Chile Removes Cannabis From List of Hard Drugs

12/07/2015

by

Chilean President Michelle Bachelet signed a decree Friday that removes marijuana from the country’s list of “hard drugs,” High Times reports. The order authorizes Chile’s Ministry of Health to “permit and control the use of cannabis, extracts and tinctures, for the manufacture of pharmaceutical products.”

Removing marijuana from the hard drug list means that getting caught with the drug no longer carries long prison sentences. Many who used cannabis for medical purposes have been arrested and charged as drug dealers under the previous law.

The change in the law doesn’t come as much of a surprise, considering the government recently approved a 6,900-plant medical marijuana pilot farm. The farm, which currently grows 20 different high-potency strains of cannabis, is the largest of its kind in Latin America, and the harvest is expected in April. 4,000 medical marijuana patients in Chile stand to benefit from the production and processing of the farm’s cannabis, which will be made into oils.

Medical and recreational marijuana was decriminalized in Chile in July. Chileans can now possess up to 10 grams and six marijuana plants per household.

A 2014 poll by the Chilean market and public opinion company Camden found that fifty percent of Chileans are in favor of recreational marijuana, while 45% were against it. However, the poll found that 86% of Chileans were in favor of medical marijuana.

Photo Credit: BruceW.

 

End

Alaskan Regulators Finalize Rules for Recreational Cannabis

12/07/2015

by

Regulators in Alaska have finalized rules for the state’s recreational marijuana marketplace, near exactly one year after voters in The Final Frontier approved cannabis legalization, making it the fourth U.S. state to undertake such reform.

There were significant changes made during the final meetings between regulators, which included a heated discussion over residency requirements for business owners/investors looking to pioneer the Alaskan cannabis industry. The final draft of the rules required individuals to meet the same requirements as Alaska’s voter registration process, but in a hasty reconvening of the state’s Marijuana Control Board on Dec. 1, regulators backpedaled on that decision.

The following is a list of key changes made by state regulators in the weeks leading up to the final draft, as noted in the Canna Law Blog:

  • The Board decided to keep the buffer for children’s centers, schools, and churches at 500 ft., an issue which was of particular concern for Alaskans because of their small towns and densely packed tourist areas.

  • The Board eliminated brokerage licenses, which would have created and regulated marijuana brokers as middle-persons between cultivators and retailers.

  • The Board voted to allow branding in Alaska’s marijuana market.

  • The Board decided mandated that marijuana products leave stores in opaque, childproof containers. It refused to implement stronger proposed childproofing requirements on the grounds that children are the responsibility of their parents, not marijuana retailers.

  • The Board eliminated potency limits for marijuana.

Photo Credit: Zaskoda

End

Energy for U.S. Cannabis Cultivation May Soon Reach $11 Billion Price Tag

12/07/2015

by

The legalization of cannabis — and the rapidly-expanding industry that sprung from it — has reared an ugly beast that has power companies worried across Colorado and up and down the west coast, Marijuana Business Daily reports.

Energy consumption is becoming more and more of an issue for legal cannabis businesses. In many cases, harsh zoning laws or cannabis-specific legislation has forced professional grow operations indoors, which — while helpful for establishing a safe, clean cultivation environment — really spikes up the cost of production in energy bills. In fact, reports from a National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners panel held in Austin, Texas last month indicates that the U.S. cannabis industry’s energy bill may soon spike upwards of $11 billion.

There are efforts to move the legal industry towards greener grow methods through greenhouse technologies and more eco-friendly power sources such as solar power, however for certain cases — such as the industrial warehouses full of cannabis currently found in Denver — potential solutions are not nearly so numerous.

To read more on this subject, check out the full story.

End

Why Activist Dan Riffle Really Left the Marijuana Policy Project

12/07/2015

by

Dan Riffle describes his exit from the Marijuana Policy Project as a “long-term career move,” allowing him to work on other legislative interests such as tax and education public policy – rather than a move based on discontent with MPP or “the industry” despite some reports.

“I left my job as a prosecutor to come work for MPP six years ago because I eventually wanted to work on the hill. MPP seemed like a nice landing place to put in a couple years of interesting policy work and meet people who could be my bridge to the hill,” Riffle wrote in an Oct. 30 email to his colleagues. “As it happened, I fell in love with the issue and my coworkers, so when it took off I stayed along for the ride longer than I anticipated.”

It seems Riffle has landed that job on the hill – he resigned from MPP for a senior legislative assistant position in Rep. John Conyers’ (D-MI) office, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee.

However in a separate email to his colleagues, dated Nov. 6, he said “industry is taking over the legalization movement and I’m not interested in the industry.”

That same day MPP launched their Pledge 4 Growth campaign – asking “industry leaders” to donate .420 percent of their gross revenue to the organization.

“I think it is a pretty stark example of the kinds of things I was concerned about and that were the reasons why I left,” he said in an interview with the International Business Times. “I felt for the last few months the industry was kind of dominating the legalization movement’s work in general, and MPP’s specifically.”

Mason Tvert, MPP communications director, said Riffle “seems to have issues with the industry” but doesn’t think neither those issues nor the Pledge 4 Growth campaign are why he left the organization.

“It doesn’t strike me that his opinion regarding the industry is what lead to his changing jobs – he was already changing jobs. I don’t think that was related at all,” said Tvert, who describes Riffle as a “good friend.” “Since the beginning, he had wanted to work on different legislative issues more than marijuana.”

Tvert pointed to MPP’s non-support of the failed Ohio legalization initiative as just one example proving MPP is not becoming a tool of “Big Marijuana.”

“[Riffle’s] concern strikes me as being about the general nature of the industry…not trying to influence necessarily through MPP,” Tvert said. “Only 10 percent of our budget this year came from donations from people associated with the industry…Pretty small.”

Most Big Marijuana companies, Tvert says, tend to focus on tax and banking public policy rather than legalization advocacy and often buy lobbyists to help affect those issues – and Tvert can’t blame them when many of them are paying 60 to 80 percent in taxes. Tvert says most of MPP’s funding comes from individuals and ranges from $5 to $100,000 donations.

Responding to a report that pointed fingers at MPP’s board having industry ties and MPP staff leaving for industry jobs, Tvert said those reports are drawing false conclusions.

“Yeah, we have a ten person board and half of it has industry ties but it’s important to look at what those ties are,” Tvert said.

MPP was founded in 1995 by Rob Kampia who now serves as its executive director. Kampia also serves on the board for National Cannabis Industry Association but has no financial stake in any of those businesses.  Board member Troy Dayton is the CEO for cannabusiness investment firm ArcView Group but he was elected by MPP’s members.      

He concedes that there are three board members that do have “direct financial ties”; Joby Pritzker, Dixie Elixirs CEO Trip Keber and Med-West CEO James Slatic. Pritzker was a member of the board prior to becoming an investor in marijuana businesses.

“It’s not exactly nefarious,” Tvert said. “In MPP’s history there have been well over 200 employees…There are only about 7 – less than 5 percent – of our low level staff have went to work with the industry. I’m not saying that to be defensive – it’s a matter of fact.”

Tvert says there is a discussion to be had about the role of industry in advocacy but using Riffle’s departure probably wasn’t the best way to frame that discussion.

In an email, Riffle said he understands why some people weren’t happy with his comments but he wanted to share his “concern about the industry’s interest being in conflict with public health interests.”  

“I’ve even had people within the industry reach out to say they have similar concerns based on what they’re seeing. A lot of the people I know in the industry are good people with good intentions who were involved in the legalization movement for years before the industry even existed,” he wrote. “They got into it to help patients or were fascinated by the science behind developing new strains of marijuana. As the industry grows and they see the type of people it’s attracting, they’re turned off by it.”

Although MPP does get some of their funding from the industry, they aren’t “in bed” with the industry as some reports alleged, Tvert explains.

“We are trying to do advocacy work and there are people in the industry who want to see things done a certain way and so we have to try and work with those people to figure out how we can do what we want to do,” he said. “If we want to end marijuana prohibition in a state, we’re trying to draft a law [to do that] and some people are saying ‘we wouldn’t support it if its done this way,’ or ‘we want it done that way,’ we need to navigate that and figure out how we can pass a good law that everyone can support.”

Riffle says he is “in a good position to help influence marijuana policy” in his new role and said he is “grateful” for his six years with MPP.

Photo Credit: Leslie J. Clary

 

End

Commissioners Debate Recreational Cannabis Regulations in Clackamas County, Oregon

12/04/2015

by

On Wednesday, Dec. 2, Clackamas County commissioners met to detail how the county will handle new recreational marijuana operations, approving an ordinance designed to regulate the growing, distribution and sale of retail cannabis. This move comes before the state has even begun accepting applications for recreational business licenses, which is expected to happen Jan. 4, 2016.

They want to “go forward with some really tight regulations,” said Board Chairman John Ludlow. The ordinance bans commercial cultivation in all zones except small rural plots that are already zoned for farm or forest use. It also imposes strict controls on indoor growing, and limits processing cannabis into concentrates to industrial-use zones and buildings.

The ordinance also outlines high minimum distances between recreational marijuana retail shops and schools, parks, and daycare centers.

The move to tighten regulations on recreational marijuana comes after Clackamas County placed a moratorium on medical marijuana sales in 2014. Though the moratorium has ended, cities and counties can still attempt to “opt out” of Oregon’s new recreational cannabis laws by banning marijuana-related facilities.

Clackamas County Commissioner Paul Savas dissented in discussions over the new ordinance, arguing instead to continue the county’s current ban on marijuana, despite the fact that recreational marijuana was approved by 52% of the county’s voters.

“Paul, I think you are irresponsible when you make statements like that,” said Chairman Ludlow, during the exchange.

“I think the voters made that decision and we need to stand behind it,” confirmed Commissioner Jim Bernard.

Photo Credit: Joel Bombardier

End

Colorado Company EdiPure Recalls 7,700 Cannabis Edibles Over Pesticide Concerns

12/04/2015

by

It happened again: Colorado cannabis edibles company EdiPure has voluntarily recalled 7,700 cannabis products for containing a potentially dangerous pesticide, The Cannabist reports.

This is the 10th product recall in three months that has been issued by a Colorado marijuana company over pesticide concerns. Throughout this time, EdiPure has issued more product recalls than any other producer.

A news release by the Denver Department of Environmental Health explained that the recalled products were made from contaminated cannabis that had been purchased from independent growers.

“The cultivators weren’t being upfront with us,” explained Kyle Forti, spokesman for EPMM Colorado, a company currently in ownership disputes over EdiPure with another Colorado-based cannabis company, Green Cross. “We’re frustrated right along with the public,” Forti said. “… I’m confident that with what we’ve been able to put into place now with our equipment, our testing and everything else, this isn’t going to be an issue again.”

Green Cross CEO Mark Smith had no comment about the latest recall, but in November did state that of EdiPure’s original recalls, only 5% of the products in question were actually returned by retailers, and that no contaminated products purchased by consumers had been returned.

Photo Credit: Magic Madzik

End

Bay State Repeal Calls Off 2016 Ballot Measure, Massachusetts Legalization Issues Are Simplified

12/04/2015

by

Only one of two proposed marijuana measures will make it to the 2016 ballot in Massachusetts.

The Committee To Regulate Alcohol Like Marijuana (CRMLA) has gathered the number of signatures it needs to get its proposal on the ballot, according to a statement made Tuesday. The group has submitted the list of signatures to the secretary of state.

In a statement, CRMLA campaign manager Will Luzier said that “People can see that our current prohibition policy isn’t working, and they’re taking action to replace it with a more sensible system.”

In contrast, Bay State Repeal, a group headed by longtime local activists, stated Wednesday that it had not achieved the required number of signatures.

The two groups’ proposals differed greatly. CRMLA has proposed a heavily-regulated system that would result in a new state commission, as well as an excise tax on cannabis.

Bay State Repeal’s approach would have resulted in a much less restrictive system. The majority of existing retailers would have been allowed to sell cannabis, and the system would have been managed by existing state agencies.

Steve Epstein, who spoke on behalf of the group, said that although “we didn’t make it,” he would “use every skill in [his] power” to oppose the regulations proposed by CRMLA, and said that the proposal supports “crony capitalism.”

CRMLA spokesperson Jim Borghesani said in a statement:

“Though our approach differs from [Bay State Repeal]’s, we hope that all who supported BSR will join with us to end the 100-year-long hypocrisy of punishing adults for choosing a substance that is less harmful than alcohol.”

Even if CRMLA’s measure does make it to the ballot, it will face opposition from elected officials, including Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and Gov. Charlie Baker, who have publicly opposed any kind of marijuana legalization.

Photo Credit: Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism

End

Powerful Pro-Cannabis Ad Airs In Missouri, First of Its Kind

12/04/2015

by

Despite growing pressure from the public — and multiple failed ballot initiatives — Missouri state legislators have declined to even discuss reform around medicinal cannabis.

This year, not one, but two separate proposals are on the ballot for 2016 to legalize medical marijuana, and voters have their pick. Missouri marijuana advocacy group Show-Me Cannabis has created a powerful 30-second TV spot to sway voters.

There’s been some progress in Missouri before, with Governor Jay Nixon ratifying a bill to allow the use of hemp oil to treat epilepsy. But the new ad, titled “Guilty,” suggests a wider group of potential beneficiaries from the legalization of medical cannabis.

In the ad, actors confess to being “guilty” of using medical marijuana to treat various ailments, from chronic pain to muscle spasms. The actors are framed in mug shots as they speak, posing like criminals, but signs held by each one indicate their mainstream careers.

As John Payne, Executive Director of Show-Me Cannabis says, “We feel this video really grabs viewer attention, provokes thought, and encourages education.”

It’s the first marijuana-related advertisement to air in Missouri, and Payne thinks the new proposals have a good shot. If polls showing statewide support for the initiatives materialize into votes, Missouri will join twenty-three other states in legalizing medical marijuana.

Photo Credit: arachnized Ѫ mechanid

End

Arizona Supreme Court: Having Cannabis In Your System Is Not Proof of Impairment

12/03/2015

by

A decision made by the Arizona Supreme Court on November 20 has opened a unique opportunity for people caught in a traffic violation with trace amounts of cannabis in their system.

Such individuals can escape a drugged-driving conviction if they can somehow demonstrate “that the concentration of marijuana or its impairing metabolite in their bodies is insufficient to cause impairment,” wrote Chief Justice Scott Bales, who represented a unanimous court agreement on the matter.

Despite protest from certain prosecutors, the court cited a specific section from the medical cannabis law passed by Arizona voters in 2010. Specifically, the law clarifies that a registered MMJ user “shall not be considered to be under the influence of marijuana solely because of the presence of metabolites or components of marijuana that appear in insufficient concentration to cause impairment.”

Prosecutors claim that they worry defenses in such drugged-driving cases are going to come down to solely the personal testimony of the defendant, and that since there is no scientifically proven method of determining one’s impairment in regards to cannabis, such convictions will become much more difficult.

Photo Credit: Chris Yarzab

 

End

Oregon Cannabis Cafes Are Banned Starting January 1

12/03/2015

by

Russ Belville of MarijuanaPolitics.com recently unveiled a disheartening announcement issued by the Oregon Health Authority: indoor cannabis cafes, like Portland’s World Famous Cannabis Café and The Other Spot will be forced to shut down come January due to unfortunate changes to the Oregon Clean Air Act.

Lawmakers have introduced the following changes to the law (bolded emphasis courtesy of Mr. Belville):

A person may not smoke, aerosolize or vaporize an inhalant or carry a lighted smoking instrument in a public place or place of employment except as provided in ORS 433.850 [medical marijuana use in a medical facility].

“Public place” means an enclosed area open to the public.

“Inhalant” means nicotine, a cannabinoid or any other substance that is inhaled for the purpose of delivering the nicotine, cannabinoid or other substance into a person’s respiratory system.

To justify this move, the state of Oregon cites concern over exposure to second-hand smoke, which studies have linked to cancer, heart disease, asthma and bronchitis. According to the state, “it is necessary to reduce exposure to such smoke, matter or toxins by prohibiting the smoking, aerosolizing or vaporizing of inhalants in all public places and places of employment.” This is all good and true in regards to tobacco, but regarding cannabis there are no proven studies linking it to the listed conditions.

But perhaps the most infuriating aspect of the OHA’s recent ruling is their allowance for certain “smoke shops” and “cigar bars,” in which patrons will be allowed to smoke — not vaporize — tobacco in an indoor setting, provided there is an adequate ventilation system. There is no such allowance for cannabis, and said “cigar bars” are in fact strictly barred from allowing any smoking or vaporizing of cannabinoids.

Photo Credit: Heath Alseike

End

Mounties Raid Vancouver Dispensaries, Confusion Persists Over B.C. Cannabis Laws

12/03/2015

by

As Canada’s newly-elected liberal government prepares to legalize cannabis, municipalities are struggling to deal with a lack of guidelines regarding how to regulate the drug in the meantime, The Globe and Mail reports.

Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C. raided three dispensaries Tuesday after alleged complaints that the stores were selling to minors, advertising on the street and selling marijuana to people who lacked a medical prescription.

Bill McKay, mayor of the Vancouver Island city, said he has no control over the Mounties, but argued that the Canadian government needed to “get off their keister” and create guidelines for the municipalities, many of which are dealing with an increase in illegal cannabis sales.

Alex Robb, who spoke on behalf of the Trees dispensary, a chain whose store that was among those raided in Nanaimo, said in a statement that the raid went against “both scientific and public opinion,” and that “we do not believe that any of our employees will be convicted of any crime.”

McKay said that city staff should report after Christmas regarding whether to introduce local bylaws regulating pot shops, as Vancouver did in June to cover medical dispensaries. Port Alberni and Victoria are considering similar steps.

“The mainstream medical profession are sorely lacking in knowledge [about the federal medical marijuana system],” the mayor said. “The folks running the dispensaries are sorely lacking in credentials and doing the best they can on a trial-and-error basis. In the meantime, municipalities, patients and the RCMP are caught in the middle.”

Photo Credit: Jamie McCaffrey

End

Minnesota Adds Intractable Pain to List of Medical Cannabis Qualifying Conditions

12/03/2015

by

In a big win for Minnesotans seeking medicinal cannabis treatments, the commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Health has announced that he will add “intractable pain” to the list of qualifying conditions for medical marijuana.

Patients suffering from intractable pain will be allowed to obtain medical cannabis from LeafLien Labs or Minnesota Medical Solutions, the state’s sole medical marijuana providers, beginning in August of 2016.

Health commissioner Dr. Ed Ehlinger stated:

“The relative scarcity of firm evidence made this a difficult decision. However, given the strong medical focus of Minnesota’s medical cannabis program and the compelling testimony of hundreds of Minnesotans, it became clear that the right and compassionate choice was to add intractable pain to the program’s list of qualifying conditions. This gives new options for clinicians and new hope for suffering patients.”

The law defines intractable pain as a condition “in which the cause of the pain cannot be removed or otherwise treated with the consent of the patient and in which, in the generally accepted course of medical practice, no relief or cure of the cause of the pain is possible, or none has been found after reasonable efforts.”

Dr. Kyle Kingsley of Minnesota Medical Solutions stated that “this decision is great news for patients suffering from intractable pain. We already have 10 medicines geared toward pain, so we are well prepared to serve these patients. Now patients can ease their pain with an alternative that poses far fewer dangerous side effects than opioids and other highly addictive and dangerous prescription pain medicines.”

 

Photo Credit: Pete Markham

End

Ontario City Officials to Allow Public Consumption of Medical Cannabis

12/02/2015

by

New Ontario regulations allow medical cannabis patients to smoke, vaporize, or otherwise consume their medicine in openly public places, The Star reports.

Even typically sensitive locations — such as movie theaters, restaurants, schools, stadiums, or playgrounds packed with children — will not be exempted from this rule.

However, this change does not necessarily mean that Ontario’s restaurants will soon be flooded with legal marijuana smoke: Dipika Damerla, the Associate Health Minister of Ontario, told reporters that “As an employer or a restaurant owner you can say ‘there’s no vaping, no smoking of medical marijuana here.” In that case, continuing to smoke would be a violation of the law.

“This is about the fact that somebody who’s very ill, maybe in a lot of pain, wants to use,” she said. “There are many ways to take marijuana. This is one way.”

Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown has stated that he is not looking to make a big deal over the regulations: “If it’s for medical purposes, it’s for medical purposes. There’s not going to be an overwhelming amount of people in Ontario running out to parks to have their medical marijuana.”

Medical Cannabis advocacy group Canadians for Fair Access to Medical Marijuana called the new policy an “important milestone in the recognition of the legitimacy of the use of cannabis as a medicine.”

Photo Credit: Vaping360.com

End

Alaska Marijuana Control Board Strengthens Business Residency Requirements

12/02/2015

by

The Alaska Marijuana Control Board is backpedaling on a change announced last month that would have opened cannabis business applications to anyone registered to vote in Alaska — a restriction so simple that it would have blown the doors wide open to outside investors trying to get in on the Alaska cannabis market, Alaska Dispatch News reports.

Instead, regulators are returning to the residency requirements originally drafted, which require individuals to have lived in Alaska for at least a year and currently be either working or attending school there.

State officials have argued that they don’t have the resources to conduct background checks on individuals outside of Alaska, which is one of the reasons outside investments have been largely rejected.

However, a second amendment was introduced this week to the regulatory board, which would allow for up to 12.5 percent outside investment in Alaska marijuana businesses. The rules as written currently require all cannabusinesses to be 100 percent Alaskan-owned.

A final decision on the matter will come when the Board of Marijuana reconvenes in February.

Photo Credit: Paxson Woelber

End

Herbal Cannabis Assists Patients in Treatment for Opioid Dependence, Study Confirms

12/02/2015

by

According to a new study published in Drug & Alcohol Dependence, cannabis helped subjects manage withdrawal symptoms while undergoing treatment for opioid dependence—and made them more likely to complete outpatient treatment.

Studies have suggested that cannabinoids are involved in the maintenance of opioid dependence, so researchers at Columbia University tested the effects of dronabinol, an oral THC medication, on subjects undergoing detoxification from opioid dependence.

Subjects were given dronabinol or a placebo during the 8-week trial of detoxification and outpatient treatment. Researchers found that dronabinol lessened subjects’ withdrawal symptoms during the period of detoxification—but it made no difference to those receiving naltrexone during outpatient treatment.

However, the study produced another interesting finding. Patients who smoked marijuana flower during the trial, even intermittently, were more likely to complete outpatient treatment than those who didn’t. “Participants who smoked marijuana had less difficulty with sleep and anxiety and were more likely to remain in treatment … regardless of whether they were taking dronabinol or placebo,” say the study’s authors.

This finding reflects previous clinical data that the use of cannabis helps patients manage pain while weaning from opiates.

End

India Legalizes Industrial Hemp Production In Northern State of Uttarakhand

12/02/2015

by

A state in northern India will become the first in the country to legalize the cultivation of hemp.

Harish Rawat, Chief Minister of the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, announced that farmers throughout the state will be allowed to cultivate industrial hemp. Only two regions in the state–the Terai and Bhabhar regions–are exempted from legalizaiton.

Officials specified that farmers must sell the crop to the government only, and will require a license before beginning cultivation.

The hemp must contain a THC content of no more than 1.5%. The marijuana plants that grow wild in Uttarakhand contain 4-5% THC and will remain illegal to cultivate.

India began making moves toward legalizing hemp in 2010, when it identified a growing demand for hemp in the use of textiles. Uttarakhand has a tradition of hemp production and the government identified it as a prime state for future production.

A future hemp textile market in India is currently being valued at 240 million rupees, or $3.6 million, according to a report in Scroll. The current hemp market is dominated by China, France and Germany, though the U.S. will likely begin to play a larger role in the market in the future.

Photo Credit: Martin Abegglen

 

End

New Australian Company Wants a Piece of the U.S. Medical Cannabis Industry

12/01/2015

by

An Australian company called RxMM Health, based in Perth, is making a play for the fast-growing, American marijuana industry. The company has applied for a license to grow and sell medical marijuana in southern California.

RxMM, who specializes in climate-controlled, hydroponic cultivation, is specifically seeking patents for cannabinoid-based medicines. The company plans to grow and cultivate unique strains of marijuana for health purposes, citing that “cannabinoids have a beneficial impact on numerous debilitating illnesses.” RxMM has already teamed up with two American medical specialists to develop prescription medicines based on cannabis extracts, hoping to target the medical marijuana market.

The company is proposing a business model that starts by cultivating marijuana year-round, in state-of-the-art, climate-controlled greenhouses. They plan to produce 2000 kilograms of product each year. Within two years, RxMM expects sales of its annual cannabis crop to exceed $20 million.

And should medical cannabis become legal in Australia? RxMM plans to jump into the market there, too, using what they’ve learned in America. “Australia is moving rapidly towards a regulated market,” their website claims.

The company intends to be traded on the Australian stock exchange.

Photo Credit: Leslie J. Clary

End

Purple Haze Properties Announces Hendrix-Themed License Agreements

12/01/2015

by

Purple Haze Properties LLC, a company founded by Andrew Pitsicalis and Leon Hendrix, Jimi’s brother, has announced a string of Jimi Hendrix-themed business partnerships with Zippo, California Finest and E-Njoint Vaporizers.

Zippo will release four Hendrix lighters in 2016, and E-Njoint Vaporizers will release a line of Hendrix-themed disposable vaporizers. California Finest, a company that produces packs of pre-rolled cannabis cigarettes, will release a Hendrix-themed strain of its product in a partnership with Nevada-based Silver State Trading. Silver State Trading will develop and distribute the “Jimi’s Genetix” line of marijuana strains and concentrates for Nevada, California and Colorado.

Purple Haze Properties also recently released a line of cannabis-infused macaroons, Jimi’s Medicated Macaroons, which will be initially available only in California.

These Jimi Hendrix-themed cannabis products are the next development in a string of cannabis brands that have been either endorsed or created by other celebrities and/or their families, such as Willie Nelson’s Willie’s Reserve, Snoop Dogg’s Leafs by Snoop, and the Marley family’s Marley Natural.

Photo Credit: Aires Almeida

End

Eric Brandstad: Using Light Deprivation to Alter Flowering Cycles

12/01/2015

by

Forever Flowering GreenhousesEric Brandstad is the founder of Forever Flowering Greenhouses and a pioneer of light deprivation techniques for cannabis growers. Light deprivation essentially involves tricking a plant into thinking the days are shorter than they actually are, causing the plant to flower sooner than it would if it were exposed to the entire day’s duration of sunlight. This means that growers are able to work around the natural harvest cycle and get more crops out of the summer season.

Eric recently joined our podcast host Shango Los to discuss his light deprivation methods, how the process has evolved over time, and how his company’s greenhouses are designed to make the process simple to manage on a commercial scale.

Listen to the episode using the media player below, or scroll down to read the full transcript!

Subscribe to the Ganjapreneur podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud or Google Play.

Listen to the podcast

Read the transcript

Shango Los: Hi there, and welcome to the Ganjapreneur.com Podcast. I’m your host Shango Los. The Ganjapreneur.com Podcast gives us an opportunity to speak directly to entrepreneurs, cannabis growers, product developers, and cannabis medicine researchers all focused on making the most of cannabis normalization. As your host I do my best to bring you original cannabis industry ideas that will ignite your own entrepreneurial spark and give you actionable information to improve your business strategy and improve your health and the health of cannabis patients everywhere.

Today my guest is Eric Brandstad. A fourth generation farmer, Eric is originally from San Joaquin County, California, where his family has been commercially farming since 1862. Eric has pioneered light deprivation with Forever Flowering Greenhouses since 2007 and is a much sought after speaker on the topic having spoken at the Emerald Cup, Santa Cruz Cup, Golden Tarp Awards, the CaliDepFest, Humboldt High Grade Gala, CannaCon, and at the NCIA Cultivation Management Symposium. Welcome Eric, glad you could be on the show.

Eric Brandstad: Thanks for having me.

Shango: Eric, let’s start at the beginning. Light deprivation is not familiar to everybody. What is it that light deprivation is trying to emulate?

Eric: Basically it’s outdoor growing with the ability to have multiple harvests during that time, particularly the summer. The old strategy, originally, formulated was to just black-box a cannabis plant. Back in 1992, when I first started hearing about this and learning about it up in the Humboldt County area, they were actually taking a box, like you’d get from a washing machine or a refrigerator, and individually covering each plant. Now what this did was trick the plant into thinking that it had shorter days, so essentially what you’re doing is cutting off the daylight hours back to 12 hours of light.

In the summertime we have this long summer day, and in order to get the plant to flower, we usually got to wait till the end of the summer basically, that Mother Nature naturally pulls back the hours on the clock and the plants begin to flower. Well, by black-boxing, or light deprivation, this makes the plant think it’s dark early, so it’s pretty simple in that regard, and the plants begin to flower. Now today in 2015, we have more sophisticated versions of light deprivation possibilities with the use of greenhouses, and now basically an industry has been formed.

Shango: I would think that with all the normalization sweeping the country that you’re getting a lot of contact from folks. Because you can do light deprivation on the cheap, but now people are like, “Wow, we can do growing that uses sunshine, so we’re saving electricity and our terpene profiles will be better, but we could also have multiple crops during the same year.” I mean people must go bananas when they first learn about this idea.

Eric: Back when I first started explaining this idea as a company or a business for myself in 2007, it was just like, “Oh, interesting,” and maybe a high five here and there, “Great idea,” but now it’s really sought after as an alternative or a solution to a business plan. Most business plans right now consist of indoor and maybe some outdoor, whereas now it’s really starting out with possibly the greenhouses and the indoor and the outdoor as the secondary measures.

Shango: For our listeners who have big, commercial grows, let’s give them something to envision. Can you describe what a greenhouse that has been tricked out for light dep will actually look like?

Eric: The greenhouses can look like a commercial greenhouse that would be an A-frame. It basically has the shape of an A, so when you’re looking at it from the outside, it’s got the pitched roof, almost like a metal building so to speak, but it’s a greenhouse. You can have these things gutter-connected which means they’re adjoined side-by-side. Sometimes they call them conjoined greenhouses because they’re literally attached by the gutter. When you start to do that, you can’t just have one big greenhouse in the sense that you have just one roof. When we go into gutter-connected structures, we might have one growing space underneath, say, four or five, six peaks. Also within those gutter-connected ranges, in those five, six, seven peaks, or whatever it is, can also be divided into separate light zones. They could be shared in one big space or divided up however the grower wants to do it. There’s a lot of options in the big gutter-connected commercial style greenhouses.

Here in Grass Valley, California, we have a 24×60 demo greenhouse that people fly in from all over the US to come see. They’ll fly into Sacramento, rent a car, drive up and see the smaller 24×60 demo greenhouse and get a pretty good idea of what’s going on. It isn’t the gutter-connected commercial version because we haven’t erected one of those on our site yet and that’s next, but we have a lot of pictures, emails. Like I said, coming to see us is really a great way to understand a lot of this.

Shango: Outside of the structure of the outside, can you describe the automated light dep technology itself? I was watching the great YouTube videos on your site. It’s like this big black cloth that goes across it. Can you break that out for us?

Eric: Basically in some of the YouTube videos, we have a retractable greenhouse that has a roof that opens and the sidewalls are independent. Then we have our Northern Latitude, which is the gothic-shaped frame. It has the breathable blackout fabric that goes throughout the whole greenhouse at every 12 foot section. It is a triple layer, breathable, blackout curtain and so it helps wick the moisture, because humidity can be increased as the curtains are closed. It’s a rack and pinion system in the Northern Latitude, so it’s all functioned by one motor. We can do up to a 30×144 in the Northern Latitude with one motor blacking out the whole greenhouse. Then when we get into the gutter-connected structures, we can have multiple motors in the multiple zones. It’s actually a simple system when it gets up and running. There’s a lot of components and brackets and hardware to hang it, but in the terms of how it operates, it’s a pretty cool, simple system.

Shango: I would think that a lot of challenges that you’d get from the early technique that you described by using an appliance box, that sounds like it’s cutting off air and all sorts of things. It sounds like when you develop the technology specifically for this purpose, and you’re using the right kind of fiber linen coverings, and you can really choose your materials, that you probably get rid of a lot of the downsides that were experienced with early days of light dep.

Eric: That’s an excellent point. I mean it was not a popular thing back in the day. It was like when organic first got popular, and it was looked at with the apple and you had a worm sticking out of it. Organic wasn’t the premier product that it is today. So light dep was the same thing. Light dep was like, oh, this early, not so happy looking material that wasn’t cared for very properly because the methodologies weren’t developed yet. We have a great deal of understanding now compared to what we knew then and what we even knew when we started the company. Now we are able to tell people why the things work, the way they work, and what the best policy is.

We used to have a catalog at one time when I started that was inclusive of a lot of things that were related to the greenhouse and horticultural industry, but they weren’t really related or specifically to cannabis, or we didn’t know that at the time. We actually eliminated a lot of things in order to guide people in the right direction. Instead of people calling and me saying, “What do you want?” I actually tell people what they need. It’s not because I’m trying to force feed them something that’s marginally-based. It’s really based off education and cannabis growing so that people can be successful.

Shango: I would think that your job as a salesperson during the sales cycle is actually more education than anything. Because once people are educated, the sale is pretty much already made. Hey, we need to take a short break. We’ll be right back. You’re listening to the Ganjapreneur.com Podcast.

Shango: Welcome back. You are listening to the Ganjapreneur.com Podcast. I am your host Shango Los. Our guest this week is Eric Brandstad of Forever Flowering Greenhouses and Light Deprivation. Before the break we were talking about how the constant evolution of these technologies is making the experience of the grower better and better. Let’s talk about some of those improvements. We were talking about in the old days they would use a cardboard box around a plant, which is obviously going to have ventilation issues, and a greenhouse is essentially another box. Now you’re going to enwrap it in this black fiber. What are you doing to be able to keep the air circulating because I’m thinking that it would get really humid really fast in there?

Eric: Oh, yeah, you’re right. Think about it, greenhouses were invented for the wintertime. Now we have people trying to use them in the middle of the summer and grow where they usually have maybe 300 days of sunshine or something like that. I mean it’s really against the grain, and when you think about it, it sounds like a hostile environment. Years ago it was, don’t get me wrong. It hasn’t been perfect the whole time. To understand all this stuff has taken a great deal of research and development, and it wasn’t all done by us. It was done by growers with feedback towards us so that we could understand what was happening. The evolution was really coming on strong in the last couple of years. That’s why I’ve taken on some of the public speaking, and been able to do things like this podcast and explain things in better detail than I would have a couple years ago even. This is definitely ongoing research, and we’ve come to a great place to be able to educate people so that they can be successful.

Shango: Does using sunshine in the winter demand supplemental lighting to be installed in the greenhouse to add to the short days?

Eric: Yeah, it does. I mean if you don’t have 12 hours of good sunshine, then supplemental lighting can definitely be a help. You can have plants that just need a little bit of encouragement, so supplemental lighting can be not so much on the production side as many people think. You’ve got to have a lot of lights, high intensity as well, for light deprivation. I have a lot of people that I know in areas of Santa Cruz and in other places in California that use simple little florescent fixtures just to keep the plants in check, because they do get enough sunshine that their plants do very well just off the sunshine alone. So the supplemental lighting varies from place to place. We do have people that are moving into other states that have up to 159 days of good sunshine, so the supplemental lighting will definitely be a higher intensity and closer spacing for these type of places.

Shango: What kind of technologies are you developing to help the greenhouse breath? We talked a little bit about the humidity early, so I’m sure that you’ve got some sort of creations to move the air around as well. What can you do to keep the circulation moving and keep the fresh air coming in when it’s wrapped?

Eric: My whole thing is first of all greenhouses that are used in the summertime, since they are against the grain, we need to know how to outfit the greenhouse first of all before we even do the light dep. If we figure out how to support the greenhouse properly, then we’re going to be able to have the plants perform better. Then when we apply the light deprivation technique, the plants won’t go through the hostile takeover that normally you’ve seen in other applications. What I’m getting at is basically a lot of people originally thought that clear glass was the best choice for a greenhouse cover. It let in more light, and the more light, the better growth.

What happens with cannabis plants is they really tend to sweat it out when they get warm, and that’s leaf surface temperature. We’re not talking about air temperatures. If you look back at an outdoor plant in the afternoon, it takes on a lot of sun. In order for it to cool itself, it actually transpires. It’s almost like a person. We perspire. Plants transpire, so when a plant warms up, it’s got to sweat it out basically. We don’t really see this on an outdoor plant other than the times that it gets a little bit droopy because it takes on so much water weight. As the surface temps decrease, the plants become perky again.

Now when we get into a greenhouse and we throw a roof over its head, and we find the humidity and the droplets forming on the greenhouse roof and dripping back down, it’s usually an indication of high plant transpiration. In order to mitigate that, a lot of times we’d look at ventilation. Primarily most people looked at mechanical ventilation, and mechanical ventilation means that we’re using exhaust fans and intake shutters basically. That might help keep relative same temperatures inside and outside because we’re doing one air exchange per minute but that doesn’t alleviate the humidity gain inside the greenhouse, which is also called the vapor pressure deficit.

When we have those things going on, a clear material in a sealed greenhouse with mechanical ventilation, typically what we see is a hot, hostile environment on the leaf surface because the plants typically are taking on too much sun, and they’re having to sweat it out. What we’ve figured out in order to fix this or to help it is not to use shade cloth, because shade cloth has been helpful for cannabis growers in these types of situations because it diffuses light and it scatters infrared. But what we’ve found is that there’s greenhouse covers that are a diffused cover, and a diffused cover transmits 85% light and diffuses it by 100%. What we’re doing is we’re actually scattering infrared, we’re blocking out UV, and we’re taking light particles and breaking them in half. So we get some of the same benefits of a shade cloth, but at the same time we’re creating more light particles within the greenhouse space. That right there, is kind of a game changer in some regards, to say that you’re taking away the sun’s intensity but creating more light optics at the same time.

The other part of that is that the mechanical ventilation doesn’t necessarily help as great as we’d like it to with the diffused cover. What I’ve found the cannabis likes best is to mimic outdoor conditions. The way to do that is through passive ventilation. Passive ventilation means the use of ridge vents and side vents and maybe a combination of a little bit of exhaust but primarily circulation vents on the inside of the greenhouse. What this does is it helps lower the leaf surface temperature of the plant. I’ve seen 100 degree air temperature days where it’s 100 degrees inside the greenhouse, 100 degrees outside, so we’ve avoided the solar gain, the greenhouse effect. We don’t want that in the summertime anyway.

Once we do that, we take my infrared thermometer and check the leaf surface of the plants, we find them to be in the high 80s and low 90s, which is pretty darn okay. Then when you do some other things that are discouraging heat, encouraging materials like the ground cover. Typically people put a black weed block down, and most of the grow bags and containers are black as well. Well, those two combinations with that color encourage a high amount of surface temps which adds to the temperature in the greenhouse, the temperature of the root zones of the plants. When we turn to tan grow bags, and I have a white ground cover that we put down, we actually discourage a lot of the heat-gaining things that are going on normally in a greenhouse, and it becomes a really supportive environment for the plants. We can see all this stuff by using the infrared thermometer and just shooting all the surfaces of everything.

There’s encouraging colors and discouraging colors. In the summer time, I call it summer mode, we do the things that discourage and promote passive ventilation. In the wintertime, we can seal up the greenhouse and even use colors that encourage free heat. That’s the main strategy. What happens when you pull your light dep cover is we don’t see the humidity spike like we normally did because the transpiration rates in the plants are in check. Normally at 5:30 to 7:00 in the afternoon, plants can be sweating it out at their highest point. When we pull our light dep plastics or covers or our black-box from the old days, we see the plants sweating it out, and it really doesn’t do them justice. They take on abolic stress, which means they can take on pests and disease at that point. They’re like an open wound.

By supporting the plants and covering them with a blackout material that’s a breathable material, we have the transfer of some of that humidity going through. Then we also have in our greenhouses the breathable walls, which allow us to actually turn on the exhaust system, which we couldn’t even do two years ago. With all these fail safes in place and these methods, now it’s starting to be proven through the analytical companies that light dep greenhouse material is testing higher and better than some indoor and outdoor material.

Shango: That’s a really great explanation. I can imagine that without all the water weight from the transpiration in the afternoon when it would get really hot in there that the plants really look a lot happier too, which makes us all happier as growers. It looks like it’s time to take another short break. We’ll be right back. You are listening to the Ganjapreneur.com Podcast.

 

Shango: Welcome back. You listening to the Ganjapreneur.com Podcast. I’m your host, Shango Los. Our guest this week is Eric Brandstad of Forever Flowering Greenhouses and Light Deprivation. We were talking about how great these greenhouses are especially in locations that get a lot of sunshine year round. I used to live in Boulder, Colorado, and one of the things I loved about it is that they were getting 300 days of sunshine a year. I would think that this would be a really great location, and they also have snow. In my experience, greenhouses get really cold in the winter. What effects does the light deprivation technology have on heat retention inside of these greenhouses during the winter?

Eric: That’s a great question. The most vulnerable time for a greenhouse is at nighttime in the winter. Even in the wintertime when the sun’s out we have a little bit of the ability to have solar gains, so we can get the greenhouses to warm up. But the minute the sun goes down, that’s it. Heat is necessary even in places in California as well as Colorado. When you get into Colorado sometimes the heating systems need to be a little more sophisticated. When I look at heat for greenhouses, the primary source, or I mean the primary objective, let’s say, to heating the greenhouses, first of all heating the plants, and that would be from the root zone.

One way or another, there’s a lot of different ways to do that. Some are more efficient than others and maybe more practical than others, Just like I talked about in the earlier segment of cooling the surfaces and discouraging some of that heat gain to support the plant, now we’re actually trying to support the plant by reheating some of these areas, and primarily that’s the root zone. Take for instance, some places in California I’ve dealt with that have been 30 degrees outside when they have a root zone at 70 degrees, the air temperature in the greenhouse can be down to 55 degrees. So the plant temperature is really important.

There’s different versions of root zone heat whether it’s in the concrete under the gravel, in the beds. There’s different versions of it under benches, so if people are doing stationary or even rolling benches, there can be heat applied underneath the benches so that you can keep the root zone warm. That’s primary heat. Then secondary heat would be a unit heater or also what’s called an aerifier heater, so it’s a typical propane heater up above that blows out hot air. With Colorado and snow accumulations, it’s good to have a heat source for the plants and also a secondary heater for that air temperature to be brought up in order to help melt snow.

Shango: How about heat retention? You’re describing all this heat that’s going to be created, but I’m assuming that a lot of the heat are going through these walls. Are these greenhouses typically double-walled?

Eric: Well, they can be. That’s a good point. Basically there’s places that don’t get very warm in the summertime and stay pretty cold at nighttime and definitely have a colder winter. I do promote the twin wall for areas like that and the diffused twin wall still. When you get into areas that still have 300 days of sunshine that get fairly warm in the daytime especially in the summer, what happens with the twin walls is the air in between is what heats up, and so sometimes it’s harder to passively cool a twin wall greenhouse because the air in between is always warm. You can’t cool the air in between those two little walls.

The transmission on the twin wall is starting to get better, like as good a the single wall for the diffusion properties, but again, we also have the light deprivation curtain system that closes. When you close the curtain system, it’s light tight, so it helps with the air movement. Even though the triple-air, breathable, blackout fabric does help move a little bit of that heat and humidity, it mostly is wicking the moisture when places that are in higher humidity, but mainly it’s an insulation blanket in the wintertime. Again, we don’t need our curtains as much for light deprivation in the wintertime as we do lights. A lot of people are turning on their lights in conjunction with closing the blackout material to protect themselves from light pollution. It kind of goes hand-in-hand.

Now we have places that for compliancy reasons need to have a light pollution plan. What they don’t realize that for those application writers is that we already have that dealt with because most people in the cannabis industry are buying a light deprivation greenhouse. If we’re blocking out the sun, we can definitely block the lights out from the inside going out. This also is a smaller volume of air to heat up, and so we can actually have our primary heat down below in the blackout zone with the lights that can encourage heat as well. Then above that we have the secondary heater for helping to melt snow and avoid having an air drop when the blackout curtain opens.

Shango: Yeah, right on, right on. I follow this. I want to ask you about one other thing before we wrap up here. We’re almost out of time. You are in a unique position as an entrepreneur because you are both educating your customers, and you’re also evolving the technology yourself. I can imagine that you’ve gotten a lot of pushback from folks who didn’t want to hear you out, or they just had their doubts or were skeptical. A lot of our listeners are developing new technologies to bring to market to help evolve the industry as a whole. What advice would you give somebody who is going to bring a technology to market that has to change minds?

Eric: I would just say that I know years ago when we first started this a lot of people didn’t look at this as a real industry, and it was kind of a joke or “Go ahead, good luck,” type of thing. The other thing a lot of people have always said, and I’ve even heard this recently at some trade shows, is that a plant is a plant. In some cases that might be true if you look up the genes or follow the chemistry of plants or whatever, but in my opinion cannabis plants are really specific. That doesn’t mean that they’re difficult. It just means that there’s specific, and they don’t really operate like a lot of other plants that I’ve been around or I’m familiar with.

I would say to take some advice or some understanding from some real growers and some people that have been in the cannabis industry for a good amount of time, that might be five to ten years at least with a little bit of a objective background, maybe with some people that have been around some other areas as well, because Colorado isn’t the breeding ground or ground zero for cannabis and how cannabis plants grow. Neither is the Indoor Grow Guide. I can appreciate the Indoor Grow Guides, but they’re not something that you take under your arm when you go back outside or learn to grow in a greenhouse. A lot of the things that we read in these books and things are specific to certain areas or styles of growing, whether that’s indoor or outdoor, or Washington or Colorado for that matter.

Shango: Yeah, right on. Well, Eric, that’s all the time we have for today. Thanks so much for being on the show.

Eric: Oh, great. Thanks for having me. It’s been great.

Shango: You can find out more about Eric Brandstad of Forever Flowering Greenhouses and Light Deprivation on their website which is foreverflowering.net. You can also watch Eric’s entire presentation at the NCIA Cultivation Management Symposium on YouTube, and it includes all the slides. It’s really worth checking out. You can find more episodes of the Ganjapreneur Podcast in the podcast section of ganjapreneur.com. You can also find us the Cannabis Radio Network website and in the Apple iTunes store. On the ganjapreneur.com website you will find the latest cannabis news, product reviews and cannabis jobs updated daily along with transcriptions of this podcast. You can also download the ganjapreneur.com app in iTunes and Google Play. We are thrilled to announce that you can now find the show on the iHeartRadio Network app bringing Ganjapreneur to 60 million mobile devices. Thanks to Brasco for producing our show. I’m your host, Shango Los.

End

Cannabis Arrests Are Still Increasing In New Jersey

12/01/2015

by

Arrests for cannabis possession are on the rise in New Jersey, even while arrest rates for cannabis are declining around the rest of the country, The Associated Press reports. There were 24,765 marijuana possession arrests in New Jersey during 2013, the most the state has seen in 20 years and nearly double the number of marijuana arrests from 1993.

Udi Ofer, executive director of New Jersey’s ACLU chapter, noted that this increase “coincides with a governor who has taken an incredibly harsh tone on marijuana use,” but that he doubts “anyone knows the exact answer.”

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has vowed to veto any recreational legalization bill that might come across his desk, and during multiple events for his presidential campaign Christie has announced that — if elected president — he would take immediate action to end the legalization experiments currently underway.

According to Ofer, the uptick in arrests is particularly concerning because studies have shown that African-Americans are being charged with possession three times as often as whites, though whites are just as likely to use cannabis.

Chris Goldstein of PhillyNORML noted that, “Christie is the most vocal marijuana prohibitionist in America right now. … His rhetoric obviously hasn’t been lost on the police captains of New Jersey.”

For more on this story, click here.

Photo Credit: Office of Public Affairs

End

Competing Legalization Campaigns in Massachusetts Face Petition Signatures Deadline

12/01/2015

by

The two Massachusetts campaigns that seek to end cannabis prohibition are facing a petition deadline tomorrow for their proposals: 64,750 valid signatures are required to put their proposals in front of the state legislature, which may then choose to pass the law outright. If the legislature fails to act, an additional 10,792 signatures will be needed by July to get the proposals in front of voters during the November 2016 election.

The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, an advocacy group backed by the Washington-D.C. based Marijuana Policy Project, has already raised more than enough signatures. Today, campaign leaders are submitting their 103,000 petition signatures to the Elections Division of the Secretary of the Commonwealth.

Meanwhile, the Bay State Repeal group is a grassroots campaign that has been endorsed in an editorial by the Boston Globe and by the Massachusetts chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. It remains uncertain whether Bay State Repeal has secured enough signatures.

One of many differences between the campaigns is their proposed taxation rates: BSR is calling for a 6.25% state tax with no option for a local tax, while the CRMLA’s proposal includes a 10% state tax and the option for up to 2% in local taxes. The BSR proposal also includes an expunging of old marijuana offense records by the state’s Executive Branch.

For more info, visit the campaign websites above or read more here.

Photo Credit: KOMUnews

End

Retail Cannabis Customers Want Well-Stocked Inventories and Knowledgeable Budtenders

11/30/2015

by

A Marijuana Business Daily report published in September reveals what recreational cannabis customers prefer in their retail shopping experience.

According to the report, more than two thirds of cannabis customers believe that a well-stocked inventory is critically important. Additionally, 63% agreed that a knowledgeable budtender is also among the most important factors.

Other common subjects that concern retail cannabis customers are whether or not the cannabis products are lab-tested, whether or not there is a menu or product prices on display, and what the business’ overall atmosphere is like.

Visit the Marijuana Business Daily website for the whole story.

Photo Credit: Dank Depot

End

Maryland Receives Over 1,000 Medical Cannabis License Applications

11/30/2015

by

Maryland officials recently announced that they have received more than 1,000 applications for medical cannabis licenses. Of the 1,081 total applications, 811 are for dispensing licenses. The other applicants are more evenly distributed between hopeful cultivation and processing operations.

The first step in approving an application was set to begin in January. However, the licensing process may now be delayed because of the sheer amount of interest, which is much higher than anticipated.

Maryland’s medical marijuana program was signed into law in 2014, but the program is still not operational. The law is more restrictive than others, in that edible products are not allowed, and doctors are not legally able to prescribe medical cannabis alongside more traditional medications, particularly painkillers.

“I can’t have access to a pain manager unless I give up the cannabis,” explained Barry Considine, a self-prescribed MMJ patient who was on the front lines of Maryland’s medical cannabis advocacy efforts.

Photo Credit: Mark

End

U.S. Hemp Sales May Reach $500M This Year

11/30/2015

by

U.S. citizens are expected to purchase up to $500 million worth of hemp products during 2015, a preliminary analysis by the Boulder-based Hemp Business Journal recently revealed.

Americans bought $400 million in such products during 2014, indicating a rapid expansion (25% over one year) in the demand for hemp-based products. Items purchased range from simple clothing and cosmetics to construction supplies made from hemp, commonly known as “hempcrete.”

The vast majority of these products have been made using imported hemp — though American hemp crops are becoming increasingly more common, particularly in Colorado, Tennessee, and Kentucky. At least in Colorado, the majority of hemp harvests are being used to fuel the nationa’s growing demand for hemp-based CBD products, which are expected to raise about $85 million worth of sales in 2015.

Check out the full article at The Daily Camera for more information.

Photo Credit: Mike Mozart

 

End