The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed charges against six individuals from California and Arizona for defrauding investors out of $25 million. The scheme included nine issuers and three marketing companies.
The SEC complaint alleges that from September 2017 to February 2019, California residents Anthony Todd Johnson, Jeremy T. Johnson, Richard A. Portillo, and Michael R. Gregory, and Arizona residents Charles Lloyd and Mark W. Heckele, raised funds from more than 400 individuals to invest in a California cannabis farm and a separate CBD extraction facility.
The SEC said the fraud was conducted through the following companies:
Smart Initiatives, LLC
Valley View Enterprises LLC
Target Equity LLC
Zabala Farms Group, LLC
GPA Enterprises LLC
C-Quadrant LLC
Green Bud Initiatives LLC
RJ Holdings Group, LLC
CIS Marketing, LLC
Green Growth Ventures, LLC
Extraction Capital Tier 1, LLC
Lloyd Marketing, LLC
The Johnson brothers, Portillo, Lloyd, and Heckle allegedly led investors to believe that they would receive a guaranteed annual return on their investments of 100 percent or more. Further, the complaint alleges that the Johnsons misappropriated more than $2.7 million of investor funds and, with Gregory, deceived investors about a purported “business loan” secured by real property to develop the CBD extraction facility that was actually used to pay back investors in an unrelated entity.
The complaint also claims that certain defendants misrepresented the principals’ backgrounds, their capital contributions, and a purported relationship with a California university.
The Food and Drug Administration has expanded the label for the cannabis-derived pharmaceutical Epidiolex to treat seizures associated with tuberous sclerosis complex (TCS) and allowing the drug to be used by patients one year of age and older.
The GW Pharmaceuticals drug is the only FDA-approved form of CBD derived from the cannabis plant. The medication was initially approved by the agency in 2018 for treating seizures associated with Dravet syndrome – or Lennox-Gastaut syndrome – in patients aged two and older.
GW CEO Justin Gover said the label expansion allows patients with TCS to “immediately” access the medication.
“This label expansion, including the expansion of the age range in all approved indications, further demonstrates that the FDA process can continue to enable broader patient access to appropriately tested regulatory approved cannabinoid medicines.” – Gover in a press release
Dr. Elizabeth Thiele, director of the Herscot Center for Tuberous Sclerosis Complex at Massachusetts General Hospital, said that nearly two-thirds of TSC patients develop treatment-resistant epilepsy and noted “a need for new options that may benefit these patients who often try and fail existing treatments.”
“Based on previous positive trial results in TSC patients, Epidiolex may become an important treatment option for patients,” she said in a statement. “It is a new tool in the toolbox for physicians and could meet a significant unmet need.”
In the U.S. about 50,000 people suffer from TSC along with approximately 1 million worldwide. About 85 percent of patients experience epilepsy and more than 60 percent do not achieve seizure control.
The drug is also approved in the European Union under the name Epidyolex. Regulators in Europe are currently reviewing the application to expand the label for TSC and lowered age range for patients.
Scotts Miracle-Gro Company reported a company-wide sales increase of 28 percent in the third quarter, including 72 percent growth for Hawthorne – its indoor cultivation and hydroponic subsidiary.
Separately, Scotts Miracle-Gro Board of Directors approved payment of a special dividend of $5 per share and increased its regular quarterly dividend by 7 percent to $0.62 per share, the company said in a press release. Both dividends are payable September 10 to shareholders of record on August 27.
For the quarter – which ended on June 27, 2020 – company-wide sales increased 28 percent to $1.49 billion. U.S. Consumer sales increased 21 percent to $1.08 billion from $889.1 million. Hawthorne sales increased 72 percent to $302.9 million compared with $176.3 million. Segment income increased 14 percent for U.S. Consumer sales to $310.5 million and 145 percent for Hawthorne to $41.1 million.
Scotts Chairman and CEO Jim Hagedorn called the year so far an “unprecedented success” and said the board decided to make special one-time payments later this year to nearly 3,000 hourly and salaried associates who do not participate in bonus plans and enhance bonus payments to another nearly 1,500 eligible associates who do participate in incentive plans. Additionally, Hagedorn said the company plans to double its charitable contributions.
“Our results this year continue to exceed our most optimistic expectations and are a testament to the critical nature of the categories in which we compete, the commitment of our retail partners, and the loyalty of the consumers and cultivators who rely on our products for their success. As we enter the final weeks of fiscal 2020 and prepare for the start of our next fiscal year, we remain optimistic about the strength of our business as well as our ability to continue to enhance shareholder value.” – Hagedorn in a statement
Hagedorn added that Hawthorne saw strong third-quarter growth “in every product category and geography” noting that its growth in the quarter was “higher-than-expected.” For the first nine months of the year, Hawthorne sales increased 59 percent to $731.7 million, the company said.
In August 2016, Purple Heart-recipient Sean Worsley was arrested for the possession of marijuana in Gordo, Alabama. The Black veteran had purchased the cannabis using a state-issued Arizona medical card before leaving for a road trip to visit family in the South. The arrest — and the cavalcade of misfortune that followed for Sean and his wife Eboni Worsley — was thoroughly detailed in a recent account published by Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice.
When they were arrested, the Worsleys had stopped to refuel their car on the way to Sean’s grandmother’s house in North Carolina. Gordo Police Officer Carl Abramo, who has since left the force, noticed Sean playing air guitar and joking around with Eboni and he approached to ask them to turn down their music. Eboni complied immediately, but the officer smelled cannabis.
Note: the smell of cannabis was also the justification cited by St. Anthony, Minnesota police officer Jeronimo Yanez before shooting and killing Philando Castile with five close-range bullets. This event occurred just one month before the Worsleys’ arrest.
Believing that his state-issued card protected him, Sean informed the inquiring officer of his veteran status and that he did have medically prescribed cannabis in the car. Sean told Abramo exactly where to find it and calmly complied with his requests but the officer called for backup and, ultimately, the police conducted a full search of the vehicle. They found Sean’s cannabis, tools commonly used by medical cannabis patients, grocery bags containing the loose tobacco insides of cigarillos, and Eboni’s prescribed painkillers.
According to Alabama state law, possession of cannabis for “personal use” is a misdemeanor offense punishable by up to one year in jail and a $6,000 fine. However, since Worsley had multiple strains in separate bags and a scale, the Gordo police officers on the scene claimed he was attempting to traffic. This assessment increased charges to at least Possession in the First Degree, bringing jail time up to a mandatory minimum of one year and one day, along with a $15,000 fine.
Ignorance About Medical Cannabis Leads to Biased Assumptions
Every cannabis patient knows that having multiple bags and a scale is not uncommon practice when managing a condition. Different phenotypes of cannabis plants produce flowers that can help with various symptoms — because of this, many cannabis patients keep more than one type of flower on hand to ensure they can treat specific symptoms. Over a long trip, a patient often must titrate out their daily dosage to ensure they don’t run out of meds before they return to a medical dispensary — which requires a scale to do effectively.
A Deposition from the District Court of Pickens, Alabama states that cannabis flowers were packaged in a bag, a plastic container, and a cardboard box. They also recorded finding a scale, glass pipe, rolling papers, cigarillos, and some bags of loose tobacco. There is no mention of a box of empty baggies for processing or pounds of flower to weigh out from. As evidenced by his willingness to cooperate with police to his supply and medical card, Sean Worsley was in possession of various strains of medical cannabis and the items that are often required to use his prescribed medicine, which in no way meet the amounts necessary to rationally consider him a trafficker.
The knowledge of what a scale and cannabis flowers are used for by a patient is a law enforcement blind spot, one that led four Gordo, Alabama police officers to charge a Purple Heart recipient with a felony. This ignorance is supported by a Federal government and judicial system that refuses to recognize that cannabis has any medicinal value. The ineptitude with cannabis is shared nationwide by law enforcement. A fact that’s proven by the “big busts” of legal hemp shipments that plagued startup CBD companies in 2019.
Ganjapreneur reached out to Pickens County Judge Lance Bailey (who did not rule on the case) for comment, as the arrest happened within his presiding county. Judge Bailey replied, “Yes, the Defendant had a prescription for medicinal marijuana in AZ. But the Defendant had 2 large bags of marijuana in his vehicle, a set of scales, and smaller bags that are used for packaging.”
No smaller bags are mentioned in the deposition, nor is the weight of the cannabis flower that was found in each container listed, and Judge Bailey did not respond to further requests for clarification. Based on publicly-available information, we can’t help but wonder if the two “large bags” referenced in his email are in reference to the “…two separate grocery bags containing cigarellos and tobacco from within the cigarellos…” that are listed in the deposition, which would serve as another example of just how much ignorance about cannabis there is within the justice system.
A County Steeped in Racist History
The mistreatment of this case is an unfortunate reality for many Black Americans. Data shows that in 2016, the year of the Worsleys’ arrest, Black people were arrested for cannabis possession at four times the rate of white people in the state of Alabama; this data has been available since October 2018.
When asked by the Alabama Political Reporter if Sean Worsley would have been treated differently if he were white, West Alabama District Attorney Andy Hamlin said, “That is an absolute pile of crap,” and added that it was “ridiculous and insulting” to even suggest it.
The assertion that Worsley’s treatment could be based on his melanin content is not so ridiculous, however, when taking a look into the history of justice in Pickens County. The Pickens County courthouse is famously haunted by Henry Wells, a Black freedman who was shot by police while attempting to escape a gathering mob in 1878.
The Pickens County courthouse is reportedly haunted by the ghost of Henry Wells.
In 1979, civil rights activists Maggie Bozeman (50 at the time) and Julia Wilder (69 at the time) were arrested and convicted of voter fraud in Pickens County. The charges claimed the Black activists visited with elderly and illiterate residents of the area to assist them in voting through absentee ballots. The court case that proceeded is confusing, with testimonies from witnesses consistently siding with both the defense and the prosecution, depending on who was interviewing them. A parade of community beacons testified on behalf of the character of both civil rights activists but the pair were still found guilty.
At the end of the trial, the all-white jury sentenced Bozeman to 4 years in prison and Wilder to the maximum of 5 years. Judge Clatus Junkin denied probation and the pair were sent to the state penitentiary. After national outrage and eleven days of protests, the Governor organized a work-release program for the activists. Circuit Judge Clatus Junkin went on the record to state that the elderly women had received special treatment, and that the work release program was a “slap in the face to the judicial system.” The entire conviction was thrown out in 1984 by US District Court Judge Truman Hobbs, ruling that the women were improperly tried by Judge Clatus Junkin.
Intergenerational Injustice
It was almost forty years ago that Bozeman and Wilder were sentenced to a punishment four times harsher than the most severely treated white defendant had ever faced for the same crime.
Flash forward to 2020, and Sean Worsley is sentenced to a ridiculous 5 years in prison over medical cannabis in the circuit court of Judge Samuel Junkin, who is none other than the son of Judge Clatus Junkin.
The severity and cruelty of the sentence is important to note, as Sean Worsley faces 60 months in the custody of the murderous Alabama Department of Corrections during a rapidly worsening global pandemic. Even by the standards of Alabama law, his sentence is egregious.
Senator Cam Ward explained to a reporter in 2018, “The only people in state prisons on possession of any kind of marijuana are those trafficking the truckloads of it.” But in Pickens County, Alabama, it appears that even a registered medical patient who served their country can wind up in prison… if they’re Black.
Ganjapreneur reached out to Judge Samuel Junkin multiple times for comment but a representative said he was on vacation and out of the office.
In the wake of the Alabama Appleseed article detailing Sean’s case, there has been an outpouring of support for the Worsley family. At her family’s suggestion, Eboni Worsley set up a GoFundMe that surpassed its $80,000 goal and she posted a video message in response to all of the support. In this video, she discloses that among their many fees and payments, they owe the VA alone $66,000.
Another Example of the Human Toll of Cannabis Criminalization
The Worsleys’ is a tragic tale of an American veteran who, by all accounts, was horribly mistreated by the nation he pledged to defend upon returning home from deployment with a Purple Heart, PTSD, and a traumatic brain injury. It is a narrative that repeats itself across the American judicial system, especially when the defendant is Black. In Pickens County, it is a continuation of the centuries-old history of unjustifiably harsh sentencing for Black people, a history so deep that local folklore would suggest it literally haunts the courthouse windows.
In the case of Sean Worsley, there is even more ignorance at play — if law enforcement had any real understanding of medical cannabis, it is possible that Worsley would have been charged with a lesser misdemeanor offense. And if police across the nation were more informed about the uses and effects of medical cannabis, perhaps vulnerable patients would be less likely to face police brutality and violence.
If you would like to take action in support of freeing Sean Worsley, we suggest that you start by reading and signing this open letter to Alabama officials.
A proposed settlement in an ongoing lawsuit between Nevada officials and cannabis businesses would transfer some industry operator licenses to businesses that were denied approval during the state’s 2018 licensing round, the Nevada Current reports. Despite the proposal, some plaintiffs say they were shut out of the negotiations, allege collusion in the process, and are asking a judge to prevent officials from approving the deal.
The plaintiffs in the case claim regulators unfairly grated the bulk of the cannabis industry licenses to a few operators. In 2018, 61 state licenses were issued to just 17 applicants, the Current reports.
The settlement would shift 10 industry licenses from approved defendants to plaintiffs and force the state to issue one additional license.
The deal would see one of Lone Mountain’s Las Vegas licenses awarded to Qualcan, while licenses held by Lone Montain in Washoe, Lincoln, and Esmerelda Counties would be given to ETW Management. A Lone Mountain Douglas County license would also be transferred to Thrive.
Qualcan would also receive a Carson City license from Nevada Organic Remedies, owners of The Source. Nevada Organics would also assign a Clark County license to MM Development, owners of Planet 13.
Thrive would also assign a City of Henderson license to ETW.
Helping Hands would assign a Clark County license to LivFree, who would also receive a new license from the state for Henderson.
GreenMart would transfer a Clark County license to Nevada Wellness Center.
The settlement would also force the companies receiving a license to join the state in defending the lawsuit against the other claimants not awarded a license in the settlement.
Attorneys for THC NV and Herbal Choice – two companies that were not provided relief under the proposal – called the settlement “collusively procured” and said that their clients were deliberately and intentionally omitted from the decision-making process.
Attorney Amy Sugden told the Current that she intends to challenge the Tax Commission’s jurisdiction over the agreement since the industry is regulated by the Cannabis Control Board.
A Delaware court has denied a bid by an injured worker for his former employer to compensate him for out-of-pocket medical cannabis expenses related to treatment for an on-the-job injury, Law360 reports. For the ruling, the judge sided with the employer’s medical expert over the expert provided by the plaintiff.
John Nobles-Roark, the plaintiff, was injured in 1998 while working for a restaurant and in 2000 a state board found his injury to be compensable. Nobles-Roark underwent surgery for the injury, but his condition worsened and in 2003 the board granted him a partial ruling in his disability claim. His former employer tried three times between 2004 and 2007 to end the disability, but the board denied the motion each time.
Nobles-Roark was approved for the state’s medical cannabis program in 2014 after undergoing traditional prescription medications and physical therapy from 2003 to 2018, his physician, Dr. Peter B. Bandera, testified.
Last year, Nobles-Roark filed the petition seeing compensation for his medical cannabis.
Dr. Jason Brokaw, a medical expert certified in pain management, testified on behalf of the employer, arguing that Nobles-Roark is not a good candidate for medical cannabis treatment based on his other concurrent conditions, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder.
Judge Andrea L. Rocanelli, agreeing with Browkaw, said that while the state legislature found “that medical marijuana can effectively treat some patients” the medical cannabis law “does not amount to a finding that medical marijuana is ‘reasonable and necessary’ to treat all patients.”
Rocanelli, in denying the claim, said there was sufficient evidence to support Brokaw’s opinion over Bandura’s.
Attorneys for Nobles-Roark told Law360 that they are considering an appeal.
Cheryl Glenn, a former Democratic lawmaker in Maryland representing parts of Baltimore, has been sentenced to two years in prison for taking bribes for legislative favors, including voting to benefit a medical cannabis company, the Star Tribune reports. Glenn had been a staunch supporter for creating social equity in the state’s cannabis industry.
Glenn admitted to accepting $33,750 in five bribes over an 11-month period from 2018 to 2019. The first was a $3,000 payment in exchange for voting favorably to increase the number of medical cannabis cultivation licenses from 15 to 22 and capping processing licenses at 28. She accepted another $20,000 in bribes for requesting a bill be drafted to create new liquor licenses, and another $5,000 bribe for introducing a measure to lower the number of years of experience required for a medical director of opioid clinics.
U.S. District Judge Catherine Blake also ordered Glenn to pay $18,750 in restitution and called the former lawmaker’s actions as more than a “one-time lapse.”
“It was not a momentary giving in to temptation. It was a deliberate scheme to take advantage of her political power and misuse her influence and to break the public trust in exchange for money.” – Blake in her ruling via the Star Tribune
Prosecutors had sought a three-year sentence for Glenn. Her attorney, William Brennan, argued for a sentence of probation and home detention saying he didn’t think incarceration was necessary for his client who “has otherwise lived an exemplary life.”
Prosecutors said Glenn was “instrumental” in creating the state’s medical cannabis industry. The Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission is named after Glenn’s mother, Natalie LaPrade.
Glenn pleaded guilty in January to bribery and honest services wire fraud.
The Democratic Party’s platform committee on Monday rejected an amendment to support federal cannabis legalization, Boulder Weekly reports. The vote was 50-106 with three abstentions.
The committee did approve language supporting federal cannabis decriminalization and rescheduling, along with language calling for reforms on how drug-related crimes are prosecuted.
“We will support legalization of medical marijuana, and believe states should be able to make their own decisions about recreational use. The Justice Department should not launch federal prosecutions of conduct that is legal at the state level. All past criminal convictions for cannabis use should be automatically expunged.” – The Democratic Party platform
In the platform, Democrats call substance use disorders “diseases, not crimes” and says the party believes “no one should be in prison solely because they use drugs.”
“And rather than involving the criminal justice system, Democrats support increased use of drug courts, harm reduction interventions, and treatment diversion programs for those struggling with substance use disorders,” the platform states.
The platform follows the lead of Joe Biden – the former vice president who will challenge President Donald Trump in November – who has stopped short of calling for federal cannabis legalization throughout the campaign. Biden has indicated support for legalizing medical cannabis nationwide but, with regard to broad legalization, the nominee said in a February recording on the campaign trail that he was “not prepared” to enact the reforms.
Biden has said throughout the campaign that he supports expunging low-level cannabis crimes. During a Tuesday speech, Biden called criminal records “the weight that holds back too many people of color, and many whites as well,” according to a Marijuana Moment report.
“Under my plan, if a state decides it wants to implement an automated system for the sealing and expunging of certain nonviolent criminal records if a state chooses to do that, the federal government will help put together the process and allow them the money to be able to know how to organize to do that,” he said during his remarks.
The Republican Party platform calls neither for cannabis nor broad criminal justice reforms.
Only the Green and Libertarian platforms include nationwide cannabis legalization. The Green Party will be represented by Howie Hawkins in the general election, while the Libertarian Party nominee is Jo Jorgensen.
Editor’s note: this article is submitted by the Massachusetts Recreational Consumer Council, an organization advocating for restorative justice in the Massachusetts legal cannabis industry.
If we as a country dealt with the realities of racial capitalization, we would have a legal cannabis industry thriving as a free equitable market that prioritizes true craftsmanship and restorative justice. Instead we are pushing along state by state, choking for progress under the guise of social equity. As the country pushes forward, Massachusetts finds itself falling stagnant with liberal attitudes cloaking the truthful inequities of racial capitalization. Instead of moving forward with innovation, Massachusetts developed the legal cannabis industry to mimic other (broken) industries. These industries are reeling with the disasters of capitalism today. It’s apparent when you listen closely that Massachusetts is tone deaf in comparison to what the people who have suffered from the war on drugs are saying. What leads a state that prides itself on liberalism and innovation to fall so short in comparison to other states that have legalized and addressed the need to prioritize social equity in the cannabis industry?
Legalization Was Made Possible by the Traditional Market
The traditional market is a beautiful network of phenomenal spirits who understand the spirit of the cannabis plant and work to honor it. It is because of the traditional market you can gift up to an ounce legally in Massachusetts. It’s something the people championed for, like so many other things. And more could be legal but only if the traditional market is respected and consulted – not ignored, disrespected, preyed upon, and whitewashed. The Massachusetts legal industry is a sharp contrast to the traditional market in several ways including lack of access. The legal industry (in MA) has one access point and this access point requires millions of dollars in startup capital. This is by negligence. This is by capitalism. This is by design.
Across the state of Massachusetts, countless horror stories about the crushing debt of waiting for your license application to be processed by the Cannabis Control Commission can be heard. “LET THEM FEEL WHAT WE FEEL” Leah Daniels cried in dismay after waiting over 610 days for her application to be processed. After CCC Chairman Steve Hoffman attempted to turn a room filled with a majority of white cisgender men against a black woman in a plea of support for racial capitalism, the CCC has still failed to issue a public apology to Leah Daniels for its failed leadership in dealing with its own failures and miscommunication, even after the public outcry and headlines by local journalists. It’s apparent there is an extreme disconnect between the people and the legislators/regulators shaping our cannabis industry across the country, but this is especially true in Massachusetts. We must bridge this miscommunication TODAY.
How to Build an Equitable Industry
Only today is Massachusetts starting to have a serious conversation in regards to creating a social equity fund with bill s.2650 sitting before the Senate Ways and Means Committee pushing for traction to pass before the end of the July. Tragically, Massachusetts is still processing that it has already borrowed from the traditional market and chose to invest in the prison industrial complex, along with the rest of the country. The people who founded this industry have already paid the state of Massachusetts – with their lives. It’s time for Massachusetts to SHIFT and join the rest of the country by prioritizing social equity in the quest for a free equitable market.
Shifting requires acknowledging that debt is not equity. A loan is being dressed up and called social equity in Massachusetts through support of bill s.2650. Never is there an acknowledgement from the Cannabis Control Commission that loans are a form of borrowing that create debt, nor that the financial shortfalls of 10% set aside for social equity funds when it takes millions of dollars just to open one dispensary. It is alarming how basic banking practices are being spouted as progression and slapped with the social equity stamp for approval. How can you borrow from something you created and own? This is the insanity the legal industry in Massachusetts is proposing to the traditional market today. Instead of building debt Massachusetts needs to build bridges. There is no free equitable market without acknowledgement of the failures of racial capitalism.
In California, the Bureau of Cannabis Control awarded $10 million in equity grant funding in October 2019, and an additional $30 million in equity grant funding was awarded by the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development in April 2020. https://t.co/fkiRCGqhvs
Massachusetts is taking baby steps towards social equity and everyone across the country knows it. Bill s.2650 simply takes 10% of cannabis tax revenue and puts it towards a social equity fund with a social equity loan for social equity and economic empowerment licenses. “In California, the Bureau of Cannabis Control awarded $10 million in equity grant funding in October 2019, and an additional $30 million in equity grant funding was awarded by the Governors Office of Business and Economic Development in April 2020” – Shaleen Title tweeted in acknowledgement of social equity grant funding in other states.
Yet Massachusetts supports loans. Loans are debt. Massachusetts should be proposing grants but apparently grants are too radical for such a liberal state. “This bill would give the support needed to these entrepreneurs, in the form of loans. In addition, I support the amendments included in Sen. Collins recent Amendment 179 to S2842 that expanded the bill to include loan forgiveness and grants, as well as a stipulation that municipalities grant host agreements to one equity business alternating with one general applicant.” Senator Patricia Jehlen.
This amendment was struck down by the Senate and Bill S.2650 still has not been amended to include anything from amendment 179 of Bill S.2842 as of today. It’s been noticed that no cannabis non-profit nor Senator has made public statements to push support of amending s.2650 to include grants other than Massachusetts Recreational Consumer Council and Senator Jehlen. S.2650 should simply be amended to include a loan forgiveness program that SE/EE licensees automatically qualify for. Or even simpler: join the rest of the nation and offer grants. Either way, Massachusetts legislators and the Cannabis Control Commission need to SHIFT today.
The horror stories of securing your Host Community Agreements licenses with municipalities is never-ending. Bill s.2650 needs to address lack of protective language if it wants the funds to get out and not sit unused and poorly dispersed. In an interview with Enterprise news, entrepreneur and social equity applicant Vanessa Jean Baptiste stated “We don’t have many resources. As an economic empowerment applicant and criminal justice major, I want to help people affected by the war on drugs. It’s really not fair that people with connections can get licensed, and people without government connections have to deal with the black market, knowing that they can get arrested at any point in time.”
Including a 1:1 priority between General and SE/EE licenses on a state level would be one way to address the problem, as currently licenses are being dealt with on a municipal level and often utilize a pay-to-play system which further marginalizes our SE/EE applicants. There are federal investigations occurring in municipalities across the state of Massachusetts because of this issue. Ignoring its existence doesn’t achieve anything and only widens the systemic damage from the inequities of prohibition. The people have been championing for a 1:1 ratio for YEARS. End the corruption. Our legislators need to SHIFT today.
Follow the Money
Illinois devotes 25% of cannabis taxes toward social equity. In Massachusetts, it’s noted that the bill the CCC supports proposes a mere 10% of cannabis tax revenue. Keep in mind: it takes millions in startup capital to open one dispensary. There are 70 social equity/economic empowerment applicants with their licenses yet only 3 are open, with lack of startup funds being the number one barrier. Since the legalization of cannabis, millions of dollars have gone to pay police for traffic details at cannabis dispensaries, deemed mandatory mainly due to reefer madness mentalities. Zero dollars from cannabis tax revenue have gone toward areas disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs. 10% will assist only a few and ignore the hundreds. Who said that the people who lost the lives of loved ones, their community, & years of their own to the war on drugs only need 10% to successfully gain entry into the legal cannabis industry? Fuck liberalism. The people whose backs this industry STILL sits upon want their coins. All of them. They are not an afterthought. Our legislators need to SHIFT and amend 100% of cannabis tax revenue to the social equity fund.
It shouldn’t be hard to get social equity passed in Massachusetts, but this is a state that literally wrote into the legalization of cannabis that cannabis tax revenue would fund municipal police trainings. Prohibitionist indoctrination has shaped the legalized cannabis industry in Massachusetts from the start, and the failings of racial capitalization have already caught up with it. It will repeat over and over until there is acknowledgement. We cannot move forward until the issues on the table are addressed.
Take Action Now
The MRCC has proposed multiple amendments to the current bill that would work to address the institutional trauma of the drug war, create opportunities for impacted communities, and set Massachusetts up as an example for other states to follow. Read about our objectives and learn more about our organization on our website, and if you believe that the people deserve an equitable industry, let the Massachusetts Senate Ways and Means committee know that you support our amendments by clicking here to call or send an email today.
As of Sunday, smokeable hemp will no longer be allowed for sale in Texas, KENS5 reports. The state’s recently-approved hemp rules prohibit smokeable forms of the plant; however, other consumable hemp products will remain for sale in the state.
Some smokeable products will remain on retailer shelves but they cannot be marketed or sold as a smokeable product. The rules do not prohibit raw hemp from being cultivated, manufactured, or sold in other consumable forms. The bill does not prohibit Texas from ordering smokeable hemp products online.
Alex Reyes, manager of Mary Jane’s CBD Dispensary-Smoke & Vape Shop, estimated that 30 percent of the company’s sales come from smokable hemp, calling it “the most convenient way to ingest CBD and get the benefits of all the cannabinoids.”
Heather Fazio, executive director for Texans for Responsible Marijuana Policy, called the hemp rules “bad for businesses” and said officials are “allowing fear and misinformation” to guide them.
“This is bad for safety and making sure that there’s accountability for the products consumers are purchasing.” – Fazio to KENS5
Texas issued its first hemp license in April. That month, officials said they had received a total of 546 industrial hemp applications including 458 producer applications, 58 handler applications, and 30 handler sampler applications. The law includes legalization and regulation of CBD – which is often sold in smokeable forms including flower and concentrates. All hemp-containing edible products produced in the state, including CBD, are regulated by the Department of State Health, under the law.
Maryland’s Court of Appeals has unanimously ruled that law enforcement officers in the state cannot make an arrest based on the odor of cannabis alone, the Baltimore Sun reports. The ruling, though, does not prevent officers from searching a vehicle based on the odor of cannabis. State case law says there is a reduced expectation of privacy in a motor vehicle and the court’s recent opinion does not challenge that law.
“The odor of marijuana, without more, does not provide law enforcement officers with the requisite probable cause to arrest and perform a warrantless search of that person incident to the arrest,” Chief Judge Mary Ellen Barbera in the ruling.
Barbara wrote that there is “a heightened expectation of privacy enjoyed in one’s person” that “do not attend the search of a vehicle.”
“Arresting and searching a person, without a warrant and based exclusively on the odor of marijuana on that person’s body or breath, is unreasonable and does violence to the fundamental privacy expectation in one’s body,” she wrote in the opinion.
The ruling also requires a “probable cause” search based on cannabis odor to require police to “possess information indicating possession of a criminal amount” of cannabis since it is decriminalized throughout the state.
The ruling comes in the case of Rasherd Lewis, who police said in on Feb. 1, 2017 fit the description of a man in a tip about an armed person and was followed by police into a store.
Inside the store, officers said Lewis walked past “emitting” the smell of cannabis, and Lewis was handcuffed and searched based on the smell. During the search, police found a handgun inside a bag strapped to his chest and a small amount of cannabis in his pocket.
The Baltimore State’s Attorney’s Office argued that “the odor of marijuana” provided the officer with probable cause to arrest and search Lewis because any amount of cannabis is contraband, despite the 10-gram threshold for decriminalized possession.
Lewis was convicted of possessing a handgun and sentenced to three years in prison. The ruling sends the case back to Baltimore City court with instructions that prosecutors cannot use the evidence of the search that found the weapon. Lewis’ sentence and conviction will likely be vacated due to the ruling.
Hip-hop artists Killer Mike and El-P – better known collectively as Run the Jewels – have partnered with cannabis companies Cookies and Lemonnade to release their first branded strain called Ooh LaLa. Cookies was founded by rapper and entrepreneur Berner.
The Run the Jewels line will include pre-rolls, vapes, extracts, and blunts. It will be available at Cookies and Lemonade retail stores throughout California, along with the Cookies store in Detroit, Michigan. Ooh LaLa flower and pre-rolls will also be available in Washington state, through the Hash Agency; Colorado, at Veritas Fine Cannabis; Oregon and Oklahoma, via ElectraLeaf; and later this year in Arizona and Illinois, the duo said on their website.
“We have huge respect for Berner and what he’s accomplished and we fucking love weed so this is very exciting for us.” – El-P in a statement
Berner and Killer Mike have previously worked together on Berner’s 2011 release The White Album. The strain name, Ooh LaLa, is based on the lead single of the same name from Run the Jewels’ latest album RTJ4.
Killer Mike and El-P join a long list of rappers to launch a cannabis brand or product, including Kurupt, Xzibit, Wiz Khalifa, The Game, B. Real, 2 Chainz, Jim Jones, Lil Wayne, Drake, and Snoop Dogg. Snoop’s brand, Leafs By Snoop, was found by a Green Horizons analysis as the most recognizable cannabis brand in the U.S.; however, just 23 percent of respondents had heard of the brand and no other brand had a higher rating of consumer recognition.
At least 350 more Missouri patients have reportedly been scammed by fake physician certifications for the state’s medical cannabis program, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. The number of total affected patients is about 1,000 after Department of Health Officials announced last month that 600 patients were victims of the fraud.
All of the patients believed they were talking to a real physician when completing the program paperwork required by the state; however, the person on the other end of the phone wasn’t the doctor listed on their certification paperwork and may not have been a doctor at all. Health officials believe that all of the affected patients completed the approval process through WeedCerts. According to the report, the company was offering medical cannabis certifications for $50; they usually run $150-$200.
In a July 23 Facebook post, the company said it had been able to fix about 280 of the “fraudulent certifications” and is working with another clinic to get affected patients recertified at no cost. The company said it has also issued some refunds.
The first 600 applications found to be fraudulent listed the information of Dr. Allison Medlin of Independence who denied that she had anything to do with the scheme. She said in a statement to the Post-Dispatch that she was “extremely disappointed that any company or individual would fraudulently use [her] signature.”
In a June 27 post, the company said it “thought” it was working with Medlin but “that was not the case.”
On June 22 post, WeedCerts Head of Marketing Lou Moynihan said the company “is not going to survive” the scandal but argued that “not one single employee, manager or owner, past or present, ever did anything malicious, fraudulent, or with ill intent.”
Lisa Cox, spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Senior Services, said at least one other physician’s signature was fraudulently used in the scheme and that the agency has conducted random checks of the state’s 55,000-plus certifications to make sure they were legitimate.
Affected patients have 30 days to recertify for the program.
Hospitals in Thailand can now make and provide cannabis-based medicines selected from a government-approved list of 16 recipes for traditional Thai medicines that contain cannabis as a base ingredient, the Bangkok Post reports.
Dr. Marut Jirasetthasiri, director-general of the Department of Thai Traditional and Alternative Medicine, said that health promotion hospitals in the country are now free to make the medicines so long as there is an expert in traditional Thai medicine on duty to prepare them. The medicines were traditionally prescribed to help treat common illnesses in each region of the country.
Dr. Marut said the demand for traditional medicine treatments has increased so the department has allowed 152 health promotion hospitals to expand their cannabis farms. There are currently 291 units offering cannabis-based medicines at state-run medical outlets throughout the country, and more than 60,000 cannabis-based treatments have been issued so far this year, according to the report.
In January, a health clinic in Chiang Mai became the country’s first medical outlet to offer the cannabis-based medicines.
Thailand legalized the medical use of cannabis in late 2018, making it the first Southeast Asian country to do so. Adult-use cannabis, however, remains prohibited.
A proposal last November would have allowed Thai citizens to cultivate up to six cannabis plants at home and sell their harvests back to the government to be processed into medical cannabis products.
A new poll has found 68 percent of New Jersey residents said they would vote in favor of the cannabis legalization ballot question in November, according to a survey commissioned by law firm Brach Eichler LLC and conducted by DKC Analytics. Twenty-six percent opposed the measure.
Interestingly, 57 percent of the poll respondents indicated they were not current cannabis users. Another 17 percent said they were current users, while 14 percent said they had used cannabis in the past, and 9 percent said they would consider trying cannabis if it were legalized in the state.
The reforms were supported by 78 percent of Democrats, with 19 percent opposed; 57 percent of Republicans, with 39 percent opposed; and 63 percent of independents, with 27 percent opposed. In all, just 6 percent of respondents said they were unsure.
John D. Fanburg, co-chair of the Cannabis Law Practice at the firm, said the results confirmed that “there is overwhelming support for the creation of a regulated, adult-use cannabis marketplace in New Jersey.”
“Respondents supported it because it will create tremendous opportunity. It will create vitally needed new businesses, the state will receive significant tax revenues and illegal sales will be dramatically reduced, if not eliminated. Voters see this as a win for everyone.” – Fanburg in a statement
Poll respondents were split about whether the reforms should include local control of cannabis sales – which would allow municipalities to decide whether to allow cannabis sales within their city limits. The majority – 44 percent – of respondents favored home rule, with 41 percent opposed, and 51 percent unsure. Respondents also favored social-use lounges (50-38 percent), home delivery (55 to 33 percent), and limiting cannabis use to private property (71 to 26 percent).
Additionally, the poll found 68 percent supported expungement of low-level cannabis crimes that would be legal under the new regime. Fanburg said it is “well recognized” that minorities in New Jersey “were arrested and incarcerated for cannabis-related offenses disproportionate to non-minority populations.”
Charles X. Gormally, another co-chair of the Cannabis Law Practice, said the “strong level” of support for criminal reforms among respondents “should be well noted” by New Jersey lawmakers who will be tasked with writing and implementing the rules for legalization.
The poll surveyed 500 registered New Jersey voters from July 7-12. The poll has a 4.4 percent margin of error.
An April poll from Monmouth University also found New Jersey voters supported the reforms 61-34 percent.
Cannabis companies come in a wide range of varieties. One of the rarest and most respected varieties are cannabis companies that successfully make the transition from the medical cannabis market to the licensed recreational market. It takes an extraordinary combination of skill, grind, and luck to make the jump.
That’s why it is so nice to tour the Pacific Northwest Roots facility on their five acres in Tahuya, Washington, along the Hood Canal fjord, one of the Puget Sound’s four major basins. A gardening oasis in a thick forest, the location is modestly sized for a Tier 3 cultivator consisting of a couple of greenhouses and a small building for propagation and making hash.
Pacific Northwest Roots overview
The setup is clearly bootstrapped and the team likes it that way. Much of the gear came right out of the team’s medical cultivation operations. And it’s interesting — even though the lighting equipment is unmatched and some walls are still lacking drywall, when you interact with the team it becomes quickly apparent that these guys know every inch of their gear, have fixed them and rebuilt them, and know how to maximize the capabilities of everything from the lights to the air conditioners. On its face, the team is more of a deeply experienced band of brothers than a commercial enterprise.
Peeking into a greenhouse grow at Pacific Northwest Roots. Photo credit: Shango Los
The company is proud to have never taken investment capital from outside sources, which gives them a certain extra amount of freedom. For example, when it was time to build out the hash lab, the team received a bid for $30,000 but the folks decided they already had all the skills amongst them and did it themselves for $10,000. By building their business on a shoestring budget, with used gear, and waiting to get their property and license at a good price, Pacific Northwest Roots was continually able to capitalize on their calm patience — an attribute in short supply during the Green Rush.
Pacific Northwest Roots founder Ras Kaya Paul established the brand in 2010 while participating in the Washington medical market. While Kaya had already established himself as someone to know for obtaining elite genetics and specialty flower, Kaya saw PNW Roots’ first serious opportunity as a hash-maker in a market accustomed to what is considered today as barely passable quality. Kaya is quick to mention that his wife Tatiana was there before day one and, while he may be the founder, Pacific Northwest Roots would not exist without her ideas and efforts.
Primarily self-taught, source material was inexpensive enough in the medical market that Kaya and the early Roots Crew were able to do a great deal of experimentation on their own while slowly establishing a collection of best practices used to guide the company’s hash-making to this day. While their in-house genetics are easily as popular as their hash, the hash is clearly what has firmly established the Pacific Northwest Roots brand in Washington State. It is the Pacific Northwest Roots genetics that have extended their brand’s reach across the entire country.
The renowned hash-makers at Pacific Northwest Roots have found success by using their own premium, sun-grown cannabis flower. Photo credit: Shango Los
While it seems like an obvious outgrowth of the company now in retrospect, it was not an original goal of Pacific Northwest Roots to put out a venerable line of seeds. Clearly, Kaya and his team were able to find genetics that they could grow that would hash well. However, Kaya’s dad was a world renown game fowl breeder and, between the game fowl and sporting hounds they raised, Kaya learned breeding basics at an early age. Kaya was hardwired for breeding and he finally felt the call to breed cannabis after wanting to produce a terpene profile that he could imagine but had not tasted.
Pacific Northwest Roots focuses on growing outdoors under the sunshine. They are going for the full terpene profiles that sun-grown is known for, as well as some of that earth magic that comes from growing with the sun instead of a sterile grow room. During the late fall when the Pacific Northwest weather gets too gray to grow, they get some assistance from lights and heating coils in the living soil beds. Indoors there is a propagation room and a Mother Room holding their genetics and the in-house breeder’s cuts of their own lines.
Pacific Northwest Roots does not use synthetic fertilizers, nutrients or pesticides, instead focusing on natural farming and permaculture techniques with a heavy dose of Korean Natural Farming (KNF) fermentations and other preparations. The farm has put in the additional effort to become Dragonfly Earth Medicine “DEMPure Certified” working under the most rigorous regenerative and organic growing standards in the cannabis industry. They eschew growing in individual pots and instead opt for large raised beds in the greenhouses and hugelkultur under the naked sun. The hugels are filled with locally scavenged fallen trees, forest duff, last year’s soil, and inoculated with indigenous microorganisms. The canopy is primarily their own cultivars but you can see some other connoisseur grade rarities in the mix as well, like “Pinkleberry” from breeder Nicholas Mahmood of Green Source Gardens. The obvious omission of a large indoor cultivation area means that the team takes a break from growing during the winter and instead focuses on making hash with the fresh-frozen flowers they grew all summer long.
Photo credit: Pacific Northwest Roots
This seasonal inhale and exhale makes for some incredible hash. Pacific Northwest Roots provides five and six star hash and hash rosin as well. Controlling every aspect from the breeding of the seeds, to the cultivation, harvest time and then finishing up with the hashing and curing gives the Roots Crew an infinite number of variables to tweak while seeking to create the best hash.
The Pacific Northwest Roots genetics are collected and grown by many but there is nothing like enjoying the original breeder’s cuts when buying direct. Founder Kaya has had access to hard-to-find elite medical genetics by working with allies across the country. Due to this, the Pacific Northwest Roots library of options for crosses was significant since before normalization started rolling out nationwide.
Reviewing products
For this feature, we chose five lines of PNW Roots hash. Four hash rosins and one 6* sandy blond hash that was still unpressed.
We started off as any good morning should with Koffee, specifically Koffee Breath, an OG Kush Breath cross to Kaya’s Koffee. Kaya’s Koffee is likely the cultivar that first gave Pacific Northwest Roots seeds its national reputation. It captures coffee terpenes in a way none of us had experienced before. When Kaya’s Koffee is on its own, it is a straight hit of Koffee terps unlike many other coffee-tasting cultivars that simply mix coffee in with a range of other flavors. Kaya’s is a cleaner experience which, we suspect, is why it is such a champ to breed with. This blending of Kaya’s Koffee and OGKB pretty much tastes like drinking your morning coffee while pumping gas into your car. It has that warming and life-giving Koffee terpene but with fuel swirling all around.
Photo credit: Pacific Northwest Roots
Next was PNW Roots’ Hamma Hamma which is a cross of the legendary 9lb Hammer by Jinxproof with Kaya’s Koffee. We expected the Hamma Hamma to have that same Koffee terpene profile. We were certainly surprised to find that the usually barely-there taste of lemongrass that often comes with 9lb Hammer was right up front when made into a hash. That lemongrass blended with the roasted humus taste of the Kaya’s Koffee and became something more like chai or maybe even sweet chicory root. We all agreed that there was a delightfully distinct Play-Doh taste when dabbed onto an enail as well, which we all liked. I found that this is the one that I came back to first the next day.
Pacific Northwest Roots’ Strawberry Yogurt originated in a Strawberry Kush bagseed but then was bred, after a large sift, for its strawberry and dairy duality. One of the fun things about this strawberry hash is that it is not natural berry strawberry tasting. Rather, it tastes like the enduring strawberry taste of breakfast cereal. More like Crunchberries and less like fresh fruit. When smoking it, you get an immediate hit of breakfast as a kid that dissolves into a dairy taste, more milk-like really than yogurt because it doesn’t have that fermented bite that yogurt has. The finish is very balanced and makes you want to take that ride again right away.
The Key Lime Koffee we enjoyed was more lime pith and rind taste than the bright green lime we usually think of when we think Key Lime. That understatedness worked for us though since we had just sampled that bright strawberry cereal taste prior. This was a bit more sophisticated with that lime being accompanied by oiled leather and earthen notes. It was a bit more gentle on the palette than the other four and I’d choose to start with this one if taking it to a sesh so that my tongue could pick up the subtitles before getting blown out by less subtle OGs and heavy fuels.
Finally, Vanilla Koffee was a blend of cultivars pressed together as a wine vintner would do. I’ve become a big fan of whole-plant rosin hash blends. So long as the hash maker is blending whole plant hash and not adding outside terpenes, I’m all for it. Vanilla Koffee starts with warming roasted coffee overtones mixed with fuel. As that opens up, more of the vanilla bean comes through ending in kind of a creamy caramel dairy finish. When dabbed, a raw almond flavor comes out too and blends with the fuel.
No doubt, when you are standing in the Roots farm office with exposed wood walls while hearing about their vinyl LP records and resin floor, you definitely get the idea that you are visiting a clubhouse of artisans more than necessarily a business. Sure, I saw the signs of business, and certainly it takes mature business systems to interact with the state regulators and turn a profit, but there is a vibe that “great work” is happening here and that is what the team is constantly focused on. And this brings us back to why cannabis companies that started in the medical days are in a category of their own — there is a certain something that prohibition-era producers have that those new to cannabis just don’t have. For better or for worse, these same casually-driven work habits sink many cannabis companies but for Pacific Northwest Roots, persistence and patience are paying off.
The European Commission is considering labeling naturally-derived CBD food products “narcotic-related” and has suspended applications for novel food with non-synthetic CBD, according to a Just Food report. The plan would not add the label to novel foods – described by the European Union as a product not widely consumed before 1997 – that contain synthetic CBD.
A spokesperson for the European Commission said the label would be added to products containing “CBD extracted from the flowering and fruiting tops of the hemp plant.” The spokesperson added that the commission has informed applicants of the novel food program about their “preliminary views” and has asked them to comment on the proposal.
Those “preliminary views,” the spokesman said, consider hemp-derived CBD as a narcotic drug under the 1961 United Nations Single Drug Convention on Narcotic Drugs.
“The commission must verify whether the individual applications fall within the scope of the Novel Foods Regulation and whether the data requirements are fulfilled. This includes a verification of whether the specific product falls within the definition of food. The commission will make a decision on the validity of the concerned applications afterward. … Applications for synthetic CBD can be considered valid and some have already been sent to the European Food Safety Authority for risk assessment.” – European Commission spokesperson via Just Food
The commission will also review applications for other hemp-derived products “including extractions from the flowering parts but also from other plant parts,” the spokesperson said, alluding to flavonoids and terpenes.
While the policy is being considered, businesses will be allowed to continue selling hemp-derived CBD food products that have been previously approved.
Police in France will issue on-the-spot fines of €200 for illegal drug use, including cannabis, beginning in September, French Prime Minister Jean Castex announced on Saturday. According to the France24 report, the fines had already been tested in several French cities but under the new policy, the penalties will now be enforced nationwide.
French law permits fines up to €3,750 and jail time for the public but few are incarcerated under the law, the report says. French people are Europe’s leading consumers of cannabis and a 2015 European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction report found that the number of 15-and 16-year-olds who use cannabis is higher in France than any other country in Europe.
In 2015, 140,000 people in France were arrested for drug offenses, with just 3,098 sentenced to incarceration.
Castex said on Saturday that the new rules allow police to apply a “punishment without delay.” The policy includes provisions reducing the fine to €150 if paid within two weeks, but courts can levy a fine up to €450 if the payment is not settled within 45 days. Castex told reporters that 150 law enforcement jobs would be created along with the new policy to “strengthen local criminal action for the repression of everyday delinquency,” according to a Euronews report.
President Emmanual Macron supported spot fines during his presidential campaign, saying they could be used to deter petty crimes that often go unpunished.
Voters in Portland, Maine will vote in November whether or not to remove the city’s cap on cannabis businesses, News Center Maine reports. The successful campaign comes more than two months after the state reached a legal agreement with cannabusiness that had sued the state that will prevent officials from enforcing an industry resident requirement.
David Boyer, who led the campaign, said removing the cap will allow for “a fair and open market” since “the state has proved it will not defend Maine from outside, big corporations” entering the state’s industry.
“At a time of such economic uncertainty, it does not make sense to cap legal jobs and legal businesses. We are confident that Portland voters will endorse cannabis regulations rooted in fairness and inclusivity this November.” – Boyer in a statement via News Center Maine
The campaign collected more than 2,400 petition signatures; 1,500 were required. The initiative will be read during an Aug. 3 City Council meeting, with a public hearing on the measure expected on Aug. 31.
Maine was sued by the Wellness Connection and Wellness and Pain Management Connection of Delaware, subsidiaries of High Street Capital Partners of Delaware, arguing that the residency requirement included in the state’s cannabis legalization law violates the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution which forbids restrictive and discriminatory commercial regulations between the states.
In May, the Portland City Council voted to keep the residency requirements intact despite the outcome of the lawsuit against the state. Supporters of that decision said the city’s residency regulations would be easier to defend in court because unlike the state’s four-year residency requirement locals will get preferential treatment by the city only if it gets more than 20 applications and must break a tie among those with similar business experience, bank deposits, and employee wages.
Clint Eastwood is suing 20 CBD companies claiming they used his name and likeness without his permission, along with made-up quotes from the actor, to promote their products, according to a Fox News report. His lawyers told the BBC that Eastwood “does not have and never has had” any partnership with any CBD company.
Sera Labs, one of the firms named in the suit, said in a statement that they “worked for a limited time with a publisher and gave them specific advertisements they could use which follow our very strict guidelines and shut down the ads immediately after learning that they used Eastwood’s name and likeness.” The firm said they are no longer working with the publisher in question.
The lawsuit takes aim at “fake news” articles about Eastwood and CBD. One titled “Big Pharma In Outrage Over Clint Eastwood’s CBD” claims that the actor is leaving the movie business to promote CBD products. Another “internet scam” uses the actor’s image and tagged their websites with his name to make it appear he backs the products.
“By using Mr. Eastwood’s name in hidden metatags, Defendants have figuratively posted a sign with Mr. Eastwood’s trademark in front of their online store to attract consumers and caused the consuming public to believe that Mr. Eastwood is associated with and/or endorsed the CBD Online marketplace Defendants’ CBD products, when no such association actually exists.” – Court documents via Variety
A representative told Variety that the actor “does not express a point of view about CBD products or the legal CBD industry” and that the lawsuit specifically targets “the illegal use of Mr. Eastwood’s name and likeness, and dissemination of false and defamatory statements about him, to sell someone else’s products.”
The defendants named in the suit include Sera, Greendios, For Our Vets LLC, Norok Innovation, Natural Stress Solutions, and Mabsut Life US Corp.
City College of San Francisco is rolling out a two-year cannabis studies degree program for the fall semester – an expansion to the cannabis industry courses it already offers, San Francisco News reports. The college first announced it would offer industry-related courses in 2017.
The associate degree program requires three courses: Introduction to Cannabis – which the college has offered previously – Anthropology of Cannabis, and Psychology of Psychoactive Drugs. Students must also take four electives.
Jennifer Dawgert Carlin, Chair of the Behavioral Sciences Department and head of the program, told the News that students could use the degree as a “specialized area” to transfer to a four-year program and study public policy, anthropology, or public health.
“We’re not here to teach people what to think about cannabis and the subjects. Our job is to teach people how to think about it. Our hope is that students will come and not only learn about cannabis if they want to be working in the industry, but also to understand how powerfully important cannabis as a concept and as a phenomenon is.” – Carlin to the San Francisco Examiner
CCSF Chancellor Rajen Vurdien told the Examiner that the program “shows how fast the college moves to address societal problems and issues and at the same time to address the needs of the job market as they emerge.”
When the college first announced it would offer a cannabis industry-related course, it was a partnership with the United Food and Commercial Workers union and Oakland-based Oaksterdam University and program enrollees had to be sponsored by the UFCW or another union with apprenticeship programs in the cannabis space.
Lume Cannabis Company has been awarded an adult-use cannabis license for the tribal lands of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians in Chippewa County, Michigan. The deal allows Lume to open a retail dispensary this year with up to five more through 2022.
Joel Schultz, Sault Tribe economic development executive director, said the tribe is “honored” to work with Lume, which is the largest vertically-integrated cannabis company in Michigan, calling it “a big moment” for the tribe.
“The Sault Tribe is working progressively to diversify economic development to enhance revenues to expand services to Sault Tribe Members. Lume has the expertise, passion, values and philosophy that make them the ideal company to work with to bring recreational cannabis to Sault Ste. Marie.” – Schultz in a statement
Lume President and COO Doug Hellyar said the deal will take the company’s operations “to the next level.”
“We are excited about our partnership with the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians and pleased to announce we’ve received an adult-use marijuana retail license to open our newest Lume location,” he said in a statement. “We look forward to introducing our high-quality cannabis products to adult-use customers and medical patients age 21 and up with a valid medical card in Sault Ste. Marie and the surrounding communities.”
Lume currently has 10 locations throughout Michigan. It’s cultivation and production facility is in Evart. The tribe is the largest east of the Mississippi.
According to a High Times report, Lume also has a partnership with the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians for retail shops in Petoskey and Mackinaw City. Mackinaw City does not allow retail cannabis sales but has no control over tribal lands.
Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commissioner Shaleen Title said in a Boston Public Radio interview that she is starting to become “embarrassed” by the state’s cannabis industry inequities along with a plan by the House to use cannabis-derived revenues for police training.
During the interview, Title said the House plan “struck a chord with a lot of people” and she had “a visceral reaction … to see an equity bill funding police before equity has been funded in many ways.
“The chairman said earlier he was proud other states are following in our lead,” she said, referring to comments by MCC Chairman Steve Hoffman. “And I was proud, but at this point, four years later, I’m started to becoming embarrassed, to be honest.”
Just three of the 70 economic empowerment applicants approved by the commission have opened for business.
Title also took aim at the so-called community host agreements – deals between cannabis companies and their host cities – as “a way to extract money” from businesses.
“The local approval process, particularly the host community agreement, was meant to be an agreement between businesses and the municipality they’re located in to discuss things like hour of operation, signage, the typical things a city would control. But what it turned into was this perversion where many – not all – but many towns and cities are using the host community agreement as a way to extract money, donations, sometimes from businesses.” – Title to WGBH
Hoffman has previously criticized the agreements as a barrier to entry for potential social equity applicants who might not have the ability to pay the 3 percent required under the law, and often cannot pay more than that. Hoffman told MassLive that the host agreements do “give a disproportionate advantage to bigger companies that can afford to throw in a fire truck on top of their 3 percent.”
Those host agreements came under fire initially after the arrest of Fall River Mayor Jasiel Correia, who allegedly used the host agreement to extort tens-of-thousands of dollars from cannabis companies. Last year, U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling convened a grand jury focused on the potential bribery of government officials by Massachusetts cannabis companies and subpoenaed the municipalities of Eastham, Great Barrington, Leicester, Newton, Northampton, and Uxbridge as part of his investigation.
In an opinion article published in the Boston Globe last week, Title and Hoffman urged lawmakers to pass a Senate bill that would establish a loan fund for equity applicants, along with other reforms to make the industry fairer.
Curaleaf Holdings, Inc. has completed its acquisition of GR Companies Inc. – better known as Grassroots – making it the largest vertically-integrated multi-state cannabis operator in the U.S. by revenue.
The deal expands Curaleaf’s presence from 18 to 23 states, 135 affiliated dispensary licenses, 88 operations dispensaries, more than 30 processing facilities, and 22 cultivation sites with 1.6 million square feet of growing capacity.
The deal was announced last July for $875 million in cash and stock. Grassroots Co-Founder and CEO Mitchell Kahn, who was named to the Curaleaf board of directors at the deal’s close, said the companies have “a combined strategic vision to create a dominant position in the industry.”
Joseph Lusardi, CEO of Curaleaf, said the deal firmly established the company’s market leadership position.
“The integration of Grassroots is expected to be immediately accretive to our financial performance, with our unprecedented scale providing significant opportunities to leverage Curaleaf’s powerful consumer brands as well as new form factor innovations across our expanded national presence.” – Lusardi in a statement
Curaleaf now operates in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Massachusetts, Maine, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, and Vermont.
Under the announced terms of the deal, Curaleaf paid $75 million in cash, 102.8 million subordinate shares of Curaleaf, and $40 million in Curaleaf shares priced at the 10-day volume-weighted average price prior to the transaction’s closing.
Curaleaf also this year completed their acquisition of Select brand parent company Cura Partners Inc. and last month announced that they were expanding that brand into four new state markets through next month.
