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Across the US, the legal weed industry is under pressure from a 'ganja glut' Prices have plunged even as dispensaries complain of high taxes and red tape Industry group warns pot business is 'on the verge of collapse' without reforms Across the US, the legalized marijuana industry is buckling under the strain of plunging prices, patchwork state regulation, and burdensome taxes, analysts and industry groups say. 'All of these issues are chipping away at the health of the industry to the point where I would describe the industry as in crisis in the United States,' Beau Whitney, senior economist for...

New York City’s legal marijuana market could generate $1.2 billion in sales and $47 million in tax revenue for city coffers when fully operational — but the high times might not happen until after 2030. The long wait for the bud bucks to finally bloom is due to the current slow rollout of the opening of pot stores, of which only a handful of legal shops have opened, a new analysis released Thursday reveals. “The rollout of the legal cannabis market has been slowed, however, by several challenges: illicit sales by unlicensed businesses, siting and funding issues for dispensary owners,...

Getting high is becoming as American as apple pie. Half of U.S. residents have tried marijuana, and 17% currently smoke weed — both new highs since the tune-in drop-out 1960s, a new Gallup survey released Thursday revealed. The poll attributed the increases to growing acceptance of cannabis, with 23 states including New York, legalizing recreational use of weed and 38 states allowing the sale for medicinal purposes. “As marijuana has become more available to Americans and legal in an increasing number of states, their reports of use and experimentation have increased too. Now, half of the country has tried it,...

More cheap weed may lead to higher rates of mental health problems New York City has ranked as the world’s cannabis capital, where denizens blaze through 62.3 tonnes of pot each year, significantly more than runners-up Sydney and Los Angeles. The scorecard from CFAH, a wellness group, placed five other US cities in the top 20 — Chicago, Houston, Phoenix, Philadelphia, and Denver — each consuming at least 6.8 tonnes of weed each year. Europe and North America dominate the table. The only other country that comes close to the US is Canada, with four cities — Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal,...

A new lawsuit accuses Eaze, a major California cannabis company based in San Francisco, of running an illegal operation and defrauding investors. The lawsuit also accuses Eaze of being so low on cash that it is now “pending insolvency.” SNIP Eaze was formerly the buzziest cannabis company in California, running a delivery service that was valued at $700 million, with more than $255 million in total investment capital raised with the promise of becoming “the Amazon of weed,” according to TechCrunch. However, cash flow problems at the company have been documented for years, and Eaze has faced a series of...

In particular, this information found that in the five years following the legalization of cannabis, cases of psychosis and paranoia have more than doubled. The findings suggest that the mental health effects of cannabis use may be more severe and long-term than previously thought. "This shines a light on the need for awareness, education and treatment surrounding cannabis use and mental health," said Royce Dockrill CEO at Valiant Recovery. "We're seeing more and more patients coming to us with significant psychological distress due to their cannabis use, and it is shocking. We receive phone calls every other day from families...

Warning lights continue to flash bright red for California’s cannabis industry as companies struggle to pay their bills, legal cannabis sales continue to drop and pot tax revenue falls for the seventh straight quarter. The latest tax figures released by the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration, or CDTFA, showed that cannabis excise taxes fell a whopping 18.8% in the first quarter of 2023. That’s the seventh quarter in a row in which excise tax collections have fallen for the industry. The falling tax revenue is the latest domino to fall in what appears to be a long-brewing economic...

“The increased risk of getting schizophrenia after drug-related psychosis is even higher than what we find in first-degree relatives of those who have been given the diagnosis,” Bramness says. First-degree relatives are parents and children. The risk of being diagnosed with the malady for sons and daughters of a sick mother or father is "only" five to ten per cent. In other words, there is no other risk factor for schizophrenia that is higher than related to drug-induced psychoses. Trauma, infections and moving to another country are other known risk factors for schizophrenia, but these increase the risk to a...

An infectious pathogen inside California’s pot farms is attacking cannabis plants and growing invisibly for months only to spoil a crop just as a farmer is ready to harvest. Scientists believe that it’s in nearly every pot farm in the state and could be causing billions of dollars in damages to the national weed economy. Hop-latent viroid, or HLVd, shrivels pot plants and reduce how much weight they produce by as much as 30%. It also destroys the amount of THC, pot’s most common active compound, that a plant produces, greatly reducing the value of affected plants. HLVd was first...

The more marijuana is consumed, the more evidence mounts up that it ruins lives. As more states legalize marijuana, and as popular culture increasingly treats the narcotic as though it were harmless, it becomes increasingly apparent that using it involves serious risks. Lawmakers should stop decriminalizing recreational marijuana use, and allow it only as prescribed, via strict protocols, by licensed medical doctors. Even then, its use should be a last resort. The latest worrisome study, released earlier this month, was conducted by researchers at the U.S. National Institutes of Health and at the National Institute on Drug Abuse and Mental...

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) has dropped his opposition to legalizing marijuana in the state, putting forward a pathway for a legalization bill to be approved. In a Medium post Friday, Sununu said that he felt other states “rushed to legalize marijuana” with “little guardrails,” leading to the turning of “the culture and fabric of their state,” and that, “in the past, I said now is not the time to legalize marijuana.” But with New Hampshire being “the only state in New England” not to allow recreational marijuana use — and with a majority of its citizens supporting legalization...

The text from her son Randy that Heather Bacchus received at at 1:26 AM on July 17, 2021, seemed like good news. “I’m quitting weed for good and want to surround myself with healthy and happy people,” he wrote. “This has been too much for me and for you guys.” Less than an hour later, at 2:09 AM, a second text arrived. “I love you and am sorry for everything. I love dad and the same to him. I wish I would have been a better person.” It was his suicide note. That night, Randy killed himself. ...Now research suggests...

California’s cannabis industry is in a free-fall, with some municipalities in the northern part of the state making plans for significantly reduced tax revenues as a result of a collapse in wholesale prices. Once selling for more than $4,000 per pound, bulk buyers are now shopping in the $300 to $500 range for fresh harvests, according to experts, and some growers reported clearing out their crops for less than $200 per pound for fear of being stuck with product. The price represents a sharp drop from recent years, according to industry insiders. “It’s been a steady decline since we got...

The French psychiatrist Jacques-Joseph Moreau published a book called Hashish and Mental Illness in 1845, the same year that Scientific American brought out its first issue. In it, he explored his own experiences with the drug cannabis at the Paris-based Club des Hachichins—some of which took place alongside the likes of Victor Hugo, Honoré de Balzac and Charles Baudelaire. Two years earlier Moreau described the “undescribable delights” of a “marvelous substance.” But in his 1845 book, he noted in great clinical detail the similarities to psychosis when ingesting high doses. Nearly two centuries later the possible link between cannabis use...

The Big Apple is now the Big Blunt. Not just because decriminalized marijuana led to proliferating mayhem in the five boroughs. Not just because stinky smoke hangs everywhere, seeping into subway cars and even Broadway theaters — the acrid odor I detected in the crowded men’s room of the Majestic Theatre a few weeks ago was not from “The Phantom of the Opera” smoke machine. It’s also because of a forbidden-to-utter truth, in an age where raising the minimum wage ever higher has become mantra — namely, a license to get high has turned service employees into zombies.

Willie Nelson reminisced recently about a memorable visit with Snoop Dogg in Amsterdam years ago when the two friends saw the sights and "smoked a lot of marijuana." "I love Snoop," the "On the Road Again" singer, who is preparing for a star-studded 90th birthday celebration, told People magazine in an interview published Saturday. "He and I are great friends — have been forever." The country legend said while he was in Amsterdam for work one time he decided to give the rapper a call.

The number of seniors visiting emergency rooms in California for cannabis-related issues is growing, according to new research. From 2005 to 2019, the state’s emergency departments saw a 1,808 percent relative increase in the rate of cannabis-related trips among those aged 65 and older. Cannabis is currently legal for both medicinal and recreational use in California. The state became the first in the country to legalize medical marijuana in 1996, while the substance was not approved for recreational use there until November 2016. The study found that cannabis-related emergency department visits in California rose sharply among seniors from 2013 to...

… Pot farms across the state are shutting down as wholesale cannabis prices have crashed by as much as 95% since California voters legalized weed in 2016, according to SFGATE interviews with over a dozen California cannabis farmers, who could get as much as $2,000 for a pound of pot in 2016. Today, they’re lucky to get $400 — and some pot is selling for as little as $100 a pound. Economists have been predicting that legalization would cause a drop in wholesale pot prices since states first began discussing the pot reform. But cannabis farmers say that California’s government...

At a Nov. 15 hearing on cannabis reform at the federal level, House Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said President Joe Biden’s pardon of people convicted of “simple possession” of marijuana under federal law was “a good first step,” and added that the next step is that “cannabis must be decriminalized at the federal level as a matter of basic justice in the country.” Under current federal law, marijuana is classified as a Schedule 1 illegal drug, which means it has a “high potential for abuse” and is not a “currently accepted medical treatment in the U.S.,” according to Drugs.com. Other...

The founder and former CEO of collapsing crypto trader Sam Bankman-Fried is said to be holed up with members of his inner circle in the Bahamas while his empire collapses around him. Bankman-Fried, 30, resigned from FTX on Friday, as the crypto exchange filed for bankruptcy and reports emerged that up to $2 billion in client funds had vanished from the company's books in recent weeks. According to Coin Telegraph, the disgraced former CEO is holed up at the Albany Tower alongside FTX co-founder Gary Wang and the company's director of engineering Nishad Singh.