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Most Montana MMJ Patients Have No Provider

9/19/2016

Under Montana’s newly implemented medical marijuana program, 93 percent of the 12,730 registered patients in the state are now listed as “patients with no provider,” leaving them without access to their medicine, the Montana Standard reports. The law, which took effect on Aug. 31, allows the 457 medical marijuana providers in the state to serve just three patients each.

Jon Ebelt, spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, said that patients classified “with no provider” are considered their own provider, which allows them to grow their own cannabis. However Chris Lindsey, senior legislative counsel for the Marijuana Policy Project, said growing cannabis “is no small step for anyone,” and it’s unrealistic for the state to think that many patients can buy growing equipment, obtain seeds, learn to grow and get permission from their landlord, if necessary, to start a home grow.

“There is a perception that growing at home is like growing house plants, but it is actually very involved, and the cost savings compared with purchasing can be offset by things like security, demanding schedule, and the possible presence of young family members,” Lindsey said in the report.

Lindsay suggests the regulations will force patients back into the informal market, or make them reliant on pharmaceuticals, at least temporarily as voters will decide on whether to roll back the changes in November.

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Cannabis Growing Container Company Execs Charged with Fraud

9/19/2016

by TG Branfalt Jr.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed fraud charges against individuals of Fusion Pharm, a company that makes containers for growing cannabis, over a scheme involving false financial filings and illegal stock sales, according to a press release from the oversight body.

The investigation found that CEO Scott Dittman and his brother-in-law William Sears hired Cliffe Bodden to help create fraudulent corporate documents that enabled the company to issue common stock to three other companies controlled by Sears, who sold the restricted stock into the market — hiding the companies’ link to Fusion Pharm — ultimately making $12.2 million in profit. Sears transferred some of the funds back to Fusion Pharm who falsely reported the income as revenue from PharmPod sales, and issued financial statements that mislead investors due to the fraudulent reporting.

“Sears and Dittman misled investors by recording and trumpeting revenues for purported sales of PharmPods when they were really just round-tripping money from illegal stock sales by hidden affiliates,” Julie K. Lutz, director of the SEC’s Denver Regional Office, said in the release.

The trio agreed to settle with the SEC, who will set monetary sanctions against Fusion Pharm and Sears’ three other companies. All three men are also barred from participating in any future penny stock offerings. Sears and Dittman are permanently banned from holding an office or director position from any company. Dittman is no longer allowed to appear or practice before the SEC as an accountant.

Sears and Dittman have also been charged with crimes related to the fraud by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado.

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Casino Mogul Adelson Makes Huge Donation to Anti-MMJ PAC

9/19/2016

Sheldon Adelson, the CEO of Las Vegas Sands Corp., has donated $1 million to the Drug Free Florida Committee, a political action committee trying to defeat Florida’s medical marijuana ballot initiative, according to a report from the Associated Press. Two years ago, the billionaire casino mogul donated $5.5 million to Drug Free Florida to defeat a similar amendment.

A constitutional amendment in Florida requires 60 percent of the vote to pass. In 2014 a similar amendment garnered 57.6 percent of the vote.

Adelson is a well-known prohibitionist who regularly makes huge donations to the Republican Party. His second, and current, wife, Miriam Ochshorn, founded a substance abuse center and research clinic at Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv, Israel, her native country.

According to a report from the Chicago Sun Times, Adelson forced the editorial board of the Las Vegas Review-Journal to drop its pro-cannabis stance after purchasing the paper earlier this year ahead of the state’s recreational-use vote in November.

In July, Mel Sembler, a St. Petersburg real estate developer and Adelson ally, donated $500,000 to the committee.

Florida is one of four states voting on medical cannabis initiatives in the general election. Five others will vote on recreational legalization measures.

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Massachusetts Mayor Vetoes a Public-Use Ban He Recommended

9/19/2016

Amesbury, Massachusetts Mayor Ken Gray has vetoed a public-use of cannabis ban — one he recommended to the city council — citing concerns that the ordinance did not consider medical marijuana use, according to a report from the Eagle-Tribune. The ordinance would have levied a $200 fine on anyone found using cannabis in public.

The veto comes following a public outcry during a City Council meeting where citizens expressed concerns that the ordinance could negatively affect patients using medical cannabis. The measure was recommended to Gray by police Chief Kevin Ouellet, who “didn’t have any objections” to the mayor’s veto because another version is still likely to pass after some changes. In a letter to City Clerk Bonnijo Kitchin, Gray indicated that he wasn’t vetoing the ordinance because he is opposed to its intent, but rather “to ensure without doubt that we do not inadvertently implement an enforcement mechanism that unfairly impacts patients who use these substances as necessary forms of medicine.”

“The only way that I have of slowing this thing down is to veto it, otherwise it goes into effect,” Gray said in the report. “We are not really in a huge hurry to get this done. I don’t see any reason why we have to rush to get it done. It has already taken several months, so let’s take a pause to relook at it and make sure that we are doing this properly.”

The City Council has 21 days to override the veto or consider the ordinance rejected.

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Why Cannabis Companies Can’t Afford to Ignore Data and Analytics

9/16/2016

by Matthew Chatham

Legalization — and the infrastructure that follows it — enables the cannabis industry to embrace business intelligence that is already standard in other industries. This is the story so far for states that have legalized, and trends show that national legalization and the mainstream normalization of cannabis are quickly becoming a very real possibility.

With active marketplaces already up (or nearly underway) in Colorado, Washington, Oregon, and Alaska — as well as an upcoming adult-use vote in California and several other states this November — the cannabis industry is experiencing massive upheaval on its way to becoming a mainstream industry. Therefore, it must (and will) become as cutting-edge as any other if it is to carve out a niche for itself in the modern economy.

To that end, an entire subindustry of ancillary businesses is springing up. These are companies that provide assistance to cannabis market participants with regulatory compliance, general business practices, and data-based decision making. Many firms collect and analyze data on the new industry and provide this information to clients on a proprietary basis. This data allows industry participants to capture information efficiencies which are usually unavailable in illicit or medical markets. Often, companies providing this data are operated by individuals with experience in other, more mainstream markets.

Cannabis Benchmarks is one such company. Founded in early 2015 by CEO Jonathan Rubin, Cannabis Benchmarks is owned by New Leaf Data Services LLC and provides wholesale price information to those on the cultivation side of the industry. “We aim to be the Kelly Blue Book of wholesale cannabis,” Rubin said.

Although the company is performing well and expects to expand soon, he often speaks of his company in futuristic terms, with an eye to the continuing development of the cannabis industry. For example, the firm’s Professional level service — offered in partnership with GlobalView — is geared toward international commodity traders in the cannabis futures market (which doesn’t exist yet). Those that purchase the service will gain access to historical cannabis price data in a dashboard similar to Bloomberg Terminal, and can perform various analyses using data on climate, macroeconomic trends, utility prices, and more. Rubin hopes to establish a firm first-mover advantage with those interested in cannabis futures information before such a market even develops.

There are many other companies that supply similar or related ancillary services to the cannabis industry, including New Frontier, The ArcView Group, BDS Analytics, and a host of consulting firms which provide clients with custom consulting services.

New Frontier and ArcView are partners on the notable report “The State of Legal Marijuana Markets” — now in its 4th edition — and ArcView is a giant in industry fundraising and other activities. Their report on the potential for the California adult-use market has received extensive mainstream coverage. New Frontier has also published reports on Oregon, California, Nevada, global markets, energy efficiency in the industry, cannabis investing, and cultivator revenues. This summer, New Frontier launched Equio, an online data platform that allows cannabis retailers to track inventory and sales, compare sales to regional averages, and keep up with trends in consumer strain preferences.

BDS Analytics offers a similar service with its GreenEdge platform (albeit with access to more transaction data) which is now free of cost for all members of the National Cannabis Industry Association. GreenEdge offers retailers detailed information about market trends, broken down into many categories of products, based on over 30 million transactions. BDS also recently launched a consumer research division. Most analytics firms currently are cultivator-oriented, but consumer research will become increasingly important and common as the industry develops and moves toward a brand-based market.

It is important to note that all of this is more or less standard in other industries. “What we’re doing already exists in every other industry,” says Roy Bingham, CEO of BDS Analytics. Legalization measures in other states will only feed into the industry’s upward cycle.

Already, many individuals from traditional industries are shifting to cannabis as a viable career alternative. Rubin and Bingham both have extensive experience in traditional industries. Rubin got into the cannabis analytics industry after he was unable to evaluate a company’s investment proforma due to a lack of wholesale price information. Bingham, with experience in mergers and acquisitions, is more direct about how he got involved: “Opportunity knocks.”

California will likely legalize adult-use cannabis this fall, based on polling that shows a majority of voters in favor of Proposition 64. If it does, a gigantic consumer market will open up and the state will become a keystone in the national and international fight to reform cannabis laws. Capital and labor will flow into the state, and there will be many more companies, investors, and traders in desperate need of business intelligence.

The only way is up.

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President of Mexico Keeping Tabs on California Legalization Bid

9/16/2016

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto is “paying close attention” to California’s recreational-use vote this November, according to California state Senator Ben Allen, who met with the head-of-state yesterday. If the state passes Proposition 64, it would put pressure on Mexican lawmakers to reform the country’s cannabis laws, according to a Reuters report.

The meeting with state legislators was focused on trade and border issues, but lawmakers who attended said the president brought up the initiative without getting into details and the topic was not mentioned in the presidency’s report about the meeting.

In April, Peña Nieto introduced legislation that would allow Mexicans to possess up to one ounce of cannabis for personal use and has said the U.S. and Mexico should not diverge on marijuana policies. The decriminalization bill has stalled in the country’s Congress.

The bill, and the interest in California’s vote by Peña Nieto, is proof he has modified his conservative views on cannabis since his 2012 election. The country, like many South American nations, is constantly battling drug cartels, and legalization is considered a potential tool for pushing cartels out of the marijuana trade.

Legal cannabis is already available in the South American nation of Uruguay and Colombia legalized marijuana for medical and scientific purposes in December.

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Cannabis leaf under the glow of indoor LED grow lights.

Washington State Officials Expand Testing Program

9/16/2016

Washington’s Liquor and Cannabis Board is going to begin randomly testing cannabis products for banned pesticides, the Associated Press reports. The agency is paying the state Department of Agriculture more than $1 million to hire two full-time employees and buy new equipment to conduct the tests.

According to a Seattle Times report, Washington will become the first state to mandate randomized testing of cannabis products.

Rick Garza, the LCB director, said the move “will send a strong message” to producers using illegal pesticides, who will be subjected to “significant penalties” including license revocation if caught.

“Testing for pesticides is a complex and costly process,” Garza said in a statement. “Labs need specialized equipment and highly trained staff to carry out the tests. This agreement will satisfy those obstacles.”

Since the first legal cannabis cultivation licenses were awarded in 2014, the board has conducted 45 investigations into the use of pesticides outlawed under the law – but only after receiving complaints from the public about alleged misuse. The new equipment will allow 75 samples to be tested per month for more than 100 unapproved pesticides. According to John Scott, pesticides program section head at the Department of Agriculture; Colorado has conducted more than 100 investigations into pesticide use this year, finding that about 40 to 45 percent were not in compliance with the law.

Agriculture Department spokesman Hector Castro said growers using outlawed pesticides are “on notice.”

“This should be a real game-changer for the industry in terms of public safety,” he said.

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Study: Fatal Accidents Less Likely to Involve Opiate Use in MMJ States

9/16/2016

A Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health study has found that drivers in states with medical marijuana programs were less likely to test positive for opioids after fatal car accidents, according to a Chicago Tribune report.

“In states with medical marijuana laws, fewer individuals are using opioids,” the authors concluded in the study published in the American Journal of Public Health, which analyzed federal crash data in 18 states from 1999 to 2013.

June H. Kim, the study’s lead author, said the results of the study are not unexpected.

“We would expect the adverse consequences of opioid use to decrease over time in states where medical marijuana use is legal, as individuals substitute marijuana for opioids in the treatment of severe or chronic pain,” Kim said in the report.

In the analysis, the greatest reduction of opioid involvement in fatal car accidents was among drivers aged 21 to 40, who are most likely to use medical marijuana in state’s where it is available. The study adds to a growing body of academic work suggesting medical marijuana is an effective alternative to combatting opioid use. A paper published in Health Affairs found that physicians in legal states write 1,826 fewer doses of opioid-based painkiller per year.

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Colombia Farmer Collective Hoping for Cannabis Cultivation License

9/16/2016

A group of farmers in Corinto, Colombia has started a collective aiming to become the prime supplier for the country’s new legal cannabis market, according to a Guardian report. Under the law passed early this year, marijuana is legal for medical and research purposes in Colombia.

Currently, police estimate that 100 hectares of land in Corinto is being used for illegal cultivation, representing about 50 percent of all illegal crops in Colombia. The collective, Caucannabis, hopes to bring some of that product to the legal industry.

Betania Rodriguez, a cooperative member, said that marijuana and coca are about the only options farmers in the region have to make a living. The government has so far issued licenses to three companies, but those licenses only currently allow for the extraction of oils and resins from the plants, so — under the current law — these rural farms growing marijuana are still committing a crime.

“It’s illegal but it’s all we’ve got,” Rodriguez said in the report.

The licensed companies will be able to cultivate plants eventually, however, and members of Caucannabis say they know more than the companies about growing the plant. If the industry is going to have any real impact in the nation, traditional marijuana growers should supply the cannabis, the farmers argue. However, many of these traditional growers have criminal records due to their role in the illicit trade, and the law says that no one with a record can be issued a license to legally grow.

Hector Fabio Sanchez, the leader of the co-op, says those operating illegally are “eager” to bring their businesses into the formal market.

“But things need to move quickly,” he said. “If it takes two years to get going people will just say, ‘Oh, it was all a lie.’”

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Michigan Legislature Passes MMJ Reform Package

9/15/2016

Michigan’s House of Representatives has approved a package of reform bills which will license, tax, and regulate the cultivation, transport, processing, testing and sale of medical cannabis in the state, the Detroit Free Press reports. The five-bill package illuminates an industry that has operated in a gray market since voters legalized medical cannabis use in 2008.

Under the reforms, the state will issue licenses to dispensaries, growers, processors, secure transporters, and testing facilities. The initial and annual application fees for those services will be set by a newly-created medical marijuana licensing board. Dispensary sales will be taxed 3 percent.

Robin Schneider, legislative policy director for the National Patients’ Rights Association, called the plan “common-sense regulatory framework” that will ensure safe patient access to all forms of medical marijuana. However, dispensary owner Jamie Lowell said the current structure wasn’t needed in the county in which he operates and will likely raise the prices for many of the state’s 210,000 patients.

“I’m perplexed about why a system that has been in place in this state for seven years, right in the backyards of some of these legislators and functioning just fine, is being replaced by an overly restrictive, costly new system,” he said in the report.

The package has been sent to Gov. Rick Snyder, who is expected to sign it into law.

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Maryland Applicants Threatening Legal Action Over MMJ License Denials

9/15/2016

Two companies that were passed over by the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission are alleging unfair treatment and threatening legal action over their application denial, according to a Washington Post report. The row is the latest setback in the rollout of the medical marijuana program — earlier this week, the Legislative Black Caucus indicated they were planning emergency legislation to address the lack of minority-owned business approved by the commission.

The companies, Green Thumb Industries Maryland and Maryland Cultivation and Processing, claim that the board passed them over due to “geographic diversity” despite having higher scores than the companies actually granted the licenses. Buddy Robshaw, MMCC commissioner, said the law calls for such diversity and they were operating within the confines of that law.

“We wanted everybody who would substantially look at this to come back and say, ‘You know what, the commission did create geographic diversity when we licensed marijuana,’” he said in the report.

Pete Kadens, GTI chief executive, said he was ranked in the top 15 — the total number of allowable licenses under the law — and he was passed over for Holistic Industries and Shore Natural Rx because of their location in Worcester County.

“We were dismayed by the outcome, and believe the commission’s decision and process were improper and fundamentally flawed,” he said.

Cultivation and Processing Partner Ed Weidenfeld said applicants were promised the licenses would be awarded to “the most suitable applicants.”

Both companies are pushing for the legislature to move the cap on grower’s licenses from 15 to 20, but have asked the commission to preserve documents related to the licensing decision — a preliminary step for a lawsuit.

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Colorado’s Cannabis Market Reaches New Heights

9/15/2016

Colorado has set a new cannabis sales record in July grossing about $122.7 million in both medical and recreational sales, according to a Washington Times report. The state set its last sales record in April with $117.4 million in sales.

Dispensaries saw $83.8 million in recreational sales and $38.9 million in medical sales, representing an overall 27 percent increase over July 2015 sales. So far, from Jan. 1 to the end of July, $720.4 million in legal cannabis has been sold in the state, which has collected roughly $105.8 million in taxes from the sector.

Adam Orens, founding partner of the Marijuana Policy Group, the sales spike could be the result of a June bill that allows out-of-state residents to purchase cannabis in Colorado, along with the summer weather. He expects the market to level off.

“Every year, we’ve had more sales than the year before; at the same time, you’ve seen prices in general declining,” he said in the report. “This rapid growth represents people coming from the black market into the regulated market, and that growth is going to be fast, but it’s going to be finite.”

Last month, the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board recorded its highest dispensary sales to date, topping $130 million.

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Freshly cut indoor cannabis plant. waiting to be picked apart for harvest.

Advocates in Nebraska Already Working Toward 2018 Initiatives

9/15/2016

Two advocate groups in Nebraska have already filed petitions and started collecting signatures for potential ballot initiatives in 2018, the Lincoln Journal Star reports. One measure would eliminate all penalties for possession of small amounts of cannabis, while another aims to legalize marijuana for recreational use. Both have been filed with the Secretary of State’s Office.

The petition by Mark Elworth Jr., the state chairman for Legal Marijuana Now political party, would eliminate possession penalties for people caught with less than an ounce of cannabis while keeping the current laws for drug dealers. Marijuana is technically decriminalized in the state. Under Elworth’s plan, however, the current penalties — a $300 fine and possible jail time — would be abolished.

Nebraska Attorney General Dough Peterson, who led a lawsuit against Colorado over legalization, said he does not support the petition claiming ‘legalizing’ an ounce of marijuana would “send the wrong message” that the drug is harmless, and puts the youth at risk.

The details of the amendment proposal were not available; however, advocates in May backed off of a plan to petition for medical marijuana this election. According to the report, supporters of the plan are starting early so they have plenty of time to collect signatures.

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Kentucky Ag Commissioner Objects to New USDA Hemp Rules

9/14/2016

by TG Branfalt Jr.

Kentucky’s Agriculture Commissioner has sent a letter to the USDA outlining his objections to the body’s new ‘Statement of Principles’ regarding the industrial hemp sector, local NPR station WKMS reports. He says the new rules contradict the original intent of the 2014 measure passed by Congress and “could hinder industrial hemp’s economic potential” in the state which currently incorporates more than 2,000 acres of the plant.

The 2014 Farm Bill did not remove hemp from the controlled substances list, but it allows states to grow hemp for research purposes. Kentucky launched its pilot program that year.

Ryan Quarles said the rules set forth by the feds name only “fiber and seed” as the economically viable parts of the plant, and permits their use only for industrial applications. Quarles argues that the ‘industrial application’ provision would not allow hemp to be used as a food or drug ingredient or for artistic purposes. He says that more than half of Kentucky’s hemp is used to harvest CBD, which is often used in medical applications, and comes from neither the fiber nor seed.

Another section, Quarles says, broadens the definition for measuring THC and omits the ‘delta-9’ qualifier from the definition which could render “most if not all” of the industrial hemp crops in the pilot program ineligible for study because all hemp has some THC. Under USDA regulations, plants must contain less than 0.3 percent THC to be considered hemp. He says the change could create confusion for farmers and processors if it is not rewritten.

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Maine Program Aims to Provide Clean Cannabis Certifications

9/14/2016

The Certified Clean Cannabis pilot program, launched last month by the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, is hoping to be the first on the East Coast to set medical marijuana growing standards, according to a Portland Press Herald report. The program would use standards similar to those utilized for certifying organic food products.

John Krueger, MOFGA board member, helped develop the certification standards over the past two years. He indicated that five growers in the state have been certified so far as part of the trial phase and said the program is “ahead of the curve.” The five farmers together gave MOFGA $3,000 for the initial certifications. Certified products are given a C3 logo to show they were approved by the standards.

“This program brings (caregivers) credibility,” Dawson Julia, owner of East Coast CBDs, one of five growers certified by the program, said in the report. “If I was going to the grocery store to buy food, I’d want to make sure it’s certified organic by an oversight organization. It’s the same thing with cannabis.”

Due to marijuana’s federal status, the products cannot be called “organic” — that term is regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Organic Program. A similar program is underway in Colorado.

The standards require soil-based production, and cannabis grown hydroponically is not considered clean. All pest and mold control products must be organic, and applicants must fill out an extensive survey about the products used in their cultivation practices; both their records and gardens are inspected.

All certified caregivers who make more than $1,000 a year under Maine’s medical marijuana program are already required to hold a basic pesticide applicator license. Under the recreational use ballot initiative that will be put to voters in November, all cannabis would need to be tested before it is made available for purchase, but products considered for the C3 certification would still be subject to the program’s independent oversight.

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Poll: Majority of MA Voters Support Legalization, Say Cannabis is Less Harmful than Sugar

9/14/2016

Half of Massachusetts voters support legalizing recreational cannabis, compared to 45 percent opposed, according to a WBUR/MassINC poll, while five percent remain undecided. The poll shows large demographic splits, as 56 percent of voters under 35 support the legalization plan, compared to just 39 percent support among voters 65 and older.

“Younger people are very much in favor of legalization, and it declines steadily as you move up the age brackets to where you get to voters who are 60-plus, and they’re opposed to it by a 17-point margin,” Steve Koczela, MassINC Polling Group president, said in the report.

Aside from gauging the support for November’s ballot initiative, the pollsters asked several questions relating to the respondents’ general attitudes toward cannabis.

Overall, 80 percent of respondents said that marijuana use is “not morally wrong,” but 48 percent said that people using cannabis would present public safety hazards, while 43 percent disagreed.

When given the choice as to what substance is more harmful — tobacco, alcohol, marijuana or sugar — just 4 percent indicated that cannabis was the most harmful; 42 percent pointed to tobacco, 19 percent said alcohol, and 13 percent said sugar.

Another majority — 50 percent to 46 percent — indicated that they did not believe cannabis to be a gateway drug.

Massachusetts is one of five states that will be voting on a recreational-use initiative in November.

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Charlie Heidenreich: Engineering Innovations in Pipe Technology

9/14/2016

by Ganjapreneur

Charlie Heidenreich is Founder and President of Deathcache Pipes, a Wisconsin-based manufacturing company that recently released its patented specialty pipe, the Battista.

We recently caught up with Charlie to talk about the strategies, efforts, and patience required to bring a cannabis-specific invention to market. In the following interview, Charlie talks about the ups and downs of entrepreneurship in an industry ancillary to cannabis, how to make responsible decisions in a potentially unstable marketplace, and what it feels like to have delivered a product that you are truly proud of.

Scroll down to read the full interview!

Ganjapreneur: When was the idea of Deathcache first established?

Charlie Heidenreich: I had been tinkering with this pipe and the material since the mid-90’s. It was far from anything special outside material selection. The concept really started to solidify around 2013. We had the pipe around and we would use it from time to time. It came up often that it didn’t get terribly hot and without any metallic flavor contamination. We toyed with the idea of producing pipes, but, considering material hardness, there were challenges in working the material. We also didn’t want to release something that fell into the chasm of 1000’s of cookie cutter products. We wanted something that truly served our needs and solved the problems we had with all the current solutions; Something that we could be proud of, was beautiful and demonstrated true American Craftsmanship. Ideas popped up in our discussions and we built, tested and tweaked the concepts. Then in late 2015 we put all those down on paper and laid out the final Battista design.

Could you explain the design and development process for your first major product, the Battista pipe?

Unlike most our work, this was never something we intended to develop and sell by us, or anyone else. It just evolved casually over almost 20 years. Our core business is helping other companies develop, manufacture and launch their products, so we had a strong foundation to build from. That translated to just a lot of fun tinkering with the target of providing the best experience for our toughest critic and consumer — ourselves.

What material (or materials) specifically is the Battista made from?

The Battista is made from an exotic high carbon alloy. It has uses all over industry and can be classified along side tool steels. The same kind of material a knife maker would keep in his arsenal.

How long did it take to go from your planning stage to the product’s official launch?

We tinkered with the idea seriously since roughly 2013. It was only late in 2015 that we decided to move on it in January, 2016. Outside of some final product development tweaks, we developed our brand, designed packaging and SWAG, wrote our production plan to scale, completed our initial production prototypes and first pilot run, launched our website and launch video in 4 months and 20 days. We’ve had plenty of debates about what the brand stands for, our quality standards and what our product is over the years that when it came time to put it together, it came together really fast.

Can we expect additional premium smoking accessories from Deathcache Pipes in the near future?

Yes. We’re working on four near-term products and one long-term family of products to serve consumers and manufacturers. We’re planning to reveal some of the product ideas in the beginning of 2017, if not the end of 2016.

What was your career before founding Deathcache Pipes?

Good question! I started in the trades as a Tool Maker and evolved into mechanical engineering. Aside from the 20+ years between those two fields, I also went to school for Industrial Design and moonlighted as a design consultant.

How many employees do you have?

Ten.

What’s an average ‘day at the office’ like for you as President of Deathcache?

My days swing from typical administration activities, and business development, to problem solving manufacturing challenges, brand development and product development. It’s tough to nail a ‘typical’ day. The other arm of our business is contract manufacturing and new product development. Because of this I’m exposed to a wide range of challenges in both engineering and manufacturing, and across many sectors. I also consult for a number of start-up companies developing highly sophisticated products and machines. Frankly, my weeks are dense and finding time for everything can be, at times, impossible but I wouldn’t ask for any other job. We provide a vital set of services for industry in our community and there are few, if any, contract manufacturers with the same eclectic set of skills. There is a lot of demand for my time. This leads to many chaotic days but the benefit from demand is it allows me to be selective and target work that I’m naturally engaged in.

What’s the biggest obstacle so far that you as an entrepreneur in the cannabis space have had to overcome?

Marketing. Marketing in the cannabis industry is difficult to navigate. There isn’t any clear, seemingly independent, benchmark to draw from. We’re targeting the national market and moving international from there. Doing so means developing relationships with seasoned professionals in the industry. Sadly, it isn’t apparent who to call, who has the expertise we need or etc. In our regular business we can talk to a few colleagues and get a lead if we have something challenging to deal with. In this industry it is tough to differentiate between them. Even using the most reputable sites, they are tough to gauge. So, we tried a tactical approach to vetting who we’re going to spend advertising dollars with, along with requiring statistics; including conversions. Depending on how they provide the data, their story around the data and user base helped us determine where we started. We tripped a few times in this regard and made a few, in hindsight, bad decisions. We’re still learning, but the relationships we’ve built have already been critical to our edification and growth.

Are there restrictions on where you can ship the Battista? Which region would you say you serve most regularly?

Today we’re not shipping anywhere outside the US and, on occasion, Canada. We’re shipping all over the U.S. in a surprisingly even distribution, with a small bias in the Midwest thanks to wholesale purchases. Closer to the beginning, or middle, of 2017, we’ll start shipping international, and that’s where we’ll hit some road blocks.

What would you say is most rewarding about working in the cannabis space?

We’re not cutting corners. We’re producing a product that serves many needs, which includes improving the user experience and doing it in a way that we feel good about. So, it’s personally rewarding for all of us. I mean, we developed the Battista for ourselves, which is pretty selfish, and released it for sale as we would want it, exactly. What we’re getting in return in gratitude is enlightening. It’s motivation for us to continue listening and being honest about our labors.

If you had one piece of advice for someone considering getting involved in cannabis, what would it be?

Be patient. Everyone is hyped and treating today like it’s the gold rush. In my opinion, it has yet to come. We still don’t have complete national reform and who knows what will tip the scales there: state pressure or enlightened leadership. So, take your time and decide what it is you love to do, regardless of the industry. Take that and translate it to a service or product you can provide to anyone in the industry food chain. We still need insurance, lawyers, printers, artists, bankers, administrators, truck drivers, assemblers, machinists, mechanics, gardeners, electricians, plumbers and the list goes on. As we drift closer to complete reform, the industry will draw more and more talented people; so focus on your skills so you can head into the industry and stay relevant as it evolves.

Thanks Charlie for sharing your thoughts and experiences! To learn more about Deathcache pipes and their Battista creation, visit the company website at www.deathcache.com.

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California Police Field Test Marijuana Breathalyzer

9/14/2016

Cops in California have field tested a marijuana breathalyzer, resulting in positive tests for individuals who admitted to smoking cannabis that day but not in any arrests because those who agreed to the tests by police were willfully volunteering the information as part of research for the device, according to a report by U.S. News & World Report.

Mike Lynn, CEO of Hound Labs, the creators of the device, said during the live tests, two people admitted to smoking marijuana within the past 30 minutes and other drivers admitted to using the drug within the last two to three hours. The readouts for the drivers who admitted to getting high within 30 minutes of the test were much higher than those in the two-to-three hour window.

“Basically everyone agreed because they were curious,” Lynn, who also serves as a reserve officer with the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, said in the report. “We were not trying to arrest people. … Sure, we could arrest people and people are arrested every day for driving stoned, but the objective was not to put people in jail but to educate them and use the device if they volunteered so we could get the data.”

Next, the results of the tests will be confirmed with laboratory equipment to ensure they are accurate and other California police departments plan on conducting their own field tests over the next six months in order to validate the results.

Lynn hopes the device will be available to law enforcement in the first half of next year.

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Legal Cannabis Industry Could Hit $50 Billion Within Ten Years

9/13/2016

The legal cannabis industry could reach $50 billion by 2026, according to a 10 Cowen & Co. analysis. That figure expands the legal market more than eight times its current size.

“Cannabis prohibition has been in place for 80-plus years, but the tides are clearly turning,” the authors concluded, according to a Bloomberg report.

According to the analysis, Big Tobacco is likely to enter the legal cannabis market; however, the analysts envision they will enter on the vapor technology side. Additionally, Big Tobacco companies have experience navigating complex regulatory frameworks, which would give them a leg up on smaller companies with less experience. The analysts predict that tobacco companies will constitute about one-fifth of the cannabis industry by 2036, adding more than 20 percent to their revenues.

Analysts note that legal cannabis is more foe than friend to alcohol-makers, noting that over the last five years alcohol consumption has declined, while cannabis use has risen — especially among men. The number of cannabis users who drank decreased, while the number of drinkers who also used cannabis increased, according to the report.

In less than two months, nine states are voting on marijuana policy, including California, whose market would triple the size of the country’s current $6 billion legal market, the report indicates.

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UK Parliamentary Group Calls for Cannabis Rescheduling

9/13/2016

The UK All Party Parliamentary Group on Drug Policy Reform is urging the Home Office to reclassify cannabis from Schedule One to Schedule Four, putting it in the same category as steroids and sedatives and allowing doctors to prescribe the drug and pharmacists to dispense it, according to a report from the BBC.

However, despite the suggestion by the cross-party group, the Home Office says they have no plans to legalize the “harmful drug.” Under current laws in England and Wales, cannabis therapies are not recognized and possession is illegal.

The group surveyed 623 patients, medical professionals, and medical marijuana experts, finding that 67 percent of patients try conventional methods first. According to the survey, 37 percent don’t tell their doctor about their cannabis use and 72 percent are driven to the informal market to purchase their medicine, while another 20 percent grow their own.

APPG Co-chair Baroness Molly Meacher called the UK’s current scheduling of cannabis “irrational.”

“Cannabis works as a medicine for a number of medical conditions,” she said in the report. “The evidence has been strong enough to persuade a growing number of countries and U.S. states to legalize access to medical cannabis.”

A representative for the Home Office said that “it is important that medicines are thoroughly trialled” before being made available to patients and that there is a regime in place by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency to develop medicines that contain controlled substances.

At least 11 European countries, Canada, Israel, and 24 U.S. states approve medicinal cannabis use.

End

California Hospital Board Member Submits Proposal for MMJ Use by Inpatients

9/13/2016

Marin General Hospital in Greenbrae, California could be the first hospital in the state to allow medical cannabis to be consumed on premises under a plan by district board member Dr. Larry Bedard, the Mercury News reports. If the board approves Bedard’s resolution, hospital staff would begin reviewing the legal and medical implications of allowing medical marijuana use at the facility.

Bedard, a retired emergency medicine physician who once worked at Marin, said he wants the hospital to be the first “to openly and transparently” allow patients to use medical marijuana.

In the resolution, sent to Marin administrators, his fellow board members and other interested parties, Bedard acknowledges concerns that the federal government might retaliate by withholding federal funding for the Medi-Cal program, or even pull their Medicare provider number. However, he suggests that those fears are overblown due to federal rules that prevent the government from using federal funds to penalize physicians, hospitals, and patients that are complying with state medical marijuana laws.

District board member Jennifer Rienks said she has “a lot of questions” about the proposal and “needed to hear more about it” before she could determine whether or not she would support the plan.

Patients would not be able to smoke cannabis inside of the hospital due to a smoking ban in hospitals enacted in California in the late 1990s; however hospital administrators could consider alternative delivery methods such as vaping and edibles.

End

Entrepreneur Cashes In On Privatized Cannabis Lounges

9/13/2016

by Press Releases

Like the explosion in popularity of vaporizers, the emergence of a private cannabis lounge in San Francisco could signal a coming change not only to the way we smoke cannabis, but how we profit from it.

At the spear’s point of this emerging trend is Harvest, a boutique medical dispensary located on Geary Blvd, in the Inner Richmond District. Its interior design combines the sophisticated minimalism of Apple stores with the wooden earthiness of a spiritual store. The dispensary is making a name for itself not just for its highend menu of cannabis strains, edibles, and tinctures, but for its trendy private cannabis lounge. Not only is this lounge elegantly designed, chandelierlit, and furnished with patio style leather seating, plush pillows, and modernistic wood tables and cabinets, it claims to be the first of its kind in San Francisco.

The opening of Harvest’s boutique consumption lounge has set in motion repercussions felt both on an economic and medical level by local cannabis users, in what they view as the cannabis industry turning its back on lowincome smokers and medical patients in favor of profit. On the other hand, investors are finding a unique opportunity to capitalize on a need for legal smoking areas in San Francisco and eventually the state of California.

The End of an Era?

Cannabis lounges have existed in San Francisco for years. But thanks to Silicon Valley money and stricter regulations by the city, they’re evolving to meet the needs of upper-class marijuana users.

Less than two years ago, Harvest was the Hemp Center. Boasting vibrant rastacolored walls, reggae music, and weed bottled in plastic jars, the Hemp Center was a ragtag hangout for
hippies and patients alike. The bohemian ambiance is gone in today’s iteration. In its place, you’ll find some of the most expensive name brand strains in the city, $44 brownies, $15 sodas, and a $100 monthly membership fee for smoking in the lounge.

Harvest is offering quality products and the appeal of exclusivity in order to cater to a specific demographic. But some local smokers in turn feel they’re being forced out by the disappearance of affordable cannabis lounges. Is Harvest’s makeover a first glimpse at what privatized medical marijuana services will look like? Not necessarily, since there’s also a market for dispensaries and lounges with lower price points. But to San Francisco locals, it certainly feels like it.

“You felt like you were in someone’s apartment,” local pot advocate Shona Gochenaur told The Guardian about the clubs that existed before lounges like Harvest became popular. “It was always packed… someone would light a huge joint for everyone, and you’d leave painfree. What we have is a takeover… patients are being pushed out hard.”

According to smokers like Shona, privatized cannabis lounges are bringing an end to an era of communal pot smoking that started in 1996, when California legalized medicinal pot. At the time, cannabis lounges sprouted up in weed clubs around the city. Scruffy hippies and medical patients passed joints around in tumbledown quarters. Lounges were temporary havens for the sick and destitute. Eventually, the city of San Francisco required permits for cannabis lounges, and their numbers dwindled. You can still find a number of pot dispensaries in San Francisco, but most establishments born out of 1996 have become places of the past. Local smokers worry that the membership fees and high price points of private lounges like Harvest will eliminate cultural meeting grounds and further push out the poor and sick who need medicinal marijuana for legitimate health reasons.

Higgins begs to differ, asserting that the evolution of the Hemp Center into Harvest is simply part of “an industry trend to cater to a broader patient audience,” and that while his lounge will require patrons to meet set standards, the establishment will be as “inclusionary as possible.”

While the Iron’s Hot

Timing is everything, and the launch date of Harvest’s new lounge couldn’t be better.

The grand opening comes just months before Californians vote on Proposition 64, a measure that will both legalize recreational marijuana and prohibit the public consumption of it. Prop 64 would not restrict the operation of cannabis lounges, however, making them the only place besides home where people can smoke. This leaves a unique pain point among cannabis smokers in California which cannabis lounges like Harvest can soothe.

The smart businessman would cash in on this opportunity by buying properties already permitted to sell marijuana, opening up a sophisticated lounge with membership fees and topline cannabis products, and watch the profits rise. One such businessman is Marty Higgins, real estate investor and owner of Harvest medical dispensary.

Higgins purchased the Hemp Center after its previous owners vacated the premises due to a business arrangement with the landlord. In June, he used the same strategy to buy and eventually revamp the vacant Bernal Heights Dispensary in the Mission District. After the housing bubble burst, and the era of “easycredit” ended, buying distressed properties and businesses became a viable investment for entrepreneurs like Higgins. In this case, Higgins may not only be building a profitable business, but is starting a trend within the industry that may influence customer behaviors, i.e. the way people use cannabis. As more cannabis lounges like Harvest crop up, smoking pot may become more public, like drinking at a bar. For those who can’t afford the membership fees, however, smoking weed may become mostly limited to home use only.

The Future of Smoking

Lounges like Harvest are platforms for cutting-edge ways of experiencing marijuana. A testament to that is the inclusion of vaporizers on their menus.

Currently, 21% of US smokers use vaporizers, a number which may increase in the coming years as the devices grow more popular. Countless celebrities including R&B singer Justin
Bieber, rapper Kanye West, and actor Leonardo Dicaprio have been spotted vaping, owing to some of the appeal of vaporizers. But vaping has emerged as a staple of the cannabis industry largely due to the fewer health risks it apparently poses in comparison with other forms of marijuana consumption.

While there’s much research left to be done on the health effects of vaping, a study published in the Harm Reduction Journal by Dr. Mitch Earleywine found decreased respiratory symptoms in cannabis users who vape. In fact, vaporizers were found to have more health benefits, or at least fewer health risks, than joints, filtered joints, and a variety of water pipes. This is thanks to the smokefree method by which vaporizers heat cannabis. While bongs and pipes burn marijuana past the temperature at which it combusts, vaporizers can be set at the correct temperature for vaporization without producing smoke.

The vapor emitted by these portable devices contains fewer compounds that irritate the bronchial passages of the lungs, and doesn’t hang in the air or leave a lingering odor like smoke. In an upscale lounge, that smokeless quality might be preferred over a hotbox ambiance. Vaping also allows for the “customization” of cannabis that members of a boutique cannabis lounge might find appealing. Vaporizers are not only compatible with dry herbs, but wax concentrate and liquids. That means the potency, flavor, and aroma of cannabis can be manipulated to the preference of smokers at an advanced level.

Vape concentrates also enable cannabis users to smoke specific extracts of compounds found in cannabis. For instance, cannabidiol oil (CBD), a nonpsychoactive cannabinoid used to treat anxiety, depression, pain, inflammation, and even epilepsy, can be administered through vaporizers. THC, the psychotropic compound found in marijuana, can also be extracted for use in vaporizers.

By making vaporizers available to patrons, cannabis lounges in San Francisco can cater to more healthconscious or trendy demographics. Vaporizers are just one aspect of the evolution of marijuana use that’s happening in shops like Harvest. In addition to vaporizers, certain San Francisco lounges are offering edibles in the form of pastries, jams, beverages, and even hot sauces, as well as hybrid strains of marijuana customdesigned to enact specific effects in users.

A Sign of Things to Come

Harvest medical dispensary isn’t the only cannabis lounge around. Pot shops and lounges make up one third of the marijuana industry, adding up to 3,500 shops countrywide. You would expect to see hundreds of these shops opening boutique lounges similar to Harvest. But San Francisco has the pleasure of being the only city in the golden state to allow the operation of marijuana smoking lounges, as well as onsite cannabis use, at a dispensary.

The movement to legalize marijuana in California has ebbed and flowed for the past 20 years. In 2013, for instance, 63% of Los Angeles voters approved a proposition to limit how many marijuana dispensaries could operate in the city. But as California prepares to legalize recreational marijuana, and the U.S. inches toward the legalization of cannabis nationwide, the sleek lounge that took over the hippie hangout might be but a microcosm of what’s in store for the marijuana industry.

End

A cannabis sample being prepped for processing by a cannabis testing facility in Michigan.

Ganjapreneur Tours: PSI Labs

9/13/2016

by TG Branfalt Jr.

Cannabis testing is not mandated under Michigan’s medical marijuana law — that could change if the House enacts reforms to the current system — but there is still a market for testing services in the state. A cursory Google search elicits five cannabis testing laboratory results, with Ann Arbor-based PSI Labs occupying the top spot. Despite only being in business for 18 months, the outfit has built a database with nearly 100,000 samples and was pegged by High Times as the official testing lab for the last two Michigan Cannabis Cups.

Ben Rosman, CEO, and Lev Spivak-Birndorf, chief science officer, both 34, met in middle school. The duo graduated together and remained close as they each embarked on their individual paths. Rosman received a law degree from Wayne State University Law School, specializing in criminal defense and medical cannabis law. Spivak-Birndorf would receive his doctorate in geochemistry and cosmochemistry from Arizona State University, later completing a post-doctoral research fellowship in metal isotope geochemistry at Indiana University. Both are medical marijuana patients — Rosman has epilepsy; Spivak-Birdorf has Crohn’s — and, as patients, they visited dispensaries together, often asking for the lab reports of their medicine.

“[The reports] didn’t make any sense to me,” Rosman said during an interview in the reception area lounge at his lab. “I’d ask Lev — who obviously has experience in mass spectrometry and chromatography — and they didn’t quite make sense to him either, just as far as the numbers didn’t add up.”

So two childhood friends, now experts in aspects of an industry that affects their daily lives decide that not only could they start their own testing lab, they could do it better. As patients, they understand the importance of high-quality medicine — free from mold, bugs, pesticides, and heavy metals. They are intimately acquainted with how potency and cannabinoid profiles play into the therapeutic outcomes of cannabis. Rosman says no matter which side of the medical cannabis argument a person falls on, it’s a consensus that medicine should be safe, therefore it should be tested.

“No matter where you fall on the spectrum, agreeing that medical cannabis helps people, or wanting recreational cannabis to come to Michigan, you can agree that safe access to medical cannabis is important,” Rosman said. “And we help provide that safety in safe access.”

The operation is small. During our tour, two techs ran samples in the laboratory; a former call center full of buzzing, beeping, and hissing machines that bounce ambient vibrations throughout the white-walled lab.

“Most of these machines are used in police forensic labs to lock people up,” Rosman says, noting the irony.

In a small room off of the main lab floor Amanda Finnigan, a graduate of nearby Henry Ford College, is preparing edibles for testing. She said because there are no current standard operating procedures to follow, it’s up to their small lab to develop the best practices to prepare them for the eventual regulations, and to find the best way to extract the chemicals from new products; ranging from infused water to facial scrubs.

Finnigan went to school with this very gig in mind. She had wanted to intern with a cannabis lab, but her school refused due to the fact that they receive federal funding and cannabis is federally outlawed.

“We had a conversation with my biotech program,” she explained. “They said I couldn’t do it because they get government funding. But this is it; this is why I got that degree.”

Unlike Finnigan, Mark Tracy — a State University of New York, Oneonta graduate — said there was “no way” he expected his degree path to take him to a cannabis testing lab.

“This wasn’t even a dream job,” he said. “This didn’t even exist.”

Rosman said he would “definitely” take on interns if colleges were to ever reach out, and said he hires people who are excited to learn about not just the industry, but the science behind cannabis.

Spivak-Birndorf explains that, as a scientist, working in an independent lab setting is the best way to get data on cannabis — and in “this world of customized products,” people are hungry for that data. He suggests that as a culture we are becoming more demanding of, and more used to, informed consumption at our fingertips.

“No matter what field you’re in,” he said. “Micro-brewing, nutritional supplements and food, they’re blending together in these markets — there’s a lot of stuff like that… the more we can teach people about what they’re using — I’m excited for them to be able to geek out a little bit more.”

But terpene profiles are what really excite the CSO. Terpenes are the oils that give cannabis its flavor and smell profile. A sample’s terpene profile really defines what strain it is, and Spivak-Birndorf says it’s far more complicated than indica and sativa.

“It’s fun trying to get people to think in a different way, more like ‘what’s the chemistry that’s contributing to these flavors,’ because ultimately that’s what’s going to be behind it,” he said. “Saying ‘indica’ or ‘sativa’ doesn’t have a terribly large amount of meaning because at the end of the day the effects you feel are the result of the chemistry of that particular strain.”

On the day of our interview, a sample came through the lab with 26 percent THC and CBG levels of “like 4 to 5 percent” — the highest any sample had ever tested for in the lab’s history. CBG is a non-psychoactive cannabinoid found to have anti-anxiety properties. The strain, Spivak-Birndorf suggested, would be great medicine for someone because while it’s potent, it might not cause anxiety-like other potent strains.

“It’s cool to see something totally unique and sometimes we’re telling the customer something they had no clue,” he said.

Both founders expect the market, the industry, and the rules by which they operate to change, but are as forward thinking as any consumer brand, despite being more embedded in the science sector. They have over 3,300 Instagram followers, and their lab reports are cleanly constructed (and posted to the social network for people to geek out to). Rosman hopes that if lawmakers pass the sweeping reforms, creating an oversight board, that businesses currently operating in the sector will have a chance to help create the rules — because the market is already years ahead of the government.

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Drugmaker Funding AZ Prohibitionists Worried Legalization Will Limit Product Success

9/13/2016

According to Securities and Exchange Commission filings by Insys — the drug maker that donated $500,000 to the anti-legalization campaign in Arizona — the company is openly concerned that cannabis legalization would “significantly limit the commercial success” of a product called Dronabinol Oral Solution currently being developed by the Pheonix-based company.

“If marijuana or non-synthetic cannabinoids were legalized in the United States, the market for dronabinol product sales would likely be significantly reduced and our ability to generate revenue and our business prospects would be materially adversely affected,” the filing reads.

Dronabinol is a synthetic version of THC, FDA-approved to alleviate nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy. In the filing, the company admits that scientific literature argues that natural cannabis is more beneficial than its synthetic counterparts, and calls cannabis legalization a competition threat.

In addition to dronabinol, Insys produces a fenatyl sublingual spray — an opioid 50 times stronger than heroin which elicited national headlines when it was linked to the death of Prince earlier this year.

In states with legal cannabis, doctors prescribe an average of 1,826 fewer doses of opioid-based painkiller per year, according to a study published in Health Affairs.

The recipients of the war chest donation, the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, indicated they would not return the money to the pharmaceutical company. Campaign manager Adam Deguire defended the decision to keep the funds, saying Insys’ products are FDA approved, while cannabis remains federally outlawed.

End

The End of an Era?

While the Iron’s Hot

The Future of Smoking

A Sign of Things to Come

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