Love ’em or hate ’em, cannabis and celebrity partnerships are here to stay. Here are a few of the biggest names who have gone all-in on marijuana:

Mike Tyson

One of the greatest heavyweight boxers of all time, Mike Tyson was once more well known for his controversial behavior than his cannabis advocacy. And, well, maybe he is still more well-known for the whole ear-biting thing, but these days, Tyson has mellowed out. After launching and closing down his first canna-biz –  the Tyson Ranch, he’s ready for the next big thing.

“My life was just miserable, I was out of control. I was fighting with everybody. If someone asked me for an autograph, I’d punch them in the face. I was just a mess, and then after I retired, I started smoking,” Tyson said. “What a mistake that was — I should have smoked my whole career. I should have smoked when I was fighting because it put me in this different state of mind. I’m very relaxed and the more relaxed you are, the better fighter you are at least in my case.”

Iron Mike credits his most recent comeback to cannabis—so much so that he partnered with Columbia Care to release his own cannabis line, Tyson 2.0

 

Allen Iverson

NBA legend Allen Iverson launched the Iverson Collection, a line of cannabis products created in partnership with fellow NBA alum Al Harrington’s cannabis brand, Viola. Not your everyday cannabis, the first strain in the Iverson Collection was designed to taste like Dom Pérignon champagne.

The irony of creating a cannabis line isn’t lost on Iverson, who was once arrested and charged with misdemeanor marijuana possession in Virginia.

“I could hear the people in the crowd calling me weed head on the road. It was bad and now all these years later look where we are and how far we’ve come,” he told Bleacher Report.

 

Josh Blue

And, of course, we can’t talk about cannabis and celebrity partnerships without mentioning Josh Blue. Most recently a finalist on America’s Got Talent, Josh Blue is a stand-up comedian with a long history in the cannabis community. Blue partnered with Mountain High Suckers to create Josh Blue’s Dream Suckers, a THC- and CBD-infused edible.

 

Jim Belushi

A comedian and actor extraordinaire, Jim Belushi didn’t partner with a cannabis company. He went all in and started a cannabis farm in Oregon called Belushi’s Farm. Belushi, who uses cannabis to treat his PTSD, is also a cannabis advocate. In addition to his work with veterans suffering from PTSD, Belushi is also a board member for The Last Prisoner Project, a non-profit committed to cannabis criminal justice reform.

Belushi told High Times, “It’s humiliating to the men and women who are incarcerated from the failed War on Drugs, and it also collapses the fabric of their families. It’s time to get these nonviolent cannabis prisoners out. There are millions of dollars being made in our industry today, and these men and women really are the ones who laid the groundwork for our industry, and they’re in jail.”

 

Seth Rogen and Sarah Silverman

Famous stoner comedians Seth Rogen and Sarah Silverman are using their celebrity to advocate for federal marijuana legalization. They’ve partnered with Cannabis in Common to pressure lawmakers in Congress to end cannabis prohibition.

“Americans can’t agree on anything can we?” Silverman asked in a promotional video. “Fortunately there is at least one thing most Americans have in common: more than two-thirds of us agree cannabis should be legalized and we have a real shot at getting federal legalization done now if we speak up.”

Rogen launched his own line of cannabis, dubbed Houseplant, in Canada after marijuana was legalized there in 2018.

 

Justin Bieber

Pop star Justin Bieber is the latest celebrity to jump on the cannabis bandwagon by partnering with Palms Premium, a brand of cannabis pre-rolls. The line of pre-rolls is sold under the name “Peaches,” a reference to his song of the same name.

“I’m a fan of Palms and what they are doing by making cannabis approachable and helping to destigmatize it—especially for the many people who find it helpful for their mental health. I wanted to make sure that I was doing something with them that felt genuine and Peaches felt like a good place to start,” Bieber said.

The Wait is Almost Over, Mountain High Suckers Fans!

We’re extremely proud to announce that our broad spectrum cannabis infused suckers will be coming soon to medical marijuana dispensaries in Missouri in 10mg THC / 3mg CBD doses and in Oklahoma in both 10mg THC / 3mg CBD doses and 30mg THC / 10mg CBD doses!

Legalization – About These Markets

Missouri

In 2018, voters in Missouri were in favor of legalizing medical marijuana, passing Amendment 2 with 65 percent approval. It was a watershed moment for a state that had traditionally opposed marijuana use. The amendment to the state constitution allows doctors to prescribe medical cannabis for ten qualifying medical conditions and patients can cultivate up to six plants.

Medical marijuana sales are just starting to ramp up in Missouri. During the first week of 2021, the state saw the first sales of edible marijuana products. Plus, there’s the possibility that voters could weigh in on legal recreational marijuana as early as 2022.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma became the 30th state to legalize medical marijuana in 2018. Like Missouri, Oklahoma generally opposed marijuana legalization—in 2016 they joined Nebraska in an attempt to sue Colorado over legal weed. However, in 2018, public opinion had shifted enough that a medical marijuana initiative passed with a 57% to 43% margin.

In 2020, medical marijuana was booming in Oklahoma. Residents bought a record amount of medical marijuana, increasing tax collections by more than 25%. The Oklahoma Tax Commission received $9.8 million in state taxes in April.

About Mountain High Suckers

Started in Colorado, Mountain High Suckers has produced handmade suckers and lozenges since their beginning in 2009.

Not afraid to be bold, we infuse spiciness, mango, and even coconut into suckers, too. We’re the pioneers of both THC and CBD in medical marijuana products in Colorado, providing edibles that offer a more balanced effect and a wide range of benefits.

Chad Tribble and John Garrison started the company back in 2009. Within months they began testing their strains and discovered their genetics provided a fair amount of CBD. Since then we’ve tested every batch of our hash oil to ensure proper potency and consistency within our products. We’ve continued at a steady pace, hand making our products the same way today as we did in the beginning.

Check out a full list of our PRODUCTS here >

It has been a slow start for medical marijuana in Missouri. In 2018, voters approved Amendment 2, allowing doctors to prescribe medical cannabis for qualifying medical conditions.

Since then, not a whole lot has happened. 372 Missouri-based medical marijuana businesses have received licenses from the state, but only 43 have received approval to operate as of December 31 of last year. Twenty-two approvals have gone to retail medical marijuana dispensaries, while 13 approvals have been granted to cannabis cultivation centers. More than 700 potential marijuana businesses that didn’t receive licenses have active appeals.

In a bit of good news for medical marijuana patients in the state, edible marijuana products went on sale for the first time in Missouri during the first week of 2021. While production is expected to be slow until more cultivation centers and retail dispensaries are licensed, it’s still a step forward for medical cannabis in Missouri.

Another first for Missouri is the Republican state lawmaker who wants to legalize recreational marijuana.

We spend more time and more law enforcement resources going after marijuana smokers than all the other drugs combined,” said Rep. Shamed Dogan (R). “Ten percent of the arrest in the state of Missouri right now are from marijuana possession.”

Dogan hopes legalization will bring more revenue to the state and eliminate the black market.

“I think alcohol prohibition taught us that trying to prohibit something this way, the way we’ve gone about marijuana prohibition, it backfires,” Dogan said.

Dogan plans to introduce a constitutional amendment, House Joint Resolution 30, during the 2021 legislative session. If lawmakers approve the amendment, residents could vote on legal recreational marijuana as early as 2022.

Dogan’s legislation doesn’t directly address racial inequity, but he does support clearing previous marijuana convictions.

“And it automatically lets out of prison anybody that is still serving a prison term for marijuana-only offenses and then expunges from your record if you have a non-violent marijuana offense,” Dogan said. “If you are currently incarcerated [for more than] a marijuana offense, so if you have a marijuana offense, but you also committed a robbery, you don’t get out.

The EU’s highest court has ruled that CBD is not a narcotic because “it does not appear to have any psychotropic effect or any harmful effect on human health.”

The ruling comes as the result of a lawsuit in France against a company that makes CBD oil from whole hemp plants. In France, only the fiber and seeds of hemp plants containing less than 0.2% THC can be used commercially.

The EU court ruled that France’s law banning the use of whole plant hemp-derived CBD went against the EU’s law on the free movement of goods.

“The national court must assess available scientific data in order to make sure that the real risk to public health alleged does not appear to be based on purely hypothetical considerations,” the court ruled.

“A decision to prohibit the marketing of CBD, which indeed constitutes the most restrictive obstacle to trade in products lawfully manufactured and marketed in other [EU] member states, can be adopted only if that risk appears sufficiently established,” the court wrote.

While individual countries can ban the free movement of goods for things like narcotic drugs, the court’s ruling means that those rules don’t apply to CBD.

Plus, as the court cited in their ruling, France has not banned synthetic CBD, which has the same properties as plant-derived CBD—making the prohibition of plant-derived CBD inconsistent.

The court’s decision could potentially open up the legal CBD market in Europe. Many CBD products currently exist in the grey market under rules that allow cannabis to be sold for agricultural purposes. Regulations about cannabis edibles and CBD have been stalled and in limbo, but the court’s decision could reopen a pathway to selling CBD edibles as food in Europe.

“With today’s ruling, CBD companies can expect a clearer route to achieving compliance across the EU. The harmonization of cannabinoid regulations could finally become a reality,” wrote the UK-based Association for the Cannabinoid Industry.

 

Researchers Study Whether Cows Fed Hemp Will Get Meat Eaters and Milk Drinkers High

Will feeding hemp to cattle pass along a high to humans? That’s what researchers at Kansas State University hope to discover after the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) awarded them a $200,000 grant.

Although the federal government legalized hemp under the 2018 Farm Bill, it’s prohibited for use as animal feed, and no one really knows what effect cannabinoids have on cattle. Plus, using hemp as livestock feed could potentially result in concentrations of THC in meat and milk.

“Our goal is to fill in the knowledge gaps,” said Michael Kleinhenz, one of the researchers at Kansas State University. “Until feedstuffs containing hemp are established as safe in animals, our data will assist producers in managing situations involving intentional or unintentional hemp exposures.”

Fewer Vaping Illnesses Reported in Legal Marijuana States

According to a study conducted by the Yale School of Public Health, higher rates of e-cigarette and marijuana vaping did not result in more vaping-related lung injuries (known as EVALI) in states with legalized marijuana.

“Indeed, the five earliest states to legalize recreational marijuana—Alaska, California, Colorado, Oregon and Washington—all had less than one EVALI case per 100,000 residents aged 12 to 64. None of the highest EVALI-prevalence states—Utah, North Dakota, Minnesota, Delaware and Indiana—allowed recreational marijuana use,” according to Yale researchers.

So what accounts for the difference? It turns out that the use of Vitamin E acetate, a vaping additive used to dilute marijuana oils in mostly black-market vaping products, is responsible for the rise in EVALI cases. People in states where marijuana is still prohibited are more likely to seek out black-market products.

Yale researchers used data collected by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) related to EVALI hospitalization and deaths nationwide.

Another Month, Another Colorado Marijuana Sales Record

Marijuana sales in Colorado have been breaking records nearly every month, despite (or maybe because of) the COVID-19 pandemic. July was no exception: Recreational marijuana dispensary sales amounted to $183,106,003, while medical marijuana sales amounted to $43,268,565. Combined, that’s $226,374,568 worth of weed, up 13.8% from June.

So far, Colorado dispensaries have sold more than $1.2 billion worth of marijuana edibles, concentrate, and flower in 2020, amounting to $203 million in taxes for the state.

If cannabis sales continue to break records, 2020 could surpass 2019’s record of $1.75 billion in annual sales.

After a slow start in 2019, the cannabis market in Canada is taking off, in large part thanks to marijuana edibles. Canada legalized adult-use marijuana in October 2018, but it wasn’t until a year later that marijuana edibles entered the marketplace.

Canadians are cannabis curious

Data from Mintel, a Canadian market intelligence agency, shows that the Canadian cannabis market has a large number of potential users. Six in 10 (59%) of Canadians report that they are currently using and/or interested in using cannabis.

27% of Canadians used cannabis within the first six months of legalization.

Cannabis edibles entice new consumers to the marijuana marketplace

Marijuana edibles are of huge interest to Canadian cannabis consumers and non-consumers alike.

“Edibles and drinkables can be a great introductory way for new users to familiarize themselves with cannabis and better understand the cannabis experience, potentially leading to using other forms of the product,” said Scott Stewart, Senior Research Analyst at Mintel.

32% of non-cannabis users said that they are ‘open to trying it.’ That number jumps when it comes to marijuana edibles. Among potential cannabis users, 66% of non-users said they are interested in edible and drinkable cannabis.

When it comes to age demographics, potential cannabis users showed similar levels of interest in marijuana edibles, with 47% of 20-34-year-olds, 49% of 30-50-year-olds, and 48% of those aged 55+.

“The key to future growth for many consumer industries will be to convert more of the consumers who are open to but not current users of cannabis; their hesitance to try cannabis was a contributor to the relatively low sales in 2019, but the legalization of edibles and drinkables in October 2019 will play a major role in 2020’s success,” said Stewart.

Canadians look to marijuana for health and wellness benefits

According to Mintel, Canadians are more interested in the health and wellness benefits of cannabis over its recreational uses.

“New product innovation in the cannabis market has already begun to tear down some of the barriers related to wider cannabis consumption. In addition to edibles and drinkables that do not involve smell or smoke – two of the main complaints cannabis non-users have about the product – devices like vaporizers or vape pens, which create a vapor instead of smoke, serve to minimize these unwanted byproducts.

“Our research shows that many Canadians view cannabis as a very complex and intimidating product, and the lack of understanding leads many to avoid it entirely. Brands can navigate this by using online platforms and in-store employees to help educate consumers about cannabis. Strict laws around marketing cannabis mean that brands have to be very careful about their approach, but using factual statements to help educate and familiarize potential consumers with cannabis is a good way of establishing a trusted position in the market,” said Stewart.

Every October, police departments and public health officials issue warnings about cannabis edibles masquerading as Halloween candy.

This year, police in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, issued a safety warning with pictures of marijuana edibles packaged as Nerd Ropes.

“We urge parents to be ever vigilant in checking their children’s candy before allowing them to consume those treats,” the post said. “Drug-laced edibles are package [sic] like regular candy and may be hard to distinguish from the real candy.”

The candy was seized as part of a raid where authorities seized 60 pounds of marijuana and 394 packages of Nerd Ropes. The edibles clearly warn to keep out of reach of children and animals, and that each rope contains 400 mgs of THC.

As reported by Rolling Stone, none of the local media reporting indicated that the edibles were intended to be given to children, and when Johnstown Police were questioned, Captain Chad Miller said that there was “absolutely no evidence” that the edibles were intended to be given out to trick-or-treaters. Despite implying that the Nerd Ropes would be given to children, Miller said the department was just trying to raise awareness.

“In Pennsylvania, marijuana is still illegal. We don’t have edibles. There is no education. We just want to make sure everyone is aware this is out there,” Miller said.

The problem with stoking parents’ fears is that there hasn’t been a single case, not one, of a kid being handed a cannabis edible while trick-or-treating. Think of it as this generation’s Halloween urban myth, akin to poisoned or razor-blade laced candy.

From a practical standpoint, it seems unlikely that pranksters would waste their edibles (and their money) drugging unsuspecting kids. Packaging laws in legal states make distinguishing marijuana-dosed candy from regular candy obvious. Colorado, Oregon, and Washington require candy to be stamped with a marijuana symbol or leaf. Cannabis edibles aren’t packaged in easy-to-tear wrappers but come in thicker plastic or child-resistant packaging.

Joel Best, who has tracked instances of “Halloween sadism” since 1985, said, “I don’t know of anybody who’s been hurt from drugs in Halloween candy.”

In fact, Best says, the things most likely to send kids to the ER on Halloween have nothing to do with marijuana edibles, but are instead “related to sending kids into the dark, getting hit by cars, and tripping over costumes.”

Parents should always check their kids’ trick-or-treating haul, but fears over marijuana edibles being slipped in are overblown.

Hey edibles fans! We’re super proud to release this awesome video in collaboration with our friend Josh Blue Comedy highlighting our new Josh Blue’s Dream Suckers: our signature Cherry, Blueberry and Watermelon flavors infused with Josh’s favorite Blue Dream strain – our first strain-specific cannabis edible! WATCH IT BELOW

Josh has been using cannabis and our edibles for years to treat his cerebral palsy symptoms. “We’ve been treating it like it was legal for years anyway, so it didn’t make too much of a difference when they legalized it. It’s really great though, you don’t need a medical card or anything like that. There’s dispensaries everywhere and it’s bringing in a shitload of tax revenue. I think a lot more states will start legalizing it,” he says. Josh says Blue Dream is his go-to strain for medicinal effects.

“Some edibles, they’ll creep up on you. It takes a while and you don’t know if it’s working…but with this, within ten minutes, you’re feeling the effects of it.” says Blue. Because our suckers are dual acting, meaning both through your mouth (sub-lingual) and through your bloodstream, they’re also the perfect edible for medical patients with a quick but long lasting effect.

Mountain High Suckers is extremely proud to be working with Denver local Josh Blue over these last couple of years and are proud to be part of the Colorado cannabis community.

Be sure to ask for Josh Blue’s Dream suckers by name at your dispensary and pick up one of these great cannabis infused suckers!

https://www.mountainhighsuckers.com
http://www.joshbluecomedy.com