“First-mover advantage.” Why Canadian weed producers will dominate the global marijuana market.

In marketing strategy, there’s a term called “first-mover advantage”. It’s when a few key players in a particular industry gain an advantage because they entered into the marketplace first. These companies are able to establish strong brand recognition, shore up the best sources of funding, and build a loyal customer base simply because there aren’t any competitors in the way during their first few years of operation. 

Farmers in the historic wine country of California are looking to a new crop to bring in larger profits. Cannabis, like wine, needs clean soil and air to grow the lush, beautiful, buds that every connoisseur has come to know and love. Luckily, the grape fields of Northern California provide the ideal atmosphere for cannabis farming. Not only are farmers clearing space to make room for more of the new-age cash crop, they’re transforming their mindset and skills to help cultivate the plant that might be their largest earner yet.

The phrase “no news is good news” should mean an assurance that a situation is not dramatically worsening, and perhaps even improving. For the first 100 days of Trump’s Presidency, the lack of news surrounding medical cannabis has been, for the most part, good news for the status quo. However, this is not a comfort to medical cannabis patients for whom behind the scenes actions could upend, disrupt, or delay access to their medication.

As we have already seen from this Administration, priorities can abruptly shift at any time. One day Attorney General Sessions is renewing the “war on drugs”, the next there are rumors of him being replaced.

Israel's Health Ministry recently released new directives easing restrictions on the possession and use of medical marijuana by authorized users. The directives, which go into effect immediately, allow patients who have been prescribed marijuana to consume the drug in public as oil or as vapor.

However, smoking cannabis, the method that most patients in Israel use, is still banned in public.

Permits for the use of medical marijuana have until now been very strict: Patients were only allowed to use it at the address listed in the permit, usually their home, and not in the presence of another person. Possession of marijuana was also restricted to the user’s home.

It is time for politicians to put to rest the myth that cannabis is a gateway to the use of other controlled substances — a theory that is neither supported by modern science or empirical data. 

When the state of Ohio goes through the process of selecting the 24 growers who will cultivate cannabis for medicinal uses, the selectors will not know the identities of the applicants. The state wants to ensure there is no pressure, political or otherwise, in the granting of permits.

That’s how it should be, given the very lucrative nature of this flourishing industry nationwide.

In 2016, legal marijuana sales – for medicinal and recreational purposes – topped $6.7 billion, a 24 percent increase over 2015.

There are 26 states that allow the use of cannabis. Ohio joined the list in 2016 when Republican Gov. John R. Kasich signed into law a bill passed by the GOP-controlled General Assembly.

Iowans with certain chronic conditions will soon have better access to treatment from a form of medical marijuana.

Gov. Terry Branstad signed HF 524 into law Friday but noted concerns with the new law in doing so.

Iowa began allowing people with certain chronic conditions to use cannabis oil but that law did not allow for the production or sale of the oil. The new law allows the state to authorize up to two facilities to grow and produce cannabis oil to be sold in five state-approved dispensaries. The law also allows Iowa doctors to prescribe cannabis oil for a list of 15 chronic conditions.

However, in signing the bill, Branstad urged lawmakers to address potential issues with the new law during the next legislative session. Among those concerns:

Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran has joined the growing number of those calling for a special legislative session to finalize rules for implementing the state’s medical marijuana amendment.

Corcoran said Wednesday that discussions have started, and he would like to have it as soon as possible. If a special session isn’t held, the Department of Health would need to come up with rules for Amendment 2 by July 3 and have them implemented by October.

“To just leave it to bureaucrats sitting over at the Department of Health I think would be a gross injustice,” he said during an interview on Tallahassee radio station WFLA-FM.

Unfettered by restrictions on marijuana such as those in the United States, other countries continue to take the lead on researching the potential health benefits of the cannabis plant.

Recently, researchers at Oxford University in the United Kingdom announced a research project into the potential medical value of marijuana. Now, Israel has launched the first clinical trial in the world to determine if cannabis can provide treatment for one specific condition: autism.

Israeli researchers are looking how the non-psychotropic compound found in cannabis – called cannabidiol (CBD) – might treat autistic children better than other medications have so far done.