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Trudeau And Others Coming Out On Top With Canadian Cannabis Legalization

Mary Schumacher
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Trudeau And Others Coming Out On Top With Canadian Cannabis Legalization

When Justin Trudeau was still on the campaign trail in 2015, part of his platform was a promise that his government would get to work “right away” on cannabis legalization and regulation. On October 17, that promise becomes a reality and aside from lending credibility to Trudeau’s word, it’s bound to change the entire world’s stage when it comes to cannabis.

Already geared up to be a burgeoning industry, the adult use sector is a giant win for Trudeau and the Liberal government — one that Trudeau says will keep pot out of the hands of children, keep profits out of the hands of criminals and offer a safer, social and recreational activity for all Canadian adults.

Some international mega-brands are coming out smelling like rosy terpenes as well. An early investor and thus one of the conglomerate pioneers into the fields of green, Constellation Brands — purveyors of Corona, Modelo, Pacifico, wines and spirits — has invested over $4 billion in the Canadian cannabis company, Canopy Growth. And Coca-Cola is close on its heels, looking to launch CBD beverages off their mighty platform.

Already established industries that may have become sort of stale or simply steady as she goes now have the opportunity to add to their winning game. Packaging facilities, label makers, herbal remedy companies, coffee brewers and more all have the chance to expand their wares into the cannabis sector for a good measure of market share.

Speaking of the market, the Canadian economy is bound to be another prize winning entity, with billions in projected sales making it rain tax dollars. A bolstered economy means that the people come out ahead as well, with new jobs to be had, new products to try and without the fear of incarceration for simply ingesting a non-toxic, happy little plant (or big plant, depending on the grow).

Let’s face it though, lawyers are going to be the big winners for the first few years at least. As the laws of the land vary from province to province and territory to territory in Canada, there are bound to be questions that can only be answered in court or that some disgruntled non-imbibers insist go to court. As Canada learns the new lay of the land, lawyers will be in high demand.

The biggest winners, though, are, again, the people. Not only because they can now smoke pot wherever cigarettes/vaping is allowed, but because by setting this example, this stage for the largest yet social theatre on cannabis legalization, the world opens up to more possibility and more all important research can be conducted, from how the plant affects ailments to its true risks and benefits factors.

Ugandan President Wants To Know: What’s Kim Kardashian’s Job?

Maria Loreto
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Ugandan President Wants To Know: What’s Kim Kardashian’s Job?

Only the President of Uganda could’ve asked Kim Kardashian the question we’ve all been meaning to ask. What the heck is her job?

Kardashian and her contractual Plus One, Kanye West, were in Kampala on Monday where they had a meeting with Ugandan President Yoweri Musevini. For some unpleasant reason, the Wests are feeling very political these days.

People Magazine reports that when Musevini asked Kardashian about her job she politely explained that she had a TV show with her sisters, without getting into the depths of reality TV and America’s obsession with her family. In her defense, it’s pretty hard to explain why the Kardashians own about 80 percent of the E! channel.

President Museviri , who has has a history of human rights abuses and is basically a dictator in the making, was excited to meet the couple and tweeted about the event. Kanye gifted him some Yeezy sneakers and discussed the possibility of developing the arts and entertainment in Uganda. Museviri referred to the Wests as “American entertainment stars.”

TMZ reports that Kanye plans on opening up a Jurassic Park in Uganda, which after all he’s said, doesn’t even sound that weird.

It’s nice that Kanye is going out of his way to develop the arts in other countries; it’s certainly much better than whatever it is he was doing before in America. Not sure that the meeting with a dictator is going to do any good, though. Can Kanye just go home and stay there for a couple of years? Thanks.

Canadian Marijuana Employees Haven’t Cleared Customs Just Yet

John Hudak
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Canadian Marijuana Employees Haven’t Cleared Customs Just Yet

Earlier this year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced that it would not allow individuals entry into the United States if they work in Canada’s legal cannabis industry. The statement affected everyone working in the industry—from budtender to business owner.

Last week, however, CBP announced a reversal (of sorts) of its original guidance document. In the new revision, CBP clarified, “A Canadian citizen working in or facilitating the proliferation of the legal marijuana industry in Canada, coming to the U.S. for reasons unrelated to the marijuana industry will generally be admissible to the U.S. however, if a traveler is found to be coming to the U.S. for reason related to the marijuana industry, they may be deemed inadmissible” (sic).

While this may be a sigh of relief for the industry, there remain a few concerns as Canada marks this historic day.

First, the CBP announcement reiterates that the “sale, possession, production, and distribution, of marijuana or the facilitation of the aforementioned” is a crime under U.S. law and that “crossing the border or arriving at a U.S. port of entry in violation of this law may result in denied admission…” This explanation contradicts the language above and should raise concern about how much discretion is granted to individual CBP agents or CBP locations by the language “will generally be admissible to the U.S.” “Generally” used without detail or explanation still gives CBP latitude to be disruptive.

Second, the ability of Canadian cannabis companies and their employees to conduct business in the United States can be hindered. Although product does not move across international borders, capital will. And individuals and entities will (and do) have ownership interest in firms on both sides of the border. The extent to which CBP will define “for reason[s] related to the marijuana industry” can have significant effects.

Will that definition be narrowly restricted to efforts to conduct a type of international commerce that is obviously illegal? Will it be more broadly interpreted as an individual with unrelated ownership stakes in both Canadian and U.S. cannabis companies entering the U.S. to deal with his or her American company? Will it be even more broadly defined to include items like testimony before state legislatures, policy or business conferences, speaking engagements, political fundraisers or other activity marginally if at all related to the industry?

Third, CBP notes the clear-cut illegality of the Canadian cannabis industry under U.S. law and notes the power and right of CBP to deny entry to anyone in the cannabis industry. The “protections” offered in the clarification are a form of enforcement discretion; that is, a choice by an agency not to enforce a certain law under certain circumstances rather than a signal of the legality of a certain set of behaviors.

Such enforcement discretion can be temporary, can be reversed by another president, cabinet secretary (in this case the Secretary of Homeland Security) or agency head (in this case the Commissioner of CBP) or by any one of those individuals changing his or her mind. Such a policy may be a temporary rather than a permanent fix to a problem borne from two countries having dramatically different cannabis laws.

All that being said, CBP’s clarification guidance is a step in the right direction. The exercise of such enforcement discretion in this case should help protect thousands of Canadians who do and will work in the cannabis industry from massive disruptions at the U.S. border. One can hope that such discretion would also be extended to deal with challenges that may arise in capital markets or in international financial institutions (the latter having been a serious problem for the world’s first legalizing country, Uruguay).

What’s more, it would be confusing for CBP to begin enforcing against cannabis business employees, after failing to do so in a systematic way against Canadian medical cannabis companies or the more than two dozen other nations with legal medical cannabis markets, including Israel and Germany (as medical cannabis is just as illegal under U.S. law as adult-use cannabis).

Finally, CBP should consider expanding such protections even to those individuals working in the Canadian industry who seek to conduct business in the regulated industry in the U.S. After all, it was President Trump who said during a visit to Saudi Arabia, “We are not here to tell other people how to live, what to do, who to be or how to worship.” And if that statement applies to a country with the policies and actions of Saudi Arabia, regulated Canadian cannabis companies should not be much of a concern.

US Marijuana Policy Project Appraises Canadian Marijuana Legalization

Steven Hawkins
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US Marijuana Policy Project Appraises Canadian Marijuana Legalization

Today, marijuana sales will officially begin nationwide in Canada, making it the second country in the world — following Uruguay — with a federally legal adult-use marijuana industry. Each Canadian province has developed its own system for how marijuana will be sold to adults, which will include government stores, private retailers, online government sales with delivery, or a mix of all of these approaches.

Meanwhile, in the U.S., nine states have legalized marijuana for adult use (although sales are allowed in only eight of them) and 30 states have comprehensive medical marijuana laws. Two more adult-use states and two more medical states may come on board on Election Day, but all of this progress exists under the cloud of federal illegality.

Businesses in the U.S. have to contend with a myriad of problems caused by federal prohibition. Even the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) — a nonprofit organization that works to end marijuana prohibition — was dumped by our bank (we now have a new one) and our retirement fund briefly planned to drop us. In addition to banking challenges, U.S. cannabis businesses typically can’t accept credit cards, products can’t ship to retailers in other states, and most alarmingly, there is still the possibility of federal prosecution.

In addition to overriding federal law context, here is a comparison between the Canadian adult-use program and common features of U.S. state legalization laws:

Age: In Canada, provinces set the drinking age at either 18 or 19. The age limit is mirrored for cannabis. Meanwhile, all legalization states have set the age at 21, mirroring U.S. alcohol laws.

Edibles: For the first year, no edibles will be allowed in Canada. Initially, reports indicate only flower will be available. In contrast, every adult-use legalization law in the U.S. allows edibles and a myriad of other products, albeit with regulations. (However in Oregon during a transitional period, existing medical businesses were initially allowed to sell flower only to adult-use consumers.)

Public consumption: Every U.S. state that legalized marijuana prohibits marijuana smoking in public, although some allow for on-site consumption at specific adults-only establishments. In Canada, some provinces will allow cannabis smoking in certain locations that are open to the general public, although most or all ban it in locations that appeal to children.

Possession limit: In Canada, adult will be allowed to possess just over an ounce of cannabis (30 grams) outside the home. Possession limits for outside the home in legalization states vary from one ounce to 2.5 ounces.

Home cultivation: Canada is allowing home cultivation of four plants. All of the adult-use states but Washington allow home cultivation, although in Nevada only those living at least 25 miles away from the nearest retailer may grow their own cannabis.

Government involvement: Due to federal illegality, thus far U.S. state governments have not directly participated in selling, distributing, or growing adult-use marijuana (although two public universities in Louisiana are involved in marijuana cultivation, and Utah plans to dispense medical cannabis). In contrast, there will be government distribution systems in Canada and government stores and deliveries in some provinces.

Import/export: At this time, Canadian law does not allow the import or export of cannabis, although it does allow hemp exports. In light of federal prohibition, all state marijuana laws are set up as intrastate programs—with retailers purchasing only from product manufacturers and growers in the same state.

The Marijuana Policy Project has been at the forefront of legalization among the states as well as decriminalization for possession of cannabis. Our efforts have removed the threat of local prosecution for citizens in 21 states and the District of Columbia. But we cannot rest on yesterday. We have to continue to push today for a better tomorrow.

Last year, the NYPD was still arresting African American and Latino youth for marijuana possession at a rate 9 times greater than Caucasian youth. Currently, we continue to house hundreds of thousands of people for cannabis possession, leading to devastating collateral consequences in their lives, such as job loss or denial of parental rights. MPP plans to keep growing the number of U.S. states where marijuana is legal for adults. With sufficient funding, we believe we can more than double the number of adult-use states within just a few years.

Meanwhile, we aren’t losing sight of the need to change federal law. It’s easy to get complacent when the DEA isn’t busting down cannabis business’ doors. But recent comments from Colorado’s top federal prosecutor should remind us all that there is an urgent need to change federal law so that state-legal marijuana businesses are no longer a crime. Most critically, we still have over 500,000 marijuana-related arrests and convictions each year in the United States. Canadian jails are used for a better purpose. Visit www.mpp.org to learn more and join our mission.

Donald Trump Will Overrule Jeff Sessions On Criminal Justice Reform

Brendan Bures
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Donald Trump Will Overrule Jeff Sessions On Criminal Justice Reform

A new day, and a new way Donald Trump has found to stick it to Attorney General Jeff Sessions. By this point, this acrimonious relationship has been well established. Sessions appears on the hot seat, up against it wherever he turns in Washington. Should the cannabis community even worry about the Sessions, once heralded the enemy of legal marijuana everywhere?

Probably not, based on recent comments from Trump. Should Sessions try to block any efforts in overhauling the criminal justice system, he’d be overruled by Trump himself.

“If he doesn’t, then he gets overruled by me,” Trump said during  when asked during an interview with Fox & Friends regarding Sessions’ possible opposition to reform.

“There has to be a reform because it’s very unfair right now,” the president added. “It’s very unfair to African-Americans. It’s very unfair to everybody. And it’s also very costly.”

Previously Trump had been swayed by Sessions to delay criminal justice reform until after the midterm elections. But thanks to advocacy from senior White House adviser Jared Kushner, Trump has changed course once again. This, ostensibly, was what Trump’s meeting with Kanye West and Jim Brown was all about.

“Jared Kushner has kept the president in the loop and today’s statements by the president are indicative that he’s interested in this issue and is the one that will make the final decision,” a source told The Hill.

This news is of particular interest for the cannabis community. Why? Because it coincides with rumors that federal cannabis reform could be coming from the White House. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (CO-D) even hinted that federal medical marijuana legalization is a possibility under the Trump administration. Whatever reform could be on its way, however, there’s one thing known for sure—Sessions’ role in all of this will be effectively neutralized.

3 ETFs Offering Exposure To The Canadian Green Rush

Jacob Ellman
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3 ETFs Offering Exposure To The Canadian Green Rush

Adult-use cannabis sales kick off in Canada on Wednesday, October 17, and many investors already feel like they’re late to the party. That’s ok, because the green rush is just getting started.

Canada is only the second nation to legalize marijuana, and has a population of less than California. That being said, Canadian licensed producers like Flowr Corp. (TSXV:FLWR) and Canopy Growth Corp. (NYSE:CGC) (TSX:WEED) are positioning themselves to be global leaders in the cannabis space given their partnerships with global industry leaders like The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company (NYSE:SMG) and Constellation Brands (NYSE:STZ), respectively.

They are not just building infrastructure in Canada, but rather they are building a platform that can allow them to cash in on the cannabis boom worldwide.

Still More Opportunity to Come

Even though the licensed producers above already have noteworthy partnerships with existing global titans, there will be more to follow.

Despite rumors such as the one regarding a deal between Marlboro cigarette-producing Altria Group (NYSE:MO) and Canadian licensed producer Aphria Inc. (TSX:APH) (OTC:APHQF), it it actually impossible to know which cannabis companies will be strategic investment/acquisition targets for Fortune 500s.

Because of the guessing game that most marijuana investors are faced with, it can be easier to invest in an exchange traded fund (ETF) that offers exposure to a wide variety of cannabis companies.

If you are not tracking the markets on a daily or intraday basis, then buying a diversified basket of cannabis stocks via an ETF is going to be far more fruitful than trying to pick winners out of a hat.

What is an ETF?

An ETF, short for Exchange Traded Fund, is a free-trading security that tracks an underlying benchmark. Benchmarks can be an index like the S&P 500, the price of oil, or anything in between. In the case of cannabis ETFs, they track baskets of marijuana stocks rather than the price of marijuana itself.

3 ETFs Offering Investors Exposure to the Canadian Green Rush

Conclusion

With Canadian legalization kicking off on Wednesday, there’s still time to get into the green rush early. We’re still only in the third inning.

This article does not provide nor claim to provide individual investment advice or recommendations to readers. Before making specific investment decisions, readers should seek their own professional advice and that of their own professional financial adviser

Will Canada Change Drug Policies At Federal Workplaces?

Mary Schumacher
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Will Canada Change Drug Policies At Federal Workplaces?

Adult use cannabis is literally one day away in Canada, and with the world not stopping for a collective inhale, federal employers are left with some big questions. Namely, should they continue to screen their employees for drugs or phase out taking urine samples all together.

The government itself didn’t set forth any rules per se, though they did drop a set of general guidelines to follow. The results are that there’s a range of rules surrounding cannabis use in federally-regulated workplaces, which employ 8 percent of Canadian workers. Other places of business will need to look into provincial guidelines.

In a briefing that was given over to the National Post with the stipulation that no names be used, for federal jobs at least, some of the rules aren’t changing at all. For example, for the majority of jobs issued by Transport Canada, you must be “fit for duty” or in other words, able to fly a plane, drive transport trucks, navigate boats and perform other transportation related jobs as they apply.

Federal prison guards and border guards surprisingly only have to wait 24 hours after imbibing before going on duty. Even military employees are able to spark up, just with stipulations as well. It seems that outside of transport, police have it the “roughest,” with a 28 day wait period between them getting lifted and going to work.

It’s not as if working while impaired hasn’t been an issue for decades – and certainly not just for just cannabis, even if the tests seem built to only “catch” pot smokers. For around 260,000 federal public servants, officials said there is no set of rules across government departments, each being responsible for updating its own drug testing policy, even if that means no update at all. “There are a lot of codes of conduct, for example, that already cover impairment that would include cannabis,” one official explained.

Speaking last Wednesday, a government official said that employers should consider their own real needs around the workplace before implementing a drug-test program. The official pointed out that there are alternatives, like close supervision and frequent face-to-face interactions with employees, both of which help to identify problem areas around impairment.

What Californians Can Teach Canadians About Legal Marijuana

Mike Adams
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What Californians Can Teach Canadians About Legal Marijuana

Canada is on the verge of becoming the second country in the world to legalize marijuana. On Wednesday, the northern nation’s full legal recreational pot market will open up, allowing people to purchase weed like alcohol. Although the move is expected to generate billions of dollars in economic activity, as well as create new tax revenue for the government, the goal of this reform, according to Prime Ministers Justin Trudeau, has nothing to do with its economic impact. It’s more about chipping away at organized crime and keeping cannabis out of the hands of children.

“Right now, young people have far too easy access in Canada to marijuana. Criminal organizations make billions of dollars a year in profits on the sale of marijuana,” Trudeau told the Canadian Press earlier this year. “We need to move forward on a system that controls and regulates while In protecting our kids and our communities.”

While this is a noble reason to end marijuana prohibition, it is not a perfect plan, according to a recent piece published in the New York Times, which points out a few things that Canada can learn from California’s 10-month-old pot trade.

Sources close to the situation, including Hezekiah Allen, the executive director of the California Growers Association, told the Times that “the black market is still dominant.” This, he says, is because “It’s hard to persuade pot farmers who have been producing in the shadows for decades to fill out voluminous paperwork, pay taxes and comply with reams of environmental regulations.”

What Canada is destined to learn during its first year of legal sales is cannabis users may not come running to legal marijuana dispensaries. California launched its recreational market in January, and it’s still not generating much more cash than when it was running one of the loosest medical marijuana programs in the country. But then again, the conditions are slightly different.

Anyone who has wanted marijuana over the past two decades in the Golden State has been able to finagle their way into the medical system. So, the recreational scene is not much a of a stretch beyond. Still, some customers have continued to purchase weed from the black market because the legal stuff, which must be tested and taxed, is far more expensive – about 77 percent more than what is sold in the streets.

“As long as there is onerous regulation and taxation imposed on the legal market, you can forget about getting rid of the illicit market,” said Tom Adams of BDS Analytics.

But, just like Canada, wiping out the black market was one of the primary selling points for ending marijuana prohibition in California. This ethos was devised using a chapter from the book of alcohol prohibition. Sure, there are still a handful of people running moonshine in parts of the country, but, for the most part, illegal alcohol operations ended after the prohibition laws were repealed. But it’s not working out the same way for cannabis, mostly because the U.S. government has refused to get onboard. There are just too many conflicting laws for marijuana to get a proper showing in the states.

It is conceivable that Canada will experience similar growing pains. But the country is in a better position to pull off legalization once they work out the kinks. Unlike California, Canada is coming out of the gate with more common sense. Instead of serving adults 21 and older, the nation has given provinces the right to sell weed to those who are at least 18 years of age. There are also stricter penalties for those who break the rules of its taxed and regulated system. California eliminated most of its harsh penalties for pot offenders, making it harder to go to jail for breaking the law.

Although there is plenty Canada can learn from California right now concerning marijuana legalization, there will likely come a time in the foreseeable future when California, as well as the rest of the United States, has something to learn from Canada. But it could take a year or more before they realize it.

Make Your Pancakes Sweeter With This Cannabis Maple Syrup

Danielle Guercio
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Make Your Pancakes Sweeter With This Cannabis Maple Syrup

The sap of the maple tree is just one of the ways that humans would get their sweet on before cane sugar was readily available. This amber sap is rich in vitamins and flavor and has a complex taste that lends itself to a long list of delicious food applications. Canadian food is influenced by many things both French and English in origin, but this is an indigenous originated product that has never died in popularity.

Since you probably can’t harvest from your own tree for this, procuring some good stuff is usually best done on the internets unless you are passing through a prolific maple region. Another of Canada’s favorite harvests is cannabis, which very soon will be legal the entire country over.

As for which strain to use to get the unique cannabis flavors incorporated into your syrup, we asked My Bud Vase’s Doreen Sullivan for her Canadian reccos, as her smokeware was just nominated for a Canadian Cannabis Award:

“You can’t think about Canada without thinking of maple syrup, they have some of the best strains, so I’d go for a syrup infused with a strain with a berry terpene profile, like Canada’s Dragon Fruit by Hexo!”

Canada’s big day for legalization is October 17, and it’s rapidly approaching. Try celebrating with a spiked syrup is a fabulous way to get lifted on both Canadian classics.

Cannabis Infused Maple Syrup

Danielle Guercio, 2018

100mg THC per 10 oz bottle, 10mg per 1 oz serving estimated

Supplies

12 oz maple syrup

½ cup sugar

1oz cannabis glycerin tincture*

Instructions

Gently heat half of the maple syrup until it reaches a light simmer, add the sugar and cook until it reduces by ½.

Remove from heat, stir in glycerin tincture until mixed, turn off the heat and allow to cool slightly.

Stir in unheated maple syrup and dispense into a clean bottle.

*Cannabis Glycerin Tincture

Decarboxylate 2g of finely ground cannabis at 225 degrees for 20 minutes in a tightly sealed, oven safe container. Put cannabis in lidded mason jar or vacuum sealed bag with cannabis and 1/4 cup vegetable glycerin. Heat in water bath just under boiling for at least 1 hour. Strain and chill to use in recipes.

Photos by Maria Penaloza

Use this golden beauty to dress up pancakes, infuse cocktails with both sweetness, complexity and cannabis, or even for baking if you feel so inclined. Maple has a unique flavor and a sweetness that’s not as intense as sugar or honey, but still potent and smile-inducing.

Photos: Maria Penaloza

Justin Bieber Marriage Played Huge Part In Selena’s Breakdown; More Details On The Ariana And Pete Split

Naughty Gossip
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Justin Bieber Marriage Played Huge Part In Selena’s Breakdown; More Details On The Ariana And Pete Split

THE JUSTIN BIEBER MARRIAGE PLAYED A HUGE PART IN SELENA GOMEZ’S MENTAL BREAKDOWN

“Selena can be a delicate flower, especially because she has had constant medical struggles, but Justin’s engagement and quick marriage threw her off guard and hit her hard,” a music source tells PEOPLE.

“She and Justin have been on and off for years, although they were so young when it all began,” adds the insider. “Justin was her first big love, and she isn’t over him.”

What about Justin? A source told E! News that Bieber feels “conflicted and confused” about it. “They have both had emotional struggles and bonded over that in the past,” the insider shared.

MORE DETAILS ON THE ARIANA AND PETE SPLIT

“Ariana made the final decision,” a source said.

“It was time to realize this wasn’t the right time for them and Pete is incredibly heartbroken. Pete is still so in love with her. He wanted his whole world to revolve around her but she was emotionally unavailable.”

TMZ reports that Ariana has returned her engagement ring to Pete. Sources close to Ariana tell us she’s already returned the nearly $100k engagement ring Davidson gave her back in June.

The ring — a 3.03 carat diamond set in platinum — was a one of a kind, made specifically for Grande, and took weeks to complete. We’re told there was no struggle over who’d keep the ring.

He bought it in contemplation of marriage, and she was quick to fork it over.

WHY GWYNETH PALTROW’S EX CHRIS MARTIN WAS A NO SHOW AT HER RECENT WEDDING

Are they fighting? NO! A source says, “She and Chris still get along great. But it seems that their friendship doesn’t extend beyond co-parenting their kids.”

A source added that Chris “wasn’t fazed” about not being invited.

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