MjLink Cannabis Business News and Press

NEW YORK, New York, May 4, 2022 - PRESS RELEASE - Lucid Green, a platform that provides retailers and distributors a touchless inventory management solution, announced three new partnerships with cannabis testing labs and lab information systems (LIMS) to expand full digitization of certifications of analysis’ (COAs) in the cannabis supply chain. The new partnerships with CannaSafe, Cannalysis and LabLynx build on Lucid Green’s existing partnerships with Confident Cannabis and Sonoma Lab Works. Through these new lab and LIMS partnerships, Lucid Green is connected to more than 400 individual labs in the U.S. 

This limited data set reinforces the current purchasing behavior, which is fixated on THC levels and basic classifications like sativa, indica or hybrid. 

“Lucid Green is committed to increasing trust and transparency at every point of the cannabis supply chain and with consumers,” said Larry Levy, Lucid Green co-founder and CEO. “By expanding our partnerships with cannabis testing lab systems, we are cutting time and money inefficiencies while ultimately giving consumers additional information to allow them to have a better cannabis experience. This industry is not growing because stoners are smoking more weed. It’s growing because your spouse, neighbor [and] parents are beginning to see the benefits of using cannabis and want more information to feel confident about and inform their experience.” 

Lucid Green is modernizing the cannabis industry with its signature LucidIDs. These QR codes can make the cannabis supply chain more efficient by allowing for actual truck-to-shelf inventory intake, reducing manual labor and human errors and virtually eliminating data cleanliness issues. The intelligent QR codes permit dynamic information flow, empowering stakeholders to continue adding information about a product through its lifecycle and eliminating the need for secondary stickering. 

Last week, Lucid Green announced its $10M Series B led by Gron Ventures, with participation by Gotham Green Partners. Lucid Green also recently launched three new pricing levels for brands, with varying levels of support to accommodate businesses of all sizes. With Lucid Green, brands, retailers, distributors and consumers realize the benefits of a streamlined cannabis supply chain—one that allows for dynamic information sharing, reduces costs and increases transparency and trust for all stakeholders.

Lucid Green will preview its new solutions at Hall of Flowers in Palm Springs from May 4-5, 2022. To learn more about Lucid Green or schedule a demo, visit: https://www.lucidgreen.io/.

Lauderdale County, the eighth largest county in Mississippi, has opted out of the state’s medical cannabis program.

The Board of Supervisors voted May 2 to block cannabis cultivators and dispensaries from setting up shop in the county, according to a local WTOK report.

“I voted to opt out after giving people a considerate amount of time to contact us,” board member Jonathan Wells told the news outlet. “I felt like it was the best thing to do. We don’t have building codes or zoning in the county. That means it is wide open. We could put a dispensary or growery wherever you wanted to. I think it is my job to look out for our citizenry. At this time, I thought it was the right time to opt out and watch what happens in the city. We can revisit this subject in the future.”

RELATED: More Mississippi Cities Opt Out of Medical Cannabis Ahead of Deadline; Tupelo Appears In

Another member of the board, Kyle Rutledge, shared with WTOK that he voted against opting out of the program because he wanted the county to regulate medical cannabis operators like businesses in any other industry.

A southwest Missouri family that didn’t win one of the state’s 60 medical cannabis cultivation licenses awarded in December 2019 still does not have the right to farm, the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Western District ruled May 3.

Paul Callicoat and his family members, who’d hoped to turn their 70-acre Sarcoxie property into a cannabis cultivation site, filed a lawsuit against the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) shortly after their application was denied in late 2019.

With more than 500 applications submitted for those 60 licenses, the family’s lawyer argued the state should allow the market to decide which cultivation businesses survive and criticized the “geographical bonuses” that favored applicants from ZIP codes with high unemployment rates.

RELATED: Judge Denies Restraining Order Request in Missouri Medical Cannabis Lawsuit

Roughly a year later, Cole County Circuit Judge Patricia Joyce rejected those arguments that the state’s limit on cultivation licenses violated the family’s “right to farm” under the state Constitution, upholding Missouri’s medical cannabis rules that were adopted after voters approved an amendment in the November 2018 election.

On Tuesday, Missouri Court of Appeals for the Western District Judge Alok Ahuja wrote an opinion that also dismissed the Callicoats’ (the appellants) case. All 11 judges in the judicial body concurred.

LAS VEGAS – May 3, 2022 – The Source+, an award-winning cannabis company with five dispensaries in the Las Vegas Valley, Reno and Northampton, Mass., has announced Sequoah Turner as its new director of retail. In this role, Turner will leverage her 15+ years of experience in retail to support more than 160 retail employees across the company’s retail locations.

“We are incredibly excited to welcome Sequoah to our growing team,” said Simon Nankervis, CEO of The Source+. “Through her vast retail and cannabis expertise, we are confident that she will continue to foster our culture of community and place our customers first in everything we do.”

Prior to joining The Source+, Turner served as the director of retail for both the Missouri-based dispensary, Agri-Genesis, and Essence Dispensary in Las Vegas. Outside of the cannabis industry, she served as operations manager for Tiffany & Co. from 2007 to 2014, and director of retail for AREA15, an experiential retail and entertainment complex located in Las Vegas, from 2019 to 2021.

“I am grateful to join The Source+'s incredible team and guide its locations in exciting new directions," said Turner. "By further enriching the culture that The Source+ has created for its team members and customers, I look forward to crafting memorable customer experiences by bringing a new perspective to the company."

A graduate of both Davidson College as well as AIU University, Turner intends to make an immediate impact by continuing to propel and build The Source+’s overall growth strategy. She will also focus on delivering excellent service while complying with state regulations to strengthen the dispensary’s position as an operator.

With less than two weeks until the Missouri Legislature adjourns, the lawmaker behind the push to legalize adult-use cannabis in the state says his legislation is “held up” in the House.

Rep. Ron Hicks, R-Defiance, told the Missouri Independent that his House Bill 2704 was supposed to come up for debate in the House May 2 but that House Majority Leader Dean Plocher said he will not allow the bill to advance without further discussion on business licensing caps in the adult-use market.

Hicks has advocated for unlimited licenses, according to the news outlet, arguing that the free market should determine how many businesses emerge in the industry and that the license caps in Missouri’s medical cannabis market have created a monopoly and possible corruption.

Plocher maintained that his insistence on license caps in the adult-use market is not the result of industry lobbying and that his position instead stems from a recent conversation with Lyndall Fraker, the director of medical cannabis regulation at the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, according to the Missouri Independent.

The constitutional amendment that Missouri voters approved in the 2018 election to legalize medical cannabis mandated a minimum of 338 licenses for businesses to cultivate, process and sell cannabis to patients, the news outlet reported. That’s how many licenses regulators ultimately issued, arguing that the license caps would help ensure that oversupply did not fall into the hands of the illicit market.

In the fast-paced, ever-changing world of cannabis, 20 years can seem like a long time. Yet, that’s how long Tyson Lewis has been cultivating the plant.

For the past seven of those years, Lewis has run High Noon Cultivation, or High Noon Cult. The business grows in raised soil beds using low-till and no-till methods and has about 7,000 square feet of indoor canopy space for flowering cannabis.

Craft producers like Lewis aim to meet cannabis connoisseurs’ needs and wishes by searching for and growing the best genetics while paying attention to the minute details of their cultivation operations.

High Noon sells flower to retailers and also works with water hash makers, Lewis said. (“That market segment’s exploding right now,” he said of water hash.)

The business uses about 1,200 square feet of its indoor grow for what Lewis called a "continuous pheno hunt." The business cycles through about four crops each year. “…Between eight and 10 genetics come out of that room at the end of the year that actually meet our standard,” he said. “So, out of thousands of seeds, that’s about what we get.”

Explaining some of how the process works, Lewis said that if his team wants to find the best phenotype of Tropicana Cookies, they will purchase numerous seeds of five to 10 different Tropicana Cookies genotypes from various seed providers and try them out.

Oklahoma cannabis advocates began gathering signatures May 3 in an effort to send an adult-use legalization measure to the November ballot.

The group behind State Question 820 must collect signatures from 8% of the total number of voters who casted votes during the last general election for the office of governor, according to a NonDoc.com report. This year, the required number of signatures is 94,911.

SQ 820 would allow adults 21 and older to purchase cannabis from dispensaries without a medical cannabis card, NonDoc.com reported, and would levy a 15% excise tax on adult-use purchases to fund the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority (OMMA), as well as schools, court systems and drug addiction treatment programs.

The measure would also establish a judicial process for those convicted of cannabis-related crimes to seek “modification, reversal, re-designation, or expungement” of those convictions, according to NonDoc.com.

Organizers have 90 days to gather the required number of signatures, meaning signatures must be submitted by Aug. 1, according to the news outlet.

Cannabis businesses in New Mexico’s second largest city can set their own hours after the Las Cruces City Council voted against setting operating hours for adult-use cannabis sales.

City council members heard from the city attorney and the community May 2 before voting 6-1 to not establish operating hours for adult-use cannabis retailers that coincide with liquor sales, according to a KFOX14 report.

Mayor Ken Miyagishima cast the lone vote in favor of setting operating hours for adult-use sales, the news outlet reported.

“I am disappointed that council didn't pass the law ordinance that will allow operating hours to coincide with liquor sales,” Miyagishima told KFOX14. “I think anytime you have that type of traffic, 24/7, that’s a lot, it’s a lot of stress on both the business owners, the employees, the city.”

Monday’s vote will allow adult-use cannabis retailers within Las Cruces to set their own business hours to meet consumer demand, which has increased since adult-use sales launched April 1.

In Toronto, DoorDash Canada will now provide cannabis ordering and pickup services through a new partnership with retail and lifestyle brand Superette.

“Every element of the experience has been carefully considered with the goal of making our retail experience digital on the DoorDash platform,” Superette co-founder and chief brand officer Drummond Munro said in a public statement.

The goal, according to the Superette team, is to recognize and actively embrace evolving consumer demands for convenient online ordering and pickup options. This is a long-running dynamic in commercial retail landscapes—the ability to shop easily online—and the pandemic certainly accelerated the average consumer’s willingness to engage with online ordering services. Now, cannabis businesses are rapidly acclimating to this strategy.

Each Superette location will display curated menus through the DoorDash app, offering consumers up-to-the-minute selections from the store.

According to a press release announcing the news, “Superette will verify IDs and strictly enforce maximum possession amount at the store during pickup.”

Shawn Carden had never thought to try cannabis before April 1. The 44-year-old lifelong resident of Santa Fe was told for most of his life that marijuana was a dangerous and evil drug. That sentiment came not only from his parents, but from elected officials down the street.

When Carden stepped up to the front door at Southwest Cannabis Dispensary on the first day of adult-use sales in his home state, he glanced at the New Mexico State Capitol, kitty-corner across the street. He let out a short chuckle as he reflected on the irony of the moment.

“I think it’s safe to say everyone’s on board now,” he quipped. Turning back to the door and the decisions he’d soon have to make—flower or concentrates, a cannabis chocolate bar or an infused soda—Carden struck a more serious tone. “Honestly, I never thought I’d be here doing this. Or that a day like this would ever come.”

The Santa Fe native was one of nearly 42,000 adults to commemorate the first day of adult-use sales in the Land of Enchantment with a legal dispensary purchase. Carden had to wait 45 minutes at Southwest Cannabis on the big day, but others stood in line for up to two hours at some of the state’s 118 open stores for the chance to make history.

After passing House Bill 2 on March 31 of last year, New Mexico took a full 12 months to get the new industry launched. But the pent-up demand made it every bit worth the wait. New Mexico scored $2.76 million in sales on the first day alone, and $39.5 million for the entire month.

Besides the first day of sales—a Friday—and the following weekend, dispensaries also welcomed record crowds on 4/20. And as April turns to May, most of New Mexico’s stores still have customers lining up outside their doors each morning.

Curaleaf was one of seven businesses approved to sell adult-use cannabis for New Jersey’s expanded retail launch on April 21, but the largest cannabis company in the world (by market cap) still has one of its dispensaries sitting on the sidelines.

While Curaleaf’s Bellmawr medical cannabis dispensary in South Jersey was one of 12 retail facilities that made the transition to adult-use sales last month, the company’s Edgewater Park dispensary remains a medical-only facility despite being approved by the state’s Cannabis Regulatory Commission (CRC) to serve the new customer base.

After the Bellmawr dispensary began serving adult-use shoppers, Curaleaf officials announced they anticipated their Edgewater Park and Bordentown locations to quickly follow. But the company’s approved Edgewater Park site might take a little longer than expected to expand its operations, NJ.com reported.

Instead of joining its competitors, like Acreage Holdings, Columbia Care, Green Thumb Industries, TerrAscend and Verano, which all opened two adult-use dispensaries on April 21, Curaleaf had a police officer patrol the Edgewater Park site and turn away traffic for most of the day, the news outlet reported.

That’s because Curaleaf has yet to satisfy land-use conditions to build a larger parking lot, drainage basins and additional lights, attorney Tom Coleman, who represents the Edgewater Park Township Land Use Board, told NJ.com.

“Two years ago, they agreed that if they ever decided to sell recreational cannabis, they would come back to the board and get site plan approvals,” Coleman said.

LAS VEGAS, NV / ACCESSWIRE / May 2, 2022 / PRESS RELEASE / Planet 13 Holdings Inc., a vertically-integrated multi-state cannabis company, has announced the expansion of its popular TRENDI brand to California starting with premium small batch flower strains. TRENDI will be exclusive to Planet 13 Orange County to start.

"We are excited to begin bringing our portfolio of award-winning brands to California starting with TRENDI. Now that we are fully vertically integrated in California, we have the ability to introduce all of our brands to increase margins at our retail location and to enter into the wholesale market," said Bob Groesbeck, co-CEO of Planet 13. "We are diligently executing our strategy in California, Nevada and Florida to grow revenue, profitability and brand equity."

A group of 14 licensed cannabis retailers in British Columbia have sued the province over illegal dispensaries operating on First Nations reserves.

The dispensaries filed the lawsuit April 27 against British Columbia’s attorney general, the Minister of Public Safety and British Columbia’s Community Safety Unit, according to a Global News report.

The plaintiffs claim in their complaint that the province has failed to crack down on illegal cannabis retailers on the reserves, and that each of the licensed retailers has experienced “a $500,000 yearly reduction in gross sales due to business lost to illicit retailers operating on reserves with the knowledge of the defendants,” Global News reported.

“The illicit retailers sell black-market products or illegally obtained product that has not been purchased from the British Columbia government as required by the [Cannabis Control and Licensing] Act, nor authorized for sale under the Cannabis Act [Canada],” the lawsuit states, according to the news outlet.

The lawsuit claims that British Columbia’s adult-use cannabis industry is expected to reach $1 billion in annual sales by 2024, and that the defendants were supposed to “safeguard the legal cannabis industry and prevent the illicit sale of unregulated cannabis products in the province,” Global News reported.

Another person lost his life in connection with an armed robbery of a cannabis dispensary.

Los Angeles Police Department authorities are searching for two suspects after a man was shot and killed inside a retail facility around 12:30 p.m. April 30 in the Tarzana neighborhood, the Los Angeles Times reported.

While some media reports said the shooting happened during the dispensary robbery, LAPD spokesperson Jeff Lee said Sunday that he knew of no official motive, according to the news outlet.

Meanwhile, cannabis industry stakeholders continue to point to the absence of the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act following dispensary robberies.

“We are saddened, and outraged, to read about another fatal shooting at a cannabis dispensary,” the U.S. Cannabis Council wrote on social media Sunday. “Requiring dispensaries to conduct business largely in cash has put employees and operators in the crosshairs of criminals. We are seeing a steadily rising human toll from lack of banking access. We urgently need to take cash out of the equation. We need SAFE Banking now!”

Saturday’s deadly incident came less than a week after Oakland’s Oakanna dispensary owner Joshua Chase was shot in the foot after a group of burglars tripped an alarm just before 4:30 a.m. at his new retail facility.

The Alaska House marked 4/20 with a vote to seal the records of about 8,500 Alaskans convicted of low-level, cannabis-related crimes, according to the Anchorage Daily News.

House Bill 246, sponsored by Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, D-Sitka, passed April 20 in a 30-8 vote, the news outlet reported.

The Senate is considering a companion bill from Sen. Mike Shower, R-Wasilla, according to the Anchorage Daily News.

The legislation aims to combat prejudice against Alaskans who committed nonviolent, cannabis-related crimes before 2014, when voters approved an adult-use cannabis legalization measure, the news outlet reported.

The bill would seal convictions that involve less than an ounce of cannabis and no other criminal charges, according to The Center Square.

Ohio legislators who have refused to consider cannabis legalization in the General Assembly are now attempting to block a citizen-led initiative from putting a question to voters on the November 2022 ballot.

Legalization advocates who represent the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol (CRMLA) filed a lawsuit April 29 against Ohio House Speaker Bob Cupp, R-Lima, and Senate President Matt Huffman, R-Lima, in an effort to keep their legalization petition measure on target for this year’s election.

The coalition’s proposed statute seeks to allow adults 21 and older to buy and possess up to 2.5 ounces of cannabis (or 15 grams of extract) and grow up to six plants per person or 12 plants per household. In addition, the proposal aims to impose a 10% tax on cannabis sales, with revenue going toward state costs to run a legalized program; substance abuse and addiction treatment programs; supporting municipalities with dispensaries; and social equity and jobs programs.

While Huffman told reporters in February that he won’t act on calendaring the coalition’s proposal for debate in the Senate, he also said, “And if that means people want to go put it on the ballot, have at it.”

But now the Senate president and Cupp are allegedly attempting to stop the people from having at it.

According to the lawsuit filed in the Franklin County Clerk of Courts, legal counsel for GOP leadership argued that the CRMLA petition was not approved in time to be considered for the 2022 ballot and now must wait until 2023.

Since 2020, Fire & Flower has been building a strong relationship with Couche-Tard, the owner of Circle K convenience stories and gas stations. Early on in the partnership, Fire & Flower opened two dispensaries adjacent to Circle K locations in Alberta, Canada. Those openings were one example of the long game to normalize cannabis as part of a broader corporate portfolio. 

Couche-Tard just stepped up its game with a $38-million exercise of a warrant on Fire & Flower common shares. The transaction increases Couche-Tard’s ownership stake in Fire & Flower from 14% to 35%.

“We are excited to further strengthen our relationship with Alimentation Couche-Tard, whose unwavering support has enabled Fire & Flower to execute on our technology-focused differentiation strategy and to ultimately achieve our vision to deliver cannabis to the world,” Fire & Flower CEO Trevor Fencott said in a public statement.

Along with debt service, the proceeds from this transaction “will be used for general corporate purposes, working capital needs and to fund further strategic initiatives of [Fire & Flower],” according to a press release announcing the news.

Couche-Tard holds further warrants that are exercisable later this year, up until June 30, 2023. Along with other participation rights written into the 2020 agreement with Fire & Flower, Couche-Tard may have the opportunity to secure 50.1% ownership in the cannabis company.

TORONTO, May 2, 2022 /CNW/ - PRESS RELEASE - The Green Organic Dutchman Holdings Ltd. (TGOD), a sustainable global cannabis company, has announced that it has agreed to amend the terms of the amended and restated credit agreement dated September 29, 2021, as amended between The Green Organic Dutchman Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of TGOD, and its Canadian lender.

SAN FRANCISCO, May 2, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- PRESS RELEASE -- Treez, a private company and enterprise cloud commerce platform that streamlines retail and supply chain operations within the cannabis markets, today announced the opening of its new engineering operations in Trivandrum, India, with an initial staffing of 100 employees by the end of this year.

The company's Trivandrum operations, located at Technopark in the capital of the Indian state of Kerala, represent Treez's second engineering center with San Francisco continuing as its other major engineering hub. Renowned as India's first IT Park and considered one of the largest in the country, Technopark consists of more than 63,000 workers employed at more than 460 companies.

The new engineering center will develop new products and enhancements for its cloud commerce platform such as point of sale (POS), inventory management, customer management, omnichannel sales, catalog management, data analytics and other solutions. In addition to software development engineers, Treez also is hiring quality assurance, business intelligence and data analytics, development operations, IT support and HR staff. 

"Treez's new engineering center is the latest example of our deep commitment to deliver cutting edge innovation and superior cannabis cloud solutions that help retailers grow their businesses," said Shon Wedde, vice president of engineering of Treez. "We are excited to leverage the world class engineering talent in India and operate in such a prestigious IT park alongside some of the leading IT companies in the world."

For the past 20 years, the European Industrial Hemp Association (EIHA) has strived to establish a viable hemp industry in Europe. EIHA’s message to the hemp world is clear: "Having too many associations dilute their messages, weakens important points,” EIHA Managing Director Lorenza Romanese says, adding that having “one centralized association makes a stronger and more unified presence.”

The EIHA is a membership organization that represents the common interests of hemp farmers, producers, and traders working with fiber, shives (hurd), seeds, flower, and cannabinoids in the European Union (EU).

Farmers in the EU operate within the agricultural system of their country, similar to how U.S. producers operate within their state frameworks. EIHA addresses the goals and concerns of farmers from different backgrounds by promoting regulations that benefit the European hemp industry as a whole.

Some EU laws are binding and must be followed, while others are recommendations. The laws on hemp are not binding and all member states can establish their own legislation. However, most members follow EU directives, and what is decided in the European Parliament, the EU’s directly elected law-making body, is ultimately important for all hemp growers in Europe.

The EIHA helps set the international standards by identifying hurdles limiting the European hemp industry, explaining to EU legislators why it is important to establish transparent regulations based on scientific evidence, and building the majority support required to implement change.

The EIHA has been instrumental in making changes that keep European farmers growing hemp profitably while increasing production. North American and other international groups seeking similar changes can learn by emulating EIHA’s successes.