A Weekly Roundup of Stories We Found Interesting – From The Profound To The Profane

Crowds Line Up at 1st East Coast Pot Shops
More than two years after Massachusetts voters approved of legalizing marijuana for adults, the state’s first two fully licensed pot shops opened Tuesday in Leicester and Northampton, selling strains of the part of the plant that can be smoked; pre-rolled joints; and edibles such as brownies and chocolate bars. Customers waited in long lines, sometimes for hours to be among the first people to legally buy recreational marijuana on the U.S. East Coast.

Amid National Marijuana Shortage, Alberta Suspends New Retail Licenses
The Alberta Gaming Liquor and Cannabis Commission announced that it has only received 20 percent of the weed it ordered from licensed producers, leading to continued shortages on its own online store and in the few retail stores that are already open. It began to suspend marijuana retail applications and offer refunds to hopeful business owners as product shortages continue.

Holiday Gift Guide 2018: The Best Monthly Marijuana Subscription Boxes and Gift Packs
A whole new cannabis market has emerged – the monthly marijuana accessory subscription box. The business model is beneficial for both product maker and retailer alike — and is a real boon for the consumer, who may have never discovered certain products in the sea of goods currently flooding the ancillary cannabis market. Movie-themed pipes, specialty rolling papers, odor-proof bags, lighters, T-shirts, bongs, incense, every smoking implement imaginable — all delivered to your mailbox in discreet wrapping. Assembled here are some of the top marijuana box services in the industry for the weed devotee on your shopping list.

U.S. Universities Are Adding Courses To Teach Students to Work In Weed
The latest trend on the collegiate scene is classes designed to prepare the average student for becoming a green thumb God for the cannabis trade. Many reputable institutions of higher learning are now training the next generation of cannabis farmers and those interested in the working on the business side. Here are a few course that people can enroll in right now that might be worth checking out…

India to Study Marijuana-Derived Drugs
The government scientists are preparing for India’s first human clinical trials to test cannabis-based compounds on select diseases in line with what they say is a global resurgence in the medical applications of marijuana derivatives. The researchers have sought regulatory approval for a trial to evaluate these compounds on cancer patients at the Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai.

Greece Issues First Licenses For Medical Cannabis Production
Greece recently gave out its first two medical cannabis cultivation licenses, doing so to the private companies Biomecann and Bioprocann. The two licenses are just the first of 14 Greece’s Economy and Development Ministry will issue by the end of the year.

Forget THC! Cannabidiol (CBD) Is the Marijuana Industry’s Moneymaker
According to the Brightfield Group, a cannabis analytics firm, the CBD market is on track to generate $591 million in sales in 2018. However, by 2022, hemp-CBD sales are projected to reach… drumroll… $22 billion. For you math-phobes out there, this represents a compound annual growth rate of 147% over the next four years.