AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND
Victorian parliament will investigate different approaches to cannabis – video [9 News]
Fiona Patten MP refers cannabis inquiry to a parliamentary committee.
‘Passive smoking’ defence clears woman of drug driving as research casts doubt on roadside testing [ABC]
The accuracy of drug driving tests has been called into question after a landmark court ruling and new research by a leading academic.
Passive Smoking Defence Exposes Flawed Drug Driving Regime [Sydney Criminal Lawyers]
Magistrate David Heilpern has delivered yet another landmark ruling that reveals the shonky logic underlying the drug driving regime in NSW. The Lismore magistrate accepted last month that a woman tested positive to cannabis because of passive smoking.
HEMP’s grassroots campaign hot on heels of Palmer’s $60 million ad barrage [Brisbane Times]
Clive Palmer and his staggering $60 million spend on United Australia Party’s election campaign has only managed to secure 20,000 more Senate votes nationally than a minor party forced to “scratch around” just to field candidates. As of Sunday afternoon the Help End Marijuana Prohibition party had secured 141,500 first preference Senate votes or 1.9 per cent of the national vote, just behind UAP’s 161,000.
Medicinal cannabis scheme in Canberra failing to find enough doctors willing to prescribe drug [ABC]
“They are willing to put you on all sorts of drugs and then they have a thing about cannabis.”
Industrial Hemp Bill Tabled In Australia’s Northern Territory [Hemp Gazette]
Legislation introduced to NT’s parliament last week seeks to make it legal to grow and process industrial hemp in the Northern Territory.
Funding For Industrial Hemp Project In Western Australia [Hemp Gazette]
A hemp initiative was one of ten projects in Western Australia’s Kimberley region named to receive a Regional Economic Development (RED) grant.
High Fibre: High hopes for Australia’s emerging industrial hemp industry [ABC]
A relaxation of hemp cultivation laws has led to a surge in interest for the growing of non-narcotic industrial hemp, with plots being trialled across all parts of the country.
NEXT MEDICAL CANNABIS WEEKEND WORKSHOP IN NIMBIN JUNE 22/23 [Nimbin Hemp Embassy]
NORTH AMERICA
Texas Legislature OKs medical cannabis bill [Victoria Advocate]
The Texas House and Senate have passed a medical cannabis bill that would include more medical conditions to qualify for medical cannabis prescriptions.
New York Launches Final Bid for Adult-Use Legalization in 2019 [Leafly]
Legal Cannabis In Canada: Spotlight On Provincial Regulations [CBD Testers]
Let’s take a quick look at the different cannabis laws for each province in Canada, to ease some of the confusion surround this topic.
BUSINESS & POLICY
Cannabis Is Becoming A Huge Job Creator [Forbes]
Even though cannabis use in some form is legal in only two-thirds of the states, our burgeoning industry is among the fastest-growing job markets in America. According to cannabis information hub Leafly’s 2019 Cannabis Jobs Count, cannabis directly employs more than 211,000 full-time workers in the U.S. Add indirect jobs and the total number of full-time workers dependent on the legal cannabis industry hits nearly 300,000. No wonder Leafly calls cannabis “America’s hidden job boom.” The industry added more than 64,000 jobs last year — a 44% increase — and is expected to create another 20,000 jobs this year in California and Florida alone.
Big Alcohol Quaking Over Cannabis Sales [MG Retailer]
The mainstreaming of cannabis is making big alcohol nervous. U.S. alcohol consumption dropped every year for the last three, led by declining beer sales, which have fallen 2.8 percent since 2015. One analyst told Bloomberg beer is “the canary in the coal mine” for the alcohol industry. “You’re seeing an erosion among consumers who now are able to choose between cannabis and beer,” said John Kagia, an analyst at New Frontier Data.
Flying With CBD? TSA Says It’s Cool [Leafly]
Here’s a little bit of relief. Over the Memorial Day weekend, the Transportation Security Administration [TSA] announced that its agents won’t hassle you over a little CBD. As Marijuana Moment first reported, the TSA updated its website’s “What Can I Bring” section on medical marijuana to state:
Cannabis oil restaurant shut down ‘despite police go-ahead’ [The Guardian]
Canna Kitchen owner says police and trading standards told him CBD oil was legal.
Behind the Mile High City’s journey into magical (mushroom) thinking [The Washington Post]
Voters in Denver made history May 7 as the city became the first in the nation to approve an ordinance decriminalizing a psychedelic — psilocybin mushrooms, or “shrooms” — that many thought had disappeared decades ago along with tie-dye and love-ins.
HEALTH & SCIENCE
THC Does Not Increase Risk of Traffic Accidents, New Study Reports [Merry Jane]
In stark contrast to cannabis, the study indicates that alcohol, sedatives, and other recreational drugs greatly increased the likelihood of causing a traffic accident.
Hemp used in housing and health food busts myths about misunderstood plant [ABC]
Since the rise of drug culture decades ago this fast-growing, fibrous plant has been widely vilified, shunned and prohibited, but that is now changing.
Hemp Fiber as Potential Supercapacitor [Hackernoon]
“The energy storage industry is starting to take notice, thanks to new Canadian research that shows supercapacitors with electrodes made from hemp-based carbon nanosheets outperform standard supercapacitors by nearly 200%.”
What ‘Organic’ Means to CBD Producer Endoca [Leafly]
For European hemp grower Endoca, its own standards for “organic” go beyond standard label practices. It’s more of a mission: farming in a way that works to build a sustainable future for the planet from the seed through the end manufacturing and packaging process.
Are CBD Supplements for Dogs Worth Considering? [Reader’s Digest]
A revolution is happening with CDB products being produced from non-mind-altering parts of the Cannabis plant. While Cannabis is being legalised in certain countries for medical purposes for human use, global CBD sales with supplements are being snapped up by eager buyers.
CULTURE & SOCIETY
Is it time to get with it and get rid of the term “black market”? [The Growth Op]
Language fails to acknowledge pioneering work, and could erect barriers to greater inclusiveness moving forward.
The Future of Cannabis Consumption [CLN]
So, what is next for social consumption in the US and around the world? Will there one day be cannabis clubs in every state where consumers can partake with likeminded individuals?
EVENTS
Industrial Hemp Workshop, 6 June 2019, Wodonga VIC [AIHA Vic Chapter]
Medican Workshop, 22-23 June 2019, Nimbin NSW [Nimbin Hemp Embassy]
The Australian Cannabis Summit, 5-6 July 2019 – Cannabis Education Available to Everyone in Australia [Greendorphin]
We are very excited to announce the first of its kind Australian Cannabis Summit (ACS). Greendorphin Media has teamed up with PlantMed to bring cannabis education to anyone interested for free of charge. The Australian Cannabis Summit is going to be live streamed to your computer, smartphone or tablet screen.
FUNDRAISERS/CAMPAIGNS/PETITIONS/SURVEYS
Gateway to Good Health [Weed Billboards]
The war on drugs and in particular cannabis is well past its use by date in Australia and in an effort to keep the issue on the agenda we have started a weed billboards campaign. Excited that our first billboard is up just north of Grafton in NSW.
It costs $5K for a year, and we’d like to grow weed billboards all around the country. We’d love your help to spread the weed, so there is a gofundme site where you can donate.
Please send in billboard suggestions! We’d like this campaign to support messages from various cannabis and drug law reform groups around Australia, so it would be great to pool resources to create more and more new billboards. We are open to all creative ideas, and any size donations.
We just want an end to being criminals for using one of nature’s absolute gifts.
E-Petition: Legalise cannabis for recreational use [Parliament of Victoria]
Just Reform It! Let’s Get Real about Drugs [The Greens]
Survey: What’s the link between cannabis use and psychotic experiences? [The University of Queensland]
EDUCATION
MardiGrass Hemposium 2019 Talks now Available on YouTube [Hemp Embassy]
‘Sex, Drugs and the Electoral Roll’: MP’s Memoir Goes On Sale [Reason]
Medicinal Cannabis & Hemp Tasmania & “the leaf” Newsletter [Facebook]
Nimbin Medican Workshops on YouTube [Hemp Embassy]
DRUG WAR OVER! [Radio Documentary]
View five new EGA video presentations on ethnobotanical plants and psychedelics [Entheogenesis Australis]
To mark the anniversary of our special gathering and end the year on a high note, we’ve released five new videos of talks from the Psychedelic Symposium that are now available to watch online and can also be found below in this email.