Employees at one of the country’s largest cannabis companies have reportedly fled their union amid a dispute over wages and dues. The outlet MJBizDaily reports that workers at one of Cresco Labs’ cannabis cultivation facilities in Massachusetts “voted to de-unionize earlier this month,” which it said was “believed to be the first instance in the U.S. of a regulated cannabis workplace exiting organized labor.” The move comes after workers at the facility in Fall River, Massachusetts “had joined the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 328 in November 2020,” accord ..read more

An Arizona church has reached a settlement in a lawsuit against the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and other federal agencies that allows the Indigenous religious organization to use the psychedelic brew ayahuasca for sacramental purposes. Under the agreement, the Church of the Eagle and the Condor (CEC) will be permitted to import, prepare and distribute ayahuasca to its members at religious ceremonies. “The Church of the Eagle and the Condor has reached a settlement to secure its religious freedom and the right to use Ayahuasca as its sacrament,” the church wrote in an a ..read more

In an announcement last week, Governor Kathy Hochul announced that the state of New York reached a significant milestone: the grand opening of the state’s 100th Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) brick-and-mortar store.  Big Gas is located in the village of New Paltz, located near Poughkeepsie. The Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) and a handful of state leaders joined Big Gas owners, Kareem Haynesworth and Zymia Lewis for the grand opening of the store for public sales. “Big Gas is proud to be the first licensed cannabis dispensary in the City of New Paltz,” Big ..read more

The Drug Abuse Resistance Education, aka D.A.R.E., has been teaching kids about substance abuse since 1983 with a mission of delivering science and evidence-based curricula. Recently, a D.A.R.E. documentary published by Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan on April 12 spoke with numerous individuals regarding the D.A.R.E. program and discussed the failure of the War on Drugs. Callaghan attended D.A.R.E.’s annual conference, which was held in Las Vegas, Nevada last July. An estimated 500 attendees were present for D.A.R.E. officer training. Part of the conference included presenting a ..read more

According to a Swedish customs official, authorities confiscated approximately 1.4 tons of cocaine last week in a port near Stockholm, as reported by Associated Press. While the precise figure is still pending, Swedish customs official Stefan Granath told broadcaster SVT, “If it’s as big as we think, it is one of the biggest seizures ever made.” Authorities discovered the cocaine in a container in the Nynashamn port south of Stockholm on April 18, according to Granath. Six men have also been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the drug’s transport. The Latest of Many Record Drug Seizu ..read more

Uber Eats’ embrace of the delivery market as a whole is nothing new, as the service has expanded to offer delivery to consumers well beyond food from restaurants. Canada’s legal cannabis market prompted the delivery service to expand to cannabis in select provinces recently, and now Uber Eats has named the “dopest” cities in British Columbia and Ontario—specifically those cities that order the most cannabis for delivery. According to Uber, Mississauga takes the top spot for cannabis ordering in Ontario, followed by Kitchener, Milton, Kingston and Windsor. When it comes to British Columbia, Vic ..read more

It’s an argument that cannabis advocates have pushed for years, well before medical or recreational legalization became the norm in the West: “Alcohol and tobacco are legal and regulated, but cannabis is safer overall for your health. Why not legalize the less harmful substance?” With the steady progress in legislative cannabis reform over the years, it appears that the sentiment is widely shared today. Specifically, a new poll from YouGov sheds further light on American cannabis views finding that the majority indeed consider alcohol and tobacco to be “more harmful” to a person’s health than ..read more

It’s a given that Election Season comes with a slew of messages from all sides, and the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) is throwing its hat in the ring with a new legislative agenda, “a vision for Congress to meet everyday Americans’ urgent needs and rebuild the American dream for the poor, working, and middle class,” according to a recent news release from the group. Specifically, the agenda includes a number of priorities like cannabis legalization and expungements that the caucus argues Democrats “can pass with congressional majorities” should they keep the Senate and take ..read more

More than 440,000. That is the approximate size of the cannabis industry’s labor force in this country, according to newly published research. The data, compiled by Vangst and Whitney Economics, shows that the United States’ legal marijuana industry added almost 23,000 jobs last year, amounting to a 5.4% year-over-over increase. That brings the total number of full-time workers in the industry to 440,445.  The increase in 2023 may be a “sign that the business climate has begun to stabilize somewhat nationally after the turmoil of the past two years,” the report said. More from the jo ..read more

A new article published in the Federal Register in February, which prefaced a digital Drug Testing Advisory Board (DTAB) meeting that was held on March 5. The topic of the article and the meeting covered the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) drug testing panels and considered adding fentanyl, while also removing MDMA. Section 8105 from the Fighting Opioid Abuse in Transportation Act (which is included in the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act) requires the Secretary to justify whether or not to include fentanyl or other Schedule I or II substances in the Mandatory ..read more