Medical cannabis is now legal in Greece following a ministerial decision by the Ministers of Health and Justice, according to a Neos Kosmosreport. The decision moves cannabis from its Table A classification, where it was listed along with heroin, to Table B, which includes cocaine, opium, and methadone.
“From now on, the country is turning its page, as Greece is now included in countries where the delivery of medical cannabis to patients in need is legal,” said Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in the report.
The announcement did not include a licensing framework, but licensing regulations are expected for cultivation and distribution. Tsipras indicated that once the framework is completed the nation will also likely allow importation of medical cannabis products.
The decision comes less than a year after the Ministry of Health announced that a panel of experts would study the prospect of legalizing medical cannabis use federally. Greece joins Canada, Mexico, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, Austria, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Spain, and Uruguay as nations with some national access to medical cannabis.
According to a recent Marijuana Majority poll conducted by Survey USA, 76 percent of Americans support state-legal medical cannabis programs; however, there is little support from federal lawmakers to implement national reforms.
After failing to gain enough support to pass a recreational cannabis measure, Delaware’s legislature has created a “Cannabis Task Force” that will study the legalization issue and recommend a course of action by January, according to a report from NewsWorks.
The legalization measure was sponsored by Rep. Helene Keeley, who argued that taxing and regulating cannabis sales would help the state bridge its $386 million budget gap as her colleagues debate ways to cut spending during a special post-June 30th session. Keeley, a Democrat, said she was just a few votes short in the bid to legalize cannabis for adult use this session and the task force is a compromise.
The task force aims to provide insight into how local authorities and control agencies would deal with any issues related to legalization, including impaired driving, taxation, and substance abuse prevention. Keeley’s bill would model the industry similarly to existing alcohol laws in the state.
According to the report, Democratic Gov. John Carney doesn’t fully back the plan, but previously held a series of town hall meeting for citizens to express their opinions on the issue. Kelley’s bill would allow adults 21-and-old and older to purchase cannabis products and legally possess up to 1 ounce of flower and 5 grams of concentrates.
Keeley has estimated that a legal cannabis market could generate $22 million in revenue during its first year in operation.
An eco-friendly building material company in New York that utilizes hemp in its products has been awarded a $9.1 million contract from the U.S. Department of Defense to create new living building materials, according to a report from NPR-affiliate WAMC. Ecovative Design has been using a variety of products in its building supplies since it was founded 10 years ago, including agricultural waste, fungus, and, more recently, hemp.
The raw material “looks like mulch,” said the company’s Products Development Specialist Kyle Bucklin in the report, “but it’s actually corn and hemp mixed together.” The product also contains mycelium – think the roots of a mushroom – which is activated with water and a little flour to hold the materials together in any shape.
Gavin McIntyre, Ecovative chief scientist, said the company is planning to scale up the production of the building material that would be able to self-repair.
“For instance, if there were an issue, say, a leak in your roof. This material could react to that leak and self-repair as such that you no longer have to worry about that hole in your roof because the material has responded to that naturally,” he said in the report.
The Department of Defense’s interest in the product is likely due to the self-repair features and the compound’s ability to be grown on site, which would reduce the need to import building materials into conflict zones.
Last week, reforms to Washington’s adult-use cannabis program took effect, allowing businesses to apply for trademark protections, making changes to industry advertising rules, and requiring the Liquor and Cannabis Board to study the feasibility of home-grows, which remains illegal in the state.
The measure increases the number of retail locations a licensee can run from three to five and allows permits to be revoked if the approved entity doesn’t open a location within two years. That revocation, however, would not be permitted if the business owner is “incapable of opening a fully operational retail marijuana business due to the actions by the city, town, or county with jurisdiction over the licensee,” according to the bill text.
The new rules also set advertising limits on cannabis operations in an effort to prevent advertising to children. The new advertising rules ban public transit advertising and marketing aimed at out-of-state residents and prohibit cannabis companies from using “toys…inflatables, movie or cartoon characters” in their advertising campaigns, including mascots.
While billboard advertisements are permitted, those are limited to shop name and location only, and bans such advertisements from containing “any depictions of marijuana plants.” Violations of the advertising rules can result in fines of $1,000.
The legislation requires that the Liquor and Cannabis Board provide the legislature with a report on home-grows by Dec. 1.
As officials in Denver, Colorado are preparing to roll out the voter-approved social-use scheme next month, both cannabis and non-cannabis businesses are preparing for the changes. The four-year pilot program will allow companies to apply for social-use licenses – which cost $1,000 – but under the rules, customers must bring their own cannabis products.
Jim Norris, the co-owner of the Mutiny Information Café, a used bookstore and coffee shop, is vying for a permit hoping to turn the shop into a cannabis café once a month, hosting a “dance party-slash-comedy deal.”
“We’re going to have people come in and just smoke weed and hang out. They’re going to buy a book, they’re going to play pinball, they’re going to have some coffee, maybe get a comic or a record.” Norris said in a Buzzfeedreport. “So basically, it’s already the same thing I’ve got going, except we can smoke weed. Caffeine and cannabis is the perfect combination. It inspires talk, it inspires creativity.”
However, some in the cannabis community are not so enthused by the rules. Tim Morgen, community relations specialist for BGood, said that cannabis operators won’t be able to make money off of public consumption.
“The industry, as a whole, has nothing to win on this,” Morgen said. “It’s not worth the fight.”
Nick Armogida, a marketing consultant, took Morgen’s sentiments a bit further and called the rules something “Jeff Sessions’ office” might have come up with.
Alaska’s Marijuana Control Board is currently consideringsocial-use rules for the entire state, but none of their proposals are of the bring-your-own variety. Instead, regulators in Alaska are considering allowing consumption only if the products are purchased on-site, sampling, and allowing on-site consumption of edibles but prohibiting smoking and vaping.
Emmett Reistroffer, campaign director for Denver’s I-300 social-use initiative, called the city ordinance “far from what the voters approved six months ago.”
“I would say 99 percent of the businesses that expressed interest in these permits are no longer eligible or interested because of the burdens,” he said.
One of the first things you learn in high school civics class is that there is federal law, and then there is state law. There are times where these two worlds collide; the collision is particularly bad when it comes to cannabis.
Currently, we have 29 states plus the District of Columbia that have legalized cannabis for medical and/or recreational use. Problems arise because the federal government considers cannabis to be a Schedule 1 drug — the most restrictive category possible — which presents a quagmire for those in the industry when it comes to banking and taxation.
Into the Tax Court, we go
First, let’s tackle taxes. There was a famous U.S. Tax Court Case, Edmonson v. Commissioner in which Jeffrey Edmonson was a drug dealer. He sold amphetamines, cocaine, and marijuana — and for his crimes, he was sent to federal prison in 1974. When he was released, the Internal Revenue Service reconstructed his income and sent him a Notice of Deficiency. Edmonson took the IRS to Court in 1981. He reasoned that if the government was going to treat his drug sales as a business, then they should also consider his business expenses.
Drug dealers didn’t keep records, so by using something called the Cohan Rule, Edmonson testified that he sold his drugs on consignment. He wanted to take expenses for the cost of the drugs. However, he had to travel as well, and he had a dedicated telephone line, all of which the Tax Court considered and gave him credit for those expenses. Congress hated this, so they came up with an amendment to the Internal Revenue Code, Section 280E, which states:
No deduction or credit shall be allowed for any amount paid or incurred during the taxable year in carrying on any trade or business if such trade or business (or the activities which comprise such trade or business) consists of trafficking in controlled substances (within the meaning of schedule I and II of the Controlled Substances Act) which is prohibited by Federal law or the law of any State in which such trade or business is conducted.
Section 280E is still in force today. If you are a cannabis business owner, you are probably aware of this, for even in a state where cannabis is perfectly legal, when you file your taxes, all you can do is take an expense for the cost of the cannabis.
Consider the case of Californians Helping to Alleviate Medical Problems Inc. v. Commissioner in 2007 — a.k.a. CHAMPS. What this company did was sell subscriptions to anyone that had a medical marijuana card. They offered a monthly membership which included cannabis, but it also covered caregiving that would help their patients through the conditions that ailed them. The Court reasoned that there could be two businesses under one roof and it was mathematically easy to figure out how much of the expenses would be billed under caregiving and what would be billed as cannabis.
BINGO! We had found a way around Section 280E — but it’s not actually that simple.
Relying on experts to help you navigate the complicated waters of cannabis business will make your life as an entrepreneur much easier.
Section 280E finds a way
In 2012, a company called the Vapor Room found themselves in Tax Court. The case, Olive v. Commissioner, showed us that we couldn’t just throw two businesses together and deduct expenses to get around Section 280E. In Olive, using the principle of CHAMPS, the Vapor Room was selling medical marijuana, but then just giving away things like movie nights with popcorn and Yoga Classes. But here is the problem: there was no aggressive pursuit of income for that part of the business, so Tax Court quickly disallowed these expenses. And because their tax bill was so high, the Vapor Room went out of business.
I can’t tell you how many Olive-type dispensaries I see in a year. Somewhere along the way, someone who claimed they specialized in cannabis taxation would advise splitting into two businesses by basically just throwing them together and seeing if it would fly. The validity of that tactic couldn’t be less feasible. I’ve seen dispensaries with a setup where they sold cannabis and some T-Shirts and thought that they were operating under CHAMPS. The cannabis business is one of the most audited industries and, if you are in it, you really need a person that specializes in cannabis taxation. Not someone that says they do, but someone with proven experience and the knowledge to back it up.
This story doesn’t end there. Federal law strictly imposes its ‘hands-on’ banking policies for cannabis entrepreneurs as well. Unless you have some connections or lie about the nature of your business, opening a bank account is literally impossible. While it’s legal for banks to open such accounts, banks are not usually willing to engage with the cannabis industry because of the tax and legal ambiguities.
So, you have these businesses that have to operate in all-cash, and with cash comes theft. I’ve been in practice for 23 years and I know that businesses that operate with mostly all cash are going to see employee theft. You have to think about security — and it’s not just the employees that pose a security risk, it’s the general public as well. As a result, most dispensaries require some kind of armed and/or trained security on the premises.
Joining the right team
You have the Tax Code that is against you and you have a business that is all cash, what are you supposed to do?
The easiest thing to do is do your research. Find an accounting firm that actually specializes in cannabis. In the business of marijuana, you need to rethink how you want to enter the marketplace, how you want to handle taxes, and how you want to deal with cash.
An accountant that specializes in cannabis will have connections. For instance, they would have established a “team.” They will have a cannabis attorney (you’ll need one). They will have several banking solutions for you so your cash-use is minimized. They will have solutions to the issues you will undoubtedly encounter.
For instance, because regulations regarding cannabis are generally created by the state legislature, your team will need to know the different nuances of your state. For example, if you are a dispensary in Nevada, all you can do is sell cannabis — so the two-businesses-under-one-roof strategy won’t work for you. You will need another solution to your tax problem.
Depending on your state, there may be some banks and merchant companies that will take you on as a customer. The point is that cannabis is the new gold rush, and just because someone says they specialize in cannabis doesn’t mean they do, so do your homework.
New developments for taxes and banking
For cultivators, Section 280E doesn’t take that big of a bite, taxwise. For instance, the cost of growing cannabis includes most of their expenses. Yet, even hemp farmers are under the control of Section 280E.
There are some new developments on the tax and banking side, however. In the House, they have introduced H.R.1810 – Small Business Tax Equity Act of 2017, which would get rid of Section 280E. The Senate even has a companion bill — but both bills are stuck in committee. In the Senate, they have also introduced S. Rept. 114-280 – Financial Services And General Government Appropriations Bill, 2017, which would end the industry’s banking restrictions.
Until then — before you spend the money on a license to grow, cultivate, or open a dispensary — meet with someone that specializes in cannabis taxation. You may need to go back to the basics.
First, study your state laws. Second, sit down for a consultation with a cannabis tax specialist. Tell them your idea and let them work around it. They should be able to offer you several different options. Together, you can figure out what banking options are available; there are some small banks and even merchants that will work with you, but, for the time being, you will need the right team behind you to help guarantee a cannabis tax and banking workaround.
According to a Marijuana Majority poll conducted by Survey USA, 76 percent of respondents said states should be allowed to enact their own medical cannabis regimes, and the view was shared by all majorities regardless of gender, age, race, or political affiliation. Just 12 percent indicated they would like to see the federal government “arrest [and] prosecute” individuals who are using cannabis legally.
Poll respondents were split on whether professional athletes and journalists should be allowed to use cannabis. Forty-six percent said athletes should be allowed to use cannabis as an alternative pain-killer to opioids and prescription drugs, while 38 percent thought athletes should be suspended if they fail a drug test for cannabis.
Fifty percent of those polled supported allowing journalists to use cannabis, while 35 percent said they should be punished. In their framing of the question, the pollsters pointed out that the New York Times and Washington Post require journalists to submit to drug tests for cannabis, even if it is legal where the individual lives.
Poll respondents were also split about whether or not legal cannabis users should be allowed to purchase firearms, with 48 percent answering that they should, while 37 percent said they should not. In states with legal cannabis regimes, a person can be prevented from purchasing a firearm if they are enrolled in the state’s medical cannabis program. In states with adult-use regimes, an individual can be denied a firearm if they admit on the required background check that they use cannabis.
The pollsters surveyed 1,500 adults via cellphones and landlines.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health has announced the 27 companies approved to operate medical cannabis dispensaries in the state, just over a week after announcing the 12 companies approved for cultivation and processing permits.
According to a Philadelphia Enquirerreport, six dispensaries were approved in Montgomery County, three in Bucks County, and two each in Delaware and Chester Counties.
Four dispensary applications were approved to operate in the City of Brotherly Love, one of which is set to be located near Fishtown’s SugarHouse Casino. However, the approvals did not include locations in Center City, West Philadelphia, Old City, or by the airport.
“There should have been one on Walnut Street. Period,” said Andrew B. Sacks, an attorney and chairman of the medical marijuana and hemp department at Sacks, Weston, Diamond LLC. “This is just asinine.”
The 27 companies awarded licenses will be allowed to operate three locations, and while 81 total dispensaries are allowed by law, many applicants chose not to apply for more than one location leaving 52 total dispensaries to open next year. The operators will be able to apply for their additional allowable dispensaries once their first is up and running.
Under the state law, flower and edible sales are prohibited and dispensaries will only be allowed to sell cannabis oils that can be vaporized or consumed in a solution. All of the state’s applicants were required to pay a $5,000 application fee and post a $30,000 deposit, which is only refundable to the failed bidders. According to the report, the permits are worth about $10 million to $20 million depending on the number of customers and the location.
However, it could take years for operators to see profits in the millions, as some businesses in states that do not allow flower – such as New York and Minnesota – still have yet to turn a profit.
In their 2017 World Drug Report, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime found that cannabis is the most used, most cultivated, and most confiscated drug – but has still not caused a single fatal overdose. The report covers worldwide statistics from 2015.
According to the UN report, it’s estimated that between 128 million and 238 million adults used cannabis in 2015, representing an average of about 3.8 percent of the adult population. Cannabis cultivation was reported in 136 countries, compared to 49 who reported opium poppy cultivation and just eight who reported coca bush cultivation – the plant used to make cocaine. Cannabis was seized in 164 of 168 of the world’s nations.
Paraguay led the world in cannabis eradication from 2011 to 2015, destroying 12,122,750 plants. Ukraine eradicated 7,550,000 during that time; while Peru destroyed 6,200,578. The U.S. doesn’t provide statistics on plant counts, but reported it had eradicated 396,620 indoor cultivation operations and 3,904,213 outdoor operations.
The report indicated that overdose deaths have more than tripled between 1999 and 2015, increasing 11.4 percent in the past year alone “to reach the highest level ever recorded.” The agency says those deaths are “mostly driven by opioids.”
“Of the 52,000 total drug-related deaths reported for the United States, those related to opioids accounted for more than 60 percent,” the report states. “In 2015, the death rate from synthetic opioids, increased by 72 percent compared with the previous year, whereas heroin overdose deaths increased by 23 percent over the same period.”
So-called ‘cannabis use disorders’ contributed to 5.3 “healthy years of life lost” – the lowest rate for any of the substances tracked by the UN agency.
In an interview with WGBH’s “Greater Boston,” Massachusetts House Speaker Robert DeLeo indicated that the House might be willing to compromise on the chamber’s proposed 28 percent sales tax on cannabis sales, according to a Greenfield Recorderreport. The Senate had voted to keep the tax rate at 12 percent – the rate approved by voters in the original legislation.
DeLeo was joined on the program by Senate President Stanley Rosenberg who said that Sen. Patricia Jehlen and House Majority Leader Ron Mariano – who are heading up the six-member cannabis conference committee – would “negotiate” and “figure it out.” Rosenberg added that Jehlen’s primary concern is that if the tax rate is set at 29 percent, it would “seed the black market.”
“I suppose there could be some negotiation,” DeLeo said to Rosenberg during the broadcast.
The committee is working on a self-imposed Friday deadline, hoping to get a compromise bill to the desk of Gov. Charlie Baker so the new Cannabis Control Commission would have a full year to roll out the adult-use regime.
DeLeo also defended changes in the law that allow municipal officials to ban cannabis industry operations rather than a town or city-wide referendum. He said that allowing municipal lawmakers to make those decisions are “less expensive” and allows for quicker decision making. Rosenberg disagreed, pointing out that under the current scheme, voters in 39 communities have already taken steps to implement moratoriums or bans and another 120 communities are considering their own action.
DeLeo pulled the House recreational cannabis bill from consideration two weeks ago for a “clean up” after advocates said the proposal would raise cannabis taxes as high as 56 percent.
According to a study conducted by HelloMD and the University of California Berkeley, cannabis can be used as a substitute for opioid and non-opioid based pain medication. The collaboration surveyed nearly 3,000 participants and 97 percent “strongly agreed” or “agreed” that they could decrease their opioid use when using cannabis.
Ninety-two percent of respondents “strongly agreed” or “agreed” that they preferred medical cannabis to treat their medical condition for which they currently use opioid-based drugs; and 81 percent “strongly agreed” or “agreed” that cannabis by itself was more effective than taking cannabis with opioids.
Dr. Perry Solomon, chief medical officer for HelloMD said that the research backs up a recent publication from the National Academy of Sciences that “clearly refuted the ‘gateway drug’ theory” associated with cannabis, “instead finding evidence of cannabis having multiple curative benefits.”
“Hopefully this will awaken the public, medical professionals and legislatures to the fact that cannabis is a safe, non-addictive product, available to help fight the opioid epidemic,” he said in a press release.
Amanda Reiman, PHD, MSW, lecturer at UC Berkeley’s School of Social Welfare and the study’s lead author, said that because the treatment of pain “has become a politicized business” in the U.S., “the result has been the rapidly rising rate of opioid-related overdoses and dependence.”
“Patients have been telling us for decades that this practice is producing better outcomes than the use of opioid based medications,” she said in a statement. “It’s past time for the medical profession to get over their reefer madness and start working with the medical cannabis movement and industry to slow down the destruction being caused by the over prescribing and overuse of opioids.”
The study is just the latest to purport medical cannabis is an effective pain management therapy and could be utilized to combat the opioid crisis in the U.S. – which claims 91 American lives per day.
In May, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a division of the National Institutes of Health, updated their website to include two NIDA-funded studies which “cumulatively suggest” that medical cannabis products may have a role in reducing the use of opioids to control pain.
Yesterday, Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a Virginia-based cannabis prohibitionist group, sent out a foreboding press release claiming that the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment was eliminated from a key federal spending bill. That amendment is crucial to protecting state-approved medical cannabis programs, preventing the Department of Justice from using federal funds to prosecute legal cannabis businesses and if it were removed from the federal budget, the government could carry out enforcement actions against the industry in every state with legal regimes.
However, according to one of the namesakes of the amendment, it’s just fake news.
In a press release, Representative Earl Blumenaur said “the folks at SAM clearly don’t understand the legislative process” and that the amendment has never been included in the base Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) Subcommittee Appropriations bill – as SAM would have led the audience of its release to believe. In previous years, Congress has amended the base CJS bill to include the medical cannabis protections.
“There is no news here,” Blumenaur said. “We are exactly where we thought we would be in the legislative process and look forward to amending the underlying bill once again this year to make sure medical marijuana programs, and the patients who rely on them, are protected. Voters in states across the country have acted to legalize medical marijuana. Congress should not act against the will of the people who elected us.”
In a statement Kevin Sabet, president and CEO of SAM, said despite the statement from Blumenaur he was confident that cannabis activists are losing in the legalization fight.
“This fight isn’t over, of course,” he said. “Like Big Tobacco, the pot industry and the politicians they pay will keep trying to push pro-drug laws with their deep pockets. Our side—parents, public health professionals, employers, and communities hurt by this generation’s Big Tobacco—will continue to fight for science and evidence over greed.”
Of course, there are also millions of parents, public health professionals, employers, and communities — particularly minority communities — who are against the prohibition of cannabis and that continue to be hurt by Drug War-era policies.
With the industry facing strict and over-reaching regulations, cannabis growers need to put a lot of thought into choosing a location for their commercial grow site. There are tons of things to consider — zoning, neighbors, the climate, local and state laws — and if you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for or exactly where to find it, you could easily find yourself overwhelmed.
So, what is the best way to go about finding the right location for your commercial grow site?
We posed the question to a group of professional cannabis growers who are members of the Growers Network private forum, and we’ve included some of their answers below in this first installment of our latest content series — Ask a Grower.
Cultivation is all about zoning, you need to look to your city first. Make sure you’re within no radius of schools and or other sites that would conflict with your operation, also in one of my experiences we had to spend a lot more money than we projected due to an electrical issue, which involved uprooting the street.
Finding a location for a cannabis cultivation facility depends on many factors. First and foremost, read your state regulations closely, and know what the state requires. Some things to look for:
1. Distances from schools, parks, correctional facilities, etc. How are those distances measured (door-to-door straight line distance or pedestrian route)?
2. Zoning – Check with the local municipality and determine what zoning types allow a cultivation business.
3. Utilities – Find out if the site has three phase commercial electricity available. For an existing building, find out the total ampacity of the service. This information is very important when considering startup costs, as installing or upgrading can be very expensive. Make sure you have a good water source available, and high-speed internet and telephone/cell service. Alarm and camera systems need reliable and fast broadband service. While doing these checks find out the rates. Electric rates can vary dramatically from urban to rural settings. Find out if there are any Time of Use (TOU) rates that apply. Some electric utilities charge a premium during peak hours and a discounted rate during
While doing these checks find out the rates. Electric rates can vary dramatically from urban to rural settings. Find out if there are any Time of Use (TOU) rates that apply. Some electric utilities charge a premium during peak hours and a discounted rate during off-peak hours. Some offer lower rates if you’re a heavy user, so identify what that amount of usage is.
4. Is there a local “Opt out” provision in the regulations that allows cities or counties to opt out of Marijuana/Cannabis businesses? If so, what were the election results? Was it a close decision or a landslide? Know this before investing, as some regulations allow a simple signature petition to bring up a vote to ban cultivation businesses. Get as much information about a particular location as you can before you commit.
5. Neighbors – How close are you to neighboring businesses or residential areas? These can be a huge setback at startup or down the road. It’s very difficult to control smell 100%, especially in very large facilities. The more distance you have from neighbors the better.
Kathy Smith:
In the hospital setting where I work there are rooms that are specifically designed with negative pressure and anteroom attached to the patient’s room. The anteroom is designed for the healthcare personnel to don their PPE and prevent contamination of highly infectious organisms, such as tuberculosis. It is a buffer system that is critical for infection prevention and cross contamination between patients. Also, there are rooms with positive pressure for patients that are extremely immune compromised and can’t risk being exposed to pathogens.
This concept can certainly be applied to cultivation and there are some companies that are selling products for this purpose, such as: http://airstreaminnovations.com. Using anterooms for each grow room within a facility may be an important feature so that cross-contamination between rooms can be minimized. Concepts like positive pressure and anterooms, I believe, are important considerations to weigh when designing. This could assist in keeping the good bugs in and the bad bugs out.
According to a new study from Eaze, a technology company that facilitates medical cannabis deliveries, their consumer base is educated, employed, and have higher-than-average income levels.
According to the Insights study, 91 percent of cannabis consumers are employed full-time and 49 percent reported a household income of $75,000 or more, with 16 percent reporting an income between $100,000 and $149,000. Fifty-one percent reported holding a college degree or postgraduate degree. According to California census data, only 39 percent of adults in the state have completed a bachelor’s degree or higher.
One in five respondents, or 22 percent, indicated they are parents, while 27 percent of cannabis consumers said they were married or in a domestic partnership. Sixty-three percent of those parents use cannabis on a daily basis.
According to the researchers, the modern cannabis consumer spends more on cannabis products ($1,704) annually than the average American spends on alcohol ($454), tobacco ($303), and personal care products ($606) combined. The majority – 58 percent – of respondents reported using cannabis on a daily basis – 59 percent of those daily consumers were women.
Four out of five cannabis consumers said that they had reduced their alcohol consumption because of their cannabis use, but 81 percent still currently consumed some alcohol. Another 13 percent said they had entirely replaced alcohol with cannabis, and 80 percent said they consumed at night, consistent with the time-of-day that many begin drinking.
More than 10,000 people participated in the 32 question survey sent via email over one week.
The Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission is seeking to revoke the preliminary license of MaryMed LLC due to concerns about the company’s former parent company Vireo Health, according to a Baltimore Sunreport. The commission said there was a “reasonable likelihood” that the company would not safeguard its medical cannabis products, citing the ongoing case in Minnesota where two former Vireo officers are accused of illegally transporting cannabis products from Minnesota to New York, where Vireo also holds a license.
“We’re deeply disappointed by the commission’s recommendation, particularly as it appears to be based on innuendo and misinformation instead of facts,” said MaryMed spokesman Andrew Mangini in the report.
Maryland regulators said that the company named the two accused executives in their November 2015 application. The commission also alleges that MaryMed officials failed to cooperate with Maryland investigators who were looking into the case.
Vireo owns one of the 12 companies approved last week for a cannabis business license in Pennsylvania, and state Health Department officials stood by that decision saying that the accused individuals no longer work for the company.
Health Department Spokeswoman April Hutcheson pointed out that Vireo has not been sanctioned in either Minnesota nor New York.
“Remember, the permits are given to business entities, not people,” she said in a Philadelphia Inquirerreport.
Patrick Jameson, executive director of the MMCC said the agency would not award another license until the action against MaryMed is resolved.
According to a study published by the American Public Health Association, eating cannabis products is better for consumers than smoking and users should avoid strains containing high THC and low CBD content.
The review was conducted using the latest scientific research in an effort to create Lower-Risk Cannabis Use Guidelines.
The researchers put forth 10 recommendations in all for lower-risk cannabis use, including urging individuals under 16-years-old to abstain completely from use; avoiding any synthetic cannabinoid products, such as Spice; and avoiding “deep or other risky inhalation practices” and daily use.
The researchers suggest the “most effective way to avoid cannabis use-related health risks is abstinence,” especially for those populations at higher-risk for cannabis use-related health problems.
“Evidence indicates that a substantial extent of the risk of adverse health outcomes from cannabis use may be reduced by informed behavioral choices among users,” the authors wrote. “All of these measures are concretely possible under emerging legalization regimes, and should be actively implemented by regulatory authorities.”
In every U.S. state with adult-use cannabis regimes, the legal purchase age is 21. Under Canada’s federal legalization plan, the legal age to buy cannabis products is 19; however, provinces will be able to set their own age limits.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has weighed in on the push to put a medical cannabis ballot question to Utah voters next year. In a statement to FOX 13, the church said they believe “that society is best served by requiring marijuana to go through further research and the FDA approval process that all other drugs must go through before they are prescribed to patients.”
“Lawmakers across the country have wrestled with whether to legalize the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. This discussion raises legitimate questions regarding the benefits and risks of legalizing a drug that has not gone through the well-established and rigorous process to prove its effectiveness and safety.
During the 2017 legislative session, a bill was passed that appropriately authorized further research of the potential benefits and risks of using marijuana. The difficulties of attempting to legalize a drug at the state level that is illegal under Federal law cannot be overstated.”
The Utah Patients Coalition, the group behind the campaign, declined to comment on the statement, preferring to focus on persuading voters to back the initiative. The coalition filed the ballot paperwork on Monday with the Lt. Governor’s Office and if it is approved advocates can begin collecting the nearly 115,000 signatures required to put the issue to voters.
A bill introduced in California would effectively outlaw medical and recreational cannabis licensees from advertising products “through the use of branded merchandise, including, but not limited to, clothing, hats, or other merchandise with the name or logo of the product.” Non-commercial speech, such as nonprofits, would be excluded under the measure.
According to the bill text, the ban would extend to traditional publications and websites, while direct advertisers would have to verify that ad-recipients are at least 21-years-old. Television ads would be permitted but only when “71.6 percent of the audience is reasonably expected to be 21 years of age or older.”
The proposal, sponsored by Sen. Ben Allen, is designed to ensure that individuals under the legal consumption age are not targeted by cannabis ads.
Adam Spiker, executive director of the Southern California Coalition, a cannabis trade association comprised of Los Angeles businesses, called the ban “ridiculous” saying it effectively prohibits small businesses from advertising.
“The bill would materially hamstring small business owners’ ability to grow in the land of opportunity,” Spiker said in an LA Weeklyreport. “We are firmly against it, and will work to ensure lawmakers are aware of the harmful ramifications it would have.”
The measure has been approved by the Senate and is being considered by the Assembly. The legalization law approved by voters in November included limits on advertising but were primarily zoning restrictions on where the ads were permitted.
Powerful allies of President Donald Trump and conservative Republicans are speaking out and organizing against the plans by Attorney General Jeff Sessions to crackdown on the legal cannabis industry.
Roger Stone, a longtime Trump ally, has launched the United States Cannabis Coalition; while Mark Holden, a top leader of the powerful Koch Network said that the administration is “never going to win the war on drugs.”
“Drugs won,” Holden said to reporters as the Koch network opened a three-day retreat at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs.
Stone announced the creation of the bipartisan coalition – registered with the IRS as a section 527 non-profit, the code often used for political action committees – during an appearance at the Cannabis World Congress and Business Expo in New York.
“I am going to be working with a coalition of Republicans and Democrats, progressives and libertarians, liberals, and conservatives to persuade the president to keep his campaign pledge,” Stone was quoted as saying by Business Insider, “and to remind the president that he took a strong and forthright position on this issue in the election.”
During the campaign, Trump espoused a state’s rights approach to cannabis policy, and Stone said his organization plans to lobby the president and the administration to make good on the hands-off approach promised during the campaign.
Holden said the views of Session represent a “failed big government top-down approach,” and that he supported allowing states to devise their own cannabis policies.
During the first meeting of Michigan’s Medical Marijuana Licensing Board, board member Donald Bailey, a retired State Police sergeant, seemed to suggest that current dispensary operators would not be eligible to receive state licenses under the new regime because they have been breaking the law with their current operations.
“Right now, none of the extracts are legal; none of the dispensaries are legal under state law. It’s black and white,” Bailey said during his remarks. “With the [state] Supreme Court making its ruling two weeks ago, that’s a done deal. So anything that’s open right now isn’t legal. Going forward there’s going to be a new law – they are going to be legal. But if you’ve demonstrated in the past that you’re not going to abide by the law that we did have why do we think – and it’s a rhetorical question – going forward you would abide by the new law.”
Under the new law signed by Gov. Rick Snyder in September 2016, the Bureau of Medical Marihuana Regulation, a division of the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, must make applications for cultivators, manufacturers, processors, transporters, laboratories, and dispensaries available by Dec. 15.
During the meeting, Jeff Hank, founder of MI Legalize, said that the new regime needed to be handled in a smooth and open manner in order to prevent “fighting like it’s black Friday.”
“We don’t need to reinvent the wheel – we do need a sensible licensing process,” he said, according to an MLivereport.
The meeting drew more than 400 people according to reports, with many concerned about current operators and how state regulators would handle the licensing process.
The board is chaired by Rick Johnson, a former Republican state House Speaker, Michigan Board of Pharmacy Chair Nichole Cover, Pickard Group president and CEO Vivian Pickard, and Police Officers’ Association of Michigan board member David LaMontaine.
During the meeting, Johnson said the board has “a lot of things to look at, a lot of things to do.”
“We have nowhere to go today but forward,” he said.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott has signed the legislation approving the expanded medical cannabis regime approved by voters in November, but the measure will likely face legal challenges over the provisions banning smoking, the News Service of Floridareports.
Count Joe Redner, a strip club operator and lung cancer patients, has already sued the state over rules barring patients from growing their own plants.
The constitutional amendment, approved by 71 percent of voters, gives physicians authority to recommend cannabis to potentially hundreds of thousands of patients by expanding the qualifying condition list to include cancer, post-traumatic stress disorder, epilepsy, glaucoma, HIV, AIDS, multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Crohn’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease.
The rules expand the number of dispensaries allowed to each operator to 25; however, those licenses will only be available to companies that were previously denied operation in the state.
John Morgan, an Orlando-based attorney who bankrolled the Amendment 2 campaign, said earlier this month that he “will sue” the state because the amendment “clearly called for” smoking to be permitted.
“…So what they’ve done for me is allowed me to step back up on my soapbox and go get what the people of Florida wanted when they passed this bill with 71 percent,” he said.
Additionally, the law establishes the Coalition for Medical Marijuana Research and Education within the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute. Patients will be charged a $10 identification card fee to participate in the program.
On-site cannabis consumption is back on the agenda for the Alaska Marijuana Control Board as the body will discuss three different options at its next meeting, the Associated Pressreports. The proposals include cannabis sampling, edibles-only consumption, the consumption of only cannabis purchased at the location in question.
The sampling measure is proposed by board member Loren Jones and would allow adults 21-and-older to try products and then leave the establishment. The proposal by board Chairman Peter Mlynarik, who is also the Solodtna Police Chief, would allow adults to eat infused candy and baked goods but would ban on-site smoking and vaping. Board member Brandon Emmett’s proposal would allow patrons to consume edibles, smoke, or vape on-site, so long as the products are purchased at the establishment.
In February, the board voted 3-2 against on-site consumption measures. At that time, board member Mark Springer said he had rejected the measure over concerns about how President’s Donald Trump’s administration would handle the legal cannabis industry and said that he didn’t want “to be waving a red flag in front of federal law enforcement” which could lead to a crackdown.
One of the driving forces for legalizing cannabis in Alaska was to allow tourists to consume cannabis products. Under the law, adult tourists can purchase cannabis but they presently have few options to legally consume the products as most hotels and many cruise ships have no-smoking policies.
Last week, two studies on highway safety after cannabis legalization purported different findings and both drew headlines – one claimed accident rates were 3 percent higher in legal states than they would have been without legalization, while another found no increase, the Washington Postreports.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety study analyzed insurance claims for collisions between January 2012 and October 2016 in Colorado, Washington, and Oregon. In that study, researchers concluded that after adult-use sales began in Colorado, the state experienced a 14 percent higher collision claim rate than nearby Nebraska, Utah, and Wyoming. In Washington, rates were 6 percent higher than Montana and Idaho; and in Oregon, the rates were 4 percent higher than Idaho, Nevada, and Montana.
However, researchers at the University of Texas-Austin published a paper in the American Journal of Public Healthwhich studied federal data on fatal vehicle crashes from 2009 to 2015 and concluded there was “no significant association between recreational marijuana legalization in Washington and Colorado and subsequent changes in motor vehicle crash fatality rates in the first 3 years after recreational marijuana legalization.”
According to the Post, while the two studies are aimed at the same target, they are measuring different things. The IIHS study is focused on all collisions, while the AJPH study is interested in fatal crashes.
A previous study by researchers at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health concluded that in states with medical cannabis access there was an 11 percent reduction in traffic fatalities.
A cannabis decriminalizationbill in Wisconsin has drawn support from both sides of the aisle, including five Republican co-sponsors, according to Gary Storck of Cannabadger.com. Rep. Gordon Hintz is also counted among the bill’s sponsors – the first time the Democrat has sponsored cannabis-related legislation.
The measure would eliminate criminal penalties for possession of up to 25 grams of cannabis, providing for fines of no more than $100 for possession of 10 grams of less. Penalties for possession of more than 25 grams would still be harsh – a $1,000 fine and up to 6 months in jail. Felony charges would be imposed for subsequent offenses of possessing more than 10 grams.
The measure has been moved to the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety, which counts two of the bill’s sponsors among its members – Sens. Fred Risser and Lena Taylor, both Democrats.
Republican Gov. Scott Walker has publicly opposed any cannabis law reforms beyond the state’s limited CBD-only medical cannabis law, which allows patients with any medical condition to access CBD products with a doctor’s recommendation. Legislation to enact a more comprehensive medical cannabis program has been introduced in both chambers of the legislature but has failed to garner the support of Republicans, who comprise the majority of both chambers.
Walker has not publicly commented on the decriminalization measure.
