Cannabis & Tech Today Spring 2022

“Birds are hatching and blossoms are blooming. In the Midwest, it’s planting season for hemp and cannabis. Eager seeds will soon sprout into America’s hottest new agricultural crop.” Spring is my favorite time of year. New life is Emerging everywhere (take a puff for every time we say Emerge). Birds are hatching and blossoms are blooming. In the Midwest, it’s planting season for hemp and cannabis. Eager seeds will soon sprout into America’s hottest new agricultural crop. That’s why each year, we celebrate planting season with our Sustainability and Cultivation issue. This year we take a look at innovations in indoor and outdoor farming. Automation, machine learning, and vertical farming are all making huge strides into the cannabis space. LED lighting is more advanced than ever, so we spoke with three of…

It’s been a busy few months since the last issue hit the stands. Cannabis & Tech Today Editor-in-Chief Charles Warner has been out on the town, enjoying Denver’s social scene as pandemic restrictions start to wane. In late December, Warner attended an MMA fight between Elias Theodorou and Bryan Baker. Theodorou made history at the fight as the first American to compete in an athletic event with a Therapeutic Use Exemption for cannabis. The bout set an important precedent for athletes medicating with cannabis. Warner also attended a tour of the Marijuana Mansion in downtown Denver. The three-story, 19th-century estate has been revitalized into a cannabis-themed event space with 4,200 square feet of Instagram-worthy installations. Whether you’re a Colorado native or a cannabis tourist, this unique space will draw you in…

Rachelle Gordon is a cannabis and psychedelics writer dedicated to educating the masses on the powers of plant medicine. She is especially interested in the potential these compounds have with regard to the treatment of neurological disorders. A graduate of Hamline University in Saint Paul, Rachelle currently splits her time between Minneapolis and Oakland. Her favorite cultivars include Tangie, GMO, and Lemon Haze. Tami Kamin Meyer is an Ohio-based attorney and freelance writer. A dedicated kayaker and dog lover, her byline has appeared in Forbes, MarketWatch, Better Homes and Gardens, and Business.com. She is in her second stint as a member of the Board of Editors of the Columbus Bar Association and served as Marketing/Communications Chair of the American Society of Journalists and Authors from 2018-2021. She tweets as @girlwithapen. Sarah Ratliff…

5th Annual Indigenous Hemp Conference Hosted by the Anishinaabe Agriculture Insititute and Winona’s Hemp Heritage Farm, this three-day event offered both in-person and virtual content for attendees. The Virtual Day took place on March 1, offering discussions around the legal hemp industry covering fiber, textiles, and building materials. March 2-3 featured hands-on workshops and demonstrations on hemp in energy, hemp applications in agronomy, hemp and economic justice, and much more. Speakers included Jose LaSalle of Hempax Energy Systems, Ron Chilton of Akiing 8th Fire, and Angela Dawson of 40 Acres Cooperative. The Emerald Conference Beginning Feb. 27 and running through March 1, the Emerald Conference made a return to in-person programming for the first time since the pandemic began. Held at the Lowes Coronado Bay Resort in San Diego, California, the conference focused…

Sustainability is something every industry strives toward. One might not think cannabis cultivation would be high on the list of carbon emissions or energy use. After all, we’re talking about plants, right? They produce oxygen and they’re 100% organic. But as the industry continues to boom and more states legalize, Big Cannabis is joining the ranks of environmental offenders. There are ways to mitigate environmental impact, though. Changing from an indoor to a greenhouse grow facility is one of the best ways to save energy and minimize our collective carbon footprint. *All data sourced from Marijuana Growing Statistics, Data and Trend in 2022 (weekendgardener.net)* Graphics via iStockphoto.com…

Vaporizers are increasingly popular, quickly becoming many cannabis enthusiasts’ go-to method for medicating. From the Volcano vaporizer to the PAX pen and recently disposable pens, vaporizers are taking the market by storm. Vape pens work by heating cannabis flower or concentrate to 302-446°F, a temperature high enough to activate THC and CBD, but low enough that no combustion occurs. The result is a vapor that contains active substances without the potentially harmful smoke produced by traditional inhalation methods. Vaping is also more discreet than smoking, producing almost no visible clouds and significantly reducing cannabis’ immediately identifiable aroma. The Downside While vaporizers have solved many of the problems cannabis users run into, one aspect of the device has been largely overlooked: its impact on the environment. The rise of disposable CBD, delta-8, and THC vape…