If you were to give the regulated recreational cannabis industry in California a letter grade, A through F, on how it has performed so far, what grade would you give? Depending on what angle you view it from, the complaints…
We’re not going to pretend to be experts on respiratory diseases – especially ones that the respiratory disease experts apparently still know next to nothing about – but we do know a thing or two about cannabis so our fuse is burning pretty short with politicians from both parties who not only refuse to embrace or accept cannabis reform, but who continue to peddle lies in the hope of preventing it from happening.
At the end of the day, what is influence, really?
By definition, it means to make someone consider a thought that they may not have considered otherwise.
Notice, there is no mention of coupon codes or sales or profits in that definition. So, perhaps our veteran advocates aren’t actually redefining the word influencer but reminding us of what it means to begin with.
Getting to the top of this market, as it is currently set up, typically costs way more money than it makes with the idea that someday down the road it will become profitable. High Times does have plenty of experience in that sort of upside-down bookkeeping, but how long can that last?
This sort of Press Release Protesting, or Slacktivism, is barely better than nothing, and can actually detract from important causes by diminishing the real, hard work that must be done to earn actual freedom for cannabis prisoners. The sooner that the cannabis community as a whole stops putting this particular bullshitter on panels and pedestals, the better.
We like to smoke indoor weed because we grow indoor weed. We learned to grow weed inside because where we come from, getting caught growing it would likely lead to a double-digit prison sentence and so it was easier to hide under a roof than under the sun. Odds are high that your first crop (or three) might not live up to your own level of expectations for Strength, Aroma/Appeal, Flavor, or Effect regardless of whether you decked out a grow room or reconnected with nature. It is a learning process. It is farming. It is work. It is worth it.
In 2019, California cannabis testing lab Cannalysis was raking in investor capital, making headlines and rapidly expanding. While this may be a usable playbook in many other markets, it has proven to be a gamble when it comes to this particular industry and now the lawyers are involved. Cannabis lab testing is commonly considered to be pretty clean work, but these are some dirty allegations.
There is no feeling quite like sparking up a joint full of flowers you took from seed to sesh. We also know that our favorite indoor farmers are pretty much a 50/50 blend of ‘salt’ and ‘organic’ and once that weed is on the table, nobody is worried about where the NPK came from. Whichever method you choose, try to find a genetically strong cultivar, then learn its language harvest after harvest. Put in the work, never cut corners, and you will be rewarded with a gift that truly does keep on giving.
Cultivar or strain names play a unique role in cannabis culture and the true lineage should be preserved, in our opinion.
“O, what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive!”
– Sir Walter Scott
As this presidential campaign begins to heat up and protests continue to rage, you can be certain that the issue of defunding the police will be twisted, spun, and spit out sideways by most of the candidates and pundits discussing it.
Defund the police.
Collectively, we can do better.
Now, more than ever, we need your help to set Michael Thompson free. We are asking that you call and request that the parole board and Governor Whitmer’s office expedite Thompson’s request for clemency. We cannot allow a cannabis sentence to become a death sentence for Michael. Make your voice heard and let’s FREE MICHAEL THOMPSON NOW!
The entire point of third-party lab testing is quality control. Any lab that can point to a full ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation for all services that they offer demonstrates that their own level of quality control is on point. It demonstrates that even though the state doesn’t require them to employ sensible standard operating procedures, they take it upon themselves to do so anyway. That attention to detail will absolutely carry over to the accuracy of the test results of your product and if you do things right, that’s all you should ever ask a lab to provide.
Regardless of what that dude who your friend sort of knows might be charging for an 8th of “magic mushrooms”, you can realistically see yields of your own homegrown version that might cost you 50-100x on the street compared to what you spent in cultivation costs. Again, once re-sterilized, almost everything you invested in is being reused over and over saving you money, time, and peace of mind.
As advocates ourselves, we feel so fortunate to call Weldon Angelos a friend and a colleague, and so fortunate to have him out and on the streets and on our side in this movement.
A quick glance at Weedmaps shows over a dozen licensed cannabis dispensaries serving Modesto right now while Scarmazzo sits in prison for doing the same. Even if he did have the Feds press him these days, the sentencing would be much, much less harsh and the 12+ years he has already served would more than cover that.
Beard Bros. Pharms guest contributor and Oregon’s own bearded wonder, the one and only Dick Fitts reports that the weed scene across the state is operating in full force and today he is back with another heady flower review. Let’s take a peek at what he’s been puffin’ on.
Craig Cesal was approved to be released from prison due to his compromised health and the unsafe conditions at FCI Terre Haute, but then the warden himself stepped in and denied the transfer due to what he saw as insubordination every time Craig filed a complaint against prison staff. Pissed off yet? Read the rest…
The initial investment is a smart one for you and for the environment. The money you save each month while you are growing will surely be welcomed by you, but will likely pale in comparison to how much money you will save by smoking weed you grew yourself instead of getting custied by someone who beat you to it. If five harvests of your own nuclear-grade homegrown every year sounds appealing to you, consider building your budget, and your grow, around the latest in LED lighting.
SLX makes the claim that their innovative non-stick design features a high-grade non-toxic ceramic coating that never degrades, scratches, or chips from normal use. Even if you somehow managed to break some off into your herb, it is anti-flammable and will never burn, melt, or off-gas under your lighter flame. On the surface (pun absolutely intended!), that sounded like exactly what we were looking for. The catch was, and always is, we are going to give an HONEST review, whether the manufacturer likes it or not. To their credit, the crew at SLX accepted the challenge and here is what we learned.
Location, they say, is everything, and The Atrium is not only easy to find but its large parking lot and their current curbside pickup option makes it easy once you arrive. The whole point of the ‘cannabis dispensary’ is to make access and choice convenient for the customer and The Atrium is always a fun and easy trip into the valley for some fire.
Obviously, these laws are subject to change and, obviously, Beard Bros. Pharms is NOT a legal adviser. Information contained in this website is intended as general educational information only. Let us know if you plan to harvest your own cannabis in 2020, and what the law looks like in your neck of the woods.
If your business plan for building a large scale grow in the past two years was to hire the cheapest grower you could find and then walk around MJBizCon with them checking items off of your shopping list, odds are that your operation is on the brink by now and you are not alone.
Something as natural as water has been branded and bottled for mass consumption for years but now in times of strife, the store shelves are empty and the stuff coming out of the tap is nasty. So before we package another part of nature maybe we ought to ask if we need to, or if we are even supposed to.
While it is true that Prop 64 dictated that burdensome taxes still be applied even to cannabis produced specifically for compassionate donations, grassroots activists refused to take that as a final answer. Even though the state’s former governor, Jerry Brown, vetoed a bill on his way out the door in 2018 that would have eliminated these taxes on such products, tireless advocates persisted, and nearly identical legislation was signed by Gov. Newsom in 2019.
Do not get it twisted, we aren’t saying that there is no such thing as a ‘new cannabis user’, or that they should be ignored by the market, but counting on them to carry this crippled industry is foolish. There need to be options and education for all consumers, but as we are seeing play out in real-time here in Cali, banking on the phantom new cannabis user is a surefire way to kill a new cannabis brand.
There are a lot of counterculture media outlets today, but we cannot think of another one that literally uses the founders’ faces as its logo the way we do here at Beard Bros. Pharms. As such, no matter where we go, we are instantly recognized in person as ‘those dudes that grow fire weed and deliver top-shelf cannabis news’.
This leads to daily conversations with our most engaged and informed peers about the topics currently shaping our culture and for many years, those conversations were centered on cannabis.
Lately, however, no matter where we go, the topic is turning more and more to a different plant medicine – psilocybin. The undeniable uptick in the public’s curiosity about this age-old, all-natural, ultimately safe & potentially healing mushroom-based therapy just so happens to coincide with a peaking of our own exploration into the subject and, so far, what we are learning is life-changing so we want to share it with you.
A study published late last year in the peer-reviewed Journal of Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Analysis shockingly revealed that 72% of random blood samples tested by a research team from Oklahoma State University contained traces of Xanax. Now, admittedly, the sample size was small and limited in its scope as it was not the purpose of the research to shine a light on America’s pill problem… but there is a problem.
Too many people who may be able to find real benefits from legit CBD products are instead walking blindly into the market with no advice, no education, and no clue on how to separate the snake oil from the CBD. We have friends and family asking us all the time for recommendations specifically for hemp-derived CBD but we’ve never had any place to confidently point them… until now.
Regenerative farming.
Research-driven, quality-controlled manufacturing.
High-grade products that work.
Compassion based community outreach.
Jeez… is this a hemp CBD company or an old school cannabis company?
That’s the beautiful part, Circle Labs is both.
There is a flood coming and it is going to last way more than 40 days and 40 nights. Before you start filling sandbags and stockpiling canned goods, though, be aware that the flood we are talking about has nothing to do with water or the weather. No, we are talking about a flood of boofy midgrade weed cultivated on a massive scale by investor-backed BizCon bois who wouldn’t recognize cannabis culture if they tripped over it.
Clearly, we here at Beard Bros. respect those that are willing to ride the edge to get a message across. Hell, that’s our SOP. The top meme makers in the game certainly don’t do it to make friends, and any one of them worth following is sure to make any one of us cringe from time to time, but that’s comedy. That’s the edge.
This shit is simple – as long as the state has even one weed dollar in their wallet and has yet to expunge EVERY SINGLE low-level cannabis crime from every resident’s record, they are the damn criminals. The way we see it, they are taxing the plant just enough to keep the vast majority of the industry short of financial freedom and to keep prices just high enough that the prohibitionists still in power can hang their hat on the false pretense of “deterrence”. The truth is, they can do without our billion dollars a year as long as no potheads make a million dollars a year.
A new study just published in the scientific journal Neuron has found a demonstrable method of manipulating certain molecules naturally present in the human body (dully named 2-AG) in a manner that could allow them to ‘roadblock’ the neural highway along which a potential anxiety attack would travel to fruition. These 2-AG molecules interact with receptors in the human brain that we refer to as the endocannabinoid system (ECS), that essential network found within all of us that your family doctor has probably never heard of.
If only nature provided a plant that grows like a weed and is chock full of hundreds of ECS-conducive cannabinoids…
The culture matters. In fact, it’s essential to your success. Some companies, like MedMen, just ignore it. Others, like Lowell, fabricate it. Neither one will cut it. It is way past time to get the people who planted the proverbial seeds for legal weed in on the harvest.
With MJ BizCon in full swing this week the global cannabis market will converge on Sin City to make a gameplan for 2020 and the years to come. But beyond the bright lights of the Las Vegas Strip, the Nevada cannabis industry can get pretty dark.
In 2016, there were more than 14,000 certified organic food farmers here in America, up a whopping 58% from 2011. California cannabis can follow this same model but the barriers to entering the industry must be lowered and the incentive to grow environmentally responsible, high quality, organic craft cannabis must be higher than it currently is. As for the rest of the country, we should really be careful what we wish for when we discuss federal cannabis legalization.
Clearly, the unregulated market in California is draining the potential of the regulated one, but it is the very taxes and regulations that differentiate them that provide that unregulated market with such a distinct advantage. We have no doubt that if we could get accurate totals on the unregulated cannabis sales in each state, Cali would shine as it should, but instead those stats stay in the shadows.
The state has done little or nothing to instill confidence in either the folks who have taken the enormous risk to enter the regulated market or the folks on the outside looking in. In a recent interview, California Bureau of Cannabis Control Chief Lori Ajax admitted that there are no “short-term fixes” for the hamstrung industry. How do you fix something that becomes more broken by the day?
If you have ever driven with Bill it might surprise you to learn that most cannabis users tend to actually slow down after a toke or two 😉 but according to some half-baked research released earlier this month, when cannabis users drive slower and steer straighter than average motorists, that’s somehow a problem.
With a 44% increase in the weed workforce between 2018-2019, legal cannabis is by far the fastest-growing job sector in the U.S. These numbers will only get higher in coming years as more Americans look to do the same. As Bushwick Bill from Death Row taught us: There are three types of people in the world; those who don’t know what happened, those who won’t know what happened, and people like us from the streets that MAKE THINGS HAPPEN… which one are you?
With cannabis reform sweeping the nation we are beginning to see more and more famous retired athletes begin to speak out about the many benefits of the plant. There are plenty of examples, though, of top tier athletes using cannabis during the height of their careers, including some who are considered to be the Greatest Of All Time in their particular sport. Clearly it’s time for professional sports leagues and organizations from the PGA to the UFC to stop penalizing high-level athletes who choose to legally consume cannabis.
According to a survey conducted earlier this year by the National Safety Council, they claim that 81% of employers have concerns about the negative impact of cannabis use in their workplace. Good news! Here’s your simple solution. Judge the employee on their punctuality and work ethic, their ability to complete the task at hand, and their compliance with company policies – PERIOD.
Governor Newsom took office riding a wave of support from cannabis consumers convinced that he would make right what Prop 64 got so terribly wrong. His track record on the issue has not been perfect so far, but this week’s flurry of signatures on successful cannabis legislation should show that the fight is not over yet and although he may not be the most reliable ally, he is certainly not the enemy. The battle begins anew the second week of January with the state’s next legislative session.
At Beard Bros. Pharms, we’re thinking of our friends up north, sending positive vibes, and hoping that you all have a Plan A, B & C to deal with the fuckery of PG&E.
We were somewhere around Brawley on the edge of the Anza-Borrego desert when we hit the GPS coordinates we had been given by our contacts. After a brief greeting, they motioned toward what appeared to be a real life oasis in the distance, a glimmering emerald gem throbbing in the rising heat of the extended summer we enjoyed in Southern California. We followed them down a winding dirt track, our tires digging into the desert sand, happy to be riding in a 4×4 pickup truck. Our escorts wove us through security checkpoints and thousands of acres of varying forms of perfectly partitioned agriculture on route to our ultimate destination. A seemingly endless forest of 10-15ft tall flowering hemp plants awaited our arrival…
As more and more farmers convert acreage to hemp cultivation, the tension continues to rise between them and any neighbors who happen to be growing cannabis either outdoors or in a greenhouse as the risk of cross-pollination threatens to spoil entire crops of cannabis that rely on female plants for flowering and a proper harvest.
Massachusetts has the rare distinction of being the first state to ban cannabis back in 1911 as well as being the first state on the eastern seaboard to create a legal recreational cannabis market. It may have taken them over a century to come around but they are predicted to haul in up to a half a billion in cannabis sales this year. It is certainly no pipe dream to figure on that number doubling once home delivery and social consumption become a reality. By 2021 cannabis sales in the state are predicted to account for 6.7% of TOTAL cannabis sales in the U.S. Yeah, boy… Beard Bros. Boston has a pretty sweet ring to it and we definitely know a thing or two about growing green monstahs!
For years, vape lovers were blowing dragon-like clouds, dabbers were dropping 1g globs on red hot nails, and pre-filled THC-rich vape carts rapidly outpaced all other forms of consumption especially among people new to cannabis. No epidemics, no press conferences, and no mysterious illnesses or deaths. So why now? It’s pretty remarkable that with a decade or more of public guinea pigging of these mostly self-regulated products, all of this headline-grabbing drama has gone down in the matter of less than a month.
Solventless Hash Oil – aka Rosin – has been something that avid hash makers have dabbled with for years but it wasn’t until recent years that terp hunters took the tech to the next level. What is cannabis rosin? How did it originate? And what will the future hold for it? These questions and more are answered in this installment of Beard Bros. High History: Hashing Out the Origins of Rosin Tech
There are dozens of valid reasons why we need to legalize cannabis federally. We are proud to know and support some of the most influential cannabis advocates who are fighting every day to make sure that those reasons get satisfied by an eventual, inevitable effort to legalize weed nationwide. Rushing that process now, after so much time and effort has been put into it, could be catastrophic for the cannabis culture as we know it. The last thing we need is a 50-state version of Prop 64. . . or worse.
The truth is, there is no simple answer for this issue but it really is not as big of a problem as the average American thinks it is. We do know that the answer is not more arrests. It is still just about a plant and some freedom and even in the midst of historic cannabis reform from coast to coast, our country still averages one weed arrest every 48 seconds. A vicious cycle that is certainly not in line with the inevitable future of cannabis in this country. But cops don’t care about yesterday or tomorrow, only who they can nail right now, and right now cannabis users are still not safe.
Though we are on an inevitable course toward nationwide cannabis legalization, what will it look like? Will we still find ways to arrest hundreds of thousands of people each year for it? Will we still see National Guard helicopters thundering through the most rural regions of the Emerald Triangle? The sad truth is, as long as these capitalist companies are able to pour millions of dollars into national politics each year just by foraging the spare change out of their sofas, we are bound to see dimebag busts continue to be about as far as most cops are willing to go to protect and serve.
We do not support or endorse the entirety of the language in AB 228 but if that is the direction the market is going then the compliance standards that cannabis companies are being held to must be imposed on hemp brands as well. If hemp-derived CBD brands want to jump in these shark-infested waters, they should have to swim for shore or drown just like the rest of us.
As Canada’s cannabis industry comes down off an eight month high, it will be interesting to see if they continue to import California’s culture-killing business model as their national market expands and our regional one waits for Washington D.C. to wake up.
There are so very few bright spots when it comes to Prop 64 and “legal weed” these days, but AB 1793 is a ray of positivity and we encourage anyone with a past cannabis conviction to stay engaged in the expungement process until they – and everyone else – are free from the rapidly fading stigma of reefer madness.
Cannabis, in its natural form, is a very unique medicine. It can effectively treat so many ailments, but those effects vary greatly from user to user. This is its blessing and its curse. Anecdotal evidence traditionally does not carry a lot of weight in the field of research medicine but it is essential in the understanding of cannabis and how it affects people. By hearing enough stories, and by treating those stories as “cases”, bigger picture extrapolations can occur which could potentially help doctors to gain a broader knowledge of the plant and how it can be optimally used to heal.
The Terptown Throwdown is less than a month away and Bill & Jeff Levers of Beard Bros. Pharms will be there at the Spencer Fairgrounds in Spencer, Massachusetts on July 6th for the first summertime cannabis festival in the state’s history.
We are all about safe access for all, especially when it comes to the medicinal use of cannabis or hemp. Lower priced hemp products are not inherently bad, and those that are farmed and produced ethically need to have a place in the market but this feels like a deadly blow to the already niche market of CBD-rich cannabis production in California and that is scary.
Nobody on our crew voted for Prop 64 but unless it is somehow repealed and replaced it is the flawed law of the land. Our windows of opportunity to effect real change are so narrow and when we miss them, months go by before they reopen. It is imperative that we keep the pressure on our elected officials at all levels of government so that we can take advantage of our next opportunity to correct this law. We have the overwhelming will of the people on our side – will you add your voice to the cause?
It should come as no surprise that we stand behind the growers in Santa Barbara County. As the County Supervisor stated, the growers have gone the extra mile to be good members of the community on top of unprecedented regulations from the state that they must abide by to get licensed and remain compliant.
Of the 123 professional sports teams across the NFL, NHL, NBA, and MLB, 45 of them (or 36.6% of them) are based in states or provinces where recreational cannabis is legal for consumption by adults aged 21 and up. On top of that, 56 of them (or 45.5% of them) have home court/field/ice advantage in states or provinces where medical use of cannabis is legal. Don’t worry, we did the math – that’s 102 out of 123 teams, or a heavily lopsided 82% of sports teams from those four leagues. There are only six states remaining that have a pro team but do not have progressive cannabis reform in place – Georgia, Indiana, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Wisconsin. That sure adds a new twist to draft day.
Military veterans have shouldered an unbelievable amount of the burden to make cannabis reform a reality and we at Beard Bros. Pharms are eternally grateful to these groups and individuals for their service and for their advocacy. The least we can do is help to spread the word and rattle some political cages when called to action – won’t you do the same?
I went into this article pretty set in my opinion and pretty frustrated by the about-face pulled by the NAACP here in the 11th hour of cannabis reform. But deeper research and some forced perspective have opened my eyes a bit wider to the fact that true social justice reform is a full-spectrum challenge.
It is estimated that approximately 50 million Americans own at least one gun. Coincidentally, roughly that many Americans admit to having smoked some pot in the past year. To pretend that these two major political and social phenomena are unrelated is short-sighted but we know that the NRA likes to play the long game so we are left wondering why our rights matter less to them than any other sector of society. The NRA did not respond to our multiple requests for more information on their stance but did, in turn, send us multiple requests to become paying members. Groucho Marx once famously said, “I don’t want to belong to any club that will accept people like me as a member.” Well, I sure as hell don’t want to join one that doesn’t accept me or my lifestyle.
The truth is, the history behind 4/20 is still pretty hazy and it is still being written today as we collectively continue to break new barriers with our advocacy of this plant. A year ago we dove into the lore behind the 20th of April at 20 minutes after 4 and got to the bottom of the myths… sort of… Check it out here and leave us a comment about what 4/20 means to you
Reviewing nuclear-grade cannabis concentrates isn’t easy but it sure is fun! Tune in to the latest Strain Review from Beard Bros. Pharms to see if we can make it to the end of these Kosher Kush Caviar dabs from our buds at Pharmers Manufacturing without passing out in a euphoric haze.
Zach Eisenberg of Anresco Laboratories tells us, “Accreditation will not completely eliminate lab variability or bad actors, but it will help. The result should be more meaningful test results and subsequently safer products, which will benefit both consumers and the industry as a whole.” Now those are the results we’ve been waiting for.
This bill, like all cannabis legislation it seems, has its flaws, but we love the provision that the same lawmakers who approved X number of liquor stores within spitting distance of schools, parks, churches, and DMVs would now have to count them all up and divide by four and start writing cannabis license approvals right away.
The hopes, dreams, and life savings of many of the people who helped to put California cannabis on the map are being taxed to death. The cynical side of us thinks that maybe that is by design. After all, one way or another supply will meet demand and it’s easier for the state to oversee several hundred licensees rather than several thousand. But when you see the drastically lower-than-predicted sales revenues after one year of legal weed in the 5th largest economy in the world, you have to figure that money-loving politicians would do the math we have and make some changes – and some are trying. Occam’s razor tells us that the actual answer is usually the simplest one and that is they likely just got too greedy at all of our expense.
Watching how badly the federal government is bungling something as simple as CBD makes us fear for the future of cannabis. If you thought states could screw it up, wait until Uncle Sam gets his hands on it.
The time to address this crisis is long overdue. The lawsuits naming and shaming the architects of this deadly epidemic are making headlines, finally, but Doc Brown sums it up best, “If we don’t change the regulatory process for opioids, it will happen again.”
I guess we shouldn’t be surprised – kickbacks, bribes, and pay-to-play schemes form the tattered fabric of our political system so why would legal cannabis be any different? Prop 64 gave undue power to local yokels and corrupt city officials who are now blaming the state for giving them so much rope to hang themselves with. But in the meantime, it is the legit, law-abiding, fee-paying, cannabis industry hopefuls who are left swinging in the breeze.
Kaizen – a Japanese term that refers to ‘continuous improvement’ through a lean methodology. Dig into this compelling history behind the Kaizen Medicinals brand and how it came to merge with the Santa Cruz Veterans Alliance in this uplifting story from the grassroots of the cannabis culture.
Whether or not you prefer to use them yourself, the rise of the pre-filled vape cart as a prominent method of cannabis consumption is inevitable. With vape pens in general under such heavy scrutiny by the federal government these days, the cannabis industry can further separate itself from actual drugs like nicotine by setting, and living up to, a higher standard.
At Beard Bros. Pharms we fully appreciate the need for and the benefits of CBD. We also prefer to see it as part of a true full spectrum medicine but we realize that we are still a few steps away from seeing that sort of medicine being sold legally nationwide. Our biggest concern with the current hemp-derived CBD marketplace is the stunning lack of regulation that has been put in place before and since the sudden passage of the 2018 Farm Bill. Now, take a screenshot because you will not see us asking for more regulations very often! While we do not agree with how the state of California has rushed to implement mandated lab testing on legal cannabis products, we still see the absolute need for such testing, and the same goes for other controversial programs such as track & trace. You have to have programs like these, in some shape or form, in order to provide a level playing field for cultivators, manufacturers, and retailers and a safe marketplace for consumers.
With the well-being of our nation’s veterans in mind, one of the groups that has helped to take point on the task of providing safe access to free meds for vets in California is the Santa Cruz Veterans Alliance (SCVA), a self-funded, vertically-integrated, and highly compassionate yet down-to-earth cannabis company and advocacy group in Northern California. With roots that run deep into the culture of Prop215, SCVA has weathered the storms of regulation better than many and now they vow to continue the mission for compassion.
California cannabis growers, extractors, processors, and retailers have been lab testing their products for potency and purity for at least the past decade, dating back well before Prop 64 and the implementation of recreational marijuana legalization in the state. For those with established relationships with professionally run testing facilities, these early years of practical analysis helped them to hone their craft and refine the quality of their products, giving them a very useful headstart once the industry did evolve.
It can be incredibly frustrating to fight for legalization, then be handed this. . . to fight for expungement and justice reform only to see war-trained troops assigned to kick down doors. . . but we must fight. This plant, once truly embraced, will drop that embarrassing incarceration rate and will kick in tax revenues to our starving schools and that is an investment worth fighting for.
As we enter the post-Prop64 marketplace in our role as a distributor, Beard Bros. Pharms has taken a special interest in this issue as we strive to do better and to help steer the cannabis industry back toward the cannabis culture.
The cannabis culture doesn’t want to make a 10 minute unboxing video to reveal an 8th of midzotics.
The cannabis culture doesn’t want to continue to contribute to trashing our planet for the sake of convenience or hype design.
Another thing the cannabis culture has no interest in is $70 8ths of herb, no matter how good it is, and while ridiculous amounts of packaging are not totally to blame for the high prices found on many shiny boxes of legal weed, it sure isn’t helping.
Instead of educating these curious new consumers, many companies are banking on bilking as many bewildered Boomers and conning as many confused custies as they can. They don’t want savvy shoppers, they want in on the easy money.
In reality, we are just scratching the surface of the healing properties of not only CBD, but THC and the wide array of cannabinoids and terpenes that occur naturally in the cannabis plant in varying ratios depending on the strain of the plant used for the extraction, and on the extraction method itself. Decades of federal prohibition have ironically and ignorantly stunted our institutional scientific knowledge of cannabis even as one state after another passes medical marijuana laws right under the nose of the feds. Instead, the rise in popularity of cannabis and cannabis oils and extracts as medicine had been fueled mostly by anecdotal evidence for years as patients and their families found relief for their ailments outside of the medical system.
Purdue says they have spent the past decade engineering the first “FDA-approved opioid with abuse deterrent properties”. We certainly applaud that effort. The fact remains that they wrote the playbook for fraud and corruption in their industry and now their destructive influence has become as dangerous an epidemic as these immoral products.
In December of 2018, just before the completely avoidable federal government shutdown began, Republican Senator (and undercover Sleestak, probably) Mitch McConnell famously signed the 2018 Farm Bill with a pen made out of hemp, sending it to President Trump for his final signature that would mark one of the few victories for his Adderall-addled administration.
Washington state is already on its second stab at a track and trace program and in Oregon, the seed to sale system says that they have a million unsold pounds of pot, roughly enough for 4 free ounces for each of the state’s 4 million residents. Four million residents, eh? 3 mill or so in Nevada. 5.6 mill in Colorado. 7.4 mill in Washington. Well, we’ve got 40 million in California so any problems that these smaller markets have experienced could be scaled up greatly once the experiment is fully underway here. Hell, harking back to our dude Mickey one more time, there are more people in Los Angeles County alone (10.16 million) than there are in 42 states in this country…Cali is a different beast.
We’d all like to believe that it is the very real medicinal benefits that cannabis can deliver that’s causing this ideological shift at the top levels of our government, but let’s face it, money talks. As depressing as that may sound, it is still driving real reform across the country and that is a net positive. It should also remind the cannabis movement that we are in a highly influential position.
Science has begun to accurately map the genome of cannabis and as exciting as that is, it also opens the door to the potential for smothering monopolies and corporate influence the likes of which our culture and this industry are just now starting to witness. So we fight back and celebrate small victories.
Is Neem Oil to blame for what appears to be a recent upsurge in cases of Cannabis Hyperemesis Syndrome? Or is the answer right beneath our belts?
In a market dominated by too many vape carts pre-filled with hot dog water and mystery oil, terp hunters are once again seeking the ultimate handheld flavor saver. . . well, look no further, Goose.
When Californians passed Prop 64 in November of 2016, not only did they legalize the adult recreational use (and production and sale) of cannabis, but they dug the grave for MMJ in the Golden State.
The thing is, medical was already dead and laid in the coffin by then and it wasn’t Prop 64 that killed it…
PacEx shares a common vision with The Emerald Cup in promoting the value of a natural, organic product created by someone with a tangible craft skill. As we witness massive alcohol and tobacco producers retreat from decades of lucrative production and sprint headfirst toward the cannabis industry, it is reassuring to remember that while Budweiser is struggling, Stone Brewing is not. Preserving the history of cannabis, according to Pacific Expeditors, is the key to its future.
There are many beneficial uses for hemp, but these days most of the headlines swirl around CBD, the non-psychoactive healing cannabinoid that can be bred in relative abundance in hemp plants. In the wake of the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill we have seen conflicting news stories about just what this new law will mean for the highly popular cannabinoid, particularly on a nationwide scale. So what about hemp-derived CBD, now that hemp cultivation will be legal?
No matter where they plant their flag in the future, you can be confident that the deeply organic feel associated with the steady rise of the Emerald Cup will always be present as Tim and Taylor Blake continue to cultivate this communal celebration for years to come. At Beard Bros. Pharms we highly recommend The Emerald Cup and we can’t wait to see what’s coming next.
Until their technology advances enough to close these gaps in accuracy, or the state loosens the law enough to account for those gaps, testing labs may need to meet their customers in the middle in order to protect the small to midsize producers at the essential grassroots of this potentially lucrative and efficient market.
Until some major investments earlier this year, one virtually untapped sector of the edibles market had been in CBD and THC infused beverages which experts predict will flood over $600 million into the U.S. economy annually by the year 2022. If those numbers come to fruition, cannabis-based beverages will make up 20% of the edibles market over the course of the next four years. But if a company called Sproutly has its way, those numbers might end up being just a drop in the bucket.
There are currently too many barriers to entering the legal cannabis industry in California and hopefully many of them will be eased or eliminated when the agencies overseeing the state’s legal weed finalize their regulations sometime next month. That will mark more than two years since Californians passed Prop 64 and will be the first time that we truly know what the legal landscape will look like.
80% of the country is still dealing with a patchwork of unique medical marijuana laws or outright cannabis prohibition. As these states look to the future, with the benefit of watching those that blazed the trail before them, there are some fundamental planks that we believe must form the foundation for any effective and thorough cannabis reform.
Facing state and federal cases, along with shareholder and other related lawsuits, we hope this is the last we see of Insys, but the reality is that scum like this usually finds its way back to the surface so the cannabis community must remain vigilant.
Growers and manufacturers spend even more time and money doing preliminary R&D product testing hoping to identify and eliminate any issues before the crucial final compliance testing. But what good does that do if every lab is using different equipment, following different operating procedures, and in some cases, just outright faking the results?
Whether it is in men or women, young or old, the endocannabinoid system regulates our overall well-being in a myriad of ways – from how your mood is balanced when you talk to how your weight is balanced when you walk. So when this system suffers, the side effects can be wide ranging… like with menopause.
Some wonder how a person can effectively navigate an industry founded on such a deep and rich culture if they have not, and are not, a part of that culture. Others compare it to running a pharmaceutical company saying that you don’t have to eat painkillers in order to sell them. On the other hand, those who readily admit their cannabis use probably benefit from their openness by adding an air of legitimacy and authenticity to their brand through their genuine embrace of the plant.
From our own experience, and from the stories we hear all the time in the cannabis community, we already know that cannabis use can absolutely mute the frightening effects of PTSD. Clearly, the federal government has not been listening to you or to us so far, but hopefully this FDA-approved study will bear the results we expect and can move the battle lines forward in the war against cannabis prohibition.
Erickson’s report claimed that the blunt was found “in plain sight”, even though both officers searched the area unsuccessfully, and Pastran’s body camera footage shows no such evidence. What Officer Erickson apparently didn’t realize is that somebody smarter than him already thought of the ol’ broken camera trick and his body camera had a feature built in that somehow allowed it to record 30 seconds of footage before Erickson reactivated it.
They have 19 licensed cannabis facilities operating in 13 states with imminent plans to expand that to 66 retail outlets, but here’s the catch. . . none of them are profitable. That’s right, in an industry where 90% of legal dispensaries report profitability, and 40% of them can claim profits in excess of $500k+/yr, somehow MedMen’s mids aren’t making money.
Cannabis, even in legal states, still carries a negative stigma with many Americans, and those opposed to legalization efforts are not only working overtime to perpetuate that stigma, but they are actually starting to weaponize it.
With a substantially higher margin of victory than even the already impressive races at the top of the ticket, clearly cannabis carried some clout into Election Day. But remember, there were two other proposals on Michigan’s ballots that day, and together with weed, they form a blueprint for future electoral success in all points on the political map.
For two unrelated men that share not only a last name, but also an extreme hatred for the cannabis plant, both Jeff Sessions and Pete Sessions find themselves out of a job today for very different reasons. But the cannabis community isn’t too picky and we’re glad to see them both go for any reason.
Gemini Finance Corp. reacted to the cancellation of the Chalice Festival in July by foreclosing on a $587,000 loan that they had out to event organizers. Sensing blood in the water, the sharks at High Times swooped in and gobbled up a $560,000 debt to purchase the rights to the future of the Chalice Festival. Yep, High Times now owns Chalice…sort of…
Tomorrow is Election Day in America and the stakes surrounding the results of races for the Senate and Congress all the way down to your local representatives couldn’t be higher. Voting is a fundamental right of being an American, and your vote absolutely matters. These four states vote on cannabis legalization tomorrow – here’s what you need to know.
At the beginning of Part I we told you that we were actually starting in the middle of the saga, and at the end, we wondered where Matt “Bubba” Berger got the Florida-held genetics that were eventually brought out west – and that’s the story we have for you today.
The BCC is receiving commentary through November 5th on this issue, and all issues raised by this final set of proposed regulations. Many beneficial changes to these proposed regs have come about thanks to the tireless work of cannabis advocates like you reaching out to the BCC and offering your perspectives. By the end of this year, your voice on this issue may be silenced so if you want to speak up do it now.
For decades, rebel weed growers kept their identities, and their stories, closely guarded. As the popularity of the OG Kush strain and all of its variants skyrocketed, alleged stories of its origin began floating around – most of them completely devoid of truth. So now those with key parts of the story to add are ready to set the record straight on the origins of OG Kush.
The regulatory authorities that oversee California’s struggling rollout of “legal weed” have until December 3rd to release their final draft that will define state law for years to come.
The Beard Bros. Pharms “Cannabis Trailblazer Series” is a multipart installment that will highlight some of the heroes that have laid the foundation for the cannabis movement as we now know it. This report gives an inside look at an organization near & dear to our hearts – the Weed for Warriors Project
With public demand for cannabis legalization at an all-time high, and only on the rise, it is crucial that we recognize that those rights are for all Americans, regardless of race. And until the law sees it that way too, we’ve all got work to do.
One of the fundamental barriers to true, nationwide legalization here is, and has always been, the fact that you can grow it in your backyard and cut Uncle Sam out of the middle. But, ten years from now, will that be the only place to get an actual bag of weed?
What a whirlwind week it was for MedMen who announced a series of moves that will increase their business canopy to 12 states, 66 retail outlets & 13 totally legal large-scale grow ops… Their next move is anyone’s guess…
We have to be very careful as advocates of the cannabis plant to not oversell, or overpromise, its medicinal benefits. Cancer takes many different forms and affects people in different ways – as does cannabis. But there is some compelling data, backed by thousands of pieces of anecdotal evidence, that suggests that while cannabis might not always cure cancer, it is always worth a shot.
While begging for their permit back in May, High Times pledged to donate $100,000 to the Build Black Coalition, and an additional $40,000 to provide high tech career training to local youths. By mid-August they still had not paid. When confronted by leaders of the activist groups, the company vowed to square up in 10 days. Here we are in October and they still have not met that obligation, claiming that the money to do so is “tied up” in their IPO launch. Strange, considering they just rolled up over $11,000,000 out of thin air to squash Dope Mag…
Mickey was doing weed shit before we knew it could be done, and he was the first to remind you of that. If you love this plant like we love this plant, you have to be willing to sacrifice everything for it. Mickey sacrificed more than most.
Fueled by the tireless work over at CANORML, here is our quick recap of all marijuana related legislation that made it to the governor and how it all fared against his weed-hating veto pen.
Many experts agree that it is very possible to increase the delivery rate by which THC enters one’s system, and the most effective way so far has been through the use of cannabis suppositories which can deliver 80% of the cannabis plant’s medicinal value to a patient in need. That’s right – in many cases, ingesting cannabis by mouth is far less effective than approaching the situation from a different angle.
More information has been released about the treatment and what its advertised side effects are. It’s pretty frightening, and once added to the growing amount of patient feedback from clinical trials, it starts to become clear why the DEA is dragging its feet on their ruling for Epidiolex.
If you follow these tips, and ignore the fearmongering and fake news being peddled by the DEA, you can maximize the benefits and enjoyment that are possible with proper cannabis consumption.
Asked about climate change, and what we can do about it, Gov. Brown reached deep into his odd hatred for pot and blurted out, “We either do nothing and smoke marijuana because it’s legalized, or we put our shoulder to the plow and do everything we can.” Ok, listen up Moonbeam. We have actual people with their actual shoulders to actual plows trying to form a lucrative, fair, and eternally sustainable industry out of an actually miraculous plant that grows like a weed.
So, if you’re following along, Mormon lawmakers are being influenced by church leaders via the Mormon-owned media and tax-free tithings in a Mobius Loop of corruption and a carefree disregard for the Johnson Amendment.
Drug testing reasoning, methods, and technology – particularly when it comes to cannabis use – are archaic and severely flawed. This isn’t about Congress – they are the distraction. nRestricting government cheese, or earned unemployment benefits from someone in need because they took a toke three weeks prior is beyond inhumane and it is high time that we the people stopped supporting or encouraging it at any level.
As recently as last year, Gov. Cuomo was on record still referring to cannabis as a “gateway drug” and Nixon’s camp contends that his sudden shift on policy is due to their incessant pressure from his political left flank on the issue. But, in reality, pressure from opponents, voters, or even one’s own morals rarely steer an entire campaign. No… money does.
We first reported on this story in June, when the Republicans originally blocked the VA funding vote based on the pro-MMJ stance laid out by the proposed bill. Since then, a dual-chamber panel was tasked with finding a way to merge the House and Senate bills into one final piece of legislation for the president to sign. That final legislation was released yesterday…
This study is a big deal. Not only does it show a distinct correlation between “heavy” cannabis use and lower risk of alcohol-related disease, it takes it a step further. The data showed that even though the average cannabis user has a worse diet than a non-user – munchies etc. – cannabis users are less likely to be obese. This isn’t just a vanity thing either, it highlights a link between weed use and the potential for lower fasting-insulin levels, which could also protect the liver from non-alcoholic and dietary liver diseases.
Massachusetts knows a thing or two about tradition and on the third weekend each September for the past 28 years Boston has been home to one of the coolest traditions in the cannabis culture, the Boston Freedom Rally. Join Beard Bros. Pharms Sept. 14-16 to celebrate cannabis culture and help to push the movement forward!
Of the nearly 17,000 adults surveyed, 14.6% (or roughly 1 in 7) fessed up to having used marijuana at some point in 2017. When the stats focus solely on respondents from states where recreational cannabis use has been legalized, that number jumps to 20%.
If even one child is denied this life-altering medication based not just on bullshit laws that we’ve been fighting for decades, but for ever-increasing corporate revenues, then it’ll be easy to point to the real criminals.
Originally, the medical marijuana program in PA was hamstrung by a lack of legal cultivation facilities, but lately, the bottleneck to the program’s potential success has been technological, not agricultural.
An in-depth survey of California’s kids has once again reaffirmed that youth cannabis use goes down when adult cannabis use is legalized. For today’s teens, it seems that weed going mainstream is like seeing their dad try to Whip & Nae Nae.
A company called Applied DNA says they have a product to spray on cannabis that can take down a raging grey and black market that has already rolled up California’s attempt to take them down – Prop 64 – and blazed it like a Backwoods blunt.
Whatever effects cannabis has on your motor skills or ability to perform a task is typically very short lived with the easiest of recoveries or “come downs”. If you like to spark up before heading to your boring job, we don’t blame you. Even if you arrive still baked, the buzzkill of the 9to5 grind awaits and you’ll be miserably sober again in no time.
We’re on the home stretch of the Beard Bros. Pharms 50 State Cannabis Laws Road Trip now, buds! You’ve got the grinder and we’ve got the wheel as we sesh our way up the seaboard and toke our way up the turnpike to see what’s good on the eastern front of the war for cannabis legalization. Our own journey began out here so it’s good to check in and see just how far things have come on the Beast Coast. Get in, we’re doin’ weed stuff!
Hound Labs claims that their machine analyzes whether or not a person has used cannabis within the past two hours based on the metabolites of THC that remain in their breath during that window of time. They say that after three hours, it doesn’t matter if you just globbed a gram, those breath-based metabolites will be back to zero. Any sensible person would stop to think, “Wow, the human body sure does metabolize marijuana quickly & efficiently, it’s almost…natural.”
You’ve got shotgun for the next stretch of the Beard Bros. Pharms 50 State Cannabis Laws Road Trip but you’re going want to keep that stash concealed as we soak up some Southern Hospitality in some less than weed-friendly territory
A recent report in a journal called Police Quarterly revealed that Colorado & Washington have both seen improvement in clearing violent crimes since legalizing the recreational use of cannabis for adults back in 2012. Legal cannabis quite literally makes our streets safer by making the police do actual police work.
Prop 64 has been patched together with Zig Zags and resin since it first stumbled out of the gates last year with a deeply flawed set of “Emergency Regulations” that sent the Cali cannabis industry into a tailspin. The Bureau of Cannabis Control is now looking to revise and finalize those regulations by the end of this year with some much needed changes that they hope will revitalize the multibillion dollar marijuana market.
Fresh off of our 11-stop tour of the Midwest states and their wildly varying cannabis laws the journey continues on the Beard Bros. Pharms 50 State Cannabis Laws Road Trip as we explore the Central region of the U.S. to see where weed reform stands from Minnesota to West Virginia. So get on board, let’s hit the road!
Earlier this month the California Department of Public Health Food & Drug Branch (CDPH-FDB) set a dangerous new precedent by strongly stating that absolutely no hemp-derived CBD is allowed to be added to any sort of food or beverage to be sold in the state. We break it down.
(cover photo @MileHighMagic on IG)
Cannabis legalization has come a long way since California blazed a brand new trail with Prop215 back in 1996 but the question has always remained – what about the weed warriors either sitting in prison or strapped with a tarnished record due to the same cannabis that is now being sold legally by suits and ties?
In Part 1 of the Beard Bros. Pharms Cannabis Laws & Regulations Road Trip we kicked off our quest out west, making our way down the coast and into the desert. Now we set our sights eastbound as we take a look at the state of cannabis legalization in the Midwest. Take a ride with us!
Over the next month we will cover all 50 states and where they stand on cannabis reform and legality – today in Part 1 we begin on the West Coast and take a look at the cannabis laws in Hawaii, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Cali, Nevada & Arizona
Canada may have just become the 2nd country on the planet Earth to federally legalize the adult recreational use of cannabis but if you think you’re going to partake in such indulgences and just waltz on through the Pearly Gates…
As federal legalization of cannabis becomes more and more inevitable, beware of politicians and others with glaring conflicts of interests as they try to demonize THC
In the past year and a half, since January of 2017, a small but growing crowd of cannabis industry moguls have quietly donated $69,000 to one particular political action committee called What a Country! – or WACPAC – or the Wack Pack.
WACPAC was founded by Republican Congressman Carlos Curbelo in 2015 with the expressed mission to bring about comprehensive immigration reform.
That’s right, immigration reform.
Not cannabis reform.
In the wake of the June 25th decision by the Federal Drug Administration to approve a cannabis-based CBD-rich epilepsy medication from GW Pharma, a new lawsuit has been filed by a medical marijuana user against the federal government.
The plaintiff is essentially calling the FDA as her first witness and this has the federal government tiptoeing through a minefield of their own making.
Prop 64 was passed in the 2016 election with 57% support from Cali residents who wanted easier access to weed, but did they really know what they were signing up for?
Should we trust the president to do the right thing when it comes to cannabis?
Allentown, Wilkes-Barre, Scranton stand up!
Let’s pack Room 336 at ESU tonight
As more CBD success stories swirl around our society, of course, more people become interested in seeing what all the hype is about, and if it can help them or someone that they know.
The social media behemoth has never been very cannabis friendly, but now that they find themselves in trouble with the government, picking on potheads might be their moral solution.
Legalizing medical marijuana in Pennsylvania has been a long and difficult struggle, but it has been two months since the new laws were enacted and there still isn’t a legal dispensary in Philadelphia… so, what gives?
What is the history of 4/20? Ask 100 people you might get 420 answers. There is a reason that it is so hard to pin down the truth and we explore it here.
Cannabis sales & consumption disallowed at 2018 SoCal High Times Cannabis Cup
You must be over 21 years of age to view this website.
