Jack Black is set to appear as “Steve” and we know he has been a fan of cannabis. He and his Tenacious D bandmate Kyle Gass appeared on the cover of cannabis magazine High Times in 2002. He spoke about “waking and baking” during the press tour for Tropic Thunder in 2008 but also stated that he had used Wellbutrin during the process of quitting marijuana for good. But has used some since and we hope will champion the plant in the film.
Gamers are usually ahead of the mainstream and marijuana appeared before the sweep of legalization across Canada and the US. Minecraft’s Herblore is a popular mod which acknowledges weed as part of daily life. Around the same time it premiered, action-adventure Grand Theft Auto V was released. While the game revolves around stealing cars, running away from police and criminals, and completing missions in stolen vehicles, there’s a side mission called “Grass Roots” for cannabis users to trip out on.
Science and the public have been good to CBD. It helps with the ever popular issue of sleeping and it can help reduce anxiety. Discreet, convenient and semi fast acting – it can be a help mate for first dates, stressful family events, or just rough days. The CBD/cannabis Epidiolex has been proven to reduce seizures and is the first cannabis-derived medicine approved by the FDA. So lots of benefits, but since it is still a bit of a newbie on shelves…you need to be careful of what you buy. Here are 5 key tags to check on a CBD label.
Reading product labels is often confusing, overly technical and filled with materials no one understands. Add to the mix the fact CBD is still in FDA limbo, and you need a list like this to point you in the right direction. Here are 5 things to check when reading a CBD label.
Make sure CBD is in on the label and in the product
First thing’s first: make sure there’s actually CBD in your CBD product. Today’s CBD landscape is filled with products that claim to contain CBD while really containing just hemp oil, or lie about the amount of CBD they contain. Look for either CBD or cannabidiol and be wary of products containing hemp seeds, cannabis sativa, hemp seed oil, etc. Although these ingredients sound weedy, they’re not the same thing as CBD.
Check the dosage and ingredients
Dosage in key in how effective it will be. Be understanding it you time the amount you need then time out when you might want to take it again. Additionally, look for a full list of ingredients, including the carrier oil used. Check for any potential allergens or additives you want to avoid.
COAs guarantee the product you’re looking at has been tested by a third party facility that has no relationship to the maker. Their results are unbiased and thus trust worthy. Reputable companies should feature this information on their labels, which should come in the shape of a bar code and should be easily accessed via smartphone. If this isn’t the case, the COA should appear on the product’s website.
Look for the CBD oil source
One of the first red flags of fake CBD products is a label that’s vague or doesn’t state where the CBD oil was sourced. CBD can be sourced from cannabis plants or industrial hemp, and most quality products tend to be “full spectrum,” “broad spectrum,” or “CBD isolate.”
Know your cannabis state laws
This is important since CBD label requirements vary by state, with the best labels being from products sold in areas where marijuana is legal. If you’re purchasing a product from out of a legal state, these packages should at least imitate how regulated products look.
A grey market or parallel market is the trade of a commodity through distribution channels not authorized by the original manufacturer or trade mark proprietor. Grey market products (grey goods) are products traded outside the authorized channel. The phrases and process helps make it appear more legal than the black market.
In talking with industry notables, there is definitely a push from a minority to slow roll legalization and reframe the black market as a “perfectly ok” option to the average consumer. Both New York and California have huge black or illegal markets. New York’s botched rollout of licenses has made a legal market of about 85 dispensaries and over 2,000 unlicensed ones selling both legal and illicit products to the public. California crushing taxes and non existent enforcement has allowed unauthorized grows to florish. The rumor is these grows have quiet sold to legal producers to make products to help battle the costs.
Most traditional media, data analysts and legitimated investors and executives refer to it as the black market. Having a thriving black market hurts both the legalization process and legal businesses. Colorado and Maine are two examples of states who have done a great job to shrink the illicit market. While immediate short term there could be profits, in the long term, it chokes the growth and mainstreaming of cannabis for both recreational and medical use.
Recently, Pakistan approved the passage of an ordinance that created the Cannabis Control and Regulatory Authority (CCRA). This government body is tasked to regulate the cultivation, extraction, refining, manufacturing, and sale of cannabis derivatives for medical and industrial purposes.
UN laws says if country wants to produce, process and conduct sales of cannabis-related products, it must have a federal entity to deal with supply chain and ensure international compliance. The regulatory framework of the CCRA is the organization.
The CCRA specifies the maximum level of THC in the cannabis derivative to be 0.3 percent to avoid the abuse of medicinal products and use them recreationally. With this move, the government plans to crack down on illicit grows in order to bring them into a licensed tax paying business.