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These Companies Will Establish Ethical, Organic Standards For Marijuana

Brendan Bures
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These Companies Will Establish Ethical, Organic Standards For Marijuana

Though cannabis has existed before any of us were born, the cannabis industry remains in its infancy. Because marijuana isn’t legalized on the federal level, it has created various conundrums for growers, processors, and retailers. Without any nationwide institution or organization to provide oversight and certification, many within the industry have had to rely on self-regulation.

As everyone has proven happy to comply, this has worked for the most part. But as the cannabis industry reaches its adolescence, it requires further tweaks to the formulas and practices governing the system currently. One way some are looking to improve is by going organic.

The National Geographic noted that currently “[i]n the U.S., one square foot of indoor marijuana cultivation uses four times more energy than the same space in a hospital, eight times more energy than a commercial building, and 20 times more energy than a center for religious worship, according to a study by Lewis and Clark College.”

But organizations like the Organic Cannabis Association and the Ethical Cannabis Alliance want to reduce the cannabis industry’s environmental imprint. Amy Andrle is a founding member of the OCA and also runs a dispensary called L’Eagle Services with her husband. They are based in Denver, Colorado, a city teeming with competing dispensaries. L’Eagle stands out from the crowd by producing “100% clean cannabis.” Yet they lack any proof of this distinction to inform interested customers they want to target. “Whole Foods shoppers,” as Adrle called them.

“There is no real, national, universal seal of organic certification. It doesn’t exist right now,” Andrle told National Geographic.

In early June the OCA and the ECA merged to form the Cannabis Certification Council. This organization will independently certify cannabis as “Organically Grown” and “Fairly Produced.”

“We are in a unique period where the cannabis industry does not have federal oversight,” newly appointed CCC Executive Director Ashley Preece said. “There are nearly a dozen organizations that have tried to create for-profit standards, but they have failed to do it in an ethical way.”

Preece said they will develop their guidelines by following USDA and European organic standards. Once these practices are finalized, they will meet with a technical advisory council to further review before launching a pilot program nationwide.

“Producers and processors will have a way to differentiate themselves from competitors who are not taking the extra steps for ethical cannabis production,” Preece said. “Additionally, the certification will give consumers a way to be assured that what they’re putting into their bodies is safe, clean, and supporting their local communities.”

Gossip: Queen Vows UK Will Protect Gays; Former NFL Offensive Tackle Comes Out

Naughty Gossip
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Gossip: Queen Vows UK Will Protect Gays; Former NFL Offensive Tackle Comes Out

Queen Elizabeth II has vowed the UK will protect people based on sexual orientation. The Conservative party, in an attempt to claw back after their failed bid to win a bigger majority in the UK election, has agreed to work with the homophobic DUP from Northern Ireland.

Written by the government, the Queen’s speech was heard moments ago. It centered around securing Brexit and bringing in replacement laws needed for EU exit. But it did include a part that appears to be a direct comment on the Conservatives working with the controversial Northern Ireland party.

The Queen said: ‘My government will make further progress to tackle the gender pay gap and discrimination against people on the basis of their race, faith, gender, disability or sexual orientation.’

Former NFL Offensive Tackle Comes Out

Former Patriots and Chiefs offensive tackle Ryan O’Callaghan publicly came out on Tuesday, saying that he strongly considered committing suicide before he received support from the Kansas City organization.

O’Callaghan discussed the gripping, heart-wrenching journey he took as a closeted gay man in college football and the NFL in a piece by SB Nation’s Outsports.The story provides a unique window into the devastating toll the lying and hiding can have on an individual. Now that he’s come out, O’Callaghan says he’s committed to helping those enduring similar struggles.

“As long as there are people killing themselves because they are gay, there is a reason for people like me to share my story and try to help,” O’Callaghan said. “People need to understand that we are everywhere. We’re your sons, your daughters, your teammates, your neighbors. And honestly, even some of your husbands and wives. You just don’t know it yet.”

From the opening of the OutSports article:

Ryan O’Callaghan’s plan was always to play football and then, when his career was over, kill himself. Growing up in Redding, Calif., he didn’t see any other option. From a deep red corner of a blue state, the conflicted young man had decided in high school that he would never — could never — live as a gay man.

While the 6-foot-7, 330-pound offensive tackle didn’t fit any of the gay stereotypes, he decided shortly after coming out to himself in junior high school that he could never let anyone else in on his darkest secret.

Over the years he had heard general comments from friends and family members about gay people. Every utterance of a gay slur or a joke about gay men — and he heard them plenty when he was young — was like a knife to the gut.

Love the fresh dirt we bring over daily from Naughty Gossip? Let us know in the comments!

NASA Wants To Finally Probe Uranus…And Neptune, Too

Brendan Bures
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NASA Wants To Finally Probe Uranus…And Neptune, Too

Uranus never receives enough loves. Uranus is never heaped with attention, treated with the dignity of other gaseous planets. Our governmental agency dedicated to space travel and exploration NASA hasn’t been a proper lover to Uranus either. The most exploring we’ve done of Uranus was a flyover.

Okay, I snuck in enough Uranus puns to satisfy my inner child. But we’re discussing the planet because NASA recently announced plans to probe Uranus (not an intended pun!) and Neptune. Though Uranus and Neptune bare some similarities to recently discovered exoplanets, these planets only received one fly-by mission, courtesy of Voyager II, back in 1986.

Proposed missions include three probes and one fly-by of Uranus as many of the planet’s secrets remain a mystery. Scientists hope to determine the atmospheric makeup and composition of the planet, and document its geography through photography. In addition researchers will study its climate and how Uranus and Neptune fits within our Solar System.

“The preferred mission is an orbiter with an atmospheric probe to either Uranus or Neptune – this provides the highest science value, and allows in depth study of all aspects of either planet’s system: rings, satellites, atmosphere, magnetosphere,” Amy Simon, co-chair of the Ice Giants Pre-Decadal Study group, told News Scientist.

Much of the universe remains a great mystery to us. Missions like these hope to illuminate that darkness and tackle lingering questions. For example, why is a planet as gaseous as Uranus so cold? Neptune holds other queries, though those missions haven’t received proposals yet.

In fact, all these missions with their probing of Uranus and fly-bys remain a great deal away in funding and timeframe. NASA has targeted 2030-36 for a possible Uranus trip while a Neptune mission would take place before 2030 or after 2040, due to the timing of a gravity-assisted boost around Jupiter.

Is It Possible To Hallucinate After Using Marijuana?

Maria Loreto
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Is It Possible To Hallucinate After Using Marijuana?

Cannabis is often associated with chilling out, watching some TV, having great conversations and the munchies. It’s a friendly drug that gets you to your comfort zone and helps you let go of anxieties. THC, one of the major components of cannabis, is psychoactive, which means that it stimulates your brain. Does that mean you can hallucinate after using marijuana? We’ve done some research:

There are all types of cannabis users that have their own opinions when it comes to the herb and hallucination. Some people smoke every day and have never hallucinated, while others have smoked a few times and have “tripped” and seen crazy things. First, we need to know the definition of a hallucination, which is when we see things that aren’t physically there. Marijuana newbies may confuse some of the regular side effects of the drug, like paranoia, blurry eyes and slow vision, with a hallucinatory experience. When your body feels this symptoms in an extreme way, it probably means that you’re just too high. It’s always important to listen to your body and know when you’ve hit your limit on cannabis.

Now that we know what a hallucination is, here are some of the reasons why your cannabis may produce some real hallucinatory experiences:

Laced Marijuana

If your cannabis is not fully cannabis then that means that it could’ve been laced with anything. Marijuana is sometimes laced with other drugs, like molly and crack, and with other chemicals and synthetic drugs. This mixture can trigger hallucinations and atypical responses from your body that can be very dangerous. If you think that this is the case then go to a doctor right away. 

Consuming Cannabis With Other Pharmaceuticals

A lot of people don’t think that there’s any risk in pairing marijuana with other synthetic drugs, but cannabis can produce different and dangerous reactions when consumed with SSRIs, seizure medications, blood thinners and others. These pairings can produce some serious side effects like internal bleeding, low blood pressure and drowsiness, so always keep your drugs separate.

Gossip: Rob Kardashian And Blac Chyna Are Back Together; Johnny Depp Emails Reveal He Knew He Was In Financial Trouble

Naughty Gossip
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Gossip: Rob Kardashian And Blac Chyna Are Back Together; Johnny Depp Emails Reveal He Knew He Was In Financial Trouble

Rob Kardashian and Blac Chyna are reportedly giving their relationship another go for the sake of their daughter.

via TMZ:

Rob showed up at Chyna’s doorstep last week and hasn’t left.

We showed you how they spent Father’s Day … at Disneyland with 7-month-old Dream. As we said, it didn’t make a whole lot of sense for them to take an infant to a theme park she can’t appreciate, so it seems liked it was more for them than the kid.

Now we’ve found out Rob’s been there every day and every night … going on a week. They’ve been socializing with friends and family with BBQ’s and a pool party, and they’ve taken hikes together.

Chyna dropped a ton of cash on gifts for Father’s Day, including a Louis Vuitton bag, a customized Dodgers hat, sneakers and white and blue roses emblazoned with an “R.”

We’re told this has nothing to do with a TV show or business … they’re back into each other, at least for now.

Johnny Depp Emails Reveal He Knew He Was In Financial Trouble

Emails obtained by Deadline reveal that in late 2009 Depp’s accounts were overdrawn by $4 million. The Management Group principal Joel Mandel then emailed Depp advising him not to overdo it on holiday spending or travel:

“Since my email to you in September, I have done what 1 was told you wanted done, meaning, “getting us through” financially until work could start again. The good news is that, so far, we have been able to do that. Notwithstanding, I need your help in a variety of ways. First, we need to “take it easy” on holiday spending. Second, we need to discuss some dollar limit in the upcoming Dillinger auction. Third, I need to be able to sit with you on your return from this trip, and before you leave for France, so that we can talk about where we are financially, what we have borrowed in order to sustain ourselves, what we have had to do to obtain those borrowings, what is now necessary to pay those borrowings back and, finally, to look realistically at income and expenses and to work together on how to make sure that these are back in balance.”
Depp replied:

“First, thank you for dealing and getting me through. secondly, i am doing my very best on holiday spending, but there is only so much i can do, as i need to give my kiddies and famille as good a Christmas as possible, obviously within reason. but, regarding the plane situation,., i don’t have all that many options at the moment. a commercial flight with paparazzis in tow would be a fucking nightmare of monumental proportions.”

Love the fresh dirt we bring over daily from Naughty Gossip? Let us know in the comments!

Ohio Officials Say Fentanyl Is Being Mixed With Marijuana

Mike Adams
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Ohio Officials Say Fentanyl Is Being Mixed With Marijuana

It appears the deadly synthetic opiate fentanyl is now being mixed with marijuana in some Ohio communities – sparking some concern that this dangerous trend could soon spread across more of the United States.

What started out as a rumor last week on social media networks has been confirmed as gospel. Hamilton County Coroner Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco said during a recent press conference with Senator Rob Portman that she has seen some cases in which fentanyl, a hardcore painkiller with a potency up to 100 times greater than morphine, has been mixed with marijuana.

“We have seen fentanyl mixed with cocaine, we have also seen fentanyl mixed with marijuana,” Sammarco said.

So far, this year, Sammarco has documented nearly 300 deaths brought on by opioid overdoses. However, she could not confirm how many of those cases involved marijuana laced with a synthetic opioid. But she warms that even the possibility of this deadly combination should be enough to give pause to people who frequent the black market.

“Essentially, the message we’ve tried to get out there, is if you are using any form of street drugs, count on them having some form of synthetic opioid mixed in,” she said, according to NBC affiliate WLWT-TV.

It is more than likely that cases where fentanyl is being found in marijuana is more of a novelty-type situation and not something that is being done on a regular basis. Drug dealers often use fentanyl to cut other powdered drugs because it is cheap and extremely powerful. But there would be absolutely no financial benefit for a dealer who uses synthetic opioids to cut marijuana – that is unless the enhancement, much like those cases where pot is mixed with other drugs, like cocaine, heroin or even formaldehyde (embalming fluid), comes at the request of the user.

Even the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration does not have any evidence that this dangerous phenomenon is on the verge of becoming a national trend.

“In regard to marijuana, I’m not familiar with that,” DEA spokesman Melvin Patterson told the Cincinnati Enquirer. But he admitted, “there could be” some cases in which this mixture could occur.

The only possible way to ensure that marijuana is not being tampered with in such a way that makes it harmful to the user is for lawmakers to step up and allow the herb to be taxed and regulated in a manner similar to alcohol.

Ohio is working to launch a medical marijuana program, but the system will do very little to chisel away at the strength of the black market. The next logical step would be to legalize the leaf for recreational use, providing all adult users 21 and over with safe access.

Editor’s Choice: Marijuana Distillates, Breast Milk Ice Cream, And More

TFT Editors
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Editor’s Choice: Marijuana Distillates, Breast Milk Ice Cream, And More
Marijuana distillates
Photo by ZombieFrieZ/Getty Images

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Photo by Flickr user LabyrinthX

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Jeff Sessions
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Why Some Women Feel Depressed Right After Sex

 

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Read 5 Inspiring Stories Of Cannabis Feminists’ ‘Coming Out’ Month

 

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Watch: This Woman’s Headache Turned Out To Be A Spider

 

Wonder Woman
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In Honor Of Wonder Woman: The Top 8 Badass Women In Comics

 

 

Mexico Just Legalized Marijuana In Historic Milestone

Brendan Bures
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Mexico Just Legalized Marijuana In Historic Milestone

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto issued a decree to legalize marijuana after overwhelming support from Mexico’s Lower House of Congress. The decree, however, comes with a catch. Only products with 1 percent THC or lower will be allowed.

The historic policy began back in December of 2016 when the Mexican Senate passed the bill with huge support on a 98-7 vote. From there the policy went through Mexico’s Lower House of Congress where it too earned a giant majority, receiving an astonishing 374-7 vote.

Mexico’s Secretary of Health also publicly voiced his support. “I welcome the approval of the therapeutic use of cannabis in Mexico,” he wrote on Twitter.

But there were still months of speculation as Peña Nieto was a staunch opponent of cannabis legalization. He began changing his mind, however, after Mexico held a national public debate on legalization. As Leafly reported, Peña Nieto told the 2016 United Nations General Assembly Special Sessions in April 2016: “So far, the solutions [to control drugs and crime] implemented by the international community have been frankly insufficient. We must move beyond prohibition to effective prevention.”

Peña Nieto’s decree tasks the Ministry of Health with establishing and enforcing regulations regarding “public policies regulating the medicinal use of pharmacological derivatives of cannabis sativa, indica and Americana or marijuana, including tetrahydrocannabinol, its isomers and stereochemical variants, as well as how to regulate the research and national production of them.”

This decree also takes significant measures in effectively eliminating criminalization of the medicinal use of marijuana, in addition to legalizing the production and selling of cannabis for medicinal and therapeutic usage. As mentioned, the only cannabis to be permitted must contain 1 percent or less of THC.

Still this is a significant milestone for legalization. While the Ministry of Health will require time to determine the legal and medicinal networks, the biggest obstacle has already been tackled.

As a statement from the Lower House of Parliament, known as La Cámara de Diputados, read “The ruling eliminates the prohibition and criminalization of acts related to the medicinal use of marijuana and its scientific research, and those relating to the production and distribution of the plant for these purposes.”

How Tech Companies Are Now Embracing Marijuana Over Tobacco

Brendan Bures
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How Tech Companies Are Now Embracing Marijuana Over Tobacco

Perusing a smoke shop in a non-legalized state will lead to some funny conversation. No matter the vibe—whether it be professional or an aesthetic that hasn’t changed from the ’70s—shop managers will show off glassware and vaporizers repeating one phrase. “This is for tobacco use only.” But the truth is that tech companies are embracing marijuana over tobacco.

It’s a wind-and-nod routine of sorts, but according to a recent TechCrunch report, that trend could soon be changing. The article focuses on how funding for cannabis startups have been on the rise in the past year, while e-cigarette startups are fledgling.

Via TechCrunch:

Not a single company that mentioned tobacco, cigarettes or e-cigarettes in its Crunchbase profile raised a disclosed funding round in the past year. By contrast, at least 45 self-described marijuana and cannabis companies did.

The story also goes on to detail that funding and money hasn’t exactly been bursting in the e-cigarette sector, but that there’s still been substantial funding and exits over the years. That’s now changing, partly due to the FDA finalizing tighter regulations on e-cigarettes. Previously that market hoped for lighter rules, as e-cigarettes were pitched as an alternative to smoking.

But cannabis has also played a factor in the downward trend of e-cigarette funding.

Via TechCrunch:

Part of the funding dearth may be due to lack of VC interest. It’s hard to find a cigarette smoker in Silicon Valley, where caffeine and alcohol are the preferred indulgences and addictions (with cannabis not far behind). Thus, it’s not entirely surprising that the venture industry hasn’t been a big backer of e-cigarettes.

Binge Drinkers Turning To Marijuana On Oregon College Campuses

Terry Hacienda
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Binge Drinkers Turning To Marijuana On Oregon College Campuses

A study published last week found an uptick in cannabis consumption among Oregon college students after marijuana was legalized in the state two years ago. The finding was hardly a surprise. But what was unexpected is that the increase was due to underage students who were also binge drinkers.

According to the research, published in the journal Addiction, students who reported binge drinking were 73 percent more likely to also report cannabis consumption, compared to binge-drinking students in non-legal states.

The 25-page report was written by researchers from Oregon State University and the University of Michigan. According to the paper:

There were 10,924 undergraduate participants. One large public Oregon university participated in 2014 and 2016; six universities in U.S. states where recreational marijuana use was illegal participated both in 2016 and at least once between 2012 and 2015.

The researchers did not reveal the name of the Oregon university.

“We found that, overall, rates of marijuana use have increased across most schools and across the country likely, but that the rates in Oregon increased more,” Oregon State University professor and lead author David Kerr told the Eugene Register-Guard.

Kerr was quick to point out that the study does not definitively find that legalization is the only cause of the increase.

“It does appear that legalization is having an effect on usage, but there is some nuance to the findings that warrant further investigation,” Kerr said.

“We found that overall, at schools in different parts of the country, there’s been an increase in marijuana use among college students, so we can’t attribute that increase to legalization alone.”

The research discovered  increases at six out of seven universities in the study. The unnamed Oregon university scored the highest in increased consumption.

The study is the first to take a look at marijuana usage patterns after Oregon legalized it in 2014. The law went into effect in 2015.

“It’s an important current issue and even the most basic effects have not been studied yet, especially in Oregon,” Kerr said. “There are a lot of open questions about how legalization might affect new users, existing users and use of other substances.”

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