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New Jersey Legislature Reaches Deal on Cannabis Legalization

12/07/2020

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) said on Friday that lawmakers have come to an agreement on the bills to legalize cannabis required by the voter-approved ballot question. In a statement posted on Twitter, Murphy said the legislation “is a critical step in reducing racial disparities and social inequities that have long plagued” the state’s criminal justice system.

“This legislation will accomplish our shared goals of delivering restorative justice and ensuring that the communities most impacted by the War on Drugs see the economic benefits of the adult-use cannabis market. While there is still much work ahead, we are one step closer to building a news, promising industry for our state.” – Murphy in a statement

According to an NBC New York report, the legalization bill caps cultivation licenses at 37 but allows licensed growers to open as many dispensaries as they can get approved by municipalities. The cap will expire after two years.

The measure allows municipalities to impose a 2 percent sales tax, while the state will impose its standard 6.625 percent sales tax. Eventually, cannabis sales will also carry a social equity tax which is not included in this version of the legislation; however, the bill does apply 70 percent of revenues derived from sales to a social equity fund. The remaining will be used for law enforcement training for cannabis-impaired driving and administering the program.

Last month, New Jerseyans voted overwhelmingly to legalize adult-use marijuana.

Today, I’m proud to announce an agreement with @NJSenatePres, @SpeakerCoughlin, @SenatorScutari, and @AnnetteQuijano on a framework for legalization to advance racial, social, and economic justice. pic.twitter.com/rpeqbyoMoT

— Governor Phil Murphy (@GovMurphy) December 4, 2020

State Sen. Nick Scutari (D) – a longtime champion of drug law reforms in New Jersey – told CBS New York that the measure includes language to lower psilocybin penalties to a misdemeanor charge. He said there would be a separate bill to downgrade possession from a three-to-five-year prison term to up to six months in jail.

“I’m gratified that leaders of both houses and the and the governor have come together on a state-of-the-art piece of legislation in accordance with the wishes of the voters,” Scutari told NBC New York. “I’m also gratified I didn’t waste the last 10 years of my life on this.”

The measure still requires full legislative approval. The possession reforms included in the legalization question take effect on January 1.

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U.S. Marine Corps Employee Sentenced for Cannabis Sales In Japan

12/07/2020

A former civilian employee for the U.S. Marine Corps was sentenced last week in Japan’s Naha District Court to four years and four months in prison for cannabis sales, Stars and Stripes reports. Charles Yecla, 40, worked for Marine Corps Installations Pacific at the time of his arrest last year along with two other civilian employees and his son.

Chief Justice Hironobu Ono said at the sentencing that Yecla “spread marijuana’s evil influence far and wide,” and that the American “deserves the sentence.” Yecla was also fined the equivalent of $9,600.

According to a Ryukyu Asahi Broadcasting report, prosecutors say Yecla and his son sold cannabis from January to August 2019, earning more than $67,000. After Yecla’s arrest, police also found about a half-pound of cannabis worth about $10,600 and six potted plants, the Okinawa Times reported.

The two other unnamed Americans – a 30-year-old in Yomitan and a 39-year-old in Uruma – were arrested on Aug. 30 and Oct. 23, respectively, after purchasing cannabis from Yecla, police said. Both men were charged with possession.

In all, police have arrested are referred charges for 20 people for their part in the ring, according to Stars and Stripes. Among those arrested was Hironori Tokito, 42, a former Okinawa bar manager who previously served as an assembly member for Umi town in Fukuoka prefecture.

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Nebraska State Sen. Planning Adult-Use Ballot Initiative

12/07/2020

Nebraska State Sen. Anna Wishart (D) said in a Facebook post that she is working on “ballot language for full adult use legalization,” with plans to introduce it next month. The bid comes after medical cannabis advocates announced in late October that they would launch a ballot initiative to enact the reforms.

The Nebraska Supreme Court rejected the group’s 2020 initiative in September over claims that the initiative covered more than one issue.

Wishart, who co-founded Nebraskans for Sensible Marijuana Laws in 2019, said the legalization proposal is due to the successful reforms in neighboring South Dakota where voters approved both medical and adult-use legalization during last month’s General Election. The South Dakota legalization measure is being challenged over claims that it covers more than one subject, which violates the state constitution for questions.

Nebraska organizers need 250,000 total signatures to put the issue to voters in 2022.

The Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana initiative was whittled down to one sentence – “Persons in the State of Nebraska shall have the right to cannabis in all its forms for medical purposes” – for its next appearance on the ballot. Advocates hope the singular topic will prevent it from being rejected by the state Supreme Court.

State Senator Adam Morfeld (D), co-chair of Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana and co-sponsor of the 2022 initiative, said the medical cannabis proposal “indisputably presents a single subject and makes medical cannabis a constitutional right.”

It’s likely that, once unveiled, the adult-use proposal will follow this precedent with stripped-down language. Wishart indicated that she planned on filing standalone medical cannabis reforms in the legislature in January.

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U.S. House Votes to Legalize Cannabis Federally

12/04/2020

Lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives today passed the Marijuana Opportunities, Reinvestment, and Expungement (MORE) Act in a mostly partisan 228-164 vote. The historic approval marks the first time that an American congressional body has approved legislation aimed at undoing cannabis prohibition, and only the second time that federal lawmakers have considered a piece of stand-alone cannabis legislation.

The MORE Act seeks to decriminalize cannabis by removing it from the list of federally controlled substances and allowing states to set their own cannabis laws and policies moving forward.

The bill also seeks to enact social justice reforms through retroactive measures and social equity provisions. One such provision includes a 5% sales tax on all cannabis products that would fund a new Cannabis Justice Office in the Department of Justice, which would oversee a series of Community Reinvestment Programs including job training, literacy programs, youth recreation/mentoring, health education, and substance use treatment services, among others.

“This is a historic day for marijuana policy in the United States. This vote marks the first time in 50 years that a chamber of Congress has ever revisited the classification of cannabis as a federally prohibited substance and sought to close the rapidly widening chasm between state and federal marijuana policies.” — NORML Political Director Justin Strekal, in a statement

The bill moves next to the U.S. Senate, where it will likely be ignored by Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R), who has — along with other Republican lawmakers — recently lambasted House Democrats for even considering the cannabis legalization issue.

The MORE Act was originally accompanied by a companion bill in the Senate which was sponsored by then-California Sen., now Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris (D).

Cannabis legalization is an increasingly popular issue among American voters, evidenced by the five successful cannabis legalization initiatives during last month’s General Election. Additionally, the latest Gallup poll showed that more Americans than ever — 69 percent — support legalizing the plant.

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NBA Will Not Test Players for Cannabis Next Year

12/04/2020

The National Basketball Association will not test its players for cannabis during the upcoming season, according to an NBC Sports report. The policy between the NBA and players union extends the drug testing rules from last season.

Cannabis remains on the league’s banned substances list and testing for cause – that is for past program violators who have given reasonable cause – will continue.

Sports reporter Ben Dowsett suggested on Twitter that the “decision is largely based on COVID safety” as a way to limit “unnecessary contacts.” He added, though, that there’s “significant expectation from many in the league that the entire marijuana testing program is on the way out in the near future.”

Under the league’s collective bargaining agreement between the NBA and NBPA, players who test positive for performance-enhancing drugs are suspended for 25 games for a first violation, 55 games for a second violation, and are banned from the league for a minimum of two years for a third violation. Under normal rules, players can be drug tested up to four times per season and twice in the offseason.

In an interview with Yahoo Sports last year, league Commissioner Adam Silver said cannabis use by players in the offseason is “no issue” but questioned why players would smoke “a lot of pot.”

“And that’s where mental wellness comes in. Because I’ve also talked directly to players who say, ‘I’m smoking a lot of pot, because I have a lot of anxiety. And I’m struggling.’ … And at the end of the day, I think we all agree that, whether or not marijuana is a legal substance, just like with alcohol, you still have to teach young people how to use a substance like that appropriately and responsibly and so it doesn’t overwhelm your life. So, it’s a complicated issue.” – Silver to Yahoo Sports

Last June, Cresco Labs appointed Executive Director of the NBA players union, Michele Roberts, to its board. In 2018, Roberts said the league was “exploring” medical exemptions for NBA players to use medical cannabis but said federal law stood in the way.

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Florida Cannabis Activists Plan Adult-Use Campaigns

12/04/2020

Florida cannabis activists and legislators are laying the groundwork for a cannabis legalization initiative for the 2022 ballot and an expected legislative fight in 2021. However, although support for adult-use cannabis in the Sunshine State is high, challenges persist.

Called “Make it Legal Florida,” one initiative aims to amend the Florida Constitution to allow adults over 21 to possess up to 2.5 ounces for personal use. Under the new amendment, existing Florida medical cannabis shops would be tasked with distributing cannabis in the state but restrictions will still exist on public consumption, advertising to youth, and cannabis use under certain “circumstances,” the Tallahassee Democrat reports.

“The medical marijuana market in Florida expanded and the sky is not falling. Property values are not going down where you have dispensaries.” — Nick Hanson, Chairman of “Make it Legal Florda,” via the Democrat

In addition to the 550,000 signatures “Make it Legal Florida” has already secured, another 300,000 are needed to get the issue on the 2022 ballot. The ballot language must also be approved by the Florida Supreme Court before the election.

Opponents have already filed briefs complaining about “Make it Legal’s” wording, saying the initiative is “confusing” because it does not mention that cannabis is federally illegal.

Legislators are looking to pass bills in the Florida legislature legalizing adult-use cannabis. State Sen. Jeff Brands (D-St. Petersburg) and state Rep. Carlos G. Smith (D-Orlando) both plan to introduce adult-use cannabis bills in the 2021 legislative session but Republicans like Senate President Wilton Simpson (Trilby) and Gov. Ron DeSantis have said they do not support legalizing cannabis for adult use.

Recent polls show 64% of Floridians support legalizing adult-use cannabis. Additionally, a Duke University study found the state could save $25.5 million simply by stopping adult-use cannabis prosecutions, which would simultaneously increase tax receipts by $120 million.

Other initiatives in Florida seek to add mental health issues to the state’s medical cannabis qualifying condition list, allow medical cannabis home grows, and yet another seeks to regulate cannabis like alcohol in Florida, the Tallahassee Democrat reports.

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DEA Sued for Not Processing Cannabis Research Cultivator Applications

12/04/2020

Dr. Lyle Craker, of the University of Massachusetts – Amherst, is suing the Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Attorney General William Barr, and Acting DEA Administrator Timothy Shea over the federal government’s failure to process cannabis research applications.

The Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) says the administration of President Donald Trump and the DEA have “failed to process more than 30 outstanding license applications for over four years despite administrative guidance; the DEA’s announced plans; and the support of scientists, senators,” and the National Institutes on Drug Abuse. Craker is seeking federal approval to cultivate cannabis “to support safe and effective cannabis research,” according to the lawsuit.

Rick Doblin, Ph.D., founder and executive director of MAPS, suggested that had Craker’s initial application in 2001 “been processed appropriately, marijuana medicines would now be available through pharmacies, regardless of state law, with the strict safety protocols and dosing regularity people with compromised immune systems and serious illnesses need.”

“It’s hard to imagine the scope of suffering that people have had to endure because politics and fear override science for prohibition-minded officials like the Attorney General.” – Doblin in a press release

The lawsuit notes that Craker and MAPS had hoped to bring cannabis-based medicines to market under a nonprofit pharmaceutical model.

The plaintiffs also allege that the Trump Administration “secretly sabotaged” the federal Growers Program through a secret Office of Legal Counsel Memorandum.

“Rather than disclosing the shutdown or delays to the public or the applicants or their supporters in Congress – and rather than denying the applications for registration on the basis of the OLC Memorandum to permit judicial review – [Department of Justice] and DEA disclosed nothing and simply sat on the pending applications with no agency action or explanation,” the lawsuit says.

Upon approval of licenses, MAPS said, “it is anticipated that clinical trials to assess the safety and efficacy of cannabis will be initiated for dozens of conditions.” Craker and MAPS plan to develop cannabis medications and make them available through MAPS’s wholly-owned subsidiary, MAPS Public Benefit Corporation.

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Beyoncé Charity & NAACP Award $10k Grant to Hemp Brand

12/04/2020

Maryland-based hemp health and wellness company The Gift is a recipient of a $10,000 grant from Beyoncé’s BeyGOOD and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), according to a Black Enterprise report.

The endowment is part of a partnership between BeyGood and the NAACP focused on small business grants for Black-owned companies. The Gift was one of 17,000 applicants to receive the grant.

Cory Moore, co‐founder and CEO of The Gift, noted that companies working strictly with hemp – and not federally outlawed cannabis – “face higher costs for just about everything from insurance to banking.” Moore indicated the company plans to use the funds to launch a new e-commerce site, relaunch its product line in sustainable packaging, and roll out an educational platform, Project 545.

“Banks are reluctant to lend to us because the regulations around hemp are new and still developing in some respects. Black‐owned businesses are challenged even further when it comes to financing. This grant from NAACP and Beyoncé has made us feel seen, and we are grateful to them for the opportunities we will create with these funds.” – Moore to Black Enterprise

The Gift was founded in 2018 by Moore and Elizabeth Robinson. The company said it plans to start a hemp farm, fiber processing plant, and educational campus in North Carolina next year.

In October, Beyoncé’s husband, Sean “Jay-Z” Carter, launched the cannabis brand Monogram after joining the board of Caliva as chief brand strategist in 2019.

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Al DeChard: Cannabis Cultivation & Wastewater Compliance

12/03/2020

Wastewater management is an important but all-too-often overlooked aspect of compliant cannabis operations. Al Dechard — who created his first proprietary process for mitigating water waste in 1998 — has built a career around helping a wide variety of companies from many different industries manage their wastewater. In fact, cannabis cultivation is only the latest trade to be covered by DeChard’s wastewater management firm Geomat, which has previously worked with rental car agencies, first responders, and others.

In this written Q&A, Al offers a breakdown of Geomat’s scalable and on-site wastewater mitigation systems and explains how the company helps cannabis clients to both stay compliant and reduce their overall environmental footprint.

Scroll down for the full interview, which also covers Geomat’s founding, proprietary services, and more!

Ganjapreneur: When was Geomat first founded and how has the business evolved over time?

Al Dechard: I began working in the marine industry refinishing boats when I noticed some were painted outside of the US and carried a high level of lead content. When working, we had to attempt to prevent the debris and water from running off into the water way, so we started playing with different materials and tools to see how we could prevent this from polluting the water. We eventually perfected this product to comply with the Clean Water Act and in 1998 I applied for and received my first Patent for a waste water recovery system. I then moved from the marine industry to the car wash rental market, where I saw a similar water runoff situation that needed a solution. I started to implement these waste water containment and recovery units for rental car markets around the country. After 9/11 in 2001, Geomat saw a need for hazmat applications for first responders. During this period of time, we worked with the federal government designing and implementing first responder’s containment systems. We started manufacturing hazmat showers as a solution and applied for a second Patent, which was granted in 2007. A third Patent was issued that same year for modular and mobile waste and/or hazardous liquid containment and collection shower systems. We further expanded our Patent portfolio with another issued in 2017, for waste and/or hazardous liquid containment and collection systems. This Patent specifically dealt with how the waste was filtered and reused for multiple industries. In the beginning of 2019, Geomat was issued another Patent for waste water containment collection. Our latest Patent that is pending is a liquid cleaning system designed for living plants, leading us into the cannabis industry.

What is the Geomat closed-loop water recovery system, and how does it work?

The Geomat closed-loop water recovery system is a patented water recycle system designed to capture and recycle all wastewater and runoff used as a result from vehicle or equipment washing. These systems have the ability to be used as a closed-loop system or tied directly into the sanitary sewer line. When Geomat is used as a closed-loop system, the water run off from cleaning collects on Geomat’s surface and filters through the mat’s layers to the drain. The water passes through to a sump pump basin, where it is collected in one of the two 500 gallon holding tanks. As the water rises within the holding tank, the water passes through an inline filter into the second holding tank. The reclaimed, filtered water is then able to be used again for washing purposes. An aerator is submerged in each holding tank to ensure optimum filtration throughout the entire process.

Geomat has implemented water recycling solutions for numerous different business models, such as the auto washing industry and hazmat cleanup industry. How have your solutions for cannabis growers been influenced by solutions for other industries, and how have they differed?

With the different industries I have worked with, I’ve noticed the one necessity they all have in common is water. After speaking with some workers in the cannabis industry, I realized that the environmental and water situation these facilities were facing were similar positions the rental car wash and hazmat industry faced as well. These industries all benefit greatly from Geomat in the sense that their water costs and usage significantly goes down while leaving no environmental footprint or impact from each use. This solution also holds different meanings depending on the industry. Geomat is a versatile and innovative product that brings more than just water recovery to cannabis grow facilities, but acts as a vessel and source for all sanitation and containment needs, which is paramount in this industry.

What are some of the ways that Geomat reduces a cannabis producer’s environmental impact?

Geomat has the ability to capture and filter this water runoff for reuse or discharge in a way that meets environmental compliance, where most state regulating authorities do not want to treat this type of water runoff. With Geomat, we have provided a solution to the issue of excessive water usage and cost that many grow facilities face. This significantly reduces a cannabis facility’s environmental impact while remaining compliant to the environment and Clean Water Act.

Is Geomat adaptable for different environments and site configurations? What types of cultivation facilities would benefit most from using Geomat?

The installation of Geomat is quick and minimally disruptive, scalable and versatile to any work facility or configuration. These systems have the ability for no ground penetration or sewer tie in, making Geomat adaptable and simple to relocate if needed. Specifically in the cannabis industry, Geomat is designed to function in a variety of beneficial ways. Whether it is sanitizing the equipment and cultivation tools or rinsing the plants itself, the system acts as an environmentally compliant product that will greatly reduce any cultivation facility’s water usage and costs.

Once you have implemented a system for a client, do you provide ongoing support or assist directly in managing it? What feedback have you heard from cultivators who use Geomat?

Geomat offers a significant warranty and provides yearly maintenance and cleaning on each system. We had a recent install for a major grow facility that has locations throughout the country. After the installation, they informed us that this technology has revolutionized how they sanitize their tables and equipment after each yield and throughout the daily growing process. When we began working with grow facilities, I was under the impression that Geomat could be used for recycling and recapturing the runoff used in watering and washing cannabis plants. Geomat has also played a role in sanitizing cultivation tools, tables and equipment to thoroughly clean and prevent any mites, pests and bacteria from harboring on these tools. This feedback from this facility opened our eyes to realize that not only is this the biggest, environmentally compliant solution for the industry, but how the Geomat itself can be multi purpose and functional.

What do you think the future of cannabis agriculture looks like in the United States?

I believe this industry will continue to thrive and advance in its technology and impact, but one thing that will remain constant for cannabis agriculture is the need for water. The cost and demand for water is rising in a world where some places see this element as a precious commodity. Any way this water can be reused and recaptured can benefit cannabis grow facilities and the planet as a whole.

Thank you, Al, for spending the time to answer these questions. To learn more about Geomat’s patented wastewater management systems, check out Geomat.com.

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MORE Act Passes House Committee; Floor Vote Expected Soon

12/03/2020

The U.S. House of Representatives Rule Committee yesterday advanced the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement (MORE) Act setting the stage for it to receive a vote in the full chamber, which is expected this week.

Once it reaches the floor, it will mark the first time either chamber of Congress voted on a measure to legalize cannabis. The House last year approved the SAFE Banking Act – the first time either chamber voted on standalone cannabis-related reforms.

In a statement, NORML Political Director Justin Strekal thanked Rules Committee Chairman Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), acknowledging that the “historic nature” of the advancement “cannot be overstated.”

“For the first time in American history, the public will see the ‘People’s House’ vote to end the senseless, cruel, and racist policy of marijuana criminalization and prohibition, Strekal said in a press release.

Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D., Ore.) told Yahoo Finance that the vote is “coming at a time when Americans are recognizing how hopelessly flawed the criminal justice system is.”

“We don’t need to have one size fits all. We just need to get rid of prohibition and then let the states do what the states are doing. It’s essentially what the states have done already. They haven’t waited for the federal government, which is why we have a lot of these discrepancies and challenges.” – Blumenauer to Yahoo Finance

Cannabis remains completely illegal in just Idaho, Kansas, and Nebraska.

The legislation includes a 5 percent sales tax on cannabis products, earmarked for a new fund for grant programs designed to help people “adversely impacted by the War on Drugs.” The fund would service job training, re-entry programs, legal aid, and mental health and addiction treatment while prohibiting denial of federal benefits for cannabis use, possession, or related convictions. The measure includes expungement provisions for federal cannabis offenses.

It would also give cannabusinesses access to some federal programs, such as those from the Small Business Administration.

Last year, the House Judiciary Committee passed the act with Republican Reps. Matt Gaetz (Fla.) and Tom McClintock (Calif.) as the only GOP members to vote in favor the bill. In January, the House Small Business Committee advanced the measure.

Control of the Senate will be decided with January runoffs in Georgia pitting Republican incumbents David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler against Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, respectively. The legalization bill has better odds of reaching the Senate floor with a Democratic majority as current Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) – who controls which bills reach the floor – has said he has no plans to back broad cannabis legalization.

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USDA Expands Hemp Insurance Program

12/03/2020

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has expanded its pilot Multi-Peril Crop Insurance plan for the hemp industry into new states and counties and announced improvements to the insurance.

Under the new rules, broker contracts are permitted for hemp grain and the agency adjusted several dates related to the insurance – such as cancellation, product reporting and termination, billing, and sales closing – to better match dates used for similar crop insurance programs.

The USDA Risk Management Agency (RMA) said it is also “authorizing additional flexibilities due to the coronavirus pandemic while continuing to support producers, working through Approved Insurance Providers (AIPs) to deliver services, including processing policies, claims, and agreements.”

RMA Administrator Martin Barbre said in a statement that the changes are the agency “responding” to the hemp industry’s “risk management needs.”

Hemp producers in Arkansas, Nevada, Texas, and select counties in Arizona are now eligible for the insurance, along with the Colorado counties of Conejos, La Plata, Moffat, Routt; San Miguel, Kenton and Whitley counties in Kentucky; New Mexico’s San Miguel and Valencia counties; Houghton County, Michigan; Granite County, Montana; Scott County, Tennessee; and Alleghany County, Virginia.

Crop insurance is sold and delivered solely through private insurance agents, the USDA said. A list of insurance agents is available online using the RMA Agent Locator.

The USDA added the hemp pilot program to its agriculture insurance regime in February.

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New Mexico Medical Cannabis Thriving Despite Pandemic

12/03/2020

Mirroring similar stories from around the country, medical cannabis sales are up in New Mexico. Designated as an essential business by the Governor in March, medical cannabis shops must follow statewide restrictions like customers wearing masks and a 25% capacity restriction. Despite the challenges, Jefferson King with Everest Apothecary in Albuquerque told KRQE News that business is up and layoffs have not been necessary at their six stores around the state.

“From June until now we’ve seen a lot of increase like I said probably up to 60 to 75 percent overall. We have a lot of people that are struggling out there and you know we’re here for them and we just want to let them know it’s going to be okay and we’ll get through this.” — Jefferson, via KRQE News

According to the report, New Mexico has over 100,000 registered medical cannabis patients, an increase of 27 percent since June 2019.

“In the first six months of 2020 there were $92 million in sales which is an increase in 55 percent from the same period the previous year,” said Ben Lewinger, Executive Director of the New Mexico Cannabis Chamber of Commerce. “People are also taking the opportunity to use cannabis for other things that it’s proven to work for beyond just qualifying conditions, things like anxiety, stress, insomnia.”

In 2019, New Mexico significantly updated its medical cannabis system, which included adding reciprocity for out-of-state medical cannabis patients, allowing medical cannabis in schools, adding personal production licenses, and allowing patients to renew every three years. The updates also prohibit employers from firing employees for being enrolled in the program.

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CannTrust Returns to Canadian Market After License Suspension

12/03/2020

CannTrust Holdings Inc. – the embattled Canadian cannabis producer whose license was suspended last year after compliance violations – is returning to the marketplace with the launch of two brands, Liiv and Synr.g.

The products will first be available in Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia, the company announced on Wednesday.

Despite the company’s return and product launch, it remains under Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) protection as it deals with multiple class-action lawsuits and other litigation.

CEO Gregg Guyatt indicated that CannTrust plans to expand its portfolio again next year.

“CannTrust has built a stronger, more efficient business, to be highly competitive in the Canadian cannabis market. Ultimately, today is the result of an incredible amount of hard work from our employees. We’re thankful for the opportunity to get back to giving our consumers access to the products they know and love from CannTrust.” – Guyatt in a statement

The company’s struggles began in the summer of 2019 when Canadian regulators discovered the firm had cultivated cannabis in unlicensed rooms, ultimately suspending their license. The company was later forced to destroy as much as $65 million worth of inventory. Earlier this year, regulators reinstated CannTrust’s licenses for two of its cultivation facilities.

CannTrust said it underwent an 18-month remediation program focused on compliance.

“So now the attention changes from the remediation and relaunch into the actual relaunch execution phase right now and getting those products back in the hands of consumers,” Guyatt told CTV.

The company remains barred from trading and exchanges under an April order by the Ontario Securities Commission for its failure to comply with disclosure obligations under applicable securities laws.

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Will Read: Normalizing Cannabis Through Smart Marketing

12/02/2020

Between strict regulations that vary from state to state and the long-lasting remnants of anti-cannabis rhetoric and stigmas, cannabis marketing is an inherently tricky job. The challenge, however, has prompted experts like Will Read — whose company CannaPlanners is dedicated to helping cannabis entrepreneurs find success despite the odds stacked against them — to prioritize simple aspects of brand building, such as a professional and inclusive brand experience.

Will recently joined our podcast host TG Branfalt to discuss cannabis marketing strategies, the prospects for an adult-use cannabis market in Vermont and other New England states, Will’s advice for what makes a strong cannabis brand, and more!

Tune in via the media player below or scroll down for a full transcript of this week’s Ganjapreneur.com Podcast episode.

Listen to the podcast:

Ganjapreneur · Will Read: Normalization Through Smart Cannabis Marketing

Read the transcript:

Commercial: At Ganjapreneur, we have heard from dozens of cannabis business owners who have encountered the issue of cannabias, which is when a mainstream business, whether a landlord, bank or some other provider of vital business services refuses to do business with them simply because of their association with cannabis. We have even heard stories of businesses being unable to provide health and life insurance for their employees because the insurance providers were too afraid to work with them. We believe that this fear is totally unreasonable and that cannabis business owners deserve access to the same services and resources that other businesses are afforded, that they should be able to hire consultation to help them follow the letter of the law in their business endeavors, and that they should be able to provide employee benefits without needing to compromise on the quality of coverage they can offer.

This is why we created the Ganjapreneur.com business service directory, a resource for cannabis professionals to find and connect with service providers who are cannabis friendly and who are actively seeking cannabis industry clients. If you are considering hiring a business consultant, lawyer, accountant, web designer, or any other ancillary service for your business, go to Ganjapreneur.com/businesses to browse hundreds of agencies, firms, and organizations who support cannabis legalization, and who want to help you grow your business.

With so many options to choose from in each service category, you will be able to browse company profiles and do research on multiple companies in advance so you can find the provider who is the best fit for your particular need. Our business service directory is intended to be a useful and well-maintained resource, which is why we individually vet each listing that is submitted. If you are a business service provider who wants to work with cannabis clients, you may be a good fit for our service directory. Go to Ganjapreneur.com/businesses to create your profile and start connecting with cannabis entrepreneurs today.

TG Branfalt: Hey there, I’m your host TG Branfalt and thank you for listening to the Ganjapreneur.com podcast, where we try to bring you actionable information and normalize cannabis through the stories of ganjapreneurs, activists, and industry stakeholders. Today I’m joined by Will Read, he’s the founder and president of CannaPlanners, a Vermont-based website and marketing company specializing in the needs of the cannabis industry and this is Will’s second time on the podcast. And so I guess that makes you a friend of the show.

Will Read: It’s my third time, but who’s counting.

TG Branfalt: We’re not going to talk about the lost ‘second episode.’

Will Read: Yeah the infamous last pizza tapes.

TG Branfalt: So, before we sort of get into this episode, man, just remind people about your background and how you ended up in the space.

Will Read: Sure. It’s great question. I think like a lot of guests I’ve been a casual participant in the cannabis community for almost my entire life, so I’ve always had a passion there. I started CannaPlanners in 2015 after coming out of an agency that was dedicated to sort of supporting a specific part of a specific industry, nothing to do with cannabis, but they were experts in marketing and creating digital experiences around this one part of an industry. So in Vermont, as legalization started to percolate in the early 2010s, I started to do a little more due diligence, a little bit of entrepreneurial research into kind of where I might fit into this thing. I think a lot of people are because there’s no book on this thing and there’s very few people saying, “Hey, come on in and let me show you how to be part of this industry.”

A lot of us have to figure it out on our own. I think we all do. So it was really doing a little due diligence. I took a trip out to Colorado to see what their legal market was looking like and the first thing that hit me was at the time, lack of experience, and this is everything from conceptual branding, packaging design, and especially in-store experience. I had a short career…well, not short. I was with Apple for about six years. So that Kool-Aid, I definitely drank that Kool-Aid about the importance of experience and even the psychology behind opening a package is far more important to the consumer than what’s actually in the package.

So going out to Colorado and now of course, everything everywhere kind of looks like an Apple store, but back then there was nothing but opportunity. So I started CannaPlanners and we started as a web agency — websites are the other biggest part of what we do. And that’s where we really started from, we developed a platform that we could sell affordably to cannabis companies, lots of mom and pop startups, lots of farmers, things like that in order to get them online quickly, right? And efficiently, and then quickly as we started building websites, the thing I immediately saw the need for was the actual creative, because people were still coming to us with subjectively or objectively, depending on your point of view, bad branding. So we started doing a lot of creative work and really helping companies that way. I don’t even know if I answered your question, but there was a bit of it.

TG Branfalt: Yeah. What do you sort of define in your estimation as bad branding?

Will Read: This is a great question. So I don’t want to be flippant in kind of the way I speak about it, but what I really mean is, so our mission, our superhero goal is normalization. We want this market to succeed. We want this industry to succeed and as I’m sure you know and as I’m sure any of your guests would attest or listeners would attest to, the market is still small, it’s very, very boutique. It’s only in a handful of states and of course we’re not even really talking about CBD yet, which is obviously in a boom. So all of these aspects and really the “normalization”, I think a lot of that can be accomplished. And really what I mean is the acceptance by older generations, by younger generations, just people who’ve been “brainwashed,” I’m using air quotes on Zoom, but brainwashed through the war on drugs, through rhetoric, whatever, to have a certain opinion about cannabis.

And traditionally, a lot of businesses have towed the line and really sort of marketed towards themselves towards the stoner culture and I appreciate that. I’m part of the stoner culture. I’m a stoner, but I’m also totally keenly aware of the potential that this industry has as it’s only touching a razor-thin margin of the entire potential marketplace.

So really what I’m saying is how can we move… When I say bad brands, really what I mean is, “How do we make brands more accessible?” That’s all I’m saying. When you see certain imagery and unfortunately it’s things like the cannabis leaf, it’s been stigmatized. The bright green cross, or even that neon green, a lot of these things have, again, we’re talking about psychology here, but they have a certain psychological effect that can do really one of two things, speak to one specific person and/or turn off the rest. Right? So we want to, our goal is just to really create professional, good-looking brands that can be applied to a cannabis space. And hopefully a little bit more broader of a consumer base.

TG Branfalt: Tell me a little bit more about how branding can help normalize cannabis. I mean, I understand what you’re getting at in terms of sort of this imagery, but sort take it a step further for me because this is really, really interesting.

Will Read: Sure. Yeah. So I think going back to my life at Apple, that unboxing. I can remember when iPad came out and for two weeks before iPad came out it was at a time when the Apple employee would actually unbox the thing for you and draw back the curtain. And there’s this whole allure around consumer products. And I think that’s something that cannabis has to some extent, but it needs even more just in terms of, again, bringing it to a more interesting place, not pigeonholing it or keeping it in line with the ways of the past. We’re just trying to break out of that.

So I think a specific logo for sure is important, but it translates to the whole thing of what we do. So for our retailers. It’s like, okay, we’ve built you this cool logo, and it’s on this awesome website that we’re maybe, excuse me, helping drive traffic to, but what are the rugs in the store? What kind of displays are you getting? How is this whole thing cohesive to an experience as opposed to just being a logo? You know what I mean?

TG Branfalt: Yeah. So since our last interview two years ago, you had started the company in 2015, as you said, our first real conversation was in 2018. You’ve been in the industry for a few years. It was still it was the year that Vermont legalized. And so we had talked quite a bit about that and the CBD and hemp market wasn’t as large as it is now.

Will Read: Oh, man. Yeah.

TG Branfalt: So tell me about how your business has grown since our last interview two years ago.

Will Read: Insanely. And really we’re just busy. Okay, so CBD has fundamentally changed our company. We’re now far more stable than maybe other startups that are kind of point are, luckily people are looking to start and especially during COVID, right?

TG Branfalt: Yeah.

Will Read: We can get into that too, but COVID has actually had a pretty positive impact on CannaPlanners. People are being entrepreneurial because they’ve lost their jobs and they’re stuck at home.

TG Branfalt: Wow.

Will Read: So it’s a big… Yeah. So since the last time we chatted at NECANN or whatever, around the time, yeah. So the CBD industry specific because we’re a Vermont company. So that’s where we started a lot of our clients, a good deal of our clients are in Vermont. A good deal of them are farmers who traded in the dairy cows for hemp fields. So it was about helping them kind of a brand and for people in Vermont, there’s a certain allure to the Vermontiness of kind of how we… So we do plenty of CBD products. We’ve designed, I think in the last… So in 2019, catch me at the end of 2020, which I guess is soon, but last year we probably built around 28 brands, several hundred product designs. I think we launched something like 40 websites.

TG Branfalt: Wow.

Will Read: This year we’re definitely on track to double all of that.

TG Branfalt: Seriously?

Will Read: Oh yeah.

TG Branfalt: That’s immense growth for a small company.

Will Read: I love it. And not for the competition, there’s a competitiveness to being an entrepreneur and having been through my share of 9-5’s and failed entrepreneurial ventures, it’s awesome when something hits and there’s a huge potential market out there that we’re not talking to. So right now our goal is we’re scaling up. So for us that means really new people, new talent, we’ve hired a new designer, we have a new vice president of marketing, we have new salespeople. So we’re trying to expand. Because we’re just a digital company, we have clients all over the place, but we really want to focus on some of these really growing like crazy markets, California, Colorado, all these places.

TG Branfalt: So in the time, since our last two years, as an entrepreneur, what have you learned since our last interview as someone who’s growing business in this industry?

Will Read: Yeah. The one thing, and I don’t even know if this is a good answer to your question, but I would say the most important thing I’ve learned is how and when to step outside of my comfort zone. So for entrepreneurs it’s really, and I guess like anything in life, but for entrepreneurs it’s really easy to get complacent and maybe not be so open to trying new ideas or even doing things like four years ago you would never have caught me on a podcast. Or not four years ago, I was definitely on a podcast four years ago, but prior to CannaPlanners, you wouldn’t catch me doing this. It’s way outside of my comfort zone. It’s not who I was.

So you have to kind of evolve and stepping outside of your comfort zone, getting in front of people, being able to do all this client work and then confidently look back at it when I’m talking to new people and say, “Hey, I’ve built this thing with a team of insanely amazing people who have a incredible level of expertise. How can we help you kind of be better?”

TG Branfalt: What do you look for when building these teams?

Will Read: You’re going to think I’m so lame with this answer. The answer is, “How cool are you?” Seriously, that’s it. If I can’t vibe 20%, you know what I’m saying? If it’s weird, it’s so important, and I’ll tell you why. That is such a lame answer, but it’s true. And the reason is because while I’ve told you how we’re dedicated to normalizing the industry and how I’ve told you about how we’re doing all these cool things, what we really want to do is give good customer service. That’s it. We have these sets of services that we do, but really what we want to do is provide good customer service. Well, you, but maybe you’re not going to be surprised at this, but your listeners might, customer service in the cannabis industry I would say is generally not so great.

You have some people who are doing it right, but because of where the industry is, it’s still very nascent. It’s still very new. People don’t have the same sort of business acumen as maybe other industries you’re accustomed to. There is an opportunity just to be a group of cool people who can empathize with business owners who are trying to do something that’s never been done before. So that’s it. I want to find cool people who understand the vision of what we’re trying to do and who are happy to empathize and relate to our clients. It’s the most important thing.

TG Branfalt: How are you preparing your company’s growth as the Northeast, where you’re based, is on the verge of really blowing up, right? Sales commence in Maine here pretty shortly.

Will Read: Couple days.

TG Branfalt: New Jersey is very likely going to legalize during the election, New York’s going to follow, Connecticut‘s been talking about it, Rhode Island.

Will Read: Yep.

TG Branfalt: I mean, you name it. How are you preparing for that growth?

Will Read: Well, this is another… You’re good at this, Tim. You always have good questions. This is a really good question. I think one of the things, and I’ll answer this as an entrepreneur, one of the things that really attracts me beyond all the stuff I’ve been talking about, one of the things that really attracts me to the cannabis industry specifically is it’s infancy. So we can only scale as quick as the industry does. So I’m happy to take… Not that we are taking it slow, but I’m happy to evolve with California and Colorado and from all these states that have already passed. There’s what? I don’t know what it is now, but 27 medical States and I don’t know, 12 or 13 recs, something like that, whatever it is. There’s 50 total States.

TG Branfalt: Yeah.

Will Read: So, and then a whole world that’s going to follow suit of whatever the United States does. At some point, maybe, I don’t know, we’re maybe losing our edge here, but so yeah. That really excites me. It’s we can scale responsibly as soon as Jersey hits, well, we’ll have a stronger Jersey outreach. Same with same with any of these States. So right now we’re going to focus on New England, or we are focusing on New England. Maine has been very active for us because, like you said, we’re basically two days away. We’ll see what happens. But two days away from the first rec store to open in Maine. There’s plenty more so, yeah.

TG Branfalt: So, I mean, I know that you’re not a company that touches the plant and you don’t have a lot of the challenges that those firms do have. I mean, even hemp businesses face a lot more challenges than sort of ancillary companies, but what are the challenges for you operating a digital marketing business in sort of the gray market that is Vermont. And I don’t want to call New York a gray market, but the hemp only in medical industry here, what are some of the challenges that you face with those?

Will Read: Totally. So any… And I’m using air quotes again here on Zoom, but any kind of let’s say non-cannabis business, just any other industry business has access to, I mean, you name it when it comes to marketing, you want to put a billboard up? Great. You want to buy TV? You want to be on the supe? Whatever. You want to advertise on Facebook and Google? Great. Even CannaPlanners, and it’s because the company’s called CannaPlanners, That’s the only red flag, we don’t touch a plant, but I can’t even advertise on Facebook.

TG Branfalt: Really?

Will Read: Really. Yeah. So I’m okay with that. I’m actually okay with that. But so the answer is there’s plenty of hurdles and that’s part of the excitement of an infant industry is we get to solve a lot of these problems. I would say one that I can speak to fairly recently was the entire CBD industry, retail, consumer market goods, was affected two years ago when the only viable non-high risk payment merchant cut the cord.

TG Branfalt: Yeah.

Will Read: So we took it upon ourselves to form a relationship with Square. This is when they started and quickly canceled their pilot program. So I booked a ticket to San Francisco and went out there and really tried to explain what was going on in this industry to whoever would listen. And not only that, but how CannaPlanners had a level of responsibility before Square in the vetting process. We want to work with reputable people who are doing meaningful work, and we’re only going to work with meaningful people who are doing reputable work.

So how do we iterate that to a big humongous company like square? Luckily for us, it was something they agreed to. So the marketing side of it, it has challenges. So, again, we’re taking it slow. We’re not doing Facebook ads. We can’t. And I don’t want to nefariously circumvent algorithms even, that’s not a standard of kind of doing business that we want to follow. If we’re going to do it, we’re going to do it right. So we focus on really content, building good content for our clients on top of the beautiful websites we build them using the awesome brands that we build for them when it happens.

TG Branfalt: This question might seem a little bit strange, but a lot of people might not know that in Vermont, you’re not actually allowed to, billboards are forbidden on the —

Will Read: It’s the only state without a McDonald’s in the capital city. Did you know that?

TG Branfalt: I did know that.

Will Read: Okay.

TG Branfalt: Do you think that sort of having to deal with that restriction, that long-standing restriction, maybe put you in a sort of unique position to sort of walk this forbidden sort of marketing line?

Will Read: Hmm. I haven’t really considered that. I would say probably, maybe it had a small influence, but probably if I’m being honest, the way that we have been scaling out CannaPlanners has really been a response to our clients. Not so much the things going on outside of our bubble. Of course we’re following regulation where it needs to, we are definitely setting a bar when it comes to that, in terms of what we expect of our clients. We want them to be transparent. We want them to be transparent straight up.

So, yeah. I think all of the things that we’ve done, even creative and then marketing, and then what we’re growing into now, which will be email marketing and social media management and all these other kind of viable digital marketing tactics, we’ll grow into them, but we’re really just responding to the client needs right now. And it’s slow in some cases. The strategies I mean, the strategies are slow.

TG Branfalt: Tell me about sort of building a company in a small Northeastern state, do you think that that is a benefit or a detriment, because people may see, “Oh, this is a small firm in Vermont. Why don’t we go with the big guy in California?” What do you think? Do you think it’s a detriment or?

Will Read: No, not at all. I would say it for-sure works for us. And I think more applicable to your question then where we are in the geography of the country is where we stand in the timing of the industry. So my competition, our competition, there’s agencies doing what we do to some extent or another. There’s not many. With that said, look outside the cannabis industry, there’s a million word press agencies and design, there’s all of these things. There’s a huge creative world out there. It’s all about digital marketing, everybody and their grandmother does… You know what I’m saying?

TG Branfalt: Yeah.

Will Read: So I think it’s about timing. And in some instances we’re also building a brand. I think if I were to be completely honest, being synonymous within this industry for the things that we do would be incredibly amazing.

TG Branfalt: And so you mentioned that you personally can’t market because of your name and these sort of issues.

Will Read: Yeah.

TG Branfalt: So what do you do to get your name out there?

Will Read: Totally. Well, we work with people like you. We work with the team at Ganjapreneur, for sure. It’s an amazing resource for us. We’ve done an incredible amount of outreach just through some very passive marketing through Ganjapreneur, it’s been great. So there are a couple of hubs like this that allow us to sort of put our name out there. Of course, we’re not at NECANN this year, we’re not at BizCon this year. We’re not at CannaCon, we’re not at any of these this year.

TG Branfalt: Yeah.

Will Read: So I think a large part of what we’re going into for ourselves is kind of practicing what we preach. And we’re starting to expand our content creation. We’ll be building out more video resources just to sort of engage directly with whatever our community, but also to have a lasting resource for other entrepreneurs who are looking for these types of things.

When I first started off, I was going to the old Ganjapreneur website and doing that whole thing and you go on Reddit and you know what I’m saying? You try to network, and this goes back to stepping outside of the comfort zone. You got to go meet new people. You got to, for sure. It’s the most important thing. So right now, we’re doing advertising through you guys. Most of our marketing dollars have kind of pushed back, have been drawn back in so that we can use them for sales outreach and doing more proactive sales outreach. But, yeah.

TG Branfalt: How big of a loss — and the events that you had mentioned they’ve been canceled because of the coronavirus, how big of a loss has that been? Because when I went to NECANN, and I had met you prior to NECANN anyway. I mean, it was massive.

Will Read: Yeah. Massive.

TG Branfalt: And it was full and it was bustling. I mean, how big of a loss has that been you think?

Will Read: Well, financially, those things are expensive, but it’s important to again, get out there and meet people and try to retain business. But for us in this industry, it’s more than that. We’ve got this burgeoning community of a lot of great people who are trying to do cool stuff. And that’s kind of what I miss is I’ve got a group of friends who I only see, it’s like fish shows or dead shows or whatever. You only got the group of friends that you see at those shows or at the trade shows or whatever. So that part I miss.

TG Branfalt: So when somebody gets in touch with you, what’s the most common question that you get on that first sort of outreach?

Will Read: Well, if it’s not, “How can we start building our brand?” We’ve been getting a lot of outreach regarding social media, paid social media and yeah. It leads to a larger conversation about those rules and regulations, those terms of services, that those kinds of companies enact, but also, “What are other companies doing? What are they doing in place of this? Can I talk to you about SEO? How’s your website? Do you even have a social media account? Do you have an Instagram account?” So a lot of these things, the industry is ripe with eager business people. And a lot of them are jumping in for the first time. Right? So there’s a lot of just basic consulting work that we get hit up for. Just, “How do I start a company?” I can’t help you there, but I can help you make it look awesome.

TG Branfalt: So what’s your advice for those really early-stage entrepreneurs who reach out to you with these sort of issues?

Will Read: Can’t stop, won’t stop. You’re going to run into your haters, you’re going to fail, you’re going to have days where you’re like, “What the hell am I doing?” And it’s about pushing through those days. And my perspective is purely in the cannabis industry, man. This is what I know. We’ve been doing this for a little while. And I-

TG Branfalt: Five years is a lifetime in this industry.

Will Read: Yeah, it feels like that. For sure. But I think that you have to have that mentality as an entrepreneur, but you have to especially have that mentality as a cannabis entrepreneur, because the odds are stacked against you. I don’t know if everybody has forgotten this, but cannabis is federally illegal.

TG Branfalt: Is it?

Will Read: Right. Did you know?

TG Branfalt: I seem to forget that quite frequently.

Will Read: Oh, yeah. On the regular, but that’s a big thing. This could come crashing down at any second and it’s about, excuse me, but not giving a fuck about that. You have to get beyond that and dig into the work because it is meaningful. This is happening. So can’t stop, won’t stop.

TG Branfalt: Man, we’ve known each other for a while and then it’s not like we speak on a very regular basis.

Will Read: Yeah, sure.

TG Branfalt: But you offer this sort of very forthcoming, very solid insight, that a lot of people they try to dance around sort of their strategies and that sort of thing.

Will Read: No.

TG Branfalt: And you’re just like, “Here it is, guy.”

Will Read: Yeah.

TG Branfalt: So I really appreciate that about you.

Will Read: Well, thank you. That’s a very nice thing for you to say. And I think that there’s value to me being direct. It’s not wasting time, it’s display. I mean, you’re looking at me and we’ve had this conversation a few times at this point, I’m still passionate. I love what I do. I’m excited to end this podcast so I can go back to work. Not really, but that’s the thing is I love what I do and I have experience in it. So I want people to understand that or part of just my directness or just my enthusiasm is that there’s a bit of a fluctuating formula that can be applied to this industry. And we got a good track record. Let’s go and crush it. Let’s go get it. It’s out there. Let’s make a thing.

TG Branfalt: So I am going to let you go and let you get back to your work, but before I do, man, tell the people how they can find out more about you and give the people what they want.

Will Read: Yeah. We’re on Myspace, we’re on Friendster. You can get my Tinder. No. You can find us on Instagram. We’re @CannaPlanners, CannaPlanners.com. Those are great places to find us and we’d love to hear from you, for sure.

TG Branfalt: Cool, man. Hey man, I really appreciate your time today and hopefully we’ll have another conversation in less than two years and there’ll be a bustling industry in Vermont and we can meet on the boat and just chief out. And even though they probably won’t allow that, because we’ll still be going.

Will Read: Oh, I’ve been doing that since the nineties.

TG Branfalt: Oh, man. That’s Will Read, he’s the founder and president of CannaPlanners, a Vermont-based website and marketing company that’s specializing in the needs of the cannabis industry. Man, thank you so much for being on the show and…

Will Read: My absolute pleasure. Thank you for having me.

TG Branfalt: You can find more episodes of the Ganjapreneur.com podcast in the podcast section of Ganjapreneur.com on Spotify and in the Apple iTunes store. On the Ganjapreneur.com website, you will find the latest cannabis news and cannabis jobs updated daily, along with transcripts of this podcast. You can also download the Ganjapreneur.com app in iTunes and Google play. This episode was engineered by Trim Media House. I’ve been your host, TG Branfalt. (Silence)

End

UN Commission Votes to Reschedule Cannabis

12/02/2020

The United Nations Commission for Narcotic Drugs has voted to reclassify cannabis’ status under the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs and remove medical cannabis from Schedule IV, the New York Times reports.

The decision will not have an immediate impact on loosening international controls over cannabis criminalization, but the recognition could lead U.N. member states to reconsider how cannabis is classified under their own drug laws.

The move was favored by the U.S. and most European nations but was opposed by China, Egypt, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Russia.

A 2018 report by the International Drug Policy Consortium found that the U.N.’s “war on drugs” has not reduced the rates of drug use but has negatively affected human rights, health, security, and development around the world. Specifically, the report argues that the last decade of drug law enforcement led to heightened violence against police and civilians and the mass incarceration of otherwise innocent people.

A 2017 report from the U.N. International Narcotics Control Board pointed out that nations that have allowed cannabis legalization or relaxed cannabis laws – including the U.S., Uruguay, the Netherlands, Jamaica, and Canada – were in violation of international treaties. That same year the U.N. and World Health Organization called for reviewing the laws for drug possession or personal use.

Last year, the W.H.O. recommended that cannabis and THC be rescheduled from Schedule IV – akin to heroin – and added to Schedule I, while removing CBD from the schedule entirely.

End

Study: CBD Has No Impact on Driving

12/02/2020

A study published in this month’s Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that CBD has no negative impacts on driving while moderate THC intoxication lasts about four hours. The study was led by the Lambert Initiative for Cannabinoid Therapeutics at the University of Sydney and conducted at Maastricht University in the Netherlands.

The first-of-its-kind research involved 26 participants inhaling vaporized cannabis containing different ratios of THC and CBD, then going for a 100-kilometre (~60 mile) drive under controlled conditions on public highways both 40 minutes and four hours later. CBD-rich cannabis did not impair driving while cannabis containing THC, or a THC/CBD mixture, caused mild impairment measurable at 40 minutes later but not after four hours.

Lead author Dr. Thomas Arkell said that “road safety is a primary concern” for lawmakers and stakeholders with regard to cannabis law reforms and the study results “should allow for evidence-based laws and regulation for people receiving medical cannabis.”

“With cannabis laws changing globally, jurisdictions are grappling with the issue of cannabis-impaired driving. These results provide much needed insights into the magnitude and duration of impairment caused by different types of cannabis and can help to guide road-safety policy not just in Australia but around the world.” – Arkell in a statement

The researchers employed a well-established scientific test that measures the standard deviation of vehicle position – an index of lane weaving, swerving, and overcorrecting – which increases under the influence of alcohol and drugs.

The study notes that while it “did not find statistically significant differences in driving performance during experimental on-road driving tests between CBD-dominant cannabis and placebo, the effect size may not have excluded clinically important impairment, and the doses tested may not necessarily represent common usage.”

End

Cannabis Excluded From San Francisco Apartment Smoking Ban

12/02/2020

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted to ban tobacco smoking in apartment buildings of three of more units but did not extend the ban to cannabis, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. With the vote, the city is the largest in the country to prohibit tobacco-smoking in apartments.

Supervisor Rafael Mandelman authored the cannabis exemption amendment arguing that public cannabis use is illegal under state law and the ban would take away some citizens’ only legal place to smoke cannabis.

“Unlike tobacco smokers who could still leave their apartments to step out to the curb or smoke in other permitted outdoor smoking areas, cannabis users would have no such legal alternatives.” – Mandelman, during the meeting

Smoking cigarettes and cannabis is banned in common spaces such as stairwells and hallways under California law and many landlords completely prohibit tenants from smoking inside. The new city law makes it illegal for anyone living in a multi-unit building to smoke indoors. Similar laws are on the books in 63 other California cities.

Enforcing the law is up to the Department of Public Health, who will first try to help violators quit smoking but repeat offenders could be fined $1,000 per day. Violators may not be evicted under the ordinance.

The proposal needs to be approved a second time by the board – which passed the broad measure 10-1 and the cannabis exemption 8-3 – before moving to the mayor for final approval. The second vote is seen as a formality.

End

Illinois Launches Expungement Assistance Initiative

12/02/2020

An initiative in Illinois dubbed the “New Leaf Illinois” aims to help people arrested for cannabis crimes get their records expunged, the Peoria Journal Star reports. The initiative is funded by the Illinois Equal Justice Foundation (IEJF), an organization that grew out of a 1999 law that distributes state funds to “legal aid” efforts by non-profits and initiatives. The group consists of 20 nonprofits who will pass out funds set aside by Illinois’ 2019 cannabis legalization law.

According to the report, low-level offenses were automatically expunged when the law was passed but a petition is required to expunge more serious cannabis offenses. Leslie Corbett, IEJF’s Executive Director, says the group started the New Leaf Initiative with $1.6 million with another $1.46 million on the way for grant programs. IEJF believes there are over 700,000 Illinoisans who qualify for both automatic and petitioned expungement.

IEJF board member Gray Matteo-Harris said during a news conference last week announcing the initiative,

“These individuals may have a criminal record that could make it harder for them to actually get a job, advance their education, or even be able to rent an apartment. If you look at the data, Black and brown people and economically disadvantaged communities were disproportionately penalized by past criminalization. The expungement process is one step toward repairing that harm for people who were previously arrested or prosecuted for something that is now legal for all of us.” — Gray Matteo-Harris, in a statement

After contacting NLI, Illinoisans accessing the program can expect to be paired with a professional who will help them complete the process. Expungements are carried out “manually,” one record at a time, by the Illinois State Patrol, who expect the process to take up to five years. These expungements are in addition to pardons began earlier this year by the Governor.

End

Fohse: LED Tech for Science-Based Cannabis Cultivation

12/01/2020

Fohse was founded to bring the Future of Horticulture Science and Engineering to indoor cultivation through quality LED grow light systems. The company was incorporated in 2016 by CEO Brett Stevens, President Ben Arnet, and CTO Alex Gerard. Stevens and Arnet were investing in cultivation operations in Las Vegas and along the West Coast. At this time Gerard was in medical device R&D when he began developing his first LED prototype.

While working he identified large gaps between the LED technology used in horticulture and pioneering industries such as medicine. Gerard called Stevens and Arnet to pitch his LED idea, and the serendipitous call came right after the investor duo lost a $750,000 crop due to inadequate equipment. Two weeks later, they flew Gerard out and were soon building the first Fohse prototype by hand.

Once they had developed the product, the team began implementing test lighting in their cultivation spaces. These plants would outgrow their HPS lamps and would even grow towards the LEDs. Fohse started reworking and redesigning based on the results and eventually the flagship model A3i 1500-watt light was ready for market.

The team’s success is largely due to their dedication to engineering the best possible product. Seasoned growers entering the commercial space are often more familiar HPS lights, which have a cheap onboarding price tag but rack up costs with yearly bulb replacements, exorbitant cooling costs, and inefficient electrical bills. The initial sticker price of LEDs can be a hurdle but there are overall benefits to making the switch. Fohse engineers products in-house to deliver the highest-quality tech possible. They looked at HPS lighting systems and realized that those setups had hit their development ceiling. The goal behind Fohse LED lights became maximizing what a cultivator could produce per square foot while bringing down overall operating costs. For that goal to be successful, a premium-level fixture is essential.

“Technology aside, it’s the results that are driving our immense success,” said Ben Arnet, President and Co-Founder. “Not just being a manufacturing partner but being a true hands-on lighting partner for our clients.”

Cultivation clients with Fohse lighting setups have seen a 40% decrease in fixtures needed to outfit the room, including HVAC systems. They also produce almost twice as much light as some competitors. Plants grow robust flowers if they’re provided the same amount of light energy provided by the sun. With the appropriate lighting plants can photosynthesize enough energy for high yields. Outdoor, summer sun puts out around 2000 Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density (PPFD) and most HPS lights don’t perform higher than 1000 PPFD. The Fohse flagship model, the A3i, can run upwards of 1500-1800 PPFD on average (getting as high as 2000) creating an artificial light that more closely resembles the sun.

When onboarding a grow that has been using an HPS lighting setup, the team works side-by-side with the cultivation site to help them adjust the temperature, humidity, and anything else that helps regulate the system. This includes custom light-mapping in each grow to maximize space. In one test with a local Las Vegas client, a Fohse-engineered lighting system showed a 63% yield increase, according to the report from the cultivator. Flowers from these plants also showed a 125% THC increase and 159% increase in terpenes. The flowering phase was also 1-2 weeks shorter than plants grown with other lights.

Everyone at Fohse is dedicated to communicating with customers, solving any service fails and developing new products to serve their dedicated clients. On an install, Fohse works alongside the cultivator to build out their space. They send out a team of engineers to create custom light maps and plant physiologists to run stress tests and identify the perfect environment to maximize a specific crop. The team works cohesively to dial in every cultivation space and then provides the photons needed to increase yields.

“Fohse LED tech really allows you to run the plants more naturally and let them grow the way they want to,” said Arnet.

After the site is set up, Fohse checks in with weekly phone calls and requests photos of the plants to ensure the lighting systems are working. When a cultivation site is having an issue, the team sends experts on the same day to help correct the issue. This hands-on work alongside the growers helps to provide a more in-depth understanding of how the LED systems help plants hit peak photosynthetic rates. The Fohse team also collects data there to continue developing LED systems that shape the industry.

After five years of serving commercial cultivators the brand released the Aries 640-watt light for home grows and it sold out in just three days. With that success, the home cultivation line will see prolific expansion but the team wasn’t sure how to provide the same levels of customer care at such a large scale. To ensure a hands-on experience, Fohse is partnering with respected hydro stores who will work directly with customers to support their transition to LEDs. The team is excited to get more lights into the hands of small growers and home cultivators so that they can become familiar with the technology, maximize their outputs, and maybe even expand into the commercial realm one day.

Fohse is looking to serve indoor growers outside of cannabis, as well. There is another huge opportunity for the market in greenhouse growers who don’t need such a high photon density. The team has been developing a model that is sensored to dim up and down depending on the cloud cover over the greenhouse. The Pleiades 340-watt works for floral grows, lettuce, tomatoes, microgreens, cabbage, and other large scale agriculture.

They’re also partnering with engineering firms who specialize in building houses with closed-loop systems that track every bit of data to continue providing real solutions to clients. The closed loop system also allows Fohse to utilize that data to consistently build better products.

Fohse is dedicated to maximizing their customers’ output. They accomplish their goals with a combination of expertly engineered products and exceptional customer service. The team is dedicated to the success of their clients because that shows the efficacy of their systems — and currently their clients only have stories about yield increases, lowered utilities, and positive experiences with the Fohse team. To get in touch with the team at Fohse, visit www.Fohse.com or call them at 1-888-FOHSE-77.

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New Spectrum Labs, Only CBD Producer to Offer BioFulmate™

12/01/2020

Reading, Pa. (December 1, 2020) – Cannabidiol oil, more commonly known as CBD oil, has become very popular for its potential to ease symptoms related to many health issues, such as acne, anxiety, depression, inflammation, pain relief, sleep disorders and many additional health-related issues. With a commitment to establishing top-notch CBD oil standards in the hemp industry, New Spectrum Labs has established a process that enables advanced, safe extraction to produce 100% full-spectrum hemp oil, free of any toxins.

New Spectrum Labs products use an advanced CO₂ extraction process for superior safety and performance to provide the finest quality products available. This scientific process also pulls beneficial phytochemicals from the whole hemp plant while removing any toxins or other harmful compounds. The result is pure, 100% full-spectrum CBD oil that contains hundreds of beneficial compounds that work alone and in combination to produce an enhanced, “entourage” effect.

With 30 years of experience in the pharmaceuticals and food grade processing industries, New Spectrum Labs’ scientists utilize their expertise and understanding of natural essential oils and other natural materials to formulate the company’s wide variety of products to target specific health concerns.

“Our scientist rich industry experience enables us to deploy our knowledge of how specific compositions intertwine within the human bio-system to formulate more potent and higher-quality products,” said Ted Lavender, Co-Owner of New Spectrum Labs. “We bring particular ingredients together to create a synergetic product that enhances superior bio-absorption with New Spectrum’s BioFulmate™. Each essential oil and ingredient is carefully tested and considered for its chemical composition and potential therapeutic effects.”

The company uses CO₂ sub-supercritical extraction to unlock nature’s best benefits to promote the highest level of health and wellbeing. This practice enables New Spectrum Labs to preserve as much natural and organic material as possible from the entire hemp plant.

New Spectrum Labs’ uses only its pure Full Spectrum Hemp Oil Extract that is judiciously isolated to obtain crucial cannabinoids, terpenes and other phytonutrients. The result is high-quality hemp oil rich in CBD and other antioxidants, which when combined with other beneficial parts of the hemp plant creates a powerful “Entourage Effect.”

New Spectrum Labs maintains the highest level of safety, quality management and regulatory compliance in the manufacturing of all products. Processing in New Spectrum Labs’ FDA registered facility assures quality, strength, and purity to meet or exceed customer’s expectations. New Spectrum Labs is certified as meeting or exceeding the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), Quality Management (ISO 9001), Food Safety Management Systems (FSSC 22000) and Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP).

Currently marketed products include MIRACULO-37 – a deep hydration body lotion, a full spectrum hemp oil extract, a topical joint and muscle pain relief balm, a replenishing lip balm, and Enhanced Absorption BioFulmate™. New Spectrum Lab’s products are currently available through Good Stuff Dispensary, at goodstuffdispensary.com.

To learn more about New Spectrum Labs’ or the company’s current products, please visit NewSpectrumLabs.com.

About New Spectrum Labs
New Spectrum Labs is dedicated to providing the highest quality CBD products available. With more than 30 years of combined expertise in pharmaceuticals and food grade processing, the company develops several of the finest natural CBD products available. New Spectrum Labs uses advanced, safe, CO2 extraction to produce 100% full spectrum hemp oil, free of any toxins. The company’s products include Full Spectrum Hemp Oil Extract, Pain-Relieving Balm, Miraculo-37 (a skin recovery cream), Replenishing Lip Balm, and Bio-Fulmate™ (a nutritional supplement). The products are available online at goodstuffdispensary.com.

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Thailand to Allow Cannabis & Hemp in Cosmetics, Food

12/01/2020

Thailand’s government announced last week that it will allow the use of most parts of the cannabis and hemp plants in cosmetics and food, the Bangkok Post reports. The move removes cannabis and hemp leaves, branches, stems, trunks, bark, fiber, and roots from the government’s narcotic list but flower remains outlawed. Both CBD and THC extracts are limited at 0.2 percent under the reforms.

The rules – which still need final approval from the Food and Drug Administration and the public health minister – allow products from government organizations, medical and research organization, modern and traditional medical practitioners, universities, and community-based groups, for use in food and cosmetics, the report says.

Over the last year, Thailand has approved several cannabis-related reforms, including allowing health clinics to offer both cannabis and modern treatments, permitting hospitals to produce cannabis-based medicines, and approving a proposal to allow farmers, health professionals, and medical patients to cultivate, produce, and export cannabis and cannabis products. The nation also opened up cannabis cultivation to private companies following a five-year ban on the practice.

According to CTN News, Thailand is the first Southeast Asian country to legalize medical cannabis.

A 2019 Prohibition Partners report estimated that a medical cannabis market throughout Asia could be worth $5.8 billion by 2024. Medical cannabis is also legal in Pakistan and Uzbekistan while South Korea allows the use of CBD products for medical purposes.

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Guam Regulators At Odds with Tourism Officials Over Cannabis Ads & Sales

12/01/2020

Guam cannabis regulators are at odds with tourism officials over industry advertising and product sales in Tumon – one of the U.S. territory’s premier vacation hotspots – in an effort to protect its family-friendly image, the Guam Daily Post reports.

Guam legalized cannabis use and possession for adults 21-and-older in April 2019. Regulations allowing sales are still being devised.

Cannabis Control Board member Adrian Cruz said the district already has strip clubs, bars, and massage parlors and that tourism officials don’t complain about those businesses.

“You know the smell to me of hypocrisy is stronger than the waft of cannabis in the air. … This pandemic really can show us that we need to diversify…If we don’t evolve, we will perish to our own demise and we have to compete with lots of places in our area with nice beaches and nice things to offer, that are all family-friendly.” – Cruz during a CCC meeting on Monday via the Daily Post

In a formal comment on the rules, GVB Chairman P. Sonny Ada noted that Guam’s main tourism markets are Japan and Korea and that both nations are very conservative on cannabis and punish citizens harshly for cannabis-related crimes. The agency wants public cannabis consumption banned and opposes “the advertising and sales of cannabis in the Tumon tourist district.”

“From beaches, parks, sidewalks, bus stops and even hotel rooms, we need to ensure that our visitors and local families are not exposed in any way to unwanted cannabis effects that may disturb their experience of our island destination,” Ada wrote in the comment.

Therese Arriola, a member of the CCC, the Guam Visitors Bureau, and director of the Behavioral Health and Wellness Center, said tourism officials simply wanted their position on the record.

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New Jersey Prosecutors Told to ‘Seek Adjournment’ for Low-Level Cannabis Cases

11/30/2020

New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal last week directed all prosecutors to hold off on trying low-level cannabis crimes as lawmakers work on the language of a legalization measure, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

“All New Jersey municipal, county, and state prosecutors are instructed to seek an adjournment, until at least Jan. 25, 2021. … “Fairness and justice require that we, as prosecutors, not move forward with charges that the Legislature may foreclose in the near future. We will provide more comprehensive guidance, including direction on handling of previously adjudicated matters, when the Legislature provides details of the framework for marijuana decriminalization and the legalization of adult-use cannabis.” – Grewal in the guidance via the Inquirer

The guidance does not include driving under the influence and stops short of prohibiting arrests. In a statement following voters’ approval of the measure on Election Day, Grewal indicated that “all of the State’s criminal laws relating to marijuana continue to apply, until, among other things, the Legislature enacts a law creating that regulatory framework.”

“It is important that residents accurately understand the current situation, so they do not inadvertently engage in criminal conduct relating to marijuana – conduct that may be legal in the future once the Legislature acts, but is not presently legal based on yesterday’s vote,” he said in the November 5 statement.

Lawmakers recently tabled the legalization legislation until December 7 as the Assembly and Senate have been unable to agree on how many adult-use dispensaries would be allowed to operate; the Senate appears to favor no limits, while the Assembly favors 37, the report says. Another legalization bill was rejected after an amendment to decriminalize psilocybin was attached to it.

The Legislature has until January 1 to create the framework for the industry before the amendment takes effect.

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