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New Jersey Medical Cannabis Patient Sues Former Employer

6/09/2021

A New Jersey medical cannabis patient is suing his employer claiming he was fired for his off-the-clock cannabis use, NJ.com reports. Jamal Campbell filed his lawsuit against the refinery company, Watco Companies and Watco Transloading LLC, in U.S. District Court in April claiming the firm violated New Jersey’s medical cannabis law and state anti-discrimination laws.

According to the lawsuit outlined by NJ.com, Campbell injured his back on the job in 2016 and became a medical cannabis patient in 2018 for pain related to a bulging disc. The lawsuit contends that Campbell never used cannabis at work or came into work under the influence.

Campbell worked as an operator at the company, mostly loading cargo trains, from 2014 until December 2020 when a manager told him he would have to take a random drug test. Campbell said he would fail due to his medical cannabis use, but the manager said he would have to comply or risk losing his job. Campbell ultimately tested positive for cannabis and was fired.

Campbell further claims that the Kansas-based firm violated New Jersey workplace discrimination laws by not attempting to find reasonable accommodation for his disability and prescribed medical cannabis use, the report says.

New Jersey’s Supreme Court last year ruled that companies cannot fire medical cannabis patients for using cannabis as long as they do not use it at work and that the state Law Against Discrimination protected medical cannabis patients. In April, the court ruled that employers must pay the monthly medical cannabis bills for employees injured on the job.

The state’s cannabis legalization law also protects employees from termination for using cannabis and does not include exemptions for safety-sensitive jobs but does include exemptions for federal workers and some federal contractors. Rachel Haskell, a partner at the Law Office of Christopher Q. Davis, which is representing Campbell, told NJ.com that there is no precedent in the state “on what is safety-sensitive.”

“We believe that both Jake Honig’s Law and the Law Against Discrimination would provide protections for people who are using medical marijuana in addition to the requirements to engage in the interactive process in providing accommodations.” —Haskell to NJ.com

Under the legalization law enacted in February, New Jersey employers can still conduct drug tests for cannabis, but they must be paired with a Workplace Impairment Recognition Expert report who witnessed impaired behavior, according to NJ.com.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court because Watco is based out-of-state. A company spokesperson declined to comment on the lawsuit.

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Connecticut Senate Passes Adult-Use Cannabis Legalization Bill

6/08/2021

The Connecticut Senate early this morning narrowly approved a bill to legalize cannabis for adult use as the Legislature prepares to adjourn today, CT News Junkie reports. It’s the first time either legislative chamber in the state has approved the reforms and Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont commended the chamber for passing the bill.

The legislation passed by just two votes – 19 to 17.

“The war on cannabis, which was at its core a war on people in Black and Brown communities, not only caused injustices and increased disparities in our state, it did little to protect public health and safety. That’s why I introduced a bill and worked hard with our partners in the legislature to create a comprehensive framework for a securely regulated market that prioritizes public health, public safety, social justice, and equity. It will help eliminate the dangerous, unregulated market and support a new growing sector of our economy, which will lead to jobs and growth. This measure is comprehensive, protects our children and the most vulnerable in our communities, and will be viewed as a national model for regulating the adult-use cannabis marketplace. I look forward to the Connecticut House of Representatives securing passage of this measure and sending it my desk.” — Lamont in a statement

The proposal would allow adults to possess up to 1.5 ounces in public and up to 5 ounces at home or in the glove box of a car. Sales to adults 21-and-older would begin in May 2022. The bill estimates that legal sales would lead to about $4.1 million in tax revenues during year one and about $26.3 million in year two, according to the fiscal note attached to the bill.

House Republican Leader Vincent Candelora told Fox 61 that the bill “is not about the policy of marijuana and the public health implications” rather decrying it as “all about revenue.”

Adults would be able to grow six plants per household, up to 12 plants, by July 2023. The bill also includes provisions allowing Connecticut cannabis workers to unionize along with social equity rules to ensure 65% ownership in cannabis businesses benefit communities most impacted by the War on Drugs. The legislation would also require the state to set up a social equity commission.

Opponents of the bill could try and prevent its passage by debating the proposal until after tonight’s midnight deadline but House Speaker Matt Ritter (D) said he could immediately call back lawmakers for a special session on Thursday to continue the debate and vote on the reforms.

Lukas Barfield contributed to this report.

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Washington Cannabis Regulators Approve ‘Joints for Jabs’ Program

6/08/2021

The Washington Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB) on Monday approved a “Joints for Jabs” program that will allow adult-use cannabis retailers to give away a single pre-roll to anyone 21-and-older who gets a coronavirus vaccine at clinics held at cannabis retailers this week.

The agency indicated that “no other product may be provided as part” of the program, which applies to individuals that are receiving either their first or second dose of the vaccine.

In a press release announcing the approval, the LCB said it would allow retailers to advertise the Joints for Jabs program “so long as licensees maintain compliance with all other advertising regulations.” It noted that regulators have already “provided dozens of allowances for alcohol and cannabis licensees throughout the COVID pandemic in an effort to support businesses during the restriction period and to support the vaccine effort.”

Most recently, the Washington LCB said, it provided an allowance for a free beer, wine, or cocktail to be given to those vaccinated by June 30.

While the free products will not be subject to state and local taxes, retailers are required to maintain all records associated with the giveaway, including seed-to-sale tracking requirements.

Throughout the U.S., cannabis activists and retailers have offered promotions to individuals who receive the coronavirus vaccine. In January, Michigan’s Greenhouse of Walled Lake dispensary announced a “Pot for Shots” campaign which offered a free pre-roll through February to anyone who provides proof they received a vaccine.

Activists D.C. Marijuana Justice (DCMJ) in January announced their own plan to give away cannabis and seeds at vaccination centers throughout Washington, D.C.

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Mississippi Voters Back Adult-Use Cannabis Legalization

6/08/2021

A majority of Mississippi voters—52%—approve broad cannabis legalization in the state, while 63% want lawmakers to approve a medical cannabis law that mirrors the one approved by voters last November but struck down by the state Supreme Court last month, according to a Millsaps College and Chism Strategies survey.

The survey found 37% oppose adult-use cannabis legalization in the state.

Republican Gov. Tate Reeves has said he wants lawmakers to approve such a bill and respect the will of the voters as the Supreme Court decision was based on the state’s initiative process, rather than the medical cannabis provisions.

Another 20% of those surveyed said that legalizing medical cannabis in the state was the most important issue for determining how they would vote in next year’s elections, during which Reeves and state lawmakers will be on the ballot. The survey found 48% of voters disapprove of Reeves’ job performance with 35% approval. Nearly half of voters (49%) disapproved of the state legislature, with 21% approving of their work.

Dr. Nathan R. Shrader, chair of the Department of Government and Politics and director of American Studies at Millsaps College, said that the poll shows that voters’ policy preferences “do not appear to be anywhere near the same ideological positions as the majority of the state’s elected officials.”

“Mississippi voters overwhelmingly support legalizing medicinal marijuana, which was actually done by the electorate last November. They also favor legalizing marijuana for recreational purposes and expanding Medicaid by healthy margins. … The coming months, including the 2022 legislative session, will be a test of how long the state’s elected leaders can hold positions that are greatly at odds with the majority of Mississippi’s voters.” — Shrader in a statement

Mississippi voters polled were split on how they view the direction of the state, with 38% believing it is heading in the wrong direction and 36% believing it is headed in the right direction, with 28% unsure.

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Zachary Garippa: How Efficiency Saves Money In the Cannabis Industry

6/08/2021

The cannabis industry is a complicated web of eager entrepreneurs, excited customers, and stringent regulations. While the process of growing, manufacturing, and retailing cannabis products might seem straightforward, there are of course innumerable complications — to assist, Order offers cannabis business owners flexible payment options including purchasing, the strategic sourcing of goods/services, integrated payments, and consolidated billing.

In this written Q&A, we ask Zachary about the founding of Order, how the company has adapted to the unique needs of cannabis businesses, how cannabis entrepreneurs have utilized the end-to-end spending platform, and how simply improving the efficiency of business payments can save thousands of dollars for a business.

Check out the full interview below!

Ganjapreneur: Where did your inspiration for Order come from, and how does the vision add value to the cannabis industry?

Zachary Garippa: Early on, we realized that the markets around buying physical goods were not nearly as efficient as they could be, and believed that we could make the process of buying and paying better for businesses. We saw Operations, Finance, and Procurement teams struggle with juggling multiple vendors, enforcing compliance, and drowning in thousands of invoices each month.

We initially started with centralization because having everything in one place is critical for businesses to make more informed decisions. We provide companies with a single, easy ecommerce experience to place orders. Think: Just like Amazon — but ALL of your vendor orders in one cart. On top of that, we allow companies to set up automatic product purchasing and payments, give them real-time spend visibility to help them budget, and consolidate their many invoices into just one every month.

Cannabis companies in particular are growing rapidly right now and need to centralize their whole purchasing experience so that they can scale. Just as much as we are a purchasing platform, many companies turn to Order for guidance on how to navigate expansion as the cannabis market grows.
We are very excited to continue to be a part of the growing cannabis industry.

How did your background in finance factor into the development of Order?

My background in finance is grounded in the human element. I wasn’t a math major or a quant — my exposure to finance involved people, numbers, and decisions. Even more specifically, how the intersection of those three things solve everyday problems.

I try to bring that same philosophy to Order. We are a software company, but we want to aid in the decision making process of finance, operations, and procurement teams. We understand that what a business needs today may change tomorrow. So instead of rigid rules and impossible-to-follow workflows, we deliver flexibility, insights, and intelligence up and down the purchase to pay landscape to address challenges for your teams as early and as upstream as possible.

Order serves a variety of businesses. How has the cannabis industry, in particular, leveraged your platform in a different way than other clients like SoulCycle and XpresSpa?

The cannabis industry is growing extremely fast—and that’s why our cannabis clients have leveraged our platform unlike any other industry. When our clients open new locations, they have a customized catalog that allows them to purchase everything they need for expansion—with one click. We also provide companies with clear purchasing data for detailed spend analyses. That visibility allows them to stick to their budgets and better plan for expansion.It’s great to see that we have become a pillar for how cannabis companies expand their business operations.

What are some of the unique solutions that you developed for the cannabis industry? And, how did you identify the specific difficulties that operators experience?

Because cannabis is a new industry and, therefore, perceived as risky, we’ve noticed that vendors will not set up net terms with cannabis companies—making it really difficult to free up cash flow. On top of that, many cannabis companies are start-ups, which do not have a lot of credit history. Adding insult to injury, it’s difficult for cannabis companies to find strong partners due to biases towards the industry. Consolidated billing through Order is free and doesn’t require approval. Plus, we can also offer flexible net terms.

Another pain point we found related specifically to cannabis operations that are multi-state or multi-license. For example, Acreage Holdings had to set up 12 different WB Mason accounts since they were purchasing across 12 different entities. With Order, they consolidated their purchasing by linking all of their vendor accounts. We saved them the headache of multiple orders, and helped them access extra savings from bulk purchases. Plus, each bank account can be associated with the appropriate purchases for compliance purposes. Because compliance is so critical to success in the cannabis space, our clients really love that feature.

How does Order integrate into the daily business operations of a cannabis operator, and what are the benefits of a consolidated purchasing and payments solution?

Whether you run a cultivation plant or a dispensary—efficiency is key. There are a million confusing ways companies place orders, approve purchases, and pay vendors. When you’re in such a young and innovative industry, endless email threads and spreadsheets shouldn’t be part of your workflow.

We save operations teams hours of valuable time by eliminating manual purchasing tasks, automating payments, and allowing the team to track their purchasing data in real-time. Our mission is to make the whole process really simple.

Order has built a network of over 4,000 vendors and suppliers. How does this vendor network bring value to your clients?

We have a unique approach to how we add vendors. Instead of hosting vendors or supporting a small subset of vendors, we encourage clients to add their own. This creates an ever-growing vendor community, and we are able to add a ton of flexibility into an otherwise pretty rigid process.

Because of this approach, we can deliver the best of both worlds to customers. If they want to drive compliance to their vendor network, no problem. If they are looking to optimize their vendor network in some way (i.e. find better pricing, find more reliable delivery, find better quality) we have millions of data points on exactly that. And the data points will only grow as more companies add their vendors and place orders, so this cycle continues.

Also because of this approach, we can deliver hard dollar savings back to customers. On average, we see cannabis customers save 13% across their purchases and they have a really strong ROI—typically 2x – 7x their subscription fee.

How has Order prepared for the changing landscape of cannabis regulations, and how do you think federal legalization might affect how cannabis operators use the platform?

Our #1 goal is to give companies the easiest way to purchase products and pay their vendors. Currently, our cannabis companies love our consolidated billing feature—streamlining their AP process by using Order as their vendor of record instead of each individual vendor. Due to current banking regulations, cannabis companies can’t take full advantage of our automatic payment function that allows companies to schedule vendor payments and pay bills automatically. But, this will change as cannabis regulations change, and we are very excited about that.

What does the onboarding process look like with the software?

It’s a very smooth and simple process. The faster we can get our clients up and running, the more time and money we save them. Companies can begin placing orders and making payments within just a few hours of implementing Order. We provide our clients with their own hands-on Account Manager to walk them through the platform, answer any questions, and ensure their success. On our website, there is also an amazing library of tutorial videos that answer every question that clients may have—from placing an order to paying an invoice.

After the onboarding period, what kind of relationship does the Order support team maintain with clients?

I love that question. In addition to our incredibly dedicated Account Managers, we also have an extraordinary Support team that assists clients with any technical issues. If a product never arrives, arrives broken, or is incorrect, they will take care of it for you. I know people say “make customer’s problems your own”, but I really believe that is the ethos of people at Order. Because we aren’t in the client relationship for a quick sale, we want to be a partner and a contributing factor to their growth as a business.

How intuitive is the process of inputting and organizing vendors before the platform begins working for the client?

It’s pretty seamless, and implementation can take as little as 48 hours. Essentially, we use our client’s purchasing history to create their own, personalized purchasing catalog. There’s a page on our platform that clients can use to easily sign into their vendor accounts, and from there we can pull all relevant information. And, if you have offline vendors, all you need to do is upload a previous invoice. Then, companies can go into Order, see all of the products they have purchased, reorder, and pay their invoices—all in one click.

Can you share some stats about how much time and money Order has saved cannabis companies?

Absolutely. We currently have cannabis clients that range from local dispensaries to national holding companies. That being said, in 6 months, we’ve saved those clients anywhere from $6,000-$47,000 on their purchases. As far as saving time, that’s an easy one too. Most of our cannabis clients come to us with a purchasing process that includes messy, unorganized excel spreadsheets sheets and jumbled email chains. We allow companies to create one, curated purchasing catalog—spanning across all of their locations—savings hours and hours of coordinating purchases. For example, one of our cannabis clients came to us with a portfolio of over 30 locations and hundreds of monthly invoices. Now, by utilizing Orders’ custom catalog, they have sped up their purchasing process by over 65%, and are now able to reinvest that time into scaling their operations even further. Our consolidated billing feature is also a huge time-saver for our cannabis clients. Not only does one invoice a month make payments easier, but it also allows for companies to have more transparency in their purchases—allowing them to budget, save, and spend where it matters most.

Thanks again, Zachary, for answering our questions! Learn more at Order.co.

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Arizona Shows Marked Increase in Cannabis Industry Jobs

6/07/2021

Cannabis jobs in Arizona have increased according to a report from Vangst outlined by 12 News. The jobs increase coincides with the launch of legalized sales in the state, which began in January.

Vangst estimated the state would see another 25,000 industry jobs for Arizonans over the next five years, the report says.

Raul Molina, Mint Dispensary’s chief operating officer, said that the retail outlet is “receiving lots and lots of applications” and the company has “been lucky enough to cherry-pick some incredible people.”

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, many businesses throughout the U.S. are having trouble finding employees and in Arizona, some individuals with certain criminal histories are not allowed to work in the cannabis sector. Since January, Mint has hired 90 people and anticipates hiring 75 to 100 more by the end of the year, Molina told 12 News.

Last week, the state Supreme Court launched a new website to help individuals determine whether they are eligible to have their cannabis-related criminal records cleared for crimes that are included under the state’s legalization law, which may increase the employee pool.

According to a Leafly report, the U.S. cannabis industry currently supports 321,000 full-time jobs, a 32% increase from the number of cannabis jobs in 2020.

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Cannabis Extractor Pleads Guilty to Dumping Hazardous Waste

6/07/2021

A San Diego, California cannabis company and its owner have pleaded guilty to charges that it abandoned hazardous ethanol waste and transported the waste without a manifest, the Department of Justice announced last Thursday.

In pleading guilty, WellgreensCA, Inc., and owner Lunar Loussia admitted that, as a cannabis extraction company, Wellgreens generated various wastes, including 55-gallon drums of waste ethanol. The waste ethanol was a federally regulated hazardous waste that could be ignited, the Justice Department said. Wellgreens hired a contractor and directed them to dispose of the waste near a supermarket. The contractor is also charged in the case.

An employee of the supermarket contacted the El Cajon police and the San Diego County Department of Environmental Health Services (DEH) who were able to identify Wellgreens due to paperwork left along with the drum of waste ethanol.

Special Agent in Charge Scot Adair, of Environmental Protection Agency’s criminal enforcement program in California, said the “defendants knowingly ignored legal requirements for the proper transportation and disposal of hazardous waste, putting local communities in the San Diego area at risk.”

As part of the plea agreement, the company agreed to pay a $45,000 fine and restitution of $26,482 for the emergency response costs and restoration of the sites where the hazardous waste was abandoned.

Louissia is set to be sentenced on August 3. He faces a maximum penalty of two years in prison and a fine greater than $250,000 for transportation of hazardous waste without a manifest. Wellgreens faces a $500,000 fine.

Nadia Malloian, the contracted driver that abandoned the waste, is charged with accessory after the fact to transportation of hazardous waste without a manifest. He faces a fine of more than $50,000 and one year in federal custody.

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Nevada Gov. Signs Bill Lowering Penalties for Minor Possession

6/07/2021

Nevada Gov. Steve Sisloak (D) last week signed legislation easing cannabis possession penalties for minors and revising the state’s per se THC limits for driving.

The bill aimed at reducing penalties for minors removes any incarceration or fine, caps community service at 24 hours, requires the offender to attend a victims impact panel or undergo an evaluation to determine whether the person has an alcohol or other substance use disorder, or any combination of those penalties, according to the bill text.

The rules apply to minors under 18-years-old and under 21 for people already in juvenile court caught in possession of one ounce or less. The new rules take effect on October 1.

The driving while stoned proposal amends Nevada’s traffic safety laws so that the operation of a motor vehicle with trace amounts of either THC or its metabolite is no longer a per se violation of law in certain circumstances. Per se violations make it illegal to operate a motor vehicle with trace levels of either THC or THC metabolites in one’s blood or urine, even absent any further evidence of impairment.

The limit will remain in place in circumstances when the violation is punishable as a felony.

Per se limits are controversial because someone could test positive for THC or its metabolite several days after consuming cannabis but are no longer under the influence.

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How FLO is Designing Safer Vapes to Set a Higher Standard

6/07/2021

In the age of social media, misinformation is becoming more and more common. Unfortunately, facts frequently face intense scrutiny and are sometimes just brushed aside. This is an occurrence we see often with extremely polarizing issues, and this is what leads us to the tug of war we are seeing in the world of vaping — with its tremendous rise in popularity over the past couple of years, there has been an intense focus on both the risks and benefits that come from vaping. This focus was magnified in 2019 when we were faced with a full-blown, vape-related lung disease epidemic.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, the first vaping-associated lung illnesses were identified in Illinois and Wisconsin in April 2019, with cases peaking in September 2019 and slowly declining thereafter. In all, the CDC reported that there were a total of 2,807 hospitalized cases, including 60 confirmed deaths, as of February 2020.

Figure 1, Lung Illness Related Hospitalizations and Deaths, CDC, 2020

The alarming number of cases not only made headline news but also left many companies in the vaping industry scrambling to find solutions. Southern California-based FLO is one company taking initiative on the issue — FLO believes it has perfected its vaping cartridge offerings to not only deliver a flawless product but also give consumers peace of mind that they won’t risk going to the hospital with a vaping-related lung illness.

An epidemic of counterfeit & shoddy vaporizers

So, what exactly are the issues that FLO, and many other vaping companies, are up against? For one, things were so serious that the US government considered completely regulating the vaping industry by removing all flavored vaping products. Instead, the government raised the legal age requirement for tobacco and vaping products to 21.

But while raising the legal smoking age does make it slightly more difficult for teenagers to get their hands on smoking products, it still doesn’t accurately depict the issues with these vaping products in the first place. According to the CDC, the median age of individuals hospitalized with severe vaping-related lung illnesses was 24 years old. Furthermore, 79% of hospitalizations and deaths were of persons under 35 years old, with ages ranging from 13 to 75 years. These numbers illustrate that any age is at risk, so raising the legal age to 21 doesn’t necessarily solve the issue stemming from the epidemic.

Raising the legal age is a positive, especially considering the alternative proposal, but it’s important to truly understand what the main culprits of the vaping epidemic were.

One issue likely stemmed from vitamin E acetate — which is commonly used as an additive or thickening agent — being used in counterfeit vaping products. Research shows that while vitamin E acetate is used in supplements and skin creams and does not cause harm when swallowed or used topically, the chemical can impair people’s lung function when inhaled. According to health officials with the CDC, the chemical turned up in “every sample of lung fluid collected from 29 patients with vaping-related illnesses in 2019” and was being used as an ingredient in many counterfeit THC products. The fact that vitamin E acetate was found in every sample from 2019 could also explain why the epidemic sprung up suddenly that year and not before, even though vaping had been around for much longer.

But we shouldn’t be so quick to blame this just on vitamin E acetate because, according to Kathleen Raven of Yale Medicine, “officials stressed their findings remain inconclusive, and more than one chemical could be contributing to lung damage.” In a Scientific Reports study by Monique Williams, researchers conducted a topography on chemical elements and metals in the aerosol of tank-style e-cigarettes. The aim of this study was to examine other vaping-related culprits that may have led to lung illnesses. Researchers found a bevy of heavy metals in these vapors, including aluminum, copper, calcium, chromium, iron, lead, magnesium, nickel, silicon, tin, and zinc. They determined that the liquid is heated in these e-cigarettes, the metals essentially leach from the heating coil. Ultimately, the more metal parts there are in an e-cigarette, the higher the likelihood heavy metals are going to be present.

What happened?

So, was cheap material at least partially to blame? According to Michael Blood of the Associated Press, “Bootleggers eager to profit off unsuspecting consumers are mimicking popular, legal vape brands, pairing replica packaging churned out in Chinese factories with untested, possibly dangerous cannabis oil produced in the state’s vast underground market.”

China is the world’s biggest manufacturer and exporter of e-cigarettes, according to the China Electronic Cigarette Chamber of Commerce, and the country has been a frequent target of criticism due to the number of counterfeit and unregulated vaporizers being manufactured there. There have been numerous lawsuits against vaping manufacturers from China, including some by American companies. According to a May 2020 press release, “DS Technology Licensing, the owner of registered trademarks associated with the ‘Puff Bar’ vapor device, and Puff Inc., an authorized US distributor, filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles County Superior Court against over 20 Chinese and American companies accused of distributing counterfeit vaping devices.”

The firestorm of illnesses and the fear of cheap counterfeit products led to a dramatic drop in e-cigarette sales. Jane Technologies Inc. reported in 2019 that the market share for vapes was down 15% in medical states including Oregon and states with high levels of cannabis tourism such as Nevada and Massachusetts showing the worst declines. Furthermore, vapes’ share of sales fell 65% in New Mexico, 62% in Oregon, 37% in Massachusetts, and 32% in Nevada. As the illnesses wore on in 2019, so did the decline in vape sales across the country.

Figure 2, Vape Sales Dropping, New Frontier, 2019

And to be frank, this was all largely expected with the 24-hour news cycle churning out one negative article about vaping after another. Eventually, Chinese e-commerce sites like Alibaba noticed the outcry and removed e-cigarette components for the United States. According to a Reuters report, Alibaba began to feel pressure as their lack of regulating what was sold on their site came into the spotlight amid “many reports of death and injury in the United States” being tied to “makeshift brands with no identifiable owner.” Before the products were removed, it was very easy for consumers to hop on Alibaba and purchase devices, component parts, and packaging from the site — the move to suspend these sales spoke volumes to their connection to the counterfeit products. Another Chinese e-commerce site, DHGate, has also been accused of allowing counterfeit vaping products to be sold with no regulation. So, this is definitely a problem that even permeates the e-commerce world.

Localizing the US vape industry

Considering all of the issues above, legitimate vaping companies must take steps to ensure that their products are both safe and reliable. One strategy companies are pursuing is to create vaping cartridges that are free of heavy metals.

How does this circle back to FLO and its mission to put forth a reliable and trustworthy product? By assembling all their vaping cartridges locally, the company leadership is able to oversee the entire operation and make sure all regulations and standards are met. This is in contrast to many other vaping companies who go through China-based manufacturers and who sometimes must deal with the repercussions of inadequate material.

To combat the issues that other companies have faced with their vaping cartridges, FLO uses extremely heat-resistant organic Plexiglass, which contains zero heavy metals. FLO has also perfected the exact diameter thickness and heating resistance, and equipped the cartridges with patented ceramic coil technology that allows for perfect heating temperatures and will not leave a smell after use, and offers more-than-adequate airflow. Another important factor to FLO’s glass cartridges is that they are tamper-proof after being assembled, whereas many glass cartridges that can be screwed back out from the bottom have cause leakages when consumers attempt to unscrew the battery from the cartridge only to unscrew the cap that holds the whole cartridge together.

Ultimately, vaping is not going to land on anyone’s “most healthy” list. The fact is there will always be risks. But trustworthy and diligent companies like FLO do everything in their power to mitigate these risks as much as possible. Adult smokers need alternatives to cigarettes and giving them a safer and more reliable option is still important. FLO is leading the charge into a new era of vaping where counterfeits, heavy metals, and inadequate products are the furthest things from the consumer’s mind.

FLO products are available for purchase at Catalyst Dispensaries in LA and OC County.

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South Dakota Working to Avoid Medical Cannabis Delays

6/07/2021

The South Dakota Department of Health (DOH) will host meetings and a telephone town hall prior to medical cannabis rules taking effect to avoid any last-minute delays for the program, the Associated Press reports.

South Dakota’s medical cannabis initiative was approved last November by an overwhelming number of voters. Addressing concerns from Sen. Lee Schoenbeck (R), Health Secretary Kim Malsam said in a legislative hearing last week the DOH will have a “solid set of rules” in the Fall but knows the program may change in the coming years.

“We’ll have a continual process of refinement.” — Malsam, via AP News

Her view is opposed by Gov. Kristi Noem (R), who attempted to delay South Dakota’s newly passed medical cannabis initiative this session on the grounds the state wouldn’t have enough time to set up a proper system. She cited other states with “hasty” medical cannabis rollouts and their resulting “mess,” according to the report.

In other recent medical cannabis developments, South Dakota‘s Department of Revenue (DOR) has determined the state should charge sales tax on medical cannabis, despite prescription drugs normally not being taxed. Chief Legal Counsel for the DOR Michael Houdyshell said in the report that medical cannabis should be taxed because it is not “prescribed” like other drugs.

South Dakota made history in November 2020, passing its medical cannabis and adult-use initiatives at the same time. However, both have received blowback from law enforcement and the governor’s office. While the medical cannabis initiative is moving forward despite the governor’s attempted delays, the adult-use cannabis initiative was challenged in court on the claim that it covered more than one subject and was struck down by a circuit court earlier this year. The adult-use initiative was recently scheduled for a hearing in the South Dakota Supreme Court, where its fate hangs in the balance.

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Drake and Canopy Growth Announce End of Partnership

6/04/2021

Drake and Canopy Growth announced the end of their partnership this week, according to a CTV News report.

In November 2019, Drake and Canopy Growth announced the More Life Growth cannabis brand, of which Canopy owned 40 percent while Drake held the remaining 60 percent stake. Financial documents filed by Canopy Growth reveal the company took a $10.3 million loss in the deal and “de-recognized” another $33.7 million in future royalty payments to More Life. It was unclear why the divestment occurred, according to the report.

At the time the deal was announced in 2019, Drake — full name Aubrey Drake Graham — was identified as the new venture’s founder.

“The opportunity to partner with a world-class company like Canopy Growth on a global scale is really exciting. The idea of being able to build something special in an industry that is ever growing has been inspiring.” — Drake, in a 2019 press release

According to Investors.com, More Life Growth is licensed to produce and process cannabis in Ontario, Canada. Under the deal, CGC kept the facility and the rights to distribute cannabis.

Drake is just one celebrity with whom Canopy Growth has partnered — other such celebrities include Snoop Dog, Martha Stewart, and Seth Rogen, Fast Company reports. David Klein, whose mission was to make Canopy Growth an international consumer packaged goods corporation, said last year about their focus on celebrity-backed brands: “One of our differentiators has to be knowing the consumer better than anyone, and we’re going to be applying our science to do that.

“We’ve been doing it in all kinds of pharma pursuits, but we have human affect scientists [who] tell us that when you try a product, what it does physiologically, how you feel, that’s their job to optimize for that,” Klein told Fast Company. “So my view is, if we know what that consumer wants, we can use our human affects guys to help us figure out how to get that experience for the consumer, then package it underneath our brands and bring it to our consumers in a safe and effective way.”

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Arizona Launches Website to Help Clear Cannabis-Related Criminal Records

6/04/2021

The Arizona Supreme Court has launched a new website to help individuals determine whether they are eligible to have their cannabis-related criminal records cleared for crimes that are included under the state’s 2020 voter-approved legalization law, KJZZ reports.

Proposition 207’s provisions allow the sealing of criminal records for possessing, consuming, or transporting two-and-a-half ounces or less of cannabis, of which not more than 12.5 grams was in the form of concentrate; possessing, transporting, cultivating, or processing six or fewer cannabis plants at a primary residence for personal use; and possessing, using, or transporting cannabis cultivation, manufacturing, processing, or consumption paraphernalia, according to the website.

Aaron Nash, communications director for the Arizona Supreme Court, estimated that tens of thousands of Arizonans could be eligible to have their records sealed.

Applicants can begin filing the forms on July 12.

An American Civil Liberties Union report published last year found that Hispanic people in Maricopa County who were charged with simple cannabis possession were sentenced to significantly longer incarceration terms than their white and Black counterparts and that Black people convicted of personal possession of drug paraphernalia received longer sentences than white and Hispanic people.

Maricopa County garnered national attention as a hub for institutional racism under the direction of former Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was convicted of criminal contempt of court after refusing to stop racially profiling people when detaining “individuals suspected of being in the U.S. illegally.” Arpaio was pardoned of that crime by former President Donald Trump in 2017.

Adult-use cannabis sales began in the state in January after voters approved the reforms in the 2020 General Election. The migration from medical to adult-use sales was just two months, the fastest by any state.

End

D.C. ‘Shocked’ and ‘Disappointed’ By Biden Move to Uphold Ban On Recreational Cannabis Sales

6/04/2021

This article was written by Gaspard Le Dem and originally published by Outlaw Report.

D.C. elected officials and business owners are voicing their frustration following news that President Joe Biden’s proposed budget would continue to prevent the District from legalizing recreational cannabis sales.

The White House released its $6 trillion spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year on Friday May 28 that includes language blocking D.C. from using local tax revenue to launch a regulated market for recreational cannabis.

Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) first introduced the budget rider in 2014, and Republicans in Congress have since regularly renewed the provision in annual appropriations legislation. But with a Democratic administration in the White House, cannabis advocates were hopeful the “Harris Rider” would finally be scrapped this year. Harris himself stopped introducing the measure in 2019 when Democrats regained control of the House, though Senate Republicans continued to slip the provision in.

D.C. officials were also gearing up for the ban to be lifted. Earlier this year, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and Council Chairman Phil Mendelson introduced separate bills to legalize and regulate recreational cannabis sales.

In April, Bowser said D.C. was “ready” to regulate recreational cannabis as soon as Congress would allow it: “We have to get the hurdle of Congress out of the way,” she said in an interview with WAMU’s Kojo Nnamdi.

Though Congress will ultimately decide whether the rider makes it into the final budget bill, Biden’s support for the measure is a blow to local statehood advocates and puts a damper on D.C.’s legalization efforts.

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, D.C.’s non-voting delegate to the House, praised parts of Biden’s budget on Friday, but she slammed the White House’s decision to uphold the cannabis rider, a move she said contradicts the administration’s support for D.C. statehood.

“With Democrats controlling the White House, House and Senate, we have the best opportunity in over a decade to enact a D.C. appropriations bill that does not contain any anti-home-rule riders,” Norton said in a statement.

D.C. Ward 4 Councilmember Charles Allen, who co-sponsored legislation to legalize recreational sales in the District, told The Outlaw Report that he was “shocked” that the Biden Administration kept the rider in its budget proposal.

“To maintain the rider is anti-democratic and misses an opportunity to right a wrong around local governance and self-determination for Americans living in DC,” Allen said.

Allen said he hopes the rider will ultimately be lifted with the help of D.C. statehood supporters in Congress.

“It has caused huge problems for DC while other states have been able to set up a regulatory framework that permits legal and safe sales of marijuana,” Allen said. “DC’s limbo state has led to a lot of problems from public safety to public health issues.”

At-Large Councilmember Christina Henderson echoed Allen’s disappointment.

“DC is the only jurisdiction that must seek approval from Congress on how we spend our local dollars and govern our affairs,” Henderson told The Outlaw Report. “If President Biden truly believes in DC Statehood and our right to full autonomy and representation, this is part of it.”

Biden has been reluctant to back federal efforts to legalize cannabis since he took office in January. Still, some cannabis advocates were left confused by the president’s decision to uphold a provision that has historically been used as a Republican bargaining chip.

“We’re definitely disappointed and really surprised,” Grace Hyde, Chief Operating Officer of District Cannabis, a medical cannabis cultivation center in D.C.’s Ward 5, told The Outlaw Report. “I don’t think any of us were expecting him to voluntarily put [the rider] in there.”

Hyde said recreational cannabis sales have the potential to generate critical tax dollars for the District at a time when city coffers have taken a hit from the coronavirus pandemic: “It’s just a gigantic revenue stream that the city isn’t able to capture right now,” she said.

As a licensed medical cultivator, District Cannabis is a completely legal business, but the lack of a recreational market in D.C. has forced some businesses to rely on a “gifting” loophole in local law to sell their products.

Those “gray market” dispensaries are exposed to arbitrary police raids and legal prosecution. However, selling cannabis on the gray market has its own advantages — dispensaries that “gift” cannabis avoid the high taxes that D.C. imposes on cannabis sales.

Hyde says that delaying the creation of a regulated market for recreational cannabis sales could actually end up benefiting D.C.’s many unlicensed dispensaries.

“It’s going to allow a lot of places to stay in business who aren’t paying these exorbitantly high tax rates like we are,” she said. “For the gray market, the longer that recreational is postponed, the better it is for them.”

Jeremy Beaver, managing partner at Lifted, a gray market cannabis dispensary in D.C.’s Pleasant Plains neighborhood, said Biden’s decision to uphold the ban on recreational sales was predictable.

“While most might be disappointed, I’m not surprised because of the consistent mistreatment of District citizens for decades,” said Beaver, who has owned businesses in D.C. for 30 years.

Though Beaver said D.C. residents should get to make their own laws without interference from Congress, he worried that legalizing recreational sales could lead to larger, out-of-state cannabis investors gaining an unfair advantage over local dispensaries.

“I think legalizing would help the citizenry of the District more than it might help the small business owners, because many multimillion-dollar corporations will come in from other states and edge out all of the small and local business owners for licenses,” Beaver said.

As a business owner, Beaver said he would be reluctant to support the legalization of recreational cannabis sales.

“Our stance is not necessarily for legalization unless there can be provisions for small and local business owners to receive significant or majority percentages of licenses going forward,” he said.

End

Louisiana Legislature Approves Bill Allowing Smokable Medical Cannabis

6/04/2021

A bill to allow smokable forms of medical cannabis has cleared both chambers of Louisiana’s Legislature, moving to the desk of Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards who is expected to sign it into law, KEEL reports. State Rep. Tanner Magee (R), the bill’s sponsor, said the measure will lower the cost of medical cannabis for the state’s patients.

“This will allow [producers] to deliver a much cheaper product to the pharmacies and retail level and then it is about the pharmacies pricing it right. It should drop the cost tremendously.” – Magee to KEEL

The new products should be available in Louisiana dispensaries in January.

Under current law, the only forms of medical cannabis available in the state are liquids, topicals, inhalers, and edible gummies.

Another bill covering taxation of the newly allowed smokable products is still working its way through the Legislature. That proposal was recently amended to include an unrelated tax scheme for infrastructure funding that could prove controversial, the report says.

Last year, lawmakers expanded the program by allowing any medical condition to be treated with medical cannabis as long as the condition is approved by a physician. That bill outlined nine specific conditions that would allow patients to enroll in the state’s medical cannabis program but also included language allowing “any condition not otherwise specified in present law or proposed law that a physician, in his medical opinion, considers debilitating to an individual patient and is qualified through his medical education and training to treat.”

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Massachusetts Opens Delivery Licensing Exclusively to Social Equity Applicants

6/04/2021

Massachusetts economic empowerment and social equity cannabis industry applicants can now apply for pre-certification and licensing for cannabis delivery operator licenses. Social equity and economic empowerment applicants will have exclusive access to the permits for at least three years.

Cannabis Control Commission (CCC) Executive Director Shawn Collins said the state’s delivery policies and procedures “will only bolster [the state’s] reputation as a role model for states looking to incorporate equity into cannabis legalization and ensure public safety.”

The licenses allow businesses to wholesale cannabis products from licensed cultivators and manufacturers, white-label, or affix the brand names retail dispensaries, and sell those products directly to consumers, among other functions, the agency said in a press release.

Delivery licensees will have to follow the commission’s typical testing, packaging, and labeling rules and will be required to comply with public safety regulations to warehouse inventory. Two licensed Marijuana Establishment Agents must be present in any vehicle used during deliveries and body cameras must be used when carrying out the delivery, the CCC said.

Under the regulations, delivery services will be available in municipalities that the licensees have identified as its place of business; municipalities that allow for adult-use sales or have informed the commission that delivery is allowed despite otherwise banning adult-use sales.

According to the CCC, there are more than 500 applicants eligible for the delivery licenses – 122 certified economic empowerments applicants and nearly 400 social equity program participants.

End

Federal Report Finds No Increase In Teen Cannabis Use After Legalization

6/03/2021

A federal report filed last week by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) showed zero signs of increased teenage cannabis use due to cannabis legalization policies.

The report uses data volunteered by students to the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, which falls under the umbrella of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The data was collected from 2009 to 2019, meaning that at the start, there were exactly zero states that had legalized cannabis for adult use — and it’s plainly visible in the report that as states passed their legalization laws, youth cannabis access and use stayed level.

“The overall percentage of students who reported using marijuana at least 1 time during the previous 30 days in 2019 was not measurably different from the percentage in 2009 (21 percent).” — Excerpt from the report

The findings are significant because they directly contradict one of the most enduring arguments for cannabis prohibition: that legalization will lead to increased cannabis use among the country’s youth.

Percentage of students in grades 9-12 who reported using cannabis at least once in the previous 30 days, from 2009 to 2019. *Source: Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) data, via the NCES*

“In 2019, about 22 percent of students in grades 9–12 reported that illegal drugs were offered, sold, or given to them on school property,” the report stated. This result was also “no measurable difference” from the percentage of students who reported the presence of illegal drugs in 2009.

Meanwhile, a 2019 study found that Colorado’s cannabis legalization had not caused an uptick in teen use there — although, many of those who were consuming cannabis had altered their consumption methods to include more edibles and concentrates.

In 2018, a California Healthy Kids Survey found that teenage use had actually decreased post-legalization in the state.

End

Social Equity Applicant Sues Los Angeles Over Licensing Process

6/03/2021

A Los Angeles, California cannabis industry hopeful is suing the city over its social equity licensing program and is seeking records related to the 2019 licensing process, Spectrum News 1 reports. Carina Christmas said she submitted her application within the first three minutes of the first-come-first-serve online process but ended up being application 325 in line and, therefore, did not qualify for one of the 100 available licenses.

According to the report, an audit found that since applicants were able to access the portal ahead of its 10 a.m. launch time, some spots had been reserved by online bots.

She said that her team has spent more than $100,000 on rent and utilities for the retail storefront while awaiting an answer from the city.

Christmas is being represented by Mike Gatto, a former state Assemblyman, whose firm has been researching the application process and has been unable to get records related to the 2019 social equity licensing portal. Last week, a Los Angeles County judge ordered the city to turn over documents related to the application process, including who had access to the portal early and whether certain members of city staff were able to apply for licensing, the report says.

“These are public records, they have to provide them to us. Whenever you have a system where the public is supposed to have faith in it and you have certain favored people getting access early, you have to question what’s going on with that system.” – Gatto to Spectrum News 1

Christmas said the process tells her that “there’s either a lot of corruption going on in the city or the city doesn’t know what they’re doing.”

An audit of the program by Sjoberk Evashenk found that despite some applicants getting early access to the site, city officials took “reasonable and appropriate” steps to prevent applicants from having an unfair advantage.

The next hearing is set for June 15.

End

Activist: Massachusetts Cannabis Industry Responsible for 10% of State’s Industrial Energy Use

6/03/2021

A Northeast Sustainable Cannabis Project representative told lawmakers on Tuesday that the Massachusetts cannabis industry is responsible for 10% of all industrial electricity use in the state and urged them to allow industry cultivators to use organic farming and outdoor technics, according to a MassLive report.

Sanford Lewis, general counsel for the organization, said indoor cultivation is driven, in part, by the state’s pesticide regulations, which only allow growers to use products included on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 25(b) list of approved products. Lewis described those rules as “misguided.”

“Since the cannabis sector could triple in size by the time supply and demand level out, the impact is likely to be quite a bit larger. So, this means that just as other industries are working hard to curtail their climate impacts, energy-intensive indoor cannabis has come along to undermine the Massachusetts goal of reducing greenhouse gasses emitted.” — Lewis, to the Joint Committee on Cannabis Policy, via MassLive

The Cannabis Control Commission has licensed more than 1.1 million square feet of indoor cannabis cultivation and just 280,000 square feet of outdoor cultivation, according to state data outlined in the report.

The Cannabis Policy panel was hearing testimony on a bill introduced in the House in March by state Rep. Paul Mark that would allow cannabis farmers to use biological and botanical pesticide products that are considered appropriate for organic farming provided that the EPA allows the use of the product’s ingredients on food and tobacco crops and has not established a federal tolerance limit, according to the bill text.

Lewis encouraged the panel to support that bill and noted that Colorado, California, and Oregon already allow the state’s cannabis cultivators to use organic products.

End

Vermont Regulators Commit to Cannabis Social Equity

6/03/2021

The Vermont Cannabis Control Board will prioritize equity as it begins to build a regulated adult-use cannabis market, VT Digger reports. The three-member board has until October 2022 to craft rules for cannabis retailers, producers, and labs; develop a license fee structure; and recommend who receives financial assistance from the state to open a cannabis business.

Board Chair James Pepper said the Commission would work to build a “diverse and equitable” market that, “builds upon Vermont’s competitive advantages, and can sustain and thrive in an eventual transition to federal legalization.” He said the state would like to create a “sustainable” revenue stream to help alleviate “second and third-order” consequences of the war on drugs through economic empowerment, according to the report.

To aid the Commission in their work, the legislature recently passed a bill — expected to be signed by the governor in the coming days — that will help people disproportionately affected by the war on drugs to apply for loans and grants for cannabis-related businesses.

Vermont’s executive director of racial equity Xusana Davis has been working with lawmakers and the Cannabis Control Board to develop social equity criteria. She believes “race and ethnicity” should center the discussion but feels other factors like sex, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, and poverty could also be considered.

“It really depends on how broad you want to go, right? For example, we haven’t historically considered people with low or no academic attainment as a historically marginalized group, but maybe we should, right?” — Xusana Davis via VT Digger

Davis believes the state should reach out to underground cannabis producers because they “know the market” and it would be a way for the state to automatically include “historically marginalized” individuals.

The other two board members expressed similar views to Chairman Pepper in the report. Kyle Harris said the market needs to be “rooted in equity” and should “pay close and special attention to small cannabis growers.” Board member Julie Hulburd said they had a “historic responsibility to build a foundation for which inclusive and restorative practices are the cornerstone” of the cannabis industry.

End

Washington State University Cannabis Center Formally Designated as Research Center

6/03/2021

Washington State University’s Center for Cannabis Policy, Research and Outreach (CCPRO) was officially approved by the university’s Faculty Senate and Board of Regents last month, formalizing its designation as a research center.

Michael McDonell, CCPRO director and professor at the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, said the “center status recognizes [WSU’s] researchers’ outstanding, multi-disciplinary scholarship on cannabis.”

“It also brings together under one center work on everything from research focused on the impact of cannabis on development to scholarship on cannabis and public safety, as well as our growing hemp research. … “We’re seeing some of these barriers to research being lifted in a stepwise way. It will help us work to keep up with the cannabis industry to provide the citizens of Washington with the information they need to make informed decisions about their health and cannabis.” – McDonnell in a statement

WSU said that over the last six years its researchers have engaged in 50 projects with nearly $10 million in funding. The university said there are nearly 100 scientists working on cannabis-related projects. Recent projects, WSU said, include behavioral and biological predictor study of problematic cannabis use which was awarded a $400,000 National Institute on Drug Abuse grant.

WSU researchers are also conducting a hemp seed trial near the WSU Prosser Irrigated Agriculture Research and Extension Center facility.

The center has also partnered with Oregon State University and California Davis on hemp germplasm studies and the Puyallup Tribe on a study on the use of cannabis for pain management.

End

California Senate Passes Bill to Legalize Possession of Psychedelics

6/02/2021

The California Senate on Monday approved a bill to legalize possession of psychedelics, including LSD, DMT, MDMA, psilocybin mushrooms, ibogaine, mescaline, and ketamine. The proposal has already cleared three committees in the House, which must still approve the bill before it moves to Democratic Gov. Gavin Newson for final approval.

The bill, which passed 21-16, does not decriminalize the sale of any of the psychedelic substances but does include the repeal of crimes related to cultivation and transport of psilocybin mushroom spores

The measure was introduced by state Sen. Scott Weiner (D), who said during the floor vote that it was “time to move away from failed drug criminalization policies and toward a science- and health-based approach.”

“The War on Drugs has failed us, and criminalizing these substances doesn’t make anyone safer. … Psychedelics show great promise in helping people deal with complex trauma, depression, anxiety, and addiction.” Weiner on the Senate floor via Courthouse News

The version passed by the Senate also removed criminal reform language, which would have allowed expungement and sealing of previous psychedelic possession crimes. It does include provisions requiring the state Department of Public Health to examine possible legalization of the substances and their use in certain context, such as for therapeutic purposes.

Santa Cruz and Oakland have already decriminalized the personal possession and use of some psychedelics.

During the 2020 General Election, Oregon voters approved initiatives to decriminalize all drugs and legalize psilocybin therapy – the first state in the nation to approve such reforms. Voters in Washington, D.C. also approved a measure to decriminalize all psychedelic plants.

End

Amazon Supports Legalization & Will Stop Drug Testing for Cannabis

6/02/2021

Amazon, the second-largest U.S. employer behind Walmart, said on Tuesday that it will stop testing would-be employees for cannabis. In a blog post, the company said it had in the past disqualified people from employment for positive cannabis tests – “like many employers” – but decided to change course as more states pass legalization reforms.

The company also said its public policy team “will be actively supporting” the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act of 2021 (MORE Act).

“We will no longer include marijuana in our comprehensive drug screening program for any positions not regulated by the Department of Transportation, and will instead treat it the same as alcohol use. We will continue to do impairment checks on the job and will test for all drugs and alcohol after any incident.” – Amazon, Update on our vision to be Earth’s Best Employer and Earth’s Safest Place to Work, June 1, 2021

The MORE Act was reintroduced by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) last week. The measure would remove penalties for cannabis possession, clear some cannabis-related criminal records, and establish social equity programs dedicated to repairing the communities most disadvantaged by the racist War on Drugs and undoing other generational harms of cannabis prohibition.

The House, which is controlled by Democrats, delayed a vote on the MORE Act last year amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Last year, a U.S. District Court in New Jersey ruled in favor of a medical cannabis patient fired by Amazon over a failed drug test, allowing the case against the online retail giant to proceed in a lower court.

End

Nevada Approves Cannabis Lounges & Social Use

6/02/2021

The Nevada Senate on Monday approved a bill to allow social use cannabis lounges, Fox 13 reports. The proposal includes a Senate amendment allowing municipal governments to enact stricter rules than the state on lounges, if they choose.

The bill had already approved by the House and moves next to Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) who is expected to sign it.

Cannabis has been legal in Nevada since 2016; however, there were no social-use provisions in the voter-approved law and consumption outside of private residences remains illegal. In 2019, the Vegas Paiute Tribe opened the state’s first social-use lounge – the NuWu Cannabis Tasting Room – which was permitted because the tribe in a sovereign nation. However, the site was forced to close amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Assemblyman Steve Yeager (D), the bill’s primary sponsor, told KSNV that he hoped social-use businesses would open “toward the fall of this year” but that it wouldn’t surprise him if lounges didn’t start opening until “early next year.”

The measure also sets aside some social-use licenses for social equity applicants, which Nevada Dispensary Association Executive Director, Layke Martin, said would “increase diversity” in the state’s cannabis industry.

The bill requires the state Cannabis Compliance Board to regulate consumption lounges throughout state with different license types available for sites attached to dispensaries or to stand-alone sites selling single-use products for on-premises consumption. Alcohol would not be allowed to be served in any cannabis lounge and they would not be allowed in the state’s casinos.

End

Albuquerque Considers New Restrictive Cannabis Zoning Regulations

6/02/2021

The Albuquerque City Council is considering cannabis zoning regulations that are more restrictive than New Mexico’s recently passed adult-use rules, according to KQRE.

At the request of Mayor Tim Keller, the proposals seek to limit retail cannabis hours from 7:00 am to 10:00 pm and to ban retail cannabis shops from opening within 660 feet of “main street” locations. Loosely defined as “linear development along a pedestrian-friendly street, typically emphasizing small and local retail and office uses,” there are multiple “main street” areas in Albuquerque, according to the report.

Additionally, the rules prevent dispensary signs from displaying a cannabis leaf and must only list the business name, hours of operation, and somehow identify the “nature of the business.” Finally, the rules add places of worship to the list of locations that cannabis businesses must distance themselves from by at least 300 feet — other such locations include schools, daycares, and public play areas.

Pat Davis, a City Councilperson and cannabis industry consultant, expressed concerns about the proposed regulations.

“There may be some other changes that we could do on a neighborhood level to ensure that people feel more comfortable. But this is a bridge too far.” — Davis, via KQRE

Linda Trujillo, the Superintendent of the New Mexico Regulation and Licensing Department, said Albuquerque has the authority to regulate cannabis businesses as they see fit, as long as the regulations are “reasonable” — although it is unclear exactly what that means. Commenting on the state-level restrictions, Trujillo said the zoning regulations were “logical.”

“It is about safety,” she said in the report. “For example, the [rule to keep cannabis businesses] 300 feet from a school or daycare center. That’s absolutely in relation to trying to ensure that our youth are safe and that they’re not being targeted for advertisements.”

The city’s Planning Director Brennon Williams said the council must act soon because zoning updates only happen once per year.

End

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