MjLink Cannabis Business News and Press
CBT focuses strictly on the business of legal cannabis for medical and recreational use and aims to provide timely information—through its website, e-newsletter, mobile app, print magazine and annual conference—to help the reader make timely, informed decisions to help them run their businesses better and more profitably. In 2018, Cannabis Business Times was named Magazine of the Year by the American Society of Business Publication Editors.
In April, Master Equity Group filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition in federal court in the Western District of Michigan. The company lists $176,255 in debts to a spectrum of vendors and service providers, including a local lawn care specialist and a plumbing business.
The company’s profits, however, are at least in part derived from the cannabis industry. With financial records now in the hands of a federal judge, this frames the case in an uncertain light.
Master Equity Group “operates as a holding and management company for several related-entity businesses operating in the cannabis industry,” according to the company’s legal records. And while the company itself is not a plant-touching operation, it does lease property to licensed cannabis businesses—like Cannamazoo, a dispensary located in Kalamazoo. The company also provides various accounting and payroll services to licensed cannabis businesses.
In other words, Master Equity Group receives revenue from the operation of licensed cannabis businesses operating in Michigan. Now, as CEO Adam Tucker and his attorneys petition the federal court for bankruptcy protection and the chance to reorganize the company, those cannabis-related provisions might prove problematic.
Precedent and federal law are important. There is, however, a degree of discretion in these cases. It’s not unheard of for a company in Master Equity Group’s shoes to be granted relief. Like so much else in the cannabis space, however, nothing is guaranteed.
The attorneys acknowledge as much, writing that the Office of the U.S. Trustee (which oversees federal bankruptcy cases) has historically dismissed these matters. But political tailwinds out of Washington, D.C., suggest change is in the air.
Georgia regulators took steps last week to expedite hearings on medical cannabis licensing protests after legislation to revive the state’s stalled medical cannabis program died at the end of this year’s legislative session.
The Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission voted unanimously May 5 to turn over the responsibility for hearing the protests to the Office of State Administrative Hearings (OSAH), according to a Capitol Beat report.
Putting that task in the OSAH’s hands was a key provision in the legislation that the Georgia Legislature considered this year to address licensing snafus that have held up the launch of the state’s medical cannabis program.
Georgia’s registered patients have been able to legally possess cannabis oil containing a maximum of 5% THC since 2015, but they have no way to legally purchase the oil, which has yet to be produced and sold in the state.
RELATED: How Are Georgia’s Medical Marijuana Patients Supposed to Access Cannabis Oil?
Voters in Austin, Texas approved a measure May 7 that outlaws the enforcement of low-level cannabis possession crimes, as well as no-knock warrants, according to a local KVUE report.
The ballot initiative, put forth by Ground Game Texas, read:
“Shall an initiative ordinance be approved to (1) eliminate enforcement of low-level marijuana offenses and (2) ban the use of ‘no knock’ warrants by Austin police?”
The measure passed with 85% of the vote, KVUE reported.
RELATED: New Poll Reveals That 67% of Texans Support Adult-Use Cannabis Legalization
Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana collected the required number of valid signatures to get its medical cannabis legalization measure before voters in the 2020 election only to have the Nebraska Supreme Court rule that the ballot initiative violated the single-subject rule outlined in the state constitution.
Now, after filing two new medical cannabis initiatives with the Nebraska Secretary of State to get the issue before voters this November, the group has hit another snag—the loss of two of its biggest donors.
RELATED: Advocates Try Again to Place Medical Cannabis Legalization Measure on Nebraska’s Ballot
Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana had hoped to raise $1 million to fund its signature gathering efforts this year, but a major donor died in a plane crash and another was diagnosed with a terminal illness, leaving the initiative with roughly $30,000 in cash, according to a Lincoln Journal Star report.
The campaign has just two months left to collect roughly 87,000 signatures, and State Sen. Anna Wishart, who co-chairs Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, told the news outlet that the campaign plans to press on as a grassroots effort.
Missourians in all likelihood will hold the key to adult-use cannabis legalization in the November 2022 election after activists submitted more than double the required signatures to the Secretary of State’s Office.
While Legal Missouri 2022, a registered political action committee (PAC), needs roughly 171,500 valid signatures in order to put its issue before state voters, the group submitted more than doubled that benchmark with the 385,000-plus signed petitions it turned in May 8.
The Missouri Secretary of State’s Office must validate roughly 45% of the submitted signatures—making sure signees wrote their information clearly, are registered to vote, etc.—for the group to receive final approval for the ballot.
“As we submit more than 385,000 petition signatures to the state today, the message from voters is clear: It’s past time to end the senseless and costly prohibition of marijuana,” John Payne, Legal Missouri 2022’s campaign manager, said in a public statement.
“This widespread and enthusiastic show of support from the people of Missouri exceeds our expectations,” he added, noting how the signature total slightly exceeded the amount collected during the 2018 campaign that led to voter approval of medical cannabis. “We look forward to the timely review and certification of our petition by the Secretary of State’s Office as we continue to educate and inform voters in the coming weeks and months.”
In 2018, Payne successfully led the A New Approach campaign to land the state’s medical cannabis initiative on the ballot. Officials from that effort submitted more than 370,000 signatures before getting the green light from the Secretary of State.
Legal Missouri’s 2022 measure would amend the Missouri Constitution to: legalize cannabis for those 21 and older; allow individuals convicted of nonviolent cannabis-related offenses to petition to be released from incarcerations and/or have their records automatically expunged; establish a lottery to award licenses, distributed equally to congressional districts; require a registration card for personal cultivation; and impose a 6% tax on cannabis sales, among other provisions.
The Delaware House voted May 5 to approve an adult-use cannabis legalization measure after shooting down a separate adult-use proposal earlier this year.
Rep. Ed Osienski’s House Bill 371 cleared the House in a 26-14 vote last week, according to a WDEL.com report.
The House defeated Osienski’s earlier adult-use cannabis legalization proposal, House Bill 305, in March.
That legislation aimed to legalize the possession of up to 1 ounce of cannabis for adults 21 and older, promote social equity and inclusion in the market, and reinvest a portion of tax revenue into communities disproportionately impacted by prohibition through a Justice Reinvestment Fund.
After H.B. 305 ultimately failed, Osienski split the legislation in half; H.B. 371 would legalize the possession of an ounce or less of cannabis, while separate legislation, House Bill 372, would allow cannabis to be grown and sold in the state for adult use.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear currently has the highest approval rating of all U.S. Democratic governors. That is no small feat, given his mostly Republican-leaning constituency.
And that makes the latest Kentucky cannabis headline all the more notable: “Kentucky Governor Indicates Executive Cannabis Order Coming.” Read Associate Editor Tony Lange on the news out of Beshear’s state, where the legalization of medical cannabis may be forced into being by a leader frustrated with statehouse inaction.
The question: Will Beshear follow through on this gesture toward executive order?
“The legal analysis is not yet finalized, but I do think that there is going to be room for at least some executive action,” Beshear said during a news conference. “Our challenge on putting together the task force is a positive one: It’s that there is so much interest. It is time for, call it, medical cannabis or medical marijuana in Kentucky. It is the will of the people. And there are folks out there suffering.”
An executive order like that would be a first, among U.S. states, and a great leap forward for a state that didn’t crack CBT’s list of most likely candidates for legalization this year.
However this shakes out, the political news of the day in Kentucky will be well worth watching in the coming weeks.
Cannabis consumption lounges in Nevada could be opening as early as this fall, and officials have drafted regulations to address public safety concerns.
The proposed regulations, set to be approved in June, work to solidify anti-DUI policies and focus heavily on employee training.
As part of those proposals, alcohol would not be allowed at the consumptions lounges, Cannabis Compliance Board (CCB) Executive Director Tyler Klimas told Fox 5 Vegas. The policy recommendation comes after CCB officials learned in working with law enforcement that polysubstance use is an ongoing issue in Nevada, Klimas said.
RELATED: So Close, Yet So Far: Nevada Cannabis Consumption Lounges
In other efforts to curb DUI risks, businesses should have signage throughout the facility that contains messages like, “It is against the law to drive while impaired by cannabis.” Companies are also encouraged to implement additional policies to prevent impaired driving, such as having a no-tow policy so consumers can leave their cars at the lounge overnight, or partnering with local rideshare services, Klimas told the news outlet.
Klimas added that many consumer protections would also come from employee training.
The legal details are not fully ironed out, but Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear indicated May 5 that his administration forecasts an opening for an executive order on medical cannabis.
The Democratic governor didn’t reveal what specific actions might be on the table, but he did signal leeway for his office to act in some capacity during his weekly news conference Thursday.
“The legal analysis is not yet finalized, but I do think that there is going to be room for at least some executive action,” Beshear said when asked for an update. “Our challenge on putting together the task force is a positive one: It’s that there is so much interest. It is time for, call it, medical cannabis or medical marijuana in Kentucky. It is the will of the people. And there are folks out there suffering.”
Beshear asked his general counsel to begin analyzing options under the law for the governor to consider regarding executive action on medical cannabis, which he announced under a four-step plan to effectuate change on the state’s medical cannabis policy during his April 21 news conference.
RELATED: Kentucky Governor Takes Issue With Senate Inaction on Medical Cannabis
The governor’s plan comes on the heels of Kentucky’s Senate stalling on medical cannabis legalization for the past three years. Most recently, the upper chamber killed legislation that cruised to House passage by way of a 59-34 vote in March.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued dozens of warning letters over the past several years to CBD companies, most recently calling out a group of businesses for claiming that their products can cure, treat or prevent COVID-19.
Now, the federal agency is setting its sights on the delta-8 THC space.
The FDA issued warning letters to five companies May 4 “for selling products labeled as containing delta-8 tetrahydrocannabinol (delta-8 THC) in ways that violate the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FD&C Act),” according to a press release.
The warning letters, issued to ATLRx Inc., BioMD Plus LLC, Delta 8 Hemp, Kingdom Harvest LLC and M Six Labs Inc., also cite CBD-related violations of the FD&C Act, including marketing CBD products claiming to treat medical conditions in humans and animals, promoting them as dietary supplements, and adding CBD to human and animal foods.
“FDA’s announcement … that it had issued warning letters to five marketers of delta-8 THC is significant, although not all that unexpected,” Jonathan Havens, co-chair of the Cannabis Law Practice and the Food and Beverage Practice at Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr, told Cannabis Business Times. “However, the five warning letters represent the first enforcement actions taken by FDA against delta-8 marketers.”
BILLERICA, Massachusetts, May 6, 2022 - PRESS RELEASE - Agrify Corporation, a innovative provider of advanced cultivation and extraction solutions for the cannabis industry, announced its extraction division has expanded its portfolio of industry-leading processing solutions with its latest, most advanced and scalable passive hydrocarbon extractor: the PX5.
The PX5's unique passive recovery design offers immediate economic benefits to cannabis operators of any size. The optimized extraction path reduces batch times, driving increased daily production up to 33%. By eliminating the need for a dedicated pump, the PX5 saves up to 40% annually in energy costs over comparable traditional systems while simultaneously eliminating the maintenance and replacement expense normally associated with system pumps. Designed for rapid material changeover, the PX5 enables operators to increase hourly extract production by 200%, and with specialized training available from Agrify Extraction, operators can realize up to a 300% increase.
"The PX5 represents more than a decade of collective experience, research and development in hydrocarbon extraction," said Chris Benyo, senior vice president & general manager of Agrify's Extraction Division. "This versatile machine is the ultimate streamlined and scalable cannabis extraction technology, which has been designed with the creation of high-value end products in mind. With a large number of facility build-outs and expansions currently happening in this industry and the demand for high-quality cannabis products surging, the PX5—which is the first in a series of hydrocarbon extractor launches that we plan to roll out this year—is perfect for customers looking to build faster, grow their business, gain a competitive edge and make groundbreaking products."
Catering to the contemporary needs of cannabis operators, the PX5 offers passive recovery with fast recovery times. With a linear design and convenient ergonomic controls, the PX5's functions are easily accessible, The system offers integrated CRC refinement, which is highly conducive to extracting high-terpene, full-spectrum live resin, by further refining low-quality biomass into a valuable end product.
The PX5's features, specifications and benefits include:
The PX5 is now available as part of a customizable primary extraction package, including indoor and outdoor temperature control options. Contact the extraction experts at Agrify's Extraction Division for pricing and availability.
]]>WAKEFIELD, Mass., May 6, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- PRESS RELEASE -- Curaleaf Holdings, Inc., an international provider of consumer products in cannabis, has announced plans to open three new dispensaries in Florida over the coming weeks. Curaleaf's latest expansion will increase the company's retail footprint to 50 dispensaries in the Sunshine State and 133 locations nationwide.
Curaleaf Bradenton East, located at 4227 E SR 64, is an expansive, 5,000-square-foot retail facility that joins Curaleaf Bradenton as the second dispensary in the Central Florida town. The company will celebrate the location's soft opening on May 6, followed by a grand opening on May 13, featuring on-demand commissioned poetry by Florida "poet-for-hire" Giovanni Cerro of Gios Typos. New and returning patients will also have access to exclusive promotions and double reward points on purchases.
Curaleaf Tampa Midtown, located at 612 Dale Mabry, will become the company's sixth location in Hillsborough County. The 5,821-square-foot dispensary's soft opening will take place on May 12, pending regulatory approvals, with a grand opening ceremony to follow on May 20. The celebration will feature half-priced products, opportunities to earn double reward points and a live Potcast recording, hosted by former Tampa Bay Buccaneers lineman Ian Beckles.
Curaleaf Orlando University, located at 11311 University Blvd., near the University of Central Florida, will open by the end of May, pending regulatory approvals. The 3,156 square-foot storefront joins Curaleaf Orlando East and Curaleaf Orlando South as the company's third location in Orange County, Fla.
With a 21+ population expected to surpass 16 million by 2025 and the potential for an expansive adult-use market, Florida presents continuous growth opportunities for the Company. To meet growing patient demand and preferences, Curaleaf has continued to introduce innovative and tailored products, including Select Squeeze, Select X-Bites, Select Nano Bites, BlueKudu Chocolate, Select Live Rosin and its breakthrough vape hardware Cliq by Select. The company's Florida growth strategy has allowed its statewide market share to increase to fifteen percent and laid the groundwork for future developments.
ILLINOIS, Chicago, May 6, 2022 - PRESS RELEASE - Verano Holdings Corp., a multi-state cannabis company, announced the opening of MÜV Fort Myers Beach, its 46th Florida location and 97th nationwide. MÜV Fort Myers Beach, located at 11340 Summerlin Square Drive, is open Monday through Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Sunday ET.
MÜV is located in the Fort Myers Beach community within greater Fort Myers. With the opening of MÜV Fort Myers Beach, medical cannabis patients will enjoy unparalleled convenience, as both MÜV Fort Myers Beach and MÜV Fort Myers (10993 Colonial Blvd) offer drive-through shopping and pickup.
“Opening MÜV Fort Myers Beach adds another convenient location for our southwest Florida patients, complementing our existing area dispensaries in Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Bonita Springs, and Marco Island,” said John Tipton, president of Verano. “We look forward to continuing serving our valued patients as the wonderful Fort Myers community and surrounding area continues to grow and prosper in the years ahead.”
MÜV dispensaries feature online menus for effortless browsing of their extensive product selection, including the company’s signature Verano Reserve flower line. For additional convenience and accessibility, patients can choose to order ahead at muvfl.com for express in-store pickup.
MÜV offers one-on-one virtual and in-store consultations at no cost to the patient. MÜV’s comprehensive product selection includes edibles, chocolates and lozenges, flower, pre-rolls, an array of vaporizer pens, concentrates, metered-dose inhalers, topicals and oral sprays; along with patented encapsulation formulations in its EnCaps capsules, tinctures, 72-hour transdermal patches and transdermal gels.
For more information about the new MÜV Fort Myers Beach medical cannabis dispensary, visit muvfl.com.
]]>The list of hemp farmers approved to cash in on New York’s forthcoming adult-use cannabis market grew by 36 on April 5.
The state’s Cannabis Control Board (CCB) members voted in favor of issuing the conditional adult-use cannabis cultivation licenses for the list of three dozen farmers during a short meeting Thursday, bringing the total number of approved licensees to 88. The board members approved 52 hemp farmers during their regular meeting on April 14.
Those approvals come as the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) works to process nearly 200 applications in total to submit to the CCB for consideration as the 2022 growing season arrives.
At last month’s meeting, OCM Director Chris Alexander said, “We’re going to continue to process applications on a rolling basis and working to get them to the board for approval as quickly as possible.”
The resolutions to approve the issuance of those first two batches of licenses come on the heels of Gov. Kathy Hochul signing legislation in late February to allow hemp businesses to grow cannabis to help jumpstart the adult-use market and ensure there’s adequate supply when commercial sales possibly launch later this year.
“New York’s farms have been the backbone of our state’s economy since before the American Revolution, and now, New York’s farms will be at the center of the most equitable cannabis industry in the nation,” Hochul said in a public statement announcing the first batch of 52 approved applications last month.
LAS VEGAS, Nevada, May 5, 2022 - PRESS RELEASE - Planet 13 Holdings Inc., a vertically-integrated multi-state cannabis company, announced that on the back of a successful shop-in-shop partnership in Orange County, STIIIZY is expanding the partnership to include a shop-in-shop experience at the Las Vegas SuperStore.
"STIIIZY is an absolute force in California, taking the number one brand spot according to Headset, and their shop-in-shop in our Orange County SuperStore has been a huge hit," said Larry Scheffler, Co-CEO of Planet 13. "It is an honor to expand that partnership and continue our tradition of being an entry point and brand partner for the top California brands looking to expand to Nevada. It's a key differentiator that we intend to repeat as we build out our Florida and Illinois operations."
Other shop-in-shop partners in Las Vegas include CANN and in Orange County STIIIZY, SELECT.
]]>After Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signed a bill to legalize medical cannabis in the state in February, agencies like the Department of Health and the Department of Revenue began writing regulations for the marketplace that will materialize later this year. Not every rule is set in stone just yet, but already prospective business owners have a sense of what’s needed to get in on the action.
License applications may be submitted to the DOH in early June (for cultivation, processing, testing, research, disposal and transportation operations) and to the DOR in early July (for dispensary operations).
Those dates are coming soon: But industry observers caution against haste. There will be time aplenty to submit paperwork. The important thing is what’s contained within that paperwork. Clare Millette, partner at Cosmich Simmons & Brown PLLC, says that it’s vital to think through the full business plan—long-term.
“[Applicants] need to know there's so much information, and there are so many different ways that you can participate in this industry,” she says. “You need to have a clear vision for where you see yourself entering this industry.”
Mississippi is the 37th state to legalize a commercial medical cannabis market without low-THC restrictions, and this timing confers some regulatory advantages (even as the perceived delay has disadvantaged the state’s patients in need). Where other states have walked relatively blindly into the regulation of a new market like medical cannabis, Mississippi agency representatives have had a chance to learn from past successes and mistakes elsewhere in the U.S.
For instance, the state will offer two tiers of “micro” cannabis cultivation licenses (2,000 square feet of canopy or less), and the state will not cap the number of business licenses it will issue.
South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws (SDBML) submitted signatures to the Secretary of State May 3 to place an adult-use cannabis legalization measure on the state’s November ballot after the last voter-approved legalization initiative was struck down by the South Dakota Supreme Court.
The Secretary of State will now go through the certification process for the petitions, but through an in-house screening process, campaign officials are confident their measure will reach the ballot this year, according to an Argus Leader report.
"We are very proud of the signature drive we ran and we’re confident we’re going to qualify," SDBML Director Matt Scweich told the news outlet. "With that being said, we have to respect the process and let the Secretary of State do its job."
SDBML had to gather roughly 17,000 valid signatures to get its measure before voters, the Argus Leader reported.
RELATED: Voters in These 9 States Could Decide Cannabis Fate in 2022
New Mexico Adult-Use Cannabis Sales Eclipse $22.1 Million in First Month; Medical Hits $17.3 Million
New Mexico state regulators are calling the first month of commercial adult-use cannabis sales a success on the heels of more than $22.1 million recorded by licensed retailers.
That figure is in addition to $17.3 million in medical cannabis sales, bringing the combined total to nearly $39.5 million, according to the state’s Cannabis Control Division (CCD).
CCD officials commended the first-month benchmark as an indication of a strong market and supply that have made the new industry a boon to New Mexico’s economy.
“New Mexicans showed up on April 1 ready to support local businesses selling high-quality New Mexico products,” CCD Director Kristen Thomson said. “And they’re still coming. Thanks to hard work by the dedicated people working in the industry, supply easily met consumer and patient demand. New Mexicans have a lot to be proud of in the launch of this new industry, which is already adding value to the state’s diverse economy.”
The state’s most populous city of more than 560,000 residents, Albuquerque recorded the highest numbers with $8 million in adult-use cannabis sales and nearly $6.9 million in medical cannabis sales, or roughly 38% of the state’s overall sales figures for April.
Meanwhile, Las Cruces, with roughly 110,000 residents, recorded nearly $2.1 million in adult-use and $1.6 million in medical sales for the month. Santa Fe (87,500 residents) recorded more than $1.8 million in adult-use and $1.6 million in medical sales.
Multistate operator MariMed recently locked down two new acquisitions: Kind Therapeutics, in Maryland, and Green Growth, in Illinois.
The company, which already had a footprint in Maryland through other licensed business acquisitions, had been eyeing Kind Therapeutics for the past few years. MariMed owned Kind’s cultivation and production facility in Hagerstown, as well as a 6,000-sq.-ft. building in Anne Arundel County that was being developed as a Kind Therapeutics dispensary location. Kind had been leasing those facilities from MariMed.
The intention now is to expand those Kind operations and layer them into MariMed’s existing Maryland infrastructure. For instance, at the cultivation site, MariMed plans to add another 40,000 square feet of canopy, as well as a GMP kitchen for cannabis edibles.
Some 630 miles to the west, the newly closed Green Growth acquisition will allow MariMed to vertically integrate its cannabis operations in Illinois. Green Growth held cultivation, manufacturing and distribution licenses; MariMed had only claimed a retail license in that state until this point.
"In this new licensed manufacturing facility, we will produce cannabis flowers and products that will be sold in our four Thrive retail dispensaries as well as into the robust Illinois wholesale marketplace,” CEO Bob Fireman said in a public statement. “Being vertically integrated in Illinois will improve our margins in our retail stores and create new wholesale revenue. We are exploring adding an additional six dispensaries in the state as Illinois allows up to 10 for a single owner."
MariMed is now building out a cultivation and processing facility (with 14,000 square feet of canopy space) in Mt. Vernon, Ill., with operations anticipated to begin at the end of this year.
The Connecticut Senate approved legislation May 4 that takes aim at cannabis advertising, gifting and zoning, sending the bill to Gov. Ned Lamont.
The Senate approved House Bill 5329 in a 22-13 vote, according to a CT News Junkie report.
The legislation, which cleared the House in a 98-48 vote last month, includes several tweaks to Connecticut’s adult-use cannabis legalization measure, which Lamont signed into law in June 2021.
RELATED: Looking Ahead to Adult-Use Sales, Connecticut Cannabis Business Take Stock of What’s Needed
One provision would prohibit cannabis bazaars, events where attendees can purchase cannabis even though it has not yet become available for regulated, commercial sales, according to CT News Junkie.