Cannabis consumption in 2019 looks very different depending on where you\u2019re standing. It\u2019s hard to overstate the gap between walking into a sleek chain dispensary to browse branded, optimized products and hopping into your plug\u2019s car for a $50 eighth of whatever, or between worry-free consumption and the looming threat of legal trouble.<\/p>\n
But, maybe more importantly, it\u2019s clear that cannabis consumption also looks very different\u00a0because<\/em>\u00a0it\u2019s 2019. Thanks to years of activist work and the always-reliable systematic thirst for the Next Big Moneymaker, U.S. cannabis prohibition is in greater jeopardy than it has been in decades. If everything continues according to trend, recreational legalization could be a nationwide reality in the not-too-distant future anyway. Fingers crossed we make it there before the global water wars kick off.<\/p>\n This week\u2019s pot news deals with shifts in perspective on the legal and illicit side of things.<\/p>\n Despite the fact that nobody over the age of 13 has ever purchased their product without the assistance of cannabis, the Sour Patch Kids makers over at Mondelez Canada, Inc. have\u00a0filed a trademark infringement lawsuit<\/a>\u00a0against Stoney Patch, a company currently selling edibles\u00a0clearly modeled<\/a>\u00a0after their non-infused namesake.\u00a0<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t the first time a candy company has sued a cannabis company over a jokey homage \u2014 Hershey\u2019s has brought\u00a0several lawsuits<\/a>\u00a0against people selling \u201cReefer\u2019s Cups\u201d and \u201cMr. Dankbar,\u201d cases that were settled out of court per Canna Law Blog. And earlier this year, the United Postal Service (UPS)\u00a0filed a similar suit<\/a>\u00a0against the people behind United Pot Smokers. Given this precedent, it\u2019s hard to imagine Stoney Patch coming out on top.\u00a0 <\/p>\n I\u2019m of two minds on this case. On the one hand, this feels like kind of a petty battle to pick. Sure, there are the ever-present concerns about kids in search of a sugar fix accidentally eating edibles, but at the end of the day it feels more likely that Mondelez is concerned about parody products tarnishing their image \u2014 or even cutting into their profits.\u00a0<\/p>\n But on the other hand, this pun is so corny that I kind of want to sue Stoney Patch too.<\/p>\n In a (rare) positive policing update, the Court of Appeals in Maryland ruled 7-0 that police officers are not allowed to use the smell of cannabis alone to justify a search \u2014 in contrast to\u00a0previous rulings<\/a>\u00a0in other states like Kansas.<\/p>\n The ruling stemmed from a 2016 case where,\u00a0according to The Hill<\/a>, a man was charged with cocaine possession after police searched his vehicle upon sight and smell of a \u201cmarijuana cigarette.\u201d The crux of the argument rested on the fact that officers admitted they knew the joint was less than 10 grams \u2014 and possessing 10 grams of cannabis or less in Maryland was decriminalized back in 2014.\u00a0<\/p>\n According to the ruling, \u201c[in] the post-decriminalization era, the mere odor of marijuana coupled with possession of what is clearly less than engrams of marijuana, absent other circumstances, does not grant officers probable cause to effectuate an arrest and conduct a search incident thereto.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Translation? In states where small-time possession isn\u2019t illegal, the sniff test isn\u2019t sufficient. Talk about a breath of fresh air!\u00a0<\/p>\n TELL US<\/strong>, do you ever smell weed in public?<\/p>\n The post Pot Culture: Sour Grapes from Sour Patch & Sniff Tests<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Cannabis consumption in 2019 looks very different depending on where you\u2019re standing. It\u2019s hard to overstate the gap between walking into a sleek chain dispensary to browse branded, optimized products and hopping into your plug\u2019s car for a $50 eighth of whatever, or between worry-free consumption and the looming threatContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,99,687,7030,11757],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37599"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37599"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37600,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37599\/revisions\/37600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Sour Patch Kids Sue \u2018Stoney Patch Kids\u2019<\/h4>\n
Court Rules Marijuana Smell Not Enough to Justify Search\u00a0<\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: Pot Culture: Sour Grapes from Sour Patch & Sniff Tests<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"