Category: Cannabis

Federal psychedelics efforts remain stagnant

When President Trump took office in 2025, some psychedelics advocates were excited about the cabinet he selected that appeared poised to fast-track psychedelics through federal approvals; Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in July that psychedelics would be available within 12 months. Now, more than a year into Trump’s presidency, a trio of recent articles give us a glimpse into what advocates see as a lack of strategy at the federal level regarding psychedelics.

• Psychedelic executives and advocacy groups tell POLITICO they’re disappointed they’ve not seen any progress. “A year into his tenure, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has yet to expand access to the mind-altering drugs and advocates are starting to lose patience,” journalist Amanda Chu reports.
• Lawmakers are trying to pressure the administration to take action. Two weeks ago, The Mission Within, a veterans psychedelic group, and advocacy group Psychedelic Medicine Coalition, held a forum to advocate for veterans’ access to psychedelics. U.S. Representatives Lou Correa (D-CA), Jack Bergman (R-MI), and Morgan Luttrell (R-TX), all part of the Congressional Psychedelics Advancing Therapies (PATH) Caucus, also joined them. Marijuana Moment reported that Luttrell warned that even a single misstep could jeopardize the movement; Bergman agreed that other members of congress were “risk-averse” about the issue.
• While psychedelics may not be gaining much traction at the federal legislative or agency policy level, FDA Division of Psychiatry Director Tiffany Farchione recently revealed there’s been a glut of psychedelics drug applications. Psychedelic Alpha reports that Farcione spoke at a webinar held by the American Brain Coalition and said that “fully a third of my workload” was reviewing psychedelic investigational new drug applications. Farchione said that the eventual goal was to approve psychedelics so “folks won’t have to go on a retreat in another country to receive these medications.” National Institute on Drug Abuse director Nora Volkow, who also recently penned a blog post on the drugs’ promise, writing that they “represent a potential paradigm shift” in the treatment of mental health conditions.

Source Microdose

 

During Tuesday’s 26^th Annual State of the Tribes Address at the Capitol, Red Cliff Chippewa Chair Nicole Boyd called on Wisconsin lawmakers to pass legislation to allow tribes to offer mobile sports betting through their compacts with the state.

“By allowing a legal framework for mobile sports wagering through Wisconsin’s tribes, the state will see increased revenue through the state gaming compacts, and consumers will have the legal protection needed to ensure they receive fair play. Let’s get this work done so we can provide something that will truly benefit Wisconsin.”

Boyd said estimates suggests Wisconsin residents are spending hundreds of millions of dollars via unlawful and unregulated sports betting platforms located outside the state. She also asked lawmakers to allow sale of medical marijuana and THC containing hemp products.

“When it comes to tribal health care, tribal nations desire improved access to medical cannabis and hemp-derived THC in Wisconsin. Acting now to improve access is an absolute necessity,” she said, adding that Wisconsinites “are beyond ready and growing more impatient” for that to occur.

Cannabis related legislation has consistently failed to advance in the Wisconsin Legislature, even as neighboring states have moved to allow its sale.

WRN Daily: State of the Tribes address includes call for mobile sports betting and medical cannabis

Why Buying from the Right Online Head Shop Matters

The cannabis accessory market has grown rapidly over the past decade. Today, consumers can choose from thousands of products across countless stores, all claiming premium quality and unbeatable prices. But when it comes to buying cannabis gear online, not all shops are created equal.

A reliable online head shop does more than sell products. It ensures safety, durability, transparency, and long-term value. Whether you’re shopping for your first bong, upgrading your dab setup, or exploring vaporizers, knowing what to look for can save you money and frustration.

This buyer’s guide breaks down what truly matters when choosing an online head shop — from material quality and product structure to customer reviews and trust signals — and explains how experienced retailers set the standard.

1. Product Quality: The Foundation of Any Good Head Shop

Quality should always be the first consideration when buying cannabis accessories online.

For bongs, this means:

• Borosilicate glass rather than cheap soda-lime glass

• Consistent wall thickness

• Stable bases and clean welds

For dab rigs, quality shows up in:

• Heat-resistant quartz or ceramic components

• Thoughtful airflow design

• Compatibility with modern concentrate accessories

For vaporizers, quality is even more critical:

• Medical-grade internal materials

• Reliable temperature control

• Safe battery technology and tested electronics

A reputable online head shop clearly states materials, dimensions, and intended use. If those details are missing or vague, that’s usually a sign the product quality won’t hold up over time.

2. Clear Categories Signal a Professional Shop

One of the easiest ways to judge an online head shop is by how its products are organized.

Established shops separate their inventory into clearly defined categories, such as:

• Bongs for flower and water filtration

• Dab rigs designed specifically for concentrates

• Vaporizers for dry herb, concentrates, or both

• Accessories like bowls, nails, cleaners, and storage

This structure isn’t just about convenience — it shows that the shop understands how different consumption methods require different tools.

A good example of this kind of organization can be found at World of Bongs, where bongs, dab rigs, vaporizers, and accessories are clearly separated into dedicated sections rather than mixed into a single generic catalog.

3. Accurate Product Information Builds Trust

One of the biggest risks of buying cannabis gear online is relying solely on photos. Professional online head shops counter this by offering detailed product information, including:

• Exact height, diameter, and weight

• Material specifications

• Compatibility notes

• Cleaning and maintenance tips

This level of transparency allows buyers to make informed decisions and reduces the chance of disappointment after delivery.

Educational content — such as buyer guides, usage tips, and comparisons — is another strong indicator that a shop prioritizes customer experience over quick sales.

4. Reviews: The Most Important Trust Signal

Customer reviews are among the most powerful tools available to online shoppers — especially in the cannabis accessories space.

When evaluating an online head shop, look for:

• Verified buyer reviews

• A high volume of feedback, not just a few ratings

• Detailed comments that mention durability, performance, and service

Large review counts indicate consistency over time. Shops with 10,000+ verified customer reviews demonstrate that they’ve delivered reliable products and service to a wide customer base, not just a handful of early buyers.

Reviews help answer practical questions that product descriptions often can’t:

• Is the glass thicker than expected?

• Does the bong tip easily?

• Does the vaporizer battery last through multiple sessions?

A strong review ecosystem is one of the clearest signs that an online head shop can be trusted.

5. Accessories Matter More Than Most People Think

Many buyers focus only on the main piece, but accessories play a major role in overall satisfaction.

A well-stocked online head shop offers:

• Proper cleaning solutions

• Replacement bowls and downstems

• Dab tools and storage containers

• Protective cases and odor-control options

Accessories extend the lifespan of your gear and improve day-to-day usability. Shops that treat accessories as an afterthought often lack depth in their core product knowledge as well.

6. Shipping, Packaging, and Customer Support

Even the best product can turn into a negative experience if shipping and support aren’t handled properly.

Reliable online head shops typically provide:

• Discreet, secure packaging

• Clear shipping timelines

• Straightforward return or replacement policies

• Responsive customer support

Transparency around these topics is key. Shops that openly explain how they ship fragile glass and handle damaged items tend to perform better when problems arise.

7. Using Established Shops as a Benchmark

When comparing online head shops, it helps to measure newer or unknown stores against established industry standards.

A strong benchmark shop usually offers:

• A broad selection of bongs, dab rigs, and vaporizers

• Clear category navigation

• Detailed product descriptions

• A long history of customer reviews

• Proven logistics and customer service systems

This is why many buyers use long-running platforms like World of Bongs as a reference point when deciding whether another shop meets professional standards.

8. Final Buyer Checklist

Before placing an order, ask yourself:

• Are materials clearly stated?

• Is the shop specialized in head shop products?

• Are customer reviews authentic and detailed?

• Are categories logical and easy to navigate?

• Are shipping and return policies transparent?

If the answer to most of these is yes, you’re likely shopping with a reliable online head shop.

Conclusion

Buying cannabis accessories online doesn’t have to be risky. By focusing on quality materials, transparent product information, clear category structure, and real customer reviews, shoppers can confidently choose an online head shop that delivers long-term value.

Whether you’re investing in your first bong or refining a complete setup, understanding what really matters helps you avoid low-quality gear and enjoy a better overall experience.

 

ONLINE HEAD SHOPS, YES OR NO, READ ON…

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A HEAD SHOP AND COLLECTIVE?

Voluntary recall of certain marijuana products due to possible Aspergillus contamination

PHOENIX – Arizona marijuana establishments are voluntarily recalling specific products due to possible contamination with Aspergillus, a fungus that can cause allergic reactions or infection, usually in people with pre-existing illness.

The products being voluntarily recalled are:

• Legacy & Co, Super Yuzu, batch # K-2025-19-Z1-SYUZ; and
• Nature’s Wonder, Trap Queen, batch # 0701R30TQ.

To date, no illnesses have been reported. This announcement is being made out of an abundance of caution. Consumers with pre-existing conditions who have purchased potentially contaminated products should not ingest, inhale, or otherwise consume them and should dispose of them. If you have already consumed any of the products and have any of the symptoms described below, please contact your healthcare provider or seek care immediately in the event of an emergency.

Once the Arizona Department of Health Services (ADHS) discovered the potential contamination, they contacted the facilities that produced the products. The licensees took immediate action to work with all distribution and retail partners to remove any potentially impacted products from store shelves. Possibly contaminated products are quarantined at the point of sale until secondary confirmatory testing is completed. ADHS works closely with licensees to ensure public safety as product concerns arise.

Please note that, prior to providing these products for sale, they were tested and received passing certificates of analysis. However, the Department has received additional information that indicates some units from these batches may have been contaminated.

Testing requirements for marijuana products can be reviewed on Table 3.1 for each 9 A.A.C. 18 Adult-Use Marijuana Program and 9 A.A.C. 17 Medical Marijuana Program.

Consumers may contact the dispensary or establishment where they purchased the products listed below if they have any questions.

SYMPTOMS

Aspergillus: Aspergillus can cause allergic reactions or infection, usually in people already sick with something else. Symptoms range from asthma or cold-like symptoms to fever and chest pain, among many others.  A full list of symptoms can be found on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) website: “https://www.cdc.gov/aspergillosis/.”

For more information visit call:

Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center information, 1-800-222-1222

PRODUCTS

The One Plant Alliance: Why It’s Time to Stop Pretending Hemp and Marijuana Are Different

Sources: Community Newspapers | One Plant Alliance

Let me ask you a simple question: If I showed you two identical plants—same species, same genus, same genetic makeup—and told you one is legal and the other will get you arrested, would that make any sense?

Of course not. And yet, that’s exactly the absurd reality we’re living with when it comes to cannabis.

Hemp and marijuana are the same plant. Scientifically, legally, botanically—it’s all Cannabis sativa L. The only difference is an arbitrary legal threshold of 0.3% delta-9 THC content. Below that line? Legal hemp. Above it? Schedule I controlled substance, sitting right next to heroin.

This isn’t science. This is bureaucratic insanity masquerading as drug policy.

And there’s a growing movement that’s had enough of this nonsense. It’s called the One Plant Alliance, and their message is simple, direct, and long overdue: It’s one plant. Treat it like one plant.

The Arbitrary Line: How 0.3% THC Became Drug Policy

Let’s start with the fundamentals, because understanding how we got here is crucial to understanding why the current system is broken beyond repair.

Hemp and marijuana are both Cannabis sativa L. They’re not different species. They’re not even different varieties in any meaningful biological sense. The only legal distinction between them is the concentration of delta-9 THC—and that distinction is based on a number (0.3%) that was essentially pulled out of thin air by a Canadian scientist in 1976 who was trying to differentiate fiber crops from drug crops for agricultural purposes.

That’s right. The legal threshold that determines whether you’re a farmer or a felon was never based on pharmacology, toxicology, or public health research. It was a botanical classification tool that got codified into law.

Fast forward to the 2018 Farm Bill, which legalized hemp by defining it as cannabis containing less than 0.3% delta-9 THC on a dry weight basis. This created the hemp industry as we know it today—but it also created a legal fiction that hemp and marijuana are fundamentally different substances.

They’re not. A hemp plant and a marijuana plant share 99.9% genetic similarity. The cannabinoid profiles can be nearly identical depending on the strain. The terpenes, flavonoids, and other compounds are the same. The therapeutic effects overlap significantly.

The only difference is a number on a lab report.

And now, that arbitrary distinction is being used to justify two completely different regulatory frameworks, two completely different legal regimes, and two completely different sets of consequences for people who grow, sell, or consume the exact same plant.

This is madness.

One Plant Alliance: A Movement Rooted in Science and Common Sense

Enter the One Plant Alliance (OPA), a coalition of farmers, businesses, researchers, advocates, and consumers who recognize that the hemp/marijuana distinction is not just scientifically nonsensical—it’s actively harmful to the cannabis reform movement.

Founded by a diverse group of stakeholders from across the cannabis spectrum, the OPA operates on a simple philosophical foundation:

Cannabis is one plant. It should be governed by one set of rules. And those rules should be based on science, not prohibition-era propaganda.

The OPA brings together hemp farmers who’ve seen their crops destroyed because a lab test came back at 0.31% THC instead of 0.29%. It includes marijuana cultivators who’ve been criminalized for growing a plant that’s chemically identical to the “legal” hemp their neighbor grows. It includes researchers frustrated by the artificial barriers that prevent comprehensive cannabis science. And it includes patients and consumers who just want safe, legal access to a plant that’s been used medicinally for thousands of years.

The founding principle of the OPA is unity. For too long, the cannabis movement has been fragmented—hemp vs. marijuana, medical vs. recreational, flower vs. concentrates, state-legal vs. federal prohibition. This fragmentation has allowed opponents of reform to pick us off one by one, playing different stakeholder groups against each other.

The OPA says: Enough.

It’s one plant. One movement. One goal: Remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act entirely.

Why Cannabis Doesn’t Belong on the CSA: The Medical Evidence

Let’s talk about why cannabis—whether you call it hemp or marijuana—has absolutely no business being on the Controlled Substances Act in the first place.

The CSA places drugs into five schedules based on three criteria:

1. Potential for abuse

2. Accepted medical use

3. Safety under medical supervision

Cannabis is currently Schedule I, which the government claims means it has:

Let’s demolish these claims one by one.

1. Potential for Abuse: Laughably Low Compared to Legal Substances

The addiction rate for cannabis is approximately 9%—meaning about 9% of users develop some form of dependency. Compare that to:

• Alcohol: 15-20% addiction rate

• Tobacco: 32% addiction rate

• Opioids: 8-12% addiction rate (for prescription use; much higher for illicit use)

So cannabis has a lower addiction potential than alcohol (which is legal, advertised, and sold on every street corner) and tobacco (also legal, despite killing 480,000 Americans annually).

Moreover, cannabis withdrawal—for the small percentage who experience it—involves mild symptoms like irritability, sleep disturbance, and decreased appetite. Alcohol withdrawal can kill you. Opioid withdrawal is medically dangerous. Benzodiazepine withdrawal can cause seizures.

Cannabis withdrawal is… slightly uncomfortable for a few days.

If “potential for abuse” is the metric, cannabis should be descheduled entirely, while alcohol and tobacco should be Schedule I.

2. Accepted Medical Use: Overwhelming Evidence

The claim that cannabis has “no accepted medical use” is not just wrong—it’s a deliberate lie.

As of 2026, there are over 20,000 published studies on cannabis and its therapeutic applications. The evidence base includes rigorous clinical trials, peer-reviewed research, and real-world patient data spanning decades.

Cannabis has demonstrated efficacy for:

• Chronic pain (the #1 reason patients use medical cannabis)

• Epilepsy and seizure disorders (FDA even approved Epidiolex, a cannabis-derived medication)

• Nausea and appetite stimulation (especially for cancer and HIV/AIDS patients)

• PTSD and anxiety disorders

• Multiple sclerosis and muscle spasticity

• Glaucoma

• Inflammatory bowel diseases (Crohn’s, ulcerative colitis)

• Parkinson’s disease

• Alzheimer’s disease (emerging research on neuroprotection)

This isn’t anecdotal. This is peer-reviewed science.

Additionally, 38 U.S. states have legalized medical cannabis programs, with millions of registered patients using it under doctor supervision. If that doesn’t constitute “accepted medical use,” then the definition is meaningless.

3. Safety Under Medical Supervision: One of the Safest Substances Known

Here’s a fun fact: Nobody has ever died from a cannabis overdose.

I don’t mean “very few people.” I mean zero. In the entire recorded history of human cannabis use—thousands of years—there is not a single documented case of a fatal overdose from cannabis consumption.

The LD50 (lethal dose for 50% of test subjects) for THC is so astronomically high that you’d need to consume approximately 1,500 pounds of cannabis in 15 minutes to approach a lethal dose. That’s not physically possible.

Compare that to:

• Alcohol: Thousands of overdose deaths annually

• Opioids: 80,000+ overdose deaths annually

• Aspirin: Can be fatal at high doses

• Tylenol: Leading cause of acute liver failure

Cannabis is safer than over-the-counter pain medication. It’s safer than caffeine (which has a known lethal dose and causes cardiovascular events). It’s certainly safer than the alcohol that Americans drink 2.25 billion cups of annually—wait, wrong addictive drug. That’s coffee. You get the point.

By every objective safety metric, cannabis is one of the safest psychoactive substances humans consume.

So let’s review: Low abuse potential. Accepted medical use. Exceptionally safe. These are the opposite of the criteria for Schedule I classification.

Cannabis doesn’t belong on Schedule III. It doesn’t belong on Schedule V. It doesn’t belong on the Controlled Substances Act at all.

The One Plant Philosophy: Science Over Politics

This is where the One Plant Alliance’s philosophy becomes crucial. By insisting on the scientific reality that hemp and marijuana are the same plant, the OPA forces the conversation back to evidence-based policy.

You can’t simultaneously argue that:

• Hemp is safe, non-intoxicating, and should be legal (2018 Farm Bill position)

• Marijuana is dangerous, highly addictive, and deserves Schedule I classification (DEA position)

When they’re the same plant.

The OPA’s position is that if hemp is safe enough to be completely legal—sold in gas stations, unregulated, accessible to adults with no prescription—then marijuana should be equally legal. And if marijuana is dangerous enough to remain criminalized, then hemp should be equally prohibited.

You can’t have it both ways. The science doesn’t support the distinction.

What the current system actually represents is not science-based drug policy but rather political expediency and corporate interest protection. Hemp was legalized because agricultural states wanted a new cash crop and the CBD market exploded. Marijuana remains illegal because Big Pharma, Big Alcohol, and the prison industrial complex profit from prohibition.

The One Plant Alliance is calling bullshit on this entire framework.

Why Now? The Moment for Unity

So why is the One Plant Alliance gaining traction now, in 2026?

Because the contradictions in our current system have become unsustainable.

Trump signed a spending bill in December 2025 that would ban hemp-derived THC products—essentially re-criminalizing a market that the 2018 Farm Bill legalized. Meanwhile, he issued an executive order to reschedule marijuana to Schedule III, which would benefit pharmaceutical companies while maintaining federal prohibition for everyone else.

Hemp farmers are watching their industry get destroyed by regulatory whiplash. Marijuana businesses in legal states are still being crushed by 280E taxation and federal banking restrictions. Patients are caught in the middle, facing a patchwork of state laws that determine whether their medicine is legal or criminal based on which side of an arbitrary state line they’re on.

The fragmented approach isn’t working.

The OPA argues that the only path forward is unity. Hemp farmers and marijuana cultivators need to stand together. Medical patients and recreational users need to recognize they’re fighting the same battle. State-legal businesses and federal reformers need to align their advocacy.

Because as long as we accept the false distinction between hemp and marijuana, we’re playing by prohibition’s rules. We’re accepting the premise that the government has the legitimate authority to criminalize different “types” of the same plant based on arbitrary THC percentages.

The OPA rejects that premise entirely.

It’s Time to Grow Up, America

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: America’s cannabis policy is infantile.

We’re a nation that prides itself on scientific innovation, yet our drug laws are based on 1930s propaganda films and racist fearmongering. We claim to believe in personal freedom and limited government, yet we criminalize adults for consuming a plant that’s safer than alcohol. We say we support evidence-based medicine, yet we ignore 20,000+ studies demonstrating cannabis’s therapeutic value.

It’s time to grow up.

The One Plant Alliance represents the maturation of the cannabis reform movement. It’s a recognition that incremental half-measures—Schedule III rescheduling, restrictive medical programs, conflicting state laws—aren’t good enough anymore.

We don’t need better prohibition. We need no prohibition.

We don’t need marijuana rescheduled to Schedule III. We need cannabis removed from the CSA entirely.

We don’t need to keep pretending that hemp and marijuana are different. We need to acknowledge the scientific reality that it’s one plant and govern it accordingly.

The Sticky Bottom Line

The One Plant Alliance isn’t just another advocacy group. It’s a philosophical reframing of the entire cannabis legalization debate.

By insisting on the scientific fact that hemp and marijuana are the same species, the OPA forces opponents of reform to defend the indefensible: that an arbitrary THC percentage justifies treating identical plants as if one is medicine and the other is equivalent to heroin.

By centering the conversation on evidence rather than politics, the OPA dismantles the core justifications for cannabis prohibition: low abuse potential, accepted medical use, and exceptional safety profile all argue for complete descheduling.

And by calling for unity across the fragmented cannabis movement, the OPA creates a coalition powerful enough to challenge the entrenched interests—Big Pharma, Big Alcohol, the prison industrial complex—that profit from prohibition.

The hemp/marijuana distinction is a legal fiction. The Schedule I classification is a scientific absurdity. The Controlled Substances Act is a 50-year-old failed experiment that’s destroyed millions of lives while accomplishing nothing except enriching corporations and empowering authoritarian government overreach.

It’s time to end it.

One plant. One movement. One goal: Complete descheduling.

Join the One Plant Alliance. Support the fight for evidence-based drug policy. And let’s finally drag American cannabis law out of the prohibitionist dark ages and into the 21st century.

Because frankly, it’s embarrassing that we’re still having this conversation in 2026.

Grow up, America. It’s just a plant.

 

0.3% THC BY DRY WEIGHT, READ ON…

0.3% THC THE GREATEST LOOP HOLE IN DRUG LAW HISTORY?

Earlier this month, the Bailiwick of Jersey appeared poised to take a measured, evidence-based step toward re-examining its approach to non-medical cannabis. Three reform proposals put forward by Tom Binet, Minister for Health and Social Services, were expected to be debated by the States Assembly of Jersey on February 3, 2026.

That debate has now been canceled and deferred until, at least, after the June election.

While postponements around elections happen, the decision is nonetheless disappointing. The proposals were expressly designed to be cautious, incremental, and compliant with international obligations. Their removal from the Assembly agenda suggests that short-term political considerations have, for now, outweighed a substantive discussion about public health, criminal justice efficiency, and regulatory realism.

Background: reform driven by evidence, not urgency

The proposals arose from a June 2024 Assembly decision directing the Council of Ministers to explore potential approaches to decriminalization, legislation, and regulation of non-medical cannabis. That mandate reflected a recognition that Jersey’s current framework—rooted primarily in criminal enforcement—may no longer align with contemporary evidence or policy outcomes.

Importantly, none of the options would have resulted in immediate legal change. Approval of any proposal would merely have authorized further research, consultation, and policy development, followed by additional Assembly debate and Attorney General review.

In that context, the cancellation of the debate is not just a procedural delay; it is a missed opportunity to engage in a fact-based discussion about reform options that were deliberately modest in scope.

The three cannabis reform options Jersey may revisit

When the issue returns to the Assembly, if it does, members may again be asked to consider three non-exclusive, high-level options.

1. Alternative strategies for offences involving small amounts of cannabis

Under this approach, possession, cultivation, and social supply of cannabis would remain criminal offences, but prosecution would cease for personal possession and associated cultivation of small quantities, subject to indicative thresholds. Personal cannabis use would be treated as a public health issue, shifting lower-level offences from a prosecutorial model to harm reduction and prevention strategies. This option represents the most conservative form of reform and is explicitly permitted under international drug control treaties.

2. Decriminalization of small amounts of cannabis

This option would go a step further by removing criminal liability entirely for possession or cultivation of small quantities within defined limits. Cannabis use would remain limited to personal use, and commercial supply would continue to be criminalized.

Decriminalization of this kind is no longer novel. Comparable frameworks already operate across several European jurisdictions and have not resulted in the negative outcomes often cited by opponents.

3. State-run commercial pilot program

The most ambitious proposal, though still modest to some, would authorize a tightly regulated, government-controlled pilot program for the production and sale of non-medical cannabis.

Participation would be limited to registered Jersey residents, with strict controls on access, quantity, and distribution. Activity outside the pilot would remain criminal. The purpose of the program would be empirical: to assess whether regulated access can improve public-health outcomes without increasing harm or diversion.

Assembly members could, of course, reject all three options and maintain the status quo.

Politics over policy: the significance of the canceled debate

According to reporting by Bailiwick Express, the scheduled Assembly debate was canceled outright and will not be revisited until after the election. While this may be politically expedient, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that electoral caution has taken precedence over common-sense policy evaluation.

None of the proposals required Assembly members to endorse legalization. None committed Jersey to a commercial market. All were designed to gather evidence, reduce unnecessary criminalization, and align enforcement with public-health realities. Postponing even that discussion underscores how cannabis policy continues to be treated as politically radioactive, despite decades of data suggesting that prohibition-first approaches are ineffective.

United Kingdom’s Influence

The United Kingdom remains a central constraint. As the internationally responsible state, the UK’s view is decisive if any proposal advances toward legislation.

Past experience, most notably the UK’s refusal to grant Royal Assent to Bermuda’s adult-use legalization bill, demonstrates the limits of Crown Dependency autonomy in this area. That history is precisely why Jersey’s proposals were incremental rather than sweeping.

Option one relies on enforcement discretion expressly allowed under the 1988 UN Convention. Option two mirrors decriminalization regimes already functioning in Europe. Option three aligns with tightly controlled adult-use pilot programs in Switzerland and the Netherlands, and a similar program authorized (but likely not to be implemented) in Germany as part of its phased cannabis reforms.

In other words, these proposals were crafted to survive scrutiny. Delaying their consideration does not resolve the UK issue; it simply postpones a conversation that will eventually have to occur.

Conclusion: delay driven by politics, not substance

The cancellation of the Assembly debate is not a rejection of cannabis reform, but it is a clear signal that politics, not policy, has prevailed for now. That outcome is disappointing, particularly given the restraint and evidence-based nature of the proposals on the table.

When the election concludes, the next Assembly will face the same underlying realities: ongoing criminalization of low-level cannabis conduct, enforcement costs with limited public-safety benefit, and growing divergence between Jersey’s law and modern regulatory approaches elsewhere.

Whether the next Assembly chooses to confront those issues remains to be seen. What is clear is that common-sense cannabis reform has been delayed—not because the proposals were unsound, but because the timing was politically inconvenient.

Late last month, the United States announced a formal exit from the World Health Organization.

This was shocking news, to say the least, considering that the US was one of the agency’s top donors. However, US President Donald Trump already began the motions for their withdrawal about a year ago, as he criticized the World Health Organization for being too focused on China during the pandemic. The US Department of Health and Human Services even went as far as accusing the WHO of mishandling the pandemic.

 

According to Trump, the initial recommendations made by the agency on how nations should have responded to the pandemic were harmful, saying they failed to contain the outbreak in several countries. True to his brand, he also accused the WHO of doing all this deliberately – and without the evidence for it.

 

Trump also said during his briefings that the WHO knew more about the impact of the virus than they made public, saying they could have warned the world about it earlier. Trump’s criticisms projected blame to the WHO instead of taking accountability for the US’s early pandemic responses.

 

The Impact of the US Leaving the WHO

 

There are serious, long-lasting implications for the US leaving the World Health Organization, including potential consequences for medical marijuana, the future of cannabis reform, and drug policy as a whole.

 

After all, the WHO has played a pivotal role in helping shape how marijuana is researched, classified, and even made legitimate globally, and not just in the United States. Since America has withdrawn from the agency, we are now left to think about what would happen to medical marijuana now that the world’s biggest economy has removed itself from the main institution that is responsible for guiding international drug and health policies.

 

Even if the WHO doesn’t directly influence laws in the US, it has still influenced federal agencies as well as courts throughout history. Recommendations from the WHO have been used in debates to advance discussions on scheduling, public health risk assessments, and research permissions to name a few important matters.

 

Why The World Health Organization Is Important for Medical Marijuana

 

The World Health Organization is an important public health agency, but it does so much more than that.

 

The WHO’s Expert Committee on Drug Dependence helps evaluate various psychoactive substances and writes recommendations that have an important influence on international drug treaties, including the UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.

 

It was the WHO that, in fact, recommended removing marijuana from the list of Schedule IV substances back in 2019, after years of reviewing. After all, Schedule I is the most restrictive category, typically reserved for substances or drugs that have little to no medical value. The recommendations were adopted a year later by the United Nations, which was a breakthrough in medical history: for the first time in history, marijuana was officially recognized internationally as having medical value.

 

The decision was revolutionary, as it finally gave many countries the scientific and political back-up they needed to research medical marijuana. In addition, it helped validate the argument that medical marijuana was deserving of further research, since it was blocked by its classification, alongside drugs such as heroin.

 

Consequences for Medical Marijuana Patients

 

Medical marijuana patients may not feel it yet, though the effects of exiting the WHO may come soon. Since medical marijuana users depend heavily on physician education, standardized guidelines, and research on the plant, areas that are influenced by the WHO, there are serious impacts here.

 

Since the US left the World Health Organization, it will no longer be aligned internationally on issues affecting patients. These include, but are not limited to, inconsistencies in product standards, slower development when it comes to clinical best practices, and potentially continued stigma in the world of mainstream medicine.

 

The science behind medical marijuana may be advancing in the rest of the world, but it will be uneven and can affect areas where it is drastically needed.

 

The Message

 

Exiting the World Health Organization sent a message to the rest of the world that having an international consensus on health and medicine matters is not mandatory. This signaling, whether we like it or not, doesn’t have a positive impact. Countries that have been on the fence about legalizing cannabis, especially those in Asia and parts of Latin America, may feel emboldened by the US’s decision and feel that disengagement from having shared standards, which is important.

 

Additionally, symbolic hierarchy comes into play. Developing nations usually look to bigger powers such as the United States for cues about drug policy direction. Since the US has now left the WHO, this can reduce the perceived importance of multilateral cooperation.

 

As a result, this may standardize a fragmented approach to international drug policy, leading to ignorance of evidence-based recommendations based on political convenience. Sadly, we should be role model by focusing on public health outcomes, among other key decisions.

The disengagement reinforces uncertainty, and uncertainty can hinder reform for many more years.

CONCLUSION

 

The United States’ withdrawal from the World Health Organization doesn’t necessarily mean the end of medical marijuana progress, but it can seriously complicate matters. Marijuana reform in the country has always suffered from uneven advancements, driven by federal restrictions that other nations don’t have. In addition, factors such as economic pressure, patient advocacy, and cultural attitudes come into play.

 

Global health institutions like the World Health Organization do matter because they help shape the rules and priorities. Stepping away from these agencies brings about a large risk of isolating the United States at a time when marijuana is already reaching the medical mainstream.

 

THE WHO ON CANNABIS, READ ON…

CANNABIS IS RELATIVELY SAFE SAY WORLD HEALTH ORG!

Perimenopause isn’t just a chapter; it’s a plot twist with attitude. One minute you’re serene and hydrated, the next you’re channeling Kathy Bates in Fried Green Tomatoes, screaming “Towanda!” as your hormones emotionally T-bone a parked car. Hot flashes, mood swings, sleep battles, libido dips, anxiety spikes—it’s a full-body revolution every woman faces, yet almost none of us are prepared for.

For me, perimenopause didn’t arrive politely. There was no missed period, no heads-up, no gentle transition. It showed up as brain fog thick enough to lose words mid-sentence, anxiety that felt distinctly biochemical, and random Towanda rage. The kind that appears without context and leaves you standing in the kitchen, wondering who that was and whether bail money might be necessary.

As more women look beyond the usual pharmaceutical script and toward plant-based wellness, cannabis is emerging as one of the most talked-about allies in this transition. Research is beginning to validate what women have quietly shared for years in dispensaries, DMs, and late-night group chats: the plant is helping. 

A 2023 cross-sectional survey of cannabis users aged 35 and over found commonly reported relief for sleep disturbances, anxiety, mood changes, and other menopause-related symptoms.

So let’s talk about it like grown women with receipts. Not in vague wellness whispers, not in “ask your doctor” boilerplate, and definitely not in stoner folklore. Just a symptom-by-symptom breakdown of what cannabis may help with in perimenopause, what to try (and what to avoid), and how to start without accidentally launching yourself into orbit.

What’s Happening in the Body (ECS + Hormones)

Perimenopause isn’t a single hormonal cliff. It’s a long, uneven descent. Estrogen doesn’t simply decline; it fluctuates. Some days it spikes, other days it crashes, and the body is left adapting in real time. That volatility drives many of the symptoms women report: heightened anxiety, disrupted sleep, sudden mood shifts, temperature dysregulation, changes in libido, and the sense that the body no longer responds the way it used to.

This is also why symptoms often appear years before anyone says the word “menopause.” Many women are told they’re stressed, anxious, depressed, or simply aging when in reality, hormonal signaling has already begun to shift. The body feels off long before the label arrives.

What’s often missing from this conversation is the role of the endocannabinoid system (ECS), the body’s internal regulator. The ECS helps maintain balance across mood, sleep, pain, inflammation, stress response, and temperature control. Estrogen plays a regulatory role here. When estrogen fluctuates, ECS signaling can become dysregulated, amplifying stress responses, interrupting sleep, and sharpening emotional reactivity.

This isn’t a personal failure or a lack of resilience. It’s biology. Your internal communication systems are changing, and your symptoms are signals, not shortcomings.

Across menopause and cannabis communities, a consistent sentiment comes up again and again: women aren’t chasing a high. They’re chasing a sense of normal—relief that allows their nervous systems to settle and their evenings to feel manageable again.

How to Think About Cannabis (Before You Buy Anything)

Before diving into symptoms or strain names, it helps to understand how cannabis actually works and what matters most when choosing a product to support your hormonal shifts. You don’t need to become fluent overnight. You just need a framework.

Cannabinoids are the active helpers

Cannabinoids like THC, CBD, CBG, and THCV interact directly with the ECS, influencing mood, sleep, pain perception, appetite, temperature regulation, and stress response. Think of cannabinoids as the engine driving the primary effects.

Terpenes are the modifiers

Terpenes shape how cannabinoids feel in the body and mind, whether calming, uplifting, grounding, or sedating. They steer the experience rather than power it.

Formats matter because timing matters

Flower, edibles, tinctures, topicals, and suppositories all enter the body differently. In perimenopause, when sleep is fragile, temperature fluctuates, and stress tolerance is low, onset time and duration can matter as much as potency. Fast-acting options may help acute anxiety or hot flashes, while longer-lasting formats often better support sleep and overnight stability.

It’s all harmony

Cannabis compounds also rarely work in isolation. Full-spectrum and blended formulations tend to outperform single-compound chasing. What matters most is how combinations support your symptoms.

Symptom-by-Symptom Support

Many women report being offered antidepressants, sleep aids, or being told to “wait it out.” For some, those tools help. For others, they mute symptoms without restoring a sense of balance. Cannabis often enters the picture not as a replacement for care, but as a missing layer, something that works with the nervous system rather than against it.

Mood, Anxiety & Irritability

Mood changes in perimenopause often feel less like emotions and more like chemistry. Reactions arrive before thoughts, leaving many women wondering when their internal buffer disappeared.

As estrogen fluctuates, ECS tone drops, and stress buffering weakens. Cortisol spikes more easily, sleep suffers, and emotional regulation becomes fragile. 

Cannabis may help by interacting with stress-response pathways, softening reactivity, and restoring emotional flexibility. Rather than numbing emotions, it can help transform volatility into clarity and groundedness.

Cannabinoids to look for here include: CBD for calming reactivity, CBG for clear-headed balance, and THCV, in microdoses, for focus and mood lift.

As for terpenes, linalool, beta-caryophyllene, and limonene are great options. For example, linalool (you know it as the strong scent in lavender) also appears in many cannabis cultivars, which may explain why many women report a similar sense of nervous-system softening.

How to try it: Daytime tinctures, low-dose edibles, or gentle flower. Start low. Blended formulations often outperform isolates.

Optional strain examples: Super Lemon Haze.

Sleep

Sleep is often the first thing to go and the hardest thing to get back. Women talk about lying awake at 3 a.m., overheated and wired, wondering how their body forgot something it used to do effortlessly.

Hormonal shifts disrupt circadian rhythm, temperature regulation, and stress hormones, turning bedtime into a battleground.

Cannabis may help shorten sleep-onset time, quiet mental noise, and support nervous-system downshifting. THC often aids sleep initiation, while CBD and CBG help calm racing thoughts. CBN may add an extra layer of sedation for late-night restlessness.

Terpenes like myrcene, linalool, terpinolene, and beta-caryophyllene are commonly associated with relaxation and sleep support.

How to try it: Edibles or tinctures taken one to two hours before bed; some women prefer infused pre-rolls. Microdose first and adjust slowly.

Optional strain examples: Northern Lights; Purple Punch.

Libido

Libido doesn’t clock out politely during perimenopause; it fades while you’re busy managing sleep loss, mood swings, and a body that feels increasingly unpredictable. Pleasure becomes collateral damage, not a conscious choice.

Stress, tension, dryness, and hormonal shifts can disrupt desire and embodiment, making intimacy feel distant or effortful.

Cannabis may help by reducing mental friction and enhancing sensory awareness. THC can amplify sensation, while CBD supports relaxation without overwhelm. Balanced formulations, such as 1:1 THC:CBD, are often helpful for women navigating sensitivity and stress.

Terpenes like limonene, linalool, and myrcene frequently appear in women’s stories of rediscovering desire. Limonene, the terpene responsible for citrus’s bright, uplifting aroma, is often associated with mood elevation and mental openness, two things libido depends on during perimenopause.

How to try it: Low-dose edibles, flower, topicals, lubricants, or suppositories. Timing matters; many prefer 30 to 90 minutes before intimacy. Start low and prioritize comfort.

Optional strain examples: Wedding Cake; Do-Si-Dos; Granddaddy Purple.

RSO deserves a brief mention here. As a full-spectrum extract, it can deliver deep body relaxation and sensory presence, but it’s potent. A rice-grain dose is plenty.

Hot Flashes & Temperature Regulation

Hot flashes aren’t just inconvenient; they’re disruptive in a way that’s hard to explain unless you’ve lived it. If you’ve ever seen the now-viral image of a woman at a winter football game with steam visibly rising from her head during a hot flash, you already understand the absurdity of it all. They interrupt conversations, sleep, focus, and patience, often without warning and always at the worst possible moment.

As estrogen declines, ECS signaling involved in thermoregulation can destabilize, contributing to sudden heat surges.

Cannabinoids such as THC and CBD have been shown to influence vascular tone and relaxation, offering a possible mechanism for easing vasomotor symptoms. Many women report that balanced 1:1 THC:CBD products provide steady support without excessive intoxication.

Some also combine cannabis with botanicals like black cohosh, which has demonstrated clinical relevance for vasomotor symptom relief.

How to try it: Low-dose tinctures or edibles used consistently rather than reactively. Balance tends to matter more than potency.

Optional strain examples: ACDC; GMO Cookies.

Finding Your Way Back to Balance

There’s no single right way through perimenopause, and no obligation to use the plant at all. But there is permission to explore, slowly and intentionally, what helps you feel more like yourself.

Since only female cannabis plants carry the power-packed cannabinoids THC and CBD, it feels fitting that she shows up for us during these Towanda-level moments. Perimenopause isn’t a downfall; it’s a rite of passage. And cannabis, in all its terpene-rich complexity, has become one of the allies women reach for when the ride turns volatile.

This isn’t about numbing symptoms or chasing perfection. It’s about restoring choice in a body that feels unpredictable and reclaiming balance, curiosity, and trust along the way.

When the world says, “just deal with it,” the plant offers another option: you don’t have to.

Cannabis is powerful, but it isn’t a replacement for medical care. If symptoms feel overwhelming, hormone testing and professional support can be invaluable companions on this journey. This is about adding tools, not abandoning care, and trusting yourself to decide what belongs in your mix.

This article is from an external, unpaid contributor. It does not represent High Times’ reporting and has not been edited for content or accuracy.

Over the past 16 months or so the Karma Koala Postcast has been catching time with Steve De’Angelo whenever we can to dig much deeper into his life, his family his formative childhood experiences and then into his teens and 20’s,  Yippies and life on the wrong side of the law in the 70’s and 80’s and the long road that led him to being known now as the father of Amercian medical cannabis.

As always with the Karma Koala podcast it is all about  raw unedited conversation to dive into the nooks and crannies of Steve’s experiences and the wider world of cannabis around him.

We’ve recorded over 10 hours of conversation that you’ll see appear over the next few months where you learn more about Steve and his life  than you could imagine and how his world echoed the changes in cannabis and American culture & society from the 1970’s through to today.

In episode 1 we learn about his Italian family immigrant story, growing up as a young child in Washington DC in the  Kennedy years and his boyhood experiences of India in late 60’s.

Here are some family snaps that Steve kindly provided the Karma Koala podcast to accompany the story of his childhood years.

 

  Author – AC Moon / Cameron              

 The U.S. Virgin Islands has been making leaps and bounds rolling out its newly legalized industry launch over the last year.   2025 saw the first round of licensed Cannabis farmers- both Micro and tier one Commercial, which will allow between 250 and 1k plants depending on the application applied.

    In addition, the first rounds of Cannabis Retail applications were reviewed by the Office of Cannabis Regulation, with 9 Cannabis Dispensaries becoming fully approved at the first of this year.    This includes Dispensaries on each of the 3 most inhabited islands, where an individual island must have an entire Seed to Sale system within, due to federal laws governing and prohibiting the movement of goods between islands.

    The holiday months closed out the first round of Manufacturing license applications, which we await on the Office of Cannabis Regulation to currently review with application processing taking up to three months.

  As each 6-week portal progresses, there is a wave of opportunities that are being offered to the locals of the islands as well as mainlanders that wish to partner with islanders to create expanded global business.  Each licensing portal is a doorway to potential breakthroughs and heightened accomplishments for endeavor entrepreneurs who dream of taking part in this once in a lifetime opportunity on the white sands of the Caribbean.

   Currently we have open, the wonderful opportunity to create a legal Cannabis Research and Development platform!  This unique and private opportunity allows the cultivation of plants to create, study and work with seeds as well as develop products that may need additional research for the local sectors.  The need for Cannabis research is always there and with this space, we can add a specific element of genetic adaptation, hybridizing and Cannabis product creation.

   The ability to work alongside remote areas of the planet in a cohesive partnership and sharing of information and licensure is groundbreaking work. Building symbiotic brands that work interconnectivity as well as intercontinentally ensures the success of any series of partnerships through exponential exposure and brand awareness.

   The US Virgin Islands are a special place with a set of arranged rules to protect the native islanders from being overthrown.   In the first of passed laws pertaining to the creation of the legal Cannabis commerce sector, it was declared you must be a resident of Virgin Islands 10 out of the last 15 years to own a Cannabis license.  The island residents must always retain a minimum of 51% control of the Cannabis business and its operations. This is to ensure a fair, equitable playing field for the people of the USVI.  Partnerships with mainlanders are welcomed as a bonus, where sharing of branding, marketing, information and resources can benefit both parties in an exciting bountiful future.

   Due to having so few permits offered on each island, it is apparent that the epic first rounds of licensing are the ground zero of Cannabis business potential in the American Caribbean.   

  Each round of open applications last 6 to 8 weeks and is followed by a review period of 90 days by the Office of Cannabis Regulations.  Applications are assessed by a point scale where a full potential 1k point system is broken down into sections where applicants are given points based on their merit, financial aptitude, social roles, infrastructure and business plans.

   Local Rastafari are granted Sacramental Rights in the use and cultivation of Cannabis as well as offered a “Equity bonus boost” of 25 points during the application process. Others included in the “Equity” section are women, veterans, medical patients and those have been persecuted or incarcerated for simple Cannabis crimes.

  This solar cycle year of 2026 has much to look forward to in the way of spontaneous evolution of the legal Cannabis Commerce sector in the US Virgin Islands.  Once the first Manufacturing permits are assessed and granted to applicants the rest of the year is about to become groundbreaking exciting.

   Coming soon will be the very first American Caribbean legal Cannabis Consumption lounges.   These lounges will be the first of its kind in history, where “bar style” and “spa style” Cannabis hangout spots will bring an entire new sector to island life, employment and Cannabis tourism.

   This opens a cornucopia of culturally diverse implementation into a previously stereotypical Caribbean vacation.   With United States federal laws governing the territory, each island will have opportunity to display, sell and offer all sorts of local grown and made Cannabis flowers, extracts, edibles and Cannabis drinks at retail and consumption areas.

   Within the next 2 years an exciting adventure will await tourists.  Without need for a passport, just a Real ID- people will be able to take a quick flight down to the territory, enjoy a beautiful vacation with deep sensual clear blue waters, white sands and the ability to go to a legal dispensary and grab good local grown Cannabis and chill smoking legal Ganja with the sounds of island life and reggae music around you.   This irie temptation will be the host of a wide array of events, resorts and Cannabis friendly experiences in the future, adding to the atmosphere, local commerce and education sharing of the culture and its people.

https://www.indicainnovations.com

Jamaican authorities are searching for a St Elizabeth farmer in connection with the seizure of more than 100 pounds of cocaine at Sangster International Airport earlier this week.

Detectives from the Firearms and Narcotics Investigation Division (FNID) have identified Renaldo Brooks as a person of interest in the Monday evening drug bust, which netted approximately 50.2 kilograms of cocaine with an estimated street value of $30 million.

According to the Jamaica Gleaner, police said the discovery was made around 7:00 p.m. when electronic screening equipment detected anomalies in a suitcase scheduled for departure to Canada. A physical search of the luggage revealed multiple sachets containing the illicit substance.

Superintendent Patrae Rowe, Director of FNID, emphasized the success of enhanced security measures at Jamaica’s ports of entry.

“We are maintaining a high level of vigilance at our ports of entry,” Rowe said in a Wednesday statement. “This seizure underscores our commitment to disrupting the narcotics trade and ensuring that those who attempt to use our airports for criminal activity are brought to justice.”

Authorities are urging Brooks to turn himself in to FNID headquarters or the nearest police station, stating that investigators believe he can provide crucial information about the seizure. Police have also appealed to the public for assistance in locating the suspect.

https://caymanmarlroad.com/2026/01/28/over-100-pounds-of-cocaine-seized-at-sangster-international-airport/

Cannabis has never been a single experience. It was never one molecule, one effect, one intention, or one lane. It has always been plural—used for healing, ritual, relief, escape, communion, and survival, sometimes all at once. The plant made room for contradiction long before regulators tried to flatten it into categories that could fit on a spreadsheet.

Somewhere along the road to legitimacy, that plurality got lost. Hemp became something else. Medical became a loophole. Adult use became a market. Pharmaceutical became a threat. Culture became collateral damage.

What we call cannabis now often says more about who’s allowed to sell it than what it actually does.

Adam Rosenberg has lived inside every one of those boxes—and spent most of his career trying to explain why none of them actually make sense on their own.

Rosenberg isn’t a talking head parachuting in with a theory. His perspective was shaped by work in urine-testing labs, caregiver collectives, hemp fields, dispensaries, classrooms, boardrooms, and policy meetings. He’s worked with patients, farmers, investors, students, regulators, and brands. Today, he serves as chairman of the board of the National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA), but his worldview was shaped long before titles entered the picture.

What he keeps coming back to is simple, and deeply inconvenient for modern cannabis discourse: the plant never asked to be divided this way.

The First Fracture Happens at the Consumer Level

One of the quiet casualties of legalization has been language. Consumers are expected to navigate THC, CBD, THCA, Delta-8, hemp-derived, marijuana-derived, full spectrum, isolate, medical, recreational, pharmaceutical—often without the education to tell one from the other. That confusion isn’t accidental. It’s structural.

Walk into enough dispensaries or scroll enough online menus and you start to see it: the plant reduced to acronyms, percentages, and disclaimers. The problem isn’t that cannabis education has been dumbed down or exaggerated; it’s that it exists in fragments, with no shared language or throughline holding it together.

“I agree completely that this bifurcation of hemp and marijuana has resulted in more confusion,” Rosenberg said. “And at the end of the day, the solution is to focus policy on the end product’s safety profile and intoxicating potential, not whether it comes from a hemp or a marijuana plant, because that’s a subjective definition in and of itself.”

When cannabis is chopped into opposing identities, the people using it are forced to pick sides they don’t actually belong to. Patients become consumers. Consumers become liabilities. Culture becomes a compliance problem.

Rosenberg continued, “Let’s prioritize responsible policy and move past this artificial divide that has drained resources on internal conflict rather than advocacy for the plant.”

What gets lost in these fights isn’t just regulatory clarity, it’s the momentum. Every internal argument over labels, lanes, and legitimacy is energy not spent protecting access or educating the people actually using the plant.

When Education Lags, Culture Pays

Rosenberg’s conviction around education didn’t come from branding decks or white papers. It came from conversations with patients—many of them young, many of them desperate, many of them failed by conventional medicine.

While interning at a pain management clinic, he was assigned to the urine testing lab. That’s where he noticed something no syllabus had prepared him for.

“As I was drug testing patients, I discovered many of them were testing positive for THC,” he said. “As I learned more, I came to understand that they were receiving incredible relief from this natural, non-toxic gift of nature without the risks and downsides associated with the opioids that they were being prescribed.”

That experience rerouted his entire life. It also hardwired a belief that still defines how he talks about cannabis today: access without education is incomplete, but education without access is cruel.

Cannabis culture used to teach itself through proximity. Patients talking to patients, growers talking to consumers, budtenders translating lived experience into guidance. As those relationships give way to regulation-first systems, knowledge becomes transactional rather than communal.

When culture loses the ability to pass down knowledge about the plant—how people actually learn it, use it, and make sense of it through experience—it gets replaced by marketing shorthand and regulatory jargon. The result is a public that’s overwhelmed and an industry that argues with itself instead of teaching.

“Consumers aren’t yet informed enough to know how to thoroughly vet cannabis products,” Rosenberg acknowledged. “And that’s not their fault.”

A Whole Plant Trapped in Artificial Categories

One of the most persistent cultural myths in cannabis is that medical, recreational, and pharmaceutical uses are mutually exclusive. Rosenberg rejects that outright—not philosophically, but practically.

“My principle is that nature provided us with an absolutely perfect gift,” he said. “And the only problems we have ever had are in how we use it or misuse it and in how we enforce against it.”

Personally, he gravitates toward full-spectrum products and traditional preparations. “If I’m using it personally, therapeutically, or for people in my life, I’m going to recommend something like a Rick Simpson oil,” he said. “That is also just my belief that our bodies are meant to eat whole foods and use nature in its natural form.”

But he’s also realistic about where culture meets reality. Not everyone wants flower. Not everyone will ever smoke. Not everyone will accept cannabis unless it looks like something they already trust.

“The other opportunity that the more biopharmaceutical side offers is in healing people that would not otherwise use cannabis,” Rosenberg said. “The grandmas that would say, well, I’m not touching the devil’s lettuce, but they’ll take a pill that’s prescribed by their doctor.”

That tension between purity and pragmatism has always existed in cannabis culture. The mistake is pretending it’s new or pretending it has to be resolved by choosing one side.

Why Unity Feels So Hard Right Now

The deeper cannabis pushes into legitimacy, the more it mirrors the fractures of every other American industry. Hemp versus marijuana. Legacy versus licensed. Patients versus profits. Each group is responding to real pressures, but rarely sitting in the same room long enough to recognize shared stakes.

“To me, it starts with patient access,” Rosenberg said. “But patient access is meaningless without the tools to provide the products, and that’s the industry. And that’s why we need to also support growing a healthy industry.”

That belief has guided his work inside NCIA, where he works to bring competing factions together.

“We hold a responsibility that’s greater than our own individual business or our own individual position,” he said. “We’re all part of this greater movement that is going to help save a lot of lives and improve a lot of lives just by making progress together.”

It’s not a kumbaya sentiment. It’s a warning. When cannabis culture collapses into silos, it becomes easier to regulate, easier to exploit, and easier to forget why legalization mattered in the first place.

Remembering What the Plant Actually Is

Cannabis is not a brand category. It’s not a loophole. It’s not a single compound or a political football. It’s a plant that has survived decades of misuse, prohibition, and misunderstanding—largely because people kept using it anyway.

The cultural challenge now isn’t whether cannabis will be accepted. It’s whether it will be understood.

“There’s a misperception for the vast majority of people that medical cannabis is one entity,” Rosenberg said. “When actually, cannabis is a series of thousands of individual components.”

Culture has always been cannabis’ best teacher. When that culture fractures, education becomes transactional and access becomes conditional. The plant doesn’t change—but the meaning does.

If cannabis is going to move forward without losing itself, it may need to remember something deceptively simple: it was never one thing to begin with.

United We Stand, Divided We Get Regulated to Death

Cannabis culture has never been fragile, but it has become fragmented.

The plant survived prohibition because people understood it intuitively, shared knowledge freely, and trusted each other more than the system. What threatens it now isn’t backlash or regulation alone. It’s the slow erosion of common ground from inside the house.

When the industry can’t agree on language, when hemp and marijuana are treated as opposing identities instead of expressions of the same plant, when internal squabbles consume more energy than collective progress, we make it easier for outsiders to define cannabis for us, and harder to protect it from being overregulated into something unrecognizable.

Federal legalization, however it arrives, will not be gentle. If cannabis can’t present itself as a coherent culture with shared priorities, it risks being carved up by regulatory frameworks that were never designed to respect nuance, history, or lived experience.

Cannabis was never one thing. That was its strength. Pretending it’s many unrelated things—with no obligation to each other—may be the fastest way to lose control of its future. Remembering that shared strength just might give the culture a way forward together.

All photos courtesy of Elsa Olofsson via Unsplash.

I was fourteen when I first found cannabis. And High Times. The two didn’t just make me feel better—they saved me. Back then, I didn’t have words for what I was feeling: a restless, chaotic mind, a chest tight with panic I couldn’t name. Cannabis slowed everything down just enough for me to breathe, to feel, to survive.

Not long after that, an adult handed me meth. That was the beginning of a 26-year descent into addiction, chaos, and legal trouble. Ironically, my first felony was for Marinol—a synthetic version of the very plant that had quietly held me together as a teen. The system made no sense: rules designed to protect people instead punished curiosity, survival, and the search for calm.

Cannabis didn’t cure me. It wasn’t a miracle. But it kept me alive long enough to get sober and start piecing my life back together.

The Long Road Through Darkness

Addiction teaches you a strange kind of patience, the kind that feels like hell until you’re on the other side. It teaches you persistence when every part of you wants to quit. For me, it meant surviving years of meth, pills, and chaos—sometimes day by day, sometimes hour by hour.

Even when I was at my worst, cannabis offered a tether. A single hit could slow the mental screaming enough to focus on something else—writing a sentence, taking a photograph, noticing my child’s smile. It didn’t fix me, but it allowed me to stay present long enough to rebuild, long enough to make choices that didn’t kill me.

I got sober on January 20, 2020. Since then, I haven’t touched meth or pills. I’ve relied on natural cannabis—not as an escape, but as a stabilizer. It keeps me grounded when life pulls at me from every angle, when the weight of trauma threatens to crush me.

Growing, Creating, and Fear in South Dakota

I live in Mitchell, South Dakota, a place where cannabis has always been at odds with the law. I grew up in a world where a joint could get you arrested, where growing a plant meant constant fear. Compliance didn’t equal safety. For decades, I cycled through addiction, incarceration, and chaos, constantly numbing pain instead of facing it.

Even today, the law doesn’t always protect you. In 2023, my business partner’s home—the headquarters of our media company, the place where we ran operations and told stories about recovery and cannabis—was raided. It was mid-morning when law enforcement showed up: local police and state agents, a swarm that turned an ordinary day into something I still feel in my body. They searched the house top to bottom, photographing rooms, opening drawers, treating a home like a crime scene.

The warrant claimed suspicion of manufacturing and distribution. They seized plants (mostly seedlings), edibles, and equipment. Then came the part that still doesn’t sit right: the sudden shift from “business” to “criminal,” as if intent and context didn’t matter at all. In the aftermath, we were left facing charges—and trying to make sense of how quickly everything we’d built could be reframed as wrongdoing.

The system was twisted. Legal did not mean safe. Compliance and intent didn’t matter. The trauma lingered long after the doors were cleared. PTSD is real. Fear is real. Every unexpected knock, every sudden sound can make your body remember what it thought it survived.

That raid didn’t break me. It changed me. It made advocacy unavoidable. Silence allows harm to continue. I speak up because other people live in the same fear without the words to describe it. I speak because legalization without accountability is not justice.

I want to be clear: cannabis is not a cure. It’s a tool. It’s not the hero of my story. I am. But cannabis was the thing that allowed me to be alive to tell this story. It allowed me to survive long enough to create art, raise my child, and advocate for change.

It supports creativity, not by numbing me, but by giving me the space to sit with discomfort without collapsing. Writing, photography, producing media—these are the ways I process what cannot be neatly resolved. Cannabis allows me to stay present, to reflect, to create. Without it, some of those moments might have passed me by entirely.

I’ve learned the hard way that love, care, and patience—whether for a plant or a life—make all the difference. You can have the best equipment, the fanciest soil, the most expensive lights, but if you don’t put yourself into it, it won’t grow. Cannabis thrives under attention, just like people.

Recovery, Creativity, and Advocacy Intersect

Now I’m a father, a writer, and a grower. I co-founded a small media company that focuses on storytelling, healing, and education around recovery and cannabis. But the story isn’t about the company—it’s about the lived experience behind it.

Recovery and advocacy are inseparable for me. I can’t pretend the world is safe because the laws changed. I can’t ignore the people still living under threat, stigma, and trauma. Legalization isn’t just about laws on paper—it’s about accountability, access, and safety. Cannabis saved me, but the system didn’t. That tension is what fuels my advocacy.

I want people to see that recovery, creativity, and cannabis use can coexist. They can thrive when you embrace honesty, responsibility, and courage. But they require vigilance. You have to engage, you have to speak, you have to create. You cannot wait for someone else to fix the system for you.

Telling the Truth Anyway

This isn’t about pretending everything is okay. Life isn’t neat. Legal doesn’t mean safe. Fear doesn’t vanish with legislation. But I keep growing, creating, and advocating—not despite what I’ve lived, but because of it.

I grow cannabis. I create art. I recover out loud. I survive and I continue to speak. I’m not here to sugarcoat it. I’m here to tell the truth. To show what it really looks like to use cannabis responsibly while rebuilding a life from the ashes of addiction. To show that survival is messy, creativity is necessary, and advocacy is urgent.

Cannabis gave me time. Time to be a father, a partner, a creator. Time to find my voice, and use it. Time to take the lessons of survival and transform them into something meaningful. And that is what I hope my story offers: not a prescription, not a cure, but a lens into what’s possible when someone stays alive long enough to create.

This article is from an external, unpaid contributor. It does not represent High Times’ reporting and has not been edited for content or accuracy.

Cannabiz Australia

Leadership changes at Cannatrek and a renewed focus on financial discipline were key to Little Green Pharma’s confidence in the firms’ proposed merger, the largest deal in the sector to date, managing director Paul Long has said.

Cannatrek ‘evolution’ key to merger, says LGP managing director