The New Jersey Assembly Community Development and Affairs Committee on Friday approved a revised version of the so-called “clean-up” legislation demanded by Gov. Phil Murphy (D) in order for him to sign the broad adult-use cannabis legalization bill, NJ 101.5 reports.
The new bill sets civil fines for cannabis possession of by individuals aged 18 to 20 at $50 to $100, depending on the amount of cannabis possessed, down from $250 to $500 as outlined in the original cleanup proposal, which was abandoned by lawmakers last month.
The proposal also includes procedures that police are supposed to follow when interacting with juveniles found in possession of cannabis that revolve around point-of-violation warnings, rather than formal court proceedings. Under the bill, the attorney general would be required to issue reports twice a year with statistics on those warnings and other juvenile interventions related to legalization.
Assemblyman Benjie Wimberly (D) said the rules in the law “are very consistent (with) what happens currently with alcohol” in the state and that it doesn’t put charges on the criminal records of youths “that could deter them from college, tuition assistance to housing to opportunities to work in law enforcement or any type of public safety work.”
Ami Kachalia, campaign strategist for the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey, told NJ 101.5 that, despite voters approving legalization reforms in November, police arrested more than 4,000 in November and December alone for possessing less than 50 grams of cannabis.
“In fact,” she added, “data from Newark show that the city is on track to make more cannabis-related arrests this month than they did last January.”
The new clean-up bill comes as Murphy – who supported the reforms – has until February 8 to act on the Legislature-approved legislation. Murphy has said he prefers to sign the legalization and decriminalization bills simultaneously.
A Pasadena, California vape shop along with Weedmaps are being sued by the mother of a 19-year-old who was fatally shot during a cannabis delivery in June 2019, Law360 reports. A 17-year-old boy was also injured in the incident.
Photon Muur filed the lawsuit in California Superior Court in Los Angeles County on Monday. The lawsuit intends to hold liable the parties she contends are responsible for the death of her son William Benjamin Harris IV, who was allegedly shot by Universal Stop Inc. employee David Christopher Gregorich during a cannabis delivery. Muur’s attorney, Shawn S. Rokni of West Coast Trial Lawyers APLC, told Law360 that Gregorich fired his weapon when he thought Harris was robbing him when he approached the vehicle.
Gregorich has pleaded not guilty to murder, attempted murder, and shooting at an inhabited dwelling, the report says.
The lawsuit claims that Weedmaps and Universal Stop were aware that Gregorich carried weapons during his cannabis deliveries and that the companies “failed to provide adequate supervision and training … regarding the use of weapons in deliveries” and that the companies shouldn’t have even allowed the delivery to happen because Harris was under the legal age to purchase cannabis in California.
The lawsuit contends that because Gregorich had previous felony convictions, Weedmaps and Universal Stop should have kept a closer eye on the driver due to his “aggressive nature and propensity to harm others,” according to court documents.
“Universal Stop and Weedmaps knew, had reason to know or should have known the particular risks of having a poorly supervised, poorly trained, unfit employee like Gregorich, deliver marijuana to teenagers, while armed, in a poorly designated and unsafe environment.” – Muur in a statement to Law360
Other parties named in the lawsuit include Universal Stop owner Movses Movsisyan, and Ghost Management Group LLC, WM Holding Company LLC, and Weedmaps Media LLC – the three companies that own Weedmaps.
The lawsuit seeks damages for claims of negligence, battery, assault, and wrongful death against all of the defendants. Weedmaps and Universal Stop are additionally accused of negligent hiring, retention and supervision, according to the documents.
Muur is seeking both monetary and non-economic compensation for hardships stemming from her son’s death, including funeral and memorial service expenses, loss of financial support, and the loss of her son’s love and companionship, along with punitive damages.
LeafLink’s 2020 Wholesale Cannabis Pricing Guide found an 18% percent price increase in wholesale flower prices nationwide – which averaged $1,940 per pound – but an 11% decrease in edibles and ingestibles, which saw an average nationwide price of $.08 per milligram.
The report includes an analysis of cannabis markets in Alaska, California, Colorado, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington state – which have legalized both recreational and medical cannabis use – along with medical markets in Arizona, Maryland, and Oklahoma.
Arizona voters approved adult-use reforms last year and sales began on January 21, but the report uses the state’s 2020 data during which only medical cannabis was legal.
Nationwide, concentrates saw a 7% price increase year-over-year and pre-roll prices increased 2%. Cartridges saw a modest 1% decrease and made up the industry’s “most stable category,” the report said.
On average last year, vape cartridge prices in the U.S. cost about $22.78 per gram, concentrates averaged $17.02 per gram, while pre-rolls averaged $7.18 per gram, LeafLink found.
Alex Feldman, general manager of LeafLink Insights & Marketing Services, said the guide “empowers businesses to better execute on their 2021 strategic planning by benchmarking pricing on a state and national level.”
“Pricing is an important differentiator among brands in our increasingly competitive industry. Whether it is used to signal a product’s premium status, or serves as a reflection of structural dynamics in a state or category, it is arguably the single most important driver of a company’s profitability.” – Feldman in a statement
LeafLink processes nearly a third of all U.S. wholesale cannabis commerce, to the tune of $3 billion in orders. The pricing guide analyzes 109,000 SKUs including flower, pre-rolls, vape cartridges, concentrates, and edibles/ingestibles – the five most popular categories of cannabis products in the U.S.
LeafLink found flower was the most popular product in four of the 10 states analyzed – California, Maryland, Michigan, and Oregon – while cartridges were the most sought-after product in Alaska, Arizona, and Nevada. Edibles and ingestibles were the most purchased products in Colorado, Oklahoma, and Washington state.
Adult-Use States
Alaska’s cannabis market had the highest prices for four of the five categories: cartridges, concentrates, edibles and ingestibles, and flower while Washington state had the lowest prices for cartridges, concentrates, edibles and ingestibles, and pre-rolls. Alaska saw a per-pound flower price of $3,186 – 164% more than the national average, driven by “high taxes and distribution costs,” the report says.
Concentrates in the state averaged $33 per gram, which is 94% higher the national average, LeafLink found, and up $13 year-over-year.
Washington’s continued trend as the state with the least expensive prices in four of the five categories can be attributed to its market structure, the report says describing it as having an “abundance of cultivators [competing] for shelf space with a small number of retailers.”
The Evergreen State, which saw its first adult-use sale in October 2016, experienced a 15% decrease in flower prices year-over-year.
Oregon had the lowest flower prices among the states analyzed at $1,096.06 per pound – 44% lower than the other nine states analyzed. Its biggest pricing change from 2019 to 2020 was a 21% decrease in edible and ingestibles, which LeafLink identified as its “least competitive category.”
“In every product category, Oregon ranked among the least expensive two markets analyzed,” the report notes.
Nevada, which launched its market in April 2017, had the most product categories nearest the national mean and median, the report found, while experiencing a 25% increase in cartridge prices and 13% increase in pre-roll prices from 2019 to 2020.
Michigan, the most immature adult-use market included in the report having only commenced sales in 2019, had the second most expensive cartridge prices last year at $32 per gram. The products also saw a 44% price increase following the state’s migration from a medical-only to adult use market.
Notably, the state’s cartridge sector was disrupted by a temporary ban on sales in November 2019 due to the rise in the vaping-related pulmonary illness. The following month, regulators recalled five vape cartridge brands after they tested positive for vitamin E acetate, the compound health officials believe are responsible for the disease.
Colorado, the nation’s most mature market along with Washington, experienced a 22% year-over-year flower price increase per pound to $1,495.18. LeafLink found that while edibles and ingestibles were the state’s most popular category, it was also its least competitive with “the fewest number of SKUs available throughout the year.”
Concentrate pricing also increased in Colorado 7% year-over-year to $15 per gram, the report says.
California, which launched the nation’s largest adult-use cannabis market by population in 2017, saw an 8% decrease in flower prices from 2019 to 2020 which narrowed the gap on the prices seen in the more mature Colorado and Oregon markets and pushing the wholesale price-per-pound to $2,031.98.
The report also notes that the season price declines normally experienced in the state from September to December were “more muted…likely due to a disruption in supply by wildfires.”
“Flower prices declined 15% from September to December 2019,” the report notes, “but only fell 10% during the same period in 2020.”
The vast majority of U.S. states now allow for medical cannabis in at least nonintoxicating forms.
Medical Cannabis States
Oklahoma might be the nation’s most prodigious state when it comes to medical cannabis with about 10% of the state’s population – or 360,000 residents – enrolled in the program, according to a Politico analysis. Those figures put the Sooner State’s medical cannabis market as the country’s largest per capita.
Oklahoma – a red state won by former President Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020 – has more than 9,000 licensed cannabis businesses, including almost 2,000 dispensaries and nearly 6,000 grow operations, Politico reported. Comparatively, Colorado – which legalized cannabis for adults in 2012 and has a population almost 50% larger than Oklahoma – has barely half as many licensed dispensaries and less than 20% of cultivation operations.
In 2020, Oklahoma saw a 5% or more price decline across all five categories as the number of sellers increased between three and five times.
“Pricing was most muted for flower, where a 6-times increase in sellers was offset by 21-times more retailers offering products in this category in 2020 versus 2019,” the report notes.
Prior to the recreational reforms, Arizona experienced a 32% year-over-year increase in flower prices – the largest increase of the states analyzed – pushing the per pound price to $2,212. Despite the spike, it still had the least expensive flower prices among medical-only states with only Washington state, Colorado, and Oregon with lower prices. Interestingly, Arizona had the highest pre-roll prices among the states examined by LeafLink and ranked near the middle of the pack for cartridge and concentrate prices, the report found.
Maryland, which legalized medical cannabis in 2014, saw a 16% increase in the flower price per gram from 2019 to 2020, driving it to $40 per gram for the state’s patients and their wholesale flower prices were $3,181 per pound, just $5 less than Alaska’s highest-in-the-nation cost.
“This is due to a limited number of cultivators, processors, and brands in Maryland,” the report says. “Recently awarded cultivation and processing licenses (October 2020) should bring additional supply online and put downward pressure on prices.”
Overall, the report concludes, pricing nationwide “either increased or remained relatively stable [year-over-year] with the exception of edibles and ingestibles, which saw declines across all states.” And while flower saw a drastic year-over-year increase, those prices were driven mostly by Arizona (32%) and Colorado (22%).
A bill introduced this week in Rhode Island would allow veterinarians to certify pets for medical cannabis access for “any condition suffered by a domestic pet that would be a ‘debilitating medical condition’ if it were suffered by a person.”
The measure was introduced by Democratic Reps. Patricia Serpa, William O’Brien, and Stephen Casey.
Currently, no states with medical cannabis programs allow pets to be considered qualifying patients. Last month, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) signed legislation allowing veterinarians to discuss the use of cannabis and industrial hemp products with pet owners.
A similar measure was introduced in California in 2019 but was tabled and was not reintroduced during last year’s session as anticipated. Earlier that year, then-Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed a bill allowing veterinarians to discuss cannabis therapies with pet owners without risk of losing their license or other putative actions, but that bill stopped short of allowing recommendations.
A 2018 bill introduced in New York to allow the state’s veterinarians to certify pets for medical cannabis access died in the House.
A study published last year in the journal Pain found that CBD treatment for dogs with osteoarthritis was beneficial in nine out of 10 cases. The researchers concluded that the cannabinoid treatment reduced production in both inflammatory molecules and immune cells linked to arthritis.
Last May, national pet supply chain Petsmart started carrying CBD extracts from Mary’s Brands in select markets in Colorado, Indiana, Kentucky, Oregon, and Tennessee. The company later extended the offerings in their online store and in stores throughout the U.S.
If approved, Rhode Island would be the first state in the nation to allow medical cannabis certification for pets. The measure was referred to the Health, Education and Welfare Committee.
Cannabis data, analytics, and intelligence firm Headset estimates Mexico’s legal cannabis market could be worth $843.7 million with an average item price of $10.22, according to a report release this week.
While the market would be the world’s largest by population – Mexico’s adult population is 76.3 million – the market would fall short of being the world’s most valuable as California would remain tops in the world with a $1.47 billion market, the report says. California’s adult population is about 29 million.
The report notes that Mexico’s push toward legalization was sparked by a 2018 Supreme Court decision rather than broad popular support – as is the case in most U.S. states where legalization is driven by ballot initiatives approved by voters. In Mexico, support for legalization is 40%, the report says.
The first six months of Mexico’s market would be marked by supply constraints, following similar trends in U.S. states that have legalized cannabis and Canada, which passed its legalization reforms in 2018.
Headset estimates that Mexico’s cannabis market would mirror the first year of Canada’s market by not initially allowing edibles and beverages – which the Great White North allowed one year after permitting flower sales.
“As a result, we expect the Mexican market to resemble the Canadian market, which allowed only combustible inhalables, topicals, and ingestible-oils to start. These markets usually begin with a 90% or more market share to flower and pre-rolls as these products are the most familiar and easiest to produce. We usually see a rapid take off of non-combustible inhalables (such as vapor pens and concentrates), in months 4-6 as the products are finally through the manufacturing process.” – Headset, “Projections for Mexico Adult-use Cannabis Sales,” Jan. 2021
While the Mexico Supreme Court has on several occasions set a deadline for lawmakers to approve legalization legislation, it also allowed extensions for the implementation of the reforms, most recently last December – about a month after the Senate approved a legalization measure.
Headset suggests that while new U.S. markets often experience supply constraints, Mexico may have an edge because the nation has long been a “major cannabis producer.” However, the government’s plan to require consumers to register to by cannabis could impact demand through legal channels.
The Grove is a vertically-integrated cannabis company built on crafting products catered to the complex tastes of cannabis consumers. Their cultivation and production facility are state-of-the-art, featuring an eco-friendly indoor grow outfitted with a Fohse LED lighting system. They currently serve customers at their Southern Nevada dispensaries in Las Vegas and Pahrump, selling proprietary products under the brand Kannabis.
Founder, Owner, and CEO Demetri Kouretas said he started The Grove because of the exciting challenges that often come with entering a fledgling industry and the company continues to flourish.
“We decided to give it a shot and applied for licenses in retail, cultivation, and production, which were given out in a ‘lottery/merit-based’ type fashion. Of course, we were one of the last to ‘win’ the licenses, so tensions were high, but we walked out of there with 2 retail licenses, a cultivation, and production license — and thus began our yellow brick road,” Kouretas told Ganjapreneur. “We currently hold 10 licenses in retail, cultivation, production, and distribution in the State of Nevada.”
The Grove’s success can be traced back to a focus on providing the best service and products possible. To craft their Kannabis line, The Grove has dialed in their 24,000 square foot facility to mimic a natural ecosystem where cannabis flowers thrive. Their team uses all-natural soil and purely natural pest and fungus remediations — there are no pesticides or fungicides used in their cultivation processes.
Fohse lighting systems are another essential component of creating the perfect ecosystem for healthy cannabis plants. Their LED lighting setup simulates the full spectrum of natural sunlight, even creating the same spectrum changes at ‘sunrise’ and ‘sunset’. Using LED lighting has cut power usage at The Grove by 40% and lowered A/C consumption by half, which reduced their HVAC costs significantly. The cultivation team has also seen drastic increases in their yield since switching to the Fohse A3i. To duplicate this success, Head Cultivator Mike Howard has dialed in the environment to meet the lights’ capabilities.
“In the last few years, LEDs went from a novelty to a tried and true method for many indoor growers. The biggest mistake I have seen is growers not adapting to their new lights, and running their environmental parameters as if they were with their old system. From my experience you can run LED rooms at 80+, with higher humidity than traditional HID rooms,” said Head Grower Mike Howard.
Operating vertically gives the cultivation team a direct line to the consumer through their retail staff. The team wants to grow what the customers desire, which covers both medical patients and adult-use consumers. Because of their line to the retail team, the cultivation side is able to evolve with the often quickly changing market demand. Howard obtains budtender feedback from each store to see what is most requested and, whether it’s classic Dutch genetics or new exotic flavors, they will work to provide customers with exactly what they’re looking for.
On the retail side of the operation, budtenders are trusted to provide a laid-back but informative visit for every customer. To maintain this environment, budtenders complete a two-week training course on cannabis and product information before ever working on the sales floor. They offer the full line of in-house grown Kannabis products and also third-party products that meet their medically-focused product standards.
With such high standards in place in retail, cultivation, and processing, The Grove has the ability to continue scaling its business and, as the company transitions their cultivation team fully to Fohse lights, their yields grow and facilitate further growth. While the operation started with just 20 team members, The Grove expects to employ more than 130 people by the second quarter of 2021. This year, they will be launching new brands and new products, and may even seek to build vertical operations in new states.
Let’s just call them both “cannabis” beverages. Cannabis and hemp are really just variations of the same plant and only differ in the amount of THC they contain by dry weight. And whether they have THC below a limit making them legal as hemp or contain a significant amount of THC, the methods for making an extract for use in beverages are largely unchanged. Extractors just take out what naturally occurs in the plant.
But simply making a cannabis extract that is suitable for beverages is just the beginning. After more than thirty years in the more traditional beverage market, I’m amazed at the variety of challenges – and opportunities – for a supplier in this new beverage category!
In my previous experience, I could rely on a certain baseline of knowledge from my customers. Whether they were brand owners, suppliers, distributors or retailers, everyone had some relevant experience in the market which made it relatively easy to discuss products and make decisions.
In the cannabis beverage market, though, there are a great number of entrepreneurs who are newbies. They have great ideas – a lot of really innovative projects unseen in other beverage categories – but they don’t necessarily understand everything it takes to get from idea to finished product.
There are lots of questions these beverage pioneers pose to a supplier well beyond “How does your extract work and what is the price?” Other basic questions we hear all the time include:
How do I find a copacker and how does the relationship work?
Where do I find local/organic/exotic flavor ingredients?
What containers should I use or avoid using?
Tell me about preservatives and pasteurization.
Can I mix DSD and Warehouse Distribution?
We at Farmington Research spend a great deal of time with our brand partners doing far more than delivering water-soluble extract. Unlike some of the purveyors of cannabis extract in the market, my partner Cameron Meshell and I have a long history in the beverage business.
Cameron operated a glass bottling facility in California making a variety of beverage products and knows exactly how to source ingredients, batch products, and ensure the end result is a great beverage in the right kind of packaging. After practicing law, I founded and operated two beverage companies – one a branded beverage product (Mountain Valley Spring Water) and the other a container supplier (Veriplas Containers). My decades of experience in the beverage world have helped me build great relationships and learn everything from bottling to distribution to marketing.
Knowing many of our customers don’t have similar experience, we spend a lot of time upfront carefully onboarding customers so we understand their business model and where we can add value beyond selling them a cannabis extract. We are not a consultant – there are no fees for the extra help Farmington provides. It is simply in our best interest to help our customers thrive.
An example of a recent product launch we assisted is Hectare’s, a purveyor of “small batch wellness products,” packaged in a shot drink format. With early attempts at formulation with an extract supplied by another company, they had taste, dosing, and stability issues. In order to solve their issues, Farmington supplied them with a specially formulated water-soluble extract sourced from Kentucky hemp (a marketing requirement). We then worked closely with their flavor company to fine-tune the benchtop samples. Once the benchmark samples were perfected, Farmington went further to work on-site with the contract packer who had no previous cannabis experience to precisely dose the shot containers in large scale production. The end result: Hectare’s reliably delivers to its fast-growing and loyal customer base a great tasting product with a consistent 30 mg of CBD per serving.
We have also worked on beverages as diverse as carbonated beverages with citrus, uncarbonated water without flavors, tea products in glass, and flavored powder sticks. Yes! Our water-soluble extract can be transformed into a powder which can be delivered in a variety of ways from bulk to individual servings. Powder and liquid drop sales have boomed in recent years and attract consumers who want to use the product on the go or to curate their own beverages. The innovation in the powder/drop subsegment of the beverage market has been eye-opening and has attracted major players in recent years such as Kraft with their “liquid enhancer” named “Mio” and Unilever with their purchase of powder brand “Liquid I.V. Hydration Multiplier.”
Have a question about beverages beyond extract? We stand ready to help you get your idea off the drawing board and into the market.
A survey of 525 chronic pain patients who had used prescription opioid medications continuously for at least three months in addition to medical cannabis found 40.4% of respondents had replaced their opioid-based medications with cannabis.
Another 45.2% reported decreasing their reliance on opioids, with 13.3% reporting no change in their use, and 1.1% saying their opioid use increased.
Nearly half of respondents (48.2%) indicated a 40%-100% pain decrease while using both cannabis and opioids, while 8.6% had no change and 2.6% said their pain was actually worse. Eighty percent of those surveyed reported an improved quality of life while using medical cannabis.
Nearly 63% of respondents said they did not want to continue using opioid-based medications.
“Patients in this study reported that cannabis was a useful adjunct and substitute for prescription opioids in treating their chronic pain and had the added benefit of improving the ability to function and quality of life.” — A Survey on the Effect That Medical Cannabis Has on Prescription Opioid Medication Usage for the Treatment of Chronic Pain at Three Medical Cannabis Practice Sites, Cureus, Dec. 2, 2020
The study used data from surveys conducted through Integr8 Health, three affiliated cannabis medical practices in Maine and Massachusetts. A total of 1181 patients responded to the survey but 656 were excluded for not using medical cannabis in combination with opioids or not meeting the definition of chronic pain. The majority of the respondents were male (55.8%) and nearly one-third were aged 46 to 55, while another quarter were 56- to 65-years-old.
The study was authored by Intigr8 Medical Director Dustin Sulak and Kevin M. Takakuwa, a member of the Society of Cannabis Clinicians. Cureus is a San Francisco, California-based open-access medical journal.
Nevada’s Cannabis Compliance Board on Tuesday accused Cannex Nevada LLC (also known as RSR Analytical Laboratories) of passing tainted cannabis products and inflating THC results for clients, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports. The company has previously had its license suspended twice since 2017 for skirting state regulations and was the subject of two health advisories in 2019 and 2020 for passing tainted products, allowing them to reach dispensary shelves.
Regulators asked the board to revoke the company’s license, ban it from the industry for a decade, and impose a $62,500 fine, the report says. According to the complaint outlined by the Review-Journal, Cannex had performed unauthorized retesting for clients “with the intent to pass products that should have failed” microbial and heavy metal tests in addition to inflating THC potency.
In all, regulators say they found 232 instances of this unapproved retesting for THC Nevada, Silver Sage Wellness, ACC Industries, and Prime Cannabis and Integral Associates, the parent company of Essence Dispensaries.
“Rather than protecting consumers through accurate and honest testing, Cannex implemented testing processes that were designed to protect the monetary assets of their clients without regard for consumer safety. … Cannex’s microbial retesting practices resulted in the release of multiple cannabis products for sale to the public when they should have in fact failed testing.” – CCB, in the complaint
During an investigation into Cannex last year, regulators said secondary microbial tests of products passed by the company found high levels of mold and yeast, fungus and other contaminants, according to a Review-Journal report from February 2020. The Department of Taxation said at that time that there was “no reason to believe that the dispensaries or cultivators had any knowledge that the products exceeded allowable limits.” That recall affected 19 products at dozens of dispensaries throughout the state.
A man who filmed himself smoking a joint in the U.S. Capitol during the building’s siege on January 6 by angry supporters of former President Trump has been arrested, ABC News reports.
The man, James Bonet of New York state — who posted a video of his actions on his own Facebook page — was charged on January 25 by the Department of Justice, as per an FBI affidavit.
In the video, shot in the Capitol crypt, Bonet can be overheard saying, “Capitol building smoking with all my people!”
Later, he’d go on to say, “We made it in the building … We’re taking it back!”
The charging papers reveal Bonet was turned in by a co-worker who identified him via his video and then shared it with the FBI. Additionally, the documents say Bonet would often share conspiracies with co-workers, inviting them to join in his conspiratorial conversations.
However, the co-worker says they shared the video because he was not wearing a face mask, making him a potential COVID-19 spreader, ABC News said.
The Illinois Department of Agriculture has sent a round of notices to cannabis industry applicants – including social-equity license hopefuls – detailing specific problems that they can remedy in their applications, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. The notices are the latest step toward regulators awarding the next round of licenses, including those long-awaited by social-equity applicants.
However, some applicants were issued disqualification notices because the state claims they were sent deficiency notices last year and didn’t respond to them either in time or accurately. Last September, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation indicated that just 21 of the more than 900 dispensary applicants received a perfect score and made the cut for the lottery.
Debbie Allen, founder of the Illinois Minority Cannabis Council who received a disqualification notice but said she never received a deficiency notice last year, described the regulators’ claim as “ridiculous.”
None of the state’s cannabusinesses are majority-owned by a person of color.
If this is allowed to continue to go forward like it is, it will never be right for minorities or women. Period. We will not get a seat at any table to participate in this industry.” – Allen to the Sun-Times
The state’s licensing processes were put on hold amid the coronavirus pandemic. The Illinois Craft Cannabis Association sued the state in order to resume licensing, but a judge declined to force the state to move forward citing the seriousness of the pandemic.
The applicants that did not receive perfect scores on the application have the opportunity to fix their applications and challenge the score as state officials faced criticism – and lawsuits – that many of the businesses that qualified for the lottery were well-funded, corporate, companies and multi-state operators.
President Joe Biden (D) signed an executive order on Tuesday directing the Department of Justice to end its use of private prisons and ordering the agency to not renew such contracts.
“This is a first step to stop corporations from profiting off of incarceration,” Biden said prior to signing the order.
The move is similar to the policies of the Obama Administration for which Biden served as vice president. According to a CBS News report, more than 14,000 federal inmates are housed at privately-run prisons; in all there are about 152,000 inmates in federal custody.
In a statement to news outlets, a spokesperson for the GEO Group, a private firm that operates federal prisons, said that the industry is already facing economic hardship due to the coronavirus pandemic – which has led to the release of some prisoners due to the risk of exposure to the virus. The spokesperson described the order as “a political statement” which could have a negative impact on jobs and the communities that rely on those jobs.
The GEO Group’s top three contracts are with the U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement, with 19.3% of its beds, representing 21.7% of its revenue; the Federal Bureau of Prisons (16.9% of beds, 13.9% of revenue), and the U.S Marshals Service (11.4%/11.2%). The company had generated $1.77 billion of revenue through the third quarter of 2020. Last November, the BOP declined to rebid on the group’s Rivers Correctional Facility in North Carolina, according to Million Acres.
David Fathi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Prison Project, noted to the Associated Press that the order does not impact private company’s that run immigration detention centers. He called the order “an important first step toward acknowledging the harm that has been caused and taking actions to repair it” but that the president “has an obligation to do more, especially given his history and promises.”
New Mexico Gov. Lujan Grisham (D) signaled her support for adult-use cannabis legalization during her State of the State on Tuesday and later tweeted that legalization would lead to “tens of thousands of jobs” and “hundreds of millions in new revenue” for the state.
“I have no interest in another year of thousands of New Mexicans, eager to get to work and make their future in this industry, being told ‘no,’ just because that’s easier than doing the hard work to get to ‘yes’ when we emerge from this pandemic. We can have the same-old economy with the same-old boom-and-bust future, or we can roar back to life, breaking new ground and fearlessly investing in ourselves, in the limitless potential of New Mexicans. I know which future I prefer.” – Grisham, State of the State, January 26, 2021
In a subsequent tweet, the governor noted that over the last two years the state has issued nearly 700 “brand-new” hemp licenses, which cover 15 million square feet of indoor and almost 10,000 acres of outdoor hemp cultivation. However, in 2020 state officials indicated hemp licensing in the state fell 31% from 2019.
According to a Marijuana Moment report, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Peter Wirth said in an interview last week with podcast Growing Forward – a joint project of NM Political Report and New Mexico PBS – that he was “feeling more confident” about legalization this year.
The report notes that anti-legalization Democrats, including the Senate president pro tem and the Finance Committee chair, were defeated last year by progressive primary challengers.
Washington state lawmakers are considering a proposal to allow cannabis home cultivation, KIRO 7 News reports. The measure (HB.1019) would allow adults 21-and-older to grow up to six plants per household, up to 15 per household.
In 2012, Washington joined Colorado in legalizing cannabis for adults, but the state did not allow for home grow. In all, 10 states that have passed legalization reforms allow for home cultivation.
During a January 15 legislative hearing on the measure, John Kingsbury of Home Grow Washington said the proposal is not “a bold experiment but rather a well-worn path.”
“What I often hear is conflation of large-scale illicit activity with what we are actually advocating for here, which is legalizing six-plant, noncommercial home gardens. … Crime hasn’t exploded in states that allow home growing and tax revenues have not suffered.” – Kingsbury during a Jan. 15 hearing, via Crosscut
During the hearing, the proposal received pushback from the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, the Washington Association for Substance Abuse Prevention, and the Prevent Coalition.
The measure prohibits home cultivators from possessing more than 16 ounces of cannabis, 7 grams of concentrates, and 72 ounces of “marijuana-infused products in liquid form,” the bill says. It also includes a new civil infraction for cultivation in public view or for grows that can be “readily smelled” by neighbors or a passerby, which could result in a $50 fine.
Under current state law, qualified medical cannabis patients are allowed to grow up to four plants. For nonpatients, home cultivation is still penalized as a class C felony, punishable by up to five years in prison, a fine of up to $10,000, or both.
Utah medical cannabis patients can no longer legally cross state lines to purchase their medical cannabis products, the Salt Lake Tribune reports.
Since medical cannabis sales launched last year, Utah has experienced difficulty providing its medical cannabis patients with access, especially those living in the more rural parts of the state. Acknowledging the delays, Utah had previously allowed patients to go out-of-state to purchase their medical cannabis products.
Having expected the state’s system to be fully up and running by now, however, the allowances have expired, leaving many patients without, said Utah cannabis activist Desiree Hennessy.
“These patients are without medication. They’re watching the rest of the state move forward and they’re stuck in limbo patiently waiting — or impatiently waiting.” — Hennessy, via the Tribune
Despite numerous fixes over the past year, Utah has struggled to complete its medical cannabis rollout. According to the Tribune, seven of the state’s 14 licensed dispensaries have not opened. The furthest-south dispensary is in Provo, which is still hours away from parts of the state that are closer to Nevada and Colorado — two neighboring states where adult-use cannabis has been legalized. Compounding the issue was a lack of production by Utah producers in 2020, which resulted in high prices and product shortages where cannabis is actually available.
A recent survey found that 60 percent of Utah patients still buy their cannabis from the unregulated market or out-of-state sources, the Tribune reports.
Legislators say they will take on more fixes in the 2021 session, including legislation to force the seven unopened cannabis pharmacies to open or risk losing their licenses.
Unfortunately, such anticipated fixes would do little to help patients like Chelsie Warren, who told the Tribune, “It’s just been so much easier for me to go out of state and purchase so much more for cheaper.”
In their Final Rule for the hemp industry, the U.S. Department of Agriculture raised THC levels that trigger eradication to 1% rather than the previous 0.5%. Industrial hemp standards under U.S. law remain 0.3% but the Agricultural Marketing Service – a division of the USDA – said the “statute [does] not define negligent violation.”
The rules were authored during the Trump Administration and published on January 19.
“AMS is increasing the negligent violation to a 1.0 percent threshold. AMS acknowledges that a lower total THC threshold will result in a higher number of negligent violations. AMS also understands that factors beyond the control of farmers may cause an increase in total THC-levels, such as seed genetic, weather and climate, and may contribute to crops exceeding the negligent violation threshold. AMS believes that the data provided in the comments clearly showed that increasing the negligent violation threshold to 1.0 percent would diminish the risk that producers would incur negligent violations without adding a greater risk of non-compliant material reaching channels of commerce.” – AMS, Establishment of a Domestic Hemp Production Program, Jan. 19, 2021
The new federal rules also give cultivators 30 days instead of 15 to get samples of their crops tested in an effort to prevent testing backlogs. The regulations also increase the options by which a grower can dispose of non-compliant plants without using a Drug Enforcement Administration-registered service or under the supervision of law enforcement.
The order keeps many of the previous rules in place, including requiring laboratories that analyze and test hemp to register with the DEA, the requirement that state and tribal hemp plans are approved by the USDA, and prohibiting individuals with controlled substance-related felonies from the industry for 10 years.
States that do not want to develop their own hemp plans may use USDA guidelines but producers in those states are required to apply for and be issued a license from the agency.
The new rules are set to take effect on March 22; however, they will likely be frozen by the Biden Administration as is standard procedure during a presidential transition for new rules and revisions issued by the outgoing administration.
In early 2020, it was hard to predict what the full impact of COVID-19 would be. Some companies stood at a standstill while others adapted and pivoted quickly. There were, and continue to be, unprecedented behavioral shifts across all categories – and cannabis is no exception. While you don’t need to be in market research to notice that, we’ve tracked the trends with hard data, and put together key insights for the cannabis industry.
SoapBoxSample specializes in emerging and niche markets, and we’ve been gathering data and analysis about the cannabis industry since 2015. We leverage a range of methodologies from online surveys, to focus groups to insight communities. We thought that nothing could be more interesting than observing the development of The Green Rush Revolution, however, things got extra weird in 2020.
We’ve surveyed thousands of cannabis consumers across the U.S. on a variety of cannabis-related topics, ranging from product preferences to gifting occasions, to changes at their local dispensary related to COVID-19 precautions. It’s clear there are opportunities across all categories in the space to deliver the benefits of the plant directly to consumers.
From illegal to essential – COVID and cannabis
COVID changed everything, including cannabis habits. A survey of 1,000 U.S. cannabis consumers conducted in March of 2020 revealed that 42% of cannabis consumers had made changes to their cannabis routines since the start of the pandemic. Not only did they change the amount they consumed, but they also updated the way they purchased it, and the forms of cannabis they chose to consume.
We learned that the people who started consuming more cannabis were driven by emotional and mental health reasons.
60% sought to relieve stress
53% wanted to calm down
57% were looking for relief from anxiety
34% said cannabis helped them with “cabin fever”
34% said it eased their fear and panic
24% were just bored
Among people who reported that they were consuming less, the top reasons included:
36% didn’t want to go out in public to get it
34% were unsure of their future income
31% said it simply wasn’t a priority at the moment
30% were concerned about coughing or respiratory irritants
25% said they were rationing their supply for fear of running out
Almost overnight, the drivers of consumption shifted from being social and having fun to easing anxiety and falling asleep. Some brands took advantage of these changes and positioned their products for specific use cases and occasions. Others launched new product lines to meet their customers’ needs. By understanding the behaviors, preferences and occasions behind the purchases, brands can make smarter, data-driven, customer-centric decisions.
Delivery Decoded
Many consumers turned to delivery services to avoid the lines and crowds at dispensaries, and 17% of cannabis consumers said they used a delivery service for the first time in 2020, and 33% reported that they relied on delivery services more during lockdown. The influx of demand put a strain on some delivery service providers. Customers reported experiencing:
Longer wait times – 40%
Items out of stock – 38%
Higher prices – 36%
To address customers’ pain points and work toward a “frictionless” experience, the first step is to understand the experiences of consumers. Website and app usability testing can be a helpful first step in diagnosing potential issues – before valuable customers are lost.
Professionals and the Growing Acceptance of Cannabis in the “Workplace”
With many offices suddenly shuttered and the abrupt shift to working from home, SoapBoxSample wanted to understand if the habits of cannabis-consuming professionals looked similar to the habits of the wider population of cannabis consumers. We learned that more professionals are making cannabis part of their workday, and a substantial portion are now “out of the closet” about their usage. A whopping 73% said they are comfortable talking about their cannabis usage with co-workers and more than half (58%) are comfortable talking about it with their boss or clients.
Nearly half (46%) said they’ve increased their consumption during lockdown. It was interesting to note that among this group of professionals who have increased their consumption, 61% intend to go back to their pre-pandemic habits and don’t consider this to be a permanent lifestyle change.
We also learned that many professionals turn to cannabis products to help them stay motivated during the workday (35% of those who consumed before work), presenting opportunities for brands with product lines geared toward productivity. It’s rare for any product to be “for everybody.” Understanding subgroups and developing detailed profiles of their customers allows brands to create effective and targeted marketing campaigns that speak directly to their customers’ preferences and lifestyles.
Cannabis Consumers are Thirsty for More
COVID-19 ushered in a renewed emphasis on lung health, allowing non-combustible consumption methods to attract new audiences — fast. From March of 2020 to October of 2020, we saw a 10% increase in consumers saying they preferred an edible delivery method. The cannabis beverage category expanded rapidly within a short time frame. In November of 2020, 32% of cannabis consumers said they tried a cannabis beverage in the last 12 months. By January of 2021, that number had jumped to 49%.
What we learned about this growing segment of beverage consumers:
⦁ 53% consume for anxiety relief
⦁ 46% consume to help them fall asleep
⦁ 40% want to enjoy the flavor (compare this with 10% of edibles consumers who say flavor is a top consideration)
⦁ 20% are replacing alcohol with cannabis beverages
⦁ 40% consume cannabis beverages alongside alcoholic beverages
As more beverage brands enter the market and the cultural norms around drinking cannabis evolve, companies will need to gather fast and continuous data from their customers and potential customers. What we learned during 2020 is that behaviors can change in a very short period of time. Brands that co-create their next generation of products alongside their customers by tapping into ongoing insights will be able to create products that fit naturally into people’s lives.
To learn more, visit SoapBoxSample.com/cannabis, where you can sign up for our weekly CANNAfact Friday newsletter.
The California Bureau of Cannabis Control (BCC) has ordered the removal of cannabis billboards on interstate highways and within 15 miles of the state border. The policy change is in response to a November ruling by the San Luis Obispo County Superior Court, which found the Bureau’s billboard advertising regulations were invalid. Consequently, no new billboards are allowed on Highways like the 101 and existing billboards on all interstate highways must come down. However, cannabis advertising billboards may remain on highways or roads that do not cross state borders, the BCC said in its notice.
“To comply with the law and regulations, licensees may not place new advertising or marketing on any interstate highway or state highway that crosses the California border. Licensees should also begin the process of removing current advertising and marketing that meets this criteria.” — Excerpt from the BCC notice
According to the San Luis Obispo Tribune, the lawsuit, Farmer v. Bureau of Cannabis Control, was filed by attorneys on behalf of a father who claimed the billboards were “exposing” his children to cannabis products, which they said violated the intent of Proposition 64.
Under Prop. 64 rules, “any advertising or marketing involving direct, individualized communication or dialogue controlled by the licensee shall utilize a method of age affirmation to verify that the recipient is 21 years of age or older.” According to the Cannabis Marketing Association, at least 71.6 percent of a cannabis advertisement’s expected audience must be at least 21.
Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka (R) has no plans to work toward cannabis legalization during this year’s session, telling Center Square that the reforms aren’t “right for the state.”
“Other states that have legalized marijuana are having issues with public safety, and we are concerned that we haven’t fully seen how this works with employment issues, education outcomes, and mental health. I would be open to expanding medical use or hearing criminal justice reforms, but the ideas need to be fully vetted in a public committee process. There is a wide range of opinions I want to hear from before we move forward with changing the laws on marijuana.” – Gazelka in a statement to Center Square
The House is controlled by the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party and chamber Speaker Melissa Hortman said the state’s continued prohibition is “doing more harm than good” and described Republicans as “the biggest obstacle to progress on this issue.”
“By creating a regulatory framework we can address the harms caused by cannabis and establish a more sensible set of laws to improve our health care and criminal justice systems and ensure better outcomes for communities,” she said in a statement to Center Square.
In 2019, Gov. Tim Walz (DFL) said he had directed relevant state agencies to “put all of the building blocks in place” for legalization that would allow the state to implement the rules and regulations “the minute” the Legislature approved the reforms, according to a Minnesota Public Radio report.
A February 2020 Star Tribune poll found 51% of Minnesotans supported legalization with 37% opposed and 12% unsure. The majority of Republicans polled – 47% to 42% – opposed the reforms, compared to a majority of DFL/Democrats (59%-30%) who supported them. The majority of the state’s independents also supported legalization by a 50% to 37% margin.
A Star Tribune poll from February 2014 found just 30% of Minnesotans supported legalization, with 63% opposed and 7% unsure. At that time, 54% of DFL/Democrats supported legalization – with 38% opposed – along with just 11% of Republicans (86% opposed) and 19% of independents (73% opposed.)
House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler told MinnPost that a legalization bill is being drafted but did not commit to it being voted on in the chamber.
Cannabis legalization in Delaware could be worth $43 million annually if taxed at 20%, according to a report from State Auditor Kathy McGuiness published on Monday. The report estimates that 13% of adults in the state would consume cannabis, based on Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration data.
The report indicates that the legal cannabis industry would create between 1,400 and 2,400 jobs in the state over five years while creating a $215 million industry overall.
“$43 million in state tax revenue would be a boon to Delaware’s coffers. That money could be used to plug budget holes in the short term and would continue to provide revenue for all kinds of important initiatives in the long term.” – McGuiness in a statement
A University of Delaware poll published in 2018 found 61% of Delawareans support legalization.
“Statistics show that public opinion on allowing recreational marijuana for adult use has changed dramatically in the last few years, with a majority of Delawareans now supporting it,” McGuiness, who supports the reforms, said. “The prohibition on marijuana has only led to a robust black market, which could be minimized by responsible and thoughtful legalization.”
McGuiness added that legalization “is the only way to prevent Delaware from being at a competitive disadvantage in the future” as more states move to legalize. Delaware is bordered by New Jersey where voters approved legalization during last November’s General Election.
“Legalization done right in our view would allow Delaware to establish a policy framework to suppress the black market, curb usage through regulation for minors and collect revenue on a market demand that seems only to be increasing,” the report concludes. “It would also provide a new revenue stream and new potential for economic growth. Additionally, it would eliminate arrests and keep people out of prison.”
Democratic Gov. John Carney in 2018 said he didn’t “think it’s a good idea to be out ahead of” legalization but didn’t say he would veto legalization legislation if it were to make it to his desk. The governor has signed some cannabis reforms into law during his tenure, including medical cannabis program expansion, expanded expungement, and decriminalization for juveniles in 2019, and adding anxiety as a qualifying condition for medical cannabis in 2017.
Currently, there are no legalization bills filed in the state for the 2021 session.
Cannabis brings people together and we tokers have known that for a long time. Connecting with friends, or making new friends, over a bowl of flower or some hash goes back for generations. So it should not be any surprise to see some cannabis companies coming together in friendship first, only to find that everyone involved has shared ideals and goals for starting a cannabis company, too.
This is how Constellation Cannabis came together. Renowned hash-maker Jay Anders (IG:@headhunterextracts_) met a good guy at Emerald Cup in 2016. They struck up an easy friendship talking about the Seattle Sounders soccer team. The day happened to be the 21st Major League Soccer championship and the Seattle Sounders were playing. The new friends decided to duck out of Emerald Cup for a while and head to a local bar to watch the game. Over the game, the two became fast friends and shared their love for hash.
It ended up that Jay’s new friend had family at the Emerald Cup who were working on a plan to produce the finest medical-grade, solventless hash products in Washington state, and introductions were made.
Bailey Hubbard, owner of the newly formed Constellation Cannabis, and her husband and co-founder Jeffrey Hubbard got together with hash-maker Jay Anders and found that together they had the complementary skills needed to launch a cannabis company and a shared desire to make exceptional solventless hash for medical patients and everyone else who appreciated fine quality ice water hash.
At the time, the Washington market was awash in mediocre hydrocarbon hash, often made from sloppy trim and released without much heart. Bailey, Jeff, and Jay shared a belief that there was a significant unmet desire in the market for an array of products made from solventless ice water hash created in the traditional laborious manner. So many patients were rejecting the array of licensed products in the Washington market at that time because they were made with hydrocarbons and left many cannabis patients suspicious of residual solvents on top of the fact that Washington, to this day, does not test for pesticides. They shared a vision of first producing the best possible bag hash, and then expanding to an array of products made from this hash, all of the highest quality, to instill faith in the patients who consume it. The founders were very careful with what they consumed themselves and would often chat with medical growers and patients who were dissatisfied with available options. They decided to try to create a line of products meeting their own standards, and if everyone else became attracted to their quality, all the better. Their expressed goal was to make elite hash available to regular folks without elite clout in the underground.
Constellation brings a variety of unexpected cultivars to market. Indeed, it is very common for cannabis producers to simply follow the hype trends, but Constellation chooses to play a greater curatorial role searching for unique and unexpected cultivars. While they certainly produce popular favorites like GMO and others, the strains they are most excited about are lesser-known but incredibly unique and flavorful varieties, like the multiple Cannabis Cup-winner Rainbow Flame from Green Fire Genetics. This cross of breeder’s cuts of Green Fire and Everglades is the sort of thing you won’t find anywhere else and Constellation sets themselves apart by making these sorts of choices in starting material.
And the response from hash heads everywhere has been incredibly positive. Constellation currently is stocked in 137 stores and has a 98-store waiting list looking to carry their solventless hash products — an impressive data point. The company is currently slowly growing capacity to meet much of this demand. They are also presently in discussions to expand to the California market. Additionally, as solventless hash becomes increasingly popular, the entire Constellation team is now providing consulting and SOPs to companies in other states looking to add solventless hash to their offerings.
The Constellation logo is an illustration of the Serpens constellation of stars. Serpens is one of 88 modern constellations and is split into two halves. Co-founder Jeff Hubbard explained to me that, in their eyes, the two halves of the constellation represent the medical and recreation aspect of the markets and his goal is to recruit stars to the Constellation team in order to provide the best hash on the market — both an ambitious and honorable goal. There is yet more meaning to the logo, however, because the god represented in the constellation, Asclepius, is the Greek god of medicine. While the story changes slightly depending on if you read the Greek or Roman lore, essentially, in the Roman version, Aesculapius is represented by a snake that brings healing herbs to the sick and injured. Many in ancient times made offerings in his name to acquire rare and needed medicines.
Constellation currently grows 80-90% of the flower that they use as inputs. Most members on the team are cross-trained to work in any area that the growing/production cycle demands. This creates greater consistency to the end product and preserves “manufacturing memory” should anyone move away and/or leave the team. Turnover remains a huge challenge to consistency in the cannabis industry and this sharing of knowledge is Constellation’s hedge against any loss of skill. And, since Constellation’s managers are promoted from within, it helps identify team members who have management potential.
The company culture is friendly and warm. When I visited the facility I was greeted with smiles everywhere. Folks were wearing their masks properly and I heard niceties like “Thanks” and “You’re Welcome” being used between employees. That may seem minor, but having worked in extraction and cultivation facilities myself, I know simple courtesy sets a nice environment for everyone. The informal shop motto is “Best or Bust.” The employees told me there is little ego on the team, they are paid more than other similar companies, including health insurance and, laughing, it was pointed out by more than one team member that everyone, including the founders, has cleaned the toilets when needed. It was not lost on me during my tour that each person on the team was well-spoken and could explain their workstation in detail. When asked detailed questions, replies were thoughtful and it was clear that these folks really enjoyed their work and work environment.
There was a lot of credit on my tour given to those who injected key ideas to Constellation’s success, like Low Temp Plates for making hash rosin, Alaina Austin at Green Fire for specialty genetics, and Ben Hartman, author of “Lean Farm,” which seems to guide everything that Constellation does. There is a lot of reading that takes place at Constellation. They even have a managers book club where they read the same book on management techniques and get together and share insights. Their guiding principle is the Japanese idea of “Kaizen,” which means continuous improvement.
Another aspect where Constellation provides industry leadership is in compostable packaging. We all hate how much plastic is wasted by a typical pre-roll tube and 1g packaging. Such a waste. Constellation’s owner Bailey Hubbard is a designer, too, and knew from day one that she wanted to reduce as much plastic as possible in their packaging and make as much of it compostable as possible. As the company’s graphic and package designer as well, Bailey has direct control over this and has devised and implemented a slick, 100% compostable sealed joint tube that you can find on retail shelves. Their hash sleeves are compostable as well, and their jars are glass. Even their vape cart packaging is fully compostable except for the foam insert, which they are looking to upgrade. Overall, 80% of their packaging is compostable or recyclable — a big statement in favor of environmentalism.
While clearly Constellation has their operations in place properly, all of that is for naught if the final product isn’t extraordinary. The Ganjapreneur review team was able to taste some of hashes and sauces from Constellation, and here are our thoughts.
Photo credit: STEINFARM/@thingsfromsteinfarm
Watermelon Zkittlez Cold Cure Hash Rosin
No doubt, the first thought upon tasting this oil is, “Damn, it really does taste like watermelon.” It is truly amazing the wide variety of flavor profiles that can come out of a cannabis plant. After that initial hit of watermelon, we tasted strong floral notes and got the distinct impression of tasting not the watermelon flavor so much as the literal flesh of watermelon. You know how watermelon tastes like watermelon sure, but you can also taste a touch of the melon flesh too. Because watermelon juice tastes slightly different than a piece of watermelon. That special something tastes a bit like 7-Up and that taste was in there too. Floral watermelon with a little 7-Up soda zing!
Everyone agreed that this oil was very easy on the lungs, granted we were doing low-temp dabs, but a smooth exhalation is always a pleasant surprise.
Strawnana x Lemon OG Cold Cure Hash Rosin
I wasn’t sure what to expect the Lemon OG to do to the Strawnana and I was surprised right away. So often, banana terps are so sweet that they can taste fake. That can be good too, but what surprised me about this oil was how much more complex it was than typical Strawnana oil. The banana in this oil was less sweet and more earthy. More like a plantain, a ripe plantain; sweet, yes, but with a complex earthy unfermented must coming from the influence of the OG lineage.
There was a touch of strawberry and lemon too, but again, neither was the sweet breakfast cereal terpene profile. All the fruits came across more sophisticated, complex and authentic. I think I’d actually prefer to not know the cross at all because all the words in the cultivar name do this flower a disservice. The sum is much more than its parts.
Photo credit: STEINFARM/@thingsfromsteinfarm
Strawnana x Lemon OG Sauce
Sauce is a description that has some different meanings, so for this review let’s be clear that Constellation’s “sauce” is fresh-pressed hash rosin jam and hash diamonds. This delightful presentation tasted like a lemon Icee or some other really lemon tart slushy-type beverage. The limonene terpenes are a wallop and as the hit settles in we all started to taste a variety of flavors from strawberry to banana peel to creamsicle. This was one we all went back to later on.
Strawnana x Lemon OG 90u Cold Cure
It is delightful to have two different expressions of the same plant in a side by side comparison. The cold cure hash rosin version was delightful but in different ways than the sauce described above. The lemon was less overpowering here than in the sauce and more of the OG funk came through. The color was slightly less striking than the sauce, but color is usually not a smart measure with which to judge hash anyway. The fruit and cream tastes were still abundantly present, so it appeared that in the cold cure you are trading away the dominant lemon for a more balanced overall taste with additional OG flavor.
Strawpicana Sauce
You know those cultivars with a flashy name that taste really good but they don’t necessarily taste like the name? This was one of those for me. It was killer sauce and I would smoke it again in a heartbeat, but it tasted like good complex weed more than Strawberries or Orange. Maybe there was some tart berry or Orange Julius on the back of my tongue after I exhaled, but really it just tasted like a good earthy-sweet terpene profile. One thing for sure, it lives up to its sativa reputation and is energetic as hell. We were all in a delighted mood and decided to take a break and go for a short hike at the nearby park.
Photo credit: STEINFARM/@thingsfromsteinfarm
GMO
The Constellation GMO is a huge favorite in the Washington market. It is funny too because the team is ready to move the GMO cultivation rooms on to new cultivars but people keep asking for it and buying it so they keep those rooms packed with gorgeous GMO flowers to turn into hash. For whatever reason, Constellation draws a slightly different expression from the GMO plant than most of the others I’ve tried. Usually, GMO comes in tasting like Garlic Girl Scout Cookies or a complex garlic, mushrooms, and onions food-tasting terpene profile when well-grown. The Constellation GMO tastes like garlic and mushrooms, sure, but here the mushrooms taste uncooked. The mushroom tastes somehow brighter and raw. More mushroom, less gravy tasting. It is delightful and different. You can also taste the soft colored underside of the mushroom cap. That smell of moist humus and garlic is seductive to the palate. No doubt why their customers won’t let them stop making it.
Rainbow Gelato
Rainbow Gelato from Green Fire genetics has something for everyone. The now-classic Gelato 41 heavy hitter is then crossed to Zkittlez, Grand Daddy Purple, and Blueberry genetics. The up-front taste is creamy from the Gelato but the rest of the exhale is a blend of floral, berries, and fuel. Be careful because this hash will seduce you into perhaps smoking more than you need. We all agreed that this was one you could hit once and come back to later because it packs such a punch!
Rainbow Flame 6-Star Hash
The Rainbow Flame 6-Star hash was a delight from start to finish. I don’t think that opening up a jar to see sandy blonde trichome heads will ever not put a smile on my face. Their soft and subtle uniform color and how they sit there in a rough suggestion of a circle filling out the indentation on the bottom is really satisfying visually. It is so engaging to push the individual trichome heads around in the jar as if you are raking patterns into a Taoist sand garden. On the nail, it tastes like clementine pith and cucumber with a bit of whatever cold steel tastes like. Quite unique and it stayed remarkable throughout the tasting sesh. Sometimes taste buds can get accustomed to a flavor profile necessitating the dabber to continually switch up. Not with this one. It just kept banging out intense taste all afternoon. This was so good it had two of us tasting it considering finding cuts to grow.
Strawberry Banana Hash Rosin Cartridge
The hash rosin carts were the very first product I came across made by Constellation in December of 2019. I was so astonished by the accomplishment that I wrote about it on my Instagram. For the last ten or so years that carts have been around, they have usually been adulterated with non-cannabis fluids like propylene glycol, vegetable glycerin, coconut oil or sketchy proprietary terpene blends. These new school hash rosin cartridges contain only the hash oil squeezed from trichomes on the rosin press. Nothing added. This is how it always should have been. Full taste and authenticity with nothing else added. It’s a beautiful thing.
Photo credit: STEINFARM/@thingsfromsteinfarm
Hash Rosin Space Capsules
I have liked the idea of eating hash since reading about hash-eating poets in school. Certainly, I’ve eaten the low-grade hash pulls from making bubble that might as well be eaten, but I had never had gorgeous blonde hash or hash rosin to eat. Trying one of these capsules felt like a waste of good hash because hash this good should be smoked. But that feeling quickly faded when the capsule hit my bloodstream and I eased into the most relaxing and pleasant unpolluted edible experience of my life. This is an extraordinary product that Constellation hashmaker Jay used to make for the medical market. It was a patient-pleaser then and Constellation updated the capsules with extraordinarily high-grade inputs. At a gentle 10mg THC each, they are good for most folks or they can be stacked if you have a higher tolerance. While these can be used to party, they clearly, first and foremost, offer relief.
It is a real joy to write a feature review about a company that is producing products that satisfy the desires of both the recreational market as well as a patient market. In nearly every state we see the rec market crush the medical market and patients suffer. With Constellation cannabis, everyone can come together in appreciation of clean, quality hash.
Adult-use cannabis sales in Arizona began last Thursday making the state the quickest to move from approval at the ballot box to a functional market. Curaleaf, Harvest Health, The Mint, and Territory dispensaries were among the companies to begin cannabis sales to adults last week, AZ Central reports.
Dispensaries must pay $25,000 to apply for a recreational sales license and Arizona Department of Health Services spokesman Steve Elliott said that the agency had approved 86 applications.
Steve Cottrell, president of Curaleaf Arizona, described the state’s transition to a recreational market as a “defining moment.”
“Cannabis is officially decriminalized in Arizona, which means people will not be prosecuted for cannabis infractions of anything under an ounce. That’s a very important thing; we have hundreds of thousands of people yearly who are prosecuted for possession of cannabis, so this is going to be a positive change.” – Cottrell to AZ Big Media
In 2020, Arizona dispensaries sold about 106 tons of cannabis and cannabis products to the state’s registered patients – a 20% increase from the 83 tons of cannabis and cannabis products sold in the state the previous year, the report says. Medical cannabis sales remain untaxed while recreational sales carry a 16% excise tax.
There are another seven dispensaries that have received an adult-use license but are not yet up and running and the voter-approved law allows for new dispensaries in rural counties with fewer than two currently-operating dispensaries. Another 26 licenses are expected to be issued to social-equity applicants.
The industry tax and licensing fees are projected to generate $166 million in annual revenue for the state, with the first $19 million going towards the Arizona Department of Health Services for setting up the program. After DHS is repaid, $15 million will go towards the Arizona Teachers Academy Fund and $10 million will go towards the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety for grants to reduce impaired driving. Another 33% of the revenue will go towards community colleges; nearly 32% is earmarked for local law enforcement and fire departments; 25% is set aside for state and local transportation programs; and 10% will be used for public health and criminal justice programs.
A bill in New Jersey would require children to be educated about cannabis-associated risks as early as third grade, New Jersey 101.5 reports. The bill sponsor, Republican Assemblyman Erik Simonsen, who has worked as a teacher and vice-principal, said that third graders are old enough to understand the lessons, which are currently taught to New Jersey seventh graders.
“You learn that marijuana is affecting kids younger and younger, and now that it’s going to be legalized it was important to me to expand the education of it. … When it’s legalized, younger kids are going to see it more in their homes and it takes the stigma away, like this isn’t bad cause it’s legal. If people think that third graders or fourth graders aren’t experimenting, they’re nuts because I’ve seen it.” – Simonsen to NJ 101.5
The bill would require cannabis education for students from third to 12th grade including:
The impact of cannabis and cannabis products on the adolescent brain and body;
The effects of THC which the measure claims “can also lead to central nervous system depression;”
The risks of addiction to cannabis;
The risks of driving while under the influence of cannabis;
The difference between medicinal and recreational cannabis use; and
An “examination of the external and internal influences that may impact a person’s decision to use or abstain from cannabis and marijuana products.”
The measure carries no co-sponsors and was referred to the Assembly Education Committee. Its companion measure in the Senate was referred to that chamber’s Education Committee.
The measure comes as lawmakers and Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy have reached an impasse on the legalization law – which was approved for ballots by the Legislature and ultimately passed by voters – over cannabis-related penalties for underage use and possession.
After several Massachusetts cannabis companies dumped the Commonwealth Dispensary Association (CDA) over a contentious lawsuit filed last week, the group is dropping its suit, the Boston Globe reports. The lawsuit had sought to overturn the Cannabis Control Commission’s (CCC) plan to only issue delivery licenses to social equity applicants for the first three years.
“The CDA has determined it is in the best interest of the industry and our members to drop the lawsuit against the Cannabis Control Commission. We all need to be working together on achieving our many shared objectives, including increasing the participation of a diverse set of entrepreneurs in the industry.” — Commonwealth Dispensary Association statement, via the Boston Globe
According to a MassLive report, multiple association members — including Cultivate, In Good Health, Garden Remedies, NETA, and Caroline’s Cannabis — left the organization following backlash to the lawsuit, the report says. Pure Oasis, Massachusetts’ first economic empowerment dispensary to open, left the CDA a few months prior to the lawsuit as the company moved its focus on advocating for the delivery licenses.
On Saturday, In Good Health said in a Facebook post that the company supported “public policy that provides opportunity for new entrants to join this growing industry” and opposed the CDA lawsuit.
“We believe it will create barriers for all to fully benefit from a safe and legal cannabis industry and perpetuate inequities. We are terminating our membership in the association as of today.” – In Good Health in a Facebook post
It was not immediately clear whether the dispensaries who left the organization would rejoin the association now that the lawsuit has been dropped.
Previously, the CDA told MassLive that it had, “an obligation to its members to ensure the investments made in their communities are protected and that there is fairness in the marketplace,” and that the lawsuit, “protects the intent of the crafters of the law and we are committed to its protection, both now and in the future.”
The lawsuit contended that the period of exclusivity ran afoul of the state’s legalization law and that the rules should never have been promulgated because the law requires three lawfully seated commissioners to approve regulations and that one member was serving as a holdover on the CCC as her term had expired and a new commissioner had not been appointed.
