Phoenix

Phoenix City Council Kills Steep Tax Hike for MMJ Cultivators

10/04/2018

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Phoenix interim Mayor Thelda Williams attempted to pass a new, high tax on cannabis businesses in a sly move last week but the tax was quickly shot down by the city council, according to a report by the Phoenix New Times.

Phoenix City Council members were stunned and frustrated by how the tax proposal came from nowhere. The proposal was placed on the council agenda last Thursday with little explanation from the interim mayor.

Phoenix City Council has what is called the “eight-hour rule.” It limits how much time city staff can spend on a project that has not been approved by the council. Council members questioned the mayor and City Manager Ed Zuercher exhaustively to determine how much time was spent on the project and whether or not they were in violation of that rule.

Council members decided that the rule had indeed been violated and were frustrated with the mayor for attempting to stuff in the new medical cannabis tax, which would’ve taken another $43 million per year from patients and cultivators.

A cannabis industry representative said that any city passing such a steep new tax would simply drive cultivators to some other city in Arizona “smart enough to keep taxes down.”

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Is THC an Effective Sleep Aid?

10/04/2018

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Even the National Academy of Sciences cannot find enough cannabis studies to determine whether marijuana has therapeutic benefits for sleep disorders.

In an analysis of 10,000 studies on cannabis, the society confirmed that there is “moderate evidence” that marijuana is effective for short-term treatment of sleep disturbances due to chronic conditions, such as sleep apnea and multiple sclerosis. More conclusive evidence exists to demonstrate the therapeutic benefits of cannabis on chronic pain. However, if the average person can improve their sleep quality using marijuana-derived medications, it has still not been demonstrated by science.

Limitations on marijuana research, namely its classification as a Schedule 1 drug by the DEA, inhibit the scope of the studies that can be completed. A small study completed by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago looked at the effects of THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, on 73 adults with sleep apnea. While the study demonstrated that THC shows promise as a short-term treatment for the symptoms of sleep apnea, the small study size has limitations. It only examines the use of a specific cannabinoid, THC, for a particular condition, sleep apnea.

“Cannabis contains dozens of active ingredients, but we tested just purified Delta-9 THC,” said study co-lead David Carley.

This statement implies that there are much more possible “active ingredients” in cannabis that have not been examined thoroughly by the scientific community. While some researchers are looking into the use of CBD oil as a treatment for insomnia and other sleep disorders, other potential active ingredients within cannabis still need more scientific attention.

When a cannabis-derived drug is approved for clinical trials or receives regulatory approval, the amount of knowledge about the effects dramatically increases. Sativex, a cannabis-derived drug that has a 1:1 ratio of THC to CBD, has regulatory approval in 30 countries for the treatment of muscle spasms and chronic pain.

The drug is still in clinical trials in the United States. However, even clinical trials give researchers access to more patients. Researchers that complete larger studies are often better able to back their claims. With a patient size of 1000 and over 2000 patient-years of analysis, researchers can claim that Sativex improves sleep quality in 40-50% of people who have chronic pain conditions. In these trials, there is only one drug examined, but it’s analyzed for many different issues.

Since Sativex is available in some countries, researchers can examine its effects on other conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis. A UK team administered the drug as a treatment for arthritis pain and had promising results.

Dr. Ronald Jubb, Consultant Rheumatologist, at the University Hospital Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, said, “the results from the first controlled study of CBM in rheumatoid arthritis are encouraging, overall improvements in pain on movement and at rest, improvement in the quality of sleep and improvement in the overall condition of the patients’ arthritis.”

It’s studies like these that allow the National Academy of Sciences to say there is “conclusive evidence” that cannabis treats pain. There’s a drug available that can be readily studied outside the US.

Conversely, the team studying sleep apnea is working more slowly due to their limitations. They’ve progressed from seventeen study subjects to 73, but it’s taken years.

To truly understand what effects cannabis can have on sleep disorders like sleep apnea, more studies are needed. If the researched cannabinoid for sleep apnea (THC) was as available as Sativex is in Europe, research might accelerate, and a new treatment for sleep apnea might be available soon.

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Hartford, Connecticut

Federal Judge Rules In Favor of Connecticut MMJ Patient

10/04/2018

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Another judge has ruled in favor of medical cannabis for employees despite drug-free workplace laws, this time in a federal case in Connecticut, according to a Time report.

Healthcare worker Katelin Noffsinger disclosed to her potential employer Bride Brook Health & Rehabilitation Center that she used medical cannabis for PTSD related to a car accident. However, when her drug test returned positive for THC, the nursing home rescinded her job offer, citing the federal prohibition of cannabis.

Noffsinger then sued Bride Brook for workplace discrimination. Medical cannabis patients are explicitly protected against job discrimination under Connecticut‘s medical cannabis laws.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Meyer ruled in favor of Noffsinger, though he denied her request for punitive damages. It was the first decision in favor of a medical cannabis patient in a federal court, though many state-level judges have ruled in favor of cannabis patients in the past.

More importantly, Judge Meyer said in his ruling that the federal Drug Free Workplace Act, which many employers cite when requiring drug testing, does not actually require drug testing and does not prohibit federal contractors from employing users of medical cannabis if it is used in accordance with state law.

“This is a very significant case that throws the issue in doubt for many of these federal contractors. It’s certainly interesting and may be indicative of where the courts are going with this.” — Fiona Ong, employment attorney for Shawe Rosenthal, via Time

This decision may be foundational for future medical cannabis litigation and lawyers involved in the case expect it to be cited in future decisions. Noffsinger and Bride Brook are now headed for further litigation to determine if Noffsinger is owed missed wages from not receiving the job.

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White House Drug Office Assures Incoming Cannabis Review Is Unbiased

10/03/2018

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An official with the President’s Office of National Drug Control Policy has assured that a pending White House cannabis policy panel report will be completed objectively, the Associated Press reports.

The news comes in response to an inquiry from Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet (D), who asked officials to explain the report in light of alarming headlines about a secret Trump committee that is dedicated to finding and broadcasting the most effective anti-cannabis rhetoric. According to Sen. Bennet, the White House drug office’s deputy director James Carroll told him that the committee’s report was rooted in scientific data.

Specifically, that committee — called the Marijuana Policy Coordination Committee — has been tasked with gathering “data demonstrating the most significant negative trends” to be used in briefing President Trump on “marijuana threats.” The committee is comprised of 14 federal agencies plus the DEA.

“In Colorado, we’ve made a deliberate effort to ensure fact-based data informs our marijuana policies. Government-sponsored propaganda shouldn’t undermine that effort.” — Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colorado), via the Associated Press

On the campaign trail, then-candidate Trump said he would leave cannabis issues up to individual states to decide. However, top officials in his administration — including Attorney General Jeff Sessions — have expressed interest in undermining cannabis policy reforms across the U.S.

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Cannabis Plant

Study: No Connection Between Legalization and Problematic Cannabis Use

10/03/2018

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A new study has found no connection between legalized cannabis and problematic cannabis use, Marijuana Moment‘s Tom Angell reports.

The study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Drugs in Context, looked at 329 frequent cannabis users in both states with legal cannabis and those without. The study was conducted by testing for impulsive behavior using a battery of questions known as the “Cannabis Use Problems Identification Test.”

Researchers did note a difference in rates of impulsive behavior for cannabis users versus non-using populations — but usage rates were not changed following legalization.

“Although the detrimental health effects of frequent cannabis use are well established, our findings suggest that legalisation status does not worsen these effects.” — Excerpt from the study

The study adds to a growing body of research indicating that cannabis legalization does not change rates of youth cannabis consumption nor cannabis use disorder. In fact, the narrative of cannabis law reform leading to higher levels of unhealthy consumption is rapidly falling away as research is done on the matter.

Policymakers should see this as yet another reason to reschedule or legalize cannabis federally: more extensive research — ideally funded by the federal government — needs to occur with attention to detail on things such as strain type, terpene profiles, CBD:THC ratios, and other cannabinoids.

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Cannabis and Alcohol

Cannabis More Harmful to Teenage Brains Than Alcohol, Study Finds

10/03/2018

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A study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry suggests that cannabis use may be more harmful to developing teenage brains than alcohol, BBC reports.

The study was conducted with 3,800 adolescent participants tracked over 4 years from just before high school until graduation. All participants were from the greater Montreal area in Quebec, Canada. Participants were tested once per year using computerized tests. The data was analyzed with statistical controls to isolate the effects of various substances used.

While both alcohol and cannabis showed negative effects on cognitive abilities, cannabis use at this stage of development had long-lasting effects that did not disappear once the teens stopped consuming cannabis. Researchers have shown in a number of other studies that teenage cannabis use can have permanent effects on cognition, learning ability and memory.

Researchers theorize that the brain development happening in teenage years may be largely controlled by the body’s own cannabinoids and that consumption of phytocannabinoids — which come from the cannabis plant — may permanently change how the brain develops into adulthood.

In contradiction, a meta-study of all research to date by the University of Pennsylvania showed that the research — which, in individual studies, seemed to find consistent impairment for teens — may have overstated the damage caused by cannabis use due to the studies’ designs, which did not account for withdrawal due to non-consumption while participating in a clinical study or even simply lingering traces in the body.

The lead author of the Montreal study, professor Patricia Conrod, said she had expected alcohol to have a more significant effect than cannabis and was surprised by the results.

“They should delay their use of cannabis as long as they can,” said Prof. Conrod.

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Michigan to Expect $134M In Annual Taxes If Legalization Passes

10/03/2018

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The annual tax benefits of adult-use legalization in Michigan would be about $134 million per year, according to an economic study commissioned and recently released by The Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol.

Specifically, the study found that Michigan would see $520 million in cannabis taxes during the first five years of a comprehensive cannabis marketplace, capping at $134 million annually by 2023.

Michigan’s legalization initiative, Proposal 1, seeks to legalize cannabis possession, cultivation, and use. It would also establish a taxed-and-regulated marketplace for cannabis products. Under the proposal, adults who are 21 or older would be allowed to buy, carry, and give away up to 2.5 ounces of cannabis and/or its derivatives, including a maximum of 15 grams of concentrate. The bill would also legalize the home cultivation of up to 12 cannabis plants.

It is one of the laxest legalization proposals to date.

Proposal 1 would also entail a 10 percent excise tax on retail sales and a six percent sales tax; tax dollars from the cannabis market would go towards road infrastructure, schools, and local governments, campaign spokesperson Josh Hovey has told reporters.

Under the proposal, local municipalities would also be allowed to ban industry operations and employers would still be allowed to perform drug tests for cannabis use and implement hiring/firing policies based on their results.

A poll last month found that 56 percent of likely Michigan voters were in favor of the cannabis legalization question. Interestingly, opposition to the initiative did not appear tied to any one political party — while Democrats were the most in favor, the opposition was evenly spread among Republicans and Independents.

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FDA Says CBD Should Be Descheduled

10/02/2018

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An FDA evaluation of CBD drug Epidiolex that was recently made public shows that the FDA originally wanted to make Epidiolex completely unscheduled but DEA concerns lead to Schedule 5 instead, according to a Marijuana Moment report.

In May, the FDA wrote to the DEA that CBD has no significant potential for abuse and could be removed from the Controlled Substances Act. However, in the same letter, the FDA mentioned that previous DEA interim head Robert Patterson had informed the FDA that it was impossible to deschedule CBD due to the international 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs treaty.

This caused the FDA to amend its recommendation to instead schedule it in the least restricted category, Schedule 5; the FDA, however, made clear that this was due solely to the DEA’s concerns.

“If treaty obligations do not require control of CBD, or if the international controls on CBD change in the future, this recommendation will need to be promptly revisited.” — excerpt from the FDA Review of Epidiolex

Canada’s upcoming federal legalization may throw into question the DEA’s concerns over international drug treaties, as Canada is also a signatory of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs and yet has decided to fully legalize cannabis.

The U.N. World Health Organization has also recommended descheduling CBD internationally.

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Previous Farm Bill Lapses; Pending Bill Still Contains Hemp Legalization

10/02/2018

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Senate and House lawmakers have yet to decide on a unified Farm Bill for 2018, despite the 2014 Farm Bill having expired on September 30th, The Hill reports.

The 2018 Farm Bill is expected to include language to nationally legalize industrial hemp.

The U.S. House of Representatives broke for recess before Senate and House lawmakers were able to unify the two versions of the bill. Fingers were pointed at both the Senate and House, as well as Republicans and Democrats, for the failure. The issue at hand seems to be the combination of a few provisions in the bill that are political mires — such as adding work requirements to a food stamps program — combined with concerns about the upcoming elections.

Core leaders on both sides claim they will continue to work on the bill through the recess in a lame duck session but there is much uncertainty. There was some talk of extending the 2014 Farm Bill for 3 more years to continue funding farm programs; this would essentially kill the 2018 Farm Bill’s historic effort to legalize industrial hemp.

Existing programs are still funded through December, though the real test will be whether or not a compromise is reached before the November elections. There is a chance that some lawmakers who have been involved in the discussions may be replaced. In fact, if the overall political environment is altered too much, lawmakers may need to start the entire process over again.

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Colorado U.S. Attorney Blasts Cannabis Industry, Hints At Crackdown

10/02/2018

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In a scathing op-ed published in The Denver Post, U.S. Attorney for Colorado Bob Troyer recently lambasted the “commercialization” of cannabis as a threat to public safety.

In the article, Troyer suggested that cannabis enforcement in Colorado will shift its focus from finding and stopping illegal growers to monitoring and policing licensed growers more closely. He argues that some Colorado firms have maintained their license to cultivate and distribute cannabis not to serve Colorado’s industry, but as a cover, so they can serve the more lucrative illegal, out-of-state markets.

“Now that federal enforcement has shot down marijuana grows on federal lands, the crosshairs may appropriately shift to the public harms caused by licensed businesses and their investors, particularly those who are not complying with state law or trying to use purported state compliance as a shield.” — Bob Troyer, U.S. Attorney for Colorado, in a Denver Post op-ed

Troyer — who says his concerns about cannabis are rooted in public safety — conveniently leaves out the fact that since legalizing in 2014, the rates of underage cannabis use have actually decreased. This is a common trend among legalized states.

Instead, Troyer pretends that cannabis reforms have somehow led Colorado to an underage cannabis use rate “85 percent higher than the national average;” in actuality, Colorado’s underage cannabis rates (which, again, are decreasing after legalization) were already far above the national average.

Troyer also highlighted other industry side effects, including cannabis product recalls and the high usage of electricity and water by licensed cannabis growers, as drawbacks to legalization.

What Troyer fails to mention — and which many consider to be the primary reason for cannabis reforms — is the millions of dollars saved on cannabis prosecutions and enforcement efforts, and the many thousands of cannabis users who are no longer being criminalized and seeing their lives ruined by an overzealous and racist criminal justice system.

Remember: to a U.S. Attorney like Mr. Troyer, the simple fact is that having more criminals means there are more opportunities to prosecute, which ultimately means a bigger payday.

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California State Court

California Gov. Signs Landmark Expungement Law

10/01/2018

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Sunday night, California Governor Jerry Brown (D) signed a bill into law that allows for the streamlined clearing of prior cannabis convictions, according to a USA Today report.

For some time, the process of getting a cannabis conviction cleared from your record has been difficult for everyone involved. The new law, AB-1793, automates the convictions’ removal, which supporters of the bill hope will allow people to move forward with their lives. Cannabis convictions can keep people from accessing fundamental services like student loans, housing, or jobs.

Clearing cannabis convictions is an important step to mitigating harm from the drug war.

“This [new law] will empower people. My heart goes out to people who have had to navigate this process on their own. It’s confusing, expensive and tiring.” — Rodney Holcombe, member of the Drug Policy Alliance, via USA Today

The new law also sets a structure for California‘s government to act on behalf of those previously convicted — even if they don’t know they can clear their records. Some may be able to completely clear their record, while others may see their felonies converted to misdemeanors.

The state Department of Justice has until July 1, 2019, to review past cases; experts estimate that up to 220,000 cases could be converted or removed.

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Denver Cannabis Tour Bus

Denver Prosecutes Cannabis Tour Bus Drivers

10/01/2018

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Cannabis tours busted by the Denver Police in June are being taken to trial, The Denver Post reports.

Colorado Cannabis Tours and My 420 Tours were both targeted by police in a sting earlier this year. Police pulled over the buses under the guise of normal traffic violations and proceeded to ticket the drivers and everyone on the bus, some with criminal charges.

My 420 Tours’ CEO Danny Schaefer believes it was a deliberate and intimidating show of enforcement by the Denver PD and the City of Denver.

“We’ve been working diligently to come to kind of an amicable resolution with the city. Unfortunately, they’re taking a hard-line stance on just our segment of the space, straight across the board.” — Danny Schaefer, CEO of My 420 Tours, via The Denver Post

After the tour bus companies paid $100,000 in legal bills on behalf of the passengers, most of whom settled for minor civil fines, four tour bus employees have, instead of settling, opted to go to trial.

Meanwhile, the tour bus companies have continued to operate — both companies who were targeted in the sting as well as others in the city that slipped under the radar. No company, including Colorado Cannabis Tours and My 420 Tours, has been informed of any litigation, charged with a crime or civil offense, or been served with a cease and desist.

A Denver city task force was called to study a November 2016 rule that was supposed to allow and encourage social cannabis consumption spaces, which many entrepreneurs and cannabis professionals called overly restrictive. The task force declared the rules were confusing and limiting and recommended the city legalize and license the cannabis tours. However, only a single business has been able to open a social cannabis space under the rules, which are nearly 2 years old.

Denver legislators will hopefully be pressured to solve this problem by the four tour bus employees’ pending court cases.

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Washington Considers Increasing $300 Hemp Fee to $7,500

10/01/2018

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Washington’s Department of Agriculture is considering hiking the state’s industrial hemp licensing fee from $300 to $7,500, The Capital Press reports.

The 2,400 percent price increase would be necessary to cover the cost of managing hemp regulations throughout the state — lawmakers, however, could avoid the enormous price hike by establishing subsidies or diverting tax dollars to help pay for the program.

Agriculture regulators are concerned that the price increase will further repress the state’s industrial hemp program, which is already pretty minimal compared to other states and to Washington’s robust adult-use cannabis market.

“That really is unfortunate. It’s not what we’re trying to do. We’re focused on raising enough money, otherwise we can’t operate the program.” — Hector Castro, spokesperson for the Department of Agriculture, via The Capital Press

This year in Washington, there is just one hemp crop being grown — a 100-acre plot planted by the Colville Confederated Tribes in north-central Washington.

There was one other hemp farm licensed in the state this year, but Diane Zimberoff, owner of Wellness Paradise Farm, said that by the time they had received their license it was too late in the season to plant a new crop. “The whole process is convoluted,” Zimberoff said.

Meanwhile, federal industrial hemp legislation from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) is pending as part of the 2018 Farm Bill, which still has not had its differing House and Senate versions fully reconciled. In fact, the 2014 Farm Bill, which allowed states to individually legalize pilot industrial hemp programs, officially expired yesterday, September 30.

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California Cannabis Events

California Gov. Signs Bill Allowing More Cannabis Event Venues

9/28/2018

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California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill into law that gives cities and local municipalities the authority to issue temporary cannabis event permits at any venue, reports CBS Local.

Previously, cannabis events were required by law to be held only at county fairgrounds. California being as large as it is, those fairgrounds might be hundreds of miles and hours of driving from some cities.

The bill AB 2020, now law, was authored by Assemblymember Bill Quirk specifically to patch the hole in cannabis permitting that started to become an issue earlier this year. The previous rules were making it nearly impossible for cannabis events to operate as, even in the few venues allowed, municipalities would often decline to issue permits.

AB 2020 also gives the state Bureau of Cannabis Control and law enforcement the ability to revoke a permit or shutter an event for any unlawful activity. Events permitted must also adhere to state laws regarding second-hand smoke.

“I want to thank Assemblymember Quirk for his leadership, hard work and determination in authoring AB 2020 and his efforts with getting the bill to the Governor. I also want to thank Governor Brown for signing this landmark legislation. With this bill now law, any local jurisdiction can choose to take part in this robust industry, while supporting small businesses, enhancing regional economic opportunities, and maintaining safety.” — Oakland City Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan, via CBS Local

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New LAX Policy Allows for Cannabis Possession In Airport

9/28/2018

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The new LAX marijuana policy will allow passengers to carry cannabis throughout the airport but not necessarily through any TSA checkpoints.

Specifically, the new policy says that people who can legally possess cannabis in California — that is, adults who are 21 or older — can also legally possess cannabis in the parts of the airport that are policed by city workers.

“We are California peace officers and we enforce California law, so if we come across individuals carrying substances that are legal under state law, there is nothing we will do.” — Alicia Hernandez, Airport Police spokesperson, via the LA Times

However, travelers beware: TSA workers are federal employees and they are there to enforce federal laws. Therefore, if you are passing through LAX to fly somewhere else, you will be subjected to a TSA screening and they could confiscate your cannabis.

The new LAX cannabis policy is quoted in full below:

“While federal law prohibits the possession of marijuana (inclusive of federal airspace,) California’s passage of Proposition 64, effective January 1, 2018, allows for individuals 21 years of age or older to possess up to 28.5 grams of marijuana and 8 grams of concentrated marijuana for personal consumption.”

“In accordance with Proposition 64, the Los Angeles Airport Police Department will allow passengers to travel through LAX with up to 28.5 grams of marijuana and 8 grams of concentrated marijuana. However, passengers should be aware that marijuana laws vary state by state and they are encouraged to check the laws of the states in which they plan to travel.”

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Teens Rob Colorado Dispensary, Mistakenly Steal Oregano

9/28/2018

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Four would-be cannabis thieves crashed a stolen minivan into the Native Roots dispensary in Colorado Springs, Colorado and stole what they thought was a bunch of pre-rolled joints, reports KKTV.

Unfortunately for the teenage culprits, the stolen display pre-rolls contained just oregano, not actual cannabis, according to the store’s owner.

The culprits drove the stolen minivan into the front of the store just before 1 a.m., leaped out and grabbed several display items — including the oregano joints and some t-shirts — then made off into a nearby getaway car for their escape. They left the stolen minivan parked and still running, smashed most of the way inside of the shop.

Police say the van did thousands of dollars worth of damage to the building.

Witness Brent Wrathbone said, “I was coming out from work, and all of a sudden we heard this big old crash. [The suspects] came out with bunches of marijuana in their arms. … I decided just to call the cops and we decided to get their plate number and everything and then I get a beer bottle thrown at me,” he said.

Police believe the culprits may also be tied to a liquor store robbery that occurred down the street that same night.

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NJ State House

New Jersey Senate Sets Date for First Legalization Vote

9/28/2018

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New Jersey’s State Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D) told reporters that the date for the state Senate’s first vote on its adult-use cannabis legalization bill is October 29, according to NJ.com.

Sweeney had said in August he expected the legislature to vote by the end of September but that deadline is rapidly approaching and committee hearings have not yet been scheduled. Sweeney said that lawmakers and Gov. Phil Murphy’s office are still pinning down the details of the legislation but are down to just “two issues” left to solve. Sweeney expected the issues to be solved possibly as early as today.

Sweeney was asked about the likelihood of New Jersey‘s other congressional house, the Assembly, setting a date for a vote but said he wasn’t able to comment on that. Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin’s office declined to comment on the issue.

After both bodies pass a bill, it will go to Gov. Murphy for a vote. Murphy has long been an advocate for legalization and has called on the legislature to pass a bill for him to sign by the end of the year. It seems likely that he would sign such a bill immediately.

Neither of the “two issues” left for lawmakers to solve have been disclosed, though Murphy’s administration and the state Congress have previously disagreed over the precise tax rate. Under the legislation last made public, the state would impose a 10 percent tax rate — one of the lowest in the country. Murphy’s administration believes that 10 percent is too low; Gov. Murphy, however, has said that his administration has not yet taken a “hardened position on taxes.”

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Ontario

Ontario to Treat Cannabis Like Tobacco for Public Consumption

9/27/2018

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On Wednesday, the Ontario, Canada provincial government altered its rules on cannabis consumption to align it with similar rules for tobacco, which will allow for some public consumption, CTV News reports.

The government of Ontario recently switched from a Liberal government to a Progressive Conservative representation. Among other changes made in the last few months, the Progressive Conservatives have loosened cannabis rules to fit the Smoke-Free Ontario Act, which already applies to tobacco.

Previously, the Liberal government had made it illegal to consume cannabis outside your private residence and did not provide for lounges or other social consumption spaces in the rules.

The new government also did not place a cap on cannabis retail locations. Finance Minister Vic Fedeli said, however, that any record of interactions with organized crime providing cannabis to the youth or operating an illegal retail location will still result in an inability to acquire a dispensary license.

“We want to make sure the consumers are protected but we want to open up the marketplace. This is an opportunity for small business to get involved. We want to have as many participants as possible be involved.” — Vic Fedeli, via CTV News

Local governments in Ontario have the power to opt-out of having cannabis retail locations in their jurisdiction. The deadline for opting-out is January 22, 2019.

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Tom Howard: The Many Legal Hurdles of Cannabis Commerce

9/27/2018

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Tom Howard is an Illinois-based attorney who specializes in banking and cannabis business, and he is an author who has written two works of historical fiction about the prohibition of cannabis.

In this Ganjapreneur.com podcast episode, Tom joined our host TG Branfalt to talk about the state of the cannabis industry; the hurdles that cannabis professionals, entrepreneurs, and attorneys still face; whether or not the industry should be concerned about a federal crackdown, and a whole lot more.

Tune in via 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 sponsored by Cova, the leading compliant point of sales suite for cannabis retailers and delivery services. Cova was developed to address the needs of retail businesses in California, Colorado, Washington, and Canada. Cova integrates the state traceability systems such as Metric and Leaf, as well as a wide variety of other business tools such as Baker, SpringBig and I Heart Jane. Cova also has built-in compliance features such as looping alerts when purchase limit is exceeded, automated sales tax, and instant age verification with ID scanning. Discover the next evolution of cannabis retail software today at covasoftware.com.

TG Branfalt: Hey there, I’m your host TG Branfalt and you are 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 Tom Howard. He’s a cannabis industry attorney based in Illinois and the author of Satan Smoke and the Case of U.S. v. Yerbas, which are historical fiction reads which we’ll talk about. But before we do that, I want to get to know about you. How’d you get involved in the cannabis space?

Tom Howard: How did I get involved in the cannabis space? I guess as a freshman or sophomore in college, and I came by cannabis. Everybody kind of grows up and they just take things as they come, so they don’t really question them. By the time I got to law school when I was in my mid-twenties, then you’re learning about laws and what’s behind this marijuana stuff. I started looking into that and it blew my mind.

Just from a legal standpoint of how, and also I was a history major in college. The extent of this whitewashing of truth to ram a government policy that they wanted down the entire population and they would plug their ears to any facts and close their eyes to any facts that would say that they’re wrong, which was just amazing. Have you ever heard of, what is it, part F of the Controlled Substances Act?

TG Branfalt: What specifically does that talk about?

Tom Howard: That’s the one where in order to get the Democrats to go along with it, they actually had to shoehorn this thing onto the CSA, the Controlled Substances Act that has marijuana Schedule 1. They commissioned a study, beginning with the Shafer Report that came out in early 1972, that said oops, we got it wrong and marijuana should actually be decriminalized. They didn’t give a shit.

There was an entire Schedule, or Part F, of the Controlled Substances Act to study marijuana and determine it’s proper classification.

TG Branfalt: Yes. Yes.

Tom Howard: That study said oops, decriminalize it and they never did. That was 1972, so I always think marijuana legalization is right around the corner and when I get really excited I remember that.

TG Branfalt: I do want to talk to you a little bit later on about the federal case that recently occurred, but before that I want to talk to you about federal policy. Let’s start first with the will they or won’t they current federal policy. Last year, Sessions rescinds the Cole memo, there’s no crackdown, but obviously people are worried. Trump just a couple weeks ago at this point, maybe even less, vowed to protect the programs following his row with Senator Cory Gardner over him blocking Justice Department nominees.

In your opinion, with this sort of wishy-washy federal policy, how worried should cannabis industry operators be about federal crackdown?

Tom Howard: About federal crackdown, you see, I don’t think they should be all that worried about it, but that’s only because it’s political suicide. It’s become so popular and so widespread now that, to take an action would be a very untenable position.

TG Branfalt: We also have the FinCEN protections, which the agency released a directive saying we’re not gonna crack down on financial institutions that are doing business with state legal cannabis producers. Despite this, several banks have pulled out of the space. Why do you think banks are so sketched out when they have this federal protection from the agency that enforces their regulations?

Tom Howard: A lot of banks pride themselves on being very conservative lending institutions and employing safe and sound banking principles. In my practice, besides doing marijuana, I pretty much exclusively represent banks in high commercial finance. The reason for that is because technically all of that is money laundering. You are going to try to put a bank in a position to say it’s a safe and sound banking practice to always engage in money laundering, which of course it’s not. That’s one of the reasons why they don’t.

Not only that, Jeff Sessions’ memo from January of this year kind of surprised everybody, including FinCEN, which FinCEN is the Department of the Treasury. Department of Justice of course is a separate one. What happened was, on January 4, Sessions revokes the Cole Memo and all these other memos that T said rescind, but still, it basically means you terminate it.

Then he threw into disarray the FinCEN guidance that expressly relied upon the Cole Memo. Now you have some guidance that’s expressly relying upon something that doesn’t exist anymore because it’s been rescinded. They were really nice and they got flooded with emails and they returned mine. They said that they are still respecting the FinCEN guidance from 2014. You turned to more federal developments with Trump promising Gardner that he’s not going to step up enforcement.

It depends on what you say step up enforcement. Now, that’s why it’s out of Colorado because they have full legalization, full adult use. Regulated, it’s what you should do if you were actually regulating a thing in accordance with the original federal study on it, which gets back to the CSA, it’s hilarious. They regulated marijuana, Congress did, in 1970 without knowing what it did. They said it was like heroin, then they did the study after they equated it to heroin, but they never listened to the results of the study. It’s terrible.

But Schedule 524, something like that, of the budget every year has defunded the war on medical marijuana. The Department of Justice and Jeff Sessions gets no money, no matter what his memo says, to go after the medical marijuana businesses. However, that does not apply to the full legalization, of course. In theory, Jeff Sessions does have some money to go after the people in Colorado that are doing full adult use and that’s why Cory Gardner was holding up Department of Justice nominees until he got that tacit approval from the Donald Trump that he’s not going to enforce the law. Which, in theory he could, he has the money to do it.

TG Branfalt: With this, again, wishy-washy federal policy, that’s where we’re at right now, do you think that cannabis industry operators should be considering moves toward cryptocurrency or cashless card-based systems and what are the pros and cons of making this adjustment?

Tom Howard: The cryptocurrency market’s extremely volatile because you have to convert it into and out of dollars to be able to pay your vendors and whatnot. If you’ve seen the price of bitcoin, it went from 0 to 20,000 and now it’s what, at half that, a little less than half of that. There’s a lot of manipulation in those types of currencies because you have to get them into and out of dollars and that dollars create a problem in the sense that if you got a rack, and by that I mean like $10,000 with a little band around it, you have to watch out for those things because that triggers what they call suspicious activity report for the bank. That bank then has to log it.

Then of course it also gets into the Patriot Act because the Patriot Act trying to stop a lot of that terrorism and terrorism deals in cash. Cash, you can’t trace it. That’s one of the nice things about cash. So you have all those problems that are going on and I can’t even remember what the question was.

TG Branfalt: If you think that industry operators should move towards a cryptocurrency or cashless card based system.

Tom Howard: The cryptocurrency, no, the cashless card based system, yes, because the cashless card based system, you are still using cash, it’s just that you’re setting up a cash free ATM. Then you solve the cash problem. You don’t want to have cash, you want an account with a ledger that just says, have you checked your bank account lately online? It’s kinda nice, right? And you can send money to and from places. Pretty cool. It’s a lot easier to do that than it is with cash but the marijuana businesses are having a problem getting to that point.

If you did one of those cashless card systems, and let’s say your cultivation center, I’m not sure how regulated every different state is, but here we kind of cleave it between cultivation and dispensary. Each one is gonna have different vendors and different payments that they have to pay, but if they could get it on a system, or the best thing that I would recommend is you get the cashless ATM plus a PEO.

In Illinois, the only bank is closing and kicking people out on May 21st. Now you have a real problem in the sense that where do you get a bank account? Are these bank accounts gonna be opened at a bank that’s more amenable, say in like Colorado? Then you have a dispensary in Illinois trying to use a Colorado bank account. That can create some issues, unless of course you only do it in cash free, so you don’t accept any cash, so you never have to make any of those deposits. It’s just all being run from your cash free ATM through your PEO, into your accounts that are in Denver.

Now let’s go over this because that’s money laundering on money laundering on so much fricking money laundering because you’re talking about really trafficking a Schedule 1 substance and then turning it into a ledger, getting around the cash problem, then shipping it intrastate. But they’re being put in this position because I wouldn’t want to do business in straight cash. I would need to buy more safes, right?

That’s one of the problems. Have you heard about dispensaries getting knocked over, like robbed?

TG Branfalt: Yeah, of course.

Tom Howard: Why are they getting robbed? Because that’s where the money is. It hasn’t changed since the 30s. I can’t remember what gangster said. Why do you rob banks? That’s where the money is.

TG Branfalt: You mentioned one of the problems in Illinois, that the banks are shutting down access for cannabis companies and before we went live you were talking to me about what’s really preventing legalization from taking hold in Illinois, through the ballot initiative like it has all over the place. What’s going on? Explain what’s going on in Illinois.

Tom Howard: Alright, Illinois’s got an interesting constitution from 1970. It does not allow for direct questions to to be on the ballot to impact laws unless they’re extremely isolated to one particular provision of the Illinois constitution. I think that mostly has to do with procedural crap. Nothing substantive like, hey should we legalize marijuana, yes or no?

Those types of ballot initiatives you don’t have, but this fall, this November, the people have put a question, a non-binding referendum, let’s call it. You can get a non-binding referendum on the ballot, which is great, because then you can take the pulse of the electorate and it doesn’t matter at all.

Yeah, I know right? Why don’t we just put the Pepsi challenge on there?

TG Branfalt: So the people vote and then it would still be up to the legislature to decide if they want to follow that recommendation of the people?

Tom Howard: Exactly, exactly. It’s a representative democracy, it’s a republic, I guess. Now they’ll know the democratic opinion directly and they’ll be like, yeah maybe we should do this. Of course, right now it doesn’t matter. Your medical card in Illinois, it’s about three months from when you drop your application in the mail until you get your card in the mail, it’s about three months.

The governor has made sure that that stays like that and the governor’s not gonna sign any legalization, even if the people said it, he’d probably still try to veto them. However, we have an election in November and Rauner extremely unpopular and this other billionaire, who’s called JB Pritzker is running against him. He’s a more likable billionaire, to be honest.

TG Branfalt: Is he pro-legalization? Have the gubernatorial candidates made their opinions known?

Tom Howard: Yeah, yeah, yeah, because I liked him on Facebook and he publishes all, because he’s a billionaire, so he’s got his promotional stuff everywhere and one of the ads that I saw was him supporting marijuana legalization. In theory, Illinois, that’s why I said it’s kind of starting to pop here, it’s been stalled, but it’s gotten far enough along that people know that it works. People go to Colorado for trips in winter and all that stuff. There’s been enough canna-tourism so people know.

Then if what happens in fall is, if the referendum is like 60- 70%, it doesn’t matter. I’d be more likely to vote for something that doesn’t matter, right? You don’t even have to think about the consequences. You don’t even have to think about the children, it’s hypothetical. You get 60 or 70% of people who say that we should legalize, you get JB Pritzker in the office, then we might be able to see a bill that has a legitimate shot of passing the Illinois House and being signed by the governor and then going into law, but you still have to understand the lag times on that. The latency period. Colorado didn’t just pass the law and tomorrow you were able to buy marijuana. You have to lay the foundations.

TG Branfalt: And Maine, it’s not gonna take effect until three years nearly.

Tom Howard: Wow.

TG Branfalt: I want to talk to you a bit about patient’s rights. You are an attorney, that’s the sort of thing that you’re an expert in. When cannabis laws are enacted and professional boards often have to issue opinions to allow members of that profession, lawyers for example, to operate in the state or risk penalty in the state program. However, employers in general do not make exceptions for patients, meaning they still get drug tested, they pop positive, they get fired. In the United States, this is the case. What rights do patients have in medical states when it comes to employment and can we look to any of the legal decisions of the last few years, there was one in Massachusetts specifically that I’m thinking about, as precedent?

Tom Howard: Yeah, there have been a couple out of the New England area that did kind of say that there are some rights. However, what you have to do is look at your state’s law first. Start to look at the state’s law because those cases that came down, I believe they were by an administrative law because one of those employer relation boards or something. The opinions from those looked at the state’s laws themselves to determine the rights that the patients had.

Some states have more rights than other states. Florida’s medical marijuana law for patients is very bad. Illinois’ is actually not bad at all. It tries to do both. It tries to protect both the employer’s right to have a drug-free work place, but also the patient’s right to not be discriminated against solely because they’re a cannabis patient. That’s one of the reasons why you really have to kind of read the law, see what it says, and then if you do think you have rights, then you can make your claim and those cases have already brought and made out in the New England area, maybe more will come in Illinois, maybe one of the reasons why it hasn’t is because there’s only about 30,000 card holders here so far.

You have to look at your state’s law and there is some protection, sometimes, from being discriminated against solely for using or having a cannabis card. It’s hard to say one way or the other any definitive binary answer.

TG Branfalt: How do those two things jive? How do you protect both businesses and patients?

Tom Howard: Well, you see a law can say anything you want it to say. I know that’s a glib answer, but at the same time, it’s what the law actually provides and it’s trying to do that and it seems like these two pieces of law can’t be read at the same time and be both carried out, but there’s a lot of arguments that says yes, no, they can actually both be carried out at the same time and we can try to protect both rights of the employer and the employee to the extent that they have.

Now think about it, if the employer doesn’t have the benefit, if it’s drafted in the law that you can’t discriminate against medical marijuana patients solely because they’re a patient and the medical marijuana patient mentions or something that they have that and the boss just goes, I hate cannabis patients, you’re fired. Maybe it’s not gonna be like that, but there might be certain facts about it that it shows no, you only did this because I was a cannabis patient. Maybe then you would actually have some rights, but that’s when you would need to talk to your plaintiff employment attorney.

TG Branfalt: Moving on a little bit, trying to get to a lot of things in one sitting here, tell me about your books. Why did you decide to write historical fiction? You’re obviously an educated guy, you’re an attorney. Why did you focus on the historical fiction rather than writing a fact based book?

Tom Howard: That’s because I wanted them to win in the end. That’s right. That’s right. A lot of the history of it, you have to get back into the 30s and the history of marijuana and trying to find historical record, it’s not like it’s the Declaration of Independence. It’s something that they’ve tried to kind of bury as much as they can. It’s hard to track down those types of records and you can turn it into more of a narrative, something that’s more compelling.

For example, do we really know that the yellow journalism was caused because Hurst, was it Hurst I think, some newspaper baron bought all this farmland and was like leveraged to the hilt and then cannabis was gonna drink his milkshake, if we’re gonna borrow that phrase from There Will Be Blood. Or is that just more historical hokum? There’s those aspects, but then there’s the NORML case, which is something that I call it and the NORML case isn’t one case, it’s a case that NORML’s basically been waging for the past 40 plus years and one of them was just dismissed. It was good. It was a very nice complaint. I can’t remember the name of all the plaintiffs off the top of my head right now. I know one of them was related to the NFL because of brain damage.

TG Branfalt: You’re talking about the Alex Bortelli case? Or Bortel, I believe it is.

Tom Howard: Okay, there you go. Fairly recently dismissed I believe, just a couple months ago or something?

TG Branfalt: Yeah, so your books, Satan Smoke and Versus, which I’m gonna refer to as Versus, the full title is The Case of U.S. v. Yerbas. They both cover distinct eras. One covers the prohibition era and then the other covers the present and Versus actually makes a similar argument to this recent federal court case.

Tom Howard: It’s exactly the same and the only difference is, the reason why that recent court case and why it had to be historical fiction is because I wanted them to win, as opposed to we failed to exhaust administrative remedies. Yay! It’s just so frustrating, because that happens all the time and that’s why I call it the normal case. This was it’s most recent incantation and it was dismissed. There was cases before this and there’ll be a case again.

Trying to exhaust this administrative process is exhausting let’s say.

TG Branfalt: And the way that they lay it out, the way that they laid it out in that case is they showed everybody who’s ever attempted to take this issue of the CCA scheduling and cannabis to the DEA and showing them, and in one case it took nine years just to get a denial.

Tom Howard: Nine years for a denial, I know right.

TG Branfalt: So what was your reaction when the judge tossed it because let me tell you, I’m not a lawyer, I do fancy myself as somebody who does understand legalese and the law and the process a little bit better, just because I’m passionate about it. I had hope. I knew it was misplaced hope when I had that hope, but everything’s laid out there and it seems like they’re in a decent court. I think it was the Ninth Circuit in New York.

Tom Howard: Find the court, find the court. That’s the one where the U.S. v. McIntosh case came and they were able to establish the right to toss Department of Justice’s case against solely medical because of the section of the budget that defunds them. That was a pretty sweet case from a couple years ago.

TG Branfalt: Yeah, yeah, then some of the arguments they were making is this is one of the most comprehensive, if you wanna read a book about the history of prohibition, look no further than the brief that was filed in that case. As an attorney, what was your reaction when the judge tossed it? Were you like, ah that’s expected, because they did allow pieces of it to go forward in the beginning that again, gave you this hope.

Tom Howard: Right. Exactly. I wasn’t all that surprised that the administrative process was yet again, not exhausted. But at the same time, I have more optimism each time they do get to that stage again. Eventually a judge will say alright, cut the crap everybody. This is clearly chicanery, it has no rational basis to the sensible regulation of the commerce of marijuana. What are you doing here? And clearly, why is it all based on these racist lies from the 30s? What are you guys doing? But judges don’t like to draw lines because of the separation of powers issues. Any fricking reason that the judge can not make a ruling as to the constitutionality of the marijuana laws, they’re gonna take that out.

TG Branfalt: What are the constitutional arguments to be made against prohibition?

Tom Howard: The one that we were talking about right now, a lot of them have to do with your due process rights to not have, it’s arbitrary government. The government makes literally no sense. That’s more of your fifth amendment due process right, to be free from that. That is extremely difficult because there’s various standards of scrutiny for striking down a statute and you’re basically trying to strike down the Schedule 1 substance of cannabis. You’re trying to do what the Shafer Study … You’re trying to do Congress should have done in the first place, which was study the darn thing before it regulated it.

But no, that would have been harder to establish this rational basis. So there’s various standards of scrutiny for the striking down of laws. I can’t even recall them off the top of my head now because I’ve learned other law. But commercial regulations like marijuana is the lowest one and it’s got like a 99% failure rate. So you try to shoehorn a little bit of the racial animus into it by doing a rational basis with bite test, which is kind of a thing. It’s also a very low probability, but they didn’t even get to it. They didn’t get to it, they didn’t even address it.

That they don’t address it, that the court didn’t address it, either this makes you still have hope that it’s actually legit, you know? And they’re just trying to do a little bit more time and maybe if they just keep delaying a few more years, Congress will finally strike a line through the controlled substances act solely where is says cannabis. That’s it. The bill is extremely thin. Leave it a law that passes then changes the Controlled Substances Act so that this case Sub 1B4 whatever. Whatever line cannabis is, just red line through.

TG Branfalt: When it comes to the Controlled Substances Act, are you a proponent of descheduling or rescheduling? For people who don’t understand the difference, rescheduling would keep it on the CSA.

Tom Howard: No, like I just said, strike a line through it. Deschedule that stuff because then you allow the states to do it. Now the fun thing is, pro tip here man, back in 1969, marijuana became federally legal for a couple of years, it’s actually what, and I’m gonna apologize for using this verb, fomented the Controlled Substances Act because I guess it was the case of US v. Leary, yeah that guy, Tim Leary. The previous law was the Marijuana Tax Stamp Act and that created a Fifth Amendment self incrimination catch 22 so the high courts struck it.

For a couple of years, it was federally legal, or at least it was federally silent, let’s say. There was no law on it, but it didn’t matter, because in every state, marijuana was a crime in 1969 until the effect of the Controlled Substances Act, which I think was 1971. We can have the inverse of that now. We would strike it and have again, no federal policy, like we did back in 69 to 71. You would have all these state policies. 44 states I believe, have medical marijuana, several more have adult use.

If Schedule 1 is no longer a thing, banking can be accessed because there’s no more money laundering. The way that all these crimes are defined, it doesn’t say marijuana, it says Schedule 1 substance, that’s it.

TG Branfalt: Just having your insight into the history, the actual legal history. When you sat down to write, Yerbas, specifically Versus, how deep did you dig to come up with these arguments or were these arguments that were plodding around in your head as you were studying law?

Tom Howard: When I was in law school, I was a shitty student. I never went to school and I’m not kidding. I wrote two other books in law school, then I got into private practice and this is the book that I wrote in my first year of private practice before I went to Howard and Howard and became a bank attorney. A sophisticated banking attorney. In my first year, I did a lot of this research and wrote Yerbas. You research it as much as you can. You try to get the entire historical record as best as you can, wrench it out of the internet. How much do we trust the internet?

I’m not kidding. Google Scholar really helped. At least you could be doing case law research, but there is a case, and it has to do with, I can’t find it because it was probably an administrative law judge, but do you remember Irv Rosenfeld and the federal marijuana patients?

TG Branfalt: I am not familiar with that one, no.

Tom Howard: There was actually a federal medical marijuana policy from 1978 through 1991 and there’s still four living patients.

TG Branfalt: Oh yeah, you’re talking about the people getting federal joints mailed to their house?

Tom Howard: The joints mailed to them guys. That’s right, yes. That was a case and then you actually had a federal policy and the FDA doing this, what do they call it? IND or something, it was innovative, they’re trying to do research to determine whether or not marijuana has any use and it worked. Some of the people are still alive. That’s just how crazy the whole thing gets. And how convoluted. You’re saying one thing and you’re treating all these people one way and then you’re saying another thing and treating these people a different way. What the heck is it? Then they shut it down in the 90s and that’s when you had medical marijuana start to go into the states, California specifically first.

TG Branfalt: Where can people find out more about you, where can they buy your books? Tell us where to find you.

Tom Howard: Yeah man, go to Cannabis Industry lawyer on YouTube. You can go to our Facebook page, that’s Facebook.com/freethc, that should take you to our Facebook page and after that, Google “Tom Howard marijuana.” I’ll come up.

TG Branfalt: It’s really been great to chat with you man. I really wanna keep in touch. See what you got going on. Maybe if I ever make it out to Illinois, I’ll check in on you.

Tom Howard: Yeah, I would love to go out to the New England area, especially Vermont, I’ve never been out there. I hear it’s beautiful, you just said it.

TG Branfalt: Oh the Green Mountains man, the Green Mountains. Then Burlington’s around Lake Champlain so you can see all the way across to New York, it’s an interesting place, Burlington, Vermont. We just passed our own legalization, not we, the legislature actually did it. We’ll at least be able to grow a little bit and possess without fear of being arrested. That’s good.

Tom Howard: Awesome man. Awesome. Well cool. Thanks so much for having me on. I really had a great time.

TG Branfalt: Absolutely man. Appreciate it. You can find more episodes of the Ganjapreneur.com Podcast in the podcast section of Ganjapreneur.com and in the Apple iTunes store. On the Ganjapreneur.com website you’ll find the latest cannabis news and cannabis jobs updated daily along with transcripts of this podcast. You can also download the Ganjapreneur.com app in iTunes and Google Play. This episode was engineered by Trim Media House. I’ve been your host, TG Branfalt.

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DEA Reschedules CBD Medication to Schedule 5

9/27/2018

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The Drug Enforcement Administration announced the rescheduling today of Epidiolex, the first FDA-approved medication derived from the cannabis plant, from Schedule 1 to Schedule 5 under the Controlled Substances Act, CNBC reports.

The move paves the way for United Kingdom-based GW Pharmaceuticals, who manufactures Epixiolex, to begin distributing its new CBD epilepsy medication throughout the U.S.

“We are pleased that the DEA has placed EPIDIOLEX in the lowest restriction Schedule, because it will help ensure that patients with LGS and Dravet syndrome, two of the most debilitating forms of epilepsy, can access this important new treatment option through their physicians.” — Justin Gover, CEO of GW Pharmaceuticals, in a statement

Specifically, the rescheduling applies to CBD that exists in FDA-approved medications; it does not broadly apply to the CBD cannabinoid in all of its forms.

Shares in GW Pharmaceuticals rose 7 percent following news of Epidiolex’s rescheduling.

Epidiolex — an oral solution containing isolated, purified CBD — was approved by the FDA in June. A report in August determined that patients taking Epixiolex can expect to spend about $32,000 per year on the medication.

Early responses to Epidiolex have been positive, and research continues to point to CBD as a largely untapped medicinal resource.

 

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Cova Software Announces Plan to Retain Retail Cannabis Data in Canada

9/27/2018

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Cova to host all Canadian Customer Personally Identifiable Information in Microsoft Azure Canada-Central

VANCOUVER BC and DENVER, Sept. 26, 2018 – Retail cannabis point of sale software company and part of the iQmetrix group, Cova Software today announced plans to help retailers in Canada improve protection of retail data and Canadian consumer information by migrating all Canadian cannabis retail data to Azure Canada-Central located in Toronto. The move is set to begin September 27.

Currently, Cova hosts its data in the United States, which is in compliance with PIPEDA and relevant provincial legislation. However, ahead of legalization on October 17, Cova is creating a footprint in Canada to host all customer Personally Identifiable Information (PII). After the move, all Canadian customer data will remain in Canada.

“Cova understands how important data privacy and cannabis retail data protection are to our retailers and their customers, especially given the recent media attention on cross-border travel,” said Cova CEO Gary Cohen. “That’s why we are going the extra mile to secure PII in Canada, over and above the current legal requirements. Moreover, as a Canadian company, we believe a proactive approach to data protection is critical, and by hosting data in Canada we are not only adding an extra layer of security, but we are giving retailers and their customers peace of mind.”

With a move to Canada, cannabis retailers operating throughout the country can trust that Cova Software’s integrated point of sale system is secured safely and in turn can assure customers that their information will remain in Canada, where cannabis is legal.

“We want retailers to understand how critical it is to find a cannabis retail technology partner that can protect sensitive cannabis retail data,” added Cohen. “Because Cova is in the iQmetrix family — a leading provider of retail management in the cellular industry — we have the most robust data protection solution in the cannabis industry. By sharing organizational infrastructure, we leverage this system at a much lower cost, truly taking advantage of the economies of scale that iQmetrix brings.”

The infrastructure that powers Cova Software securely handles more than $16 billion across 200 million transactions every year from Canadian and American companies. Cova is part of an organization that is SSAE18 and PCI-DSS level one complaint and undergoes third-party audits on internal process, change management, physical security, personnel backgrounds, and data infrastructure security.

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About Cova
Cova is the leading POS solution in the cannabis industry. Cova helps retailers simplify compliance, reduce operational cost, and increase revenue through automated compliance, inventory management, mobile reporting dashboard, and express checkout app. The Cova team is relentlessly pursuing the goal of creating the industry’s first lovable POS. With a growing network of cannabis industry partners including Baker, I Heart Jane, greenRush, Springbig, Enlighten, and Budvue, a seamless tech ecosystem gives retailers access to the best tools available to run their business. Cova’s main offices are in Vancouver BC and Denver.

For more information about the Cova POS suite, Touchscreen Menu, and Express check-out, visit www.covasoftware.com.

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Millennials

Millennial Generation Prefers Cannabis Over Alcohol

9/27/2018

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Despite a controversial reputation in some regions, Millennials are increasingly turning to cannabis over alcohol, according to MarketWatch.

Spiros Malandrakis, head of research for alcoholic drinks at industry analysis company Euromonitor International, said alcohol companies that don’t adapt to this shift face huge reductions in future revenue.

Euromonitor estimates the global cannabis market, including illicit markets, at over $150 billion. The alcohol market is currently just $58 billion.

The cannabis revolution is in full swing while the alcohol industry appears to be largely sitting on the fence, drink in hand, occasionally throwing crumpled cans in the general direction of the on-going legalization debate. Visibly intimidated, insular and inherently conservative, large parts of the alcohol industry acknowledge and highlight the dangers to their penetration rates and profitability, but largely fail to see the huge potential behind the plumes of hazy smoke.” — Spiros Malandrakis, via MarketWatch

However, some alcohol companies like Heineken-owned Lagunitas brewing and Constellation Brands, the company behind Corona, have begun to invest in cannabis. The 75-year-old trade organization Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America has come out in support ending cannabis prohibition, as well.

Millennials are drinking less alcohol than previous generations. A survey of 50,000 young adults and adolescents in the U.S. found that college students who consume alcohol daily fell from 4.3% in 2016 to 2.2% in 2017 — halved in just one year. In 1980, 6.5% used alcohol daily.

Cannabis use, however, is increasing: Yahoo News found in 2017 that a majority of the 55 million cannabis users in the U.S. are millennials, though the share possessed by other demographics is growing rapidly.

Prohibition, however, remains in place for much of the U.S. and some who choose cannabis over alcohol still have a hard time broaching the subject with others. Legalization and normalization can and will fix that, but it will take time.

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High Times Acquires DOPE Magazine for $11.2 Million

9/27/2018

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High Times Holding Corp. announced today in a press release that it was acquiring Seattle-based DOPE Magazine; it is the latest in a string of media acquisitions for the longtime cannabis lifestyle brand.

“DOPE is a very strategic acquisition for our portfolio offering key complementary assets to our existing platforms and opening the opportunity for economies of scale to improve performance of all our entire publication group. We couldn’t be more excited to welcome George Jage, Dave Tran and their entire team to the High Times family.” — Adam Levin, CEO of High Times, in the press release

The purchase price is estimated at $11.2 million — this includes 909,129 shares of High Times Class A common stock (valued at $11 per share), $1 million in cash, and an additional $200,000 payable on or about November 10, 2018.

“What DOPE Media has built in such a short time is not only impressive, but needed considering the difficult landscape and legislation brands are faced with today,” said High Times CEO Adam Levin. “We look forward to not only combining our resources but expanding them.”

In a statement published on their website, DOPE team members shared the news about their acquisition with their followers.

“It is with great excitement that we announce today that DOPE Magazine has become part of the High Times Holding Corp.’s family of businesses. … This convergence of forces will create tremendous opportunities for DOPE to reach millions through many new inventive and creative platforms. What won’t change is DOPE’s signature voice, core values, and commitment to normalizing cannabis in our society through exceptional content.”

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Dr. Dabber Switch and Packaging

Dr. Dabber Switch Review

9/26/2018

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The first time I saw someone with a butane torch, elaborate glass tubing and what looked like dentistry tools I thought for sure they were working on a science project and not trying to get high. Dabbing can have a high bar for entry for those only familiar with the classic joint or edible — enter the Dr. Dabber Switch.

The Switch doesn’t need a torch, but it’s not an eNail either. The Switch is an induction dabber, which means it uses magnetic fields generated in the sealed body of the rig to heat a ceramic or quartz cup to vaporization temperatures without the extract ever touching sensitive electronic components. The Switch takes an intimidating, dangerous process and makes it approachable and safe by removing the torch and separating the extract and the heat source.

Simply drop your oil, wax or shatter into the induction cup and place the cup into the glass-lined induction chamber. Within 3-5 seconds you can be inhaling cannabis vapor, a huge speed upgrade over conventional methods.

Aside from ease of use, the main benefit from the Switch’s induction heating is a reduced rate of failure. Many conventional dab rigs vaporize cannabis by direct contact with the heating element, or atomizer. These atomizers need replacement every month or two on many rigs — but not the Dr. Dabber.

I had an excellent experience with the Dr. Dabber Switch. I had assumed, upon opening the elaborate package, that there would be a steep learning curve for using the Switch. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it’s dead simple.

Dr. Dabber Switch

Flip the bottom switch to the oil or flower setting depending on your desired vaporization material, set the power from 1 to 5 depending on desired taste and quantity of vapor and then hold down the power button. The glass induction chamber is lit by colored LEDs that go from red to green as the ceramic cup reaches vaporization temperature. Once they’re green, you just inhale through the water pipe mouthpiece. Bam, high as a kite.

The Switch comes with a variety of tools for dabbing and handling the ceramic cup. The tweezers that come with the unit are a little too bulky to be practical and the glass tipped carb cap is also too big to use for inserting dabs into the chamber. I’ve had great success loading the induction cup outside the unit and then dropping it in directly, so the tools being not quite perfect isn’t a major roadblock.

The only other issue I had with the rig was the ease with which the glass bubbler mouthpiece and carb cap break. They’re made of high-end borosilicate glass but are surprisingly fragile. I accidentally snapped the glass loading tool off the carb cap within a day and within a week I had dropped the glass mouthpiece, shattering it into a million pieces right as I got high. Not ideal. Replacing the mouthpiece cost $75 and I didn’t replace the loading tool but that would’ve cost me another $20 had I opted for replacement. They might have used thicker glass on a rig that costs $400.

And that brings us to another major stopping point for potential buyers — the Switch’s price. $400 is a lot for a dab rig, even an induction one. A basic dabbing system might cost $80-100 for entry-level products, a fraction of the Switch’s cost. However when factoring in the ease and quickness of use, lack of maintenance costs like atomizer replacement and overall utility I think the $400 price point is justified. Undoubtedly, there must have been a lot of engineering that went into designing this rig.

The Dr. Dabber Switch is a strong buy in this reviewer’s opinion. If you’ve been put off dabbing by torches and guesswork, the Switch is made for you. It’s quick, it’s precise, it’s safe and quite frankly it looks and feels awesome in the hand. Order a Switch from the Dr. Dabber website today and begin experimenting with all the awesome extracts that legalization has brought us!

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