TG Branfalt

Officials in Portland, Maine, have released a proposal for city-wide cannabis industry regulations. According to the working group responsible for the rules, the city aims to generally treat adult-use and medical cannabis similarly.

The Ohio Agriculture Department has planted a pilot hemp crop so officials can practice hemp cultivation and lab testing procedures in preparation for the state’s hemp market launch expected next year.

Tuesday of next week marks the official launch of medical cannabis sales in Louisiana. The state program does not permit raw cannabis flower, however, patients will instead have access to tinctures, inhalers, topicals, and oils.

Federal officials say that Utah’s medical cannabis plan — which some had worried would jeopardize the state’s federal funding — can move forward.

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy has pulled $375,000 in funding for the state’s pilot industrial hemp program because “currently there is no existing industry to support a state funded program.”

Massachusetts has awarded the first provisional license under the state’s social equity licensing rules to Pure Oasis, a Boston-based dispensary; the owners say they will hire locally and hope to establish a business incubator.

Known British cannabis advocate Blair Gibbs is leaving a position as policy lead for the Centre of Medicinal Cannabis to join the administration of the newly appointed Prime Minister Boris Johnson, whom he has worked for previously.

Ohio is the latest state to legalize hemp cultivation and CBD product manufacturing; the bill had been overwhelmingly approved by the state’s legislative bodies and was signed into law by Gov. Mike DeWine on Tuesday.

Utah lawmakers are planning to change the state’s medical cannabis program, which was created in the first place as a legislative replacement for the voter-approved program that lawmakers said would be untenable, as the current program conflicts too directly with federal rules.

Woodstock Ventures, the founding entity behind the Woodstock music festival, can move forward with a planned cannabis brand after a court ruled their trademark was not blocked by Woodstock Roots LLC, an unaffiliated company.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has signed a bill into law that establishes an expungement process for low-level criminal charges and expands the state’s existing decriminalization rules.

Massachusetts regulators have warned residents and tourists against bringing cannabis out to sea, and into other federal waterways, despite the plant being legalized in the state.

A Pennsylvania medical cannabis cultivator has had its license revoked following multiple accusations of wrongdoing by state regulators.

As Canada approaches the one-year anniversary of legalizing cannabis, adult-use sales are steadily rising but medical cannabis flower sales have dropped 20 percent.

Standard Wellness has issued Ohio’s first medical cannabis product recall on its THC-infused water-soluble drops after patients alerted the company that some bottles contained dark-colored debris; so far, no adverse effects or illness related to the polluted drops have been reported.

Law enforcement in British Columbia has asked federal authorities to help thwart illegal online cannabis sales in the province.

With $1.6 million already spent this year, the cannabis industry’s 2019 Capitol Hill lobbying efforts on are on pace to break the record set last year at $2.7 million.

Details have emerged about the CBD trials partnership between the Ultimate Fighting Championship and Canada’s Aurora Cannabis; the trials will investigate CBD’s effectiveness in wound care, recovery, pain treatment, and more.

Juneau, Alaska has approved social use cannabis regulations that will take effect within a month. At first, however, only infused edibles will be allowed — smoking regulations are expected to come later.

Travis Howard is a Colorado-based serial entrepreneur and attorney who has worked for 10 years in the cannabis space to benefit patients and normalize the cannabis plant.

Researchers at the University of Guelph in Ontario say they have identified pain-relieving cannabis flavonoids that are “30 times more powerful at reducing inflammation than Aspirin.”

After receiving more than 800 applications to grow industrial hemp, Virginia’s Agriculture Department is planning to establish new regulations for hemp-derived CBD products.

Three months before edibles regulations take effect nationwide, officials in Quebec, Canada have announced a ban on sweetened cannabis edibles containing THC, including (temporarily) topicals.

Lawmakers yesterday held the first Senate committee hearing to be aimed at addressing banking challenges for the cannabis industry; the hearing included arguments from financial institution representatives, state-legal cannabis professionals, and elected officials from states with reformed cannabis laws.