New legislation proposed by Colombia’s leftist opposition party takes aim at the disruptive war on drugs by decriminalizing and regulating cocaine in the country. According to Colombia Reports, the bill is sponsored by Senators Feliciano Valencia and Ivan Marulanda and contains regulations based on cannabis legalization efforts in the U.S.
The bill coincides with the opposition party’s goals of ending the drug war, part of which involves wresting control of the country’s coca production from international drug cartels and other illegal groups.
“This bill is part of the fight against drug trafficking because it is about getting rid of those mafias that profit from it, destroying the Colombian people along the way.” — Senator Ivan Marulanda, via Colombia Reports
The bill would allow for regulated cocaine sales: adults would have to register as a consumer and receive permission from a physician, which would allow them to buy up to a gram of cocaine per week from licensed distributors. The bill does not rule out the legal export of cocaine for scientific purposes.
The policy of drugs decriminalization has become increasingly attractive around the world as governments transition to treating addiction as a health and wellness issue instead of a criminal issue. The bill, however, is likely to draw international ire as it would go against drug treaties that have been ratified by most countries.
The California Assembly has approved a measure that would levy civil fines up to $30,000 per day to those who provide building space, advertising platforms, and other aid to unlicensed operators, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The bill was introduced by Assemblywoman Blanca Rubio (D) who said that as much as 80 percent of the cannabis sold in the state comes from illegal operators. The language of the proposed law would require it to be known that a cannabis business is illegal and there to be an obvious intent to help it.
“Despite some success during the first two years of legalized cannabis sales, the illicit market has flourished. In addition to dwindling tax revenues, the underground market presents public safety and health threats to California.” – Rubio in a statement via the Times
The proposal is backed by the United Cannabis Business Association who, in a letter to lawmakers, said illegal sales “must be shut down to ensure that legal operators can see an increase of patients and consumers which creates union jobs while we contribute to local and the State of California’s tax revenues.”
Ellen Komp, deputy director of California NORML, on the other hand, argues that the bill is heavy-handed and the advocacy organization “would rather see ‘carrots’ to assist people in securing commercial licenses by lowering the barriers to entry, rather than ‘sticks,’ be they criminal or civil.” NORML said they do support an existing law requiring cannabis industry advertising platforms to include a state license number but cautioned that illegal operators display fake licenses.
In 2018, cannabis industry oversight officials sent a cease-and-desist letter to Weedmaps over their advertising of unlicensed businesses on the platform. Last August the company said they would no longer allow such businesses to advertise on the site.
The measure still requires approval from the state Senate.
The American Civil Liberties Union has found that Hispanic people in Maricopa County, Arizona charged with simple cannabis possession are sentenced to significantly longer jail and prison terms than their white and Black counterparts, and that Black people convicted of personal possession of drug paraphernalia receive longer sentences than whites and Hispanics.
The report points out that Arizona has the fifth highest incarceration rate in the nation. In 2017, Latinx people comprised 31 percent of the state’s population but comprised 37 percent of those in prison. Black people comprise 13 percent of the state’s prison admissions but are just 5 percent of the state’s population.
Hispanic people, the report says, spend 298 days in jail for a simple cannabis possession conviction, while Black people spend 246 days behind bars for the crime. White people are sentenced, on average, to 242 days in jail or prison.
For paraphernalia possession, Black people are sentenced on average to 844 days in jail or prison, Hispanics serve an average of 758 days, while white people are sentenced to an average of 679 days.
“White people are significantly more likely to have cases that are ultimately not filed compared to Hispanic, Black, and all other individuals. Among white people, 10.5 percent in the dataset ultimately did not have cases filed against them. Among Black people, 9.6 percent in the dataset ultimately did not have cases filed against them. Among Hispanic people, 9.4% in the dataset ultimately did not have cases filed against them. These differences are statistically significant.” – ACLU, The Racial Divide of Prosecutions in the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office
Hispanic people are also ordered to pay fines hundreds of dollars more than their Black or white counterparts. Those fines – even when controlling for offense severity – average $2,348.98, while Black people pay an average of $1,771.92, white people pay 1,701.45, and Asian, indigenous, and other populations pay $1,478.13.
The ACLU says that in order to remedy the disparities of prosecutorial practices in the county, officials must implement policies using a racial justice lens, increase transparency – the ACLU had to sue the county attorney’s office for violating public law records to obtain access to the data analyzed for the report – and work with law enforcement to reduce disparities.
Maricopa County earned a name for itself as a hub for institutional racism under the direction of former Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was convicted of criminal contempt of court after refusing to stop racially profiling people when detaining “individuals suspected of being in the U.S. illegally.” Arpaio was pardoned of that crime by President Donald Trump in 2017.
Norman Township, Michigan officials have halted plans for a cannabis-friendly campground, claiming the project is “an immediate threat to the health, safety, and general welfare of the community,” because there are “no known sanitary or potable water facilities on-site,” the Detroit Metro Times reports.
The 20-acre campground – Camp Happy Trees – was planned by Debi Bair who said that campers would get shower passes to use at nearby campgrounds that have the facilities. She was issued a stop-work order by zoning officials on June 30. Zoning officials said the campground would need approval from the town’s planning commission; however, due to the coronavirus, the zoning and planning offices have been closed for three months.
Officials say she needs to present the proposal to the planning commission, hold a public hearing to inform people living 300 feet from the property about the intent and business plan. The camp would also need a campground operating license, which is issued by the state Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy.
“With 420 allowed, there’s only two KOA’s in the state of Michigan that allow 420 usage and they want you to stay in your tent or in your camper. You can’t walk around freely. I’m somebody that’s camped a lot. … Smoking in tents is not a good idea, it’s very dangerous. … I don’t want the shame with it. This is medication, it’s legal, and I want people to be able to not feel awkward or weird. I want them to be safe.” — Bair in an interview with the Big Rapids Pioneer
Bair indicated she is working with an attorney to meet the local requirements but that there is a “99 percent chance of change in business plans.” She added that she was searching for another property to establish the campground.
New research suggests that cannabis is a safe and potentially effective treatment for the chronic pain accompanying sickle cell disease – the clinical trial is the first-of-its-kind to test cannabis as a treatment for sickle cell using gold-standard methods.
The study was co-led by University of California, Irvine researcher Kalpna Gupta and Dr. Donald Abrams of UC San Francisco. It involved 23 patients using vaporized cannabis or a vaporized placebo during two five-day inpatient sessions that were separated by at least 30 days, allowing them to act as their own control group.
Gupta said the “trial results show that vaporized cannabis appears to be generally safe” for sickle cell patients. The cannabis used in the trials was obtained from the National Institute on Drug Abuse – part of the National Institutes of Health – and contained equal parts of THC and CBD.
“They also suggest that sickle cell patients may be able to mitigate their pain with cannabis – and that cannabis might help society address the public health crisis related to opioids. Of course, we still need larger studies with more participants to give us a better picture of how cannabis could benefit people with chronic pain.” – Gupta, in a statement
Currently, opioids are the primary treatment for the chronic and acute pain caused by the disease.
Gupta added that “pain causes many people to turn to cannabis” and is cited as “the top reason” people use it.
“We don’t know if all forms of cannabis products will have a similar effect on chronic pain. Vaporized cannabis, which we employed, may be safer than other forms because lower amounts reach the body’s circulation,” she said in a statement. “This trial opens the door for testing different forms of medical cannabis to treat chronic pain.”
As the five-day study period progressed, patients reported that pain interfered less with activities, including walking and sleeping, and there was a statistically significant drop in how much pain affected their mood. Pain levels were generally lower in patients given cannabis than in those given the placebo, but the difference was not statistically significant.
The study was funded by an Excellence in Hemoglobinopathies Research Award from the NIH’s National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and was published in JAMA Network Open.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has approved Minnesota’s hemp cultivation program, which has expanded from just six licensed growers and processors in the state in 2016 to 511.
The approved program is the same as the state’s pilot program enacted in 2016.
Minnesota Agriculture Commissioner Thom Petersen called the approval “a major step forward” but said, “there are still concerns over some of the regulations imposed on states and tribal governments, such as testing requirements.”
“We thank USDA for their work on this new federal hemp program, and we are grateful they have approved Minnesota’s plan. … We look forward to continuing our dialog with USDA so we can ensure Minnesota’s hemp growers and processors are successful in this fledging industry.” – Peterson in a press release
Licensed hemp growers and processors in Minnesota have registered 8,605 acres of hemp this year, along with 4.66 million square feet of indoor cultivation space, the Minnesota Agriculture Department said.
The USDA has now approved 19 state hemp program plans, while 23 other states will continue to operate under their 2014 pilot programs. Three other states are still listed as drafting plans for USDA review, while Arizona’s plan is listed as “pending resubmission,” Idaho’s plan is “pending state legislation,” and Nevada’s is “under review.” Two more states are operating with a USDA Hemp Producer License.
Additionally, the agency has approved hemp cultivation plans for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, while the Northern Marinas Island has pending legislation.
The USDA has also approved 32 tribal plans. Two more tribal proposals are currently under review, with three more drafting plans and one pending resubmission.
Synchronicity, a full-spectrum hemp oil brand by Functional Remedies, has entered a sponsorship partnership with the United Soccer League.
The USL has 47 professional clubs in the U.S. and Canada, more than 180 amateur and youth clubs, and its championship and League One are broadcast by ESPN. The four-year partnership will see the products featured on USL stadium signage, social media channels, website, and app network.
Josh Keller, USL senior vice president of corporate development and partnerships, said the partnership made sense since both the USL and Functional Remedies “are at the forefront of growth in [their] respective industries.”
“This partnership is not only pioneering in the space, but also takes into consideration the wellness and recovery of our athletes and fans. We look forward to accomplishing great things together and believe the future is very bright.” – Keller in a statement
Andrew Campbell, CEO at Functional Remedies, said the sponsorship “literally puts [the company] in the major leagues.”
“Athletes – young and young at heart – are looking for natural and organic remedies and supplements to improve performance, and professional athletes specifically are adopting these types of products into their regimen,” he said in a statement. “This is beyond a sponsorship for us, it’s an opportunity to continue to educate consumers on the incredible benefits of full-spectrum hemp oil and spread the message of wellness through oneness.”
The deal was negotiated by USL’s exclusive sales agency Premier Partnerships.
Cannabis regulators in Jamaica unveiled a new plan on Wednesday to revise the country’s medical cannabis cultivation and processing rules, Cannabis Wire reports.
The new rules emphasize quality control, consistency, and compliance for the medical and scientific use of cannabis. The rules are an effort to align Jamaica‘s cannabis industry with international best practices, which in turn should boost the attractiveness of its medical cannabis exports. Officials say they followed guidelines from ASTM International, a global standards organization, in crafting the regulations.
“While we are a locally-based industry, we are globally focused,” said Floyd Green, Minister of State in the Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries.
“We are focused on exporting our cannabis flower and cannabis products to the entire world. We are quite clear that for us to have a seamless system of exports, people must be assured that the cannabis that is grown here and the products produced here are safe and are of the highest standards.” — Green, during a presentation
Jamaica’s cannabis regiment has drawn criticism from small farmers who say the industry is poorly positioned to help low and middle-income Jamaicans. The Ganja Growers and Producers Association called the regulatory framework “unworkable, restrictive, bureaucratic, and draconian,” according to the report.
The new rules announcement follows the recent departure from the island of at least two major Canadian cannabis entities who left due to financial concerns.
Minister Green also described upcoming plans to boost cannabis tourism opportunities in Jamaica.
Cannabis industry merger and acquisition deals have fallen 80 percent from the first quarter of 2019 compared to the first quarter of this year, according to a Viridian Capital Partner analysis outlined by the National Law Review. In Q1 2020, there were just 19 such deals, down from 94 in Q1 last year. The massive drop in M&A deals in the space is largely driven by the coronavirus pandemic, the report suggests.
In March 2020, there were just five M&A deals, compared to 25 in the same month last year, the report says. In all, Viridian tracked just 27 M&A transactions by the end of March, while there were 110 such deals by the end of March last year.
Total value of these deals has also taken a massive hit, adding up to $325 million by the end of March 2020, compared to a whopping $9.2 billion last year. Even if the number of M&A transactions were to rebound over the next six months, it’s unlikely they would reach 2019 marks.
Adam Pope, an associate in the Business Development department of venture capital cannabis firm Canopy Rivers, noted in a May blog post that the pandemic has shifted business pitches to the company from consumer products, production, retail, and distribution to software and technology, noting that 37 percent of pitches to Canopy Rivers have been in the tech sector of the space.
“Broadly, software companies have fared relatively well during the economic downturn, and many ‘pick and shovel’ companies—like Shopify in e-commerce—are helping businesses pivot by offloading cost centers to specialists which can help grow their business. Cannabis software opportunities could potentially be more pervasive post-COVID as they are less capital intensive and could draw more significant investor interest during global macroeconomic uncertainty.” – Pope, How Cannabis Venture Capital is Evolving with COVID-19, May 21
In the U.S., adult-use and medical cannabis businesses – including cannabis adjacent companies like tech – were not eligible for federal aid related to the pandemic, although most hemp businesses were.
Just 3.9 percent of Australians who used cannabis medically last year obtained it legally via prescription and about half of those medical-only consumers were chronic pain patients, according to the nation’s National Drug Strategy Household Survey. In all, about 2.5 million Australians 14-and-older – 11.7 percent – reported using cannabis over the previous year, while 6.8 percent of users said they were using it only for medical purposes, with 16.3 percent saying they used it “sometimes” for medical reasons and “sometimes for other reasons.”
Among cannabis users surveyed, support for legalization was overwhelming as 97 percent of recreational users (those that did not use for medical purposes) supported the reforms, along with 89 percent of respondents who used cannabis only for medical reasons, and 87 percent of users who used cannabis medically “sometimes.” In all, 41 percent of Australians backed legalization, while 44 percent said they approved “increased penalties” for cannabis sales.
The survey also found just 20 percent of Australians approved of “regular” cannabis use by adults, compared to 82 percent of non-medical users, 72 percent of medical-only users, and 65 percent of those that used cannabis medically sometimes.
Older folks were also more likely to use cannabis only for medical purposes, as 43 percent of medical-only users were 50-or-older; 14.4 percent were aged 40-49, 16.1 percent were 30-39, and 26 percent were 14-29.
The majority of non-medical users – 69 percent – were younger than 40, while 15.4 percent of recreational consumers were 40-49, 10.5 percent were 50-59, while 5.5 percent were 60-plus. The same sub-40 demographic was also more likely to “sometimes” use cannabis medically at 66 percent, along with 27 percent of 30-39-year-olds, 15.8 percent of those 40-49, 14 percent aged 50-59, and 4.9 percent aged 60-and-older.
Overall, the survey saw small increases in lifetime and recent cannabis use from 2018 to 2019, from 35 percent to 36 percent and 10.4 percent to 11.6 percent, respectively.
Australia legalized medical cannabis nationally in 2016. According to the Australian Department of Health, 15,566 patients are estimated to have accessed medical cannabis last year, a massive increase from the 2,526 estimated to have accessed the program in 2018.
A Prohibition Partners analysis in April suggested that a legal Oceania cannabis market – which includes Australia, New Zealand, Guam, and the surrounding islands – could be worth $1.55 billion by 2024, with 40 percent of the market comprised of medical cannabis sales.
California’s Long Beach City College is set to offer its first class focused solely on the cannabis industry, the Long Beach Business Journal reports. The eight-week class will cover cultivation, retail, the history of cannabis in California, and an overview of the state’s seed-to-sale system.
Joe Rogoway, a cannabis industry attorney and the course’s lead instructor, called the course students’ “portal” to the industry and called it “an important first step” for students “interested in engaging with the cannabis industry on a professional level.”
The curriculum was designed with members of the Long Beach Cannabis Association.
Nate Winokur, an LBCA member and founder and owner of BelCosta Labs who will be teaching a class in the fall, said collaborators “decided to introduce something that, at its heart, would introduce different businesses and license types to each other.”
“I, for one, am hoping for cannabis to be treated a lot more seriously as things go on and I think that proper education surrounding that has a lot to do with it.” – Winkour to the Business Journal
The course is part of the community college’s workforce development program and the first class is expected to admit 30-35 students. Kathy Scott, LBCC executive vice president of academic affairs, said the class mirrors others in the workforce development program, in that it’s “industry-driven, industry-requested, and it’s taught by the industry.”
Throughout the U.S., colleges and universities with both medical and adult-use cannabis programs have started offering industry-centric degree and certificate programs. The LBCC course will cost $395.
Officials in Argentina are moving forward with plans to give medical cannabis to patients for free, allow for personal cultivation to anyone who registers with the government, and authorize production of cannabis topicals, oils, and creams, according to a Bezinga report citing Argentinian news organizations. The new regime prioritizes cannabis research and development by laboratories, universities, and other institutions.
The reforms will also eventually allow nationwide cannabis production.
Personal cultivators will be allowed to grow individually or as part of a group and while cannabis growers will have to register with the government, they will remain anonymous. Plant counts have not yet been defined.
While Argentina legalized medical cannabis in 2017, the program has been criticized for lack of clarity which has left most patients to rely on illegal sellers or be without treatment. The nation’s current qualifying condition list for medical cannabis access only includes refractory epilepsy in children; however, the new rules will likely expand that list.
Facundo Garreton, a former lawmaker in Argentina and director of YVY Life Sciences, a medical cannabis company from the neighboring country of Uruguay, which has legalized recreational cannabis use, said he hopes the reforms are “the start of a path towards regulation of the entire supply chain.”
“Knowing that cannabis can alleviate many people’s suffering and not do anything about it, that’s the true crime. … Good regulation will help to know the needs of every person, what to buy, where to buy it, while at the same time controlling the product’s quality.” – Garreton via Bezinga
Argentinian health officials met with key lawmakers on Wednesday to finalize details on the cannabis reform and medical cannabis expansion bill. The country has a population of 44 million making it one of the region’s most intriguing markets for cannabis.
Software services have been an important facet of the legal cannabis industry since its inception. Over the years, tech companies have worked to solve the myriad problems faced by cannabis entrepreneurs. According to Ivan Suslov, COO of the point-of-sale software firm IndicaOnline, one of the greatest pain points for cannabis retailers has been inventory management. This prompted the company’s latest focus on RFID technology, which tags and categorizes items for easy sorting through the use of radio frequencies.
This Q&A covers the company background, how they identified the need for RFID inventory solutions, developing the appropriate systems, how their platform streamlines the work of cannabis retailers, and more! Scroll down for the full interview.
Ganjapreneur: The cannabis industry has been struggling with problems like inventory management while other retail sectors have access to tools and technology to solve these problems. What industry-specific factors might create this divide?
Ivan Suslov: I think there are a few reasons why the cannabis industry has had limited access to these technological tools that help manage inventory. First and foremost, the inventory itself can be difficult to maintain. Cannabis flower can lose weight when it dries which can quickly cause issues in your inventory. This is why prepackaged cannabis flower has become more prevalent in recent years. Cannabis retailers have also been shut out of traditional financing opportunities to invest in newer and more expensive technology to manage inventory.
How does Indica Online solve problems for cannabis retailers, and what markets are you currently able to serve?
IndicaOnline solves several problems for cannabis retailers, from automated compliance reporting, to loyalty, to marketing, and even product loss prevention. We will be releasing an update soon that will have features to support the ice cream truck model of delivery in addition to the hub-based model. This will allow drivers to fulfill orders on the go rather than return to the dispensary or hub to pick up a new set of orders. The goal is to reduce the delivery time for consumers while in turn cutting expenses for retailers.
We currently serve all states that use Metrc for their seed-to-sale tracking system and any states that have yet to select a seed-to-sale software, such as Oklahoma. We also currently have clients in Canada, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica who have been very successful using our software to streamline their storefront.
Where did Indica Online identify a need for RFID technology in cannabis retail? How can the adoption of this tech optimize logistics in a retail dispensary model?
Inventory management and loss prevention would be the two pieces of retail that would benefit the most from RFID technology. Once RFID technology is implemented, the dispensary operator will know exactly how much inventory they have and where it is located basically without leaving their office. The technology not only improves the accuracy of counting but also will streamline inventory receiving and transferring between the back stock, sorting and the sales floor.
What goes into the process of developing RFID inventory management solutions for the cannabis industry? How long did it take to bring the product to market?
We’ve been in contact with many dispensaries since the very beginning that evolved from being small mom and pop shops to large multi-state enterprises. During our conversations we started to notice that inventory management and loss prevention were becoming the two most problematic areas in dispensary operations. Many times, dispensary operators found themselves spending days and nights counting endless products in their inventory and ended up with missing units or inaccurate counts. This not only wasted a lot of time but also resulted in thousands of dollars of added payroll. By analyzing this and looking at other industries, we came to a conclusion that the implementation of RFID technology will solve most, if not all of these problems. It took us about a year of development and testing to come up with a working RFID solution for our retailers.
How did the company test this new technology before going live with the update? What bugs was the team able to work out in this process?
We are working with several different size retailers that are willing to adopt and test the technology and provide us with valuable feedback. Working with both smaller and larger dispensaries who test the technology prior to release has given us insight into how each can benefit from RFID. We understand that some things that must be implemented in an enterprise size dispensary might not be needed in a smaller store and trying to optimize the technology so that it will fit in perfectly in any size retail operation.
What is the biggest challenge that dispensary owners have in onboarding RFID inventory management systems with retailers?
One of the main goals when we built IndicaOnline is for it to be user friendly and from what we’ve learned so far, the implementation of RFID won’t be very difficult. Like with anything new, it’s a matter of adapting to a new flow but the biggest difference with RFID is that when you are counting your inventory, now you won’t need to count or look for every single piece. Instead, the manager will point the RFID scanner at the shelves and immediately will get a count of all the products there. It’s really revolutionary in the amount of time that will be saved versus manually auditing your inventory.
An added bonus is that the reader can double as a honing beacon for specific products and help reduce product loss. This is ideal when searching for products that will expire soon, so they can be discounted and sold as opposed to being destroyed after they expire.
Thank you, Ivan, for answering all of our questions! Learn more about IndicaOnline and its RFID inventory management tools at IndicaOnline.com.
Multi-state cannabis industry company iAnthus Capital Holdings, Inc. announced on Monday a recapitalization transaction that will leave current shareholders with 2.75 percent of the company or zero percent.
In one scenario of the transaction, the company will enter “arrangement proceedings” under British Columbia, Canada’s Business Corporations Act. The other option is for recapitalization under the Companies Creditor Arrangement Act (CCAA), which would see the company file for creditor protection.
The company said the transaction “is expected to significantly reduce [its] outstanding indebtedness and annual interest costs, improve its capital structure and liquidity, and result in an enhanced financial foundation.”
“Assuming completion of the Recapitalization Transaction, the Company’s pro forma outstanding indebtedness will be reduced from $168.7 million (excluding fees and accrued and unpaid interest thereon) as at June 30, 2020 to $101.4 million (excluding $20 million of Preferred Equity).” – iAnthus in a July 13 press release
If the recapitalization transaction occurs through the Business Corporation Act, the firm’s secured lenders and unsecured debt holders will be issued an equal amount of common shares of iAnthus and each will own 48.625 percent of the company. This would leave current shareholders owning a total of 2.75 percent of iAnthus upon completion of the transaction.
If performed under CCAA, the secured lenders and unsecured debenture holders will each receive 50 percent of the common shares of the company and shareholders would get nothing.
Additionally, outstanding secured debentures will be cut from $97.5 million to $85 million and the interest rate will be reduced by 5 percent per annum. The original maturity date will be extended over four years, interest will no longer be “cash pay,” and the conversion feature will be removed. Another $60 million in unsecured debentures will be traded for equity.
Preferred equity of $5 million will be issued to the secured lenders, while $15 million will be issued to unsecured debenture holders, with the equity having a five-year maturity and no cash pay dividends.
Some of the company’s secured lenders have also agreed to lend iAnthus another $14 million on the same terms of the restructured debt, funded within three days of the support agreement.
All holders of secured debt owed to the company and 91 percent of iAnthus unsecured debenture holders have agreed to vote in favor of the plan of arrangement that is to be filed by the company. That plan is subject to stakeholder approval.
iAnthus operates in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, and Vermont.
The Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission has fined three companies a total of $800,000 for pesticide and regulatory infractions, the Telegram & Gazette reports. The fines were levied against Garden Remedies Inc., 4Front Holdings-owned Healthy Farms, also known as Mission, and The Botanist, which is owned by Acreage Holdings, Inc.
Healthy Farms was fined $350,000 for pesticide use dating back to February 2019 and the CCC said the company failed to immediately report test results showing pesticide use, unintentionally submitted false information, and incorrectly entered information into Metrc, the state’s seed-to-sale tracking software.
Leo Gontmakher, CEO of 4Front Ventures, said that “no one was harmed” by the company’s actions and that “once the company understood the violations,” it “worked quickly to correct them and have implemented procedures to prevent them from happening again.”
Garden Remedies was fined $200,000 for using the banned pesticide Wood’s Rooting Hormone at its Fitchburg facility and covering it by saying on invoices that it had purchased Environmental Protection Agency-approved pesticide Clonex. The falsified invoices were brought to regulators’ attention by an anonymous tipster, the report says. In a statement, Garden Remedies said the falsifying of documents was unknown to the company’s executive team and the employees involved in the scheme had been fired.
Garden Remedies CEO Dr. Karen Munkacy said the “situation was mishandled.”
“The company and I will continue to strive to ensure that ethical and regulatory violations never again occur … We want to be a model of what a well-run cannabis company can be, and I personally will not stop working to continuously improve our company. We are very sorry this happened, but we have come out of this experience a better company.” – Munkacy in a statement via the Telegram & Gazette
The Botanist was fined $250,000 for moving forward with licensing applications while trying to own or having a controlling interest in more than the allowed maximum of three stores.
Last year, Acreage came under scrutiny by regulators for allegedly flouting state rules on cannabis company ownership after reports emerged that the firm bragged to investors about holding more licenses than permitted.
The Botanist’s February 2019 applications for its Worcester and Shrewsbury retail dispensaries showed that Acreage had “consulting services and capital funds” contracts with two other provisional license holders. Acreage denied having any direct or indirect control over those businesses, but regulators raised concerns about those contracts and asked the Botanist whether it wanted to proceed or resubmit the application, the report says.
Evan Mills, Ph.D. of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Scott Zeramby have revealed a new chapter in the upcoming “Routledge Handbook of Interdisciplinary Cannabis Research,” entitled “Energy Use by the Indoor Cannabis Industry: Inconvenient Truths for Producers, Consumers, and Policymakers.” The report takes a critical look at indoor cannabis cultivation in the age of climate change.
According to its authors, the work, “pinpoints blind spots in regulation, outlines research and analysis needs, argues for consumer information and protections against greenwashing and industry capture of regulatory and green-certification processes, and offers recommendations for incorporating energy considerations into the broader tapestry of cannabis policy.”
Cannabis and the Climate
Expanding on a 2012 investigation by Mills, the authors blame the lack of research into indoor cannabis production’s carbon footprint squarely on its status as a controlled substance and the subsequent need to produce, process, and distribute cannabis “in the shadows.” The authors, however, are quick to point out that legalization hasn’t increased transparency into the energy use of indoor cannabis production.
“Although the impacts of outdoor cultivation on ecosystems have received considerable attention …, those associated with far more energy-intensive indoor cultivation have only rarely been evaluated and integrated into policy-making, even in the post-prohibition era. Indeed, cannabis cultivators continue to be passed over by almost every energy policy instrument developed since the first modern energy crisis of nearly half a century ago.” — Excerpt from ‘Energy Use by the Indoor Cannabis Industry: Inconvenient Truths for Producers, Consumers, and Policymakers’
Mill’s 2012 work found that indoor cannabis production was using 20 billion kilowatt-hours (k/h), producing up to 15 million metric tons of CO2, and ran a monetary expenditure of six billion dollars annually. At the time, these rates of consumption penciled out to nine percent of California’s household energy consumption, three percent of state-wide energy use, and one percent of all electricity used in the United States. According to the report, indoor cannabis production’s very nature contributes to its astronomical strain on energy grids, requiring year-round lighting, constant simulation of tropical environments, humidity controls, CO2 injections, and other miscellaneous energy uses.
To put it in terms of consumer carbon consumption, the study found that producing one gram of indoor cannabis in California — a state known for its high energy-efficiency standards — is equal to ten pounds of carbon, running ten ten-watt LEDs for 76 hours, or the energy equivalent of 70 gallons of oil. The authors cite more recent studies showing similar results with indoor cannabis production in Colorado using 0.6% of statewide energy and Denver growers hoarding four percent of that city’s power.
Untold externalities like building damage due to mold, power outages, adverse effects on worker health, outdoor carbon emissions due to land-use changes, hazardous waste associated with indoor growing from mercury-laden light bulbs to chemical-ridden mineral wool destined for landfills and finally extra energy costs for technologies such as UV lighting to remove mold and water filtration drive up the environmental impact of indoor production. Other processes the work cites as adding to cannabis’s carbon footprint include excessive transportation, cold storage due to overproduction and water evaporation from reservoirs, producing power for indoor production, energy used in soil production, pesticide synthesis, and building construction.
Current Energy Efficiency Efforts Aren’t Working
Large scale greenhouses have been touted as less carbon-intensive growing facilities, but a recent look into the practice in Canada showed that — due to the need for extra lighting, heating, cooling, and dehumidification wherever natural gas was used for heating — cannabis greenhouses can use up to a third of the energy as similar sized indoor grow sites. Cannabis production also puts a strain on renewable energy availability, siphoning off renewable energy originally designed to serve homes and less intensive commercial applications.
Indoor Hydroponic/greenhouse hybrid in Oregon grows marijuana for recreational use
In the name of security and economic growth, local well-intended regulations have led to extra energy consumption, the authors say. It doesn’t help that some localities such as the state of Illinois and Nevada County, California have completely banned outdoor cultivation. Seeking to attract a larger tax base, some geographies like the Coachella Valley in California — where conditions are optimal for outdoor growing — have put large, counterproductive minimum square footage requirements on indoor facilities. Other cities have put surcharges on electricity to de-incentivize indoor growing, especially for the unregulated market, but this simply drives growers to more energy-intensive practices like using diesel generators. The authors contend that even well-thought-out incentives like tax rebates and credits for energy efficiency have the undesired effect of keeping cultivators indoors rather than moving them to the outdoors.
Compounding the issue are market forces where the perception is indoor cannabis is of a higher quality than outdoor cannabis and consumers are unaware of the environmental impact of indoor cannabis cultivation.
“It is notable,” the authors write, “that the ‘ethical purchasing’ movement (consumers seeking to vote with their dollar, e.g., to promote sustainable products) has barely emerged in the cannabis marketplace and, perhaps fearing stigmatization, environmental organizations have conspicuously sidestepped the issue.”
Difficult Solutions
Mills and Zeramby support legalization but do not believe that action alone is enough to address the environmental impact of indoor cultivation. They say before best solutions can be developed, more “representative and useful” data is needed from producers and utilities. Additionally, they argue that greater transparency in energy use practices must come forward, better consumer information is needed, anti-competitive market distortions like efficiency incentives should be removed, externalities must be considered, improve testing protocols developed, and more public R and D should emerge.
Even if all these goals are met, their primary recommendation is to move the vast majority of cannabis cultivation outdoors, a practice the authors argue sufficed for much of human history.
The chapter concludes with a cautionary warning from the authors:
“Those citing climate pollution as a reason not to legalize cannabis are missing the point: legalization is necessary—but not sufficient—for addressing the problem. Yet, if done poorly, legalization can make the problem worse. Indeed, history may judge today’s cannabis policymakers as betraying the public trust by enabling an industry with such a large carbon footprint. ” — Study excerpt
Mike Tyson’s cannabis startup the Ranch Companies has acquired a global license from Smart Cups to print cannabis products, Forbes reports. Smart Cups prints active and flavor ingredients from natural products on the surface of an underlying layer, eliminating the liquid from a beverage, which is re-added by the consumer.
The process helps reduce transportation costs and the bioplastic cups are environmentally friendly.
Chris Kanik, founder and CEO of Smart Cups, explained that the company uses “water soluble cannabinoids” and is “able to precisely print them on virtually any surface.” They are released when they come in contact with a liquid, he said in the report.
Tyson said the Smart Cups technology will have long-term benefits for consumers, “helping people be confident and understanding proper dosing.”
“For the Ranch Companies, it is very exciting to be working with Smart Cups’ technology, because it gives us the opportunity to make anything that is possible with this innovative tech. Having the ability to produce lines of ingestible cannabis products that will have accurate and consistent doses of cannabis is incredibly important to us.” – Tyson to Forbes
Rob Hickman, CEO of the Ranch Companies, called dosing “one of the systematic issues plaguing” the cannabis industry.
“We have partnered with top research universities to collect critical clinical data supporting CBD for medicinal purposes and pain relief,” he said in the report. “The Smart Cups technology is a new delivery system which we believe will set new standards in this industry.”
Hickman said that once federal rules on CBD were in place, the Ranch “will aim for national distribution” of the Smart Cups product.
Illinois is using $31 million from cannabis-derived taxes for its Restore, Reinvest and Renew Program, a grant program aimed at small businesses and non-profits in disadvantaged communities, the Quad-City Times reports. The state’s recreational cannabis law sets aside 25 percent of net tax revenues for reinvestment into communities most harmed by the drug war.
The program grants focus on civil legal aid funding, economic development, reentry into society by former inmates, violence prevention, and youth development. The grantees are determined by a 32-member board, Lieutenant Gov. Julianna Stratton (D), who oversees the program along with the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Agency, explained to the Times.
“Gov. [J.B.] Pritzker and our entire administration worked hard in conjunction with members of the General Assembly, the Black Caucus and community organizations. It’s great to see this revenue come in and hopefully see those disadvantaged communities do some rebuilding.” – Stratton to the Times
Cannabis sales in Illinois seem to reach new highs almost monthly. Since legal cannabis sales launched in January – reaching $39.2 million – twice the state has set sales records, including $44.3 million in May and $47.6 million in June. Illinois has collected $52 million in tax revenue from cannabis sales during the first six months of 2020, according to state figures outlined by the Chicago Tribune.
Pritzker predicted the state would see $28 million from cannabis taxes through June 30. Sales since January have topped $239.1 million.
The deadline to apply for the R3 grants is July 20.
New Mexico medical cannabis company Ultra Health is asking a state district court judge to invalidate industry product testing, labeling, and facility safety rules that went into effect earlier this month calling them “arbitrary and capricious” and warning that the rules will increase prices for patients, according to New Mexico Political Report.
The petition filed last week notes that New Mexico medical cannabis producers “already pay well over $100,000 per year” for their licenses “and are precluded by federal law from taking any income tax deductions.” Those businesses, the petition states, “will have to pay for the increased testing burden and will pass along the costs to patients.”
The Department of Health-mandated rules require medical cannabis to be tested for fungus, pesticides, and heavy metals. Ultra Health’s attorneys argue that the health department rules “do not draw the necessary connection between the arbitrarily chosen testing parameters and specific measurements of patient safety,” according to the Political Report’s overview of court documents.
The petition also argues that health officials copied the regulations from other states where both medical and adult-use cannabis is legalized and that standards applied in other states with different climates should not be applied in New Mexico.
“All of the biological and environmental differences between New Mexico and other regions guarantee that cannabis grown in New Mexico will have a very different potential for various kinds of contaminants than cannabis grown in Colorado or Oregon, but DOH never considered these basic environmental factors that make New Mexico unique.” – Ultra Health lawyers in the petition
Moreover, the filing takes aim at a rule allowing the DOH to randomly test products that are packaged and ready for market. The lawyers argue that producers and sellers face financial strain if they are not compensated for those products. They also argue that the rule requiring both product labels and accompanying fact sheets to include the same information is unnecessarily redundant, referring to it as a “belt-and-suspenders rule.”
The petition also calls for the removal of rules requiring product testing at state-approved labs, arguing that New Mexico has only two approved testing labs and “if one of them cannot meet DOH’s requirements, testing would slow to a crawl” and if both cannot meet the requirements the program “would cease to function.”
The attorneys further argue that the health department overstepped its authority with the rule banning medical cannabis and hemp cultivation on the same site. In New Mexico, hemp operations are regulated by the Department of Agriculture and the lawyers note that the Health Department “has never been given any kind of regulatory authority over hemp,” therefore cannot dictate where it can – or cannot – be grown. The attorneys make the same claim about the DOH rule prohibiting hemp products, such as CBD, from being mixed with medical cannabis products.
Additionally, the petition alleges that Health Department rules about facility repairs or upgrades would require cannabusinesses to “submit applications for amended licenses whenever they change a lightbulb.”
Ultra Health has previously filed lawsuits against other state agencies, including a 2019 case against the state Taxation and Revenue Department over tax deductions. A February judgement in that case by an appellate court found that state-licensed medical cannabis producers can claim a tax deduction as prescription medication producers. The state has appealed that case to the New Mexico Supreme Court.
A TVape survey of cannabis consumers suggests that users are not only consuming more cannabis during the coronavirus pandemic but are also shifting more toward vaporizer use and away from combustion.
A slight majority – 53.89 percent – of the 360 people surveyed said they were consuming more cannabis since the call to quarantine, with 41.39 percent saying they are consuming the same amount, and just 4.72 percent of respondents saying they were consuming less.
Prior to the pandemic, 56.11 percent of respondents said vaporizing was their preferred method of consuming cannabis – that figure jumped to 73.06 as citizens throughout the U.S. quarantined either on their own accord or government direction. According to the survey, the number of people using a bong doubled from 5 percent to 10 percent, while the number of people who predominately smoked joints fell from 16.67 percent to 6.11 percent. Pipe use also dropped among the respondents from 5.83 percent to 1.94 percent.
According to the survey, 20.56 percent of those who changed their preferred consumption method attributed the shift to concern over their lung health. COVID-19 – the disease caused by the coronavirus – affects the respiratory system and some patients end up on respirators. Another 12.5 percent said they changed their method to something more convenient, 6.67 percent indicated they switched it up out of boredom, 5.28 percent chose a method with less odor, and 4.72 percent said their new method saves them money by using less product. Just about half of respondents (50.28 percent) said they haven’t changed how they consume.
The survey also found the number of people “likely” to use a vaporizer increased 20 percent – from 68.06 percent to 88.06 percent – and about 9 percent more were more likely to consume indoors (62.5 percent to 71.67 percent).
The survey respondents also indicated that they were consuming more cannabis in the morning and afternoon post-pandemic, with the number of daytime consumers rising from 16.12 percent to 35.56 percent.
Also, users seemed to be split about whether they are willing to share a “piece” with another person during the pandemic as 59.72 percent said they were not likely to share their piece and 48.89 percent said they were not likely to host group sessions with friends.
In most states, cannabis was considered an essential service during pandemic shutdowns.
Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana have submitted more than 182,000 petition signatures to state officials in support of a ballot initiative to legalize medical cannabis in the state. The campaign needed to submit more than 121,000 valid signatures from at least 5 percent of voters in at least 39 counties. The campaign said they have signatures from all of Nebraska’s 93 counties.
The group announced the launch of the signature campaign in March and said that they collected at least 14,000 signatures over the last two weeks.
State Senator Anna Wishart (D), co-chair of the Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana campaign committee who also sponsored legislation last year that was ultimately never voted on, said advocates are “confident” they’ve met the state requirements to put the issue to voters in November.
“This signature drive included a truly impressive feat of grassroots mobilization. We would not have crossed the finish line without the tireless efforts of advocates, patients, families, volunteers, and hardworking Nebraskans who believe in this cause. We’re also proud to say that we registered over five thousand new voters from across the state.” – Wishart in a statement
The signature-gathering effort was spearheaded by Heartland Strategy Group. Heartland’s President Barry Rubin noted that the coronavirus pandemic “severely impacted” signature-gathering efforts for the petition but said “the dedication of … petition circulators, along with the passionate support for this issue from Nebraskans of all backgrounds” pushed the effort forward.
“In the coming months, we will be making the case to voters that establishing a system of safe access for medical cannabis, as 33 other states have done, will be tremendously beneficial for the people of Nebraska,” Rubin said in a press release.
The reforms are opposed by Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts, who has penned at least three columns disapproving of medical cannabis legalization in the state. In a column last May, Ricketts argued that medical cannabis legalization is a gateway to adult-use. In a January column, the governor claimed that cannabis activists “have been trying to circumvent the medical research process that has helped [the] country produce the most safe and effective healthcare in the world” and points out that the Food and Drug Administration has already approved four medications derived from cannabis. He asserted in a 2015 column that “any legalization effort outside [the FDA] process puts Nebraskans at risk.”
The campaign expects state officials to issue a decision on whether they have met the ballot requirements by mid-August.
The government of Canada’s Northwest Territories has reduced the price of all cannabis products by 10 percent hoping the price drop will help legal sellers compete with the unregulated market. The Northwest Territories Liquor and Cannabis Commission said it “has a better understanding of the operating costs associated with the distribution and sale of cannabis” two year after cannabis was legalized federally, and the agency is “confident” it can reduce cannabis prices “while continuing to maintain a safe and secure retail regime.”
Caroline Wawzonek, the Northwest Territories Minister of Finance, said the change “is one of many steps that need to be taken to accomplish” the goal of eliminating illegal sales in the province.
“The Government of the Northwest Territories is committed to eliminating the illegal sale of cannabis by providing residents with legal access to safe and secure products. … We will continue to assess the operations of the Northwest Territories Liquor and Cannabis Commission to find more ways to curb the illegal sale of cannabis in the Northwest Territories in a socially responsible manner.” – Wawzonek in a statement
Currently, legal cannabis is only available at five liquor stores in the NWT and through the cannabis commission’s online sales platform.
A Statistics Canada report from April 2019 found that the NWT had the highest legal and illegal cannabis prices in the nation post-legalization at $14.45 per gram – an increase of 13.7 percent from pre-legalization prices but lower than the national average increase per gram of 17 percent.
The price adjustment in the NWT took effect on July 2.
In a new report, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police calls on federal lawmakers to decriminalize low-level possession of all drugs for personal use. CACP President Chief Constable Adam Palmer told the CBC that current drug possession laws have “proven do be ineffective” and do “not save lives.”
“The CACP recognizes substance use and addiction as a public health issue. Being addicted to a controlled substance is not a crime and should not be treated as such. We recommend that Canada’s enforcement-based approach for possession be replaced with a health-care approach that diverts people from the criminal justice system.” – Palmer to the CBC
The research for the paper was conducted by the CACP’s Special Purpose Committee on the Decriminalization of Illicit Drugs. The paper points out that between January 2016 and December 2019, more than 15,000 Canadians died as a result of an opioid-related overdose and between January and December of last year, 3,823 opioid-related deaths occurred, of which 94 percent were accidental.
“Currently, people who experience substance use disorder face repercussions including criminal records, stigma, risk of overdose and the transmission of blood-borne diseases,” the report says. The aim is to decrease these harms by removing mandatory criminal sanctions, often replacing them with responses that promote access to harm reduction and treatment services.”
The report suggests establishing more supervised drug consumption sites throughout Canada, of which there are already 49, up from 29 in March of last year. The report says that more sites would lead to a decrease in fatal overdoses, and increased contact between health and social services and “marginalized clientele.”
The CACP paper also supports providing a “secure, and predictable supply of pharmaceutical-grade opioids for people who use drugs” as most overdoses in the country are tied to illegally obtained fentanyl.
The report points to the model utilized in Portugal, where all drugs are decriminalized. Following the policy shift in 2001, the country has experienced a decline in teen drug use and in rates of injection drug use. The country also experienced a dramatic decrease in drug-related deaths from 80 in 2001 to 16 in 2012. Portugal’s reforms also reduced the number of people arrested and sent to criminal court for drug offenses – from over 14,000 in 2000, to around 5,500 to 6,000 per year. The Portuguese prison population also declined, from 44 percent in 1999, to just under 21 percent in 2012, according to Transform Drug Policy Foundation.
In a statement to the CBC, Canadian Minister of Health Patty Hajdu and Justice Minister David Lametti said the federal government “remains committed to advancing evidence-based responses to help reverse the trend of opioid overdose deaths and other substance-related harms in Canada.”
A bill proposed in Pennsylvania would eliminate the zero-tolerance driving under the influence penalties for individuals legally using medical cannabis, the Times Observer reports. Under current state law, medical cannabis users are effectively breaking the law every time they operate a vehicle within one month of using their medicine because THC stays in most people’s system for about 30 days and a positive THC test while driving could lead to a DUI.
Republican State Sen. Cameron Bartolotta, the bill sponsor, said lawmakers “need to ensure that the legal use of this medicine does not give rise to a criminal conviction.”
“Patients fought tooth and nail for years to see the use of medical cannabis legalized to treat a variety of terrible health conditions. They should have the peace of mind to know that they will not be punished later for using their prescriptions responsibly.” – Bartolotta to the Times Observer
Warren County District Attorney Rob Greene pointed out that there is no requirement in state law that a driver be determined to be impaired in order to be convicted to DUI, rather just the presence of THC. He added that an officer could use a driver’s medical cannabis card as “probable cause” to take them to a hospital and test their blood and that person could be convicted “solely based off of a test result of their blood.”
“The Commonwealth only has to prove that the defendant’s blood contained a controlled substance at the time he or she was in control of the vehicle,” Greene said in the report.
The bill would not protect non-medical cannabis users.
