12 percent saying it should not be.”

World News - March 2022

 

Cannabis in Greece

Lesvos, Greece - On the island of Lesvos, the most eastern Greek island in the Aegean, the under-ground market for low grade Albanian weed is relatively small and humble. Cannabis is totally illegal in Greece and the small fringe of artistic and other hip folks are content with mixing small amounts of low-grade flower with their rolling tobacco in traditional European fashion. 

Jerome Poynton 
founder of Lesvos
Plant Medicine Library

Over seventy licenses have been approved for medical marijuana production, however no facilities are operational. Two companies are very close to becoming operational, but if they come online now they will only be allowed to export to other EU countries that have setup retail locations. No Greek distribution laws have been enacted.

Consumers are largely left alone, and reports from locals on the Lesvos, some folks cultivate purely for their own personal needs. Olive trees and the olives is the main agricultural staple on the island and thousands of years of plant medicine has been practiced. Jerome Poynton, founder of the Lesvos Plant Medicine Library, has been working several groves and educating local farms and transplant residents on how whole plant cannabis and the region’s exceptionally olive oil can be developed as a uniquely high-quality product with possible export opportunities.  Poynton is exploring establishing a foundation both in Greece for the library and olive groves, and in the U.S. for cannabis chocolates made with a mobile kitchen for collaborations in states with licensed cannabis products. Lesvos was the home of legendary poet Sappho, as well as philosophers Aristotle and Theophrastus who pioneered western biology and botany, whose written contributions are still revered in the arts and sciences.  

France Rules CBD Not Addictive

Last June 51% of the citizens of France were for the legalization of pot. Statista reported in 2021 that France was the second highest for marijuana consumption in Europe. Pot is illegal in the country, there are no medical marijuana laws in place. The beginning of January of this year, CBD restrictions began to become loosened by the courts. In January 2022, the courts in the country ruled that CBD use is not harmful or addictive. 

According to Ganjapreneur, “The ruling follows a similar decision in 2020 by the European Court of Justice which determined that the French ban on CBD was unfounded since the cannabinoid has no psychotropic or mood-altering effects and no negative impact on health, according to an RFI report. That ruling allowed CBD products to be sold throughout the European Union.” https://www.ganjapreneur.com/french-constitutional-council-cbd-is-neither-addictive-nor-harmful/

Ganjapreneur also reported that there is an estimated 700 million euro possible market for CBD sales in the country. 

Irish Reforms

Medical Marijuana was legalized in 2020 in Ireland. The Health Minister, Simon Harris, stated that legalized recreational marijuana is not on the table. 

A NORMLIRELAND tweet from February 15th stated that $300 million euros in revenue in cannabis recreational sales is an estimated amount in Ireland by 2025 if recreational marijuana became legal. 

There are some reforms recently occurring regarding possession of pot in the Lucky Country.  Possession charges are becoming less restraining in the past year, and there were 5,170 less  possession charges in 2021, compared to charges a year ago which is half of what it was. 

The small changes only encompass possession of cannabis flower or marijuana concentrates. 

Flying High in Canada

Copilot, a cannabis retail brand, is working on opening a cannabis store in the Prince George Airport in British Columbia. Their website, shopcopilot.com, states they are “Introducing a safe, simple, and sophisticated cannabis retail experience to travelers across Canada.” 

Owners, Owen Ritz and Reed Horton, state on the site that they, “always dreaded the stress of flying and towards the end of their time in school, they observed a trend of using cannabis to make the travel experience less stressful and more enjoyable. However, consuming cannabis before or during travel was often inconvenient, inaccessible, or intimidating. After this realization, Owen and Reed set out to use cannabis as a way to improve the modern travel experience. With that mission in mind, Copilot was born.”

The cannabis store would be the first of its kind in Canada as well as the world being located in an airport setting. 

It is legal to travel by air with cannabis within Canada. It is illegal, however, to travel with marijuana to and from international flights. 

Copilot states it is opening the location, depending on the processes, in the summer of 2022.