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State Marijuana Regulators Share Tips On How To Stay Safe And Legal Around The Holidays

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4 weeks ago

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Another holiday season is here, and with it another round of public service announcements from regulators in states that have legalized marijuana, aimed at advising people on how to stay safe amid the law and the merriment.

It’s become a trend in recent years, with states increasingly using anti-stigma education-based messaging to help cannabis users better understand the laws — especially around impaired driving — while also offering advice on how to avoid abuse.

This year, cannabis regulators in New Jersey and Virginia published blog posts about holiday social media and consumption practices.

“The holidays are a time for food, fun, laughter and connecting with the people who make life sweeter,” said the New Jersey Cannabis Regulatory Commission (NJ-CRC). “And as more New Jersey adults choose to enjoy or give the gift of legal cannabis throughout the season, NJ-CRC has launched its second safe use campaign, SMART, to help keep the celebrations (relatively) stress-free.”

The acronym stands for “Safe, Considerate, Conscious, Responsible and Thoughtful.”

“SMART is an easy way to remember the basics of responsible cannabis use, especially when travel is constant, roads are chaotic, homes are busy and curious little ones are wandering around,” officials said.

“Whether you’re a host, a guest, a first-time weed buyer, know your way around a dispensary, or can walk around with one hand, being SMART helps everyone relax and enjoy the season,” the state blog post. he says. “Be safe. Be considerate. Be mindful. Be responsible. Be thoughtful. Be SMART this holiday season.”

In X, the NJ-CRC stressed that people who use marijuana in compliance with state law should not drive after using cannabis, make sure marijuana products are away from children, and exercise caution.

The Virginia Cannabis Control Authority (CCA), meanwhile, shared a post stressing the importance of understanding the state’s unique marijuana laws, particularly when it comes to “gifting.”

Possession of cannabis under current Virginia law, as well as no commercial giveaways. But there are certain policy parameters to consider lawmakers look to 2026 to establish a retail market under a pro-reform governor.

“While ‘adult sharing’ of cannabis between persons 21 and older is legal in Virginia, this term applies only to specific circumstances. Other exchanges may be illegal and subject to penalties. Common illegal exchanges are known as ‘gifting schemes,'” the CCA policy states.

“Giving someone cannabis as part of the sale of another good or service, such as a sticker or seminar” is not legal, he says.

Several other states—from California to New York—have also historically introduced public education campaigns around the holiday in recent years.

One in three Americans say so their vacation “pre-game” routine involves using marijuanaaccording to a new survey.

This past November, the mainstream media also picked up on a trend that has long been practiced in the cannabis community: “cousin walk”, a pre-Thanksgiving game (and usually pre-dinner) tradition for some, where young people who usually arrive at a meeting will escape for a cannabis break before the party starts.

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Technical advances in cannabis curing focus on water activity and terpene stability

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19 hours ago

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January 18, 2026

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Curing is one of those phases of cannabis production that almost everyone agrees is important, but that importance hardly translates into cannabis facilities. It’s understandable that growers want to maximize their canopy space first and foremost. After all, more flowers, more income. However, the irony is that by the time a plant reaches the curing room, most of the money has already been spent. The genetics are locked in, the lights have done their job, the rooms have been marked, the harvest has been carefully handled. And yet, quality is often validated or left behind.

Simon Knobel of Calyx Containers has spent an amazing amount of time thinking about this disintegration. The company started about 9 years ago, when Simon and his co-founder Alex were still in school and adult cannabis was becoming legal in Massachusetts. “Back then, cannabis packaging meant pill bottles, borrowed wholesale from the pharmaceutical world and reused without much thought,” explains Simon. “Our initial instinct wasn’t to do something revolutionary. It was just to build something that made sense for cannabis.”

As the company developed a range of packaging formats, the focus was on quality at the point of sale. “Scent retention, ease of use, shelf life, that was the pace of our design process. What took longer to fully register was that the degradation didn’t just happen after packaging. In many cases, it was already baked in during curing.”

Simon and Calyx did extensive market research to understand what was happening with quality degradation. “It’s good to talk not only with operators, but with consumers.” A story stuck. Simon recalls interviewing a client who was on a ski trip with his family and trying to hide the fact that he had cannabis with him. This awkwardness of smell, discretion and manipulation became a design problem. The sliding cover, integrated gasket, meant the elimination of the twisting motion that gave some users a literal pain in the wrist. But it also opened up a deeper line of research.

As Calyx began to talk more seriously with growers, a recurring question came up. Where exactly does quality start to slip? To answer this, the company partnered with the Cannabis Research Coalition and worked with Dr. Allison Justice on research based on the cure. “What we found was that it wasn’t particularly comfortable for anyone relying on legacy methods,” says Simon. “One of the biggest drivers of terpene preservation was the stability of water activity. When water activity drops below 0.55 aW, the stomata begin to collapse, then shrink, then break. At that point, the mono-terpenes escape.”

These mono-terpenes are responsible for most of the aromas associated with quality cannabis. “They are also volatile in nature. Once they’re gone, they’re gone,” highlighted Simon.

© Calyx Vessels

Basic methods and alternatives
Traditional healing methods are based on burping. Opening containers, exchanging air, manually regulating humidity. “This methodology works, but it also introduces oxygen. In addition, the plant material is also subject to mechanical stress. Both oxygen and mechanical stress accelerate degradation, thus hampering quality.”

Calyx Cure was designed as an alternative to that ritual. “Instead of active intervention, Calyx Cure uses a passive atmospheric film with selective permeation properties. The layers are designed to allow specific gases to move through the material while others are restricted. Biological curing processes continue, but without opening the container, without introducing excess oxygen and without handling the flower.”

In controlled studies, Calyx saw a 33% improvement in monoterpene profile preservation compared to traditional approaches such as turkey pouches. “Practically speaking, that first hit of aroma you get when you open a jar, driven largely by monoterpenes, is intact.”

Complicating the picture is that curing is not reversible. There is a persistent belief that if cannabis dries out too much, there are no moisture packs or other interventions that can bring it back. “Excessive drying slows down the enzymatic reactions, alters the aging process and permanently changes the composition of the terpenes. Once the quality is lost at that stage, the bottle cannot revive it,” he said.

© Calyx Vessels

Curing and speed to market
Therefore, post-harvest processes cannot be the last element of cannabis facility design. “Sometimes speed or short-term cost savings drive the decision. Cure less, move product faster and assume the container will handle the rest.” Market dynamics don’t help either. When a new market opens and the shelves are empty, speed is rewarded and cutting corners can be the difference between hitting dispensaries later.

Calyx approaches it as a manufacturing and engineering problem rather than a branding exercise. Unlike much of the packaging industry, which operates largely as a middleman, Calyx operates its own factory in Utah. “That vertical integration allows us to iterate quickly. New designs can be prototyped in 1 or 2 weeks.”

This can be a huge plus, as quality control is a hot topic in the wider world of agriculture, not just cannabis. The industry often talks about wanting nutraceutical or food standards. These industries have already solved the complexity of the supply chain. They know how to produce in one region and deliver consistently to another. Cannabis, especially if it wants to move globally, will need similar discipline.”

And as with food packaging, sustainability is part of that equation in cannabis. Calyx has extensively studied compostable and hemp-based structures. “Compostable materials struggle with terpene conservation and water activity control. If the package breathes too much, the plant pays the price.”

Instead, Calyx’s approach to sustainability is based on reducing the use of materials at the manufacturing level. “The cover molded joint is a good example,” explains Simon. “Traditional seals require cutting circular inserts from large sheets, creating huge waste. We’ve designed molds where a small amount of polymer forms the cover and joint in one plane, creating almost zero waste and a fully recyclable component.”

Healing, it seems, is not passive waiting. “It’s an active and fragile process,” says Simon. “And like most fragile things in cannabis, it benefits from being engineered rather than inherited.”

For more information:
Calyx vessels
1991 W Parkway Blvd. West Valley City, UT, 84119-2026
724-303-7481
(email protected)
calyxcontainers.com

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Michigan Lawmakers Weigh Bill To Create Statewide Cannabis Reference Lab To Standardize Testing

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19 hours ago

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January 18, 2026

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The facility “will allow us to inspect test results from private laboratories.”

By Katherine Dailey, Michigan Advance

Seeking to ensure stricter safety controls in Michigan’s cannabis industry, Representative Mike Mueller (R-Linden) introduced a bill to the Michigan House Rules Committee on Thursday that would establish a statewide cannabis reference laboratory to standardize testing facilities across the state.

The legislation, House Bill 4501, would establish a lab that was first funded in fiscal year 2024 appropriations and has been in the process of opening ever since.

Derek Sova, policy and legislative assistant for the Michigan Cannabis Regulatory Agency, explained to the committee that this bill was essential to ensure that laboratories had explicit authority to possess marijuana, given that it is still a federally illegal substance.

Currently, there are 17 privately owned and state-licensed cannabis testing facilities or laboratories in Michigan, Sova explained.

But some manufacturers will engage in what they call “lab shopping,” where multiple labs test their products until they get the results they want.

This laboratory, he said, “will allow us to inspect the results of private laboratory tests.”

“We are not looking to take responsibility for the test,” Sova continued. “Our goal is to make sure that the labs that do the testing themselves, that the labs get the correct test results that have to do with the testing.”

He added that the laboratory will also provide the opportunity to carry out research in-house, as opposed to asking a private laboratory to conduct state examinations.

“What this would do is to have a central state-regulated lab that would be able to take samples from every lab that tests marijuana to make sure they’re not getting bad samples or that the bigger producers are manipulating some of the findings to make sure they’re not pushing things that could go wrong with marijuana,” Mueller said.

Representatives from the Michigan Cannabis Industry Association and the state Office of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs also expressed support. invoice.

This story was first published by the Michigan Advance.

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Vivent Biosignals & Green Laniel join forces to bring plant-driven agriculture to the US

Published

2 days ago

on

January 17, 2026

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Vivent Biosignals and Green Laniel Consulting have announced a partnership to accelerate plant-driven irrigation and irrigation in key U.S. agricultural markets. Green Laniel Consulting is a US-focused provider of agronomic solutions led by Mauricio Manotas.

By combining Vivent’s ability to decode plant biosignals in real-time using plant biosensors, machine learning and AI with Green Laniel’s deep experience in agronomy, grower operations and US market access, the partnership allows growers to make decisions based on what really matters: how the plant itself is responding.

© Vivent Biosignals

The partnership will cover a variety of crops and production systems, initially plant-driven irrigation and greenhouses for perennial crops, including potatoes, directly guided by plant feedback.

“By combining Vivint’s plant-level intelligence with Green Laniel’s strong presence and agronomic leadership in the US, we are enabling a new generation of plant-driven farming systems. This partnership helps growers improve yields and quality while significantly increasing resource efficiency and sustainability.” says Mauricio Manotas, Green Laniel Consulting.

For more information:
Vivent Biosignals
Tel.: +41 79 5114627
Email: (email protected)
https://vivent-biosignals.com/



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