Mailing Hemp Cannabinoid Products in the U.S.

Now that the holiday season is upon us, hemp-derived cannabinoid (Hemp Cannabinoid) companies are getting busy selling and shipping their products to consumers throughout the country. In addition to limiting the sale and distribution of their products to jurisdictions where these products are expressly allowed and regulated, Hemp Cannabinoid companies should also familiarize themselves with and ensure compliance with their carriers’ guidelines.

This post provides a brief overview of the policies adopted by the three major U.S carriers, the United States Postal Service (USPS), UPS, and FedEx, and only addresses the mailing of finished Hemp Cannabinoid products intended for human consumption to end use consumers.

USPS Guidelines

USPS authorizes the mailing of packages containing Hemp Cannabinoid finished products, except that of electronic vaping devices, provided certain conditions are met. These conditions are set forth in the USPS’ Postal Bulletin 22579 dated August 26, 2021 (the USPS Guidance) and provide that the mailer must ensure that:

1. THC Threshold: Th products meet the 0.3% total THC threshold – note that the USPS guidance erroneously states that the THC concentration is not to exceed a “.03 percent limit”;
2. Laws and Regulations: The hemp infused to the finished products was lawfully produced, processed, distributed, and sold under all applicable federal, state, and local laws;
3. Domestic: The products are mailed domestically only. The USPS Guidance expressly prohibits international mailing, including items for delivery to overseas military and diplomatic Post Office addresses; and
4. Recordkeeping: The sender retains records showing compliance with said laws, such as corresponding certificates of analysis from an accredited laboratory and copies of producer and processor licenses, for no less than a period of three years following the mailing date. While this documentation need not be enclosed to the shipment, it may be requested by the USPS at the time of mailing or at a later time if any question were to arise regarding the legality, and thus, mailability of the products, or concerning the recipient’s ability to lawfully receive the package.

UPS Guidelines

The USP guidelines provide that:

UPS accepts products made from hemp (including Cannabidiol – CBD) for shipment only as permitted by all applicable state and federal laws. It is the responsibility of the shipper to ensure compliance with all such laws, including the Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act, 21 U.S.C. §321, et seq.

Similarly to USPS, UPS strictly prohibits international shipment of Hemp Cannabinoid finished products as well as the domestic shipment of Hemp Cannabinoid liquid products intended for vaporization, like e-cigarette devices and e-gels. This ban on vaping products applies regardless of nicotine content and even if the shipper or consignee is permitted to ship and receive vaping products under applicable laws or regulations.

It is also worth pointing out that the private carrier’s guidelines mention that UPS will not accept shipment containing Hemp Cannabinoid finished products from any location that sells marijuana or marijuana products.

FedEx Guidelines

Like its competitors, FedEx allows the shipment of Hemp Cannabinoid finished products that contain no more than 0.3% total THC. Although FedEx does not expressly mandate that shippers ensure the products meet all applicable federal, state, and local laws or that they maintain records, the private carrier’s guidelines contain a list of prohibited shipments. Banned products/substances include:

1. Marijuana, as defined by U.S. federal law, 21 U.S.C. 802(16), including marijuana intended for recreational or medicinal use and marijuana-derived cannabidiol (CBD);
2. Any product with a delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) concentration of more than 0.3 percent on a dry weight basis, except as set out in 21 CFR 1308.35; and
3. Synthetic cannabinoids.

In sum, Hemp Cannabinoid companies should not ignore these carriers’ guidelines, which overall, are fairly simple to follow and can help reduce the risk of enforcement actions. This should help ensure that the next few weeks really are the most wonderful time of the year.

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The Roll-up #220: Resisting colonial nonsense

This week we talk with Jordan Brant, from the Tyendinaga community, part of the Mohawk Nation, about indigenous cannabis companies.

The post The Roll-up #220: Resisting colonial nonsense appeared first on Leafly.

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Minnesota Approves Edibles For Medical Cannabis Program

Regulators with the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) announced on Wednesday that cannabis edibles would be available in the state beginning next year, giving medical cannabis patients a new alternative to access their medicine of choice. The agency declined, however, to add anxiety disorder as a qualifying condition for the state’s medical cannabis program.

Under a plan announced by Minnesota Commissioner of Health Jan Malcolm, cannabis edibles in the form of gummies and chews will be an approved delivery method for the state’s medical cannabis program beginning on August 1, 2022.

“Expanding delivery methods to gummies and chews will mean more options for patients who cannot tolerate current available forms of medical cannabis,” Malcolm said on Wednesday in a press release from the agency.

When it launched in 2015, Minnesota’s medical marijuana program was one of the nation’s strictest, with limits placed on the qualifying medical conditions and types of approved cannabis products. More qualifying conditions and approved product types have been added since its inception, with current permitted delivery forms including pills, vapor oil, liquids, topicals, powdered mixtures and orally dissolvable products, such as lozenges. Cannabis flower should be available to patients next year.

The health department noted that a rulemaking process to govern the packaging, labeling, safety messaging and testing of medical cannabis edibles will begin next month.

Regulators Approve Edibles, But Decline To Add Anxiety As Qualifying Condition

The state health department also announced on Wednesday that regulators had declined to add anxiety as a qualifying condition under the state’s medical cannabis program. Noting that petitioners have requested that anxiety disorder or panic disorder be added as a qualifying condition every year since 2016, the MDH said it was declining the proposal again “due to a lack of scientific evidence to support effectiveness as well as concerns expressed by health care practitioners.” 

“We received many comments from health care practitioners treating patients with anxiety disorder, and they urged us to not approve it as a qualifying medical condition,” said Malcolm. “We recognize that not everyone has equal access to therapy—which is considered the front-line treatment—but ultimately we concluded that the risk of additional harms to patients outweighed perceived benefits.”

Minnesota’s medical cannabis program had nine approved qualifying conditions when it began, a list that has grown to 17 over the last six years. Qualifying conditions include glaucoma; HIV/AIDS; Tourette syndrome; amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS); inflammatory bowel disease, including Crohn’s disease; seizures, including those characteristic of epilepsy; severe and persistent muscle spasms, including those characteristic of multiple sclerosis (MS); intractable pain; post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), autism spectrum disorder; obstructive sleep apnea; Alzheimer’s disease; chronic pain; sickle cell disease; and chronic motor or vocal tic disorder.

Individuals with cancer or a terminal illness with a probable life expectancy of less than one year may also qualify if their condition or its treatment produces one or more symptoms including severe or chronic pain; nausea or severe vomiting; or severe wasting (cachexia).

Cannabis Flower To Be Available Next Year

Cannabis flower is also on track to be made available to Minnesota medical cannabis patients beginning next year. Under a omnibus health and human services bill passed by the legislature and signed into law by Gov. Tim Walz in May, dried cannabis flower must be made available to patients by March 1, 2022.

The change was made at the urging of cannabis advocates, who argued that the currently permitted processed forms of medical cannabis are more costly for patients. Opponents maintained that allowing smokable forms of cannabis would lead to the legalization of recreational marijuana, but state Sen. Michelle Benson said that was not the intent of the bill.

“It is not our goal to make this a path to legalization,” Benson said earlier this year. “It’s a goal to make this available to people with a medical need who cannot afford it. So, we hope we’ve reached the right balance.”

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Taliban Claims to Partner with Foreign Firms on Medical Cannabis Production

If it sounds like a seriously bad joke, the idea has all the elements of a modern day (social media enhanced) soap opera. Namely, that the Taliban, an extremist group, which takes rather radical stands against things like women’s rights and cannabis reform, would enter an international cannabis deal. And further announce it on Twitter.

However, this is exactly what did happen last week and further on a global stage. They say that truth is stranger than fiction—and in truth it is very hard to believe that someone did not make this up.

Here are the developments so far.

Taliban Deal Announcement Via Twitter

In a move that might make some of the biggest cannabis companies in the world green with jealousy, namely in the kind of media attention the announcement generated, Taliban Press Director Qari Saeed Khosty claimed that a contract had been signed between the government and a cannabis firm called Cpharm to set up a $450 million cannabis processing centre in Afghanistan, and further that the facility would be “up and running within days.” The news ran globally, picked up by outlets including the Times of London.

This also coincided with a report on Afghanistan’s Pajhwok Afghan News Service that representatives of the company met with counter-narcotic officials at the Ministry of the Interior to discuss the production of medicines and creams. 

Cpharm Australia, the first company named in the press as being involved in the deal, subsequently rebuked the claim—via Reuters. The company is a cannabis consulting business and not a manufacturer and would not be able to raise the amount mentioned, according to reports.

Confusion Upon Confusion—And the German Twist

Even after reports began to surface that the story was in fact fake, another report surfaced, this time in the German language zine Taz.de, only this time making claims that the Taliban government was working with a German company called Cpharm and further that the deal was inked on the day the Traffic Light Coalition agreed to legalize recreational cannabis. According to Taz.de, Taliban spokesperson Khosty claimed that the agreement provides for the German company to build a factory in Afghanistan for processing medical cannabis and in exchange receive a monopoly on the national industry.

According to online company reports, the only Cpharm GmbH listed was formed in 2005, liquidated in 2009 and deleted from the company registry in 2015. There is a Cpharm.org which is based in Bonn which does claim on its website that the company has developed global cannabis projects including in Afghanistan. However when High Times reached out to a partner company associated with the same, BONGLOBAL Deutschland, headquartered in Berlin, we were told that the story was fake and further that the company CEO Werner Zimmerman was unavailable for comment and was travelling outside of the country.

The Many Strange Twists and Turns…

Whoever the company referenced in official communications by the Taliban is, and no matter the actual stage of the project (if it in fact exists), the reality is that the group has been rather famously two-faced when it comes to all things cannabis (and opium) related. Indeed, at the beginning of 2020, the Taliban issued a ban on the cultivation of cannabis in the areas of the country they controlled. After overtaking all of Afghanistan in August, the group vowed to crack down on cannabis production across the country. Just a few months later, in October, Yussef Wafa, a governor of Kandahar, said that he had been arresting both drug users and had prohibited local farmers from the cultivation of both opium and cannabis.

Farmers on the ground, however, have reported no real change in the group’s approach to cannabis (or them) in the last months since taking over the country in a military coup. Indeed this year they are reporting a bumper crop.

This in fact would be more in keeping with the history of the Taliban when it comes to all things cannabis (and indeed poppy) related. Both crops have historically been sources of income to fund the group since it operated as a U.S. funded insurgent against the Soviet occupation of the region in the 1980s.

Whoever the company is that may or may not be working on this project (if this is also actually in process), however, remains a mystery. 

No matter the corporate entity, which might be involved in the same, it will have significant difficulty transferring any profits they make from Afghanistan, starting with obtaining exemptions from the U.S. Treasury Department.

The plot thickens.

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Buyer’s guide for weed pipes

Glass pipes aren’t what they used to be, with individual artists, specialized brands, and mass-produced imports flooding the market. Check out Leafly’s list of the best pipes and other weed-smoking tools fit for the palm of your hand. 

The post Buyer’s guide for weed pipes appeared first on Leafly.

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Colorado University Announces Groundbreaking Study on Cannabis and Exercise

Should pot really be considered a “performance-enhancing substance”? A “first-of-its-kind study” at the University of Colorado in Boulder aims to find out. 

When American sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson was denied a chance to compete at the Tokyo Olympics this summer due to testing positive for marijuana, it brought attention—and plenty of skepticism—to the reasoning behind the prohibition of cannabis in the world of competitive athletics. 

The so-called SPACE study (“Study on Physical Activity and Cannabis Effects”), announced on Monday, “will enlist more than 50 paid adult volunteers who already mix cannabis and exercise for a study involving three sessions,” the university said in a press release.

“In the first, researchers measure heart rate, have subjects answer a questionnaire and take some baseline fitness measurements. Then, participants are assigned to go to a local dispensary and pick up either a specific CBD-dominant strain or THC-dominant strain,” the announcement said. “On one follow up visit, they return, sober, to run on the treadmill for 30 minutes, answering questions every 10 minutes to assess things like their perception of the passage of time, how hard the workout feels, what they’re thinking about, and how much pain they’re in. On another visit, they do the same, only they get high before they come.”

Laurel Gibson, a PhD student in the University of Colorado’s Department of Psychology and Neuroscience and principal investigator of the study, said that the study will help fill in a gap in cannabis research. 

As the university’s announcement explained, due to a dearth of research in the area, “scientists are unsure just how Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD)—the two primary active ingredients in marijuana—influence physical activity.”

“To date, there are no human studies on the effects of legal market cannabis on the experience of exercise,” Gibson said. “That’s where we come in.”

“Cannabis is often associated with a decrease in motivation—that stereotype of couch-lock and laziness,” Gibson continued. “But at the same time, we are seeing an increasing number of anecdotal reports of people using it in combination with everything from golfing and yoga to snowboarding and running.”

The federal prohibition on weed has prompted the researchers to make certain accommodations with their subjects. 

Due to the law, which “prohibits the possession or distribution of marijuana on college campuses,” the press release explained, the subjects will consume the pot at home “before a researcher picks them up in a mobile laboratory—a white Dodge Sprinter van sometimes referred to as the ‘cannavan’—and brings them safely to the lab.”

The runners will also don a safety belt around their waist while using the treadmill, as an extra precautionary measure.

Angela Bryan, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Colorado who is serving as the faculty advisor on the study, said that the research could yield a breakthrough for older individuals for whom exercise is too painful.

“If cannabis could ease pain and inflammation, helping older adults to be more active, that could be a real benefit,” Bryan said.

Gibson, meanwhile, said that the research could shed light on the link between cannabis use and the “runner’s high” that has been romanticized by joggers the world over.

“It is possible that exogenous cannabinoids like THC or CBD might activate the endocannabinoid system in a way that mimics the runner’s high,” Gibson said.

Richardson failed a drug test less than a month before the Olympics kicked off in Tokyo, keeping her out of the summer games. Marijuana is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency, as well as the United States Anti-Doping Agency and the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee.

In September, the World Anti-Doping Agency said that it would reconsider its ban on cannabis. 

The USADA has said that pot is banned both because it could present a safety risk to athletes, and that it could potentially enhance performance. 

The latter explanation was widely mocked, including by Democratic Congressman Steve Cohen, who came to Richardson’s defense.

“Marijuana is not a performance-enhancing drug unless you’re entered in the Coney Island hot dog eating contest on the Fourth of July,” Cohen said at the time. “To take her right to appear, her dream, away from her, is absurd.”

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The path to Indigenous Sovereignty isn’t through legal weed

These Indigenous entrepreneurs don't want to work in legal weed. Here's why.

The post The path to Indigenous Sovereignty isn’t through legal weed appeared first on Leafly.

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