MjLink Cannabis Business News and Press
CHICAGO, JULY 28, 2020 - NuMed, a rapidly expanding Chicago-based vertically integrated cannabis company, has launched its new name and brand NuEra. NuEra covers its three current Illinois retail locations, a newly acquired cultivation center in Rochelle, Ill., and its new brand of flower and prerolls.
The name NuEra highlights the fact that legalization in Illinois didn't just change the laws on the books - it unleashed a whole new era of cannabis. An era in which cannabis is safer, higher quality and available in a greater variety than ever before. Canna-consumers have more methods of consumption, more strains, more precise dosage labeling, and better information about the effects of each of our products than any generation before them.
“We will always remain committed to our medical patients and medicinal values, which is why we are one of Illinois' best providers of cannabis products for all people of legal age,” said Robert Fitzsimmons, CEO.
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BOSTON (28 July 2020) - Boston City Councilors Lydia Edwards and Kim Janey have filed amendments to Boston’s cannabis equity ordinance in an effort to bring transparency to the municipal approval process for marijuana businesses by changing the process for executing host community agreements. The Boston Cannabis Board adopted its final rules and regulations on July 22. Under those rules and regulations, the host community agreements are negotiated after approval by the BCB and there is no set timeline for their execution.
“The difference between marijuana and hemp is a matter of measurement,” says the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a physical science laboratory that is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, on its website.
And yet, taking those measurements to distinguish hemp—defined as having up to 0.3% tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)—and its higher-THC cousin, marijuana, is difficult in the burgeoning industries.
It’s why NIST has launched a program to help laboratories accurately measure key chemical compounds in marijuana, hemp and other cannabis products.
The goal of NIST’s Cannabis Quality Assurance (CannaQAP) program is to help labs produce consistent measurement results, which would both increase accuracy in product labeling and help forensic labs distinguish between hemp and marijuana.
According to a NIST news release, laboratories have limited experience taking cannabinoid measurements, which can lead to unreliable results. This has been a problem especially for cannabidiol (CBD) products, which have been found to contain wildly different cannabinoid contents than what is printed on their labels.
“When you walk into a store or dispensary and see a label that says 10% CBD, you want to know that you can trust that number,” says NIST research chemist Brent Wilson in the news release.
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) issued five new medical cannabis manufacturing licenses July 24, according to a KY3.com report.
DHSS initially licensed 86 facilities in January to manufacture cannabis-infused products such as edibles, tinctures and concentrates, but has since determined that certain companies submitted duplicate applications and then received multiple licenses for one facility, the news outlet reported.
Now, DHSS has merged the duplicate licenses and has awarded five new licenses to the applicants who were next in line, according to KY3.com.
The new licensees are MidAmeriCanna, LLC, in St. Louis, Nature’s Med MO, LLC, in St. Louis, ROI Labs of Atherton, LLC, in Independence, Missouri Made Marijuana, LLC, in Grain Valley and Kings Garden Midwest, LLC, in Trenton.
With the issuance of the five new licenses, the state has now licensed the minimum number of manufacturers required under Missouri’s medical cannabis law, KY3.com reported.
LOS ANGELES, July 27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -PRESS RELEASE- Cookies, a cannabis and lifestyle brand, announced today its launch of Run The Jewels products. This project is a collaboration between Lemonnade, a sativa-focused sister brand to Cookies, and acclaimed hip-hop group Run The Jewels.
The project is also a partnership between Berner, the Bay Area rapper and entrepreneur who started Cookies, RTJ rapper Killer Mike and rapper-producer El-P.
"Killer Mike & El-P are legit cannabis enthusiasts—every time I see Mike, we get high together. Him and I go back more than a decade, and I've always felt we could open a new dimension in cannabis," said Berner. "After working with him on The White Album (2011), I knew we'd have to collaborate again. I have a lot of respect for RTJ's work ethic. Creating the Run The Jewels brand is a natural progression."
Run The Jewels launches with its first branded strain, Ooh La La, named for the lead single from RTJ's latest album, RTJ4. This hybrid strain delivers a sensory-heightening head high and a light body feel. Ooh La La merges Lemonnade's sativa focus with Killer Mike and El-P's Indica appreciation to create a hybrid strain with an aroma of spice cake and frosting and flavor of sweet fruit cake with an herbal tea chaser.
In addition to flower, the Run The Jewels line includes pre-rolls, vapes, extracts and blunts. The full line of Ooh La La products is coming soon at Cookies location across the country.
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As conversations around law enforcement and criminal justice reform continue as incidents of police brutality continue to spark protests across the country, many cannabis companies have made moves in recent months to support social equity initiatives and justice reform. Much of that effort has been channeled by the Last Prisoner Project, a nonprofit dedicated to legalizing cannabis and releasing and expunging the records of those who have been arrested and served prison sentences for cannabis offenses.
LPP seeks the release of every inmate imprisoned for marijuana offenses and to help them reintegrate into society after their time in prison.
And as the urgency for criminal justice reform has increased, so has support from cannabis dispensaries, who have boosted efforts to contribute – and encourage their customers to donate – to the LPP during the past few months, says Sarah Gersten, executive director and general counsel of LPP.
“A lot of our fundraising at LPP does come from the industry and from cannabis consumers,” Gersten says . “That kind of goes back to our ethos and reason for being, which is that our founders were actually all successful or in some way had profited off of the cannabis industry. And so, they really recognized if they were able to build wealth in this industry, they had to give back to those still suffering because of the impact of prohibition.”
Much of that fundraising happens at the point of sale, with dispensaries setting up donation programs to raise funds. One such dispensary is Chalice Farms which is based in Portland and operated by Golden Leaf Holdings.
Chalice Farms donated a percentage of sales made on Juneteenth, the June 19 commemoration of the end of slavery after the Civil War, as well as pledged a commitment of $12,000 over the next year to the LPP.
SPARC, a California-based, vertically integrated cannabis operator, is rooted in compassion and giving back to its local community, according to Director of Strategy & Implementation Michael Bostarr.
This led the company to launch its Carts for a Cause program, which has supported awareness for breast cancer, LGBTQ issues and, now, Last Prisoner Project.
“We have our own product, and we wanted to … give back without necessarily placing the burden on the customer,” Bostarr told Cannabis Business Times and Cannabis Dispensary.
Instead of asking customers at its five dispensary locations to donate additional funds at the point of sale, SPARC donates a dollar for each Carts for a Cause cartridge sold to the applicable organization.
“You buy something and something good happens from your purchase,” Bostarr said. “They can make a purchase of a cannabis product and support a cause they care about all at the same time.”
This week, the newly established Nevada Compliance Board met for the first time and signed off on a disciplinary settlement that will revoke six of CWNevada’s 14 business licenses. Elsewhere, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a much-anticipated report that provides guidelines on how researchers can pursue investigational new drug applications for cannabis and its derivatives.
Here, we’ve rounded up the 10 headlines you need to know before this week is over.
Federal: The FDA released a much-anticipated document this week that the federal Office of Budget and Management (OBM) had been reviewing since late May. While the document did not provide an update on regulating consumer CBD products, as some in the hemp industry had hoped, it did provide guidance on regulating cannabis in drugs as well as present a new way to calculate THC in finished products. Read moreArkansas: The Department of Finance and Administration has reported that medical cannabis sales have surpassed $100 million since the program’s launch in May 2019. The state’s 68,069 registered patients have spent $109.65 million and have purchased 17,447 pounds of medical cannabis to date. Read moreRhode Island: The state has issued its first medical cannabis testing license to Green Peaks Analytical, located in Warwick. The company is the first third-party business licensed to test products for pesticides, metals and solvents. Read moreCalifornia: Lawmakers are considering a bill that would impose fines on businesses that provide aid, such as building space or advertising platforms, to illegal cannabis operations in an effort to combat the state’s illicit market. The legislation, introduced by Assemblywoman Blanca Rubio, has been unanimously approved by the California Assembly, and the Senate is expected to vote on the measure after lawmakers reconvene later this month. Read moreThe California Bureau of Cannabis Control (BCC) has sent a report to the state legislature on equity grant funding. The report compiles information from numerous California cities and counties that altogether received $40 million in funding—outlining demographics, cannabis arrests and other statistics as well as plans to create equity programs. Read moreMassachusetts: The Massachusetts House of Representatives has released its version of a police reform bill, which proposes directing tax dollars from the state’s Marijuana Regulation Fund to police training. The proposal has drawn criticism, as have draft rules and regulations issued by the Boston Cannabis Board, which met this week to finalize them. Read moreOklahoma: The Oklahoma attorney general’s office announced earlier this month that the state will temporarily suspend the enforcement of certain cannabis business regulations that threatened to close some medical cannabis dispensaries. The Oklahoma State Department of Health and the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority will temporarily halt the enforcement of certain residency and location requirements for cannabis businesses after some operators sued the state over the legality of the rules. Read moreArizona: Opponents of an adult-use cannabis legalization measure in Arizona have filed a lawsuit to keep the issue off the state’s 2020 ballot. The lawsuit, filed in Maricopa County Superior Court, challenges the measure’s 100-word description, alleging that it misled people into signing the petition to put the issue before voters this fall. Read moreNevada: The newly established Nevada Compliance Board met for the first time this week and signed off on a disciplinary settlement that will revoke six of CWNevada’s 14 business licenses. The action stems from a series of lawsuits that accused CWNevada of withholding payment from its employees, breaking contracts with business partners and destroying evidence in ongoing civil cases. (A state investigation into CWNevada’s activities began in 2018.) Read moreNew Mexico: Last week, Ultra Health, one of New Mexico’s largest medical cannabis producers, sued the state’s Department of Health over its new medical cannabis regulations, alleging that several of the rules are “arbitrary and capricious.” Now, two additional medical cannabis producers, a cannabis manufacturer, a testing lab and a patient licensed to grow medical cannabis have also filed petitions to ask a judge to annul the new rules. Read moreBetween a report on consumer cannabidiol (CBD) products and a guidance document regarding clinical cannabis research, July has been a busy month for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the hemp world.
But its latest document submitted to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review, titled “Cannabidiol Enforcement Policy,” may be the launching point for regulations that the CBD industry has been asking for.
The FDA submitted the document to the OMB, which must approve new regulations from all federal agencies, for review July 22. The contents of the document have not yet been disclosed, though the title and description as “draft guidance for [the] industry” offer some clues.
“We’ve been hearing rumors that we’re going to get some good news—that it’s going to provide for formal enforcement discretion and provide a safe harbor for companies to sell CBD under strict regulatory guidelines,” says Jonathan Miller, general counsel for U.S. Hemp Roundtable. “We’ve heard other rumors that it’s just going to be the same old, same old—[the FDA] saying that ‘everything is illegal, but we’re going to focus on companies that make medical claims.’”
Jonathan Havens, a partner at Maryland-based law firm Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr LLP, speculates on a LinkedIn post that the enforcement policy may be claims-focused rather than laying out specific limits of CBD content in products.
“It’s hard to believe that the agency will back off completely from its ‘ingestibles aren’t permitted’ stance,” Havens writes.
On July 22, the Boston Cannabis Board (BCB) adopted new rules and regulations. They state that the BCB’s role is to grant licenses to applicants “for cannabis establishments within the City of Boston while ensuring Licenses are granted in such a manner so as to ensure equity, quality, and community safety.
“Specifically, the BCB is the siting authority for such establishments evaluating the proposed time, place, and manner in which these establishments are approved, open, and operate.”
Cannabis Business Times and Cannabis Dispensary spoke with Lydia Edwards, councilor of Boston’s District 1, about the rules and regulations, and she shared several points of contention.
The BCB noted in its new rules and regulations that it “does not have the authority or ability to negotiate host community agreements.” However, Edwards said host community agreements (HCAs) should be part of the applications that come before the BCB and should be approved by the board. Those agreements are part of the local approval process that the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission mandates in its licensing scheme.
“Negotiations are currently happening “in the dark,” she said. “So, to what end? To whose benefit? The whole point and the spirit of the law and the reform that Councilor [Kim] Janey was trying to put in, was that a public process with people representing the community would be the ones negotiating and finalizing and getting the HCAs done for everyone to see. And instead, they decided to interpret the regulations to allow for a song and dance.”
The BCB also didn’t address in its rules and regulations the topic of potential disparities between people who are granted brick-and-mortar and delivery licenses. The city previously established a 1:1 ratio for granting social equity and other licenses. However, due to the state setting aside delivery licenses to social equity applicants for the next two years, Edwards wrote in public comment prior to the adoption of the new rules, this could “create an industry with a disproportionate number of dispensaries being operated by non-equity license holders.”
Last week, Ultra Health, one of New Mexico’s largest medical cannabis producers, sued the state’s Department of Health over its new medical cannabis regulations, alleging that several of the rules are “arbitrary and capricious.”
Now, two additional medical cannabis producers, a cannabis manufacturer, a testing lab and a patient licensed to grow medical cannabis have also filed petitions to ask a judge to annul the new rules, according to NM Political Report.
Former Public Regulation Commissioner Jason Marks filed a petition July 21 on behalf of his clients, Scepter Lab, one of the state’s two licensed testing labs, and Vitality Extracts, a medical cannabis manufacturer, the news outlet reported.
Jacob Candelaria then filed a separate petition July 23 on behalf of GG Genetics, a medical cannabis producer and manufacturer, according to NM Political Report.
Heath Grider, a medical cannabis patient licensed to grow, then joined the initial case July 23, the news outlet reported.
WAKEFIELD, Mass., July 23, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -PRESS RELEASE- Curaleaf Holdings, Inc. one of the largest vertically integrated cannabis operators in the United States, today announced that it closed its milestone acquisition of GR Companies, Inc. ("Grassroots"), the largest private vertically-integrated multi-state operator in the United States, on July 23, 2020.
The acquisition of Grassroots expands Curaleaf's presence from 18 to 23 states, with the combined company having affiliated operations spanning over 135 dispensary licenses, 88 operational dispensary locations, over 30 processing facilities and 22 cultivation sites with 1.6 million square feet of cultivation capacity.
"The successful acquisition of Grassroots marks Curaleaf's expansion into new vertically integrated markets in the Midwest, firmly establishing our U.S. market leadership position. This highly complementary combination brings together two companies with a shared vision for enhancing patients' and customers' lives with high-quality cannabis wellness and lifestyle products. I'd like to welcome all our new Grassroots colleagues, patients and customers to the Curaleaf family as we pursue our mission of improving lives by providing clarity around cannabis and confidence around consumption," commented Joseph Lusardi, CEO of Curaleaf. "The integration of Grassroots is expected to be immediately accretive to our financial performance, with our unprecedented scale providing significant opportunities to leverage Curaleaf's powerful consumer brands as well as new form factor innovations across our expanded national presence."
Completion of the transaction strategically accelerates Curaleaf's expansion into Illinois and Pennsylvania, which are among the largest and fastest-growing cannabis markets in the United States. Upon close, Curaleaf will hold a licensed cannabis presence in state markets including Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Massachusetts, Maine, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota and Vermont.
The cultivation and processing assets in Illinois have been transferred and the formal approval to transfer certain retail assets is expected imminently. Maryland operations previously affiliated with Grassroots may be transferred to Curaleaf after expiration of the statutory hold period, subject to regulatory approval and compliance with restrictions on ownership or control of multiple cultivation, processor and dispensary licenses in the State.
"Both Grassroots and Curaleaf are driven by a similar, positive culture and we are excited to join forces, adding scale and a combined strategic vision to create a dominant position in the industry.” Mitchell Kahn, co-founder and CEO of Grassroots, said. "This opportunity would not have come to fruition without the strength of our highly skilled executive team, who have built an impressive portfolio at an unprecedented pace, with facilities in highly competitive markets. We look forward to integrating our talent and resources to build a great consumer product company - one that is dedicated to producing and delivering high-quality, safe and effective cannabis products to the customer."
]]>TORONTO,July 23, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -PRESS RELEASE- Hobo Cannabis Company, today announced the opening ofa new Canadian retail location in Brampton’s suburban district, Bramalea. The2,000-square-foot store will replicate the identity and ethos of Hobo locationsacross Canada. Today’s store opening announcement brings Hobo one step closerto achieving its ambitious 15-store expansion plan in the province of Ontario.
“Brampton’sretail cannabis scene, while not as saturated as other cities in Ontario, is animportant market to be present in,” said Harrison Stoker, vice president atDonnelly Group. “Across the country, legal cannabis retailers like Hobo areworking tirelessly to expand their footprints and reduce the market share ofillicit operators. We feel quite lucky to be the second cannabis retailerentering the Brampton market, and to have the opportunity to increase the localcannabis community’s access to safe, legal cannabis products and accessories,some of which they’re already familiar with and love.”
Located at 14Lisa Street, Hobo’s newest retail store is open for business in Brampton,Ontario. Today’s store opening markets Hobo’s fifth retail location in theprovince of Ontario, and 12th Canadian store overall.
]]>The newly established Nevada Cannabis Compliance Board (CCB) met for the first time on July 21, kickstarting a new era for the state’s industry. Notably, the board signed off on a disciplinary settlement that will revoke six of CWNevada’s 14 business licenses.
Watch the full video below.
CWNevada owns Canopi Cannabis Dispensaries, and the punishment against the company includes a $1.25-million fine and a $1.5-million bill for back taxes. The action stems from a series of lawsuits that accused CWNevada of withholding payment from its employees, breaking contracts with business partners and destroying evidence in ongoing civil cases. A state investigation into CWNevada’s activities began in 2018.
Proceeds from the sale of the eight remaining CWNevada licenses will benefit the employees in question. Company owner Brian Padgett will be barred from any of that incoming cash.
“These sums are extremely important to Nevada and its citizens given the state’s budget deficits and high unemployment rates,” court-appointed receiver Dotan Melech wrote in a letter to the CCB. Throughout the first part of the meeting, many such letters were read into the record. A number of local public officials and former CWNevada employees came out in support of the receiver’s proposed discipline.
A former security manager, for example, wrote that he had moved away from his family in Florida to take a “lucrative and secure job” with CWNevada. From early May to early July 2019, he was not paid. According to his public comment at the CCB meeting, he is owed approximately $12,000.
Opponents of an adult-use cannabis legalization measure in Arizona have filed a lawsuit to keep the issue off the state’s 2020 ballot, according to a Tucson.com report.
The lawsuit, filed in Maricopa County Superior Court, challenges the measure’s 100-word description, alleging that it misled people into signing the petition to put the issue before voters this fall, the news outlet reported.
Smart and Safe Arizona submitted more than the required number of signatures in early July to qualify its initiative for this year’s ballot, and expects to find out by mid-August if enough signatures are valid to receive the official green light from the state.
The lawsuit aims to convince judges that the measure is not legally fit for a public vote, Tucson.com reported, and points to issues related to the measure’s definition of “marijuana,” as well as how the law might impact impaired driving in the state.
LAKELAND, Fla., July 22, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -PRESS RELEASE- Modern Canna Labs announced it has received its certified marijuana testing laboratory license from the Florida Department of Health, Office of Medical Marijuana Use. This certification comes after the OMMU adopted an emergency rule requiring licensed medical marijuana treatment centers to only use a certified lab for product testing.
"We were the first lab involved in Florida's medical marijuana rule development process and have been working closely with this department since 2014. It is wonderful to see how far our state's medical marijuana program has come," said George Fernandez, founder and CEO of Modern Canna. "Since the beginning, we have stressed the importance of reporting out data that is verifiable, reproducible, and legally defensible. Quality data is the core foundation of any laboratory and the initial building-block for producers who truly care about growth and sustainability."
Both of Modern Canna's facilities are in Lakeland, Florida, and account for over 12,000-square-feet of lab testing space. One facility is ISO 17025 accredited, solely dedicated to testing for MMTC's in Florida. The other facility is NELAP certified, specializing in environmental testing. Modern Canna is currently the only Leafly Certified Lab Partner in the Southeastern United States. Leafly is the world's largest cannabis information resource, dedicated to combating inconsistency in cannabis testing.
"More than anything, I'm just really happy for our team. Years of hard work went into this, and we are honored to be in this position," Fernandez went on to say. "We've done a great job employing people who are not only incredibly talented in the lab, but who are also morally and ethically sound. Everyone truly cares about our clients and the work we do." As Modern Canna lab director Jini Curry explained, "The future of medical marijuana in Florida relies not only on the MMTCs who produce the products but also on the CMTLs who perform the quality control testing."
]]>The Oklahoma attorney general’s office announced earlier this month that the state will temporarily suspend the enforcement of certain cannabis business regulations that threatened to close some medical cannabis dispensaries, according to The Oklahoman.
The Oklahoma State Department of Health and the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority (OMMA) will temporarily halt the enforcement of certain residency and location requirements for cannabis businesses after some operators sued the state over the legality of the rules, the news outlet reported.
The class-action lawsuit asks an Oklahoma County district court judge to permanently block the state from enforcing the residency and location regulations, which mandate that cannabis business owners must be Oklahoma residents for at least two years and that dispensaries must be positioned more than 1,000 feet from schools, according to The Oklahoman. Both regulations took effect Aug. 29, 2019.
Now, as the lawsuit makes its way through court, the OMMA has agreed not to consider the residency or location requirements while reviewing business license renewal applications if a business owner initially applied for the license before the new law took effect, the news outlet reported.
Regulators will also reconsider any license renewal applications that were previously rejected due to these regulations, according to The Oklahoman, as long as the businesses applied for the licenses before the new laws were implemented.
No industry is immune from COVID-19’s impact, not even state-compliant cannabis. When the pandemic began, most states with legal cannabis programs designated cultivation, manufacturing and dispensary businesses and workers “essential.” However, these essential businesses are still illegal in the eyes of the federal government. As a result, CARES Act funding and other coronavirus-specific federal debt relief measures have not been available to state-compliant but federally illegal cannabis companies.
Compounding liquidity issues, the tight capital-raising environment for cannabis companies before COVID-19 is now ever tighter, while operating expenses have increased. For cannabis operators with existing debt, the terms were already onerous by necessity, as traditional commercial lending terms have long eluded most cannabis businesses. The pandemic has undoubtedly forced upon certain operators difficult decisions regarding the short-term viability and long-term prospects of their operations.
Despite many states’ efforts to maintain access to medical cannabis—and in most cases, adult-use dispensaries—stay-at-home orders and consumer caution have meant that in some cases, patients and customers haven’t been frequenting retailers, dispensaries and provisioning centers as often as previously. Additionally, limited onsite capacities due to social distancing requirements have reduced the number of customers that some businesses are able to serve each day.
In this challenging business environment, cannabis operators and pre-operators could find themselves in need of contractual relief from existing debt. One option is a receivership, where a court-appointed receiver or trustee steps in to temporarily manage a company and its assets. Many people only think of receiverships as something initiated at the request of creditors to help them recover money owed. However, receiverships might also be initiated by a business owner in financial distress as part of a restructuring process, or to help avoid bankruptcy. In that situation, you might think of receivership as a sort of “time out” for the troubled business.
One potential drawback of a receivership is that while it’s in place, a business owner’s management and operational authority is substantially reduced. However, the business owner may, with court permission, still participate in operational aspects that help the business’s bottom line. Though the receiver must be an independent party, a business owner might also have a role in deciding who the proposed receiver will be.
Is receivership an option you should consider? Here are eight things you need to know:
The Massachusetts House of Representatives has released its version of a police reform bill, which proposes directing tax dollars from the state’s Marijuana Regulation Fund to police training.
Shaleen Title, commissioner of the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission, tweeted about that version of the bill and a subsequent amendment that would in addition, but not instead, direct tax dollars to restorative justice and other measures.
People were heard: @RepLizMiranda has filed an important amendment (Amendment 86 to H. 4860) that would direct an equal or greater amount of cannabis tax revenue to programming for restorative justice, jail diversion, workforce development, + technical assistance. Good first step https://t.co/k1xTo6mIk7
— Shaleen Title (@shaleentitle) July 21, 2020Cannabis Business Times and Cannabis Dispensary spoke with Kobie Evans, co-owner of Pure Oasis in Boston, about the bill.
He said the decision to direct tax dollars from the larger police reform bill to police training looked like a compromise to try to “appease both sides. But I think that it still represents the fact that a lot of people, especially lawmakers, are somewhat tone-deaf as it relates to racial injustice and over-policing—and the disparity that exists between people of color that are engaged by the police and our white counterparts who receive far less scrutiny and far less apprehension."
Cannabis is often used as probable cause, legitimately or illegitimately, for police to interact with people of color, he said.
PA Options for Wellness CEO and President Tom Trite says he and his team have always been committed to cannabis education, research and a true medical model, which makes Pennsylvania’s medical cannabis research program a natural fit for the Lower Paxton Township-based company.
Trite testified at the Pennsylvania House and Senate hearings on developing regulations for the state’s medical cannabis program. He then finalized the business plan for his vertically integrated company in 2014 with the goal of supporting anecdotal information surrounding medical cannabis with double-blind studies.
“I think it took them way too long to get to the research portion, but they’re there now and we’re excited to work with others within the industry, too, to provide research,” Trite says. “We … feel it’s a great need, both in Pennsylvania as well as nationally.”
Trite entered discussions with Dr. Kent Vrana, chair of the Penn State College of Medicine’s Department of Pharmacology, in 2015. The university, called an “academic clinical research center” under Pennsylvania’s medical cannabis research program, selected PA Options as its “clinical registrant” partner in 2019.
