An Austin, Texas man has been sentenced to five years of probation – after spending eight months in jail – after pleading guilty to obscure federal charges related to users of a controlled substance (in this case cannabis) owning firearms, the Austin American-Statesman reports. Initially, prosecutors alleged that Steven Boehle, 50, had planned to use his 13 guns to attack city police officers; however, when those charges fell through he was charged under the federal statute.
U.S. Judge Mark Lane said that Boehle’s threats were “marijuana-induced gibberish.” Boehle had never been arrested for drugs.
Boehle’s probation conditions require that he turn over his guns and submit to drug testing. According to his sister, Boehle suffers from epilepsy and, starting next year, Texas will permit those with the condition to access some medical cannabis products. Boehle reportedly had two seizures while in police custody.
Daphne Silverman, Boehle’s attorney, indicated she would try to modify her client’s probation terms to allow him to access the program; however, she conceded that would be “an uphill battle.”
This isn’t the first case of a state citing cannabis use as a reason to take firearms from citizens. Earlier this month, the Honolulu, Hawaii Police Department backed off requests that 30 gun owners registered in the state medical cannabis program either surrender or transfer ownership of their firearms, according to a Honolulu Star Advertiser report. The department did indicate they would continue to deny firearm permits to applicants with medical cannabis cards.
Alaska’s Marijuana Control Board has revoked the manufacturing facility license of Fairbanks’ Frozen Budz due to a litany of alleged infractions, including failure to test products, track the source of the cannabis used to manufacture them, and selling products containing higher-than-permitted THC limits. The revocation is the first by regulators in the state.
The following counts were upheld by the control board:
Regularly and consistently selling edibles that had not been tested for potency, mold, contaminants, e-coli, or salmonella.
Making edibles without tracking the source of the marijuana.
Manufacturing products that were not approved by the Marijuana Control Board.
Selling products that contained mold and an amount of THC that is two to three times higher than allowed.
Operating out of compliance with their board-approved operating plan.
Allowing onsite consumption and delivering marijuana products directly to consumers.
Improperly labeling marijuana products transferred to retail stores.
Violating waste notification requirements.
Not providing requested records.
“The board found the acts of this licensee especially egregious. The licensee disregarded marijuana industry regulations and put the public at significant risk by selling products that were not safe, tested, or tracked.” – Peter Mlynarik, Marijuana Control Board chair, in a press release.
The company’s license was initially suspended on Dec. 6. Frozen Budz can appeal the decision to the state Office of Administrative Hearings.
A cannabis-infused topical took home the top prize at the first-ever New England Harvest Cup, held in Worcester, Massachusetts over the weekend. The topical, “Sweet Releaf” produced by Clinton Bradshaw of Rhode Island’s Rogue Island Genetics, won best overall product, the Boston Globe reports.
“It’s nice. It was surprising to [win] overall; to see a topical picked over flower, concentrates, and edibles. I really wasn’t ready for that.” – Bradshaw
In total there were 73 submissions from more than 50 growers. The products were judged on: aroma, ash, appearance, effect, taste, and cure.
Peter Bernard, president and director of the Massachusetts Growers Advocacy Council, which organized the inaugural festival, called the win “overwhelming.”
“I’ve been smoking for a long time, and there wasn’t a single entry that I thought, ‘Eh, this is mediocre.’ It was all the most beautiful stuff in the world.” – Bernard
The event also featured a 100-foot long, 1,000-gram joint – an attempt to set the world record by Beantown Greentown. In an interview with MassLive, Beantown Greentown Partner Andrew Mutty said the lifestyle company would give away about 20 feet, give some more to cannabis-focused publications at the event, and “try to find a way” to smoke the rest.
Arbor Cannabis took the best flower award with a 25.5% THC iteration of Davy Jones.
Hawaii’s industrial hemp cultivation program has suffered a setback after seeds imported from Jamaicanot only arrived late but also failed a basic inspection, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald reports. The Department of Agriculture expected to begin accepting applications for the pilot program next month, but now estimate they might not open applications until February.
Shelley Choy, the program coordinator, anticipated the 50 pounds of hemp seed would arrive in June, but it didn’t arrive until October and less than 1 percent of the shipment complied with state requirements. The shipment was destroyed. Choy indicated that a new source of seed is being considered – a Chinese seller that offers 100 pounds of seed to $1,200 – but those seeds are undergoing germination tests in Malawi and Australia to determine whether they are suitable for tropical climates.
“Everything’s in this limbo state right now.” – Choy
The application fee in order to participate in the program is $500. Licensees would be required to use seed provided by the Agriculture Department and give the agency updates on their crops. Once launched, the pilot program is expected to run until 2021, after which state lawmakers will determine whether or not to continue the pilot program or expand statewide hemp production.
Headset is a cannabis-specific business intelligence company, which means we handle a lot of data. By a lot, I mean that we track sales data in real-time for over 325 retailers in 8 states. Since we launched in June of 2015, we’ve tracked over 1,889,000,000 transactions. Suffice to say, all those data have some interesting things to tell us. While the core of our business is making real-time business intelligence accessible at the touch of a button, we also love to zoom out and nerd out on all the fun facts in our dataset.
The following are some of the more interesting insights about Washington’s cannabis marketplace that we’ve gained over 2017, which we also discussed on our recent Ganjapreneur.com Podcast appearance.
Demographics
The first question we get when it comes to cannabis sales data is always, “Who?” People want insights into who their customers are and how their generation or gender might shape their purchasing decisions.
When it comes to what types of products the different generations prefer, flower is still the number one seller across the board. However, while the overwhelming majority of each age group prefers flower, the runner-up in each category is different.
Millennials tend to buy concentrates the most, with 17% of their sales going to concentrates. Gen Xers are split between concentrates and vapor pens, while Boomers like vapor pens and pre-rolls.
Millennials are the dominant category of consumers overall, with 49% of the total market share in our dataset. Gen Xers aren’t too far behind though, at 39%. Interestingly, more Gen X and Boomer women participate in the cannabis market than for Millenials, where only 31% of sales go to women.
Strains
There are a million strains out there these days — Scroopy Noopers, anyone? — so it’s always interesting to see which ones stand out in the crowd. Blue Dream is still the crowd favorite, with about 1,040,000 units sold for a total revenue of roughly $19 million in Washington in 2017. Another strain name you hear a lot, Gorilla Glue, was close on the heels of Blue Dream, selling about 30,000 fewer units. However, the total revenue generated by Gorilla Glue was higher, at about $21.2 million.
Dutch Treat is in third place, and there’s a significant gap between it and the top two. Green Crack, despite its less-than-PC name, made it to fourth place.
The unit-to-revenue ratio difference between Blue Dream and Gorilla Glue is, we suspect, due to larger producers doing higher volumes of Blue Dream for lower prices. This is probably a bit of a chicken-and-egg scenario, as Blue Dream’s widespread popularity could be driving producers to grow more of it.
Producers
Flower is still the top product in Washington State, so brands with serious flower operations dominate the market in this data. Phat Panda and Northwest Cannabis Solutions (NWCS) are currently the state’s top two brands, and both are pretty neck-and-neck in terms of units sold and total revenue. Both hover around 1.2 million units sold over the past year. Artizen Cannabis is in 3rd place, with about 300,000 units less than Phat Panda or NWCS. Fireline and Top Shelf are next in line, with about 50% of the units sold of Phat Panda or NWCS.
Our data seems to suggest that product variety is a big part of Phat Panda’s success. We show over 1000 unique Phat Panda SKUs in our system across nine different product segments. Price doesn’t seem to slow them down, as their average item price of $9 is above the industry average of $8. Their advantages also lie in a robust distribution network and unique packaging and branding, which offers some proof that, in both wholesale and retail situations, superior service and branding can trump price pressure.
Consumer price sensitivity is another very hot topic in cannabis data. In our experience, the vast majority of consumers aren’t exactly big single-trip spenders, as 44% of consumers go for single grams. After that, we see 39% of consumers buying eighths, but popularity drops drastically as quantity goes up. Simply put, people aren’t buying big ticket items too frequently. This could be due to not having the funds on hand to buy full ounces, people wanting to sample the ever-growing variety of strains, or, as we like to joke, Millennials spending all their money on avocado toast.
In terms of the actual dollar prices of those single grams, their average item price is around $8 pre-tax. Eighths are about $24 and ounces are about $95. This strongly suggests that variety, more than price sensitivity, drives the popularity of single grams, as $95 for an ounce translates to about $3.50 per gram. That’s a pretty significant volume discount. Overall, prices have fallen significantly since legalization in Washington launched, but they have started to plateau recently. We expect these prices stay in place for awhile.
And while we’ve all heard stories of $2.50 pre-roll specials and watched $5 grams become standard, we’re always fascinated by the other end of the spectrum: the most expensive products. The biggest standout in that area is the “cannagar,” from Leira, which we’ve seen for $350 and up, depending on the store. It’s a 15-gram cannabis cigar, wrapped with cannabis leaves, layered with kief, and sometimes even studded with concentrates. It’s basically the cannabis equivalent of popping a bottle of Dom Pérignon!
The other spendy one we’ve noticed is a Rick Simpson Oil (RSO) called Jackie White, from Craft Elixirs, at $130 for 3g. It’s not a crazy price per gram, but it is a higher overall price than most concentrates, which are typically sold in 1g units. So anyone buying that is probably stocking up, which makes a lot of sense given that RSO is popular with medical cannabis patients.
Edibles are probably the largest category that we track to show continual growth year-to-year, but there are lots of smaller categories that are having their moments, so to speak. Tinctures and capsules are among those, and the growth rates in those categories can be really astronomical because there are so few competitors to begin with. This can be because the category simply didn’t exist before, like distillates, or because consumers discovered it suddenly.
Other market factors can play a role too. For example, RSO and Whole Plant Extract (WPE) showed a pretty huge growth spike right after Washington State incorporated its medical cannabis system into the recreational one, where we get our data from. Those products are primarily used by medical patients, so that was a really cool example of being able to watch a real market trend play out in terms of data.
Michigan’s Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs is now accepting applications for medical cannabis cultivators, processors, transporters, dispensaries, and testing laboratories. Interested businesses and individuals can apply online or in-person.
The agency has released an application instruction booklet to help candidates navigate the process, which includes background checks, and a $6,000 application fee.
“Designing and implementing the regulatory framework for this new industry has been a year-long effort by the entire Bureau of Medical Marihuana Regulation team. We are ready to accept applications by the deadline set in statute. There are several user-friendly application methods that prospective licensees can utilize. We look forward to administering fair and efficient regulations for business customers while ensuring that medical marihuana patients are protected.” LARA Director Shelly Edgerton, in a press release
The department hosted a series of education sessions on the new regime to prepare would-be operators in November.
The new licenses migrate the state’s medical cannabis program from a so-called “gray market” to a more comprehensive and regulated regime. Gov. Rick Snyder signed the reform package into law last September. Under the original voter-approved 2008 law, medical cannabis was deemed legal, but dispensaries were not explicitly permitted, leaving them open to crackdowns by law enforcement.
Twelve more dispensaries in Maryland were given the green light to sell to patients yesterday, but Medical Cannabis Commission Chairman Bryan Lopez told the Baltimore Sun that “product is limited.”
The approvals more than double the number of dispensaries currently operating in the state. So far, more than 18,000 patients have registered with the state with 5,000 more applications pending, according to the report. The state has licensed 14 cultivators to serve a total of 102 dispensaries throughout the state; however, just 22 are currently operating and 60 more are awaiting finalization. So far, 712 doctors have signed up to participate in the program, which was delayed nearly five years.
In interviews with the Washington Post earlier this month, several dispensaries shared their retail prices, ranging from $400 to $680 per ounce, but the managers and owners suggested that prices would be reduced – perhaps within six months.
The state’s market could be subject to more changes before current operators are stabilized, as members of the Legislative Black Caucus announced last month they were drafting a bill to award 10 new medical cannabis cultivator and processor licenses for African-American entrepreneurs after they were shut out of the companies awarded licenses. Two would-be medical cannabis companies are also suing the state, accusing officials of arbitrarily denying them licenses.
Eight Sweet Leaf stores in Colorado have had their licenses suspended and 12 people have been arrested as part of a yearlong investigation by local law enforcement – not federal – into illegal cannabis sales, according to a Cannabist report.
All 10 Sweet Leaf shops in Denver and one in Aurora were closed on Thursday; however, the shop in Portland, Oregon remained open, according to the report.
According to a press release from the Denver Department of Public Safety, “the alleged criminal actions are related to the allowable [one-ounce] amounts established by Amendment 64.”
Sweet Leaf representatives told the Cannabist that they were “cooperating with the authorities to resolve this issue and hope to have all of their stores back in operation as soon as possible.”
“It is unclear at this point exactly what actions, if any, Sweet Leaf took to cause the city to issue this order.” – Sweet Leaf, in an email to the Cannabist
According to the suspension order, regulators can suspend a license “when the director has reasonable grounds to believe that a licensee has engaged in deliberate and willful violation of any applicable law or regulation.”
Isaac Dietrich is back in as MassRoots CEO following his ouster in October by the Board of Directors.
What happened? On Oct. 16, board members voted to remove Dietrich and install then-Vice President Scott Kveton following MassRoots’ deal to acquire CannaRegs – a technology platform that tracks federal and municipal cannabis regulations. Kveton and other board members believed the $12 million price was too steep. CannaRegs President Amanda Ostrowitz voided the deal two days after it was announced the board had voted to remove Dietrich.
On Nov. 14, MassRoots filed a lawsuit against the founder, alleging that Dietrich had paid himself and others without authorization amounts totaling $250,000; and committed “serious misconduct,” including “illegal drug use at the workplace,” and sexual misconduct, according to a Cannabist report, citing the complaint.
All the while, Dietrich remained the company’s largest shareholder and had threatened to hold a shareholder proxy vote to reinstate him; instead, on Dec. 12, three board members, Ean Seeb, Vincent Keber, and Terence Fitch, resigned from the company’s board, and Kveton resigned as CEO and left the company the following day, according to a Thursday 8-K filing. As part of the separation agreement, the board members received an undisclosed stock-and-cash package while Kveton received a $45,000 severance package and his 1.5 million-plus stock shares were “accelerated and vest immediately upon his resignation.”
“My slate of directors was appointed, Scott Kveton resigned today, and I was reappointed CEO. So it achieved everything the proxy aimed to achieve, but it was done much more rapidly and at a much lower cost.” – Dietrich to MJBizDaily
Charles Blum, former president and CEO of QS Energy; Cecil Kyte, Rightscorp CEO; and Nathan Shelton, former director of QS Energy, were named to the MassRoots board. The lawsuit has been dropped.
The Colorado Department of Revenue is now releasing the state’s cannabis sales data from Jan. 2014 to the present and will release monthly reports going forward on the seventh business day of each month.
The Revenue Department’s Office of Research and Analysis will produce the reports which will show gross sales minus wholesale sales for retail and medical cannabis shops county-by-county.
“We know this information is highly desired by the general public, media and researchers. To that end, in our efforts to be as transparent as possible, we will now provide aggregate sales data. That, coupled with state tax revenue data already provided, will give an accurate picture of the financial footprint of this burgeoning industry.” – Mike Hartman, executive director of the Colorado Department of Revenue, in a press release
According to the data already released by the department, Colorado sales have reached more than $1.2 billion so far from January to October and will likely exceed 2016’s total sales of more than $1.3 billion by year’s end. The report shows that since legalization in 2014, cannabis sales have exceeded $4.2 billion.
The state’s monthly sales data shows that retail sales in the state peaked last July – to about $140 million – but fell slightly in September to about $130 million.
Canadian cannabis firms Aurora Cannabis and CannaRoyalty have signed a letter of intent which would give Aurora exclusive rights to MüV brand products – to which CannaRoyalty holds the licensing rights – in Canada, Europe and Australia.
The products covered under the agreement include:
MüV Metered Dose Inhaler
MüV Transdermal Patch
CBD Sports Gel
CBD Hydrating Lotion
THC Sports Gel
THC Hydrating Lotion
THC Pain Relief Cream
The products are developed by CannaRoyalty investee AltMed Enterprises. CannaRoyalty holds an 8.3 percent equity stake in AltMed, along with licensing rights for MüV products in carious jurisdictions. AltMed is headquartered in Sarasota, Florida.
“This agreement with Aurora represents a significant opportunity to accelerate the growth of AltMed’s award-winning MüV product line on an international scale, leveraging our relationship with one of the world’s most dynamic cannabis companies. The MüV line meets the growing need for specialized products with alternative delivery mechanisms, especially in critical jurisdictions, such as Canada and Germany, where consumers to date have been limited in terms of product choice.” – Marc Lustig, CannaRoyalty CEO, in a press release
The letter of intent gives Aurora exclusive rights for 90 days to negotiate a final agreement.
The Cleveland School of Cannabis, formally known as Cleveland Cannabis College, has received approval from the Ohio Board of Career Colleges and Schools – making them the first school east of Colorado with state-approved career programs.
The board approved all four programs by the school – Cannabis Business, Cannabis Horticulture, Medical Applications of Cannabis, and Cannabis Executive – contingent upon an occupancy permit from the city, which is expected this week. The certificates offered by the school are considered the same level as an accounting certificate, real estate certificate, paralegal certificate, among others.
“As an educational facility that is working to advance the study and understanding of cannabis in our country today, we are incredibly honored to be the second state approved institution in the country right now.” – Richard Pine, dean of recruitment and public relations, in a press release
Registration for classes at the school are ongoing with courses expected to begin next month. The state-approved certificate programs run from $6,500 to $12,500. Program hours range from 136 to 266.5. Single courses are also available, as well as state-required classes for physicians and dispensary owners and employees. Pine indicated that the state’s cannabis industry is expected to create more than 4,000 jobs.
A would-be medical cannabis cultivator in Ohio is suing the state over the racial-equity provisions included in the licensing process which forced the firm out of contention, Cleveland.com reports.
The complaint, filed on behalf of PharmaCann Ohio, LLC, argues the “racial quota” provisions in the state medical cannabis law run afoul of the state Constitution’s equal protection clause. The suit seeks to force the state to award licenses to the top 12 scoring applicants rather than bumping high-scoring companies in favor of those with lower scores but run by minorities. The plaintiffs are also seeing a temporary order to stop the Department of Commerce from issuing provisional licenses to the two minority-led firms that received licenses despite ranking outside of the top 12.
According to the report, PharmaCann ranked 12th, while Parma Wellness Center, LLC ranked 14th, and Harvest Grows, LLC ranked 23rd – yet both were selected by the Commerce Department.
“Our company values diversity and inclusion. Remedying the effects of past discrimination is a worthy goal of the Ohio legislature. In this case, however, there simply is no basis in evidence that economic disparity exists in an industry that itself doesn’t yet exist in Ohio.” – PharmaCann policy director Jeremy Unruh to Cleveland.com.
The state’s medical cannabis law requires that at least 15 percent of industry licenses are awarded to “economically disadvantaged” groups, including; African-Americans, Indigenous populations, Asians, and Hispanics or Latinos.
The complaint contends that the businesses were not actually “economically disadvantaged” because they were able to pay the $750,000 application fee in an escrow account or surety bond.
According to the report, at least one more lawsuit by a rejected applicant is expected to be filed in the state.
The World Health Organization has released a report concluding that there is “no evidence” of “public health related problems associated with the use of pure CBD.”
“In humans, CBD exhibits no effects indicative of any abuse or dependence potential. … CBD is generally well tolerated with a good safety profile. Reported adverse effects may be as a result of drug-drug interactions between CBD and patients’ existing medications.”
The report notes that, under experimental conditions, CBD can be converted to THC, however, “it does not appear to occur any significant effect in patients undergoing CBD treatment.” The authors point out that while there is significant evidence that CBD can be used to treat epilepsy, there is mounting evidence that it is also useful as a neuroprotective, antipsychotic, anti-inflammatory, antitumor, anti-asthmatic, and analgesic.
“Another possible therapeutic application which has been investigated is the use of CBD to treat drug addiction. A recent systematic review concluded that there were a limited number of preclinical studies which suggest that CBD may have therapeutic properties on opioid, cocaine, and psychostimulant addiction, and some preliminary data suggest that it may be beneficial in cannabis and tobacco addiction in humans. However, considerably more research is required to evaluate CBD as a potential treatment.”
The report comes as the organization is considering changes to international restrictions on drug use. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration called for public comments on the issue as part of their response to the WHO proposal.
Under a new deal with the federal government, Canadian provinces will receive 75 percent of taxes derived from the legalized cannabis industry after the feds initially proposed a 50/50 profit share, according to a BBC report. In October, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau proposed a 10 percent excise tax on recreational products that should not exceed 10 percent of product prices.
The deal allows the federal government to keep 25 percent, so long as that share does not exceed $78 million per year; additional revenues will be redistributed to the provinces. The feds also suggest that the price-per-gram be set around C$8 in order to weaken the illicit market.
Provincial officials argued that they should receive the lion’s share of the profits because they bear the majority of the costs associated with regulation, public health, law enforcement, and distribution.
Conservative Canadian senators are seeking to delay the adult-use rollout – which Trudeau hopes to launch on July 1. Conservative Sen. Claude Carignan suggests that the reforms could be pushed back to the end of 2018 so lawmakers can do their job “properly.” Meanwhile, Prince Edward Island, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Alberta, and Quebec have unveiled provincial measures to regulate the industry.
According to the BBC report, Canada’s recreational cannabis market is estimated to reach C$3.7 billion to C$5 billion.
According to a study from PayScale, cannabis industry employees are more optimistic about the future of their employers than the rest of the U.S. workforce. The study, based on nearly 500 salary profiles from individuals working in both medical and recreational cannabis businesses, found that 68 percent of cannabusiness employees “believe their employers have a bright future” compared to 59 percent of Americans from Sept. 2015 to Sept. 2017, according to an outline of the data by the News Tribune.
The researchers also reviewed median annual incomes for cannabis industry employees and found the average budtender makes $28,300 per year with a median $98 per week in tips, medical cannabis cultivators earn $38,000 per year,operations managers make $43,500 per year, and retail store managers make $44,000 annually.
“The only caveat is that regulations do differ by state and, from what PayScale can tell, within a state between retail and medical, so these differing restrictions could potentially affect wages.”
PayScale’s data does not include state-by-state breakdowns due to the limited figures available.
Advocates in Ohio have unveiled their proposal to legalize cannabis for adult use, which includes language legalizing industrial hemp cultivation in the state, according to a LEX18 report. In 2015, Ohio voters rejected a legalization proposal in part because many feared that the measure language would create a monopoly in the industry.
The new proposal is spearheaded by Jimmy Gould and Ian James, who were also behind the 2015 attempt. Gould said the new proposal, dubbed the Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Amendment, is “not a reborn Issue 3.”
“There’s no control here by anybody – this is free market.” – Gould
Included in the amendment proposal:
Local control over whether or not to allow cannabis operations, including limits on the number of retail locations.
Allowing voters to determine by ballot whether to allow retail operations in their precinct, similar to liquor licenses.
Bans on cannabis use in public and on any form of public transportation
Language protecting the state’s medical cannabis program, which is expected to roll out by Sept. 8, 2018.
The campaign must collect 305,591 valid signatures by July 2018 in order for the amendment to be included on Nov. 2018 ballots.
Following the failure of Issue 3, Gould indicated the group, ResponsibleOhio, was “dead” after spending $20 million on the failed campaign.
Massachusetts‘ Cannabis Control Commission has approved a social-use policy that will allow cannabis to be consumed on premises in so-called “cannabis cafés,” WBUR News reports. Under the rules, budtenders will need to undergo training to identify whether a patron should be cut off and alcohol will not be served at the cafés.
“I think that with cannabis use, having been so underground as part of prohibition, it was something that had to be kept secret and as a result, there wasn’t as much opportunity for education and awareness and the sharing of information about responsible use, so that’s the part I’m excited about.” – CCC Commissioner Shaleen Title.
The social-use licenses will extend to other businesses, such as spas, although the commission will discuss additional policies and is expected to vote on draft regulations by the end of next week.
Cannabis Advisory Board Member Michael Latulippe called the measure “transformative.”
“I think we’ll be the first state in the country to offer this, so essentially we will have in place a regulated, safe and controlled system by which to consume cannabis on site and legal businesses.” – Latulippe
The state’s cannabis regulations must be approved by mid-March in order for the industry to roll out on July 1.
California’s Secretary of State has launched an online portal for would-be cannabis business owners – CannaBizFile – and enlisted Cheech Marin in a commercial to spread the word. The Secretary of State’s office is the filing agency for all business entity documents in the state, including legal canna-businesses.
“Our new cannabizfile portal makes the process for starting a cannabis business easier to navigate for entrepreneurs. The new site also includes information about registering a business, trademark, or service mark. Our new ‘Starting a Cannabis Business’ brochure can provide a starting point for new entrepreneurs seeking to quickly get their business up and running.” – Secretary of State Alex Padilla, in a press release.
The licensing authorities for the State of California are the Bureau of Cannabis Control within the Department of Consumer Affairs, the Manufactured Cannabis Safety Branch with the California Department of Public Health, and CalCannabis within the California Department of Food & Agriculture.
Filing documents with the California Secretary of State alone does not provide a business with the necessary licenses to conduct commercial cannabis-related activities.
Current operators seeking to convert from a nonprofit mutual benefit corporation or cooperative corporation to a for-profit entity must file with the Secretary of State. Beginning Jan. 1, business owners may register their cannabis-related trademarks or service marks with the Secretary of State’s office.
The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia is partnering with Australian biopharmaceutical firm Zelda Therapeutics on an observational study into the effects of medical cannabis on autistic children, according to a Philadelphia Inquirer report. The study participants will already be covered under the Pennsylvania medical cannabis Safe Harbor provision.
“This is truly an observational study. We’re not giving them anything. We’re just gathering data to educate ourselves.” – Athena Zuppa, director of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Center for Clinical Pharmacology.
Zelda completed a similar observational study in Chile last year, and is set to begin trials on the effects of medical cannabis for patients suffering from chronic insomnia.
Zuppa indicated that one of the aims of the study is to determine what parents are giving their autistic children.
“We’re trying to understand the landscape of what the kids are taking. Some kids are taking only CBD and some are taking a mixture of CBD and THC. I’m trying to understand how parents make their choices.” – Zuppa.
The partnership was spearheaded by Erica Daniels, founder of Hope Grows for Autism, who said the study has “the potential to transform lives.”
Pennsylvania’s medical cannabis program is expected to roll out early next year.
The Hartford, Connecticut City Council has unanimously backed a resolution in favor of a taxed and regulated recreational cannabis market in the state, specifically urging state lawmakers to support the passage of such legislation.
The resolution includes a directive for the city to conduct an economic impact study on legalization and language supporting racial equity provisions in the industry, which provides for priority licensing and employment opportunities for citizens most impacted by the War of Drugs.
“By passing this resolution, we put ourselves in a position to ensure the implementation of marijuana regulation is grounded in racial and economic justice.” – Hartford City Councilwoman Wildaliz Bermudez, sponsor of the resolution, in a press release.
In October, a Sacred Heart University Institute for Public Policy poll found 71 percent of Connecticut residents supported legalizing and taxing cannabis for adult use, including 83.2 percent of residents under 35-years-old and 73.6 percent of residents with children.
During debates by the General Assembly Public Health Committee last Spring, Republican state Rep. Melissa Ziobron estimated that the state could see between $30 million and $100 million annually from taxes derived from the legal cannabis industry. Democratic lawmakers included funds from a theoretical recreational cannabis program in their budget recommendation, which the state’s Office of Fiscal Analysis estimated would contribute $64 million to state coffers in its first year.
Democratic Gov. Dan Malloy has called cannabis industry dollars “blood money” and would likely veto any legalization measure.
The CBD and Hemp Holiday Farmers Market took over Burlington, Vermont’s City Hall – yes, City Hall – on Sunday in the latest Heady Vermont-organized effort to provide public exposure for the state’s burgeoning industry.
The event featured 18 vendors and, according to the coordinators, drew at least 500 people interested in the hemp-derived CBD products – from topicals to smokeables, edibles, and everything in-between.
Eli Harrington, co-organizer of the event and co-founder of Heady Vermont, said the event is “the most basic concept in the world” for consumers – especially those in Vermont who are accustomed to a farm-to-consumer pipeline.
“That is really the mission behind this – we really want to promote the local industry; the local producers, the local product-makers,” Harrington explained. “We don’t have the retail structure set up right now and a lot of these places aren’t selling online – this represents a real opportunity to, literally and metaphorically, find the market.”
This is the third such direct-to-consumer market hosted this year by Heady Vermont, a Burlington-based cannabis news and lifestyle outlet, including September’s inaugural Vermont Hemp Fest and a previous CBD and Hemp Farmers Market held in the city last month.
“For Vermonters, the concept of a farmer’s market is pretty ingrained,” Harrington explained in the foyer of City Hall as dozens of potential customers walked by. “It’s beneficial for the public as well, because they don’t have to worry about what website they’re reading … people don’t have to worry about where their information is coming from – is this ‘fake news,’ is this a crazy pro-weed blog – they come and get it first-hand.”
For Fred LeBlanc, the 22-year-old owner of Humble Roots Horticulture, the market provides his upstart company its first opportunity to sell products to consumers after more than a year of research and development, production, and testing. Humble Roots both cultivates and processes their products exclusively in Vermont, partnering with other local businesses for processing. LeBlanc says keeping the operations in the state helps set them apart from some of the other manufacturers and retailers which, in some cases, obtain products from other states, such as Colorado. Humble Roots’ first line of products include a concentrate, a topical salve, a vape cartridge and “whole-plant” hemp oil.
“Customers get to see the flower that we grew and the products that were made from those flowers,” he said on the market floor. “We tried to craft products we were more than happy with and give the public a perfect product.”
LeBlanc attested to the importance of the day’s market – which Humble Roots sponsored – explaining that such markets help shed light on an industry that has been “tucked away” for a long time. And, while Humble Roots does use social media to market to consumers, “there is nothing like being able to showcase our whole spread of products and being able to interact one-on-one” with consumers.
Across the aisle from Humble Roots, the Hemp Vermont Growers Co-op, organized by James Mack, used the opportunity to reach out to potential members as well as consumers. Mack said the organization hoped to engage with landowners in the state and help them to “coalesce so when the big wave comes they’ll be ready for it.” Mack said the co-op wants to ensure that “their land isn’t bought out from under them” and they can “participate in the profits” as the hemp industry matures.
“We could work with a lot of small, artisanal producers in Vermont that aren’t just necessarily growing hemp – jelly manufacturers, soap manufacturers – the sky’s the limit,” he said, noting that, at present, the state’s 540 registered hemp-producing acres and the average size of the family farm – about 90 acres – aren’t enough for some products, such as fiber; but he’s hoping that, as events like the farmers market help spread awareness, some of these farms will enter the space and begin to process hemp for food or sell it to processors for CBD-infused products.
“What Vermont should be able to do is produce some fine CBD strains, speaking realistically,” he said. “We, of course, want to support the whole industry, but this is still such a nascent market we have to look at consumer demand and processing.”
Looking around the vendor hall, Mack said the number of businesses and potential customers proved that the demand is increasing and evidenced the “tight-knit” hemp-growing community that is coming of age in the state.
Pennsylvania hemp production is expected to increase from just 50 acres this year to possibly more than 5,000 in 2018, according to National Public Radio station 90.5 WESA. State Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding said that research at Penn State showed hemp crops could increase the productivity of existing farmland.
“Research … at Penn State [showed] that you can actually use industrial hemp as a double crop, behind wheat. I think if that plays out to be real, that is a game changer. You immediately change what options farmers have and you open up new markets.” – Agriculture Secretary Redding
The report comes less than a month after Vote Hemp released its U.S. Hemp Crop Report which found acreage of hemp crops more than doubled from 9,770 in 2016 to 23,346 this year. According to that report, just four states had lower hemp production than Pennsylvania last year – Indiana, Maine, Nebraska, and West Virginia. Pennsylvania did not grow a single hemp crop in 2016, the Hemp Crop Report indicates, but if hemp cultivation reaches 5,000 acres next year, they will outproduce every state’s 2017 output save for Colorado.
The deadline for individual growers and higher education institutions to apply to cultivate hemp in the state is Jan. 19.
Conservative Canadian senators could prevent the nation’s legalization proposal from becoming law by the July deadline, the Globe and Mail reports. Sen. Claude Carignan suggests the bill’s passage could be pushed back to the end of 2018.
“I think we have to do our job properly, and that means months. … The House took eight months to study [the bills]. It will probably take the same timeline to do our job properly. – Sen. Carignan
Lawmakers are expected to begin debating both the legalization measure and bills for cannabis-impaired driving at the end of January; however, Carignan argues that the legislation package does not address issues such as equipment and training for police, drug tests for employees, tax implications on provinces, and the impact of legalization on youth. The federal government has earmarked $9.6 million from this year’s budget on a public health campaign about legalization aimed at minors 13 to 17-years-old and young adults 18 to 24.
According to the report, the Senate could implement a strict timeline on debate, testimony; and independent senators could build a coalition to set and enforce a deadline for the bills in order to prevent Conservative delays. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has 11 Senate vacancies he could fill in an effort to build such a coalition.
