(INDIANAPOLIS) - Cannabis oil is now legal in Indiana, but Governor Holcomb says that doesn't change his opposition to doing the same for medical marijuana.

CBD oil doesn't get you high, and Holcomb says he's heard from many Hoosiers who believe it's helped them with pain. He says he was happy to make it accessible, after a failed attempt to do so last year. Holcomb says marijuana is a completely different story. He argues it's frequently been a gateway to deadlier drugs. 

And Holcomb says the federal government would need to resolve what he calls a "hodgepodge" of contradictory guidance before Indiana even considers legalization. 

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With just two legislative days left in the 2018 Georgia General Assembly session, a bill creating a study commission on access to medical cannabis, and changing the way new conditions that can be treated with cannabis are approved, is heading to the Georgia House of Representatives.

Tuesday is the 39th legislative day and Thursday will be the 40th and final day of this year’s session.

The Georgia Senate has stripped the language from House Bill 65, which has languished in the Senate since last year, and put in language creating a joint commission to study how to give Georgians access to medical oil that contains cannabidiol (CBD) and low amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), two components of marijuana.

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DENVER—As the American media and marketing landscape continues to evolve, Grasslands—a full-service communications agency—has bolstered its public relations division, bringing on 20-year agency veteran Shawna Seldon McGregor. She will lead the public relations department as Managing Partner and is based out of Grasslands’ brand-new Denver office at 146 W. 12th Ave. in the Golden Triangle.

Founded in 2017, Grasslands has quickly positioned itself as the preeminent journalism-minded communications agency focused on public relations, thought leadership and content curation. The agency was established by Founder and CEO Ricardo Baca, a 25-year newspaper veteran and the founder and original Editor-in-Chief of groundbreaking news site The Cannabist.

“From day one, we’ve built Grasslands from our journalistic foundations by using the tools we learned in various newsrooms over the decades,” said Baca, who now leads a team of six full-time staffers. “But I’ve always known that we needed the right public relations professionals on staff—communications pros who value journalism as much as we do—and we found that person in Shawna, a colleague we’ve worked with and respected for years.

“With Shawna’s arrival at Grasslands, we’ve finally completed the transition into a legitimate full-service agency—and I am thrilled for our clients, who will be the ones to benefit from this unique agency concept that brings together both sides of the media paradigm,” Baca continued.

McGregor joins Grasslands from The Rosen Group, where she served as Senior Vice President. After joining the firm in 1999, she established TRG’s Denver office in 2012 and became one of the first public relations professionals working in the legal cannabis industry. She has represented the country’s leading marijuana brands, bringing their stories to the national stage as well as emerging markets, while educating target audiences and conveying critical narratives.

McGregor has extensive experience representing a multitude of sectors including biotech, sustainable technologies, renewable energy, associations, the regulated cannabis industry and media companies. McGregor has a certificate in Reputation Management from the Public Relations Society of America. She was named a top PR pro by Civilized (January 2018), Cannabis Industry Journal (December 2017) and MG magazine (June 2017). In 2016, she accepted the Cannabist Award for best agency for work in the cannabis industry. In 2003, Shawna was named to PR News' list of "15 To Watch." She began her career at Porter Novelli’s pharmaceutical practice in New York City, working on accounts including SmithKline Beecham and Pfizer.

“I am driven to help my clients share their unique narratives, and I am passionate about the role of journalism in our society. Joining Grasslands was a natural next step for me,” McGregor said. “The Grasslands team consists of a deep bench of seasoned journalism professionals who can develop multi-layered strategies leveraging multiple consumer touch points. We are all looking forward to watching Grasslands grow over the coming years.”

Headquartered in Denver with an office in Chicago, Grasslands proudly represents clients in the cannabis, tech, entertainment and hospitality industries.

U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced on March 26 that he will introduce a bill next week to legalize and subsidize industrial hemp cultivation. The Senate majority leader was joined at a press event by Kentucky Commissioner of Agriculture Ryan Quarles in praising the Hemp Farming Act of 2018, which will also remove industrial hemp from the federal government’s list of controlled substances.

“Hemp has played a foundational role in Kentucky’s agricultural heritage, and I believe that it can be an important part of our future,” McConnell said via press release.

Kentucky’s Industrial Hemp Research Pilot Program grew out of the 2014 Farm Bill, thanks in part to McConnell’s input. More than 200 growers and processors have joined the program’s efforts to “build a body of knowledge on hemp agronomics that will lay a solid foundation for a thriving industry should hemp be removed from the federal government’s list of controlled substances.”

McConnell’s impending bill brings us to the eve of that historic action. Kentucky farmers, no doubt, are in prime position to take advantage of a legal industrial hemp market.

“Here in Kentucky, we have built the best Industrial Hemp Research Pilot Program in the country and have established a model for how other states can do the same with buy-in from growers, processors and law enforcement,” Quarles said. “I want to thank Leader McConnell for introducing this legislation which allows us to harness the economic viability of this crop and presents the best opportunity to put hemp on a path to commercialization.”

Until the Farming Act of 2018 is approved, though, the federal government maintains industrial hemp oversight falls under the umbrella of the U.S. Department of Justice and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Under President Trump, the executive branch has signaled opposition to legalization. Last month, Greg Ibach, undersecretary for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said, "Opening the door wide open nationwide, with no restrictions, may not be in the best interests of the hemp industry. One of the challenges we maybe have in the hemp industry is to make sure that demand and production coincide.” 

Currently, the DEA remains tied up in a lawsuit filed by the Hemp Industries Association (HIA). Oral arguments were made in late February, and the DEA attorney cited language in a 2016 policy statement that pegged industrial hemp as a Schedule-I substance regardless of its distinction from THC-rich marijuana. (The 2014 Farm Bill, approved by the U.S. Congress, excluded industrial hemp from its definition of marijuana, setting off this latest HIA lawsuit.)

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