Virginia NORML is also promoting a separate action alert encouraging voters to contact the Governor’s office. To date, nearly 2,000 communications have been sent by Virginia voters.
The post Virginia: NORML Leads Coalition Urging Governor Not To Veto Adult-Use Marijuana Sales Bills appeared first on NORML.
Most wellness brands are not failing because they lack marketing activity. They are failing because they apply systems built for completely different industries, without understanding that regulated wellness marketing operates under very different rules.
Over the past decade, the wellness market has become crowded with brands following nearly identical playbooks. Founders are told to increase ad spend, optimize conversion rates, scale influencer campaigns, push aggressive offers, produce more content, and automate funnels.
Some of those tactics can help temporarily. Very few create durable growth. What works in other industries is often poorly suited for regulated wellness marketing.
Most mainstream marketing advice was designed for categories that operate with fewer restrictions, lower skepticism, and shorter trust cycles. Regulated wellness marketing does not work that way.
Supplement companies, functional mushroom brands, CBD businesses, longevity products, pet wellness companies, and adjacent categories operate inside an environment where trust matters more, compliance limits communication, and customer hesitation is significantly higher.
That changes everything.
A wellness customer is rarely buying a simple impulse product. They usually arrive with a specific problem and are searching for a solution. Because these products are also connected to areas like stress, sleep, cognition, aging, physical health, or long-term wellness, the decision-making process tends to be slower and more careful.
Customers research more extensively. They compare products more critically. And they expect a much higher level of credibility before trusting a brand.
Yet many wellness companies still rely on growth systems borrowed from fashion ecommerce, software startups, or generic direct-to-consumer brands. When those systems fail, founders often become frustrated because they believe they were doing “all the right things.”
In reality, many of those strategies were never designed to be used in regulated wellness markets in the first place.
Most marketing strategies are built around businesses being able to communicate aggressively, or at least freely. A typical ecommerce company can often make bold claims, create highly emotional advertising, optimize heavily around conversion psychology, and scale rapidly through paid acquisition.
Regulated wellness marketing operates under very different conditions.
Messaging has to navigate FDA and FTC considerations. Advertising platforms frequently restrict or flag wellness-related language. Scientific nuance matters. Consumers are increasingly skeptical of exaggerated claims. Payment processors and marketplaces may suddenly decide to remove or restrict products. Even educational content requires careful thinking, because the way information is presented matters.
In-short, regulated wellness marketing follows a separate set of rules from the ones most founders learn through mainstream marketing advice.
But it does not end there.
Many founders misunderstand their situation and treat slowing performance as a tactical problem. As a result, they assume they need better ads, stronger creatives, more traffic, or larger marketing budgets. In most cases, those changes do not solve the underlying issue.
In fact, trying to force aggressive marketing methods into wellness often creates even bigger problems. Brands either spend more money without seeing meaningful results, or they begin using messaging that damages credibility and weakens customer trust, which is far more dangerous in the long run.
Trust is one of the most underestimated forces in wellness marketing.
In many industries, consumers buy based on convenience, price, aesthetics, or entertainment value. In wellness, customers usually want reassurance before they purchase. They want confidence that a product is legitimate, responsibly formulated, properly manufactured, and realistically presented. In short, they are looking for brands that feel credible and responsible, not companies making empty promises.
That trust has become much harder to earn.
Over the years, the wellness industry has developed a credibility problem. Consumers have seen exaggerated health claims, “miracle products,” influencer hype cycles, misleading formulations, and aggressive advertising promising unrealistic outcomes. As a result, skepticism across many wellness categories has increased significantly.
Today, many buyers approach wellness products cautiously.
This is especially visible in supplements, functional mushrooms, cognitive wellness, CBD products, longevity, and pet health. Consumers increasingly investigate brands before purchasing. They compare ingredients, search for third-party validation, read educational content, evaluate reviews, and decide whether the company itself feels trustworthy.
Social proof also plays a major role. Customers want reassurance that other people had positive, realistic experiences with a product before they commit to buying it themselves.
This creates a market where authority matters more than attention.
Many wellness brands respond to slowing growth by increasing ad spend, pushing harder promotions, or trying more aggressive marketing tactics. But in regulated wellness, trust is often the real bottleneck.
Before investing more money into advertising, brands usually need to fix deeper problems involving positioning, messaging, credibility, and customer trust.
One of the clearest signs of structural weakness in the industry is how similar wellness marketing has become.
Visit enough supplement websites and the language quickly starts blending together. Everything is:
None of these phrases are wrong. But nearly every brand uses them.
Over time, positioning becomes diluted. Customers stop recognizing meaningful differences between companies, especially when regulations prevent brands from communicating more directly about outcomes. Slowly, all brands begin sounding “the same”, and that is fatal for branding.
This pushes many businesses into increasingly unstable growth tactics.
Without strong positioning, brands become heavily dependent on temporary acquisition channels such as paid ads, influencers, discounts, affiliates, trend cycles, or marketplace visibility. Those systems may generate revenue for periods of time, but eventually most of them break.
Advertising costs rise, competition increases, customers become less responsive and brands copy each other. And when your positioning is weak, there is very little protecting your brand long term.
The solution is understanding that you are not simply competing on products. You are competing on credibility, clarity, trust, and positioning.
In regulated wellness, stronger branding usually creates better long-term results than simply spending more money on advertising.
For years, paid advertising acted as the default answer for ecommerce growth. In wellness, this is not a reliable solution.
Advertising costs continue rising across many categories. Platform enforcement changes constantly. Approved messaging one month may become restricted the next. Accounts can face limitations with little warning. Certain ingredients or phrases may trigger reviews or reduced distribution. At the same time, competition has intensified dramatically.
This creates a dangerous dependency cycle.
Brands spend more money acquiring traffic while simultaneously operating inside categories where trust requires more time to build. Conversion becomes harder. Margins compress. Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC) rise.
Many founders respond by spending more on advertising. But in regulated wellness marketing, this strategy is self-defeating and often creates the opposite effect.
But it does not end here.
Aggressive marketing also causes consumers to become more skeptical, which increases Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC) even further.
The solution is to invest in assets you control, such as educational content, newsletters, organic search, communities, retention systems, and clear positioning. True, these assets usually grow more slowly than paid campaigns, but they are also much more resilient.
Stop chasing the ‘fast gain’ and start building the strategic assets that give your brand a permanent competitive advantage.
One of the biggest misunderstandings in regulated wellness marketing is the role of content. Many companies treat content as secondary marketing support, produced mainly for SEO.
This is a mistake.
Market education is one of the keys to long-term success and should be viewed as a core part of your growth system.
Let’s dig deeper.
In wellness, customers often need help understanding ingredients, formulations, mechanisms, realistic expectations, safety considerations, and product differences. These are not just technical terms or processes — they are part of the foundation of almost every wellness product. Ignoring them is a serious mistake.
In addition, when brands consistently provide useful education, several things happen simultaneously. Trust increases. Customer hesitation decreases. Search visibility improves. Retention often becomes stronger because buyers better understand what they purchased and why.
Most importantly, authority gets established.
This is one reason many successful wellness companies increasingly behave more like publishers and educators than traditional advertisers.
Just look at Cannadelics itself. Over the years, we have published more than 1,500 articles and guides in the wellness space alone.
We did not build that content library by accident.
We built it because we understand that attention alone is unstable, while authority lasts much longer.
It follows one of our core principles: “If you want to grow your brand, it is better to do it right than to do it fast.”
Many wellness companies focus heavily on acquisition while paying surprisingly little attention to retention. Not only is this a self-defeating strategy, it also creates misleading growth. A brand may appear to be scaling while actually replacing customers at an unsustainable rate.
In regulated wellness marketing, retention is a critical factor to monitor because it often reveals whether the overall system is functioning properly.
If retention is weak, it may indicate one of several deeper problems:
All of these are serious issues that need to be fixed, because more traffic rarely solves them.
In fact, retention often improves when branding becomes clearer rather than louder. Customers who properly understand a product tend to make better purchasing decisions. Expectations become more realistic. Brand trust strengthens. Repeat purchase behavior becomes healthier.
This is one reason education, positioning, and retention are deeply connected to each other. They are not separate systems.
You cannot truly fix one without improving the others.
The strongest wellness brands understand this and treat trust, education, positioning, and retention as parts of the same long-term growth system.
The companies that survive long term in regulated wellness usually stop chasing isolated marketing tactics. Instead, they focus on building stronger foundations.
They develop clearer positioning. They communicate more carefully. They invest in trust instead of pure attention, and they educate consistently. They build systems that improve retention rather than depending entirely on constant acquisition.
Most importantly, they understand that wellness growth is often slower, more trust-dependent, and more relationship-driven than mainstream ecommerce.
That does not make the market weaker.
It simply makes it different. Unique.
The brands that recognize this early usually make better strategic decisions and create long-lasting systems capable of supporting sustainable growth over time.
The others usually fail.
Standard marketing advice does not completely fail in wellness because the tactics themselves are useless. It fails because the assumptions behind those tactics often do not match the realities of regulated wellness marketing.
Wellness brands operate inside an environment shaped by compliance limitations, scientific nuance, consumer skepticism, rising acquisition costs, and unusually high trust requirements.
That changes how growth works.
The strongest companies eventually stop trying to copy generic ecommerce systems and begin building around the realities of their own market. They focus less on aggressive marketing and more on durable authority, less on short-term traffic spikes and more on trust, and less on louder messaging and more on clearer positioning.
That process may feel slower initially, but in regulated wellness marketing, it is often the only path toward sustainable long-term success.
The post Why Standard Marketing Advice Fails in Regulated Wellness first appeared on Cannadelics.
The government opened the UAP vault. Politicians are talking. The internet is spiraling. High Times offers a galactic thought experiment rooted in cannabis, sovereignty and the humble power of growing your own.
This morning, May 8, 2026, the Department of War released the first tranche of declassified UFO files under President Donald Trump’s PURSUE program (Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters). The release includes Apollo 12 and Apollo 17 mission imagery, FBI infrared stills, and a Department of War carousel of 17 image assets covering decades of unresolved UAP cases. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, FBI Director Kash Patel and NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman all signed on. More tranches are coming on a rolling basis.
“The American people can now access the federal government’s declassified UAP files instantly,” the Pentagon press release reads. “No clearance required.”
The galactic open house, after years of speculation, is now an actual government portal you can bookmark. So before everyone loses their minds, let’s draw the blinds on paranoia for a second.
Consider this precise and delicate moment in history. It seems far-fetched, but in the United States, the government just made it considerably less far-fetched. The Pentagon is in galactic “open house” mode, and the most important politicians in the world have been hinting at what we suspect. And, by the way, that’s something many of us are waiting to find out.
So, while the planet spirals into a panic attack worthy of a bad mushroom trip, you have to be there, firm, with your grinder in hand and a cool head. Weed can save you. Weed can save us.
“Exopolitics” sounds like something from a boring conference, but it’s pure galactic conversation, and we can cultivate it. In fact, there are already signs of it. Let’s look at some examples: Mr. Burns emerging from the forest, skinny and fluorescent, offering “peace.” Barack Obama dropping suspicious hints on Jimmy Kimmel’s show — he said he couldn’t reveal anything, and Kimmel jokingly demanded his facial expressions be analyzed — or when he addressed the subject on James Corden’s late-night show, as this CNN article points out.
Bill Clinton telling Jimmy Kimmel that “If we were visited someday, I wouldn’t be surprised. I just hope that it’s not like Independence Day.” Donald Trump, the self-styled dealer of declassified extraterrestrial files and the main promoter of this whole thing, selling you Martian bobbleheads with MAGA hats (a dystopian souvenir that, at this point, is more of a prediction than a parody).
Politicians on UFOs — a brief, alarming timeline
Trump
May 8, 2026 — Pentagon
Department of War releases first batch of declassified UAP files under the PURSUE program. Includes Apollo 12 and Apollo 17 mission imagery and FBI infrared stills.
Obama
Jimmy Kimmel Live
Said he couldn’t reveal anything about UFOs. Kimmel demanded his facial expressions be analyzed.
Obama
The Late Late Show
Confirmed he asked about UFOs when he became president. Did not deny their existence.
Clinton
Jimmy Kimmel Live
“If we were visited someday, I wouldn’t be surprised. I just hope that it’s not like Independence Day.”
Ratcliffe
Fox News
Former Director of National Intelligence: “Objects that engage in actions that are difficult to explain, movements that are hard to replicate, that we don’t have the technology for.”
Carter
On record
Claimed to have seen a UFO in 1969. Said he would never make fun of people who report unidentified objects in the sky.
Probably, if what many think is coming actually happens, the confirmation that we are not alone will be a truly epic season finale: the ultimate crossover between X-Files, Ancient Aliens, and High Times. But be warned, if the news breaks and the financial system collapses, the real way out isn’t in Ned Flanders’ bunker, but in your own garden.
Now, in this picture we’re painting, cultivation will be the ultimate form of resistance. If everything goes bonkers, if chaos takes over the streets and people start praying to every saint: whoever has a plant will have sovereignty. In a collapse scenario, flowers could become currency, the universal language of cosmic diplomacy, and the only anchor against the vastness of the cosmic void.
Furthermore, self-cultivation isn’t just a hobby or a trick for the “green thumbs” out there. It’s a biological insurance policy. In a world where supply chains are disrupted and fiat currency becomes less valuable than toilet paper, your ability to produce medicine and relief can keep you out of the line of the desperate and, conversely, place you among the providers.
The galactic survival kit
Good seeds. The foundation of everything. Full control over your own production means absolute independence from pharmacies and markets.
Sun, water, patience. The ultimate survival tool requires barely more than these three things.
A cool head. Calm, chill, keeping your cool. That’s the strategy when things get cosmic.
Something to share. The act of sharing a flower could become the first galactic free trade agreement.
Your own space. Not Ned Flanders’ bunker. Your garden. That’s where the real resistance lives.
If these aliens managed to master interdimensional travel, it’s because they understand sacred geometry and the molecular composition of matter. What we know: cannabis is not just a plant. What we will learn: there could be life beyond Earth. What this could add to our understanding: terpenes are nature’s binary code. Limonene and myrcene could be the aromatic keys to unlock a conversation that transcends the language of words. A peace protocol that mainstream politics has yet to decipher. And which we hope they read as a recommendation.
Who told us the endocannabinoid system is exclusive to humans? There may still be a card to play there. Maybe, somewhere across the galaxy, visitors might also have biological receptors waiting to be activated by Earth’s flora.
Because, well, imagine this scenario: the aliens land on Earth and the first thing they see is a human desperate to upload a short video to TikTok. They’d flee in terror, right? We need to start preparing for a different kind of conversation. As former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe pointed out to Fox News: “We’re talking about objects (…) that engage in actions that are difficult to explain, movements that are hard to replicate, that we don’t have the technology for.”
Today’s Pentagon release is the first tranche, not the last. More files are coming on a rolling basis. So aside from the breaking news and the “exopolitical” dilemma, will they arrive now? Are they really “selling” it as something imminent? Will they arrive around the time of the World Cup, under the watchful eyes of every continent? Will it be more discreet? Or will they wait until the Total Solar Eclipse of August 2, 2027? Will they appear over the pyramids of Giza or over your indoor space? Who knows.
The strategy, if it happens when the time comes, is to be there: calm, chill, keeping your cool. Although if these guys crossed galaxies, they most likely won’t come for our disposable technology. They’ll probably come to see how we manage to be happy on this absurd giant rock. And, clinging to a universal truth, nothing says “I’m at peace with the universe” like a good homegrown harvest.
Homegrown plants will be our techno-weed version of Noah’s Ark. Having full control over your own production means that, faced with uncertainty, you’ve got the most valuable resource: absolute independence from pharmacies and markets. It’s the ultimate survival tool, since it barely requires more than sun, water, and a little patience. So while the Pentagon rehearses its next tranche of releases, news programs explode with red banners, and social media swells with anticipation, you just focus on keeping your plants healthy.
“
The truth probably isn’t out there. It’s in your own garden. Infinity is closer than we think.
Even Jimmy Carter, who claimed to have seen a UFO in 1969, said he would never make fun of people who report unidentified objects in the sky. So, what are we going to do? This is an invitation to reflect on this whole issue, which just got a lot more official. We prefer to call it solutions journalism.
Meanwhile, at least in our own corner, we maintain that the code of survival lies in having good seeds. Because if these visitors turn out to be cool, they’ll surely bring something to share with us. And if they arrive with conquest in mind, well, at least they’ll catch us with full jars, and we can figure out how to handle it. The truth probably isn’t out there, but in your own garden. Infinity is closer than we think.
<p>The post Full Disclosure: The Pentagon Released UFO Files. The Smart Move Is To Grow Your Own Weed. first appeared on High Times.</p>
New Jersey’s adult-use marijuana legalization law explicitly precludes employers from taking any adverse actions against workers “simply for testing positive for cannabinoid metabolites, or for using cannabis, so long as it is not used during the workday and the employee is not intoxicated or impaired at work.”
The post New Jersey: Court Rules Police Officers Can’t Be Fired for Off-Duty Cannabis Use appeared first on NORML.
For Mother’s Day, Maya Elisabeth asked mothers across the cannabis community to talk about the plant in their own words. What came back was honest, funny and completely their own.
Motherhood made me who I am. So did cannabis. I’ve found the two go hand in hand in ways I didn’t expect: stress relief, staying present, sore muscles at the end of a long day. It became my safe choice, the reason I don’t need any other altering habits. And it’s part of why I wanted to hear how other women in this community talk about the same thing.
For Mother’s Day, I asked a group of moms from across the cannabis space to share what this plant means in their lives. Founders, creators, healers, operators, women raising kids while building lives and businesses at the same time.
What came back was honest, practical, moving, and to me, no surprise. The destigmatization of cannabis and responsible parenting go hand-in-hand. It’s time for us to expand the narrative and recognize that this plant is a safe, responsible, and helpful choice for overworked, mothers and fathers alike!
“Motherhood doesn’t pause your identity — it expands it. Postpartum, though, is a phase no one can fully prepare you for. After consuming cannabis recreationally for so long, it became a medicine for me during this time. I leaned on it to manage stress, regulate, and reconnect with myself. It wasn’t about escape — it helped me stay present, patient, and grounded as I adjusted to this entirely new version of life. Cannabis helped me show up as a better mom — true to its nature as the mother plant.”
Maha Haq, Founder, Cannaclub @highmaha
“As a woman balancing the rhythms of entrepreneurship and motherhood, I use cannabis as a ritual to keep myself grounded. I have a tendency to get lost in the details, carried away by all the things that need tending, and in those moments, I can forget to simply be. Rolling a joint and savoring a few gentle puffs brings me back to myself — it quiets the noise, helps me feel the earth beneath my feet, and invites me to be fully present with whatever mission is unfolding right in front of me.”
Charlotte Welch, Creator of Hautebox @homeofhautebox / charlottewelch.co
“Society often tells moms to manage stress in rigid ways, but I founded Garden Society to break that stigma. Cannabis doesn’t make me a different person. It helps me find the patience and joy I need to navigate the chaos of motherhood. It’s about showing up as your most grounded self.”
Erin Gore, Founder & CEO, The Garden Society @grdnsociety
“Cannabis has been a distinct tool in my evolution. When awareness deepens, so does our ability to connect with intuition and purpose.
Motherhood is often framed as a responsibility, but to me it’s a relationship of learning.
Yes, I am meant to guide my children, but they are here to teach me, too.”
Vanessa Oliver, Founder, Cloud 9 Studios and Cannaluxxe Wellness Experiences @cloud9studios_llc | @cannaluxxe
“Giving thanks for this plant. Through my relationship with herb, I’ve deepened my connection to the Creator and overcome struggles that have shaped me into the mother I am today.”
Chelsea, Ras Boss @rasboss_
“Motherhood is beautiful, but it can be overwhelming.
Cannabis has helped me find calm, rest deeply, and be present”
Laniakea Evans, Owner & Founder, 365 Recreational @365santarosa
“Cannabis helps me lead with love, presence, and compassion as a mother every day. The gift of building a family business with my children through our dispensary, CBCB, is truly priceless.”
Aundre Speciale, Owner, CBCB Berkeley and Chapel @cbcb.berkeley
“Cannabis has allowed me to approach motherhood with greater grace and patience. I lean into a higher CBD to THC ratio and then I play with the terpene profiles to match the mood. It becomes a powerful tool for stress relief and presence. It acts like a key that unlocks a more balanced and empowered version of yourself.”
Dani Fontaine, Plant Therapist @danifontaine / NaturesRoot.com
“A toke is synonymous with gaining access to more patience for many Mothers. And, To be a patient Mother is leaving your wild youth behind,,,to make space for your child’s wild youth. PATIENCE – P-atience, A-llows, T-ime, I-n, E-very, N-ew, C-hildhood, E-xperience.”
Kelly Dunn, Dragonfly Earth Medicine @dragonflyearthmedicine
“I have 4 kids that liked to eat three times a day and not next week, so in those days I grew a lot of weed, made a lot of hash, till the invention of The Pollinator paid for all dinners.”
Mila Hash Queen, Creator of The Pollinator @milahashqueen
No two mothers do this the same way. No two relationships with cannabis look exactly alike either. But these voices make one thing clear: a lot of women have built their own language around care, and for them, this plant is part of it. Not the whole story. Just one honest part of it.
Happy Mother’s Day.
<p>The post Moms Who Toke, Build, Hustle And Hold It Down first appeared on High Times.</p>
At the crossroads of technology and art, contemporary artists are always after the tools that will enable them to be more focused yet retain the dedication to the purity of the chemicals. The emergence of …
