Eco-Friendly Marijuana Packaging

1/22/2020

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There are a lot of marijuana packaging companies operating in the United States. They design and manufacture doob tubes that commonly hold joints or vape cartridges and also airtight jars meant for varying amounts of flower, but only a few of these companies are looking forward to sustainable cannabis packaging options. Alongside the issue of plastic and non-sustainable materials, many states require excessive packaging for an edible or other product to remain compliant. 

Why don’t companies use sustainable marijuana packaging?

To some cannabis growers and producers, it’s simply not important that they use compostable packaging, but that isn’t always the reason why shelves are lined with mylar-bagged weed. The reality is that sustainable packaging is more expensive, which drives up a company’s bottom line, which means that sustainable packaging leads to a more expensive product on store shelves. Oftentimes, the bargain value is more important and companies are left facing low sales — so, ultimately, the consumer decides whether or not compostable and biodegradable options will sink or swim.

Despite this upward climb, some marijuana packaging companies have continued to innovate their eco-friendly offerings.

A courier passes a paper bag of cannabis products.
Packaging Naturally

Packaging Naturally was created in direct response to the current waste-heavy cannabis industry that is developing in Canada. Their airtight jars are made with 100% renewable bio-composite resin that is mostly derived from the land. They are food contact certified and thus can be used for edibles along with other cannabis products. The jars are even substantially lighter than other commonly used glass jar options, making shipping costs and fossil fuels used to ship them lesser than their counterparts. 

Cylinder Paper Tube

Child-resistant and regular cylinder paper tubes are made by Marijuana Packaging Solutions. The child-resistant option features a small button that must be pushed when pulling the tube apart from its lid. This packaging is customizable and made from recyclable paper, it also boasts that it will create a retail presence with its elegant, eye-catching design. This option is not completely air-tight, however, and will need another bag inside of the tube to keep the product as fresh as possible. 

Elevate Compostable Options

Elevate Packaging offers multiple compostable packaging solutions that are also bio-based and GMO-free. Their clear bags, sticker labels, and opaque paper bags are made from coextruded film and will decompose in 3-6 months according to ASTM D6400. All of the bags can be vacuum and heat-sealed and feature an EZ-notch which makes it easier for arthritis and cerebral palsy patients to tear them open. 

Sana Packaging

This green company takes us back to the source with packaging made out of hemp plastic as well as recycled ocean plastic, alongside other sustainable materials. The company was founded by business students at the University of Colorado in Boulder who presented Sana Packaging as their final project. Turning cannabis into a circular economy, one that uses the waste it creates, caught the attention of investors. Now the team is producing #2 recyclable joint/vape tubes and slide boxes that can be made child-resistant.

Nitrotin

Founded in Western Canada, Nitrotin now has locations across the country. Nitrotin is focused specifically on the cannabis industry, providing a packaging solution that is not only eco-conscious but also keeps dried flower fresher than other options. Their canning system applies Nitrogen to the can and seals the flower in, blocking oxygen from accessing the buds and drying them out. They can travel without crushing colas, can be branded for good marketing, and best of all can be recycled after use. 

Though they aren’t always available on the shelves at local dispensaries there are sustainable marijuana packaging options available to cultivators and producers. Unfortunately, many of these options cost $0.30 more per jar than the leading competitor, and that is the bottom line. The only way a consumer is going to see more ecologically sustainable cannabis packaging is if they ask for it and pay the higher price for it.  

After it is all said and done, the consumer dictates the market. If consumers begin to focus on products that are pesticide-free and packaged with recyclable materials then the brands will follow. 

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Hemp Legalization Bill Introduced in Idaho

1/22/2020

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The Idaho Senate Health and Welfare Committee is set for a hearing on a measure to legalize hemp cultivation in the state, the Associated Press reports. The bill would align state and federal law and includes an emergency clause that would allow the state’s farmers to begin growing hemp this year of the bill is signed into law.

Rep. Dorothy Moon (R), the bill sponsor, said the measure gives farmers “an option to try a different product if they so desire.”

“I think it’s important we give them those opportunities since everybody else is making hay, more or less, with hemp. … I’m excited the Senate has heard this bill early, and hopefully it will move through both chambers quickly and we’ll get it to the governor’s desk,” – Moon, to the AP

Idaho has become a flashpoint for hemp policy, as it’s one of few states to have not enacted some kind of hemp legalization following federal action in 2018 and is bordered by hemp- or cannabis-friendly states such as Washington, Oregon, Nevada, Montana, and Wyoming. Until November – when Gov. Brad Little (R) signed an executive order to permit interstate hemp transport – hemp was not allowed to be even transported through the state and, due to the state’s laws, hemp shipments were often seized by state and local police.

When he announced his executive order, Little indicated he was not opposed to hemp production in Idaho but wants to ensure that “the production and shipping of industrial hemp is not a front to smuggle illicit drugs into and around Idaho.” He called the action a “stopgap” until the Legislature could develop a framework for hemp legalization.

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New York Gov. Includes Legalization in 2021 Budget

1/22/2020

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New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) has included cannabis legalization in his 2021 budget, proposing a 20 percent excise tax, a 2 percent locality tax, and cultivation taxes of $1 per gram of flower, $.25 per gram of trim, and $.14 of “wet” cannabis. The governor estimates cannabis taxes would raise $20 million in taxes in 2021 and $63 million in 2022.

“The proposal will 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. The proposal will also correct past harms to individuals and communities that have disproportionally been impacted by prohibition.” – The governor’s office in a press release

The plan also calls for New York to work with neighboring states that have yet to legalize cannabis – Connecticut, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania – on packaging, labeling, and advertising rules for cannabis products. Lawmakers from each of those states are considering broad cannabis reforms and the governors have voiced support for legalization.

Cuomo’s plan would create the Office for Cannabis Management, which would administer the industry’s regulations, once promulgated, and would centralize both medical and recreational cannabis operations and oversight. In December, Cuomo hired Norman Birenbaum, the former top cannabis regulator in Rhode Island. Birenbaum is expected to assume the role as head of the OCM once the agency is, officially, created.

Cuomo’s budget also includes a proposal to ban flavored vaping products, vape product advertising “targeted to youth,” vape oils that could carry health risks, and a restriction on buying vape products online, over the phone, and through the mail.

Last year, Cuomo included legalization in his budget bill but legislative leaders pushed for the reforms to be passed the traditional way; ultimately, however, they did not take that step. Lawmakers did approve sweeping decriminalization and expungement reforms in lieu of full legalization.

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Decriminalization & Home Grows Proposed In West Virginia

1/22/2020

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A West Virginia lawmaker is renewing her push for cannabis decriminalization in the state, according to a WOWK report. Del. Sammi Brown (D) is reintroducing HB 3108 which, under to the previous proposal, would decriminalize possession up to 225 grams (about 8 ounces) by adults 21-and-older and allow them to grow up to 12 plants.

The measure would allow individuals 21-and-older to “use, grow, possess, transport and give away cannabis and homemade cannabis products without remuneration.” The provisions would allow gifts of up to 30 grams and the transport of up to 60 grams.

The previous version of the bill also included expungement provisions and would require the counties to “review all arrest and conviction record of every cannabis offender of every person convicted of a cannabis offense beginning in calendar year 1937 to the present.”

The bill would, effectively, move the state toward a taxed-and-regulated market – much like in the case of Vermont, which legalized cannabis for adult use in 2018 but did not create a regulated industry.

In an interview with WOWK, Del. Tom Fast (R) called the plan “very imprudent,” adding that if lawmakers were going to take the route why wouldn’t they “just decriminalize heroin and any other drug.”

Rusty Williams, a patient advocate for the West Virginia Medical Cannabis Advisory Board, said the organization would welcome the broad reforms due to the “restrictive” nature of the state’s medical cannabis program.

“One of my major issues with the Medical Cannabis Act was it is very restrictive as far as the conditions we are going to allow doctors to recommend cannabis for…if we decriminalize that is going to open up access for people who would not otherwise have that access.” – Williams, to WOWK

Last week, the state’s Democratic Caucus urged the Department of Commerce to fast track an economic study on the impact of recreational cannabis legalization in the state.

Last session, the measure did not advance out of the House Health and Human Services Committee.

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CBD and Chronic Pain

1/21/2020

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Cannabidiol or CBD, one of the main chemical compounds in cannabis, has been known to help in the treatment of a variety of conditions including anxiety, inflammation, and chronic pain. If you struggle with chronic pain and/or are new to the cannabis space, taking a new drug can seem daunting. Luckily, cannabidiol is nonaddictive and fairly safe to use compared to other drugs like prescription painkillers. In this article, we will explain how CBD alleviates pain and inflammation, and how you can treat your conditions safely.

How does CBD work?

CBD works by indirectly activating your body’s endocannabinoid system (ECS). The ECS contains a network of neurons and receptors in parts of the brain like the hippocampus, hypothalamus, and reward regions like the nucleus accumbens. It helps to regulate memory, appetite, mood, and pain. While the neuroscience of pain and pain centers in the body is still not fully understood, we do know that by activating certain receptors, CBD seems to alleviate pain mainly by reducing inflammation.

More and more people suffering from chronic pain are turning to CBD to help alleviate their symptoms.

How does CBD specifically treat chronic pain?

A 2007 study showed that repeated administration of CBD (once every day for seven days) reduced sciatic nerve pain and inflammation in rats in a dose-dependent manner. Researchers speculated that this occurred through stimulation of a class of receptors called TRPV1, or by activation of a cannabinoid, our body naturally produces called anandamide. It is clear CBD achieves its therapeutic potential through indirect activation of many different receptors and does not directly activate CB1 receptors as THC does.

In 2017, researchers in Kentucky found that high doses of CBD given transdermally to arthritic rats over seven days significantly decreased joint inflammation. This occurred because CBD seemed to reduce pro-inflammatory biomarkers, essentially molecules that create inflammation as part of an immune response. These rats also had decreased pain responses, most likely an effect of the decreased inflammation. Another study showed CBD administration reduced joint inflammation in osteoarthritic rats and even had neuroprotective properties. They found this was because of decreased leukocytes near the joint site (leukocytes are white blood cells involved in the immune response).

The researchers in the former study administered CBD by rubbing it on the skin because CBD typically has a low bioavailability. Once it passes through the digestive system, a lot of it has already been processed or is converted into inactive byproducts. Applying CBD directly to the spot of interest bypasses this issue and allows for more specific treatment. This is why some recommend treating issues like arthritis or muscle pain using a CBD salve, especially if you want to avoid any side effects you may experience when using a product that has a combination of THC and CBD.

Scientists have also looked at how CBD can alleviate other types of chronic pain, like neuropathic pain. In 2019, Canadian researchers found that repeated CBD administration decreased allodynia (when a pain response is triggered for events that may typically not be painful, like light sensitivity during migraines or pain in response to touch) and anxiety-like behavior in rats. We know CBD does not act directly on CB1 or CB2 receptors but can act on various other receptors like TRPV1 and receptors related to immune responses to create its array of therapeutic effects. 

In the case of this 2019 study, CBD achieves its reduction in anxiety-like behavior through serotonin receptors. Serotonin receptors are most commonly known for their role in depression and depression medications, but serotonin also regulates sleep, appetite, anxiety, gastrointestinal motility, and a whole host of other functions (actually, about 90% of your serotonin receptors are located in your gut, not your brain!). This may mean that CBD can not only relieve pain but also some anxiety related to that pain.

Hemp-sourced CBD oil is currently the nation’s most common CBD product offering, but other potential products include lozenges, pills, topical rubs, and more.

Safety and side effects

The most common side effects cited with cannabidiol use are weight fluctuations, fatigue, and diarrhea, but overall, CBD is typically well-tolerated. It has been shown to help with addiction or relapse to other drugs like painkillers or nicotine. Opioid receptors are close in proximity to the ECS, and the ECS has been seen to modulate the activity of these receptors. This has exciting implications for tackling the opioid epidemic and the future of safely treating pain. This news also gives a person in pain more options to treat their pain in ways that involve less danger for the future.

Finding a treatment that works for you

If you want to avoid any possibility of feeling “high,” using a topical CBD or a CBD flower with no THC is the way to go. However, finding a strain of flower with absolutely no THC is nearly impossible—many CBD strains higher in CBD can have THC concentrations around 0.8%, like the popular strain ACDC which has 11-15% CBD and less than 1% THC. At this point, the amount of THC present is so negligible that you would likely not feel any effects.

There are subjective pros and cons to the method of consumption you choose, and each person has their preference. Smoking allows for more instant results as it enters your bloodstream more quickly, but topical administration allows for more localized treatment of the site in pain. In terms of dosing, we always suggest “start low and go slow” as tolerance builds up and you get a feel for how you prefer consuming CBD. No matter what route you choose, we hope there is a sigh of relief at the end of the tunnel.

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Lawmakers Consider Banning Concentrates In Washington

1/21/2020

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A bill proposed in Washington would effectively ban cannabis concentrates, including vape cartridges, for retail sale but would still allow the products to be sold to patients. According to a Leafly report, the concentrate segment represented nearly 40 percent of the state’s legal cannabis sales last year.

Lawmakers say the potent products – higher than 10 percent THC – are connected to “the occurrence of psychotic disorders” citing a study that found “participants who used high-potency cannabis daily had four-times higher odds of psychosis in the whole sample.” The bill would limit THC concentration in extracts at 10 percent.

Leo Beletsky, a professor of law and public health at Northwestern University, told Leafly that if the ban were enacted, it would push many consumers back into illicit markets.

“There may well be rationale for eliminating some portion of the riskiest products on the market if there’s evidence to support that but doing that with 40 percent of the products would make very little sense. If 40 percent of the market is toward these products and then you ban them, you’d definitely be creating a push towards the black market.” – Beletsky, to Leafly

Over the summer, and into fall, at least 57 deaths were attributed by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to illegally-produced vape cartridges tainted by vitamin E acetate. The agency has confirmed more than 2,000 cases of the lung injury disease linked to vitamin E containing vape products.

According to the Leafly report, if the bill were passed, state operators would have to dilute their concentrate products or start with low-THC cannabis for extraction. Daniel Luebke, director of marketing and brand for Seattle-based extractor Heylo, suggested to Leafly that concentrate producers would need to dilute THC extracts with other cannabinoids, such as CBD, or with cutting agents.

The bill, which includes both Democrat and Republican sponsors, is currently in the Commerce and Gaming Committee.

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Denver Dispensary Robberies Reach 3-Year High

1/21/2020

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Cannabis dispensary robberies and break-ins in the Denver, Colorado metro-area reached a three-year high in 2019, the Denver Post reports. Dispensaries in the city reported five robberies and 122 burglaries last year, up from one robbery and 120 burglaries in 2018; from 2016 to 2017, dispensary burglaries actually fell from 169 to 83.

According to Denver Police data, cannabis industry-related crimes accounted for 0.3 percent of the city’s total offenses in 2018 and the most common crime in the space is burglary of a controlled substance, a class 2 felony. Police believe that as many as six of the recent robberies in the Denver area are linked.

John Goutell, general counsel for Frosted Leaf – whose three Denver locations have been burglarized after hours eight times since 2014, along with a robbery at its Cherry Creek location last month during which two employees were held at gunpoint by four men – told the Post that the robberies will probably continue “until these businesses aren’t forced to deal only in cash.”

“With all the stories that have been published about reaching certain tax collection milestones – you hear about a billion dollars collected – there’s this misconception there will be piles of money at these places if they come in.” – Goutell, to the Post

Cash isn’t the only target, Denver police Cmdr. James Henning explained in the report, calling stolen cannabis products “like cash in hand” and that a $1,200 pound in Colorado is worth up to $3,500 on the East Coast.

In September, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the SAFE Banking Act which would normalize banking for cannabusinesses throughout the country.

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Ohio Medical Cannabis Market Still Growing After First Year

1/21/2020

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Ohio’s medical cannabis dispensaries have been open for business for one year as of Thursday, January 17, 2020; over that year, medical cannabis access has slowly improved in Ohio.

During 2019, the number of dispensaries grew from four to 47, but there are 57 approved provisional licenses. Only 20 of the 32 producers are operational and 14 out of 43 processors are actually manufacturing cannabis products.

Patient numbers are also low, with less than 100,000 patients registering in the first year — far fewer than the 200,000 projected by some experts, according to Columbus’s ABC 6. Advocates hope to expand the list of 21 qualifying conditions to include anxiety and autism over the next year, a move many hope will bring more patients into the state-run system. 

“Going back to that first day when there are only four dispensaries in far-flung corners of the state, a lot of patients didn’t have access to a dispensary. It didn’t make sense to sign up for a card because they couldn’t really use it.” — Thomas Rosenberger, representing the Ohio Medical Cannabis Industry Association, via ABC 6 “On Your Side”

One bright spot for the Ohio market may be lower prices, as ounces of flower fell from over $500 at roll-out to just a little over $300 after its first year, bringing prices more in line with nearby states like Pennsylvania and Michigan.

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Out-of-State Investments Bill Challenged In Washington

1/21/2020

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A bill to lower residency requirements for cannabis business investors, while simultaneously creating a “minority and women” low-interest cannabis loan program designed to increase equity in the Washington state cannabis market, was introduced in the Washington legislature.

HB 2263, “Expanding opportunities for marijuana businesses by removing residency barriers and providing access to capital for minority and women-owned businesses through a fee on certain investments” and its companion Senate bill SB 6085, seeks to create a “Marijuana Equity Loan Program,” implement a 1% fee to fund the program, and remove the six-month residency requirement for cannabis investors.

The bill would set up a Department of Commerce (DOC)-administered “Marijuana Equity Account” funded by a 1% fee on aggregate yearly investments greater than $500,000, unless the fee is less than two million — then, the fee will be assessed for investments over $200,000. Loan interest rates would be between 0-2% and all loan repayments would go directly into the “Marijuana Equity Account.” A “Marijuana Equity Board” made up of representatives from the DOC, LCB and existing minority-owned cannabis businesses will be convened to assist in implementing the program. Finally, the six-month requirement to own a cannabis license in Washington state would be “eliminated,” according to the House Bill Analysis.

Despite the bill having 11 sponsors and support from the Washington Cannabusiness Association and former state Senator and LCB board member Mindon Win, the bill received major pushback from other industry groups like The Cannabis Alliance, Washington Sun Growers Association, and Black Excellence in Cannabis.

Many concerns have centered around the market destabilization that out-of-state money would create, while others point out these large investors would “drive out small minority-owned businesses the bill is meant to help.”

Some of the most impactful testimony in opposition to the bill came from Paula Sardinas, a Commissioner on the Washington State Commission on African American Affairs, and Black Excellence in Cannabis.

“… [You] are talking about allowing billionaires, the top 1%, who already own most of your businesses, who already own most of your licenses, to basically garner outside capital with the soul intention, if we’re going to be truthful, of launching IPOs. Couching that behind women and minorities, while not addressing the fact we are locking up black and brown people at 4 times the rate of any other community for cannabis, is dishonest and disheartening.” — Paula Sardinas, Commissioner on the WA State Commission on African American Affairs

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Utah Bill Addresses Expungement, Patient-Employee Rights

1/21/2020

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A bill introduced in Utah would allow some medical cannabis patients to expunge prior low-level cannabis convictions, clarify when police and prosecutors could go after someone with metabolites from cannabis use in their system, and address how employers handle employees who use cannabis legally as patients, Fox 13 Now reports. The proposal would also remove requirements that medical cannabis be sold in “blister packs.”

Senate Majority Leader Evan Vickers (R) said the Legislature is trying to “streamline the process for implementation” of the bill. He said the language addressing cannabis metabolites is an effort to protect individuals who may have the metabolite in their system but are not impaired.

“With cannabis, you can have metabolite in your system for a long time, but it may not be active. But there is methods to be able to determine whether the metabolite is active or not. Of course, if you’re impaired, you’re impaired.” – Vickers, to Fox 13 Now

The employment provisions included in the law are another safeguard for patients because, while lawmakers envisioned medical cannabis – and CBD – being treated the same as other prescribed controlled substances, it’s not always the case, Desiree Hennessy, director of the Utah Patients Coalition, explained in the report. She described the situation as “employer roulette.”

Some drug tests only test for the presence of cannabinoids and do not make a distinction between THC and CBD.

“The law is now saying, ‘Yeah you can use medical cannabis and you’re no longer a criminal,'” she said to Fox 13 Now. “And then you go to work and they say, ‘Yeah, but if you do it you’re fired.’

The measure would also allow medical cannabis to be sold in child-proof, opaque containers – as is the case in most other states – rather than blister packs.

Vickers said that while officials plan on having the program up-and-running by March, he suggested that, at first, there would be “some distribution” but probably not “full-blown distribution.”

The state Department of Health announced the locations for the state’s 14 dispensaries earlier this month; eight of those locations are permitted to open after March 1, while the remaining must wait until July 1. Lawmakers had initially approved a plan for county health departments to distribute medical cannabis but scrapped the strategy after concerns that officials could face federal charges for their role in the system.

The Legislature-approved law replaced the law approved by voters in 2018. That legislative action was upheld by the Utah Supreme Court in a case brought by the activist organization The People’s Right.

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Binge Drinking Down at Campuses in Legalized States

Study: College Binge Drinking Down in States with Legal Cannabis

1/20/2020

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Cannabis use among college students in legalized states is on the rise but binge drinking rates for college students are down in those same states, according to an Oregon State University study published in the journal Addiction.

Students in states with legal cannabis were 18 percent more likely to have used cannabis in the past 30 days than students in non-legal states; they were also 17 percent more likely to have engaged in frequent use, defined as cannabis use on at least 20 of the past 30 days. Six years after legalization in early-adopting states, college students were 46 percent more likely to have used cannabis than their peers in states without adult-use cannabis access.

From 2012 to 2018, overall cannabis usage rates increased from 14 percent to 17 percent in non-legalized states; in the earliest states to legalize cannabis, those rates were 21 percent to 34 percent, the study found.

Using the same dataset, the researchers found that after legalization, binge-drinking rates for students 21 and older showed a greater drop than their peers in states where cannabis remains illegal. Binge drinking was defined in the study as having five or more drinks in a single sitting within the previous two weeks.

OSU doctoral candidate Zoe Alley, who worked on a companion study, said that legalization changes the dynamic of what substances students choose to consume.

“When you’re under 21, all substances are equally illegal. In most states, once you reach 21, a barrier that was in the way of using alcohol is gone, while it’s intact for marijuana use.” – Alley, in a statement

The data for the studies come from the National College Health Assessment survey from 2008 to 2018. More than 850,000 students participated in the survey which asks about a wide range of health behaviors including drug and alcohol use and is administered anonymously to encourage students to respond more honestly.

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Eaze Faces Cash Shortage

Eaze is Facing Cash Shortage; Plans to ‘Touch the Plant’

1/20/2020

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Cannabis delivery company Eaze has recently completed a $15 million bridge funding round as the company is low on cash and looking to expand its reach to retail by selling its own brands through its own “depots,” according to a TechCrunch report. An Eaze spokesperson told TechCrunch that the company is also preparing for another round of personnel cuts; Eaze already laid off about 30 people over the summer.

“The company is going through a very important transition right now, moving to becoming a plant-touching company through acquisitions of former retail partners that will hopefully allow us to more efficiently run the business and continue to provide good service to customers.” Eaze, to TechCrunch

According to company documents outlined by TechCrunch, Eaze is currently attempting to raise a $35 million Series D funding round but had initially tried to raise a $50 million Series D. The target was lowered when Anthos Capital reportedly pulled out of the deal at the last minute. The $15 million bridge came from current, unnamed, investors. The company has a $388 million enterprise value entering the fundraising round, according to Eaze documents outlined in the report.

Eaze admitted that moving to branding and retail in the space is “a pretty significant change from provider of services to operating.” The company is reportedly looking to acquire some of the assets of Dionymed – a bankrupt Canadian cannabis company that had been an Eaze partner, then competitor – whose assets include an Oakland, California dispensary, Hometown Heart, that Eaze plans to use for its first delivery depot.

An Eaze employee told TechCrunch that the company can bring in between $800,000 and $1 million in net revenue, on a good day, except those figures represent total merchandise value before it pays suppliers and others. The company plans to add five more states to its delivery roster this year, and three more in 202; currently it only operates in California and Oregon.

The news of funding at Eaze comes on the heels of layoffs and restructuring at several leading cannabis brands during 2019.

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Oregon Cannabis Sales in 2019 Exceed 700M

Oregon Sold $793 Million of Cannabis in 2019

1/20/2020

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Oregon cannabis retailers sold $793 million in 2019, which generated more than $110 million for state and county coffers, according to Oregon Liquor Control Commission figures outlined by the Bend Bulletin. The totals are nearly $150 million more than 2018 and are expected to reach about $1 billion next year.

Sales were highest in Multnomah County, home to Portland, which saw $203.9 million in cannabis sales last year, followed by Washington ($75.3 million), Lane ($70 million), Marion ($50.6 million), and Deschutes ($39.6 million) counties.

An Oregon Office of Economic Analysis report found that Oregon cannabis sales along the Idaho state line – where cannabis remains criminalized – are 420 percent higher than the statewide average, the Associated Press reports. Idaho also borders Washington and Nevada, both legal cannabis states. Baker and Malheur counties, which border Idaho, sell $2,100 and $2,500 worth of cannabis per capita, respectively.

Josh Lehner, senior economist with the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis, noted that cannabis sales in Baker County “dropped” once sales began in Malheur County.

“There’s a lot of outside demand. These cross-border effects are very pronounced particularly with vice purchases like tobacco, alcohol and cannabis.” – Lehner, to the Bulletin

Brad Wehde, general manager at The Herb Center in Bend, indicated the company’s sales were up 25 percent over 2018 and that while prices have rebounded from 2018 lows, “there’s still a lot of instability” in Oregon’s market.

“The OLCC needs to stay out of the business and let the free market reign,” he said in the report. “Then prices should stabilize.”

Last year, lawmakers enacted a moratorium for new grow licenses until Jan. 2, 2022 after the OLCC found the state had more than 6.5 years of oversupply given the market demand.

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High Times to Buy Dispensary Licenses In Los Angeles & Las Vegas

1/17/2020

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High Times has signed a deal with dispensary licensees in Los Angeles and Las Vegas with plans to open two flagship retail locations, according to an IPO-Edge report. The cannabis media firm anticipates the shops will provide a cross-marketing opportunity for High Times and its Cannabis Cup brand and intends to sell local strains that have won Cannabis Cup awards.

Stormy Simon, who took over as CEO of High Times earlier this month, told IPO-Edge that the Cannabis Cup winners are “heroes” and the company’s dispensaries would “allow them to be recognized.” After taking over as CEO, Simon suggested that distribution was “the next iteration” of the company; she told IPO-Edge that the company is seeking dispensary licenses in other states.

“Even medicinal states can make sense for us. High Times was publishing medicinal articles back in the 70s and 80s so the brand is well known in that community.” – Simon, to IPO-Edge

Adam Levin, High Times executive chairman, said the stores would likely be acquired through cash-and-share deals. According to IPO-Edge, the company has sold roughly 27,000 shares in an offering of up to $50 million which is open until March 31.

“Having the second mover advantage in this industry, combined with the present downturn in the cannabis capital markets, provides unique timing for High Times to help non-branded stores to differentiate themselves from the industry’s larger multi-state operators,” Levin said in the report.

The news comes a little over a month after the company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission report that there was “substantial doubt” about the magazine’s ability to continue operations. In that report, High Times had a net loss of $11.9 million on revenue of $10.7 million for the six months ending on June 30, 2019; the revenue did represent a 21 percent increase over six months. The company also reported debts of $105.2 million.

High Times was sold in 2017 to Oreva Capital and since then has purchased competitors DOPE Magazine, Culture magazine, website Green Rush Daily, Spain’s Spannabis, and Buyer’s Industry Guide, owner of the BIG Show industry conference — last year, however, High Times laid off the entire DOPE Magazine editorial team based in Seattle.

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Cannabis Taxes Could Reach 41% In Chicago

1/17/2020

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Cannabis taxes in Chicago, Illinois could be as high as 41 percent by the summer after the Cook County Board of Commissioners approved a 3 percent tax on cannabis retailers on Thursday, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Dubbed the Cannabis Retailers’ Occupation Tax, the tax will be imposed on “all persons engaged in the business of selling cannabis,” except for medical-only dispensaries.

Chicago has already planned a 3 percent tax on sales and state taxes run from 10 percent to 25 percent depending on potency; and all cannabis products carry normal sales tax, which in Chicago is 10.25 percent. Once the new 3 percent tax – the highest county tax allowed under the state law – is considered, the tax rate for products with the higher rates of THC will be 41.25 percent.

Commissioner Larry Suffredin (D) said the tax is warranted because legalization will lead to increased health and policing costs.

“This is a reasonable taxation to protect our citizens from further taxation necessary to cover both the medical cost of the program and the court cost.” – Suffredin, to the Sun-Times

County Chief Financial Officer Ammar Rizki estimates that the county would raise about $850,000 annually from the tax, which would be deposited into the county’s public safety and general funds.

The board’s Legislation and Intergovernmental Relations Committee also approved an ordinance to create a cannabis commission to study legalization’s impact on the county; while the Zoning and Building Committee passed a zoning ordinance governing cannabusinesses that open in unincorporated Cook.

The commission is expected to approve those measures.

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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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