Legislative Leaps and Weed Drama for Mamas
Legislative Leaps and Weed Drama for Mamas
Plus: No hemp granola in the Army.
The Broccoli Report
Monday, September 26, 2022
Time to read: 5 minutes, 18 seconds. Contains 1062 words.
Good morning!
I’ve found myself back in the movie theater a lot lately. The Woman King was a treat—all the feats of the human physique and combat glory of 300, with historical references that I’d never learned and nuanced storytelling on all sides—and Pearl was … a horror movie. Not a fantastic one, but a fun watch if you like camp, technicolor gore, and pastoral stylings. I’m planning to see Don’t Worry Darling soon—it looks like a stylish riff on the Stepford Wives. Highly recommend the OG 1975 edition if you’re seeking a somewhat lighter-handed feminist allegory than Handmaid’s Tale (or even just looking for fashion inspo).
A few weeks back, I teased a dispatch about email marketing that never came. Sometimes, interviews/life don’t work out as scheduled—and that was one of them. I don’t like to go back on my word, but there were some unexpected benefits. I got to feature one of my favorite interviews of 2022, and I got more time to make the email marketing piece even better, weaving in feedback from real cannabis brands getting creative with their newsletters. That dispatch is coming this Friday. Subscribe to read it—or whatever equally great newsletter ends up arriving. Just kidding! 🌸😅🤞
One-Hitters: Cannabis News at a Glance
In states across the nation, pregnant people continue to be particularly vulnerable to criminal prosecution for cannabis, caught in the crosshairs of conservative forced birth culture and the data void of cannabis science. In Oklahoma, 26 women have been charged with felony child neglect since 2019 for using cannabis during their pregnancies, including eight medical marijuana card holders. There, the charge can carry a term of up to life in prison. On May 25, a woman in Alabama was arrested for "a small amount of marijuana" and an unregistered pistol. After admitting to smoking cannabis on the day she found out she was pregnant, she was charged with "chemical endangerment" of her fetus. State law required her to post a $10,000 bond and go to rehab. Because she couldn’t afford it, she spent three months in jail, all without being convicted of a crime.
Until we have strong data based on solid medical research, pregnant people who use cannabis are extra vulnerable to anti-cannabis laws and judges. In 2021, Reason senior editor Elizabeth Nolan Brown dove deep into the limited known science around cannabis and pregnancy and summed it up like this: "Studies on marijuana use during pregnancy are inconsistent and inconclusive, but cannabis is not known to be teratogenic—that is, to cause birth defects—in humans. The bulk of scientific evidence suggests that risks posed to developing fetuses are relatively minor and babies exposed to marijuana in utero still fall within normal ranges of outcomes." A more recent study making headlines indicates that prenatal cannabis use may lead to higher rates of mental instability in children. I’d argue that three months of high stress, malnourishment, and sleep deprivation in a jail cell are not exactly conducive to a fetus’s healthy development, either, though.
While regulations often prohibit or strictly limit handing out infused product samples, some brands bend the rules, much to attendees’ delight. However, since Keef Brands got fined $45K for having two coolers of infused product in their booth at Denver’s Mile High 420 Festival, brands might be wise to err on the side of caution.
The Food and Drug Administration is dragging its feet on hemp, but the U.S. Department of Agriculture is not. In connection to its Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program, the USDA granted $15 million to support the Industrial Hemp for Fiber and Grain research project, which aims to develop an open database on environmentally beneficial practices for hemp production. It also awarded $5 million to a Lincoln University-led research project dedicated to helping efforts to commercialize and market climate-smart hemp crops for fuel and fiber.
In California, Governor Newsom signed a bill protecting employees from being punished for responsibly consuming cannabis in their free time. He also signed nine other cannabis-related bills, touching everything from labeling vapes as “hazardous waste” for disposal purposes, permitting insurance companies to work with cannabis companies, regulating cannabis products for pets, and setting a deadline for resentencing or dismissing cannabis-related criminal charges.
In a particularly progressive weed update from Australia, the University of Sydney’s Lambert Initiative for Cannabinoid Therapeutics will open a lab to provide free tests to anyone growing homegrown cannabis for medical use in the Australian Capital Territory—the only state in which weed is currently decriminalized.
The Last Prisoner Project is teaming up with Students for Sensible Drug Policy on the “Keep Your Promise” campaign. The plan is to pressure President Biden to deliver on his campaign promises to decriminalize cannabis federally and grant clemency to federal cannabis prisoners through a series of “peaceful demonstrations and a mass day of action in Washington, D.C. on October 24th.
Houseplant tried out a new way to give more people a shot at their coveted ceramics, running a raffle for a chance to buy one of the 197 coffee and cream editions of their all-in-one rolling tray. It’s a noteworthy attempt to eliminate the time-sensitive, browser-refreshing element from the shopping experience.
Looking to hone your DIY marketing skills? Almost Consulting is hosting a Marketing 101 workshop on Tuesday, October 11th. The virtual workshop will review how to create a cohesive marketing plan that incorporates your site, social media, email newsletter, and branded experiences.
First thing I’m adding to my holiday wishlist: a fresh wind-proof lighter. Those car lighter-styled slides are cool, but not ideal for lighting anything other than a joint. I just came upon Nomatiq, an accessory brand with a slim electric candle-styled lighter with a safety switch and a dual-flame electric arc lighter that looks really freaking cool.
An amusing public announcement from the Air Force offers an explicit reminder that the Dept. of Defense prohibits all “service members from eating and using products made or derived from hemp,” no matter the claimed or actual THC levels or state legality. The prohibition includes hemp milk and coffee, hemp granola, hemp protein powder, hemp shampoo and conditioner, and hemp hand sanitizer (I didn’t even know that last one existed). Hemp clothing is chill, though.
Wondering where Jungmaven’s hemp sheets would land,
Lauren Yoshiko