On the heels of legalization measures passing from the East Coast to the West, it was a perfect environment for Tommy Chong to debut his brand of cannabis in Colorado. The name of his company, Chong’s Choice, is exactly that — the most natural, organic, locally sourced bud the professional stoner could find in the Mile High State. With Chong’s Choice, Chong is riding the trend of celebrity cannabis lifestyle brands like Snoop Dogg, Willie Nelson, and Whoopi Goldberg.
“It’s a slam dunk because everyone wants pot, and everyone wants good pot,” said the actor, comedian, and longtime cannabis advocate. “Who better to give it to them than me — I’m the most experienced; I’ve had the longest association with pot, even longer than Willie Nelson!”
“He’s the classic stoner with passion for the plant,” said Levon Terry, of Chong’s Choice in Colorado. Now available for medical and recreational consumers in Colorado, Terry said Chong’s company is looking for that passion in their Colorado partners.
After touring about 70 grow houses, Verde Natural rose to the challenge. CEO Rudy Ellenbogen touts their consistent, high quality, organically and naturally produced product. “Our process is planned and organized, we harvest every week and hand trim.” The small-batch, organic process is overseen by master grower Cassandra Maffey who got her cannabis roots in Humboldt County, California.
Chong’s Choice cannabis plants in the Verde Natural grow facility.
Verde Natural prides itself on their foundation of doing things right. “We treat it like our home grow,” Maffey said, “if not, we wouldn’t have the level of quality cannabis we have here.” The mutual love of working alongside people with similar values while caring for high quality, organic cannabis makes for a perfect partnership between the cultivators and the company.
Verde Natural does all of their trimming by hand.
“They are the most hands on and unique at this scale,” said Terry.
The company has gone through some growing pains. they first launched in California and learned that pairing with dispensaries isn’t the way they wanted to go. For example, Leafs by Snoop is only available at Livewell locations. Now that Chong and Verde Natural have an exclusive partnership, they can have their flower, extracts, pre-rolls, THC strips and edibles in any participating dispensary showcase in Colorado.
Chong’s Choice nugs hanging on the line to cure.
Thursday evening, the launch party brought together all the trusted partners of Chong’s Choice. Verde Natural and The Growing Kitchen, makers of the Chill Pill and other edible treats, were featured. They are currently deciding whether to go forward with a Chong cookie, or hard candy, or both perhaps. In either event, expect Chong’s Choice edibles to be available in Colorado within a few months.
Workers in the Verde Natural cultivation facility manually water the plants one by one.
Meanwhile, you can enjoy smoking with the counterculture icon every time you light up one of his pre-rolls, as an image of his face is printed on each joint.
A bill to decriminalize small amounts of cannabis possession has been pre-filed in the Texas House of Representatives by Democratic Rep. Joe Moody, according to a blog post by Texas NORML. The measure would decriminalize possession of up to 1 ounce of marijuana, reducing the penalty to just a $250 fine.
Possession of more than an ounce would remain a misdemeanor of varying degrees based on the amount, and the legislation (HB 81) does not remove any language permitting life sentences for possession over 2,000 pounds.
A same-as bill, sponsored by Democratic Sen. José Rodríguez, was pre-filed in the state Senate. Rodríguez is also supporting two joint resolutions that would put both medical and recreational cannabis use initiatives to voters. The medical initiative would seek to expand the state’s limited program enacted in June 2015.
A joint resolution is the only way Texans are able to directly vote on state legislation as there is no state law permitting ballot initiatives.
“It is long past time we allow the people to decide,” Rodríguez said in a press release. “Polling indicates majorities in favor of both proposals, and it goes against the state’s democratic values and faith in its people to deny them a chance to vote on the matter.”
The state’s first medical dispensary is expected to be licensed in June 2017.
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper is demanding a crackdown on the state’s so-called gray market, calling it a “clear and present danger,” according to a Denver Postreport. The governor’s concerns come following a DEA raid in Pueblo West during which 16 pounds of processed cannabis, handguns, and shotguns were seized leading to seven arrests.
“If we don’t stamp it out right now, it becomes acceptable. And then, all of a sudden, people are going to start getting hurt,” the governor said in the report. “If you let crime grow, it will breed on its opportunity.”
In an effort to stem the informal market, the Democrat has asked state legislators to earmark $16 million from the state’s marijuana tax revenues for law enforcement investigation and prosecution for illegal grows. Hickenlooper’s administration is also considering seeking legislation that would tighten home-growing regulations including the number of plants allowed.
“I take this very seriously,” he said. “This is one of the things we worried about in the very beginning. But when we see the evidence, we better respond.”
Under the state’s medical cannabis program, patients and caregivers are permitted to grow up to 99 plants in a residential setting; the adult-use law allows individuals to form cultivating cooperatives, permitting six plants per person.
Rachel Gillette, acting interim executive director for Colorado NORML, is concerned that the regulations could go too far but that growers have a responsibility to act in accordance with the law.
“The bottom line is you can write a bazillion laws, but if people are willing to break them … it doesn’t necessarily help,” she said in the report. “The part of the reason this gray market even exists is because the federal government refuses to acknowledge the medical efficacy of marijuana, as well as continues to follow archaic law pertaining to a drug war that has clearly failed.”
Opponents of Maine’s ballot initiative to legalize cannabis for adult use intend to request vote recount, which will involve more than 757,000 ballots and cost the state $500,000, according to a report by the Portland Press Herald. The move comes a week after proponents declared victory for the measure with a margin of 4,402 votes.
Mainers Protecting Our Youth and Communities need to submit just 100 petition signatures to the Secretary of State’s Office by 5 p.m. today to spark the recount. Unofficially, Question 1 passed with a vote total of 381,060 to 376,658 — less than 1 percent.
David Boyer, campaign manager for Yes on 1, said the recount would be a waste of taxpayer dollars.
In addition to the possible recount, Republican Gov. Paul LePage has indicated he might challenge the results of the ballot initiative vote, saying that he would confer with President-elect Donald Trump about whether or not the new administration intends to enforce federal law as it pertains to cannabis before he decides if he will challenge the referendum results.
The huge cost of the recount is largely due to the manual labor involved. Sealed ballot boxes would need to be picked up in each of the state’s 503 localities by Maine State Police, who would deliver them to the Secretary of State’s Office, which must recount them by hand. The process would take about four weeks.
Scott Gagnon, campaign manager for the anti-campaign, said he has received an outpouring of citizen concerns following the announcement of the initiative’s success.
“These Maine voters are encouraging the coalition to stand firm, as the stakes are incredibly high for Maine’s youth and Maine’s medical marijuana program,” Gagnon said in the report. “It is our duty to exercise all rights available to ensure that the final results are a fair and accurate representation of the will of all Mainers.”
According to the initiative text, the measure is due to become law 30 days from when the governor declares the official results of the election.
Following a week of vote counting and a lead of more than 17,000 votes, Emmett Reistroffer, campaign director for Yes on 300, Denver’s social-use initiative, believe they’ve “exceeded the margin necessary to declare a winner.”
The pilot program allows Denver bar and restaurant owners and other businesses to apply for permits allowing for use of cannabis products so long as there is no indoor smoking. Patrons 21 and older would be permitted to bring and consume their own cannabis at establishments that gain approval from their neighborhood, a business district or a city-registered group. The new law allows indoor vaping and edible consumption, while smoking would be permitted in designated outdoor areas, so long as it’s not visible from the public right of way or within 100 feet from a school.
“We don’t want this in public,” Reistroffer said in a CBS4report. “We want this in private places where it’s permitted, where it’s only for adults 21 and over and where the staff are trained to be in charge of these environments.”
Proponents of the initiative say the plan protects individuals who do not want to be exposed to cannabis, while giving people who live in public housing or in residences where the landlords prohibit smoking safe havens to use cannabis socially.
Opponents, however, are not conceding despite the vote totals. Rachel O’Bryan, campaign manager for the Protect Denver’s Atmosphere: Vote No on 300 Committee, said the 53 percent to 47 percent tally indicates that a large number of residents oppose the measure. The group plans on asking officials to “carefully consider implementation,” adding that they would “seek guidance” from the state Attorney General’s Office.
“We were told four years ago in the amendment that marijuana consumption would not be conducted openly and publicly,” O’Bryan said. “Now we’re going to have marijuana on rooftops and patios, that’s open and public, there’s no two ways about it.”
The measure will not officially be codified until the remaining ballots from military members and from registered voters living overseas have been counted.
Researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln have planted 150 hemp plants on the college’s East Campus, according to a report by the Lincoln Journal Star. The plants are the first legal hemp crop in the state following a 2014 decision by Congress to allow the cultivation of the plant for research purposes.
The UNL researchers had applied to the DEA for permission to import hemp seeds in February, but had to wade through red tape, including reinforcing the floor below where the seeds are stored with metal due to DEA fears that someone could break through the wood and steal the seeds. The researchers were able to secure the seeds for the pilot program from Canada and Italy. Tom Clemente, professor of biology and one of two researchers leading the project, also collected native seeds from fields and ditches in Seward and Lincoln counties.
The trial is focused on genetically engineering hemp to use its leaves and stalks for use in industrial plastics and lubricants. The pulp and fibers left over would be used to make paper and cardboard materials.
“You want to maximize the number of products you’re making per acre,” Clemente said in the report. “When you’re just selling biomass, it’s tough to make a buck off that.”
According to the Hemp Industry Association and Hemp Business Journal, in 2015 the retail hemp market was work $573 million and the plant is used in more than 25,000 products.
Alaska’s Marijuana Control Board has rejected its first application, according to a report by the Alaska Journal. The refusal for an application by Wild Flower Holdings LLC was due to the company not being based in the state and, according to Boardmember Brandon Emmett, their lack of knowledge about the cannabis industry.
“I’ve advocated pretty hard in the past for Outside investment just because I think it’s so important that these businesses have access to capital,” Emmett, who acts as an industry representative on the board, said in the report. “But it seemed clear to me that this applicant really didn’t know the business, and I think as a board it’s important we have knowledgeable people owning these licenses.”
The board found the company’s application to be suspicious because the paperwork itself was a duplicate of Dream Green Farms’ application — Wild Flower even left Dream Green’s name on the application, the report says. Additionally, the company listed plans for only 10 plants, which other licensed growers deemed uneconomical. When the board interviewed Andrea Gibbons, the owner of Wild Flower, she deferred the questions to management consultants from Arizona-based Happiedaze LLC, and seemed to have little personal knowledge of how the business would operate.
Alaska’s adult-use law prohibits non-residents from direct or indirect financial investment in cannabis operations licenses by the state. The rules are designed to prevent criminal money laundering, and to give residents priority.
The Oakland City Council voted 4-3 to revise their equity permit program and abandon the plan requiring canna-businesses to give 25 percent of their profits to the city, according to a San Francisco Gatereport. The equity program would have given half of the city’s cannabis licenses to individuals who were incarcerated on cannabis charges in Oakland within the last 10 years, or have lived in an East Oakland police beat that saw high marijuana arrests for at least two years.
The vote also struck down a plan that would have seen large-scale cannabis businesses in Oakland pay back taxes plus interest, and $10,000-a-day fines for each day they were in operation.
The original plan had passed the council unanimously, but during the meeting three of council members proposed a plan that would allow the individuals targeted under the original plan to access loans, be given tax incentives, and offered expedited city permits. The scheme would give perceived victims of the war on drugs a slight edge in Oakland without squeezing the industry.
Proposition 64, California’s recent legalization mesaure, requires that all cannabis businesses must have local and state licenses by January 2018, and in order for businesses to get licensed in Oakland the City Council must codify their rules. Oakland attorney James Anthony said that while the city was the first U.S. city to issue a cannabis dispensary permit, the city has fallen behind others in California.
“In the context of repression, prohibition and confusion at the state and federal level, Oakland made it work,” he said in the report.
The council members indicated that they would use the tax incentives plan as a guide for the new laws, which are expected in January.
According to a study published in the Frontiers in Pharmacologyjournal by researchers from McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School and Tufts University, administration of medical cannabis was associated with reduced prescription drug use and improved cognitive performance.
The study assessed three months of medical cannabis treatment on executive function, “exploring whether MMJ patients would experience improvement in cognitive functioning, perhaps related to primary symptom alleviation.” The study used 24 patients certified for medical cannabis use.
In addition to the patients experiencing “some improvement on measures of executive functioning” reflected by “increased speed in completing tasks without a loss of accuracy” using the Stroop Color World Test and Trail Making Test, patients also reported moderate improvements to their sleep patterns, decreased depression symptoms, and “attenuated impulsivity.”
Study participants also reported a decreased use of conventional pharmaceuticals — opiate use declined 42 percent, antidepressant use declined 17 percent, mood stabilizer use was reduced 33 percent, and use of benzodiazepines, such as Xanex, declined 38 percent.
The authors note that “many policy makers, consumers, physicians, and the general public remain misinformed” about cannabis.
The study is ongoing, but based on the preliminary evidence the authors concluded that “after three months of treatment, MMJ users did not experience executive functioning deficits, which are often observed in regular, recreational MJ users.”
According to recent data from the Associated Press, there are now more than 300 U.S. banks and credit unions that can handle transactions for cannabis businesses. With more than 25 states having legalized the sale of marijuana in some form, more and more cannabis companies are using banks throughout their daily business.
However, given restrictions that come along with opening bank accounts in the marijuana industry, many cannabis business owners simply don’t understand the requirements for doing business with a bank. To help you get started, this guide will provide the basics on how to open a bank account for your cannabis business.
The Application Process
Since doing business in cannabis comes with many restrictions, many banks require extensive documentation prior to processing an application for a business bank account. If you sell, process, or cultivate marijuana, you should be aware that your bank will likely require the following in addition to the standard banking legal agreements:
Company ownership details and information about the owners of the company
A detailed explanation of your operations
State, county, and city licensing and permit information
Regulatory compliance documentation
Deposit or validation information
It won’t be long before banks become fully accustomed to business relationships with cannabis companies. Photo Credit: eflon
Meet Compliance and Regulatory Requirements
In order to meet the reporting requirements of your financial institution, you should identify those requirements and develop a compliance program. You should review and comply with regulatory legislation, including the following:
Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). All banks are subject to the requirements of the BSA. Under the BSA, all banks are required to report any suspected illegal activity to the federal government, including all transactions that are associated with a cannabis business. The filing of these Suspicious Activity Reports is required even if the business is operating legally under state law.
FinCEN. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a division of the U.S. Department of Treasury, is the regulatory body that is responsible for setting expectations for financial institutions that deal with cannabis businesses. The goal of FinCEN is to safeguard the U.S. financial system from illicit use and to combat money laundering through the collection, analysis and dissemination of financial intelligence.
Cole Memo. Issued in 2013, the “Cole Memo” is a memorandum which described the priorities for federal prosecutors operating in states that had legalized medical marijuana or the adult use of marijuana. The document reiterated that the financial institutions must file Suspicious Activity Reports for any transactions that they do with cannabis businesses.
Anti-Money Laundering (AML). The purpose of the AML is to help detect and report suspicious activities by firms that may be related to money laundering and terrorist financing. It also sets the minimum standards for a financial institution’s written AML compliance program.
Know Your Customer (KYC). The objective of KYC guidelines is to prevent banks from being used intentionally or unintentionally by criminal elements for money laundering activities. Banks are required to maintain KYC policies that incorporate customer policy, customer identification procedures, monitoring of transactions, and risk management.
These are just a few of the most widely applicable regulations that apply to cannabis businesses and the financial institutions that do business with cannabis businesses.
In addition, your internal processes should support readiness reviews, remediation, risk assessments, control assessments, and transaction testing. Prepare for regulatory inspections on a continuous basis by including them as part of your plan.
Routine compliance monitoring should be established, which would involve a baseline or scoring mechanisms to keep track of and report on overall progress according to the applicable federal, state, county, and city operational requirements.
Develop Cash Management Supply Chain
Currently, the major credit card vendors in the U.S. do not allow cannabis companies to process PIN-debit or credit card transactions. As a result, your business will also need to establish a cash management supply chain for the purposes of handling cash transactions for cannabis product sales.
In order to do this effectively, you will need to define documented procedures that comply with federal, state, county, and city requirements and find secure vendors that can assist you with these cash management tasks, including processing, deposits, and cash vaulting.
Cannabis companies deserve the same financial protection as any other type of business, including enormous, high-tech bank vaults. Photo Credit: Jason Baker
Ongoing Compliance Training
As a cannabis business, you can expect that your business will be routinely reviewed by various regulatory bodies. Therefore, your business should strive to stay ahead of the curve with on-going compliance training and due diligence.
Continuing education should also be a part of the process to ensure that your management and operational teams have the core competencies needed to successfully comply with your banking programs. While continuing education is not mandatory now, it may become a requirement per local, county, and/or state regulations. Additionally, your financial institution may require ongoing compliance training as a part of your banking agreement.
Tax Compliance
As a potential C corporation, you would generally be required to file the following forms for federal taxes:
In regard to state, county, and city taxes, make sure to check with your local jurisdiction.
The Bottom Line
Opening a bank account for your cannabis business is a complicated process. If you want to ensure everything goes smoothly, it’s important that you cover all of these steps.
As you setup your account, you should keep in mind that the federal government has yet to update its policies to account for the fact that marijuana is legal in some form or another in many states and that the cultivation and sale of marijuana are still illegal under federal law. As a result, this situation is likely to create some obstacles for you over the course of your business relationship with your bank.
Although cannabis business banking is challenging right now for both financial institutions and their cannabis business customers, it will hopefully be much easier in the future. In the meantime, you should be prepared to do everything you can to ensure that your business is always in compliance with your bank’s policies as well as federal, state, and local regulations.
In the future, the most successful cannabis businesses will be those that prepare for and overcome these challenges. If you want your business to be among these winners, start the application process for a bank account for your business today.
A number of NFL team owners seem to support changes to the league’s collective bargaining agreement regarding cannabis use, according to a report from NFL.com. The majority of 10 team owners interviewed by NFL insider Ian Rappaport indicated support for “decriminalizing” marijuana, making it harder for players to be suspended for cannabis use. Two owners supported only issuing fines, while two others preferred to keep the status quo.
Although just 10 of the league’s 32 owners spoke about the issue, several mentioned conversations with other owners. One indicated there is a “groundswell” of support by principals to ease cannabis-related punishments. However, the NFL remains a hard-line opponent of changes, despite the Players Association constructing a committee to study cannabis as a pain management therapy.
“Medical experts have not recommended making a change or revisiting our collectively-bargained policy and approach related to marijuana,” an NFL spokesman said in the report.
One team executive said that under the current CBA there appear to be two sets of rules. If a player is arrested for low-level possession in a non-legal state, they could be suspended for violating the league’s personal conduct policy; however, a player in Oregon or Colorado is allowed to use and possess the drug and wouldn’t face any action from the league unless he failed a drug test.
The general feeling is that changes need to be made and the CBA needs to be modified to, if nothing else, eliminate the double standard that exists due to disparities among state laws.
Law enforcement officials in Michigan are using funds dedicated to medical cannabis enforcement for Tasers, vests, guns, vehicles, and overtime — but just 18 of the state’s 83 counties have applied for their piece of the $3 million, the Associated Pressreports, with many saying they were unaware that the program existed.
Wayne and Oakland counties spent 67 percent of the $823,000 utilized in 2016. The Oakland County Sheriff’s Office spent $282,661, much of that being used for training and investigation overtime. The office also purchased a $30,000 pickup truck, a $30,000 van and a $6,800 cargo van, which Sheriff Mike Bouchard said are used to transport cannabis seized at illegal medical cannabis grows.
“We didn’t have equipment,” Bouchard said in the report. “We’d come across huge illegal grow operations — hundreds and hundreds of plants — and we’d have to rent trucks or trailers. … The grant helps alleviate some of the costs necessary to do these activities, but it’s just a sliver.”
In Wayne County, $171,618 was used for officer wages during a surveillance operation on 32 Detroit dispensaries, during with 600 vehicles were stopped. About $100,000 was spent in Macomb County on investigations, training, laptops, raid vests and vehicles.
“We took more than 100 plants out of a person’s house,” Det. Sgt. Gary Weigan, of the Macomb County Sheriff’s Department, said. “It’s hard to put all that in the property room.”
Sanilac County spent $2,850 on five semi-automatic weapons. Cheboygan County purchased Tasers. Antrim Country used $479 on night vision binoculars.
In a statement, Michael Loepp, spokesman for the state Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, did not comment on what the funds were being used for; just that the department was not surprised by the low participation rate in the program because it’s still relatively new.
Nevada’s Department of Taxation is already developing regulations for the implementation of Question 2, more than a year before the law requires it to be rolled out, Deonne Contine, the department’s executive director, announced in a press release. The agency plans to hold a public workshop “very early in 2017” to adopt temporary regulations and begin issuing licenses.
“With the medical marijuana program in place in Nevada since 2014, we have expertise in the state on how to establish and carry out the regulations,” Contine said in the release. “We’ve also consulted with the industry in Nevada and looked closely at the regulation model in Colorado. We have a good foundation to do this right.”
With temporary regulations in place, the department could begin issuing licenses — which under the law will be available first to dispensaries currently operating under the state’s medical cannabis program. While those licenses are being granted, the department could start developing permanent regulations, which would need to be reviewed by the Legislative Counsel Bureau before they are adopted. Currently, the agency is working with Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval on an executive order to create a task force to provide guidance on the possible issues related to the initiative’s passage.
The law takes effect on Jan. 1, allowing the possession of 1 ounce of cannabis or an eighth of an ounce of concentrates by adults 21 and older. The measure specifies that rules and regulations governing the program must be adopted by Jan. 1 2018.
Due to the clerical error embedded in the final version of Montana’s ballot initiative to restore the state’s medical cannabis program, it’s unlikely that patients will have renewed access to the program until June 30, 2017, according to a Missoulianreport. I-182 advocates could pressure the legislature to amend the bill — but it’s that very legislature that rolled back medical cannabis access in the first place.
In 2011, the GOP-led legislature passed not one, but two bills to not only curtail access but also repeal the medical marijuana law completely. Then-Gov. Brian Schweitzer, a Democrat, vetoed both measures; however, the legislature overrode his veto on SB 423, the bill to modify the program. The governor allowed it to become law, by refusing to sign the bill and letting it sit for 10 days.
These days, Schweitzer is out, replaced by fellow Democrat Steve Bullock in 2013; however many of those lawmakers that passed SB423, and overrode Schweitzer’s veto, remain in the legislature or in positions of power, making it unlikely that they will make any effort to work with the campaigns behind the voter initiative.
Then-House Speaker Republican Mike Milburn became chief of staff for state Attorney General Tim Fox. Former Majority Leader Republican Jeff Essmann, who introduced SB423, now serves as the head of the state’s Republican Party; and while he is no longer introducing legislation, he is in a position to design platforms for the GOP — who still control both state legislative houses following the general election.
Tuesday marked major developments for legal marijuana around the U.S. — but voters in Oregon were considering a different type of cannabis question: 111 different communities and municipalities held votes on whether or not to add a three percent local tax on top of the state’s 17 percent cannabis sales tax. Specific tax revenue from that three percent increase will go straight to local governments.
According to The Oregonian‘s Noelle Crombie’s early reports, a vast majority — more than 90 percent — approved the tax hikes, including Portland, Eugene, Salem, and Bend.
The state’s current recreational cannabis tax rate is 25 percent and has been in place since taxed cannabis sales launched in Oregon on January 1, 2016; the two months of adult-use cannabis sales prior to that were tax-free.
The state’s new 17 percent cannabis tax — which, when combined with the three percent local tax that was passed in many communities on Tuesday, will total to a 20 percent sales tax — takes effect January 1, 2017.
The new local taxes were typically approved with very wide margins: in Portland, for example, 80 percent of voters supported the three percent tax hike.
In addition to the local tax hikes, 60 Oregon communities held votes that essentially asked voters whether or not they wanted to ban the medical and/or recreational marijuana industries. The majority of communities that were asked about them actually supported such bans, including the affluent Portland suburb Lake Oswego. Fifteen localities, however — including Albany and Scappoose — rejected the bans.
Canadian cannabis companies could benefit from the record number of states that passed cannabis initiatives on Green Tuesday by investing in and entering into partnerships with companies that acquire new cannabis licenses, according to a Canadian Pressreport. One of the states that successfully passed an adult-use initiative, Maine, shares a border with Canada, while border-states North Dakota and Montana adopted or expanded medical cannabis programs.
Brendan Kennedy, CEO of Privateer Holdings, which owns Tilray, a British Columbia-based licensed medical cannabis producer, said the success of the initiatives in the U.S. provides “huge opportunities for Canadian companies” due to the “robust” regulations under which their home nation’s medical cannabis program operates.
“I think you’ll see Canadian companies jump at the opportunity to expand their operations and brands into the United States,” Kennedy said in the report. “Both governments and companies around the world are looking to Canada to provide leadership and expertise in this industry.”
Canadian firms operating in ancillary industries, such as equipment manufacturers, now have a whole new market to target and, because medical cannabis is legal under federal law, Canadian companies have a lot of experience with large-scale grows.
“We do have a lot of expertise, and we’ve learned, collectively as a sector, a lot of really important lessons about cultivation and consistent production,” Cam Battley, executive vice president of Alberta’s Aurora Cannabis, Inc., said. “I think that does give us some advantages and would bode well for partnerships when the time is right.”
In addition to the recently legalized Maine, North Dakota and Montana; Alaska, Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Washington, and Pennsylvania all border Canada and allow some form of legal cannabis use.
As part of a joint venture, United Cannabis Corporation, based in Denver, Colorado, and Jamaica-based Cannabis Research & Development have submitted an application to the island nation’s Cannabis Licensing Authority to cultivate, manufacture, transport, and conduct research on cannabis within Jamaica, the companies announced in a press release. The application has already been accepted and the review process is “expected to begin presently,” the release states.
Earnest Blackmon, United Cannabis CEO, called the move “a significant milestone for [their] Jamaican team.”
“The cannabis licensing application process is a cumbersome undertaking regardless of the domain. Fortunately, we have a strong business model, considerable experience with the process and a solid partnership with CRD,” he said in the release. “I am pleased that our application was accepted and expect it will be approved in the near term.”
The partnership with the two firms was established after Jamaica’s Cabinet and Parliament decriminalized the cultivation, production, use and possession of cannabis for therapeutic, medical and scientific purposes.
“While the application has been our primary focus recently, we have also been fine-tuning our business plan and securing the relationships necessary to implement that plan,” Marcus “Bubbleman” Richardson, CRD director, said. “We are on track and anxious to get to work!”
Officials in Florida have a tricky task in front of them — how to implement the new tenets of the medical cannabis program approved by voters on Election Day. State regulators have until July to write the rules for the new program, but, according to a Tampa Bay Timesreport, the process is complicated by the current program that has a limited qualifying condition list and strict rules on who can use what products.
John Morgan, the chairman of the pro-campaign United for Care, compared the passage of Amendment 2 to “raising the speed limit from five miles per hour to 65 miles per hour,” because it vastly increases the number of patients allowed to access medical cannabis and adds more conditions to the qualifying list.
Policymakers have three options moving forward — create entirely new laws for the expanded program, opening up more applications for cultivators, product manufacturers, and dispensaries; allowing the six nurseries already licensed to be the sole suppliers; or operating two separate medical cannabis programs.
Sen. Jeff Brandes explained that in its current form the bill would supersede the existing program, and, in his opinion, the best way to move forward is sanctioning more operators.
“I am not willing to compromise about opening up the market, period, full stop,” Brandes said. “We are going to have a free market system here in Florida.”
According to the report, licensees under the current program and companies seeking to do business in the state are already hiring lobbyists to push the new rules in their favor. Brandes said that any attempts to spoil the implementation of Amendment 2 would likely end up in court which, he said, “would be the absolute worst case scenario for everybody but especially the patients.”
Department of Health Spokesperson Mara Gambineri said the current law will stand until the constitutional amendment goes into effect on Jan. 3.
The distributor of Corona beer and Svedka vodka, Constellation Brands, is considering adding alcoholic beverages that also contain cannabis to their portfolio, according to a report from AdvertisingAge.
“Why wouldn’t big business, so to speak, be acutely interested in a category of that magnitude?” Constellation CEO Rob Sands said in the report. “If there’s a lot of money involved, it’s not going to be left to small mom-and-pops.”
However, don’t expect the company to get into the cannabis business right away — alcohol sellers need federal government approval for their permits and licenses, and cannabis remains outlawed on the federal level. And while data from Cowen and the National Survey on Drug Use and Health purport that the number of cannabis user who also consume alcohol has declined, there has been no drop in alcohol sales in neither Washington nor Colorado since cannabis legalization.
“People who are using cannabis may be disinclined to drink as much as they might have otherwise, but maybe they weren’t going to drink in the first place and then they drink something,” Sands said. “Maybe the whole thing will work out synergistically.”
During the run-up to the campaign, alcohol trade groups donated money to anti-legalization groups in Massachusetts and Arizona, but voters in both states approved their respective ballot initiatives.
Following a general election that swept in an era of new legalization and marijuana reforms, DispensaryPermits.com is announcing cannabis consulting services tailored specifically to help entrepreneurs, cannabis business owners and/or investors in newly legalized states.
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With adult-use cannabis markets in the future for California, Nevada, Maine, and Massachusetts — and new medical marijuana opportunities being uncovered in Montana, North Dakota, Arkansas, and Florida — the U.S. cannabis industry is estimated to gain between $7 billion and $8 billion in annual retail sales, according to early estimates.
Entrepreneurs interested in one of these newly-legalized states can turn to DispensaryPermits.com for quality cannabis business plan templates and step-by-step guides through complicated cannabis license applications, real estate selection strategies, and the process of staffing a cannabis dispensary or cultivation facility.
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These templates “provide owners and operators with a head start, as well as the resources to mitigate risk and save time and money,” said Sara Gullickson, CEO and owner of DispensaryPermits.com.
Gullickson noted that she expects the upcoming Florida marketplace to be particularly explosive:
“We are seeing programs take much less time now since the states are more comfortable with the industry as a whole. They can lean on other states that have legalized for adult use or have implemented medical use, which is fabulous. We are seeing much stronger regulations, which will create solid cannabis programs across the U.S.”
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The nation’s most anticipated cannabis event is next month and hardcore cannabis family are making California travel plans from all over the world to participate. The 2016 Emerald Cup is coming to the Sonoma County Fairgrounds again on December 10-11 this year.
The Emerald Cup is the most respected organic, sun-grown medical cannabis competition in the world and that reputation brings serious cannabis folks from all over the planet, year after year. People come for the friendship, the community, and to see and taste some amazing medical cannabis flowers, extracts, and other products.
Not only that, but the music looks to be excellent again this year with Damian Marley, Raging Fyah, Dirty Heads, Natali Rize, Stick Figure. Thrive, Kabaka Pyramid, Arden Park Roots, California Honey Drops, Hirie, Tribal Seeds, and Vokab Kompany all playing.
Honestly though, while the music venue is always filled with great jams and smiles, we are even more looking forward to the speakers, because when so many elite cannabis growers, researchers, and extractors are all at the same place, it makes for incredible discussion and teaching panels with a mix of talent that you will find nowhere else. Last year’s panels were all packed, people were taking notes, and this coming together and sharing of cannabis experience and knowledge in making good medicine is at the heart of our cannabis scene and The Emerald Cup.
The selection of vendors is outstanding, as well. You can see the best products in the cannabis scene, speak to their inventors, and perhaps even find ideas and inspiration for starting your own business!
If you have never been to Emerald Cup, you can get a taste of it in this video. And we recorded last year’s award ceremony for you here, in case you missed it.
Be sure to get your California medical authorization in advance because with that you can access the medication tent, which is arguably home to the best selection of cannabis flowers, oils, edibles and genetics in the world, all in one place. There will be doctors on-site as well.
Like last year, Ganjapreneur will be there to bring you great stories, incredible interviews and select video coverage of the event.
This year you can even rent a locker to keep your extra stuff safe and every locker has a cell phone charger too.
Check out some of our favorite photos from last year below and order your advanced tickets. See you there!
The NFL Players Association has enlisted science and medical experts to actively study the use of cannabis as an alternative pain management therapy to opioid-based drugs, NFL.com reports. The move comes after two more states with NFL teams — Massachusetts and California — legalized cannabis for adult use.
Cannabis is currently barred by the Collective Bargaining Agreement between the association and the league, but NFLPA Assistant Executive Director of External Affairs George Atallah confirmed that a committee will “look at pain management for NFL players,” but said it was “not a marijuana committee.”
According to an ESPNsurvey of NFL players released last week, 61 percent indicated they believed that fewer players would take painkiller shots if the league allowed medicinal use of cannabis. Another 42 percent said it would be more effective at managing pain than opioid- based pharmaceuticals.
According to NFL insider Ian Rappaport, the league has “not yet formed a consensus” on the issue, but if the committee recommends changes the NFL and NFLPA will meet to consider those proposals.
Of the 29 states that allow some legal access to cannabis – whether it is medicinal or adult-use – 14 of them host an NFL franchise. Five teams, excluding the Washington Redskins whose home turf is in Landover, not D.C., play their home games in cities that allow adult-use cannabis.
Newark in Licking County, Bellaire in Belmont County, Roseville, on the border of Perry and Muskingum counties, and Logan in Hocking County each passed the reforms, which only affect violations in those municipalities, not the entire county, the report says. Byesville, in Guernsey County, failed to pass their measure.
“If lawmakers don’t want to change the laws, we have the power to change them ourselves and that’s something we have the template to do,” said Bill Schmitt, who lead the Bellaire decriminalization effort.
The communities follow the city of Toledo in marijuana decriminalization, and advocates expect more municipalities to have their own initiatives in 2017 and 2018. The measures make possession a ticketed offense that carries neither fines nor jail time.
Toledo Law Director Adam Loukx said that officers could still choose to charge people with possession under state law but low-level convictions have been rare.
“No one’s called to say the schools have been overrun with pot-fiending hippies,” he said in the report. “But I don’t think there’s been any mass movement toward use of marijuana that’s any different than before the ordinance was adopted.”
A petition drive to decriminalize cannabis is already underway in the city of Cleveland.
Irish Health Minister Simon Harris has requested a report on medicinal cannabis from the Health Products Regulatory Agency, promising to consider introducing legislation based on the findings, according to an Irish Timesreport. He has asked the agency to provide recommendations on recent developments in the use of medical cannabis and an overview of the “wider ongoing and emerging clinical research” associated with the plant’s medicinal efficacy.
Harris is pushing for the changes after meeting with Vera Twomey, whose six-year-old daughter suffers from Dravet syndrome but is nearly seizure-free after starting a regimen of two doses of cannabis oil per day.
The republic’s legislative health committee is due to discuss allowing medicinal cannabis use later this month; meanwhile, TD Gino Kenny, of the Anti-Austerity Alliance—People Before Profit party, has introduced the Cannabis for Medicinal Use Bill 2016 but it’s unlikely to pass without the majority government’s support, according to the report.
The bill would allow for medicinal cannabis regulation, permitting the importation of the drug and making a “legally-protected, secure supply” available in pharmacies. It would also ban the advertising and sale of cannabis to minors.
Medicinal cannabis is available in the some U.S. states, Germany, the Netherlands, Czech Republic, Canada, Australia, Croatia, Malta and some US states. CBD-only products will soon be available throughout the UK.
