The Kush

Hello and Welcome to the 26^th edition of The Kush. If you’re reading this for the first time, then welcome. It’s the dawn of another new week and we couldn’t have been more trippier than we already are. Many things bring us a sense of serenity, calm and bliss in the crazy world of ours today and all we want to do is trip on all the narratives blazing across communities, cultures and nation-states. For as far as we are concerned, there is only one purpose in life, which is the higher purpose. What exactly that is, even we have no idea really. 

Let’s start blazing. 

A New Dawn for the Cannabis Market? 

There is a difference between being optimistic and being realistic. 

With an incoming group of Democrats imminent to enter the White building and wield some ‘power’ to decide the economic and social fate of millions all over the world, individuals across the board are claiming that 2020 will be a watershed year for cannabis and lay the foundation for the golden age of ‘legal’ cannabis. We want to tell them that firstly, it is improper to subject a plant to the psyches, flaws and imperfections of human beings, because the plant simply does not care what we do and what we don’t. 

Secondly, we should look at the legalization wave, by human beings for other human beings, because at the end of the day, that is what this is: groups of passionate individuals studying, researching and advocating the use of a plant for medicinal and spiritual purposes in safe and responsible ways. Therefore let us not pretend as if this is a victory for a plant, since the plant never cared about our actions in the first place. Its properties did cause human beings to spread it all across the world. 

Here’s New Frontier Data: 

“Amid the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic and a presidential campaign more contentious than any in modern American history, the 2020 United States elections yielded some historic milestones for the legal cannabis industry. Even as the Electoral College has been sharply cleaved between blue states and red, and divisive factions in the culture wars splintered into any number of social-media echo chambers, the broad popularity of cannabis legalization and policy reform has been well established. As documented for more than a decade by each Gallup and the Pew Research Center, nearly two-thirds (66%) among U.S. adults not only support legalization, but Pew found that an overwhelming percentage (91%) among them feels that cannabis should be legal either for both medical and recreational use (59%), or at least legalized for medical use alone (32%).”

We think a multitude of factors need to be taken into consideration in addition to the US elections alone. For instance a push from the United Nations’ December vote to say yes to remove cannabis from the most restrictive category of narcotic substances owing to its medical use will help change the narrative with many nations across the world. In addition to this we need companies to undertake research and perform clinical trials on a grand scale in order to make better medicines using cannabis. And thirdly a large scale awareness effort from cannabis users with regards to cannabis’ non-intoxicating uses – skincare, nutrition, textiles and paper, to a large extent will help a lot. 

“The effects will also be interwoven to the framework of political representation. Most Americans—some 234 million people—will now live in either a legalized medical or adult-use market. Accordingly, fully 72% of the members of Congress, will represent constituents living amid legal markets. The new terms for the president, Senate, and House will see them considering the particulars for federal reform and its direction going forward. Meantime, while much remains uncertain and to be determined about the pandemic, national economy, and the new normal nationwide, the status quo today portends rich opportunities for investment and growth within state markets.” 

This decade is going to be crazy. Fortunes and legacies will be made and broken.  

Let’s calm down and keep blazing. 

Our New Zealand Prediction went Wrong

We’re happy to report that our prediction of a narrow win for the legalization of recreational cannabis in New Zealand turned sour into a narrow loss instead. But there’s no regret. As reported by the New Zealand Herald: 

“Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern won’t progress the legalisation of cannabis after the referendum to allow recreational use narrowly failed. But she does not regret the decision not to say which way she was voting before the election. “New Zealanders have made up their own minds.” Special votes released this afternoon showed the cannabis referendum only narrowly failed, with 50.7 percent of the ballot against the recreational use of cannabis. Ardern said the Government has a “health-based approach” when it comes to cannabis. Ardern will be making sure that’s still the case.”

New Zealand was the first country in the world to put up a people’s referendum (just like how Brexit was decided by a people’s referendum) for creating laws for using recreational cannabis which translates to ‘allowing people to use a plant when they want as they want’. It is very funny for us really. We mean, here we are, advocating and informing people about the practical uses of cannabis, and constantly exhorting readers to think higher and better, while on the other hand, there are people who are ready to tear down any ensemble with their hysteria and loud, uninformed, dumb  emotions, for daring to speak up for the truth. 

Let’s keep blazing. 

India’s NCB is blazing away

We think that India’s Narcotics Control Bureau has either gone completely nuts or they are simply following orders. There can definitely be no in between in this case. According to us, the Narcotics Control Bureau has its task cut out. India is sandwiched between the world’s two foremost opium-producing corridors, the golden crescent of Iran-Afghanistan-Pakistan, and the golden triangle Laos-Myanmar-Thailand. After this, we have cannabis. Abundantly available all across India. Now comes in the NCB to Mumbai.

“Bollywood producer Firoz Nadiadwala’s wife was arrested by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) on Sunday after investigators found 10 grams of marijuana at their home in Mumbai during a raid, officials said. NCB Mumbai zonal director Sameer Wankhede told news agency PTI that Firoz Nadiadwala was summoned by the anti-drugs agency earlier in the day, but he did not appear. “We have arrested Firoz Nadiadwala”s wife under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. Further investigation is on,” he said.” 

A waste of time, a waste of effort, for a plant that’s 28-38 million years old. 

Let’s keep blazing. 

Have a great day 🙂