TNMNews Live Broadcast: November 30th, 2018 Cannabis News Week in Review

Hey everyone, Todd Denkin here again for The National Marijuana News to bring you the latest weekly update on marijuana news around the country, and the world. Today is November 30th, 2018, the last day of the month. The country set records for cyber purchases last week and everyone is now turning their attention on the holiday season. Let’s start off by seeing what has been happening with the world of weed and the sales of marijuana.

Sales Ridiculous in Massachusetts, Crazy in First 5 Days

I mentioned last week that Massachusetts began selling marijuana on November 20th. It is the first east coast state to start selling marijuana commercially and based off of the running total of sales being kept track of by the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission, over $2.2 million in gross sales of marijuana products took place in the first five days. According to the Nevada Department of Taxation, we pulled in over $42 million in recreational marijuana sales in August, so Massachusetts is nowhere close to keeping pace with Las Vegas. However, we have over 50 dispensaries selling cannabis here in Vegas, and there are only 2 open dispensaries in Massachusetts. If you consider the fact that Massachusetts does not have as much of a production capacity as we do, they are doing really well. The densely populated Northeast region of the country could attract people from many states. You can find out more about the start of marijuana sales in Massachusetts on TNMNews.com in our article, “MA Cannabis Sales Surpass $2M In 5 Days.”

Joe Kennedy III Now Backs Marijuana Legalization

Sticking with Massachusetts for another moment, one of the young state representatives in Massachusetts is the son of Robert F. Kennedy, Joe Kennedy the Third. Needless to say, he draws a lot of attention simply for being Bobby Kennedy’s son, but until recently he had been an opponent to marijuana legalization. However, he released a statement last week coinciding with the start of cannabis sales in his state, explaining why he had changed his position. He referenced flaws in the scheduling structure of drugs on the federal level, the social injustice of racial disparities in arrests and convictions of marijuana felonies and misdemeanors as well as the obvious medicinal benefits of cannabis. His previous opposition to marijuana legalization came from his work with people suffering from addiction. He stated that he and others working with those struggling from addiction were concerned that making marijuana so readily available through legalization could hurt addicts. Find out more about Joe Kennedy’s change of opinion on marijuana legalization at TNMNews.com in our article, “Joe Kennedy III Calls For Cannabis Legalization.”

Canopy Growth Corporation Donates $9.5 Million Worth of Cannabis for UK Study to Jumpstart British Market

Let’s go international for a moment. So, the people of the United Kingdom are contending with a number of challenges these days, not the least of which is the ill conceived departure from the Eurozone known as Brexit. They also have not embraced the marijuana industry like some of their European counterparts. They did legalize a limited medical marijuana program about a month ago, but its implementation has been slow. Canopy Growth Corporation is looking to change that. The Canadian based cannabis giant is basically donating $9.5 million dollars worth of marijuana for medical research to its partially owned U.K. firm, Beckley Canopy Therapeutics Ltd. The research will focus on medical marijuana for pain and addiction relief in hopes that it spurs the industry forward. Maybe Canopy and Bruce Linton will be able to get the Brits to loosen up a little. Nobody else in the world ever has, but hey that’s what weed is for, right?

NASA Reacts to Elon Musk’s Marijuana Use

Coming back here to the U.S. Elon Musk may never have imagined that his name would be so closely associated with the stoner community, but it is now. The CEO of Tesla and one of the top engineering minds alive today defied the SEC by stating publicly that he wanted Tesla to go private at $420/share, and then he publicly smoked weed with Joe Rogan. Now, NASA is getting in on the hating on Elon Musk action. The leader in space travel will start a formal review of SpaceX employees starting next year that will take at least a few months. SpaceX has been contracted out to fly NASA’s astronauts to and from the International Space Station. Elon Musk is the founder and CEO of SpaceX, and NASA is now concerned about the working environment of SpaceX and the safety of their astronauts in light of Musk’s recent behavior. To find out more about NASA’s safety review of SpaceX, go to TNMNews.com and look for the article titled, “Elon Musk’s Cannabis Use Leads To NASA Review.”

Johns Hopkins Study Claims Vaping Gets Consumers Higher Than Smoking

And finally, Johns Hopkins recently conducted a study on whether smoking marijuana or vaping marijuana got consumers more stoned. They found that if the test subjects vaped and smoked the same amount of THC, vaping made the subject much more stoned than smoking. Hmm? They found that when they dosed the subject with 25 mgs of THC both smoking and vaping got them super high. They needed a paid study to tell them that? It’s crazy to me that people get paid to smoke weed now. Subjects had to undergo lots of tests like running, questionnaires and computer tests. The subjects went through six – eight and half hour sessions of getting super stoned and in the end researches found that the people vaping had twice the amount of THC in their bloodstreams. Researchers also claimed that the cannabis used in the study did not much differ from the weed purchased in a legal dispensary.

That is it for this week everyone. Checkout more great stories on TNMNews.com and follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter @NationalMJNews. I hope everyone enjoys their happy hour today and their weekend. Don’t let the holidays stress you out either, try and enjoy them the best that you can.This is Todd Denkin with The National Marijuana News.

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addictionBeckley Canopy Therapeuticscannabis newscannabis salesElon MuskJoe Kennedy IIIJohns Hopkins marijuana studymarijuana broadcastmarijuana legalizationmassachusetts-marijuanaspacex