New Jersey Votes to Legalize Cannabis

11/04/2020

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Voters in New Jersey have approved the state’s adult-use cannabis legalization ballot question with overwhelming support, making it the 12th state to end cannabis prohibition.

The yes vote on Ballot Question No. 1 leads to a constitutional amendment that tasks lawmakers with legalizing cannabis for adults 21 and older; the vote also calls for lawmakers to establish a regulatory framework for cannabis cultivation, manufacturing, and retail.

Lawmakers expected the outcome and have been preparing legislation in advance, NJ.com reports. The bill will likely be “very similar to the final draft” of a legalization proposal that failed to pass in 2019, according to its primary sponsor Sen. Nicholas Scutari (D-Union). The legislation would apply the state’s sales tax of 6.625% to legal cannabis purchases plus a 2% municipal tax, which would make New Jersey’s cannabis market the least heavily taxed in the nation, according to the report.

The question was posed by lawmakers via a bill passed last December, as New Jersey does not have an initiative process.

“Garden State voters spoke resoundingly. They are demanding their lawmakers end the failed policy of marijuana criminalization, and instead pursue a more sensible path of regulation and legalization.” — Erik Altieri, Executive Director of NORML, in a statement

New Jersey was joined tonight by Arizona, South Dakota, and Montana in voting on whether to legalize cannabis for adults. Voters in Mississippi and South Dakota are also considering medical cannabis initiatives.

New Jersey legalizing is also likely to pressure neighboring New York — where a legislative effort to legalize cannabis was stymied this year due to the coronavirus — into legalizing more quickly, for fear of being left behind.

 

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Arizona Legalizes Adult-Use Cannabis

11/04/2020

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Arizona voters have approved Proposition 207, also known as the Smart and Safe Act, which legalizes the use and possession of cannabis by adults aged 21 or older.

Under the measure, adults are allowed to possess up to 1 ounce of cannabis and cultivate up to six cannabis plants at home for personal use. The initiative includes a 16 percent excise tax on cannabis products with tax revenue slotted for public education and safety. The bill also opens pathways for people who were convicted of cannabis crimes to petition the courts to have their records expunged.

“Today, Arizona’s voters opted to put their government’s failed war on marijuana in the rear-view mirror where it belongs.” — Ryan Wilson, Executive Director of Arizona NORML, in a statement

Voters approved the legalization initiative with approximately 60 percent support. This is Arizona’s second attempt at legalizing adult-use cannabis after voters there narrowly rejected a legalization measure in 2016.

“We are pleased with the results of this election, but our work is not done,” Wilson said. “In coming months, we look forward to addressing other pressing matters in Arizona, including anti-competitive local ordinances, and to pressuring our representatives in Congress to fight for federal laws — like the MORE Act — that reflect the preferences of Arizona voters.”

Arizona is the 13th state to legalize cannabis having followed shortly after New Jersey, where voters approved legalization earlier in the evening.

Polls suggest that a strong 66% majority of Americans — including a majority of Republicans — support legalizing cannabis.

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South Dakota Legalizes Both Medical and Adult-Use Cannabis

11/04/2020

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South Dakota voters have approved adult and medical cannabis use – the first time a state has approved both during one election. The recreational measure was approved 53 percent to 47 percent while the medical reforms passed 70 percent to 30 percent.

South Dakota joins Montana as the only states in which voters legalized cannabis while backing a Republican for president.

Amendment A will create a taxed and regulated cannabis marketplace, setting the legal age at 21. The amendment takes effect on July 1.

The medical cannabis reforms – an initiated measure – covers chronic or debilitating diseases or medical conditions; treatments that cause cachexia or wasting syndrome; severe, debilitating pain; severe nausea; and seizures or severe and persistent muscle spasms, including those characteristic of multiple sclerosis.

The Health Department has 120 days to enact the program’s rules.

Drey Samuelson, political director for South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws, the committee behind the amendment, told the Argus Leader that the campaign expected voters “would realize the economic, health and social justice benefits of marijuana reform.”

“No longer will South Dakotans have to potentially face the loss of their jobs, their reputations or their freedom for doing what in 11 other states is perfectly legal.” – Samuelson to the Leader

Both campaigns were opposed by state lawmakers, including Republican Gov. Kristi Noem, and she and the legislature could overturn the medical cannabis law as it’s an initiated measure rather than a constitutional amendment. According to the Rapid City Journal, Noem and the legislature overturned the voter-approved anti-corruption measure IM22 in 2017.

In order to repeal the adult-use reforms – a constitutional amendment – lawmakers would have to initiate their own constitutional amendment process and put it to voters.

David Owen, director of the opposition group No Way on A, told the Leader that the vote sends a message to Noem, the legislature, and the state’s “entire political establishment” that “as the state motto says, under God, the people rule.”

“I think South Dakota voters are thoughtful and you live with the conclusion of the voter,” he said in the report.

The pro-legalization campaigns, led by New Approach and Better Marijuana Laws, raised $1.68 million – mostly via New Approach Pac which contributed $1.37 million in cash and $54,892 in in-kind contributions, according to Ballotpedia. Owen said the opposition group had raised just $130,000 despite support from Noem and Republican lawmakers who comprise the legislative majority.

The recreational use amendment takes effect on July 1.

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Montana Passes Cannabis Legalization

11/04/2020

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Montana voters approved two ballot initiatives to legalize cannabis for adult use by a 58 percent to 42 percent margin. The campaign included both a statutory measure to establish a legal marketplace and a constitutional amendment setting the legal age at 21.

This election marks the first time that states legalized cannabis for recreational use while simultaneously backing a Republican for president as President Donald Trump won in both Montana and South Dakota.

NORML Executive Director Erik Altieri said the result “illustrates that support for adult-use marijuana legalization extends across geographic and demographic lines.”

“Marijuana legalization is not exclusively a ‘blue’ state issue, but an issue that is supported by a majority of all Americans – regardless of party politics. By approving these voter-initiated measures, Montana now joins the growing list of states that have recognized that it is time to end marijuana criminalization and move forward with a new approach.” – Altieri in a statement

The measure tasks the state Department of Revenue with implementing and regulating a commercial system for growing and selling cannabis, imposes a 20 percent tax on sales, and allows local governments to ban cannabis businesses, commonly referred to as municipal control. The measure also includes provisions allowing people convicted of past cannabis crimes to seek resentencing or expungement.

The Revenue Department must start accepting industry applications by January 1, 2022.

The reforms do not include social-use provisions and includes language allowing $50 fines for smoking cannabis in a public place, but it does not mention other methods of consumption.

Montana legalized medical cannabis in 2004.

The campaign was led by New Approach Montana which, according to a Ballotpedia analysis, received $7.2 million in cash and in-kind contributions. The campaign’s two highest contributors were New Approach PAC ($1.9 million) and the North Fund ($4.8 million). The opposition group, Wrong for Montana, reported $306,750 in contributions.

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Washington, D.C. Decriminalizes Psychedelic Plants

11/04/2020

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Washington, D.C. voters have overwhelmingly approved Initiative 81, decriminalizing psychedelic plants. The measure does not legalize psychedelic plants and fungi but re-categorizes them “as the lowest level police enforcement priority,” according to the initiative language.

It was approved 76 percent to 24 percent.

The District follows Denver, Colorado, Oakland and Santa Cruz, California, and Ann Arbor Michigan in decriminalizing some psychedelics.

Denver passed its initiative in May, while lawmakers in Oakland and Santa Cruz passed their resolutions in June and February, respectively. The Ann Arbor, Michigan City Council passed their measure in September.

None of those measures decriminalizing psychedelic plants include synthetics such as LSD or MDMA.

Oregon voters legalized medical psilocybin during last night’s General Election and passed another measure decriminalizing all drugs.

The D.C. initiative was introduced by Melissa Lavasani, a city government employee who microdosed with psilocybin to help her recover from postpartum depression.

“Everyone knows, in the campaign at least, that I was shooting for 70 percent. I got my hand slapped multiple times for that and I just want to say, ‘I told you so.’ … We have changed the game here. We have shifted this dialogue into something that people can feel, touch, see, and hear. We are trying to normalize mental health, we’re trying to normalize psychedelics, we’re trying to normalize connecting with your community. The psychedelics movement was born out of the West Coast but D.C. tonight has proven that we belong here and psychedelics has a major part in how we can heal as a community, how we can heal as a city, and how we can heal as a country.” – Lavasani, during a press conference following the vote, via Facebook

The D.C. campaign was led by Decriminalize Nature D.C. Financial backers included the New Approach PAC which has backed cannabis-related initiatives throughout the U.S. since its founding in 2014. The campaign raised a total of $796,943 – $641,378 of which was donated by New Approach, according to Ballotpedia which notes that there were no identified political action committees organized to oppose the reforms.

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Ohio Accepting Petitions for New Cannabis Qualifying Conditions

11/04/2020

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The Ohio Medical Marijuana Control Program (OMMCP) is accepting petitions for new qualifying conditions. Petitions will be accepted by the State Medical Board of Ohio until December 31, 2020; petitions will not be accepted, however, if it “seeks to add a broad category of disease or conditions,” or if the condition has already been rejected by the Board, though petitioners can still submit new research related to conditions the board has previously rejected, according to the OMMCP website.

The annual petition process is required under Ohio’s medical cannabis law.

This year, the Board added cachexia or wasting syndrome — a condition related to various other chronic health conditions like cancer, HIV, or AIDS — to the list of medical conditions that will qualify a patient for medical cannabis in Ohio, but rejected applications to add autism and anxiety to the list. According to the requirements for a 2020 petition submission, anxiety and autism could not be considered again unless new research is submitted to the Board.

Ohio’s medical cannabis system, which was approved in 2016, uses a unique method of tracking and delivering cannabis medicine to patients. With an approach more akin to pharmacies, Ohio patients can purchase medical cannabis in the form of “day units.” One day unit of flower is 1/10th of an ounce, while a day unit of a topical cannabis product is 195 milligrams of THC. Edibles and other oral administrations come in 110-milligram units and vaporization products can have 590 milligrams of THC. Patients and caregivers can only purchase a 90-day supply of medical cannabis in a 99-day window

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Mississippi Overwhelmingly Approves Medical Cannabis Legalization

11/03/2020

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Mississippi opted to legalize medical cannabis on Election Day with more than two-thirds of voter support.

For voters, however, it was more complicated than just a yes or no question. Voters were faced with two questions on their ballots: whether medical cannabis should be legalized at all and, if it were legalized, which of two options — Amendment 65 and Amendment 65A — would be their preference. Amendment 65, which appeared on the ballot following a successful citizen-led petition drive earlier this year, establishes a comprehensive medical cannabis program that would allow doctors to prescribe cannabis for patients suffering from one of 22 qualifying conditions. Amendment 65A was offered later by lawmakers as a more-strict alternative.

Ultimately, voters overwhelmingly supported the activist-backed Amendment 65.

“It is great to see that the tides of change are continuing to flow across the country and now they have come to Mississippi. As we saw in Utah in 2018, and as we see in Mississippi this year, medical marijuana can pass in any state in the country.” — Steve Hawkins, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project, in a statement

Mississippi was joined by South Dakota in legalizing medical cannabis this Election Day. Additionally, voters embraced adult-use cannabis legalization in New Jersey, Arizona, Montana, and South Dakota.

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2020 Cannabis Legalization: What’s On the Ballot?

11/03/2020

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It’s Election Day and Americans across the country are casting votes in a series of potentially groundbreaking cannabis initiatives.

Cannabis battleground states who are considering adult-use legalization this year include Arizona, New Jersey, Montana, and South Dakota — where voters will actually consider two cannabis initiatives, one for adult-use and one for medical cannabis. Mississippi voters will also decide on the issue of medical cannabis. In Oregon, voters will consider initiatives to legalize medical psilocybin therapy and to decriminalize the possession of illegal drugs.

Adult-use cannabis initiatives

Arizona

Arizona Proposition 207 would legalize cannabis for people age 21 or older. If approved, adults would be allowed to possess up to 1 ounce of cannabis and existing medical cannabis dispensaries would be allowed to sell to non-patients. The Smart & Safe Arizona Act would also establish 26 new social equity retailer licenses and includes a process for the expungement of previous convictions of crimes that would no longer be illegal under the new law. The cannabis excise tax would be set at 16 percent.

Last month, a Suffolk University/USA TODAY poll of 500 likely Arizona voters showed narrow support for the measure with 45.6 percent backing the reforms and 34.2 percent opposed.

Arizona voters narrowly rejected a cannabis legalization proposal in 2016 in a 52-48 percent split.

New Jersey

New Jersey voters are also set to determine their state’s future cannabis policies on Tuesday after elected lawmakers decided last December to put the question on the ballot. New Jersey Public Question No. 1 would amend the state’s constitution to allow for cannabis use and sales for adults 21 and older. The question was put to voters by lawmakers because New Jersey does not have a citizen’s initiative process.

New Jersey polling suggested in July that the legalization issue was highly popular among voters. More recently, a poll found that the initiative had the support of voters by a two-to-one margin.

Montana

Montana’s legalization proposal, which will appear on the ballot as Issue 14, is a constitutional initiative that would legalize cannabis for adults aged 21 or older, implement a taxed and regulated marketplace, and establish a 20 percent tax which would be reserved for the state’s general fund and other programs.

The initiative is accompanied by a second constitutional amendment giving lawmakers the right to set the legal consumption age for cannabis.

Montana advocates overcame a lot of opposition this year to get the issue in front of voters. In April — after the coronavirus pandemic’s onset — the advocacy group New Approach Montana sued the state for the right to collect e-signatures for their ballot initiative petition. In October, Montana’s Supreme Court rejected a legal bid by anti-cannabis group Wrong for Montana to invalidate the legalization voter initiative.

South Dakota

South Dakotans will vote on two cannabis initiatives this year, including a bid to legalize adult-use cannabis. If approved, South Dakota would be the first state to vote to legalize cannabis without first establishing a medical cannabis framework.

Amendment A, if approved, would create a constitutional amendment legalizing cannabis for adults 21+ in the state. The amendment would also call for state legislators to adopt medical cannabis and hemp reforms.

October polling data showed 51 percent of South Dakota voters were likely to support the reforms, but the margins were extremely slim with 44 percent opposed.

This year’s General Election contains the largest number of major cannabis initiatives appearing before voters since 2016.

Medical cannabis initiatives

South Dakota

In addition to its adult-use cannabis bid, South Dakota will consider Measure 26, which would establish a medical cannabis program allowing registered patients to “treat or alleviate debilitating medical conditions certified by the patients’ practitioners.”

Under the measure, medical cannabis cardholders would be allowed to possess up to 3 ounces of cannabis and other products made from the plant. Patients who grow their own cannabis would be allowed to possess “a minimum of 3 plants, as well as marijuana and products made from those plants,” according to the initiative’s text.

Mississippi

Mississippi’s bid to legalize medical cannabis, Initiative 65, was approved for the ballot in January. If approved, Initiative 65 would allow physicians to make medical cannabis recommendations for patients suffering from at least one of 22 debilitating conditions such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, and PTSD.

Mississippi lawmakers, however, have since put forward an alternative — Initiative 65A — which is less comprehensive and contains stricter limitations on who could access the program. Under Initiative 65A, for example, only terminally ill patients would be allowed to smoke cannabis products.

Voters will be asked to rank the initiatives with their preference, even if they choose to vote against both. Polls have indicated that upwards of 80 percent of Mississippi voters support legalizing medical cannabis although it’s unclear which initiative will prove to be the more popular option.

Oregon psilocybin & drugs decriminalization

In Oregon, there is Measure 109, which would legalize psilocybin therapy, and Measure 110, which would decriminalize the possession of most drugs and redirect some cannabis tax revenue toward drug education and rehabilitation programs.

The psilocybin therapy initiative would allow for the manufacturing, delivery, and administration of psilocybin at supervised, licensed facilities. The FDA has designated psilocybin as a “breakthrough therapy” but Oregon, if the initiative passes, would be the first state to legalize and regulate its medicinal administration.

Oregon’s drug decriminalization initiative would allot a percentage of the state’s cannabis taxes toward expanding drug addiction treatment options. Notably, the initiative does not legalize any drugs — rather, it reduces the penalties for possession of small amounts, which advocates say will save the state money on enforcement costs and will prevent peoples’ lives from being ruined over minor drug charges.

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New Mexico Hemp Licensing Decreases 31% From 2019

11/03/2020

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Hemp licenses in New Mexico dropped from more than 400 in 2019 to 276 this year – a 31 percent decrease – amid new state rules, the coronavirus pandemic, and industry consolidation, the Albuquerque Journal reports. Last year was the first year the state issued commercial hemp cultivation licenses.

State Agriculture Secretary Jeff Witte told the Journal that officials chalk the decrease up to “those who tried it and decided it wasn’t for them.”

Ricardo Berroteran, lead cultivator for Rich Global Hemp, indicated that the pandemic had decreased demand. He said he had planned to grow up to 10 million clones this year but ended up growing about 10,000 due to the lack of demand.

New Mexico‘s hemp rules are also being challenged in court by some medical cannabis companies due to language barring medical cannabis and hemp cultivation on the same property.

Duke Rodriguez, founder of Ultra Health, one of the petitioners challenging the rules, said cannabis companies growing both hemp and medical cannabis needed to choose one or the other. The rules, Rodriguez said, brought the company’s hemp production “to a complete standstill.”

Last year, the New Mexico Economic Development Department made three investments into the state’s hemp industry, including $200,000 in 420 Valley LLC, a Las Cruces-based hemp productions and processing plant, $2 million to Rich Global Hemp, and $250,000 to New Mexico Hemp Services, a Santa Rosa-based industry job training business.

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UK Has Issued Just Three Medical Cannabis Prescriptions Since Reforms

11/03/2020

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The United Kingdom’s National Health Service has only issued three prescriptions for medical cannabis oil since it was legalized for use with the national health care plan two years ago, according to End Our Pain – a pro-medical cannabis group. The group told the BBC that at least 20 families are paying out-of-pocket for the drug after they were turned down by the NHS.

In 2019, cannabis-derived pharmaceutical drugs Sativex and Epidyolex were approved for the NHS but neither are full-spectrum cannabinoid products and some say the latter doesn’t effectively control seizures like products that contain trace amounts of THC. One parent told the BBC that the medicine costs £2,000 ($2,582) per month.

The Department for Health and Social Care said Epidoylex could be prescribed on the NHS because there was clear “safety [and] clinical” evidence and it was cost-effective.

Hannah Deacon, whose son Alfie Dingley is one of the two to receive the drug via the NHS said it was “not fair” that the agency has only issued prescriptions to families that have received “media attention.”

“We feel very blessed. It’s changed our lives and it should be available to everyone. … Why on earth should [families] have to try and find the money to pay for it?” – Deacon to the BBC

Last month, Billy Caldwell – the boy who became the face of medical cannabis in the U.K. – received his first bottle of the cannabis oil after a two-year fight with the NHS which included a legal battle in the Northern Irish High Court.

In July, the NHS indicated plans to manufacture medical cannabis products itself and said that it had reviewed a clinical trial design for medical cannabis as potential use as a treatment for epilepsy. In August, the agency announced a trial of the Medipen, a CBD vaporizer.

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Appeals Court: Butane Extraction by Individuals is Manufacturing a Controlled Substance

11/03/2020

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The Michigan Court of Appeals last week ruled that using butane to create hash oil is illegal for individuals, concluding that the practice constitutes the manufacturing of a controlled substance. The ruling comes in the case of Alexan Korkigian who was charged with manufacturing a controlled substance in 2018 after authorities were called to his residence after an explosion caused by butane extraction.

Korkigian’s case reached the court of appeals after his attorneys sought to have the charge dismissed or be able to use personal-use affirmative defense under the state’s adult-use legalization law in the circuit court. Korkigian argued that he could not be charged because state law allows some cannabis manufacturing for personal use and the definition of “manufacturing” under state laws “excludes preparing or compounding” cannabis for personal use, according to court documents.

According to court documents, Alex Goodnough, a chemist at Precision Extraction Solutions and expert witness in the hearing, testified that Korkigian was “isolat[ing] the cannabinoids away from [the] carbon” in the cannabis plant “to increase THC concentration and make smoking healthier.” Further, Goodnough testified that both the primary extraction material and final product were “marijuana.”

Prosecutors argued that preparation and compounding of cannabis “involve simple activities” such as “rolling a joint or making ‘special’ brownies,” but “more complex activities, like converting powder cocaine into crack cocaine or ‘cooking’ methamphetamines, are manufacturing acts outside the scope of the personal-use exemption.”

“The open blasting used in this case was more akin to the second category, in the prosecutor’s estimation,” the ruling states.

The circuit court had previously agreed that while Korkigian’s extraction process both began and ended with the same substance – cannabis – he had engaged in “manufacturing” because the cannabis changed its form as a result of Korkigian’s manipulation.

And, the circuit court said, Korkigian “engaged in a significantly higher degree of activity involving the controlled substance beyond merely preparing or compounding it for use.” Rather, Korkigian’s extraction process constituted “conversion” or “processing” under the statute, precluding dismissal of the charge or reliance on the personal-use affirmative defense.

The Appeals Court determined that the butane extraction method makes cannabis “‘ready for use’ through multiple steps, none of which are easy or uncomplicated.”

“We reject the notion that the open-blasting technique merely “makes ready” marijuana plant material for personal use,” the court ruled, affirming the circuit court’s decision.

The ruling does not outlaw butane extraction by licensed cannabis companies.

In 2017, then-Gov. Rick Snyder signed into law a bill amending the state’s medical cannabis law specifically prohibiting butane and “open blasting” forms of extraction for registered patients.

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CBD Flower Banned Under New York Hemp Industry Draft Regulations

11/02/2020

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New hemp regulations proposed in New York would ban the sale of CBD flower while requiring licensing for all segments of the supply chain regulated by the health and agriculture departments.

The proposal includes seed-to-sale tracking requirements, potency and safety standards, random testing at all stages of production, and regulations for CBD food and drink infusions. The regulations would not allow CBD-infused alcohol or transdermal patches.

The rules, authored by the Health Department, would impose application fees between $500 and $1,000 for processors along with license fees between $2,000 to $4,500 depending on whether the licensee will extract CBD in addition to product manufacturing. Retailers would have to pay a $300 license fee for each location, according to the draft rules.

In the proposal, the Health Department says state regulations are needed since the Food and Drug Administration “is just beginning the rulemaking process” and “therefore, there are currently no federal standards for cannabinoid hemp processors or cannabinoid hemp retailers.” The rules would require cannabinoid processors in the state meet third-party good manufacturing practices within six months of application approval.

“Due to the confusion of the regulatory status of cannabinoid hemp products at the federal level, products have been left in an unregulated status. These regulations are intended to bring cannabinoid hemp products on par with other standards already developed in similar industries and is not meant to disadvantage small businesses. Many operators in the hemp industry are looking for regulations to legitimatize and standardize the neophyte industry.” – New York State Health Department in the draft rules

The Health Department indicates in the document that the proposed regulations include recommendations from the New York Cannabis Grower and Processor Association and other, unnamed, industry stakeholders.

Allan Gandelman, president of the association, told the Observer-Dispatch that he shares “in the frustration of [NYCGPA] members and the hundreds of growers throughout the state who have spent significant resources in harvesting their crop…that hemp flower will not be allowed for sale.”

The rules, which have yet to be adopted, come just about two months after state Agriculture Commissioner Richard Ball said the state would not submit an industrial hemp plan to the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the 2021 growing season due to “unrealistic” federal regulations.

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New Jersey to Consider Forcing Some Insurers to Cover Medical Cannabis

11/02/2020

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The New Jersey Assembly Appropriations Committee last week advanced a bill that would require workers’ compensation and personal injury protection auto insurance benefits to cover medical cannabis under certain circumstances, NJ.com reports. The measure would cover individuals enrolled in the state’s medical cannabis program.

Alison Cooper, vice president for state affairs for the American Property Casualty Insurance Association, said during last Monday’s hearing that the “biggest concern” stemming from the proposal for the insurance industry “is that it puts insurers in a very difficult position by potentially forcing them to violate federal law.” She said that lawmakers should delay advancing the bill until Congress resolves conflicts between federal and state law concerning cannabis.

New Jersey courts have ruled on three separate cases in favor of workers’ comp covering medical cannabis for an injured worker. In 2018, Workers’ Compensation Judge Lionel Simon ruled that Freehold Township must pay for medical cannabis treatment for an injured worker. In that case, Simon said the plaintiff was at risk of getting addicted to opioids if the insurer was not forced to cover medical cannabis, which the judge called “safer,” “less addictive,” and “a better treatment for pain.” In 2017, Administrative Law Judge Ingrid L. French ruled that a private business’ workers’ compensation insurance must pay for an injured worker’s medical cannabis because it is “reasonable and necessary” to treat the worker’s ongoing pain, according to a review of the case by law firm Scarinci Hollenbeck.

The bill still requires approval by both legislative chambers and the governor.

New Jersey voters will decide during the General Election whether to legalize cannabis use for adults.

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Gwyneth Paltrow Invests in Cannabis Beverage Company Cann

11/02/2020

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Gwyneth Paltrow, actress and founder and CEO of wellness brand Goop, has invested in cannabis beverage company, Cann, CNBC reports. Cann founder Luke Anderson called her endorsement “a sign that Cann (and microdose beverages more broadly) are a viable answer to that very common consumer pain point.”

He added that when people think of Paltrow, “they don’t think of ‘weed’ – they think of cutting-edge solutions for today’s health and wellness needs.”

Cann is not the first cannabis company Paltrow has invested in but financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The fundraising round also included investments from former National Basketball Association player Baron Davis and singer Tove Lo.

“There’s a whole sober-curious movement that’s going on and the cannabis-curious movement that’s going on, this is kind of at the intersection of those things in a way. … We’re very clearly and definitively moving in the direction of cannabis being legalized, and I think it should be. I’m actually not a big personal user of it. But I do think that there are amazing medicinal qualities to it and it is really helpful for a lot of people.” – Paltrow to CNBC

Cann products are currently available in California and Nevada and the company said it would use the funds – along with $5 million it raised in January – to expand into four more legal states within the next six months.

Paltrow’s Goop has come under fire in the past for making false and misleading health claims about its products, most recently in February from nonprofit advertising watchdog Truth in Advertising Inc. In 2018, the company reached a settlement with 10 California District Attorneys barring it from making such claims, Ars Technica reports.

Analytics firm Headset estimates the U.S. cannabinoid-infused drinks market in legal states doubled over the last two years from $4.2 million in September 2018 to $8.3 million last September.

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Robert Soler: Creating Biologically-Tuned LED Grow Lights

10/30/2020

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Before his work at BIOS, Robert Soler acquired a Master of Science degree from the Lighting Research Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience from the University of California, San Diego. Robert also helped design and build the lighting system on the International Space Station (ISS) — he collaborated with scientists to use LED lighting for photobiological purposes in space, which included designing a circadian lighting system to synchronize circadian rhythms of astronauts aboard the ISS. Through this experience, he gained insight into how LEDs could be utilized to develop valuable technology for the cannabis industry.

This interview covers how BIOS uses biology to understand and create optimized lighting systems, the benefits of growing cannabis under LEDs, and more!

Ganjapreneur: What is the origin story behind BIOS, and what led to the decision to create energy-efficient grow lights for indoor cultivation?

Robert Soler: I’d say BIOS started at NASA’s Space Life Sciences Lab, where I was an engineer designing lighting technologies for all types of life. There I learned about how LED lighting could be used to change plant morphology, provide unique seasonal cues and drive the most efficient photosynthetic growth.

On the BIOS website it states that your products are “designed by nature.” How does BIOS use plant biology to direct product development?

Rather than taking a technology and trying to shoehorn it into a biological application, BIOS is looking at the biological mechanisms, photobiology and biochemistry and develops technology based on that fundamental science.

What are some of the benefits of cultivating cannabis indoors with LED lighting?

The main benefit is consistency. Indoor lighting as a whole is more consistent day-to-day. When comparing to HPS indoors, LED provides the most uniformity. This bodes well for the crop, ensuring no portions of the plant is getting too much light and no portions are getting too little. This will lead to more consistent yields and higher yields harvest after harvest.

Research suggests that LED lighting can increase biosynthesis of flavonoids in fruits and some plant species. Could these results translate to the elaborate system of secondary compounds found in cannabis flowers?

Absolutely! Spectrum is the key to these secondary compounds. A couple of tweaks to say the near UV can help boost some things while far reds can boost others. We haven’t testing everything yet, but we can help you get there with some basics.

How does BIOS lighting differ from other LED lighting options on the market?

BIOS is dedicated to the grower. We think about things from the perspective of the plant, and operators when we design our products. An example of this is our optimized white light spectrum, providing the optimal photosynthetic yield without compromising the comfort of the workers inside the facility. Another example is our industrial grade fixtures, designed to take all the dirt and water you can throw at it, and wipe clean to keep you producing. A final example that we’re really proud of is our upcoming rapid rack system designed to get these lights up in record time.

What scale of indoor cultivation project is a good fit for a BIOS system?

I haven’t seen a bad scale of a project. Small ones are good for R&D. Tweaking spectrums and learning about your product.

What are the most common mistakes that cannabis cultivators make when switching over to LED lights after using other indoor cultivation lighting systems?

The most common one is temperature. The leaf temperature is much cooler when grown under LED lights compared to Sodium (HPS) lamps. This means you need to run your HVAC a few degrees warmer to obtain the best benefits. The other major one is measuring light. Light intensity is so important to the plant growth, yet few people measure it correctly. You measure in umol/m2, not lux, at the canopy level.

How does BIOS continue to support cultivators who are using your products?

BIOS is committed to helping our customers throughout the life of our products. We provide our customers with tips on maintenance and troubleshooting (even if it has nothing to do with the lights). We also work hand in hand with those growers who are looking at tweaking spectrum and once that spectrum is finalized, we help them cost effectively scale that unique spectrum to a full scale grow facility.

Thank you, Robert, for answering our questions! You can learn more about Robert Soler and BIOS’s offerings at BIOSlighting.com.

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Study: Medical Cannabis Helps Patients Reduce Harmful Drinking Habits

10/30/2020

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A study by Canadian researchers suggests that 43.5 percent of patients who began using medical cannabis to mitigate harmful alcohol habits were able to reduce the frequency of their alcohol use or quit entirely. The researchers found that median drinking days from study participants went from 10.5 to eight.

The study included information from the Canadian Cannabis Patient Survey 2019 from patients registered with Tilray. Of the 2,102 surveyed, 973 participants reported past or current alcohol use and 44 percent of those (419) reported decreasing alcohol-use frequency over the last 30 days, 34 percent (323) decreased the number of drinks per week, while 8 percent (76) reported using no alcohol over the 30 days prior to the survey.

Philippe Lucas, a study co-author, graduate researcher at the University of Victoria, and vice president of global patient research and access for Tilray, said the survey feedback adds “to a growing body of evidence that medical cannabis use is often associated with reductions in the use of other substances, including alcohol, opioids, tobacco and illicit drugs.”

“Since alcohol is the most prevalent recreational substance in the world, and its use results in significant rates of criminality, morbidity and mortality, these findings may result in improved health outcomes for medical cannabis patients, as well as overall improvements in public health and safety.” – Lucas in a statement

Other studies have purposed links between cannabis use and alcohol use reduction. An Oregon State University study published in January found that binge drinking rates among college students were reduced in states with legalized cannabis. A study published last year found binge drinking rates 9 percent below the national average in those states.

The University of Victoria study included researchers from the University of British Columbia. It was published in the International Journal of Drug Policy.

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New Zealand Rejects Cannabis Legalization

10/30/2020

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New Zealanders have rejected legalizing cannabis by a 53 percent to 46 percent margin, according to preliminary results by the nation’s Electoral Commission. However, the result could change once special votes are counted as the outcome is based on 83 percent of counted votes.

Green Party lawmaker Chloe Swarbrick told Global News that the nation had “record numbers of special votes” and that she remains optimistic the result could flip as those ballots are counted.

Conservative lawmaker Nick Smith, from National Party, called the initial results “a victory for common sense.”

“New Zealanders have rightly concluded that legalizing recreational cannabis would normalize it, make it more available, increase its use and cause more harm.” – Smith to Global News

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern revealed after the results were released that she had voted in favor of the reforms.

The proposal, a non-binding vote which would have to have been implemented by the legislature if approved, would have allowed individuals 20-and-older to purchase up to 14 grams daily and grow two plants. The proposal included social use provisions, allowing for so-called cannabis cafés.

Polling for the legalization measure had been trending toward a ‘no’ vote in the lead-up to the referendum. A Horizon Poll in September found an even 49.5 percent split for the policy change – the firm’s polls had previously found consistent support for legalization going back to November 2019. Meanwhile, 1 News/Colmar Brunton polling never found support above 50 percent and in a poll released October 1 found 35 percent support with 53 percent opposed.

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Feds Say Cannabis Employees are ‘Agricultural Laborers,’ May Unionize Under State Law

10/30/2020

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The Regional Director of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for Region 1 – which covers most of New England – has found that the majority of employees at a cannabis cultivation and processing facility are “agricultural laborers” under the federal National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and, therefore, not subject to federal labor laws related to unionizing, according to a JD Supra report.

The decision allows labor unions to organize workers under Massachusetts law rather than federal law. Under Massachusetts law, union recognition uses a simple card check. Agricultural workers are exempt from federal labor laws but some states – including Massachusetts – cover farmworkers, while other states deny unionization rights altogether to such employees.

The decision stems from the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Local 1445’s, push to organize the cannabis cultivation and processing facility at New England Treatment Access’s (NETA) Franklin, Massachusetts facility. The union sought to unionize the employees under Massachusetts labor laws through the “card-check” method of organization instead of the secret ballot process required by the NLRA. NETA argued that the cultivation and processing employees were not agricultural laborers and were subject to the NLRA.

Following a review of the company’s processes, the regional director determined that workers involved in cultivation, growing, and harvesting – “primary agriculture” – and those employees working in roles closely related to primary agriculture – “secondary agriculture” – were exempt from federal labor law under the NLRA.

The director also determined that workers involved in research and development, and data analysis, were non-agricultural employees.

The decision allows a union to obtain agricultural worker recognition once it has obtained authorization cards signed by a majority of workers in a bargaining unit. Card signing often happens without employer knowledge and employers might not be aware of the effort until they are presented with the demand for union recognition.

The NLRB decision could influence cannabis-related decisions in other regions if petitions are brought to the board.

Just this year, workers at NETA, Sira Naturals, Mayflower Medicinals, Cultivate Holdings, and Curaleaf, have either voted to join a labor union or ratified a union contract. UFCW Local 1445 – which brought the petition to the NLRB – have organized workers at Mayflower, Cultivate, NETA, and Sira.

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Study: Teen Boys More Likely to Believe Cannabis Will Improve Their Sex Life

10/30/2020

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A recent study by the Washington State University (WSU) found that after viewing cannabis advertising and social media content, teenage boys frequently expected to be “less inhibited” and to “enjoy” sex more, and they were more likely to express an interest in using cannabis in the future. The study — titled Social Media, Marijuana and Sex: An Exploratory Study of Adolescents’ Intentions to Use and College Students’ Use of Marijuana — found that after viewing the same ads, adolescent girls, college-age women, and college-age men did not draw the same conclusions about sex and cannabis as teenage boys, although pro-cannabis ads still had an impact on their perceptions of cannabis.

The study looked at surveys from two groups made up of 315 seventeen-year-olds and nearly 1,000 college-age young adults. The survey asked about their social media habits, how much pro-cannabis content they were exposed to (whether ads or user-generated), their attitudes toward sex and cannabis, and their intentions of using cannabis in the future. Young adults were asked an additional question about their cannabis use as adult-use cannabis is legal in Washington.

The study found that, regardless of age or gender, viewing pro-cannabis content on social media increased participants’ intentions to use cannabis. However, only teenage boys expressed an increased propensity to use cannabis based on their perception of cannabis and sex.

Jessica Fitts Willoughby, the study’s lead author and an associate professor with the Murrow College of Communication, told WSU News, “The messages adolescents and young adults are seeing are part of what is having an impact, the type of appeal and the content, not just the fact that young people are seeing these messages on social media.”

The authors say parents and teens should consider having conversations about cannabis and sex. They also suggest that more critical viewing of such content may help curb any unrealistic associations or expectations. Additionally, despite Washington already having strict rules around cannabis advertising, the authors suggest the industry consider regulations similar to alcohol that prohibit ads explicitly linking cannabis products to sex.

In a related story, Washington is in the midst of a statewide fight to repeal an early sex education program passed in the 2020 legislative session.

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Teddy Scott: The Complex World of Multi-State Cannabis Operations

10/29/2020

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After co-founding and leading Illinois’ PharmaCann for several years, Teddy Scott departed to found Ethos Cannabis, a multistate cannabis operator based in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic and East Coast regions.

Teddy recently spoke with our podcast host TG Branfalt about his experience and the complexities of founding and operating a multi-state cannabis company. Their conversation also explores the co-existence of corporate and craft cannabis, the rapid growth of cannabis business in the Midwest and East Coast regions of the U.S., the importance of effective social equity provisions, Teddy’s advice for industry newcomers and entrepreneurs, and more!

Tune in to this episode of the Ganjapreneur.com Podcast below or through your favorite podcast platform, or scroll down to read a full transcript of the interview.

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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 Teddy Scott, who is the CEO of Ethos Cannabis, a multi-state operator developing a vertically integrated retail-focused platform in the Mid-Atlantic and East Coast markets of the US. Teddy holds a PhD in molecular biophysics from the University of Texas, and a JD degree from the Northwestern University School of Law. He’s also worked in pharmaceutical research and practiced intellectual property law. He’s also an advisor to the University of Chicago’s Innovation Fund. That’s one hell of an intro. Lots of stuff going on there, Teddy, how you doing?

Teddy Scott: I’m doing great. Thanks, sir. How you doing?

TG Branfalt: I’m doing well, man. It’s great to have you on. You’re a really interesting cat just from your intro alone. And I did some research on you and I’m real excited to pick your brain a bit. But before I get the opportunity to do that, tell me about yourself, man. How did you end up in the cannabis space?

Teddy Scott: It’s an interesting story. It was one of those things you can’t script out. If you’d asked me 10 years ago, hell, even seven years ago, if I were where I am now doing what I’m doing I would have said you were crazy. I had a background in medical research, went to law school and was a corner office equity partner at a big national law firm, I was located in downtown Chicago. Knew virtually nothing about cannabis.

TG Branfalt: What did you know about cannabis then?

Teddy Scott: What I knew about cannabis was the same stuff that all the other people in this country that are ignorant to it, because of what they’ve been told and led to believe the misinformation for so long. That’s pretty much all I knew. I knew nothing about it. And what happened was it was an interesting time period. It’s really critical to remember, and it was January 2014. I’ll never forget it. I was at a point in my life that it was probably the right time for me. I had reinvented myself a number of times. But I’d gotten to a point as like, “What am I going to do next?” I had four relatively young children, “Gosh, I can’t really go off and do anything new. I need to just hunker down and just continue being a lawyer. And just once my kids are in college, I’ll look at doing something else.”

And what happened was, it was January 2014, a friend reached out to me. It was an email. I remember laying in my bed on a Thursday night, and an email came in. It was a physician friend of mine and said, “Hey, I know some people that are from Arizona, that are coming to Illinois to apply for medical cannabis licenses. And they’re looking to raise money, do you want to invest?” And it was just boom, it was an immediate thought of “No, I don’t want to invest. I want to look at this.” And I like to say all the time, if Google had not been around, I would not be where I am.

The power of the amount of information that is out there, podcasts that are out there that I started listening to. And the reason I did was, as I tell the story to people to remember. It was very fortuitous for me because that was January of ’14. And what had happened only a couple of weeks earlier, January 1, 2014. That was when rec sales started in Colorado. And I don’t know if you remember, but it was on the news everywhere.

TG Branfalt: Yeah.

Teddy Scott: And I think what happened was by being a lawyer I had a sense of the way laws are made, how they’re interpreted the way they evolve. They’re a measure of society. And I just had this sense that things were changing, you couldn’t help but see what was happening in Colorado a couple of weeks beforehand. And it just made me start looking. And that’s what you do as a researcher, I happen to have a PhD, it’s what you do you research, you dig in, you see a question you want to understand it. As a lawyer, that’s what you do.

And I just started digging and what happened within, it was probably a couple of days, it was very quickly after that, that I got that email. What I realized is, I was digging into what was known at the time about the science of cannabis. I was like, “Oh, my gosh.” Because I know very well what drug companies do, the types of discoveries they make. With my PhD, I very much understood how receptors work, how drugs work, interacting with them, and the effects that happen. And as I was looking at this, I was like, “Wow, there’s really something here. I don’t know the answer.” And quite frankly, I don’t think anybody does with specificity. But it looks like there’s something here.

TG Branfalt: What was the thing for you? You said that you didn’t really know much you start googling, you start researching. Once you noticed that there’s some interest there for you. What was the thing for you that the light bulb went off?

Teddy Scott: Yeah, there were a couple of light bulbs. And they happened really quickly, really, within just the first couple of weeks, I was looking at it. The one was, I’ll call it my passions, because at first it was intellectual. I was thinking of it as a technical lawyer, I was thinking of it as maybe a scientist, that’s very technical in nature.

The first was, as I was looking at it, and I was looking at just the science of it. One of the things that was interesting for me, or has made an impact on me is one of my clients, as a lawyer was an opiate manufacturer. They’re one of the good ones. There’s a lot of bad press out there, and well deserved, by the way, for certain companies out there. The one I was working with was ethical. They were spending tons of money, trying to find new opiates that weren’t addictive. Ones that could provide pain relief, but were not addictive.

And I knew very well, in a way that people in the country at the time. The opiate epidemic only became pop… No, I don’t want to say popular, I’ll say really well known in the last few years. But I was well aware of it going back quite a while. And so when I was looking at the science of it, what was known and just I was like, “Oh my God, this could be…” That was I was saying … I was like, “Wow, this could be an alternative, one of the solutions to fill in that gap for true chronic pain.” I mean, there’s hundreds of millions of people that are suffering from chronic pain and you have a choice of Advil, or Fentanyl. I mean, there’s a huge gap.

TG Branfalt: And it’s hard, right, to compartmentalize. Patients can’t tell doctors how they’re feeling pain oftentimes.

Teddy Scott: Well that’s a pain is a weird thing. The same thing might happen to you, to somebody else, you might think, “Eh, I’m okay. I can get by with a couple aspirin.” Like Jeff Sessions said a couple years ago, “Just take a couple aspirin.” But for somebody else they might be in agony. And what are you supposed to do? Are you supposed to say, “Screw you, deal with it?” Are you supposed to honor them and respect them and go, “You know what, you’re in agony, I need to try to help you.”

And what it helped that, that was one of two things. But what that did for me was it made it no longer technical in nature, intellectual in nature, it really personified it. And the sad thing for me personally, was very shortly after I started, it was before the company had got going, it was before we’d won any licenses. We were still in this planning stage. My father was diagnosed with his first of two primary cancers. He passed away a couple of years ago.

TG Branfalt: I’m sorry.

Teddy Scott: And it became really personal as I saw him, I’m from Texas, that’s where he was. And I saw him living in a state where it was illegal. And I mean, he was dying. He was in agony. And he was a physician. He was a physician. And he almost overdosed on opiates, just as he was trying to deal with the pain of the radiation therapy and just the pain of cancer. And he’s like to me, “Son, can you get me some cannabis?” I’m like, “Sorry, dad I can’t. Down here… I’m up there. You don’t live up there, where it’s legal or available.” And actually he was able to get some through sources, it was totally illegal down there. And it helped him, it helped him. It helped us reduce his opiates.

TG Branfalt: Had he done research, or it was a last-ditch effort for him?

Teddy Scott: It was a… Yeah, it was purely… He’s palliative care. He knows he’s dying, he’s just in agony. And it was purely just a last ditch effort for him. So that was one thing that made it… I mean, one thing I’ve said before, and it’s one of the things I’m very thankful for. And I’ve had a lot of… I’m very thankful in my life for my family, my education, I’ve had a lot of opportunities. But the one thing that was missing, I didn’t realize until I got into cannabis, I never had a cause. Something I really believed in. And this has really provided it for me.

And so that was one thing that… It’s easy enough, okay, people might chase money, or fame, or success, whatever it might be. It’s really powerful when you’re doing something beyond that, bigger than that. And cannabis has been that for me. And it became that, so that was one of those ah-ha moments really quickly. To be totally frank, when I first started looking at it, one of the first things I did was a spreadsheet model of a business model. And you could see big numbers and the dollar signs, that’s kind of that technical thing. But it quickly switched into this personal mission driven trying to do something. And so that was one thing, but I still didn’t know anything about cannabis. I just saw the potential for it.

TG Branfalt: Well, so let’s talk a bit about that your first roles, your first experiences with the company and where you are now. You started, or at least worked for a time as executive at PharmaCann, which is very well known. And now you’ve founded your own company, Ethos Cannabis. So what was the impetus or imperative, behind the founding of your own firm? Meanwhile, you’re at, or had been at one of the largest in the country? And how did the experiences differ?

Teddy Scott: Well, I actually founded PharmaCann, Ethos is my second company to really start. PharmaCann was the first one. So that January of ’14, what led to it, is me and a couple of co-founders, we founded PharmaCann. And so I was the CEO and one of the co-founders of PharmaCann. And so that was in 2014. We formed the company, we won our licenses in February of ’15. Myself and one of my co founders, it was a partner and me at my law firm, we quit and went to go work in the cannabis business.

TG Branfalt: You just quit.

Teddy Scott: We just quit. And I’ll just go back real fast, because it’s relevant to the transition, is that what happened in the beginning, I’m starting to think about getting into this. And I don’t know anything about cannabis. Well, that doesn’t make any sense. How are you going to start a business and you don’t know the actual… You don’t know the product. You don’t know the market. You don’t know anything about it. And there were two things. One was as I was saying Google and listening to podcasts. There’s a great podcast, Free Weed. I’m not sure if you’re familiar with it but I learned a lot from Danny Danko. The host of that, Free Weed. I learned a lot about cannabis from Danny Danko.

TG Branfalt: I learned about Danko from High Times Magazine. So when I was younger, and I would read High Times, and then he has a podcast much later anyway, it’s interesting.

Teddy Scott: Yeah. But the thing was, I went out to start to see operators in Colorado, California, wherever it might be. Just, I was like, “I got to find a partner because I don’t…” I’d never seen a cannabis plant.

TG Branfalt: Really?

Teddy Scott: Yeah, they’re unbelievable. It’s one of the craziest things. And as I went out there, that was the other ah-ha moment. There’s a thread of it all the way through today. As I was out there, I was touring, I won’t mention their name, but they were one of, if not the biggest operator in Colorado. I mean, they had tons of dispensaries and very well regarded. Very successful. But as I was watching their operations, how they were growing their grow facilities and the way they were doing things. As I was watching it, I went into that thinking, “I’m at a competitive disadvantage, because I don’t know cannabis.” But as I was watching them, I was like, “Wow, I actually have an advantage. They know cannabis right now. But they don’t know technology. And they don’t know how to run a business. They don’t know how to scale a business, huh, I know how to do that.”

And so that became really the big ah-ha moment. Beforehand, I had been thinking “Oh, I’m just going to start a small business.” But then I saw the opportunity to grow a big business. That I could see, or I thought what I saw and I’ve been right so far, is I thought I saw where cannabis was headed, that it was going to go from underground to a legal respected opportunity in business. Yeah, but at the same time, as that happened, look at any business. They start off manual, non-automated, unspecialized with technology. And what happens? They get more and more specialized, higher and higher technical, higher and higher quality, more and more reproducibility, innovation, iteration. That’s the way any business is. And I saw that.

TG Branfalt: Or they get pushed out for not doing those things.

Teddy Scott: Exactly. That’s the way it works. I’s an unfortunate thing. That’s why societies, you have to always have education, you have to have job training, you have to have advancement, because if you just keep doing the same old thing you’re going to get passed by. That’s just the nature of everything. And I saw that. And so that was really one of the key things that led to the founding of PharmaCann. And PharmaCann is not the only company that did it. We were in Illinois at the time, at that in 2014. And there’s tons of other companies that did the same thing.

Back in, I think it was ’15. I was talking to a very high up elected official in Illinois. And I was talking to him. And this was in early ’15. And I was like, “Do you know where the leaders of cannabis are going to be?” And he’s like, “I don’t know, Colorado, California?” And I’m like “I understand that you’re saying that, because that’s what everybody would say.” I was like, “That’s not it. It’s going to come here to Illinois.” He’s like, “What are you talking about? We don’t have anything, we don’t…” And I was like, “Where this industry is headed it’s no longer going to be these artisanal family, small business, it’s going to be big. It’s going to be sophisticated. It’s going to be corporate. That’s where it’s headed.”

And look at all these companies here in Illinois. GTI, Cresco, Verano, PharmaCann, Grassroots, I mean, those are big leading companies now. And go back to, I think it was 2015, I remember was like on the MJBizDaily, or one or maybe High Times what are the first billion dollar companies in cannabis going to be? And there wasn’t a single company from Illinois on there, now look at all those big companies. And there’s ones that are outside of Illinois but Illinois, I think it’s one of if not the highest concentration of big, well capitalized operating companies. And it’s all because of that Illinois was really at the precipice of when the wave changed from West smaller companies to these highly regulated sophisticated companies on the East Coast.

And so PharmaCann got started. And we started and as a basic strategy that I had at the time, and it’s not it’s not the same today, but it was back then is I would rather have hired someone that didn’t have cannabis experience, because what I was looking for is, do you know how to manufacture consistently? I’d rather you know how to grow acres and acres of poinsettias then to grow five marijuana plants? Okay the horticulturist that knows how to safely organically prevent pest and have a high degree of production and quality and consistency. That’s what I was looking for. Not someone that knew how to grow marijuana, and with the theory being, it may take some time. But the horticulturist can learn how to apply their experience to growing cannabis. But I can’t teach a master grower that can grow really good weed in their basement or in a small grow room. I can’t teach them how to grow hundreds of thousands of square feet in controlled environmental conditions, if that makes sense.

That was the basic and we as a company, myself and the other leaders we hired at PharmaCann, it took us a couple of years to figure stuff out, we didn’t know what the hell we were doing. I mean, the people that built our facilities when we built our first production facility we brought in all these engineers, and these architects and these horticulturist, and they’re doing their best to build this facility. But it’s never been done before the size, the people doing it have never done it before, you’re taking your best guess. But guess what, it’s a guess. You need to have some practice to learn and iterate. And so those first few years were spent just learning. People that had these skill sets to learn how to apply it to cannabis. And so, at PharmaCann like I said, the first few years were really spent learning and we thought that was okay, because the market in Illinois at the time was so small. And when we expanded to New York, once again, the market was so small.

The thought at the time was, “That’s okay, we got time. Yeah, we’re not going to go compete on the West Coast yet, because we’ll get killed if we go out there, because we don’t know what we’re doing yet. But give us a couple of years, and we’re going to pass them by, they know how to do it now. But they’re stuck. They’re plateaued. They don’t have the capabilities of getting better, but we do.” And that’s what happened. And we’re not the only one. That’s what the other big companies have done as well. They’ve had a long term view they’ve invested in themselves and their people, their systems, and they’ve learned.

TG Branfalt: So while we’re talking about the bigger companies and as you said a lot of those billion-dollar companies, they’re all multi-state operators who operate in the strict regulatory environments. And Colorado, California is a little more wild west, but what’s your response to those that criticize corporate cannabis, when I read the comments on the Facebook page on my story, which I don’t often, a lot of them anytime I write about sort about someone they consider corporate cannabis. I mean, it’s a call to arms.

But obviously as you said you put in however much money to build this state-of-the-art facility that’s never been done before. Which if you don’t have that financial backing is impossible to do. And not only what’s your response to those that criticize corporate cannabis, but what’s your take on the push to drive out or prevent such operators such as what’s playing out currently in Maine?

Teddy Scott: I’m not I’m not familiar with what’s going on in Maine. But I totally understand that criticism of corporate cannabis. I understand it, it’s deserved. But I think what people don’t understand is, number one, it’s a natural reality, okay? Everything, everything in life, whether you’re an athlete, you’re in business, no matter what it is, things get better. You have a choice, you can stay what you’re doing, or you can continue to grow. And anyone that was in this in the beginning, there were numerous cannabis entrepreneurs before I got into it, they knew much more about it than I did. they had a head start.

The question is, what do you do with your head start? Do you continue to grow and get better? Or do you stay where you are? It’s a lesson in life. It’s not just cannabis, it’s anything. And so that’s one thing. But the other thing I’ll say is, it’s unfortunate for those people that perhaps feel like they’ve gotten passed by, they were the ones that opened up the market. I mean, my myself and my other companies like us we’re standing on their shoulders, and we have to honor that, respect that. I mean, those men and women that were in this when I was in it, starting to look at it, in ’14 and ’15, they knew so much more than I did. I’ve learned so much from them. And I certainly honor them and respect that. And that I’m one of those corporate people, I would expect them to respect me for what I’ve done, and for we’ve done as well.

But then here’s the last piece. I don’t think they’re done. I think there’s always going to be a place for them. Yeah, they may not be CEO of a multi state operator, but do they really want to be? They still have an opportunity to continue doing what they’re doing and be successful. And I like to use analogies. But I think the alcohol, beer industry is a great example of you’ve got big corporate alcohol and beer. But guess what, there’s tons and tons of very successful popular micro brews. And I’ll bet you, if you ask anyone, I bet 95% of those business owners that have a microbrew or a brew pub I’ll bet you as 95% of them, would you give up what you’re doing to go work at InBev and be reporting to some bullshit corporate bureaucracy? They’d go, “Hell no, I’ll keep doing what I’m doing.”

And so there yeah, there’s that corporate world out there. But there’s always a place for people that are doing things on a smaller scale. And why? Because they’re able to establish a more one on one direct connection with their consumers. They’re able to pivot more quickly, they’re able to innovate in ways and do things that big corporate behemoths can’t. And so, I think there’s a place for both I understand the concern and the criticism that is out there with corporate cannabis, but here’s the problem. If you are not corporate cannabis, how in the world can you satisfy the safety standards, the accuracy standards of labeling to protect consumers? How can you ensure that you know the mold is not there? How can you ensure that the excipients that are going into your vape carts aren’t problematic? I mean, look at the vape crisis?

TG Branfalt: Yeah.

Teddy Scott: Okay. That right there is the perfect example of why you want corporate cannabis. Because these products, cannabis, rightfully so is talked about as a very safe product. Okay, and rightfully so. But there’s a big difference between bud and highly concentrated hydrocarbon extraction reformulated with all these chemicals. What is that shit coming from? How do you know the safety of that stuff? Yeah, you might see the raw cannabis and the safety profile for that is very different but oh, wait a second, there’s tons of examples of immunocompromised individuals burning cannabis inhaling-

TG Branfalt: Mold.

Teddy Scott: Mold and it killing them. Okay, how you protect that from happening? You have corporate cannabis. And so there’s a place for it. I’m not sure if that makes sense. I totally understand where they’re coming from and the criticism, but there’s a place for corporate cannabis and for the protection of the consumers that are out there. You want those protections in place, and it’s only corporate cannabis that’s going to be able to really meet those safety standards.

TG Branfalt: Well, especially on that scale. To your point, if you’re a mom and pop shop you might be making one-tenth of the product that a massive company does, and that’s to your scale. So you’re so they’re able to make sure that it’s safe by and large.

Teddy Scott: Yeah, it’s a little bit off topic, but it’s irrelevant. Like you can look at CBD right now. Everybody can tell CBD has a huge opportunity. But when you go into-

TG Branfalt: Gas stations.

Teddy Scott: You go into a gas station or a Bed Bath and Beyond Where the hell did that come from? Nobody knows.

TG Branfalt: And that’s a really wild thing, is it’s so much different from state to state that you can’t guarantee that the same label even is the same from state to state.

Teddy Scott: Yeah, I don’t know what’s going to happen. No one knows. But where it should happen is raw cannabis is closer to maybe produce there’s been intoxicants and that needs to be regulated. But when you start getting into the extracted products, man, the risk profile of extracted products, they’re log units, I mean, multiple, multiple higher factors of risk for the individual consumer with those extracted products.

TG Branfalt: I do want to backtrack a little bit you had said, when we first started talking about corporate cannabis that you’re aware that the industry is on the backs of those that came before and we have to talk about the entire industry is also based on a drug that is still predominantly illegal, illegal at the federal level. People still arrested for it, I think something like 85% of arrests in 2014 were nonviolent, nonproperty arrests, many of them for drug possession. And so and the industry is predominantly white, and male, for that matter. And in you with Ethos, working with social equity applicants in Illinois for those are not familiar social equity applicants, programs, different states have different rules, but by and large, it’s for communities that were most affected by the war on drugs.

You’re really the first quote, unquote, corporate cannabis CBD CEO, that I’ve had the opportunity to talk to that actually has one of the social equity applicants partnerships. Can you tell me about that? What does it look like in Illinois? Is it coming as quickly as people had hoped? I mean, the Coronavirus I know, set it back. And specifically, I’m more concerned about what your partnership looks like, and what is the hopeful outcome?

Teddy Scott: Yeah, I got into it. I was going to do it, regardless. One of the things I’ve been involved with for a while is mentoring people. And I mean, I think as being an entrepreneur is one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had. And it’s a thing that not many people get a chance to do. And so really trying to help people, encourage them because it’s scary to become an entrepreneur. And I started helping, I get asked to talk to people a lot, and I usually do those things. And there was a Black lady that reached out to me wanting some further coaching. And I was like, sure. And as I was talking to her, it was back little more than a year ago. And it was back when Illinois was looking at putting the thing in place.

And as I was talking to her as I was like she was looking at doing a… Essentially, she wanted to help out. She had a business it was essentially job training and she wanted to job train African Americans to help them get into the cannabis industry as it was coming to Illinois, and I was talking to her and I was like, “Why don’t you start a dispensary instead, go to where the money is. And on top of that, if Illinois passes this law, it’s if it happens, social equity is going to be a big part of it’s going to be for people like you.” I mean, she grew up on the south side of Chicago. “And it’s going to be for people like you it’s like, go to where the money is, instead of being a staffing or training agency. Wouldn’t you rather be in the business?” She’s like that’s a great idea.

And I started meeting with her, just as a pure mentor. And it gave me the idea of wow, I could really help more, this could be scalable. This could be bigger impact, not just this one person, but bigger. And I went to my company, my new company, and I was like, “Hey, I’m going to help this person and maybe some others. But I think we should do it as a company. And it’s the right thing to do. It’ll be good for us as a company, it’s certainly not the best use of our capital, it’s not the best use of our time. But I’m a big believer in pay it forward, you do the right thing. It may be hard in the beginning, but it will be recognized, you’ll get rewarded for it later.

And that’s one of the reasons we went into it. But I also felt like, as I was talking to her at the time, reparations is a bad word to use, or it has been in the past, it’s being talked about in a different way now, but I was like cannabis, really, perhaps could be that driver, whether you call it reparations or not. It has an opportunity to be that. And as I was talking to her at the time, she had some relationships with the legislators and the Black Caucus here in Illinois. And I was like, “Hey, you should go and lobby, do your best. Go, go talk to your representative. And make sure they set this thing up. So it benefits people like you.” Because that’s the way politics works,  and it’s like to get this thing passed, it’s going to require the Black Caucus, well make sure the Black Caucus doesn’t vote for it until their community gets a piece of this, is able to get the upside on it.

And so back to your thing. Yeah. And in most of cannabis, just like most any other industry in this country, it’s dominated by white males. Unfortunately, that’s the systemic systems that have been set up, it’s going to take, my God, there’s no telling how long it will take to fix those problems. But hey, I think cannabis is really one of the first things that was and I think it’s just because we’re creating it from scratch, it’s like, “Okay, how we’re going to set up the rules of the game. So everybody wins?” Not just, I think I’m entitled to have some degree of winnings. I’ve worked hard. I’ve done a good job. I’ve put a lot of time and effort into it. But maybe we can set this thing up that more people than me can win it, if that makes sense. And so I think cannabis really has that opportunity. Yeah, could it be better? Could it be faster? Sure. But that’s the way it always is. As a lawyer, one of those things you learn is if you’re ever having a settlement, and two people walk out of there, and neither one of them is happy you had a good result. Because that’s just the way it works. It’s like if everybody gets what they want, that means somebody didn’t get what they deserve. And so you’re trying to find that middle ground to do as much good as possible.

And so we ended up working with five groups, where we’re putting all the capital to them, we did all the work, myself and my team [inaudible 00:35:37]. We do a good job of doing the applications. And we’re going to commit to funding them if they win these dispensary licenses. And we’re going to win in it as well. I mean, we’re a minority owner, but it’s still going to be their business, I talked to them all the time. And they’re looking to me to do stuff, I was like, “Hey, this is your fucking business. Come on. I’m here to help and help point but your business. Come on, where are we going to do it?”

TG Branfalt: A little bit tough love there.

Teddy Scott: Yeah, that’s the way it is. The goal is, we want them to build a successful business. Because they’ll get something out of it from a skill set, their pride, the people around them, and they’re creating these businesses. It’s not just a handout or a check, let’s build wealth, let’s build an industry that is inclusive of everybody of society. And so it’s a really good opportunity.

It’s unfortunate. I think the Illinois system, they did a really good job with it. No system is perfect. What I’m referring to is as a loophole, we’ll see what happens when those awards come out. I’ve actually tried to help them draw some attention to it. I hope it doesn’t work out this way, the craziness of it is the way those licenses work, you essentially get bonus points if you’re a social equity applicant, and everybody assumes those bonus points are so many that you probably need to be a social equity applicant to win. And the crazy thing about it is there’s three ways you can qualify. Two of those three you would look at and go yep, that’s social equity. Well, one of them, and I’m kidding you not. If I wanted to, if my company wanted to, we could have qualified, all we would have had to have done is go find 10 people from one of these areas, hire them, pay them minimum wage for a few months, we would have qualified. I don’t think that-

TG Branfalt: Seriously?

Teddy Scott: Yeah. And it’ll be interesting to see how the winners work. I’m hopeful that none of those people win. Because if they do, I think it’s taking away the opportunity from the people like what we have in our groups. And there’s tons of other groups that are like ours. These are the people that were on the wrong end, not only the war on drugs, but more problematically just the systemic racism in the country in general.

TG Branfalt: Yeah, one of the things we talked about New York briefly, but one of the things that was happening in New York for years and years was the stop and frisk, which basically the cops would say, pull whatever you have out of your pockets. And if you had a dime bag, now you have marijuana in public view, which is a crime. So we have a few minutes left here, what advice would you have for entrepreneurs? What’s your response to, I guess, the most common question that people who seek your counsel is?

Teddy Scott: The thing I always… To an entrepreneur. And it’s the one of the things I learned that was one of the most valuable lessons, and there’s a number of them, but from to an entrepreneur is, man, just start. The first time you start something, it’s really scary, anything you haven’t done before, you’re going into a new area for you, yourself. I mean, that’s really intimidating. Especially when you’re putting money on the line, maybe reputation, risk, whatever it might be. And it’s one of the reasons I try to mentor people so much is to help them, I think one of the most important things I do for them is help paint the picture to de risk it for them to make it not so scary, because at least for myself, anyway. I’m not saying it’s easy, being an entrepreneur is hard. It’s really hard, but it’s so rewarding, to see what you put into something. See the results of it. But also, once you get started, what I realized is the biggest battle is just fucking trying.

I mean, most people sit on the sidelines, and don’t try out of fear. I mean, naturally as people, we’re afraid of the unknown. And if you just try, you might fail, but you will learn so much in the failure, that the second time you do it, or the third time you do it, you’ll no longer be scared, you’re just continuing to do it. And eventually, I think it pops for them. And it may be not on the scale of maybe some other people, but in a scale that is rewarding, and is beneficial and what they were looking for all along.

And so that’s number one, the other one that I cannot say enough as well, is it is so important, people talk about it in culture, culture is so important. I did not realize how important it was. I thought mission, vision, values, all that stuff. I thought it was just hype, or not even hype, just it was just words on the wall. But what ends up happening is when you’re doing a business, I mean, you can’t do it yourself. Well there’s some businesses that are solo entrepreneurs or solo service providers. But most businesses are not that way. You have a collection of people and they have to work together. Well, how are they going to work together, If they’re being assholes to each other or treating each other badly? They’re being selfish. They’re being demeaning. Well, guess what? That business is not going to perform well.

And so when you’re starting the business, the mistake I made in the beginning was I looked for skill sets. I was talking about that earlier. I was looking for the horticulturist, I was looking for the scientist. What I did not appreciate his who were they as a person, because I’m going to be in the foxhole with them for years as we’re building this. And if we don’t get along and it’s not like we have to get along and be best friends.

TG Branfalt: Yeah.

Teddy Scott: But we have to have the same values because if they’re different, you’re going to have problems. And so those are the two things I tell entrepreneurs, try, don’t be afraid, just try, get going. Try it on one thing and chances are, it may not work, that’s fine, because you’re going to learn from it and the next time, the likelihood it works goes way up. But then that other one is, when you’re picking your co founders, when you’re picking those first people, look more than just their skills, look at them as people look at what’s important to you, what’s necessary for the business. And that’s more important than their skill set, you have to have the people all on the same page from a culture standpoint.

TG Branfalt: So this has been one of the most candid interviews that I’ve had with a CEO of your stature and I really appreciate how forthcoming you’ve been, super fascinating just story that I would love to sit here and learn more about for the next 40 minutes but we can’t do that. But I would love to have you on again and keep this conversation going. Where can people find out more about you and Ethos Cannabis in the meantime?

Teddy Scott: Sure, great and I would love to be back on, this has been fun. The company I’m CEO of is Ethos Cannabis, that’s the website ethoscannabis.com, we are in Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, a couple of sites open today in Pennsylvania, but there’ll be a large number of them open in the next six months and Massachusetts we should have four sites open in the next few months. We have an acquisition that’s pending regulatory review should happen in maybe a month for four dispensaries in Maryland. So that’s where we are right now — the DC area, the Baltimore area, Philadelphia area, soon to be Pittsburgh, the Boston area and have these licenses in application with our partners here in the Chicago area and also a license waiting on review in New Jersey. So there’s a lot happening.

TG Branfalt: You’ll be in my neck of the woods soon enough. I frequent dispensaries in Massachusetts and-

Teddy Scott: Oh okay yeah, great.

TG Branfalt: Yeah. I’m close enough to Massachusetts.

Teddy Scott: Yeah, first will be in Fitchburg should be open there relatively soon.

TG Branfalt: I’ll definitely have to head down there once it’s open.

Teddy Scott: Well, great. Well, let me know when you’re going to be there. I get up there and decent amount. I’ll make sure to try to get there to arrange that time to get to meet in person.

TG Branfalt: It’d be great to meet in person. This is been the Ganjapreneur.com Podcast podcast with Teddy Scott, he’s the CEO of Ethos Cannabis, a multi state operator. He’s got a PhD in molecular biophysics from the University of Texas, JD from the Northwestern University School of Law. Really great to have you on the show, Teddy, thank you so much.

Teddy Scott: No, thank you, sir. Thank you.

TG Branfalt: You can find more episodes at the Ganjapreneur.com podcast in the podcast section of Ganjapreneur.com on Spotify and in the Apple iTunes Store. On the go Ganjapreneur.com website you’ll find the latest cannabis news and cannabis jobs updated daily along with transcripts of this and other podcasts. 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.

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Police Break Up Interstate Cannabis Smuggling Group In Washington

10/29/2020

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State and federal law enforcement agents conducted a massive raid on an illicit cannabis operation last week in Washington state. Working together, the United States Postal Inspection Service, other federal agencies, and the King County Sherriff raided 27 homes in Skyway, Renton, Kent, Maple Valley, SeaTac, and other Puget Sound communities, according to KIRO 7 News. 

Agents found and removed processed cannabis, thousands of plants, and related documents from the homes. According to agents, the group’s illicit cannabis products were being mailed to nine states around the country including Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Georgia, and Missouri. Of those states, adult-use cannabis has only been legalized in Illinois and Massachusetts.

“This is a particularly egregious ring. You’re talking about over the course of this investigation there are probably tens of millions of dollars of product that have been shipped to multiple states nationally.” — Tony Galetti, Inspector in Charge with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, via KIRO 7 News 

Due to its designation as a Schedule I narcotic, cannabis remains federally illegal and cannot be shipped across state lines, even between states where adult-use cannabis has been legalized.

In 2019, Oregon passed legislation to allow for interstate cannabis commerce between states. The bill, which was approved last June, would allow Oregon-grown cannabis products to be shipped to neighboring states that have also legalized cannabis — Washington, California, and Nevada. Oregon-legal cannabis would not be allowed to cross into (nor fly over) states that have not legalized cannabis. The law, however, also requires the federal government to approve such transactions and there is currently no precedent or plan for doing so.

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MedMen Files Lawsuit Against Pasadena, California

10/29/2020

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MedMen has filed a lawsuit against the city of Pasadena, California asking officials to stop the cannabis business licensing process until the company is reinstated, Pasadena Now reports. MedMed, which applied to do business as MME Pasadena, was removed from the process after a material change in ownership and management was revealed.

In a letter to MedMen, City Manager Steve Mermell said that nine-out-of-10 applicants listed as owners on the company’s applications had changed since the firm was chosen to move forward with the process. The letter points out that former CEO Adam Bierman, former Chief Operating Officer Ben Cook, and former President Andrew Modlin are no longer with the company but are listed on application documents.

Bierman and Modlin stepped down from their leadership roles and left the firm last June. The departures followed reports that the company offered its vendors shares in the company in an attempt to reduce its overhead and conserve cash. In April, Milestone Investments, an early angel investor in the company, filed an official complaint against Modlin and Bierman along with Christopher Ganan, who still serves as chief strategy officer, over unpaid debts.

Under the city’s rules, “A change of ownership and/or management is not allowed and is considered material where it constitutes a change of control,” according to Pasadena Now. The lawsuit argues that those rule changes came on June 18, 2020, more than two years after the city’s regulations were adopted.

“The June 18 regulation, which was not even hinted at when applications were originally solicited by the city and submitted, retroactively defines what operational and/or managerial changes constitute a ‘change of control,’ and invalidates any application [after review and scoring of that application is complete] where a ‘change in control’ has occurred that ‘would have impacted the substantive scoring of the application such that a different outcome would have been likely.’” – MedMen in court documents, via Pasadena Now

In the letter to MedMen, Mermell argues that the company “provided little to no evidence of cannabis experience of its current management team and Board of Directors,” noting that the new executives “have primarily retail and food and beverage experience at retailers such as Frederick’s of Hollywood, David’s Bridal, Guess, Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, and Whole Foods.”

“No evidence was provided that any of the current management team have comparable cannabis permit experience, such as that provided by Bierman, Modlin and Cook,” Mermell said in the letter.

According to the lawsuit, MedMen signed a $659,833.00 10-year lease in and has already spent $700,000 on licensing, professional fees, costs, and lease-related payments.

MME Pasadena, Harvest Pasadena, Integral LLC, Tony Fong, Atrium, and Sweetflower were the companies awarded the right to apply for the necessary cannabis permits. So far, the report says, only Integral and Tony Fong have received the permits.

MedMen argues that it “will suffer irreparable harm because other cannabis license holders within the City will be given a head start in developing and capturing valuable market share for the sale of adult-use cannabis” within Pasadena while the case is in court.

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Missouri Lawsuit Argues Medical Cannabis License Caps Are Illegal

10/29/2020

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A lawsuit challenging Missouri’s medical cannabis rules seeks to invalidate the state-imposed license caps arguing that the regulations violate Missourians’ right to farm, the Springfield News-Leader reports. The lawsuit also objects to the “blind scoring” used in the state that included bonus points for applicants located in economically distressed ZIP codes.

The lawsuit, filed by the Callicoat family of Sarcoxie who had planned to turn an old plant nursery into a cannabis cultivation operation, claims that “large corporations” were awarded the “lion’s share” of the 60 cannabis cultivation licenses approved last year.

The plaintiffs argue that state Attorney General Eric Schmitt engaged in “egregious” behavior while the state was creating the program rules. The lawsuit claims that Schmitt sought to hide state government documents that recorded health officials’ actions in setting program parameters. In a deposition, Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) Director Dr. Randall Williams indicated that Schmitt had used his cell phone to conduct state business – a violation under the state’s Sunshine Law as officials’ text messages are considered public record.

Dan Viets, a cannabis attorney who served as chair of the pro-legalization campaign New Approach, said that while he hasn’t seen “evidence of any sort of corruption” related to the cannabis licensing process, he believes there is “tremendous evidence of an element of capriciousness.”

“The so-called scoring system just doesn’t make sense. I don’t think it’s defensible. It’s the Achilles’ heel of the whole licensing process.” – Viets to the News-Leader

Last May, a whistleblower complaint accused DHSS officials of lying about program changes during public testimony earlier in the year. House Democrats later claimed that DHSS officials obstructed an oversight committee’s investigation of the program.

The Callicoat’s have asked the judge to simply enter a judgement in their favor without a trial, which Viets said was “kind of extreme.” He added that the court is unlikely “to do that off hand.”

DHSS Spokesperson Lisa Cox told the News-Leader that the voters approved the licensing caps and argued that the state’s caps “are much higher than comparable states” and meet the demands of patients. The state has issued 192 dispensary licenses.

If the judge sides with the plaintiffs, the DHSS caps would be invalidated. Earlier this year, the state House approved legislation to eliminate the caps; however, the measure stalled in the Senate.

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Massachusetts Supreme Court Rules Out Workers Comp for Medical Cannabis

10/29/2020

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The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on Tuesday ruled that employees using medical cannabis for a work-related injury cannot get reimbursed for it through worker’s compensation, Courthouse News reports. In the unanimous decision, the justices ruled that workers’ comp insurers could, theoretically, still be charged with a federal crime for aiding and abetting someone in using cannabis.

“First, unlike the patients and doctors covered by the act, insurance companies would not be participating in the patient’s use of a federally proscribed substance voluntarily. It is one thing to voluntarily assume a risk of federal prosecution; it is another to involuntarily have such a risk imposed upon you.” – Justice Scott Kafker in the decision

The plaintiff’s attorney, Katherine Lamondia-Wrinkle of the Law Office of Thomas Libbos, argued that workers’ comp insurers and boards limit access to opioids for chronic pain due to the epidemic that has gripped the nation for years. As medical cannabis has been legalized in 33 states, more injured workers are turning to it for relief.

“We have an anti-opioid movement,” Lamondia-Wrinkle said to Courthouse News, “but the court is now taking away the alternative.”

Daniel Wright, a cable installer who injured his knee stepping off a ladder said that with cannabis he was able to wean himself off opioids and other medications, but in the process spent $24,267.86 on legal cannabis from February 2016 to August 2017.

Under the state’s 2012 medical cannabis law “any health insurance provider, or any government agency or authority, to reimburse any person for the expenses of the medical use of marijuana.” The court affirmed that the workers’ comp insurer is a health insurer.

According to the Insurance Information Institute, Connecticut, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico and New York have allowed, to some extent, workers’ comp reimbursement for medical cannabis.

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