MjLink Cannabis Business News and Press
SAN DIEGO, Feb. 23, 2021 — PRESS RELEASE — Agnetix, a pioneer in data-driven horticulture lighting technology, has been selected as primary lighting partner by BP Logistics, currently constructing several new cannabis greenhouses and indoor grows totaling over 110,000 square feet in the San Francisco area for a total of over 2,000 high-powered A3 luminaires.
BP Logistics is a California-licensed cultivation group owned by Minh Mai, CEO, and Chauncey Man, chief operating officer. Along with their team of experienced cultivators, the high-energy pair is determined to bring Asian cultivators to the northern California cannabis market with a forward-thinking grow strategy. Selecting Agnetix A3, one of the world’s most energy-efficient and most powerful LED horticultural grow lights, will ensure they have a significant advantage. This partnership marks a pivotal step in the team’s plan to develop technology-forward and sustainable facilities powered by energy-efficient and intelligent systems including lighting, HVAC, water management, nutrient control and data capture.
“Agnetix is by far the best grow lighting system on the market today,” Mai said. “The A3 water-cooled lighting system delivers a tremendous amount of high-quality light that benefits our plants while greatly reducing our carbon footprint.”
The team chose Agnetix as its primary lighting and cultivation management system for its high-energy efficiencies and data visibility. Agnetix provides a full suite of value-added benefits and a one-of-kind decision support system, employing energy-efficient LED lighting, canopy-level sensors, networking technology and data analytics.
“As we make this major shift in our model, having Agnetix as our partner will provide us with a sure path to exceeding our business goals,” Man said. “The superior level of customer service from the Agnetix team is unparalleled.”
Agnetix CEO Jordan Miles said, “We are thrilled to partner with this team and support their unique vision for sustainable growing facilities. Crop visibility, data-driven insights and remote control are just a few ways we endeavor to mitigate risks across all of their growing facilities and provide a greater peace of mind.”
California’s regulatory framework for cannabis and hemp-derived products, including CBD, continues to evolve, most recently via updated Proposition 65 warning requirements that came into full effect Jan. 3, 2021. As of that date, anyone offering for sale cannabis and hemp-derived products in California must provide an appropriate warning in accordance with the current regulations, with limited exceptions.
Noncompliance with the new regulations may result in government or private prosecution, with potential penalties of up to $2,500 per day for an alleged violation.
Proposition 65 Warning Requirement
California’s Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, commonly known as Prop. 65, requires the state of California to maintain an updated list of chemicals known to the state to cause cancer or reproductive toxicity.
Persons or companies who offer products for sale in California containing Proposition 65-listed chemicals must provide a “clear and reasonable” warning to the consumer (with limited exceptions) or face the prospect of penalties. Businesses usually choose to apply either the standard or “short form” default warnings provided in the Proposition 65 regulations, as these are deemed presumptively “clear and reasonable,” whereas any other warning language runs the risk of being challenged as noncompliant.
Prior Proposition 65 Requirement Limited to Smokable Cannabis
Following New Jersey voters’ approval of a constitutional amendment to legalize adult-use cannabis last fall, Gov. Phil Murphy today signed legislation to do just that. The Feb. 22 signing of three separate bills came after weeks of back-and-forth in the state legislature, and, ultimately, after years of debate in New Jersey over how to accomplish this goal.
“This process may have had its fits and starts, but it is ending in the right place. And, I firmly believe, this process has ended in laws that will serve as a national model,” Murphy said.
One of the last hurdles to clear in today’s “cleanup bill” was the approach to law enforcement when dealing with underage cannabis possession, part of a broader intention to pass decriminalization legislation alongside the implementation of a regulatory regime. The debate over that bill lasted until just before Murphy’s 12 p.m. ET deadline to act on related cannabis legalization bills. State legislators landed on a cleanup bill today that sets up a written warning and community service policy for underage possession, rather than punitive civil penalties. (For those 21 and older, possession of up to six ounces is now legal, a critical step toward the amelioration of the long-standing war on drugs.)
"This is a major milestone on the path to ending cannabis prohibition in New Jersey," said Jennifer Cabrera of Vicente Sederberg LLP, in a public statement.
There is no immediate timeline for adult-use cannabis sales to begin in New Jersey, though a soon-to-be-named Cannabis Regulatory Commission is expected to convene in the near future to get the ball rolling.
"The legislation was intended to promote small locally owned businesses and should foster a vibrant craft cannabis industry in the state," Cabrera said. "It reserves licenses for microbusinesses and offers them a streamlined application process that will reduce barriers to entry and help them get a footing in this growing industry. There are some additional steps we would like to see policymakers take to make it easier to operate these microbusinesses, and we look forward to working with them as they fine-tune the system. Still, this is a great starting point and opens the door to a lot of exciting opportunity for local entrepreneurs."
Despite operational hiccups stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic and supply chain shortages, Missouri Health & Wellness is working quickly to open five dispensary locations in the state’s medical cannabis market, which officially launched its first sales in October.
The company holds five retail licenses, which is the maximum number of licenses that any one company can have in Missouri’s market. Missouri Health & Wellness opened its first location in Washington at the end of November, and its second location in Sedalia just before Christmas. The company then opened a third dispensary in the state’s capital, Jefferson City, on Jan. 25. Now, Missouri Health & Wellness has its sights set on its final two stores in Kirksville and Belton, which will open by the end of the winter.
The company is standing up its locations quickly, despite Missouri’s medical program experiencing delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Missouri Health & Wellness HR Director and Regional Manager Kathleen Beebe says it took a year and a half for the state’s first dispensaries to open after the state began issuing patient ID cards, but there has been a steady increase in the number of patients enrolling in the program.
“What’s most exciting is when you have patients walking in the door for the first time and you hear about … what they’ve been dealing with, and they’re so excited to have another option,” Beebe tells Cannabis Business Times and Cannabis Dispensary.
Most of Missouri Health & Wellness’ patients are 60 years old and older, she says, and many are first-time cannabis consumers who are frustrated with the results of traditional medicine.
“I think that’s the No. 1 thing that excites me most about this industry, is that we are bringing some relief to people,” Beebe says.
As part of his $91-billion budget released Feb. 16, legalizing cannabis would generate more than $165 million annually for Wisconsinites, beginning in the second year of the biennium, Evers announced in a statement. Under the governor’s proposal, that money would increase revenue, create jobs and reduce costs associated with the state’s criminal justice system. The proposal also includes legalizing medical cannabis.
But two days after the 717-page budget was released by the Democrat executive, it was met with scrutiny by two key Republicans who control the majority in both chambers of the state legislature. During a virtual luncheon hosted by WisPolitics.com, an online magazine and news service covering political and governmental news in Wisconsin, Rep. Mark Born and Sen. Howard Marklein slammed Evers’ inclusion of cannabis legalization in the budget.
Born and Marklein are the co-chairs of the Joint Finance Committee (JFC), meaning they hold the fiscal keys as two of the most important decision-makers in the state Capitol. The committee members will spend the next few months rewriting the governor’s budget, with their version going to the Assembly and the Senate for a vote—Republicans own a 60-plus-percent majority in both chambers.
“Well, [cannabis legalization is] a huge issue; huge topic that I don’t believe should be included in the budget,” Marklein said. “It’s a significant enough policy change that that topic needs to be debated in the light of day on its own. I’ve heard from my sheriffs, my healthcare professionals, social workers, we’ve heard from representatives and legislators in Colorado on this topic, and it’s a big policy shift, and I just believe it’s too big to be inserted into the state budget.”
Piggybacking on those comments, Born said, “This is a major thing that has a lot of stakeholder groups on both sides. The senator just mentioned some of them. So, obviously we do public hearings on the budget, but they are on a lot of issues and they’re time limited because of how many things we have to dive into. These are big, broad discussions, and this is just one example of many of them that the governor put into this budget where it doesn’t belong.”
This past week in cannabis kept our attention fixed on New Jersey, even if a snowstorm wedged its way into the mix and pushed a Feb. 19 legislative deadline into Feb. 22. Gov. Phil Murphy has a chance to sign the state’s adult-use legalization bill into law, granting the mandate of voters, but it remains to be seen how this will go down next week.
Of course, that’s not the only thing happening in New Jersey.
After the New Jersey medical cannabis dispensary licensing process was halted in late 2019 amid a legal dispute, an appeals court ruling Feb. 18 has once again restored the green light to regulators and prospective businesses. Some 150 applications are back on the table, with the state able to issue up to 24 new licenses. Read more SLANG Worldwide is bringing its suite of cannabis brands to Missouri and Virginia, two newly legalized medical cannabis markets that offer a lot of promise to the business. In the same stroke, SLANG is expanding its presence in Michigan’s retail sector. Read more Despite Curaleaf’s share prices dropping after a warning letter from the FDA, a judge found the company has been transparent about risks associated with the industry. Read more HEXO Corp. announced its acquisition of Zenabis Global Inc. earlier this week, a major headline that sees the Canadian licensed producer planting a flag in Europe’s cannabis market. Read more New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced 30-day amendments to the Governor's proposal to establish a comprehensive adult-use cannabis program in New York. Read moreAnd elsewhere on the web, here are the stories we’ve been reading this week:
Yahoo! Finance: “Jamaican export legislation, expected to be finalized in mid-2021, is back on track, and the global industry’s need for a solution to quell supply shortages remains.” Read more Pasadena Star News: Nearly a dozen lawsuits from different cannabis companies had been filed against the city of Pasadena since 2019, and now most of them are gone. Read more San Francisco Chronicle: “Medical marijuana workers now have priority access to the coronavirus vaccine, under revised California guidelines.” Read more Leafly: As of January 2021, the U.S. cannabis industry is supporting 321,000 full-time jobs. Read more High Times: The London Stock Exchange will now allow cannabis businesses to trade publicly. Read more]]>
SLANG Worldwide is bringing its suite of cannabis brands to Missouri and Virginia, two newly legalized medical cannabis markets that offer a lot of promise to the business. In the same stroke, SLANG is expanding its presence in Michigan’s retail sector.
This all came about through SLANG’s new strategic partnership with Merida Capital Holdings, a private equity firm that touts a deep portfolio—both plant-touching and ancillary. For SLANG, the move allows the business to place its proprietary brands (O.pen, Bakked, District, Pressies, Lunchbox Alchemy and Firefly) in front of new patient and customer bases.
As CEO Chris Driessen said, "Integrating our brands in emerging markets through strategic partnership is core to our growth strategy.” Here, we caught up with Driessen to learn more about the partnership and about the inherent attraction of newly legal markets in the U.S.
Eric Sandy: In terms of Missouri and Virginia, how do you view the opportunities in these two emerging markets
Chris Driessen: As emerging markets, these are markets where you work with a strategic partner—in this case, Merida and their affiliates—to bring products to market. It's similar to what we've done in Florida with Trulieve or Michigan with Gage. This fits that model perfectly. What's really interesting about both of these states, from my point of view—one, Missouri's regulations, the way they're rolling out the program, it’s a pretty wide open market. It’s a state with a good population. Certainly on their southern border with Oklahoma, there's massive access for patients there. So, as far as the model itself, the way they've drawn up the program bodes very well for a business like ours. And then you turn to Virginia, which is a little different—more limited, a little more restricted, but with all the recent regulation with what the governor is trying to do there, it could come on really quick. Obviously, we want to skate to where the puck is going, not to where it's at. So, two separate markets, but we're excited about both for two different reasons.
ES: As you step into a new market like these two states, what are some of the keys to bringing your brand to a marketplace with patients or even consumers who may not yet be familiar with your brand?
After the New Jersey medical cannabis dispensary licensing process was halted in late 2019 amid a legal dispute, an appeals court ruling Feb. 18 has once again restored the green light to regulators and prospective businesses. Some 150 applications are back on the table, with the state able to issue up to 24 new licenses.
The court also insisted that the New Jersey Department of Health clean up its licensing process and take a more transparent approach to the work.
"Hopefully this decision will allow everyone to move on and start getting down to the business of providing patients the medicine they need," said Edmund DeVeaux, president of the New Jersey CannaBusiness Association, in a public statement. "Far too much time, energy and money has been expended on this entire licensing process with too few results to show for it."
In December 2019, a lawsuit gathered eight rejected medical cannabis applicants to put forth claims of procedural error. As that case kicked off, the state halted the licensing process entirely. Included in today’s ruling, the appeals court did overturn the rejection of ZY Labs, one of the original eight plaintiffs, and kicked the decision on that application back to the Department of Health. The other seven applicants in the legal case remained on the sidelines.
“This was a significant victory for ZY Labs,” said Lee Vartan, an attorney that represented the applicant, told NJ.com. “ZY Labs is confident in the strength of its application and looks forward to being awarded a license to cultivate medical marijuana in the central region.” New Jersey issues both cultivation and retail licenses, as well as a limited number of vertical licenses across the state.
As of now, only 13 dispensaries are operating in New Jersey (under the aegis of 10 licensed businesses). According to the state, those dispensaries are servicing about 100,000 registered patients.
After a year and a half of litigation, a New York federal judge has tossed a proposed securities class action suit against Curaleaf that alleged the company’s inaccurate labeling of its cannabidiol (CBD) products caused its share prices to drop.
Investors in the company filed the lawsuit in August 2019 after Curaleaf received a warning letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for selling CBD products with unsubstantiated health claims about the products treating cancer and Parkinson’s disease, among other health conditions. (Curaleaf responded by removing the health claims from its website and social media accounts.)
The day after the FDA administered its letter, Curaleaf’s stock price fell $0.54, or over 7 percent, and continued to fall in the following days.
The plaintiffs have argued that Curaleaf did not properly disclose the risks associated with selling CBD products.
However, in a Feb. 16 ruling, U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan said Curaleaf has been fully transparent about the legality of its business.
“Starting on its first day in existence, the Company publicly and repeatedly acknowledged the very information that plaintiffs contend it concealed: its cannabis-based products are not approved by the FDA and thus the FDA may regard their promotion as violating established law,” Cogan wrote in his opinion.
HEXO Corp. announced its acquisition of Zenabis Global Inc. earlier this week, a major headline that sees the Canadian licensed producer planting a flag in Europe’s cannabis market. The deal was inked at $235 million, a standout sum that adds to the tentative optimism surrounding large-scale cannabis M&A in 2021.
HEXO will pick up Zenabis’ two indoor cultivation facilities and 2.1 million square feet of greenhouse space (all located in Canada) to ramp up capacity with another 111,200 kg of production annually.
“The transaction gives HEXO immediate access to the European medical cannabis market through Zenabis’ local partner, with an established facility in the European Union supplying pharmaceutical products to the European market,” according to a press release announcing the move. “The facility also serves as a European Union Good Manufacturing Practice packaging and distribution center for medical cannabis products produced in Zenabis' Atholville facility.”
Atholville is located in New Brunswick, Canada. Zenabis’ local partner on the ground in Europe is ZenPharm, based in Malta.
“We're thrilled to welcome the Zenabis team into the HEXO family. Zenabis has built solid relationships and they share HEXO’s vision of bringing exceptional branded cannabis experiences to adults everywhere, in Canada and abroad” said Sebastien St-Louis, CEO and co-founder of HEXO Corp., in a public statement. “We are proceeding with this transaction because we believe it should be accretive for our shareholders, and it also positions HEXO for accelerated domestic and international growth while supporting near-term requirements for additional licensed capacity. HEXO’s growth strategy includes expanding our global presence, and this acquisition is an important step in that direction.”
On the past five days of trading (as of Feb. 17), HEXO is down 6%.
Editor's note: This is an excerpt from "From Seed to Success: How to Launch a Great Cannabis Cultivation Business in Record Time" by Ryan Douglas. Douglas is founder of Ryan Douglas Cultivation, a cannabis cultivation consulting firm. He was Master Grower from 2013-2016 for Tweed, Inc., Canada’s largest licensed producer of medical cannabis and the flagship subsidiary of Canopy Growth Corporation. He also has contributed to Cannabis Business Times.
Domestic expansion is the addition of one or more cultivation sites within the same state, province, or country. A cannabis business can expand by building new cultivation assets from scratch, or acquiring existing operations that are fully functional. However, entrepreneurs should determine whether they are legally permitted to expand their business before they establish high hopes for domestically increasing their cultivation footprint.
Do you have permission to expand?
The biggest deciding factor on whether or not to expand a cultivation business should be determined by regulations. If your existing license allows for more than one cultivation site, and you are now in a position to take advantage of that option, initiating an expansion project should be fairly simple. If your current license only allows for one cultivation site per license, expansion won’t be as easy. In this scenario, a cultivation business must either purchase an existing license or submit a new license application. Regulations governing these activities differ by state and country, and some jurisdictions prohibit the transference of licenses between companies.
Expansion through building more facilities
If you’re considering expansion, then you’ve already been through the start-up process and you recognize the importance of proper land selection and facility design. Review Chapters Four and Five, or consult the site assessment checklist found in the Appendix to help expedite these processes.
PRESS RELEASE
Sustainable growing solutions
ALBANY, New York, Feb. 17, 2020 - PRESS RELEASE - Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced 30-day amendments to the Governor's proposal to establish a comprehensive adult-use cannabis program in New York. Specifically, these amendments will detail how the $100 Million in social equity funding will be allocated, enable the use of delivery services, and refine which criminal charges will be enforced as it relates to the improper sale of cannabis to further reduce the impact on communities hit hardest by the war on drugs.
"As we work to reimagine, rebuild and reopen New York, we're taking every opportunity to address and correct decades of institutional wrongs to build back better than ever before," Cuomo said. "We know that you cannot overcome a problem without first admitting there is one. Our comprehensive approach to legalizing and regulating the adult-use cannabis market provides the opportunity to generate much-needed revenue, but it also enables us to directly support the communities most impacted by the war on drugs by creating equity and jobs at every level, in every community in our great state."
Allocation of $100 Million Cannabis Social Equity Fund
Social and economic equity are the bedrock of Cuomo's proposal to legalize cannabis for adult-use and as part of that, his proposal includes a $100 million dollar fund to help revitalize communities that have been most harmed by the war on drugs.
Through this fund, qualified community-based nonprofit organizations and local governments would apply for funding to support a number of different community revitalization efforts, including, but not limited to:
Job placement and skills services,Adult education,Mental health treatment,Substance use disorder treatment,Housing,Financial literacy,Community banking,Nutrition services,Services to address adverse childhood experiences,Afterschool and child care services, system navigation services,Legal services to address barriers to reentry, andLinkages to medical care, women's health services and other community-based supportive servicesThe grants from this program may also be used to further support the social and economic equity program.
Name: Thomas Vaughn
Location: Pauls Valley, Oklahoma
Title: Grower/Partner
One word to describe your cultivation style: Passion
Indoor, outdoor, greenhouse or a combination: Indoor
Can you share a bit of your background and how you and your company got to the present day?
I got started in Los Angeles, CA medical program in 2003 through 2010. I moved back to Oklahoma with no expectation of Oklahoma having a medical marijuana program. In 2018 S.Q. 788 passed and we built a team of like-minded individuals but with wide ranging skill sets and took off.
State Sen. Nancy Skinner introduced legislation Feb. 11 to loosen some of those constraints by expanding resources to help city and county governments that don’t have the wherewithal to oversee legal cannabis operations, she said in a release about her bill. S.B. 398 would allow local jurisdictions access to a state program that would manage certain bureaucratic functions for them, like enabling businesses to obtain licenses through the state.
“Californians legalized cannabis four years ago, yet the state is still plagued by a multi-billion-dollar illicit cannabis market,” Skinner said in the release. “Why? Too many cities and counties don’t have the bandwidth to set up cannabis licensing and regulations. S.B. 398 will help cities and counties greenlight legal cannabis by allowing cannabis businesses to get their local licenses through the state.”
In November 2016, Californians approved Proposition 64, The Control, Regulate and Tax Adult Use of Marijuana Act, by a 57.1% majority, legalizing adult-use cannabis statewide. The proposition was intended to reduce the illicit market with an above-ground legal playing field that ensures the production and sale of safe, regulated cannabis, Skinner said.
But the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO)—a nonpartisan fiscal and policy research institute for California’s legislature—estimates that adult-use cannabis businesses operate in less than one-third of jurisdictions statewide, which, in part, is because of the complicated regulatory framework Proposition 64 requires local governments to administer, the congresswoman said.
RELATED: California’s Cannabis Industry Marred by Limited Supply Chain and Heavy Tax Burden
Integrated Room Automation helps cultivators maximize plant biomass and phenotypic expression, strengthen top-line performance and mitigate risk. Combined with InSpire’s plant-centric HVACD systems, cultivators can achieve 24-hour vapor pressure deficit (VPD) control and greater resistance to pathogen introduction and expression.
“Historical wisdom and technology provides a very solid foundation on which to build, but we can’t ignore that the commercial cannabis industry is rapidly evolving,” said Adrian Giovenco, CEO of InSpire Transpiration Solutions. “It is becoming increasingly important for legal cannabis cultivation operations to leverage cutting-edge strategies in order to maximize profitability. When growers can monitor, control and analyze a full range of environmental data, they can drive yields and innovate in ways that will move the entire industry in exciting new directions.”
InSpire’s Integrated Room Automation provides cannabis cultivators with the ability to:
Leverage environmental crop steering techniques with real-time controlOptimize plant performance with transpiration and carbon assimilation insightsMonitor moisture content of harvested flower during the dry/cure process for consistent product weight and qualitySchedule temperature and relative humidity setpoints, plus automate light schedules and carbon dioxide enrichment by room to optimize phenotypic expression run after run Access a fully functional IOT platform with customizable alerts and bank-level security from anywhere in the world“Integration like this is essential for success,” Giovenco said. “Using independent units to heat, cool, dehumidify and clean the air leads to high operating costs, prevents plants from reaching maximum metabolic rates and puts the entire operation at risk of pathogen contamination. Cannabis operations can successfully meet their [key performance indicators] by implementing repeatable, precise environmental control for greater consistency in product quality, optimized phenotype and chemotype expression.”
To learn more about InSpire’s Integrated Room Automation, visit: https://inspire.ag/hvac-products/controls-monitors/
]]>VALLEY VIEW, OH (February 11, 2021) – Cannabis Business Times, Cannabis Dispensary and Hemp Grower magazines, owned by B2B publishing company GIE Media, Inc., announces the hiring of Anthony Lange as Associate Editor and Andriana Ruscitto as Assistant Editor to support the rapidly growing media brands.
Under the direction of Digital Editor Eric Sandy, Lange and Ruscitto will contribute primarily digital content to support the brands’ ongoing rise in web traffic, with additional contributions to the brands’ print magazines.
Anthony (Tony) Lange has been hired as Associate Editor for Cannabis Business Times, Cannabis Dispensary and Hemp Grower, where he will contribute both digital and print content. He spent the past decade working in the weekly newspaper business, contributing primarily to the Chagrin Valley Times as a beat reporter, sports editor, photographer and page designer. Before that, he was a staff assistant for a congressman in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, D.C., where he drafted responses to constituent letters and aided the communications director. Lange is a graduate of Kent State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism.
Andriana Ruscitto has been hired as Assistant Editor for Cannabis Business Times, Cannabis Dispensary and Hemp Grower magazines. Before joining GIE Media, Ruscitto attended Kent State University, where she worked in the university communications and marketing department, writing stories for the Kent State Today. Ruscitto graduated from Kent State in December 2020 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Relations and a minor in Marketing.
“We are excited to have Anthony and Andriana join our talented team of editors,” Skodzinski said. “They both bring unique experience and skillsets that are extremely valuable in serving the audiences of the Cannabis Group media brands. We look forward to seeing their careers flourish at GIE Media.”
“Tony and Andriana are coming on board to help accelerate even further the rapid growth in web traffic we have seen across all three media brands they will be working on,” said Sandy. “We are excited to tap their reporting skills to cover an even greater number of stories critical to our audiences at Cannabis Business Times, Cannabis Dispensary and Hemp Grower.”
Editor’s Note: There is no denying that the cannabis industry is rapidly growing and evolving, leaving many in the industry to have to continuously adapt to the ever-changing landscape. I interviewed three professionals with a well-built background in cannabis, who share their experiences, lessons learned, insights and tips on working in the cannabis industry.
Tips from Crystal Oliver, executive director for the Washington Sungrowers Industry Association (WSIA) and co-founder and former owner of Washington's Finest Cannabis. Oliver shares her personal experiences and lessons learned as a small business owner in the cannabis industry with Cannabis Business Times.
RELATED: 6 Cannabis Business Lessons We Learned Too Late
I wish I knew..
1. The value of hiring a professional lobbyist compared to the price you pay for bad policy.
The saying, "If you're not at the table, you're on the menu," comes to mind when I reflect on the evolution of cannabis policy in Washington. Early on, other farmers and I focused on community organizing and advocating for ourselves. What we lacked in experience, we made up for in passion, but this did not always translate to policy wins. We often knew why a policy proposal would hurt our businesses but getting legislators and regulators to listen to us and modify their approach was incredibly challenging.
While everyday challenges are commonplace for businesses in the federally illegal cannabis industry, The Green Lady Dispensary has perhaps had to clear more than its fair share of hurdles in its roughly 18 months of existence, although the vertically integrated company has found a way to thrive in the tourist destination of Nantucket, Mass.
“It was quite a year,” owner Nicole Campbell tells Cannabis Business Times and Cannabis Dispensary, referencing not only the COVID-19 pandemic that has impacted so many businesses, but also Massachusetts’ vape quarantine.
The Green Lady launched into the state’s adult-use cannabis market August 2019, and could be open by appointment only during those first few months. The company’s retail store celebrated a soft opening at the end of the tourist season, and a month later, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker instituted a four-month ban on vape sales statewide in response to the outbreak of vaping-related lung illness that shook the nation that summer.
Still reeling from that setback, The Green Lady then had to shut down for nearly two months at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic last spring, when adult-use cannabis businesses were not declared essential during Massachusetts’ coronavirus-related shutdowns.
“It was a really rough time,” Campbell says. “Even when we got to finally open back up, which I think was May 25, … June was still soft because people didn’t know what to do with themselves with COVID. They didn’t know, ‘Should I go somewhere? Should I stay home? What should I do?’”
Virginia, once a conservative stronghold, positioned itself to make history this month by becoming the first traditionally “Southern” state to legalize cannabis, possibly as soon as this summer. On Feb. 5, both chambers of the state’s General Assembly passed their own legalization bills that would also establish a state-run market and licensing system.
But Virginia is running into some of the same challenges as other states pursuing legalization: disagreements over license types, penalties for minors and the timing of the law’s implementation. Industry advocates are also concerned that more conservative elements of the state legislature will prevent equitable legalization in Virginia.
What’s happened so far?
Part of the state’s decriminalization bill signed by Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam in May 2020 directed the legislature to create a work group to study the possibility of legalization. Last month, Northam unveiled a legalization bill co-sponsored by multiple state legislators.
Two separate state legislative bills to legalize cannabis—HB2312 in the House and SB1406 in the Senate—have already passed. But the differences between the two bills must be resolved into a single resolution for Northam to sign. And that’s where things get tricky.
Where are things now?
