THE WASH DAILY with Joey SLLiks CANNABIS NEWS REPORT Hemp wood products beat the Tree wood product

Tuesday March 13 2021
In today's report:

Illinois Gets More Tax Revenue From Marijuana Than Alcohol, State Says

From January to March, Illinois generated about $86,537,000 in adult-use marijuana tax revenue, compared to $72,281,000 from liquor sales.

If the [trend](https://www2.illinois.gov/rev/....research/taxstats/Co up, Illinois could see more than $1 billion in adult-use marijuana sales in 2021. Last year, the state sold about $670 million in cannabis and [took in $205.4 million in tax revenue](https://www.marijuanamoment.ne....t/illinois-collects-

Officials have emphasized that the tax dollars from all of these sales are being put to good use. For example, the state announced in January that it is distributing $31.5 million in grants funded by marijuana tax dollars to communities that have been disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs. The funds are part of the state’s Restore, Reinvest, and Renew (R3) program, which was . It requires 25 percent of marijuana tax dollars to be put in that fund and used to provide disadvantaged people with services such as legal aid, youth development, community reentry and financial support.

Awarding the new grant money is not all that Illinois is doing to promote social equity and repair the harms of cannabis criminalization. Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) announced in December that his office had [processed more than 500,000 expungements and pardons for people with low-level cannabis convictions on their records.

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Illinois Governor Announces Half A Million Marijuana Expungements And Pardons

**[Governor JB Pritzker**@GovPritzker](https://twitter.com/GovPritzker)

I’m proud to announce that nearly 500,000 low-level cannabis-related records have been expunged in Illinois, four years ahead of schedule.

We reached this milestone one year into what will be an ongoing effort to correct historic wrongdoings fueled by the war on drugs.

[https://www.marijuanamoment.ne....t/illinois-governor-

[https://www.marijuanamoment.ne....t/illinois-gets-more

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New Mexico Just Officially Legalized Cannabis

Martinez claims he supports legalization and hopes the entire U.S. will follow suit in order to quell the drug cartel violence that occurs when cannabis is kept in the illicit market.

“I grew up along the border. I’ve seen what the war on drugs has done,” Martinez said. “I’m proud that New Mexico — little old New Mexico — has done its part to tell the federal government once and for all to legalize cannabis for the people.”

The state’s economy will get a big boost from the 12-percent-and-up recreational sales tax in addition to the 18 percent sales tax already in place for sales in New Mexico. Medical cannabis will remain untaxed.

[https://hightimes.com/news/new....-mexico/new-mexico-j

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Industrial hemp fiber is better than wood in every way

More and more scientific publications underscore hemp’s other important characteristics: high absorption properties, IR and UV radiation protection capacity and natural low flammability.

## Planet friendly

Hemp also represents an alluring investment opportunity for those companies looking for an effective way to “decarbonize” their goods – in other words, decreasing their carbon emissions profile.

Hemp plants have an exceptionally high capacity to draw out and contain CO2, which is much higher than trees. According to several scientific articles, one acre of a common hemp varietal can absorb 8.88 tons of CO2 annually, whereas an acre of forest sequesters roughly 2.5 tons – only about 30% as much.

But wait, there’s more. Our research has shown that, hemp varietals being grown for fiber generally yield up to five times the biomass of leftover “seed” stalk – up to 42 tons – and that the CO2 displacement when hemp is substituted for traditional raw materials, in end products such as plastic, textiles, steel, construction and other materials, can reduce CO2 by as much as 200 tons!

Although plant life produces oxygen in the atmosphere through photosynthesis, this natural process decreases as plants age. It would seem logical that big trees with considerable leaf area would generate more oxygen, especially because they are alive much longer than a hemp plant, however this is untrue.

[https://hemptoday.net/industri....al-hemp-fiber-is-bet