New Mexico Gov. Calls for Legalization In 2020

1/17/2020

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New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) included legalizing adult-use cannabis among her policy items for the state Legislature’s first session of 2020. In her announcement, Grisham said cannabis legalization in the state “is projected to create 11,000 new jobs and generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.”

Grisham said the legislation would include a regulatory framework for adult cannabis use, “including public safety considerations, public health safeguards, and the protection of the state’s existing medical cannabis program.”

In October, the Marijuana Legalization Work Group – created for and appointed by Grisham – released its report on potential legalization in New Mexico and estimated the state would see $63 million in new state and local taxes following year one and nearly $94 million by year five. The task force called for a 17 percent average tax rate, anticipating first-year sales of $318 million and five-year sales up to $620 million by year five in a market with 468,000 consumers.

Under the recommendations, state excise taxes on sales would be set at 5 percent, with a 5.125 percent gross receipts tax on businesses, a 5 percent local excise tax, and a 2 percent local gross receipts tax.

Two polls released this month found very different results for support for legalization in the state. One poll, commissioned by prohibitionist group Smart Approaches for Marijuana and conducted by Emerson College found 63 percent opposed broad legalization, while a poll commissioned by the Marijuana Legalization Work Group and conducted by Change Research found 75 percent support the reforms – a supermajority.

The 30-day session is expected to start on January 21. If lawmakers go along with the governor’s plan, New Mexico would be the 12th state to legalize recreational cannabis and the second to approve a taxed-and-regulated market via the legislative process.

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Stephen Rechif: Operating a Community-Focused Cannabis Dispensary

1/16/2020

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Stephen recently answered some of our questions about Bloom Room‘s success story, day-to-day operations, company culture, and more. Check out the following Q&A for an in-depth look at the management and business strategies behind one of San Francisco’s most successful cannabis retailers!

Ganjapreneur: How long has Bloom Room been in business and how many people do you currently employ?

Stephen Rechif: Bloom Room has been in operation at our beautiful storefront location in downtown San Francisco since February of 2013. We are about to celebrate our 7th year of operation. The owners of Bloom Room have owned and operated licensed dispensaries in San Francisco since 2009. Bloom Room currently employs 25 working professionals in the Bay Area.

How would you describe Bloom Room’s company culture?

Bloom Room operates with one word at the center of its core values: authenticity. There isn’t a single person at Bloom Room who isn’t passionate about cannabis on a personal level. Cannabis consultants at Bloom Room are taught from the start that they need to have an authentic relationship with the cannabis we offer in order to make effective recommendations to our members. Our team of consultants is encouraged to experiment with all our new products and share their personal experiences with our members. Consultants are never pushed to sell certain products based on profitability or other external forces. Instead, our consultants are trained to be good listeners and recommend products based on each individual’s tastes, needs, medical conditions, and budget.

What are your primary customer demographics? Do you serve mostly locals, tourists, or a combination of both?

Bloom Room is located near the financial center and tourist center of San Francisco so our demographics generally target those who work in the area and those visiting from out of town. However, we have a strong group of loyal local customers who are the foundation of our member-base. Many local Bay Area residents travel from very far and pass dozens of other dispensaries to visit the Bloom Room — it’s a special pleasure to assist these members.

What do you do for marketing, and what marketing channels have you found to be most successful?

Bloom Room makes small marketing investments in online listings and print. We stay in touch with our members through our informative weekly e-newsletter and have a great text message campaign to promote our monthly Sale Events. However, our greatest marketing asset is our members! We rely heavily on word-of-mouth. We’ve found that if we focus on treating every single member with outstanding customer service and respect, they’ll do our marketing for us.

Does Bloom Room do community outreach or events? If so, what impact has this made on your business and relationship with the community?

Bloom Room strongly believes in the power of community and community involvement has always been a pillar of our operations. Over the years, Bloom Room has offered a wide variety of free member services like free massage, chiropractic, reiki healing, and informational cannabis workshops. Bloom Room also partners with local non-profit community organizations to accomplish local goals in our neighborhood. We do this by holding volunteer events twice a month and successfully encouraging our members to get involved in their community. We believe that cannabis can be a model for other industries by adhering to the values that have been the foundation of the cannabis industry since it’s inception in San Francisco in 1996; compassion, professionalism, and authenticity.

What have been the biggest challenges moving from the Prop 215 medical cannabis market to the Prop 64 recreational industry?

Having owned and operated a licensed cannabis dispensary since 2009 we’ve found many of the new regulations to be overly burdensome. Mainly, because we had been operating a fully legal and licensed dispensary for so many years beforehand without any issue. We’ve been contributing members of our neighborhood with strong support from our community before the regulations and we continue to be models of responsible, professional business community members. The greatest challenge with adopting Prop 64 was breaking with all the expectations from both customers and employees that had naturally developed after years of operation under medical use. Nevertheless, we are grateful to be able to serve the greater adult public. We are excited to see the massive wave of cultural acceptance that has swept the nation in response to legal recreational use.

How long has Bloom Room SF featured a vapor lounge? Have you faced scrutiny from the city or state for allowing customers and patients to use a vaporizer on-site?

Bloom Room has been permitted to have a Vapor Lounge since our opening in 2013. However, recently, the City of San Francisco has forced us to close it down. Basically, the Department of Health was permitting our vapor lounge without consulting with the Department of Planning for 7 years. When our new lounge licensing came up under the new framework, the City decided to close the lounge after 7 years of documented inspections noting vaporization and presumed authorizations based on verbal confirmation and absence of citation from the DPH Inspectors. Nevertheless, we’ve converted the vapor lounge space into more retail and product demo space which has been great for our operational efficiency.

Do you have any tips for buyers and dispensary managers looking to procure inventory that inspires sales and return business?

Build strong financial systems with checks and balances. If you can’t pay your vendors on time, every time, you’re not going to be getting the first call next time they have something special. In over 10 years of operation, we are proud to say that we’ve never been late to pay one of our vendors — not once. This type of consistency allows us to have the first right of refusal for products produced by California’s best and most reputable brands.

Do you work out deals with farms and producers to get the first look or exclusivity with new genetics, flavors, or products? If so, how do you establish these relationships and how do you choose which producers to partner with?

It’s important that a dispensary operates as a market place with the buyer being the centerpiece. An effective buyer needs to negotiate deals with farmers and producers, as well as value-added options like advertising collaborations, product demonstrations, and sale events. However, a good buyer needs to say no — they need to say no A LOT! Many buyers don’t have this control and end up with stagnant products and consignment debt. Only the very best cannabis products offered at the most competitive price should be making it to your shelves and if a buyer can’t tell the difference or can’t say no then they need to be replaced. Less than 5% of the product offered to Bloom Room by vendors actually makes it to the shelf. Being an informed, impartial, and effective filter of the 95% products that don’t belong on your shelf is the painstaking and critical job of the buyer. Full disclosure: I’m not the buyer!

Will you explain the customer satisfaction and retention tactics implemented at the dispensary?
The presence and availability of our senior management on the dispensary floor contributes greatly to our customer satisfaction and retention efforts, however, management can’t be there for every transaction. Therefore, we spend a great amount of time and effort investing in the training and professional development of our professional team of cannabis consultants. Bloom Room consultants are trained not to be just budtenders slanging trees but stewards for the cannabis plant. Having this common value system and belief is at the center our operational philosophy and it’s how we retain customers as well. As opposed to alcohol sales, a well-run cannabis dispensary needs to operate with the foundational belief that they are doing well by their customers and contributing positively to their mental, physical, and spiritual selves. Since consumers of cannabis know they are self-medicating in a productive way, they would never accept a cannabis dispensary that doesn’t share their same values and makes them feel like they are doing something wrong.

Thanks, Stephen, for answering our questions and sharing your knowledge and expertise with our readers! You can learn more about Stephen Rechif and San Francisco’s Bloom Room at BloomRoomSF.com.

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Feds Accused of Hiding Behind ‘Catch-22’ on Cannabis Research

1/16/2020

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During the first-ever cannabis-focused House Energy and Commerce health subcommittee hearing yesterday lawmakers prodded officials from the Drug Enforcement Agency, Food and Drug Administration, and National Institutes of Health on the federal limitations to researching the plant and its status as a Schedule I substance.

According to a CNN report, Massachusetts Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D) accused the government of hiding behind a “Catch-22 for a long, long time” on cannabis research policies – because cannabis is a Schedule I drug, meaning it has no medicinal value and high potential for abuse, researchers have a hard time getting the proper licenses to research it and offer the government proof of its medicinal value.

“Federal prohibition has failed, from our criminal justice system to our health care system to our state and local governments that are forced to navigate an impossible landscape.” – Kennedy III, to the Hill

In August, the DEA announced plans to “facilitate and expand scientific and medical research” into medical cannabis research and Acting Administrator Uttam Dhillon said the agency supports “additional research into marijuana and its components [and] believe registering more growers will result in researchers having access to a wider variety for study.”

During the hearing, DEA Senior Policy Advisor Matthew Strait said the agency had drafted new regulations to allow more cannabis research and had submitted them to the White House for review.

Dr. Douglas Throckmorton, the FDA’s deputy director for regulatory programs at the Center for Drug Evaluation of Research, said that the agency is “looking at a full range of options” for its CBD policies and that regulators are currently evaluating the safety and efficacy of the cannabinoid, according to CNN.

In November, the FDA issued a consumer update that claimed CBD “has the potential to harm,” including negative effects on the metabolism of other drugs, increased risk of sedation and drowsiness when used with alcohol, changes in alertness, gastrointestinal distress, changes in mood, and echoed disputed research suggesting that the cannabinoid can damage the liver.

Some lawmakers also pressed the DEA on cannabis’ status as a Schedule I drug – the agency could remove it from, or change its status on, the federal drug schedule without Congressional approval – but some at the hearing opposed completely removing cannabis from the schedule. Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR) said he would not support broad descheduling, calling it “a step too far,” but that he could support rescheduling to make research easier.

“We need more research and better data,” Walden said during the hearing according to the Hill. “Americans are consuming more cannabis and policy decisions on this substance have been made in a virtual information vacuum.”

The hearing is part of a larger policy conversation happening in Congress right now, as the House passed the SAFE Banking Act – which would normalize financial services for cannabusinesses – in September and two House committees advanced the MORE Act, which would end federal cannabis prohibition.

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Washington’s Broken Seed-to-Sale System Has Cost $2M

1/16/2020

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According to new documents obtained by Ganjaprenuer, the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board has issued nearly $2,000,000 in payments over a two-year period to MJ Freeway for Leaf Data Systems, the state’s problem-plagued seed-to-sale traceability database.

MJ Freeway was chosen in summer 2017 as Washington’s contractor to build the state’s traceability database after competitor Franwell hastily withdrew from the contract negotiations.

The company, however, missed its first deadline of Halloween 2017 then changed the launch date for Leaf Data Systems to February 1, 2018. Numerous other challenges have followed, including a data breach in 2018 and a complete timeline rework in spring 2019. By the fall, it was clear the project was still having problems after an LDS shutdown in July. Shortly thereafter, the LCB announced that MJ Freeway would “maintain” the database only, scrapping the new timeline and putting on hold all future updates.

According to documents obtained via a public records request, the LCB paid MJ Freeway $1,971,421 between May 2017 and August 2019 for its work on Leaf Data Systems.

In 2019, MJ Freeway completed a merger with MTech Acquisition Corp. to form a new company, Akerna Corp., which adopted the LDS system.

In an email, LCB spokesperson Julie Graham said the LCB paid the contractor an additional $52,500 in September for “project deliverables,” but the two parties have also agreed on a $265,000 credit to the LCB for “outstanding invoices that LCB has been holding pending resolution of the contract discussions.” At the moment, it is unclear how much longer the LCB will continue to pay its $50,000 monthly subscription fee to MJ Freeway.  

“The latest amendment extended the contract through June 1, 2020 with the option of up to four six-month extensions at LCB’s discretion. The monthly subscription fees will continue as long as the contract continues.” — Julie Graham, LCB spokesperson, in an email

The LCB is currently holding workgroup sessions with Washington cannabis stakeholders to decide what traceability will look like going forward in the state.

“While we can’t predict the specifics of the future of our traceability needs and impacts on the cannabis system, one thing is certain – there will be change,” Graham continued. “In the past five years developing and refining our state’s regulation of the new system, it’s clear that ongoing assessment and modifications have and will be necessary to keep up with the evolving marketplace, including changes at the federal level.”

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Thai Clinic Offering Both Cannabis and Mainstream Medicine

1/16/2020

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A health clinic in Chiang Mai, Thailand is the first to offer both cannabis-based and modern treatments – one of an expected 37 clinics that will open as the government expands medical cannabis access, the Bangkok Post reports. The clinic includes 125 total medical staff, including 39 physicians, and four traditional Thai medicine practitioners.

Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said that cannabis would be available at the clinic to treat “five groups of illnesses” – Parkinson’s, epilepsy, and multiple sclerosis. Thailand has a long tradition of using cannabis to treat pain and fatigue and the nation legalized cannabis for medical use and research in 2017.

Last year, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha issued a decree ordering the Department of Intellectual Property to invalidate all patents for any molecule derived from cannabis following an outcry by citizens over concerns foreign interests would use the patents to monopolize the Thai medical cannabis marketplace.

In August, the government announced that it would turn seized cannabis into medical products for its domestic market and in November unveiled a proposal to allow citizens to grow up to six plants and sell them back to the government which would process them for medical purposes.

Currently, the Public Health Ministry’s Government Pharmaceutical Organization supplies most of the medical cannabis products for the country’s domestic market but Kasetsart University’s Director of Medical Cannabis Research Natakorn Thasnas said the university will supply 4,850 pounds of cannabis to the ministry to meet growing demand.

Charncirakul indicated that the new clinics are the “fourth phase” of Thailand’s medical cannabis expansion.

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Minnesota Auditors Call Health Dept.’s Cannabis Control Inadequate

1/16/2020

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A report from Minnesota’s Office of the Legislative Auditor found that the state Department of Health’s internal controls of the medical cannabis program “were generally not adequate” for protecting financial assets and ensuring compliance with the program’s legal requirements, according to a KSTP summary of the agency’s findings.

The report, which covered the program’s operations from July 1, 2016 through the end of 2018, found that the Health Department failed to comply with some legal requirements but that the agency generally complied with most of the program rules.

Among the shortcomings, the OLA found the MDH failed to:

  • Verify the licenses of medical cannabis patients’ healthcare practitioner was active and in good standing.
  • Keep valid documentation of the eligibility of parents or legal guardians for the minors enrolled in the cannabis program.
  • Ensure that testing laboratories had a formal contract with the state’s two medical cannabis manufacturers.
  • Have adequate seed-to-sale and testing protocols, including failure to have adequate controls to prevent or timely detect diversion by cannabis manufacturers.
  • Sufficiently reconcile some medical cannabis patient fees or ensure employee separation of duties when handling patients’ medical cannabis payments.
  • Charged some patients a lower registration fee than permitted in the state’s medical cannabis law.

Patrick McClellan, a patient in the program who helped get the medical cannabis legislation passed and lobbies on behalf of patients, said the inadequate product testing outlined in the report was “concerning.”

“I want to know the product I buy is safe and that it is tested properly in case I get sick and we need to trace it to where it was tested and see if the lab said it was safe,” he said in the report.

Minnesota Department of Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm told the Minnesota Legislative Audit Commission that while the department “partially” agreed with the findings and recommendations outlined in the report, her agency is already taking steps to ensure testing is done correctly. In her response, published with the report, Malcolm supported a seed-to-sale system that would prevent costly visits to dispensaries by regulators.

“We are tightening those areas up with different software. That will now allow the Office of Medical Cannabis to monitor for activities suspect of diversion, or inversion, or lack of inventory control.” – Malcolm, to the MLAC

Malcolm added that “in a future legislative session,” the department plans to “seek funding either for independent examinations, to avoid the costs being added to the price of medication, or a state-centralized seed-to-sale system, which the program currently does not have.”

According to the OLA report, MDH spent $1.57 million in fiscal year 2019 on the medical cannabis program’s oversight. The report also notes that there are just eight dispensaries in the state serving 17,200 enrolled patients. The OLA indicated that their “work did not include a comprehensive audit of medical cannabis manufacturers and laboratories or their compliance with legal requirements.”

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Mara Gordon: Data-Driven Cannabis Medicine

1/15/2020

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Mara Gordon is the co-founder of Aunt Zelda’s, a California medical cannabis brand that emphasizes a scientific understanding of cannabis’s medicinal qualities. Mara recently joined our podcast host TG Branfalt to talk about cannabis medicine, medical cannabis research developments from around the world, using data and technology to drive the medical cannabis space, how to harness the excitement surrounding this industry, and more.

You can listen to the podcast using the player below or scroll further down to read a full transcript of the interview.

Listen to the interview:

Read the transcript:

Commercial: This episode of the Ganjapreneur Podcast is made possible by 420 friendly service providers in the Ganjapreneur business directory. If you need professional help with your business from accounting to legal services to consulting, marketing, payment processing or insurance, visit ganjapreneur.com/businesses to find service providers who specialize in helping cannabis entrepreneurs like you. Visit the Ganjapreneur business directory today at ganjapreneur.com/businesses.

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 a woman that really doesn’t need my introduction. She’s Mara Gordon. She’s the co-founder of California based Aunt Zelda’s, Zelda Therapeutics, the oil plant where Aunt Zelda’s oils are manufactured and Calla Spring Wellness. How are you doing this afternoon Mara?

Mara Gordon: I am wonderful. How are you TG?

TG Branfalt: I am quite well, really excited to have you on the podcast. We have a lot to discuss, but before we sort of get into all the meat of what you’ve been doing, which is quite a lot, tell me about yourself and how you ended up in the cannabis space.

Mara Gordon: Well, I originally, I grew up in Dallas, Texas, came to California in the early nineties searching for better weather and I was a process engineer, I worked in tech and then I had health issues that took me out of the workforce completely. And about nine years ago I was fortunate enough to find cannabis and I’m sure we’ll get into that further and changed my life and I hope it’s for the positive, changed a lot of other lives since then with the work I’ve been doing.

TG Branfalt: So you have all of these companies, we were sort of chatting before and you we’re like, “I’ve been busy and it’s quite apparent.” Tell me about each of the companies briefly and how they work together.

Mara Gordon: Back in I guess early 2011 and I was trying to figure out how are we going to take cannabis from being this plant that I hear referred to everything from having magical properties to reefer madness and the way to hell, how are we going to turn it into something that’s an actual medicine that doctors feel comfortable dosing for their patients just like any other drug. And so what I figured out was we had to have well understood lab tested medicines that we understood the cannabinoids and terpenes, et cetera that were in it. So that’s why I started Aunt Zelda’s to make oils so that we could use those with patients. I started Calla Spring Wellness to train doctors and nurses and the endocannabinoid system so that they could then utilize the data and what we were picking up from the patients from Aunt Zelda’s and utilize that to treat other patients.

Accumulated a lot of data, built a SAS platform, basically an electronic health record system for collecting the data and continue to validate it, to make it smarter for what works for what diseases and then Zelda Therapeutics was a natural next step from that and that is a Biopharma company out of Australia and where we fund preclinical and clinical trials so that we then are taking the anecdotal and validating it in with real solid science. The oil plant was because after prop 64 and the old mutual benefit nonprofit corporation model that we had under the Compassionate Use Act from ’96 went away and all of a sudden we all had to have these licenses and we all had to have all these type six and type seven and all these things. So I started the oil plant because that’s where I make oil. And Aunt Zelda’s then just became a quote unquote brand because it wasn’t a company anymore. And it’s the brand that obviously that we make under the oil plant.

TG Branfalt: So you mentioned your work in Australia and I mean it’s obvious why you wouldn’t do that sort of work in the United States, it’s damn near impossible. But why did you end up in Australia as opposed to say Canada?

Mara Gordon: Well, I think Canada is a lot of noise, personally. I watched what’s going on with Canada and it’s like… It reminds me of when Uruguay went legal and it was like the first in the world and they were going to dominate and then Uruguay kind of disappeared. Canada would fit in California, they don’t have the type of genetics that we have here. They don’t have the type of manufacturing capabilities. And they also, at the time I was doing this, it wasn’t legal in Canada. I started Zelda Therapeutics in 2015 and the ability to do clinical trials in Australia is not only available with our partnerships with various hospitals and universities, but the government goes so far as to give us rebates for the research dollars that we spend on these clinical trials. So it just, it was a perfect storm.

TG Branfalt: Can you tell me what the research you’re working on down there is focused on and maybe what have been some of the major barriers?

Mara Gordon: Well, what we’re working on right now is, we have in our preclinical work, we’re funding research around the world. For example, the breast cancer research that we’re doing with doctors, Christina Sanchez, Manuel Guzman’s team at Complutense University in Spain. We’re working on pancreatic work in Italy. We’re doing some collaborative work with Ethan Russo on some other things in Australia in particular, we’re in phase two on an insomnia clinical trial, which is very, very exciting. And we’re also doing an observational, excuse me, we’re doing a clinical harm reduction study for opioids using cannabis. So, that’s going on there.

Some of the biggest barriers are is that we can’t manufacture these products in Australia. We have to import them and they have to be GMP. Well there’s not a lot of places that, that’s possible. And it kind of reminds me of go find me a rock. You bring in a rock and it’s like, “No, not that rock. Another rock.” I’m sitting here looking at an asphalt field, which freaking rock do you want?

So that’s kind of how it is with what’s considered good enough for the… And then finding the consistent product. We were fortunate that we were able to partner with Hapa in Germany to provide the formulations that we designed for the trials. The insomnia trial in particular is exciting for me because it’s a formulation that I created at Aunt Zelda’s in California and we call it Nighttime here, is one of our regular products that’s available to all of our patients here now and then this is the validation of that formula in actual trials so that I’m looking forward to the day when I can actually make a medical claim and I’m not just sharing my own experience or saying, “Wow, some people have said…” Blah, blah, blah. So that’s kind of where that’s going.

TG Branfalt: That is very, very exciting. And insomnia is something that a lot of people struggle with, I’m sure. How do you manage to manage all of these firms and what do you look for when building teams to run these businesses on the ground?

Mara Gordon: What I look for is number one people smarter than me, certainly in whatever position they’re in because I’m sort of the visionary of it all. I’m the one that connects all the pieces and make sure that everybody has the tools they need to do their work. But from after that, I’m a macro manager, I let people know what the goal is, where we’re going and as far as I’m concerned, how they get there within obvious certain parameters is fine with me. I know my way, but maybe your way is going to be better. So let’s talk about that, let’s give it a shot.

The other thing is the type of people who have joined my organizations have an ethos that’s very, very closely aligned with mine and this is all about helping people and being of service so that when we fall off this earth, the world is a better place because we’ve been in it. And when that’s the ethos in a company, and that’s when I was listening to our lab director who is just this amazing gentleman and he’s been with us for about five and a half years now. And when I was listening to him give a tour to somebody, oh I know who it was, we were having our annual inspection from the bank because we were able to get banking and now I actually sit on the board of the bank, which is pretty amazing.

First one in the United States, it’s on a board of a bank and I own multiple cannabis businesses, who would’ve thunk. But anyway, I was listening to him going through this tour and he said, “When we’re making medicine…” Because they were commenting how incredibly clean our place is. He said, “What our marching orders are is, we’re making medicine for our own family and our family members have no immune system because they’re so sick. And the medicine we make is what they’re going to put in their bodies.” That’s the point of view in the ethos that we have with everything that we do. And when you start from a place like that, I mean, how much oversight do I need to do? I hire a competent bookkeeper, competent manufacturer, competent distributors, competent doctors and nurses. If you get the right people around you, the Zelda Therapeutics team, for example. I don’t know… It’s listed on the ASX. In fact, we just announced a couple of days ago a merger with Ilera Therapeutics out of Pennsylvania.

So now it’s going to be this big global thing. That’s not my world. I mean, I don’t understand running a Biopharm or talking to investors and all that. That’s a completely different world. But the people that I have that are doing it with me, it is their world and they do understand, have those conversations and I trust them to have them without me having to judge one way or the other, whether they’re right or wrong, as long as we stay on the right trajectory.

TG Branfalt: When you are interviewing people or you’re providing these sort of opportunities, do you have a lot of people come in and then get sort of scared off by the cannabis business industry?

Mara Gordon: Are you talking about as coming to me to work for us as staff or?

TG Branfalt: Yeah.

Mara Gordon: Absolutely not. I mean, it’s hard for me to go to an inbox on any social media. First of all, I can’t find the inbox on most of them because they hide in their cute little icons, what’s wrong with putting the word inbox. But I get people who write to me and send me resumes from everywhere because they’ve either seen the documentary with the people or something and they’re like, “I’m in, where do I sign up? How do I work for you? I’ll work for free. Just tell me what I need to do. I want to join your company.” And we have our original staff, we still have plus others that have joined us of course. But we have a kind of a philosophy of hire slow and fire fast, so when somebody does join us, they know a lot about us before they join the company. And so they kind of take the job away from us more than we offer it to them.

In fact, the first assistant I had who went on to do patient care and now she’s working with Mystic Brands doing an amazing job with them. I actually rang her up to let her know that she had not gotten the job. And she was like, “No, no, I’m not accepting that. You have to hire me. You have to hire me.” And I said, “You know what? Okay, I’ll give you 90 days.” And she ended up moving up from Santa Barbara to North Bay in Sonoma County and she’s amazing. And she’s been up here now for over five years.

TG Branfalt: Unbelievable. You mentioned that you previously had worked in the tech space, and I’ve heard a lot on this podcast, talking to people and they compare the tech and the cannabis industry. Can you tell me whether or not there is a comparison to be made there.

Mara Gordon: There is, I don’t know for what reason people are comparing it and whether it’s the same as my perspective on this, what I see is from, no disrespect to all those people out there, but I see a lot of really stupid money in this space. The same stupid money that was throwing millions of dollars at kids in garages back in the early tech days. It’s that same kind of indiscriminate I want in, whatever that means, without really digging in to see if they have any science or if they have any substance to the claims they’re making or if they’re even collecting the right kind of data.

When I first started collecting data on this almost nine years ago now, people told me I’d lost my mind. There was no such thing as collecting data around cannabis. And now you can’t fling a cat without hitting somebody who’s got a data company. Well, mainly because there wasn’t really, like I said at the beginning when I was trying to figure out how to turn cannabis into a medicine, and I don’t mean a single molecule making it into Marinol or an isolet, I meant how do we make this something that a doctor, that’s in the PDR, the physician desk reference.

And when somebody comes in that has chronic pain, they are looking at opioids and they go, “Oh, there’s this other option here, this combination of cannabinoids and terpenes that might work for you, that kind of thing.” So when I did that, I was like, “The only way I’m going to be able to do that is if I can lab test the products and see what’s in them and then track how it’s being dosed, how it’s being utilized, and then see what’s working not with subjective, like, “Oh I feel great,” or “I feel sleepy.” Yeah, that’s nice to know. But how is it working at a cellular level? What’s happening with your lab results and your scans if you have cancer or your MRIs if you have inflammation, et cetera around your spine.

So I took a much more obviously process engineering approach to it and now tech is catching up. But in those days it was… The comparison was the stupid money being thrown in it. And I think a lot of people are licking their wounds now, especially the people that jumped out into the stock market a little bit too soon thinking that that was the way to go. And you saw that with a lot of early IPOs in tech also. And they frequently ended up coming out with high expectations and then nothing there. Let’s look at the lesson of Theranose, and yeah, so I think that there’s a lot of potential Theranose in cannabis.

TG Branfalt: So, I mean a lot of that stupid money is being sort of put into the recreational side of things. So, if that’s where a lot of the money is going and this isn’t to say that the medical side is not getting its own infusions, why did you and still continue to focus on the medical sector rather than jump into this recreational side?

Mara Gordon: Of course I’m asked that about 50 times a day, especially by investors. They’re like, “What? Are you out of your mind.” I’m like, “Yeah, let me chase the same piece of the pie that everybody else is chasing.” It’s not of any interest to me. I think it’s… I don’t have a problem with people using it recreationally, do whatever you want. But I’m interested in creating solutions to help people suffering from diseases, whether that disease is the trifecta of pain, sleep and anxiety or if it’s PTSD or I’m obviously, have personal deep interest in cancers and things like that. So I’m not looking for what do you want to have as your Saturday night experience.

And on the rec side there’s often people who start using cannabis recreationally once it’s legalized, sure who may be were not, is apt to do that previously. But for the most part the data that I’ve seen shows that the rec user was already using it and it’s not like, “Oh gosh, now that it’s legal, I’m going to go from wine to weed.” It doesn’t necessarily translate that way. So the population isn’t getting bigger of a rec user by a significant number.

Take that and juxtapose that against the fact that there’s 7 billion people on this planet and all their cats and dogs and everybody has an endocannabinoid system and everybody gets sick. So I’m looking at this as a much longer term focus on the fact that the typical Aunt Zelda’s patient, right? We get them set up on which particular type of medicine is going to work best for them and they order the same thing month after month after month after month. You go to your average recreational person, there’s no brand loyalty. They walk in, they want to know what’s the newest, what’s the latest, what’s the… You’re constantly having to create a new skew to keep their attention and it’s always what’s on sale.

My people are like, “I’m sick, I need an answer.” So I think that, the pharmaceutical industry is a lot bigger industry than the beverage industry for example, the alcohol industry. So I’m going with pharma not to be part of it, but to really to take it and transform it and create a paradigm shift in the medical community.

TG Branfalt: That’s really interesting. Really eye-opening because a lot of the people that I talk to, they started in medical obviously because that’s where the industry began and they were really excited to move to recreational for the opportunities. And so sort of this long term vision that you have I think is, I think it’s very unique amongst the people that I’ve spoken to on this show and at events and that sort of thing.

In some states, they have sort of created different rules for the recreational and the medical side of things, no taxation, you also have to, in these places you might have to split the sales at a dispensary. In your opinion, should there be different rules for these markets?

Mara Gordon: 100%. 100% there needs to be different rules because the medical user, the typical Aunt Zelda’s medical user. Let’s just take… I don’t even know what that looks like at this point. However, this is a person who has an ailment and they’re going to have to spend a lot more money than somebody coming in to buy some cheap pre-rolls. All right? This is people that are spending hundreds of dollars a month, sometimes thousands of dollars a month on staying alive or on helping to treat something that’s severely debilitating. Shouldn’t they — I mean, do you pay tax when you go to the pharmacy counter to pick up your prescriptions?

You do when you pick up a candy bar and put it on the counter to go with it, the candy bar is taxed, but the pharmaceutical isn’t so why should somebody who’s sick and using this as a medicine, why should they have to pay taxes on it? It just creates a parody for cannabis as a medicine to a pharmaceutical.

TG Branfalt: Do you have any sort of suggestions or insight as to how patients sort of maintain their spot as qualified patients? In many states, when you see recreational client, you see a massive decline in medical users. Is there any way to prevent that from happening at all in your estimation?

Mara Gordon: I would challenge that, but there actually is not a reduction. What you’re seeing a reduction in is the number of people who are bothering to get this card when they could just walk into any dispensary, it’s worth it to them to not have to go through the going to a doctor, getting registered, going through and then being in some database potentially, showing they’re a cannabis user when they can just walk into a dispensary and buy it. The shame is the dispensary, it’s not clicking in the dispensary owners brains or the buyer’s brains that, oh yeah, these people are coming in here and they don’t have a card. So we’re looking at them as rec.

They’re just a medical patient that didn’t bother to get a card. And the problem is they’re not having the access to the types of products in many cases that they need. I did kind of an undercover boss kind of thing walking in… I went into a couple of dispensary’s recently down in Orange County that I had been told were, “Oh, these are very medical.” Meaning lots of patients go there. So I walked up to one of the bud tenders, the young lady behind the counter and I said, “I’ve got this friend and she’s just found out that she’s really sick, she has cancer and she’s really scared and she doesn’t know what to do. What would you tell her to do? What to use?” And the response was, “Well, depend on what experience. I mean does she want like a cream or she could… We have these gummy bears or she could smoke this.” And I’m like, “We’re talking about somebody with cancer. First of all, she doesn’t know what she wants. She needs you to tell her what she needs.”

And I was like, “Oh God, that is so sad. That is so sad that that’s what’s happened when things go rec to the…” Not that it was much better with the education of budtenders before because in so many places, especially in California, it was kind of wink, wink medical versus real medical. So when I talk medical, I’m not talking whether the law says medical or the law says adult use or they have a card or don’t, I’m talking medical from the, in terms of the intention of the user. Are they intending to use this for a medical purpose? Are they intending to use this to enhance their evening or their fun or their whatever. So if it’s all about the intention when I separate out the two, not the industries.

TG Branfalt: That’s really interesting. I mean, I had a very similar experience at a rec dispensary in Massachusetts. I had actually went in there, I had gone to a dispensary in Canada a couple of months ago and they were very knowledgeable, very, very helpful, even though it’s basically just flower up there right now. And I was asking him about some concentrates that they had, had and the person couldn’t even really tell me how it was produced, which I found kind of disconcerting, and that’s just from a recreational standpoint. So your point is very well taken about your experience.

I want to talk to you briefly about your TED talk. I think they’re wonderful. I love TED talks. Early in the beginning of it when you’re sort of discussing your path, you talk about previously viewing someone who’s a “wake and baker” as a quote “drug user,” and I’m not holding that against you at all. I’m just wondering how you came around to changing your opinion of cannabis.

Mara Gordon: The thing to keep in mind is I’m 60 years old. All right. So I come from a little bit of a different time period. I smoked cannabis, I didn’t know the word cannabis, but I smoked cannabis back in the early seventies and tried it, didn’t really like it, made me feel paranoid. I mean I’ve fit into that category of people, it was like, “Nah, I don’t like this.” And moved on with my life. And then I had experiences with a lot of addiction in my own family and I made the leap that the people who smoked cannabis also were the people who were using harder drugs. And I’ve come to even have a different view now on other drugs. So I keep expanding and growing.

It’s like, as I always like to say, when I know better, I do better. And I know what I know today, but I might learn something tomorrow or later today that completely changes that and I’m open to this. So this was the information I had to go on at the time. And the woman who had, I had referred to as a wake and baker, I owe her a life of gratitude because she helped to change my mind. She had told me she was making brownies for her at the time boyfriend for his severe neck pain. And so like pot brownies, like we had in the 70s that were just disgusting where people just stuck ground flour in these disgusting brownies and nobody likes them.

And I’m like, “Okay, that sounds gross.” And she had told me about this and then she came to visit me at my home and I had sent her out to the garage to smoke and I am a chronic pain, I hate to categorize myself in my own disease, but chronic pain is something I deal with on a daily basis. And it happened to be one of those days when I was like level eight or more pain and I had sent her out to the garage to smoke because I didn’t want it in my house. And I went out there to keep her company and she said, “Just take a puff.” And I was like, “Okay, whatever.”

So I took two puffs off her little Hello Kitty pipe and my pain went from an eight to about a two. And I was like, “You have got to be kidding me.” I was so angry. I was so mad that nobody had told me that this was an option and my husband, who has now been sober 31 years, he needed to have back surgery and he wasn’t willing to have it because he didn’t want to go on opioids. So we started investigating whether cannabis triggered the phenomenon of craving the way alcohol and opioids did. And we just kind of started really digging into it and was like, “Oh my God, there’s so much hope here. We got to do something. We got to figure this out.” And that’s kind of what I said. And that was the big shift.

The big shift was understanding that cannabis was different. And I’ve also come to understand a lot of other drug use. And the fact that drug by the way has a bad pejorative sense to it, but it’s actually, it’s just really about healing. And people that use mankind or humankind and animals who’ve been seeking mind altering experiences since before recorded history. So it’s really no different. It’s just when it’s out of control that it’s a problem, that it’s an issue. But general use of drugs can be quite expansive.

TG Branfalt: I mean, to your point, we have examples of bears in the wild who will basically hoard apples until they turn into hard cider. A very interesting sort of thing. And I want to ask, my dad’s 61, my mom is, in my 35, she’s 55. And they both have actually used cannabis basically their entire lives. And so they’ve always been very open about cannabis. I used with my mother for the first time when I was about 15, just to sort of give you an idea. What do you think it’s going to take to bring sort of the older generation onboard? I mean, I do know that we do see a shift happening that as rec rolls out that more people 60 and older are using cannabis. What do you think could help change the mind of a generation that is still predominantly not pro-cannabis?

Mara Gordon: I mean, we all grew up on reefer madness. I mean, let’s not forget that, I mean, that was the message and we didn’t know any better. And when we did try it, I don’t know. You’re very fortunate that you were exposed to it in a healthy manner. I grew up in Texas, so it was basically Mexican ditch weed that we were smoking, it was disgusting. And I can’t even believe, you had to sit there with a shoe box getting rid of all the seeds and stems to find some of the trim.

TG Branfalt: Unreal.

Mara Gordon: And that’s about what we, of course now, I wish I had some of those seeds anyway as far as what we could do. I think I’m doing it. I think that, that’s exactly what I do is, I mean I travel and lecture all over the world educating the medical community and the public and patients. I gave a talk in Buenos Aires last week and it was the first event of its kind and they had 56,000 people through there in three days.

TG Branfalt: No way.

Mara Gordon: And 30% of their participants or the attendees were over 60, think about that. A third of the population was over 60 so the message is getting out. I go and I talk to senior communities. I think one of the things that’s really-

TG Branfalt: Do you really?

Mara Gordon: Oh yeah, I talk to a lot of them. I come from a place of, yes. If you need me and I can be of service, I’ll do it. There’s a place over in the East Bay in California, it’s called Rossmoor. And I’ve been going out there since, gosh, early 2012 on at least an annual basis. And I’ll speak to two to 400 people and there’s an over 65 community. And so, I mean, we got lots of people use an Aunt Zelda’s over at Rossmoor.

And the thing about it is, is if you can help a senior to have a positive initial experience, that’s the key. Because the saddest thing is when people my age or people of any age, really, they’ll try cannabis and they’ll have a negative first experience because they had that budtender telling them to try this gummy bear that’s got a hundred milligrams of some idiotic dose in it or 10… Whatever it is. Now they’re 10 is a limit for one item, thank goodness.

But people would have this horrible initial experience and then they would say, “Oh, I tried cannabis, it’s not for me.” So what I look to do is to help people to understand how to use cannabis in such a way that you start with a very, very low dose and you increase extremely slowly. Topicals are probably the safest and easiest point of entry for the average person because you’re going to feel better if it’s a good product without actually having experiencing any of mind altering experiences. Even though I think frankly it’s nice to have your mind altered from time to time, expanded, but that’s the easiest form of entry. I also think that very, very low dose infused oils, tinctures, I’m not a big fan of edibles, especially for the elderly because of the inconsistency of how they activate and how long they take to activate. I think that they’re better when they go through something that’s a sublingual, under the tongue or in the cheek or in the buckle, et cetera. But those are really the best way to alleviate some of the negative.

TG Branfalt: How’d you end up identifying the 65 and older communities? Like who was it that said you need to go talk to this demographic. I’m very interested in this.

Mara Gordon: I think they sent me an email. I think they did.

TG Branfalt: Really.

Mara Gordon: Yeah, I think they said, “My son said that you’re…” Oh, I know what it was. Our answering service is owned by the son of the woman who manages or managed, I don’t know if she still does, the cannabis club. I think she still does. And at this over senior community and I think he told her about it and then she contacted me. I think that’s how it happened. God knows it was a long time ago, but word of mouth. I mean, the interesting thing is I’ve never bought an ad, put out a press release, paid to play, sponsored a booth, none of that stuff. I’m just busy head down making good medicine and taking care of people and collecting the data.

But people talk, when people find something that works for them, they shout it from the rooftops. I have an experience from years ago down at Burzynski Clinic down in, I believe it’s in Houston, there’s a lot of cancer patients are down there. And one of the people in the waiting room happened to be someone who was a patient of ours. And she started talking about what she was using and how well she was doing and getting better. And the next thing we knew we had 12 new patients who all were also patients of the Burzynski Clinic. I mean, word of mouth. I mean people talk and with social media now it’s been crazier how people hear and they… I get requests from Siberia. I just had one from Bangladesh the other day. From all over the world.

TG Branfalt: Seriously.

Mara Gordon: Yeah. In fact, the Bangladesh one, I want to give a shout out and a thank you to the CAIPA company that MagicalButter is because I contacted them and said… They have access to flour but there’s no way that, nobody knows how to make it, could you guys send them a machine and MagicalButter two days had sent this family that was trying to treat their father’s cancer a MagicalButter machine. So not only can he make medicine for himself, he can make it for other people to help them too.

TG Branfalt: Wow. When you… How do I put this, are people sort of surprised when it’s you that walks into a room? I mean, I know that there are a lot of female CEOs in the space, not as many as, I guess that rate’s actually gone down in the last couple of years, but do people walk in and they’re like, I wasn’t expecting a 60-year old woman.

Mara Gordon: What kind of room are you talking about?

TG Branfalt: I just wonder if that happens to you?

Mara Gordon: At this point, I don’t walk into a lot of rooms in the business where people don’t know that it’s already me. I mean, not that I’m such a big deal, but I mean, as far as most of the time people have had seen my picture somewhere so they know I’m older.

TG Branfalt: What about when you first started?

Mara Gordon: Well when I first started I was 50 instead of 60 for starters so I think that, yeah, I think that there was a little bit of that, but the thing about it is, is if you look at the old timers, the real heart and soul of cannabis and the people who have been doing it in the Emerald Triangle in California for years and years, they’re my age and older. They’re the people… The women who were making tinctures for their family and their neighbors, the growers who were also making ethanol extracts to help other people and to all the underground stuff. This is all people that would have been doing this for 30, 40 years, and multigenerational.

So I wasn’t any different. I was just what made me different and what made them suspicious of me, I guess you could say at the beginning was I was talking about it as a medicine, I was talking about it is straight science and I was… To me it’s all chemistry and I think that cannabis has the promise to heal our planet, in so many ways. That’s a whole other conversation.

TG Branfalt: It is.

Mara Gordon: But I have not approached this the same way. And they were like, “Who’s this person coming in trying to talk about data and science and chemistry.” When I first talked about lab testing, I got a lot of pushback from people saying, “I don’t need some lab to tell me what’s in it. I know how it makes me feel. I can smell it.” You know what? They were right. But that’s not scalable. And that’s not something that’s going to work for someone who doesn’t know. I mean, I don’t know how to smell something and know… I can smell something to know what’s going to be bad for me because I’ve gotten used to being able to identify those terpenes but I’ve been doing this a long time now. The average person needs more than that. So they were my contemporaries in age but I came from tech, I’m from Texas, I’m all this, I don’t even grow tomato plants nonetheless. So I had to convince them that I was in this to help them, which I hopefully I am. I’m giving credibility and validation to their hard work.

TG Branfalt: You have an absolutely incredible story and I would love to sit here and talk to you for another 40 minutes just about it, but we don’t have that kind of time. I want to wrap up by asking, what advice would you have for entrepreneurs who might be looking to enter the space and focus on the medical side of it?

Mara Gordon: I would suggest that anyone that’s interested, look at what they’re already doing and what their skill set is that they already have and then see where that role exists within cannabis because I will guarantee you it does. There’s almost no part of our GDP that you can look at that doesn’t… And I’m not talking about Granddaddy Purple, I’m talking about the gross domestic product, here when I say GDP, that I mean there’s hardly any roles that people are doing out there, whether it’s an accountant or a branding or a school teacher or a chemist or you name it. Whatever the role is, there’s a role somewhere in cannabis because cannabis touches every part of it.

If you’re interested specifically in the medical, see where your skillset can go, but understand that the medical play is a longer play. I feel like on the rec side, the people that are entering that, it’s very short term, they’re looking for their quick exit, their ROI, quarterly reports, what’s happening now. In the medical side, you’re looking to really change the world with a complete paradigm shift in the way that people treat their bodies and their diseases and that’s including the wellness side of it. That’s keeping healthy people staying healthy as their intention.

So I think that there’s room for almost every skill set you’re already doing and go to shows like New West Summit, go to join NCIA, National Cannabis Industry Association, look at some of the the sponsors in membership and then just start… Go to LinkedIn. I was looking for somebody the other day about medical tourism. I went to LinkedIn and I went into my contacts and I just typed in medical tourism and somebody who had written to me back in 2016 about something came up and we’ve now had a conversation and whatever, so there’s a group on there, whatever you’re interested in, in the medical side, there’s going to be a group in like LinkedIn for you. Defined, yeah.

TG Branfalt: Super cool. I don’t use LinkedIn, I have a very slim social media profile, but that’s very good for potential entrepreneurs to know that. Where can people find out more about you? More about Aunt Zelda’s, Zelda Therapeutics, Calla Spring Wellness. Where can people get all the information?

Mara Gordon: Aunt Zelda’s is just auntzeldas.org A-U-N-T Z-E-L-D-A-S. Zelda Therapeutics. Same thing. If you can spell therapeutics, hopefully you can. It’s a dot com. The oil plant, we have a placeholder website but it’s really just a, it’s just where manufacture. So everybody reaches us through Aunt Zelda’s and you can reach out there. In Calla Spring Wellness, same thing, callaspringwellness.com there is no S it’s Calla Spring, single spring, not multiples. And that’s about it on where to find us. We’re on social media. I’m not real good at it. I don’t have a lot of time, but eventually somebody does get back to whoever reaches out. So, that’s the best thing but auntzeldas.org is kind of the gateway to reach everybody through the support there.

TG Branfalt: Brilliant. This has been Mara Gordon, she’s the cofounder of California based Aunt Zelda’s, Zelda Therapeutics oil plant and Calla Spring Wellness. Thank you so much for taking the time to come on the podcast and hopefully we’ll be able to have another conversation in the future. You’re really great. Really great stuff.

Mara Gordon: Well, I would enjoy that. Thank you TG.

TG Branfalt: You can find more episodes of the Ganjapreneur.com Podcast in the podcast section at ganjapreneur.com and in the Apple iTunes Store. On the ganjapreneur.com website, you will find the latest cannabis news and cannabis jobs updated daily, along with transcripts of this podcast. You can 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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House Committee to Discuss Allowing Cannabis Research

1/15/2020

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The House Energy and Commerce health subcommittee is set to hold a hearing today about the disconnect between federal and state cannabis laws and the federal barriers to cannabis research, the Hill reports.

Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA) called the divide between federal and state cannabis laws “a chasm” and said she wants officials from both the Food and Drug Administration and Drug Enforcement Agency to explain to the panel why the federal agencies are potentially blocking cannabis research.

“It’s very important if you’re going to be using cannabis for medicinal purposes, you need to have the data, the outcomes and all of that, so that needs to be examined.” — Eshoo, to the Hill

Only the University of Mississippi has permission to grow cannabis for the federal government and has been the sole grower of cannabis since 1968. The federal government still supplies cannabis to medical patients approved under the Investigational New Drug program; there are only two surviving members of that program.

In a letter to the panel, cannabis industry stakeholders said that the industry supports “robust federal regulatory guidance and oversight that informs the development of additional safety protocols and produces greater regulatory consistency of product marketing, safety and oversight across state and national borders.” They added that rescheduling cannabis “may provide some benefit in facilitating research” but could “complicate the federal-state relationship with respect to cannabis.”

The panel is expected to discuss the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement (MORE) Act – a federal measure that would effectively end federal cannabis prohibition – although the bill is not assigned to the Energy and Commerce Committee. That measure passed the House Judiciary Committee last November and was moved out of the House Small Business Committee, which waived its jurisdiction.

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Colorado Bill Would Protect Employees’ Off-Duty Cannabis Use

1/15/2020

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A new bill introduced in Colorado would prevent employers from terminating employees for using cannabis when off duty, according to a KRDO report. Colorado law already prohibits employers from firing employees for “lawful off-duty activities, including the off-duty consumption of alcohol.”

The measure, introduced by Democratic Rep. Jovan Melton, would clarify that the state’s employment law applies to off-duty activities that are legal in the state, even if they are not legal federally. In 2015, the state Supreme Court ruled that Dish Network was allowed to fire an employee who tested positive for cannabis because the substance is outlawed federally. In the Dish Network case, the employee used medical cannabis to control his seizures and failed a random drug screening in 2010.

“It was just a glaring gap that we have here in the statute, especially when we’re supposed to regulate marijuana like we are with alcohol. If someone’s able to drink while they’re at home and on their free time, as long as they’re not coming into work intoxicated, then they’re not penalized with their employment.” – Melton, to the Denver Post

Loren Furman, an official with the state Chamber of Commerce, told the Post that members of the organization supported the 2015 Supreme Court Decision “and continue to do so.” Melton indicated he was “more than willing to listen to the business community” and would “tighten” the language of the bill “if necessary.”

The bill does not clarify the rights of employees who live in Colorado but work for an out-of-state business either remotely or otherwise, and federal employees in Colorado would likely be unprotected by the law, were it to pass, due to federal law.

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Arizona Cultivator Lights Up Sky With Purple Glow

1/15/2020

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Residents of Snowflake, Arizona witnessed an unexpected light show late last week, news reports and social media updates show. The “purple haze” scene resulted from UV light pollution by medical cannabis cultivator Copperstate Farms, which operates just outside of town.

The photo was captured by local resident and Copperstate employee Cara Smith at 6:30 am on Friday morning; according to Smith, the purple UV glow is “always visible” on her way to work but the spectacular scene that morning was the usual glow reflecting off of low-hanging clouds and snow particles in the air.

“The purple lights are always there but don’t usually light up the sky like this. It had snowed that morning and was still very foggy and cloudy.” — Cara Smith, via CNN

Copperstate Farms operates on a 40-acre plot of greenhouse growing space and employs about 200 people from the area. Company representatives confirmed that the glow is because of the company’s use of red and blue UV lights.

Locals chimed in on the Navajo County Facebook page, where the photo first went viral, to share their thoughts. Many said the glow was beautiful, others complained of light pollution, and still others were skeptical that the amount of glow could even be due to cannabis grow lights — “What, are they growing cannabis for the gods?” asked one user.

 

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That greenhouse glow ❤️✨⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ ? : @crocquito⁠⠀ ⁠⠀ #sungrownwellness #copperstatefarms #az

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South Dakota Gov. Outlines Hemp Legalization ‘Guardrails’ 

1/15/2020

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South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) has outlined four “guardrails” that the state’s hemp industry must have if she is to sign a bill to legalize the crop. In an Argus Leader op-ed, Noem said that any hemp legislation must include reliable enforcement guidelines, responsible regulation, safe transportation, and adequate funding.

Noem vetoed a hemp legalization bill last year and, at that time, said she was opposed to the reforms because they would legalize cannabis “by default.”

In her recent op-ed, Noem said she vetoed the bill last session because it “didn’t address concerns surrounding public safety, law enforcement, or funding” and that now with U.S. Department of Agriculture regulations, a South Dakota tribe getting the go-ahead from the federal government, and bordering states having legalized the crop, the state should move forward with the reforms.

Under Noem’s guardrails, anyone who grows hemp in the state would consent to an inspection by law enforcement and the grower would foot the bill — not only for the inspection but for the disposal of any crop that tests over the legal THC limits, as well.

Noem is also calling for a post-legalization annual statistical report about “the impact decriminalization is having on other criminal drug prosecutions.” Smokable hemp would also have to be outlawed under any hemp legalization measure in order to gain the governor’s approval.

Noem estimates that hemp decriminalization would cost the state about $3.5 million in “one-time and ongoing” costs and she opposes raising taxes to pay for those associated costs.

It’s likely that, with the governor’s provided pathway to legalization, state lawmakers will make another push this session to legalize hemp in the state. In November, voters will decide whether to legalize both medical and recreational cannabis.

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Tennessee Proposal Would Decriminalize Cannabis

1/14/2020

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A cannabis decriminalization bill has been introduced in Tennessee, WBIR reports. In addition to the statewide reforms, the legislation would allow counties to legalize cannabis for adult use.

Under the measure, introduced by Democrat State Rep. Rick Staples, counties would be permitted to hold referendum elections “to authorize the growing, processing, manufacture, delivery, and retail sale of marijuana within jurisdictional boundaries.”

The measure would broadly decriminalize possession by adults up to one-half ounce.

A September poll found that 12 percent of Tennesseans supported the continued criminalization of cannabis in the state, while 47 percent supported adult-use legalization. Another poll conducted by Middle Tennessee State University found 81 percent support both medical and recreational cannabis law reforms, according to a Chattanooga Times Free Press report.

Last week Republican State Sen. Janice Bowling introduced legislation to legalize medical cannabis in the state, WATE reports. Under the state’s current medical cannabis program, licensed physicians can recommend cannabis oil with less than 0.9 percent THC for seizure disorders but the oil can only be produced by a university as part of a clinical trial. The law has been amended twice since its 2014 passage but both times the changes have only added more restrictions to the already narrow program.

Last year lawmakers rejected three bills to expand that limited medical cannabis regime.

If the legalization measure is approved, it would be the first legislation in the nation to allow counties to legalize cannabis rather that the state at-large.

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Florida Legalization Campaign Abandons 2020 Goal

1/14/2020

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Florida activists have ended their campaign to put recreational cannabis legalization on ballot during November’s general election, the Miami Herald reports. Make it Legal Florida organizers plan on using the signed petitions – which are valid for two years – for a 2022 push.

The Division of Elections had verified 295,072 signed petitions from campaign as of Monday; just 38 percent of the total signatures needed by February 1. The organization said the petition gathering effort was hampered by a new elections law that took effect in July which required hourly pay for petition workers and set tighter deadlines for turning in signatures. The group had filed a lawsuit seeking more time to gather signatures, but the case is still tied up in court.

Coincidentally, the day Make it Legal Florida announced they would end their ballot initiative bid, Republican Sen. Jeff Brandes filed a bill that would legalize cannabis for adults. That measure would scrap the vertical integration model used in the state’s medical cannabis program and open up the market for wholesaling by cultivators, processors, and retailers.

The measure also includes low-level cannabis crime expungement and would study the impact of home-grow. Brandes told the Herald that he believes legalization “will enable law enforcement to deal with more serious crimes,” allowing them to have a “greater impact with their limited resources.”

“For me this is a liberty issue. We should give adult Floridians the freedom to make their own choices when it comes to cannabis. It’s not a matter of if, but when, Floridians will have access to adult use marijuana. This bill allows the Legislature to lead on an issue a super majority of Floridians support.” – Brandes, in an interview with Florida Politics

Brandes’ bill would allow individuals 21-and-older to possess up to 2.5 ounces of cannabis.

State economists estimate that an adult use cannabis market in Florida could be worth $2 billion, which would, at a 6 percent rate, raise $120 million in taxes for state coffers.

A separate group – Sensible Florida – ended their ballot initiative bid to legalize cannabis for adults in December.

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New Mexico Legalization Polls Offer Conflicting Results

1/14/2020

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Two New Mexico polls regarding cannabis legalization in the state found conflicting results as lawmakers plan to meet next week to discuss potential reforms, according to a KOAT report. A poll by Emerson College conducted for prohibitionist group Smart Approaches to Marijuana found 63 percent of voters oppose broad cannabis legalization in the state, while a poll commissioned by the governor-established Cannabis Legalization Working Group found 75 percent of voters support the reforms.

SAM formulated the questions for the Emerson poll, which asked what policies respondents favored rather than what policies they approve or disapprove, according to KOB 4. Pat Davis, chairman of the Cannabis Legalization Working Group, warned that SAM “has an agenda” and framed their questions in a way which “assumes that all these horrible things that people have assumed about cannabis for years come to reality.”

Davis said that the poll commissioned by the governor’s working group asked questions in ways consistent with how the questions were phrased in previous polls.

Kevin Sabet, president of SAM, defended the poll commissioned by his organization, saying “there is more nuance to marijuana policy than either full commercialization or full prohibition.”

In October, the working group released its legalization report, finding that New Mexico could see $63 million in new state and local taxes following year one, and nearly $94 million by year five – under an average tax rate of 17 percent. The group estimates first-year sales would reach $318 million and increase to $620 million by year five in a market with 468,000 consumers. The report estimates 13,000 jobs and calls for local control, expungement, and social equity.

The group also suggested a low-income medical cannabis patient subsidy program which would grow to $7 million by its fifth year

New Mexico lawmakers are expected to consider cannabis legalization legislation this session.

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Cannabis Business Insurance Policy Approved in Nevada

1/13/2020

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The American Association of Insurance Services has expanded its Cannabis Businessowners Policy into Nevada, making it the third state to approve the insurance program, along with Colorado and California, according to a Property Casualty 360 report. The program received approval just four days after being submitted to the Nevada Division of Insurance.

Patrick McManamon, founder and chief executive officer of Cannasure Insurance Services, LLC, said that the policy “is focused primarily on retail exposures.” Under the Nevada CannaBOP program, both property and liability coverage is available for cannabis dispensaries, storage facilities, distributors, processors, and manufacturers.

“Many of the policies written today use a mix of standard and proprietary forms that can provide coverage to a wide range of cannabis exposures such as manufacturing, cultivation and lessors’ risk as well as retail.” – McManamon, to Property Casualty 360

California regulators were the first to approve the AAIS Cannabis Businessowners Policy in June 2018; Colorado regulators approved the program in April 2019. The policies are standardized under the AAIS umbrella but in each state the program’s establishment takes time because cannabis isn’t legal the same way in every state, according to FC&S Expert Coverage Interpretation Managing Editor Christine Barlow. She added that if the program is made available nationwide it would be the only industry-standardized policy available and even if the policy is not used in a state, it could still be a valuable reference for insurance carriers.

AAIS indicated they expect to develop similar programs for Alaska, Washington, D.C., Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington – which have legalized cannabis for adult use, along with New Jersey and New York – two states very likely to legalize cannabis for recreational use this year.

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Cannabis Seizures Have Increased 75% at Canadian Border

1/13/2020

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According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection figures, there has been a 75 percent increase in cannabis seizures at the border between the U.S. and Canada, the CBC reports. Between November 1, 2018 and October 31, 2019 American authorities seized about 4,881 pounds of cannabis at the border, compared to 2,776 pounds over the same period in the year prior.

The number of individual seizures recorded jumped from 3,139 in the year prior to legalization in Canada to 3,917 post-legalization.

CPB spokesman Kris Grogan called the increase “an uptick” more than a massive spike. He noted that the number of U.S. enforcement actions for cannabis seizures decreased slightly after Canada’s national cannabis law reforms.

“Although the CBP recognizes an increase in marijuana seizures and incidents, seizures and incidents normally vary from year to year.” – Grogan to the CBC

Individuals who attempt to bring cannabis products or paraphernalia into the U.S. are subject to seizures, fines, or arrest, and non-citizens caught trying to bring cannabis into the U.S. are usually denied entry into the country.

Jacqueline Callin, spokeswoman for the Canada Border Services Agency, said that the agency does not allow THC or CBD products to be brought into the nation despite the legal status of both products in Canada.

“Canadian laws around travelling with cannabis remain clear and simple: Don’t take it in and don’t take it out,” she said in the report. “It remains illegal to bring cannabis and cannabis products in any form, including edibles and any oils containing THC or cannabidiol, across Canada’s national borders whether you are entering or leaving Canada.”

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Oregon Hemp Research Center Gets $2.5M in Federal Funds

1/13/2020

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Oregon State University’s Global Hemp Innovation Center is set to receive $2.5 million to help establish the center, the Corvallis Gazette-Times reports. The research center at the university was launched in June; in October, it received a $1 million donation from Seth and Eric Crawford, OSU graduates and founders of Oregon CBD.

The federal funds were earmarked as part of a larger federal spending bill. Alan Sams, dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences at OSU, said the center’s staff and faculty are “pleased” that the appropriation was approved and that it “shows the federal government’s confidence” in the work being performed by the center.

More than 40 OSU faculty representing 19 academic disciplines are engaged in hemp research, teaching, and extension services at the center and the university plans to coordinate that expertise and the various projects into the nation’s largest research center devoted to hemp.

According to the report, the funds from the Crawford brothers will be used to explore hemp genomics in an effort to better understand how hemp could be used in health and nutrition products, textiles, and construction materials.

Seth Crawford, a former OSU sociology professor, said at the time Oregon CBD’s donation was announced that “understanding genetics” is the key to unlocking the “tremendous amount of possibility” of hemp crops.

The center plans on publicly sharing its data and collaborating with other researchers and industry operators to study hemp, which was only re-legalized in the U.S. in 2018.

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New York Gov. Renews Legalization Pledge for 2020

1/10/2020

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New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) pushed for cannabis legalization during his 2020 State of the State Address on Wednesday. Cuomo had included legalization in his 2021 budget last year; however, the proposal was pulled after legislative leaders said they would prefer the measure be approved by lawmakers rather than through the omnibus budget bill.

New York faces a $6 billion budget shortfall and during his speech, Cuomo indicated cannabis-derived revenues could bring in $300 million a year in tax revenues.

“For decades, communities of color were disproportionately affected by the unequal enforcement of marijuana laws. Let’s legalize adult use of marijuana.” – Cuomo, during his State of the State address, January 8, 2020

It’s unclear whether Cuomo will again try to include the reforms in broad budget legislation but during his remarks acknowledged his office would create a new Office of Cannabis Management; last month Cuomo hired Norman Birenbaum – the former top cannabis regulator in Rhode Island – to help craft legalization policies and oversee the adult-use, medical cannabis, hemp, and CBD industries.

In a press release, Cuomo’s office promised any legalization proposal would “administer social equity licensing opportunities, develop an egalitarian adult-use market structure and facilitate market entry through access to capital, technical assistance and incubation of equity entrepreneurs.”

Additionally, the governor’s office said that it planned to work with its neighboring states that have yet to legalize cannabis – Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania – on quality and safety controls for the adult-use cannabis industry. Last year, Cuomo met with governors from those states to discuss regional cannabis policies. New York is already bordered by cannabis legalization in Vermont, Massachusetts, and Canada.

The Governor also plans on creating a Global Cannabis and Hemp Center for Science, Research and Education with the State University of New York “other expert partners.”

Last session, cannabis legalization fell apart in the 11th hour after lawmakers could not agree how cannabis funds would be distributed – the Legislature and governor’s office are both controlled by Democrats – and ultimately lawmakers settled on expanding the state’s decriminalization policies and establishing a process for expunging low-level cannabis-related charges.

Morgan Fox of the National Cannabis Industry Association told CNN that New York‘s cannabis market could be “gigantic” and would “have rippled in global policy when it comes to cannabis.”

BDS Analytics and Arcview Market Research estimate New York as a $1.6 billion cannabis market in 2024. Brightfield Group suggests that if the state were to legalize cannabis in 2021, it could be the nation’s second-largest cannabis industry at $2.2 billion in sales by 2023.

Last session, the reforms were opposed by law enforcement organizations and many downstate Democrats. The village board of Islandia, which is on Long Island, has threatened to sue the state if cannabis is legalized.

If Cuomo is successful, New York would become the 12th state to legalize cannabis for adults and the second to legalize a taxed-and-regulated industry via the Legislature.

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Weedmaps Removes 2,700 Unlicensed Dispensaries

1/10/2020

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Weedmaps has reportedly removed about 2,700 illegally operating cannabis dispensaries from its site since the start of the year, according to a Southern California News Group report. The company announced in August that it would no longer accept listings from unlicensed businesses after California regulators sent the firm a cease-and-desist to stop advertising illegal operators.

Beginning January 1, companies that wanted to be listed on the platform must provide a state license number or sign an agreement promising they only sell CBD products; however, some analysts suggest that system is wrought with loopholes that allow illegal operators to add “CBD” to their names and skirt the licensing requirements.

Jackie McGowan, a cannabis consultant who’s tracked Weedmaps’ listings for two years, said that some businesses are even “entering legal cannabis license numbers that they are poaching from real licensees.”

“While we believe that Weedmaps has indeed owned up to their agreement to stop listing unlicensed businesses, we also believe there are several loopholes that are still being exploited by rogue shops.” – McGowan, to the News Group

According to McGowan’s research, the number of retail cannabis ads posted on Weedmaps decreased from 5,610 on December 31 to 2,920 on January 3 – a reduction of 2,690 illicit shops, or about 48 percent of Weedmaps’ retail ads. However, the number of ads for illicit shops are more than double those for legal ones.

Weedmaps isn’t the only site listing illegal shops; BudTrader.com has hundreds of ads for unlicensed dispensaries, according to the report.

A law passed last year allows California regulators to impose a $30,000-per-day fine for each violation by a company advertising illegal cannabis companies.

Editor’s note (1/13/20): A Weedmaps representative has disputed the reported number of listings that have been removed since January 1 but would not provide a different sum as the company considers its client data to be proprietary.

According to the statement received by Ganjapreneur, the unlisting of unlicensed businesses was also not prompted by the regulators’ cease-and-desist letter.

“Since its inception, Weedmaps has served hundreds of dispensaries that have been providing patients with safe access to cannabis under Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act of 1996. Like most in the cannabis industry, we expected that the cities and state of California would provide a pathway for these businesses to operate compliantly after the legalization of adult-use cannabis in 2016. When cannabis businesses’ temporary exemptions expired earlier in 2019 with no path to licensing, we started mobilizing to comply with the regulations to restrict our platform to the lucky few who had been able to get a license. At Weedmaps, it’s our mission to power a transparent and inclusive global cannabis economy. Compliance is central to this mission, so it was necessary to implement this policy, but we are working hard to try to impact regulations and policies to expand license access and the state of the market.” — Travis Rexroad, Weedmaps’ Director of Public Relations, in an email

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Cresco Labs Accepting Applications for Social Equity Incubator Program

1/10/2020

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Chicago, Illinois-based Cresco Labs has announced they are accepting applications for their community business incubator program for the state’s minority-owned cannabis industry entrepreneurs, WGNTV reports. The program aims to provide technical and financial assistance to minority-owned businesses hoping to apply for craft-cultivation or infusion licenses.

The program – called SEED or Social Equity & Education Development – “is designed to ensure that all members of our society have the skills, knowledge and opportunity to work in and own businesses in this industry,” the company’s website explains. Applications for the program are online and close January 14.

The Illinois deadline for new craft-growing and infusion businesses is March 16 and new licenses are expected to be issued by July 1. The Illinois Department of Agriculture will issue a limited number of licenses for new cannabis companies, including some reserved for social equity applicants – minority applicants and those most negatively impacted by the War on Drugs.

The company first announced the program last May. Cresco Labs CEO & Co-Founder Charlie Bachtell said that, in addition to the incubator program, SEED also plans on “collaborating with universities to develop cannabis-focused curriculum” and “working with local agencies and community organizations to sponsor expungement events.”

We are also focused on providing a pathway to business ownership through our comprehensive incubator program, which we believe will assist states in achieving the diversity goals they have established for their regulated cannabis programs.” – Bachtell, in a statement

In all, Cresco hopes to provide 20,000 individuals with the opportunity to seek employment in the cannabis industry by 2022.

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California Lists THC and Cannabis Smoke as Reproductive Toxins

1/09/2020

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California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has approved listing “cannabis smoke” and THC as reproductive toxins under Proposition 65 and, in one year, cannabis products in the state will need to label their products with a Prop 65 warning label.

Cannabis smoke has been listed as a Prop 65 carcinogen since 2009; THC is a new addition. OEHHA’s Science Advisory Board’s Developmental and Reproductive Toxicant Identification Committee – as the “state’s qualified experts” – voted in support of listing cannabis as a reproductive toxin in December based on their conclusion that cannabis smoke and THC “have been shown to cause reproductive toxicity based on the developmental endpoint,” the agency said in its January 3 policy announcement.

Cannabis products in the state already carry the Prop 65 carcinogen warning and producers will have to amend their packaging to include the reproductive warnings.

In their report backing the listing, the agency points to seven studies that link cannabis to adverse postnatal growth, 11 studies linking cannabis to higher postnatal mortality rates, 27 studies that examined association between cannabis use by mothers and low birthweight, 18 studies that failed to find a link between cannabis and gestational age, and 19 studies that found mixed results linking cannabis use to preterm birth – 13 of those studies did not report significant associations between the two.

The THC listing will see a broader range of products carry the Prop 65 warning, including edibles, topicals, and vape products.

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House Small Business Committee Advances MORE Act

1/09/2020

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The House Small Business Committee has waived its jurisdiction on the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement (MORE) Act, making it the second Democratically-controlled committee to advance the legislation.

The action was first reported by Politico.

In November, the House Judiciary Committee voted 24-10 in bipartisan favor of the MORE Act which would end federal cannabis prohibition. The measure must still pass through another eight House committees, including the Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security Committee, Agriculture Committee, Education and Labor Committee, Natural Resources Committee, National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands Committee, Oversight and Reform Committee, and Ways and Means Committee.

Despite the still long path to the full floor for a vote, NORML Political Director Justin Strekal said cannabis legalization has never been closer following the committee’s action.

“With this action, the MORE Act is one step closer to becoming the first bill to end cannabis prohibition to pass the House of Representatives.” — Strekal, in a press release

Last September, the House approved the SAFE Banking Act, which would give cannabusinesses access to traditional financial services in states where cannabis is legal. That measure passed the chamber in a bipartisan 321-103 vote. It was the first piece of stand-alone cannabis legislation ever to be advanced by federal lawmakers.

Both landmark pieces of legislation face an uphill battle in the Republican-controlled Senate.

Last month, Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R) said he would not support the SAFE Banking Act in the Senate due to concerns over cannabis potency, marketing to children, the lack of research on cannabis and its effects, and money-laundering by “bad actors.” He added that he is “firmly opposed” to cannabis legalization both federally and in his home state of Idaho – which would place him in opposition to the MORE Act as well.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who would be responsible for bringing both the MORE and SAFE acts to the floor for a vote in the chamber, has said he has no plans to back broad cannabis legalization.

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Why Organized Labor is Fighting for Legalization

1/09/2020

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On January 1, Illinois rolled out what is set to become the second-largest recreational cannabis market in the world. And, like the world’s largest market, California, the legislation has written in broad social equity and criminal justice provisions, along with protections for organized labor. In fact, organized labor helped push Illinois’ legalization measure across the finish line during the state’s last legislative session. 

How organized labor is fighting for an equitable industry

Union involvement in the legal cannabis industry is a trend that is growing as more and more states consider adult-use legislation. The burgeoning cannabis industry is opening up tens of thousands of employment opportunities, presenting an opportunity for unions like United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) and the Teamsters to increase their membership. This is happening in many newly legal states through labor peace agreements. A labor peace agreement (LPA) is an arrangement between a union and an employer under which one or both sides agree to waive certain rights under federal law with regard to union organizing and related activity. Generally, under an LPA, management promises to not dissuade employees from unionizing and to afford union organizers greater access to the workplace. Unions, in turn, agree not to encourage strikes. While typically these agreements are negotiated voluntarily, some state and local governments have attempted to impose LPAs by law. And that is exactly what’s happening in the cannabis industry. 

New York became the first state to mandate that all medical cannabis facilities sign a labor peace agreement with a union to receive a license. More recently, California became the first adult-use state to create such a mandate by signing into law Assembly Bill 1291, which amends existing cannabis regulations to mandate that employers with 20 or more employees maintain a labor peace agreement as a condition of obtaining a state cannabis license. 

While the newly established Illinois market does not have such a mandate, there is a benefit to cannabis companies who negotiate LPAs. The Illinois law operates on a point system and awards five out of a possible 250 points for employers who maintain labor peace agreements, incentivizing potential licensees to sign LPAs.

Why cannabis?

As a new industry, cannabis represents an opportunity to significantly boost membership for unions. Unions also want to ensure that the rapidly expanding industry doesn’t exploit workers. According to the UFCW, currently the largest cannabis union, workers that have unionized in the industry have been able to negotiate annual raises, health insurance subsidies, and higher-than-average wages. Along with creating an equitable workforce, organized labor has also been at the front lines of ensuring equity in ownership through legislation, particularly for those disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs.

While some states are enforcing LPAs and incentivizing companies to allow workers to unionize, many cannabis companies are voluntarily encouraging unionization – an atypical stance for any business. In cannabis, though, unionization can signal legitimacy and a dedication to creating a safe and fair work environment in an industry rife with problematic labor practices.

Nearly every organization that has voluntarily unionized has issued a press release touting the company’s commitment to a strong, independent workforce, as well as social justice more broadly. Last month, when Sira Naturals became the first cannabis company in Massachusetts to unionize, the company’s founder and president issued a statement: 

“As the largest cannabis union in the country, we believe UFCW will be a strong partner in paving the way for a new generation of union agreements that reflect the importance of a strong and independent labor force in the cannabis industry.” — Michael Dundas, Founder of Sira Naturals, in a press release

Similarly, when employees for the Have a Heart dispensaries in Seattle signed the first collective bargaining agreement for cannabis workers in Washington state, the company issued the following statement: “We consistently strive to have a positive impact in the neighborhoods where we do business, and we see our partnership with [UFCW Local 21] as part of our commitment to creating a safe and empowering workplace.” 

The cannabis industry’s willingness to unionize follows a trend of the industry trying to shake the stigma of a former black market, as well as a trend of problematic labor practices, through corporate social responsibility efforts. Indeed, because legalization measures are tied to repairing the past harms of the war on drugs, the industry has a unique opportunity to be a leader in corporate social responsibility, and that includes allowing employees to organize. Whatever the impetus, the growing trend to unionize the industry will help to ensure that beyond equity in ownership, the industry is also committed to building an equitable workforce.

Editor’s note: This article is an editorial contribution from the Last Prisoner Project. Learn more at LastPrisonerProject.org.

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Washington Bill Seeks Task Force to Address Cannabis Odors

1/09/2020

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A Washington State Senator has introduced a bill to create a state task force that would look at the problem of strong smells associated with cannabis production and processing. SB 6089, proposed by Sen. Judy Warnick (R), would create a seven-member task force with representatives from various state agencies, County and City Association members, and a representative from the adult-use cannabis industry.

Led by the state Liquor and Cannabis Board, the task force would look at ways to “mitigate or mask” strong cannabis smell and the negative impact the smell may have on people working or living near cannabis producers and processors.

The task force will have until December 31, 2020 to present their findings to the legislature and governor.

Cannabis is renowned for its strong smell — these strong odors may cause allergic reactions for some people, according to a 2015 study published in the Journal Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. Symptoms are similar to other plant allergies, such as nose and eye inflammation, sneezing, coughing and asthma, researchers say. The study highlighted the need for protections for cannabis workers exposed to the strong smell and proper diagnosis of cannabis allergies by doctors; researchers also point out that people living close to large cannabis farms may be at risk due to the large amount of cannabis grown.

Cannabis odor is not just a problem in Washington; the strong smell has prompted many cities and states to add odor control requirements for new producers and processors.  Last year, racketeering laws were used to go after a cannabis farm in Colorado. Earlier this year in California, the “Santa Barbara Coalition for Responsible Cannabis Cultivation” formed to address community complaints about the “noxious smell.” Other lawsuits have been filed in Massachusetts and Oregon, complaining the strong smell reduces property values.

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