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.
Specifically, DispensaryPermits.com has developed a variety of different templates for cannabis business plans that are currently available at a 50 percent discount and will remain on sale until Friday, November 18 at 11:59 pm. Simply use the promotion code “GJP50” when making your purchase to take advantage of this special offering.
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.
Some of the many business plan templates & documents available at DispensaryPermits.com
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.”
About DispensaryPermits.com:
DispensaryPermits.com is a woman-owned consulting service that specializes in helping cannabis retailers, cultivators, manufacturers, and testing labs find success in the burgeoning marijuana industry. DispensaryPermits.com can offer cannabis consulting services to any company operating in a medical or recreational marijuana state.
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.
The most immediate effect the passage of Question 4 will have in Massachusetts is that, as of Dec. 15, adults over 21-years-old will be able to possess and use 1 ounce of cannabis and people will be allowed to grow up to 12 plants per household. Yet, retail sales are likely more than a year away, according to reports from Fox25and CBS, as there is a lot of bureaucracy that needs to happen before legal sales commence.
On Feb. 1, 2017, Republican Gov. Charlie Baker will make his first appointments to the state’s 15-member Cannabis Advisory Board – who will develop rules and regulations for the program. The following month, Treasurer Deborah Goldberg will appoint three members to the Cannabis Control Commission — which is expected to establish the initial regulations by Sept. 15 and issue its first cultivation, manufacturer, and retailer licenses by Oct. 1.
Under the plan, existing medical marijuana dispensaries will be given preference for commercial licenses until Jan. 1, 2018. Additional licenses will be awarded via lottery.
The tax rate — set at 12 percent under the initiative — is already being debated by officials and Goldberg is pushing for the rate to be more in line with Washington at 37 percent. Baker, who has protested against any tax increases in the state, has not said whether he supported raising the tax.
Canadian agriculture company Maple Leaf Green World has agreed to purchase a Nevada cultivation permit from BioNeva Innovations of Henderson LLC for $500,000, according to a press release from Maple Leaf.
The deal will see a 33,500-square-foot facility located in Henderson, 16 miles from Las Vegas, be transferred to the Canadian firm, who will work with Bill Monroe, a primary member of BioNeva, on transferring the property and helping the company adapt to the new regulations in the state.
“We are thrilled to be able to purchase this cultivation permit so close to Las Vegas at a reasonable price, and we are especially pleased to have the opportunity to engage the services of Bill Monroe to assist us with the development of our operations in Nevada,” Raymond Lai, President & CEO of Maple Leaf said in the report.
The deal would have been reduced by half if Nevada voters had failed to legalized adult-use cannabis in the state.
Maple Leaf does not currently hold a license to produce medical cannabis in its home nation; however, it is working with Woodmere Nursery Ltd to lease a greenhouse for medical cannabis production, the release says.
The companies expect the agreement to be finalized by Dec. 7.
Initiative 300 is a Denver-local ballot initiative that would create a 4-year pilot program where existing businesses — such as a bar, cafe, or restaurant — would be able to apply for permits to allow cannabis consumption in designated areas.
Indoor consumption would be allowed only in vapor or edible forms, though cannabis smoking sections would be permitted if they were kept outdoors. The businesses would all operate on a bring-your-own-cannabis basis.
Each business would require an endorsement from a registered neighborhood organization, Business Improvement District, or other neighborhood group before it can be awarded a permit.
The ballot measure has been championed by Kayvan Khalatbari of Denver Relief Consulting and has spurred up opposition in some unexpected places.
NORML had been working on a social use initiative earlier this year, though it failed to gather enough signatures to qualify for the ballot, and the organization issued a formal endorsement of Initiative 300 in September.
Check back to this post throughout the evening for more live updates as we follow Denver’s Initiative 300.
Update 10:45 a.m. (Wednesday) – After a series of landslide victories for cannabis measures and a near-unbelievable presidential upset, local ballot results have started to come in. As of early this morning, Denver’s Initiative 300 is in a neck-and-neck race that is currently too close to call, though the social use measure has a “razor-thin” lead, according to Colorado-based cannabis publications Marijuana Business Daily and The Cannabist.
Voters in California, Nevada, and Massachusetts have legalized adult cannabis use. Ballots are still being counted in Maine, and it looks extraordinarily tight, but the Yes On 1 campaign declared victory early this morning. Arizona voters turned down their recreational cannabis initiative.
Arkansas, Florida, North Dakota, and Montana each voted for either allowing medical cannabis use or expanding their current program.
Legalized states double in number
Erik Altieri, NORML executive director, called California’s vote “a fatal blow to federal prohibition.”
“This victory in California ensures another 12 percent of the United States population will wake up tomorrow in a state with the legalized adult use of marijuana,” he said in a statement. “Combined with our other recent victories, federal prohibition is truly on its last legs and it is just a matter of time before federal policy is reformed to accept this new reality.”
California was considered a must-win by activists, despite the Proposition drawing the ire of many growers and industry insiders over fears that the program will push out small operations and allow for a new kind of prohibition – pointing out that the law creates new criminal codes that are more onerous than current laws. Nate Bradley, executive director of the California Cannabis Association said the win allows the state to “take its rightful place as the center of cannabis innovation.”
“We expect to add millions of new jobs to California’s economy, and we look forward to working with the state on creating a regulatory structure that will protect consumers and the general public as a whole,” he said.
Multiple cannabis nugs hang on a line during their curing process. Photo Credit: Cannabis Pictures
In what was considered by many to be a litmus test, Massachusetts becomes the first East Coast state to legalize cannabis for adult use; the second, Maine, is deadlocked at 50/50 with more than 90 percent of precincts reporting at the time of this writing, though the pro-legalization vote is leading by several thousand votes.
Nevada voters also embraced the legalization of adult-use cannabis, approving their measure with a 54/46 split of the popular vote. Nevada’s measure will allow for the possession of up to an ounce of cannabis flower and 3.5 grams of concentrate and is certain to drum up new money in the form of excise taxes and cannabis tourism.
Matthew Huron, CEO of Good Chemistry Nurseries, lauded the decision made by Nevada voters. “Legalizing cannabis for adult use makes it more accessible to those who need it, and brings cannabis out of the black market and into a regulated and taxable market,” said Huron.
The numbers ebbed all evening in Arizona, but ultimately the state fell to prohibitionists, with 52 percent of support. Polls had suggested Arizona would be close – but polls were not a great barometer in this election. It’s extremely likely Arizona voters will take up this issue again in two years after being narrowly defeated this time around.
Medical marijuana wins the day
But it’s patients who really came out victors during this historic election – Arkansas, located in the heart of the bible belt, might have blazed a path to medical cannabis access in the South. Although the victory was narrow, with 53 percent support, it adds a green state to the swath of states that continue denying medical cannabis access to patients.
Voters in Florida approved that state’s medical marijuana amendment with 71 percent support — the highest rate of support ever for any cannabis measure in the U.S. Experts predict that the medical cannabis program there will thrive due to the state’s high population, advantageous climate, and general attractiveness to older citizens, who often will benefit the most from medicinal cannabis.
North Dakota also passed its first form of medical marijuana legislation by wide margins, with 62 percent of voters turning out in support of the cannabis reform measure.
Montana voted once more in favor of medical marijuana, riding a 56/44 split to undo the harsh restrictions passed by state lawmakers and upheld by the Supreme Court earlier this year. Dispensaries will be able to re-open and patients will soon once again have access to the robust medicinal cannabis marketplace that the establishment fought to subdue.
A jar of Purple Diesel on display in a California medical cannabis dispensary. Photo Credit: Dank Depot
Future of cannabis
Following last night’s victories, more than one-quarter, or about 30 percent, of the U.S. now has access to some form of legal cannabis.
“These historic decisions, chosen by the citizens of these states, make it clear that cannabis prohibition will be over in a matter of time,” said Jonathan (Yoni) Ofir, CEO and founder of LEAF, a Colorado-based cannabis tech company. “These decisions transcended race, culture, religion, and political party affiliation. The people want to end prohibition and see cannabis as a viable part of a healthy everyday life.”
It’s totally unclear what kind of policies we can expect out of a President Donald Trump administration but on the campaign trail, he indicated that he would allow the states to codify their own policies.
Many fear that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will have a seat at his administration table, which could spell disaster for all of the progress made last night.
Nevertheless, layers of cannabis prohibition were stripped away last night in an epic and telling blow — and we can’t lose sight of that victory.
New Zealand’s Hikurangi Enterprises has been granted a license from the Health Ministry to grow a trial crop of hemp in the eastern region of Ruatoria, according to a report from the Gisborne Herald. The trial aims to determine if the crop would benefit local farmers.
According to Hikurangi chairman Panapa Ehau, the first plot, set for 400-square-meters, is due to be planted this month.
“The focus is on building our knowledge of this crop and developing the necessary relationships that will lead to a successful entry into a small New Zealand market,” he said in the report. “Industrial hemp might provide such an opportunity, with favorable growing conditions and a skilled workforce.”
Manu Caddie, business development manager for Hikurangi, said they will target hemp oil for the first round of crops and are seeking cultivation experts that will help maximize the gamma-linoleic acid (GLA), omega 3 and 6 content and protein in hemp seed.
“The oil is known to help with a range of ailments, including diabetes, obesity and eczema,” Caddie said. “The trial will help us gauge the potential for the crop under different growing conditions.”
This is the third hemp trial in the region and the most recent bid in 2004 showed promise for the crop in the district.
Montana’s “Medical Marijuana Act” is not much of a medical cannabis legalization vote, it’s more of a re-legalization vote. Specifically, this law repeals a whole heap of restrictions that were put in place by state lawmakers years ago and upheld earlier this year by the Montana Supreme Court. Starting August 31, medical cannabis providers in Montana were limited to serving only three patients. This effectively gutted the marketplace and likely pushed thousands of patients into the unregulated or “illicit” market for their medicine.
In response, advocates rapidly came together and assembled and drafted Initiative 182, which essentially undoes all of the unnecessary and noncompassionate legislative restrictions.
Update 1:00 am PST — Montana voters have once again chosen to allow for a sophisticated medical cannabis industry, coming out in a 56-44 split in favor of medicinal marijuana, according to the Associated Press.
Update 11:00 pm EST – Early returns in Montana show 57 percent support for I182, with 43 percent opposed, with 5 percent of precincts reported, according to the Associated Press via Google’s Election Tracker.
Check back to this post for live updates as we follow the evening’s developments.
Initiative 182, “Montana Medical Marijuana Act”
Taxes: There are no changes to the tax structure.
Fees: License fees for providers and producers may not exceed $1,000 for 10 or fewer registered cardholders; no more than $5,000 for more than 10.
Lab license fees cannot exceed $1,200.
Revenue disbursement: A special revenue account will be created to pay any administrative fees associated with the changes.
VIDEO: Overview of Cannabis Initiatives
Below is a brief overview of all the different state-level cannabis initiatives on the ballot this election cycle. With nine total states voting on expanding access to cannabis, this year presents an unprecedented opportunity for legalization advocates and medical cannabis patients.
