Category:

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said...that it will move ahead with a long-delayed expansion of its marijuana research program, in a sign that the Trump administration’s hostility to the drug may be waning as a growing number of states have legalized its use...The DEA said it would roll out new guidelines that would allow more growers to produce marijuana for scientific and medical research…READ MORE

Colorado passed a new law to help slow down the ongoing opioid epidemic in the United States. Instead of giving an opioid prescription, doctors can instead recommend the use of medical marijuana to alleviate symptoms of their conditions...A bill that allows doctors to prescribe medical marijuana to patients instead of opioid has been signed into law in Colorado....Governor Jared Polis signed Senate Bill 13, which aims to help curb opioid addiction. The law will be effective starting Aug. 12...READ MORE

Retail chains led by CVS Health and Walgreens Boots Alliance are expected to dominate the emerging multi-billion-dollar U.S. market of CBD, the compound derived from cannabis...CBD is gaining in popularity among consumers with the legal CBD market projected to surpass $23 billion in annual U.S. sales by 2023...This year, such sales are projected to be $5 billion - a sevenfold increase over 2018...“The CBD market has been growing rapidly, but we will see unprecedented growth in 2019,”...“The bulk of this growth is coming from large retailers like CVS, Walgreens, and Kroger entering the market and providing that availability to consumers.”...READ MORE

U.S. companies cannot stop talking about marijuana, hoping in part they can catch investor interest as the booming economy around the drug lifts revenues throughout the supply chain...With the recreational use of cannabis now legal in 10 states and the District of Columbia and medical marijuana legal in 23 states, marijuana is on its way to becoming an $80 billion industry in the United States by 2030...That outsized growth is starting to bleed into adjacent industries ranging from energy to packaging to point-of-sale technology whose products are used in the production or sale of marijuana. As investors circle the cannabis space, supply-chain companies are showing a new willingness to associate themselves with an industry that remained largely illegal a decade ago...READ MORE

Using data from privately-insured adults, new findings from The University of Texas...revealed that there is a lower level of opioids prescribed in states that have allowed the use of medical marijuana...We found that the overall prescription opioid use increased by age, which we expected. But, when we looked at the results within different age groups, opioid prescription rates varied depending on the stringency of state cannabis laws. In particular, states that implemented medical cannabis laws had lower rates of opioid prescription in people aged 18 to 54...Initially, opioids were seen as a way to ease pain and their use became widespread over time, with little attention paid to possible side effects or the risk of addiction...READ MORE

Congress legalized industrial hemp in December. With it, they also legalized hemp-derived CBD, short for cannabidiol, a cannabis compound that supposedly delivers the calming effects of marijuana without the high from THC...Last year, retail sales of CBD consumer products in the U.S. were estimated at between $600 million and $2 billion, according to investment research firm Cowen. The bank conservatively forecasts sales to reach $16 billion by 2025, with health and wellness products leading the way and food, beverage, beauty and vapor to also play a role.

- From seed to CBD - The current supply chain — from plants, to extraction, to labs — is riddled with issues...

- Wild West...READ MORE