MjLink Cannabis Business News and Press
In mid-July, the hard work of New Approach Montana campaigners paid off: County-level data showed that a sufficient number of the organization’s more than 130,000 signatures had been verified in order to place two adult-use cannabis legalization measures before voters in November.
That was no small task. In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, social distancing guidelines made it difficult to gather the required signatures across an already sparsely populated state. In late April, a court ruling prevented the campaign from moving to an electronic signature drive—further dampening prospects.
But New Approach Montana prevailed. “We overcame the odds by running the most innovative signature drive ever seen in Montana,” campaign officials wrote on Facebook in July. “Now, we are focused on building support with voters from across the state.”
On the table are two complementary ballot initiatives. Statutory Initiative 190 would establish a system to regulate and tax cannabis for adult use, while Constitutional Initiative 118 would authorize Montana to set the legal age for consumption at 21. As campaign officials have stated, the two issues are meant to pass together.
“The good news is that, as of today, the official county numbers show that our campaign collected enough valid signatures to qualify both of our initiatives for the ballot. That’s an incredible achievement, and we’re grateful to everyone who supported that effort,” New Approach Montana leaders wrote to supporters via email. “But here’s the bad news: this is going to be a tough fight, and due to the challenges we faced in the signature drive, we were forced to spend far more than we planned. And now, we’re behind our fundraising goals.”
Looking ahead, Dave Lewis, retired Montana state legislator and budget director for three Montana governors, said in a public statement that these issues could really galvanize a state budget that’s been hammered by economic shutdowns this year.
As cannabis brands expand, partnerships with trusted cultivators is crucial to ensure product consistency in new markets and keeping up with customer demand.
Cookies, the cannabis brand founded by Bay Area rapper and entrepreneur Berner, recently entered a cultivation partnership with Veritas Fine Cannabis, a cannabis cultivator based in Denver. Veritas is the exclusive grower of Cookies cannabis strains in Colorado for at least the next three years, according to a deal signed in October 2019. Cookies products launched in Colorado in July.
Jon Spadafora, head of marketing and sales at Veritas, said expanding can be risky for a company if it doesn’t ensure it is picking responsible partners.
“It was important for Cookies to find someone driven by quality,” Spadafora said. “As you expand one of the biggest concerns you have is maintaining the quality that got you where you are, as you start talking about gardens that you don’t have control over.”
For Cookies’ part, the company had no concerns that Veritas would be an unreliable partner.
“Veritas is one of the kind of gold standard partners and operators, especially in Colorado,” Tori Cole, VP of marketing at Cookies, said. “They have some fire products. When we saw some photos and videos, and saw the test results, we said, ‘Oh my God, this is exactly what our flower should look like.’”
After several years of operating Plant & Planet Law Firm, working with plant breeders, ag companies and research institutions to protect genetics and cultivation technologies, Dale Hunt realized there was a limit to the services his firm could provide, and cannabis breeders needed more help to commercialize their genetics and work with other areas of the cannabis supply chain.
This led him to partner with cannabis industry pioneers Ethan Russo and Robert C. Clarke to create Breeder’s Best, a cannabis IP-licensing company that focuses on intellectual property protection for independent plant breeders looking to license their IP to global markets.
Here, Hunt, now the founder and CEO of Breeder’s Best, shares insight into the new company and its goals, as well as common issues that cannabis breeders face in patenting their genetics and drafting licensing agreements with other areas of the industry.
Melissa Schiller: What inspired the launch of Breeder’s Best? What is the company’s focus, and what issues in the industry does it aim to address?
Dale Hunt: As I started having conversations with plant breeders, it became really clear that they knew they needed protection for what they had created, but just getting a patent on something doesn’t make it rain money—you still have to have a way to get people to want access to the plant and pay royalties on the patent. Most of these breeders didn’t have any protection on what they produced. Most cannabis breeders didn’t really have good intellectual property protection. The independent breeders that didn’t have tons of money and didn’t have a big network in business needed somebody to help them not just protect their varieties, but bring them out to the market.
I kept finding that there was this limit to what my law firm could do, and that there was more that these breeders needed. I asked one breeder if he’d be interested in working with a sponsor if I could find someone who could help him commercialize his varieties, and he was absolutely intrigued. I thought about that for a while and I talked to a few people in the industry, and the model that’s analogous is to provide a service to breeders that’s somewhat like a record label or a music label for an artist. The independent artist is a creative person who is good at creating things, but they’re not necessarily interested in marketing, production, scheduling and all the legal work. They just want to be able to create. In a very similar way, I think the best plant breeders I know are so focused on that and so passionate that they don’t also want to be running a business. They just want to create great new cannabis varieties.
As the cannabis industry continues to borrow from other commercial sectors while blazing its own trail, it’s only natural that the edibles market would fuse more synchronously with restaurants and the movement toward fresh, organic ingredients. At Good Things Coming, that’s the name of the game.
Chef Aaron Chamberlin has worked for the past 33 years at restaurants across the U.S., including the two he still runs in downtown Phoenix. He brings that experience to the edibles business he co-founded last year.
“I remember tasting an edible for the first time that was coming from a dispensary about three years ago. And I was shocked at how disgusting it tasted. That was intriguing for me because I knew that I could make things taste good.”
It was a simple idea. Chamberlin was a new medical cannabis patient in Arizona, someone who’d converted to the plant after a stint with prescription medication years earlier had rubbed him the wrong way. “I just basically wasn't the same person that I was in the past,” he says. “I eventually bumped into a doctor who asked me if I've used cannabis as a medical tool and as medicine.”
He hadn’t, but the opportunity to learn more about the medical benefits of cannabis seemed hopeful.
When Arizona legalized medical cannabis in 2010, Chamberlin was pleased to see the state legitimize the plant’s value to patients like him.
The California Bureau of Cannabis Control (BCC) has sent a report to the state legislature on equity grant funding.
The $40 million in grants were “authorized by the California Cannabis Equity Act of 2018 (Equity Act) and the Budget Act of 2019,” according to a notice the BCC sent to its email subscribers about the report.
“To date, the state has awarded $40 million to local jurisdictions in equity grant funding to support local equity programs,” according to the report. “The Bureau was initially appropriated $10 million in equity grant funding. In October 2019, the Bureau awarded those equity grant funds to 10 local jurisdictions.”
According to the report, BCC distributed the $10 million as follows:
City of Coachella - $500,000.00
County of Humboldt - $1,338,683.13
On July 21, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a much-anticipated document 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 cannabidiol (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 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in finished products.
The nine-page document, titled “Cannabis and Cannabis-Derived Compounds: Quality Considerations for Clinical Research, Draft Guidance for Industry,” covers sources for clinical research, information on quality considerations and other recommendations for those pursuing investigational new drug (IND) applications and new drug applications (NDAs) for both cannabis and hemp-derived compounds.
Prior to the U.S. Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (the 2018 Farm Bill) legalizing hemp and its derivatives, those who wanted to conduct clinical research on any type of cannabis needed to source it from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Drug Supply Program (DSP), which is grown under contract by the University of Mississippi at the National Center for Natural Products Research.
The document clarifies that those pursuing INDs and NDAs for hemp—defined to contain no more than 0.3% THC—and its derivatives are now open to source from anywhere compliant with a state or federal hemp plan. Meanwhile, those seeking INDs and NDAs for non-hemp cannabis compounds must still source it from NIDA.
“A range of stakeholders have expressed interest in development of drugs that contain cannabis and compounds found in cannabis. Recent legislative changes have also opened new opportunities for cannabis clinical research. As that body of research progresses and grows, the FDA is working to support drug development in this area,” says FDA Principal Deputy Commissioner Dr. Amy Abernethy. “It is critical that the FDA continues to do what we can to support the science needed to develop new drugs from cannabis.”
LAS VEGAS, Nev., ACCESSWIRE, July 17, 2020 -PRESS RELEASE- Planet 13 Holdings Inc., a vertically-integrated Nevada cannabis company, announced today that it has entered into an asset purchase agreement to acquire cannabis inventory, equipment and tenant improvements from West Coast Development Nevada, LLC.
Pending regulatory approval will acquire the Nevada cannabis licenses at a 45,000-square-foot indoor cultivation and production facility in Las Vegas, Nevada. Planet 13 will pay $1.156 million for the cannabis inventory, and $3 million for the operating assets, licenses, equipment and tenant improvements, of which payment is comprised of $0.5 million in cash and $2.5 million of common shares in the capital of Planet 13. This will result in the issuance by the company of 1,374,833 Consideration Shares based on a 10-day VWAP, all of which are being held in escrow until the closing. The license transfer under the purchase agreement is contingent on approval by the State of Nevada's Cannabis Control Board, and upon receiving such approval the Consideration Shares will be released from escrow to WCDN.
Concurrent with the signing of the agreement, Rx Land, LLC, an entity owned by Planet 13's co-CEOs, Bob Groesbeck and Larry Scheffler, separately acquired the Las Vegas facility for $3.3 million. On the second closing, Planet 13 will enter into a lease agreement with RX Land for the facility.
"We've been pursuing additional premium indoor cultivation to expand our Medizin flower line, including our proprietary strain Chloe. Medizin sells out each harvest days after it hits the SuperStore shelves. This agreement allows us to add 25,000 square feet of indoor cultivation immediately, with the ability to expand up to 45,000 square feet in the future," said Scheffler. "We look forward to expanding our supply and offering it in third party dispensaries for the first time."
"In another example of Planet 13's patience and ability to execute for our shareholders, we've identified an opportunity to assume control of a fully built out indoor cultivation facility at a price that will be accretive," Groesbeck said. "Larry and I are paying $3.3 million of our own money to purchase the land and building, through RX Land, to preserve Planet 13's cash while offering an ongoing lease well below the rate set by cannabis REITS."
The Facility has 25,000 square feet under active cultivation with the ability to expand to 45,000 square feet. Effective immediately Planet 13 will assume management of the Facility allowing the Company to plant Medizin strains, including award-winning proprietary strain Chloe.
]]>California 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, according to a Los Angeles Times report.
Assemblywoman Blanca Rubio (D-Baldwin Park) introduced the legislation, which would fine those who knowingly provide assistance to illegal cannabis retailers up to $30,000 per day, according to the news outlet.
The bill has been unanimously approved by the California Assembly, and the Senate is expected to vote on the measure after lawmakers reconvene later this month, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Rhode Island has licensed its first medical cannabis testing facility, according to a Providence Journal report.
Green Peaks Analytical, located in Warwick, is the first third-party business licensed to test products for pesticides, metals and solvents. The Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation will establish a timeframe over the next six weeks by which all medical cannabis products will also be tested for potency, Providence Journal reported, and at a later, to-be-determined date, products will also be tested for contaminants.
Until now, the state’s licensed cultivators and dispensaries conducted their own testing or contracted with private, unlicensed laboratories, according to the news outlet.
Mississippians for Compassionate Care, the group behind Medical Marijuana 2020, has succeeded in putting a medical cannabis measure, Initiative 65, in front of Mississippi voters this November. State legislators have also introduced a competing measure, Alternative 65A, to appear on the ballot. Voters can choose between those two options or choose not to legalize medical cannabis in the state.
Medical Marijuana 2020 gathered 105,686 certified signatures, more than the required 86,185, for its initiative to appear on the ballot. The group gathered signatures from Mississippi’s five congressional districts from 2000, as is required by state law, and qualified for the ballot in January, said Jamie Grantham, communications director for the campaign.
“Our medical marijuana program here in Mississippi is going to be a robust program in that patients who need help will actually have access to regulated, safe, secure medical marijuana,” Grantham said. “It is going to be a strictly regulated program made especially for Mississippi. It'll be regulated by the Mississippi Department of Health, and medical marijuana treatment centers here in Mississippi will be the only places that medical marijuana will be available.”
The state representatives behind Alternative 65A could not be reached for comment by Cannabis Business Times and Cannabis Dispensary.
According to a January 2019 survey from Millsaps College and Chism Strategies, 67% of respondents supported Medical Marijuana 2020’s proposal.
Medical Marijuana 2020 has a steering committee that Grantham said includes “influential leaders in the community, like physicians, religious leaders, veterans, law enforcement, business leaders.” Seventy-seven committee members are listed on the campaign website.
The Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration has reported that medical cannabis sales have surpassed $100 million since the program’s launch in May 2019, according to The Sentinel-Record.
The state’s 68,069 registered patients have spent $109.65 million and have purchased 17,447 pounds of medical cannabis to date, the news outlet reported.
Twenty-six of the state’s 33 licensed medical cannabis dispensaries are now operational, according to The Sentinel-Record, and four new retailers opened this month, including Patient Services Co. in Monticello, Delta Cannabis in West Memphis, Enlightened Cannabis for People in Arkadelphia and Enlightened Cannabis for People in Herber Springs.
East Fork Cultivars, a small, family-owned and operated craft hemp and cannabis farm in Takilma, Ore., has been raising capital through a network of small lenders mostly consisting of 30 or so close friends and family members.
But in the age of COVID-19, when personal finances are particularly tight, the company is looking to new sources of debt via Steward, a crowdsourcing fundraising website made specifically for small, sustainable farms.
Contrary to the Kickstarter model of crowdfunding where “investors” are purchasing advanced orders of products without getting their money back or an equity stake, Steward acts as a mechanism for individuals to invest as little as $100 into “human-scale farms,” according to Steward’s website. Steward investors can either receive an equity stake in the farm or receive interest payments on the loan they provide—it all depends on the type of debt the given farm is looking to raise.
East Fork Cultivars currently is conducting its first raise on Steward, a “modest” amount of $50,000, according to Mason Walker, CEO of East Fork Cultivars. “Mostly it's the proof of concept, just to see if people would have interest in it,” he told Hemp Grower in an interview.
The Oregon company mainly raises funds through unsecured debt—loans that are not backed by equity but yield interest rates. “That has allowed us to keep tight ownership control,” Walker said. Through its network of close investors, East Fork Cultivars offers an average of 8% APR on investments. With Steward, the hemp farm is offering a 10% annual return and plans to use the capital to expand the company’s breeding program, fund organic certifications for its entire hemp supply chain, and help the team expand into the retail vertical with its certified-organic hemp products.
There are different requirements and conditions for different types of equity, including SEC filings and increased diligence for equity investments. For farms looking to raise funds, “figuring out what type of capital you want is the best place to start,” Walker shared. “Do you want to pay a higher interest rate for unsecured debt that has fewer restrictions or balance sheet implications, or do you want to get cheaper debt that's secured against your assets?”
After submitting more than 420,000 signatures July 1 to qualify an adult-use cannabis legalization measure for Arizona’s 2020 ballot, Smart and Safe Arizona’s campaign organizer, Stacy Pearson, is confident that the initiative will appear before voters this November.
The group needed to collect 237,645 valid signatures by July 2 to place its statutory measure on this year’s ballot, and despite setbacks stemming from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Smart and Safe not only met, but dramatically exceeded, its goal.
“Everything’s tracking, so we’re confident that we’ll be on the ballot and we’ll win in November,” Pearson told Cannabis Business Times and Cannabis Dispensary.
Smart and Safe was the first of four initiatives in Arizona to submit signatures to the state, she added, so its initiative will be the first one processed. The state has until July 29 to perform a cursory examination of the signatures and submit a random sampling of 5% of the total to the county, which then verifies the sample line by line. The county then sends a validity number back to the state, and Pearson said Smart and Safe should know by mid-August whether its initiative is officially certified for the November ballot.
This week, the Hawaii Legislature passed legislation that would allow the sale of cannabis edibles, sending the bill to Gov. David Ige for his signature. Elsewhere, in Illinois, the state collected more than $52 million in cannabis tax revenue during the first six months of legal adult-use sales.
Here, we’ve rounded up the 10 headlines you need to know before this week is over.
Nebraska: Nebraskans For Medical Marijuana has submitted well over the roughly 121,000 signatures required to put the group’s constitutional amendment legalizing medical cannabis in front of Nebraska voters this fall. The campaign hopes to find out by mid-August if enough of the signatures they submitted are valid to qualify for a ballot initiative this November. Read moreNevada: Green Therapeutics LLC and Meridian Companies LLC have filed a lawsuit against Australis Capital Inc. in Nevada’s Eighth Judicial District Court in Clark County— against which Australis announced it plans to “vigorously defend” itself. The plaintiffs’ complaint, which has been heavily redacted, states that “… Australis stole … from Plaintiffs under false pretenses, has breached the contracts, and has acted in a manner inconsistent with the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.” Read moreMissouri: The state’s medical cannabis program director says sales could launch as soon as this fall. Two cultivation facilities, one in Earth City near St. Louis and another in Perryville, were given the green light to plant their first crops last month, which means product could be ready within the next few months. Read moreHawaii: Lawmakers have passed a bill that would allow the state’s eight medical cannabis licensees to sell edibles. The legislation now goes to Gov. David Ige for his signature. Read moreIllinois: The state collected roughly $52.8 million in cannabis tax revenue during the first six months of legal adult-use sales, including approximately $34.7 million in cannabis excise taxes and $18 million in sales taxes. The figures shatter Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s budget estimates, which predicted the state would collect $28 million in cannabis tax revenue by June 30. Read moreFlorida: The Florida Supreme Court ordered a second round of arguments this week in a case over whether the state properly implemented a 2016 constitutional amendment that broadly legalized medical cannabis. The lawsuit, filed by Tampa-based Florigrown, challenges the constitutionality of a 2017 law that implemented the constitutional amendment, particularly provisions related to the business licensing process. Read moreNew Mexico: Ultra Health, one of New Mexico’s largest medical cannabis producers, has sued the state’s Department of Health over its new medical cannabis regulations. The company is asking the district judge to request that the department repeal and rewrite several of the rules which it deems “arbitrary and capricious.” Read moreNew Jersey: The New Jersey Treasury Division of Taxation recently announced that, effective July 1, sales tax on medical marijuana is reduced to 4% from the previous 6.625% sales tax rate (the rate imposed under the state’s “Sales and Use Tax Act”). The tax reduction is the first of three scheduled tax reductions designed to eliminate the sales tax on medical cannabis sales in the Garden State. Read moreArkansas: The state’s five existing medical cannabis cultivators have filed a lawsuit to challenge the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Commission’s decision to issue three additional cultivation licenses. The lawsuit requests an injunction against the issuance of the new licenses, or that they be voided if they have already been awarded. Read moreRhode Island: The Department of Business Regulation will start accepting applications July 17 for six new medical cannabis dispensary licenses. The application period will be open through Dec. 15, and new licensees will be chosen through a lottery, although a date has not been set for awarding the licenses. Read moreThe Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation will start accepting applications July 17 for six new medical cannabis dispensary licenses, according to a Providence Journal report.
The application period will be open through Dec. 15, the news outlet reported, and new licensees will be chosen through a lottery, although a date has not been set for awarding the licenses.
“We’re going to have more information about the process once we have the chance to access the volume [of applicants],” Department of Business Regulation Director Pamela Toro told the Providence Journal. “Maybe the beginning of the year.”
The six additional retailers muse be located in six specific regions per state law, according to the news outlet, and likely won’t be operational until the end of 2021.
Arkansas’ five existing medical cannabis cultivators have filed a lawsuit to challenge the state’s decision to issue three additional cultivation licenses, according to an Arkansas Times report.
The Arkansas Medical Marijuana Commission voted last month to release the remaining cultivation licenses permitted by law, as well as four additional dispensary licenses.
The lawsuit, filed by Osage Creek Cultivation, Delta Medical Cannabis, Bold Team, Natural State Medicinals Cultivation and Natural State Wellness Enterprises, alleges that the new cultivation licenses violate rules that additional licenses should only be issued if it is determined that the existing cultivators are unable to adequately supply the state’s dispensaries, Arkansas Times reported.
The suit also claims that because regulators waited more than 24 months to issue the new licenses, a new application process is required by law, rather than choosing licensees from the pool of original applicants, according to the news outlet.
Defendants named in the lawsuit include the Arkansas Finance and Administration Department, the Alcoholic Beverage Control Division, the Medical Marijuana Commission and the three new cultivation licensees: Carpenter Farms Medical Group, River Valley Relief Cultivation and New Day Cultivation, Arkansas Times reported.
Portland’s Office of Community & Civic Life named Dasheeda Dawson as its new cannabis program supervisor earlier this month, in some ways ushering in a new chapter of the city’s Social Equity Grant program.
Portland voters passed a 3% tax on adult-use cannabis in 2016, and since then, more than $6 million of the tax revenue has funded infrastructure improvements, drug rehabilitation, small business support, economic opportunities and technical assistance for business owners from communities disproportionately impacted by the war on drugs.
Dawson, who has over a decade of business development, strategic management and brand marketing experience, as well as more recent experience as a cannabis industry educator and strategy expert, hopes to build on the city’s existing vision of equity to further strengthen the Social Equity Grant program.
Here, Dawson discusses her new role and her goals for expanding the program to support more underserved entrepreneurs.
Melissa Schiller: What is the Office of Community & Civic Life’s role in Portland’s cannabis program?
Dasheeda Dawson: Portland, or Oregon in general, was one of the first states to legalize medical marijuana and then adult-use, so the program’s been around since 2015. [I believe] where cannabis regulation happens is often the mindset in which it’s regulated. Portland has put the regulation of the program under the Office of Community & Civic Life, which also oversees liquor and noise and other community-based components. The cannabis program, since its inception, is the core licensing and compliance oversight for the cannabis industry in the city of Portland.
Helping to build a brand-new industry is generally a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but for Michael Cohen, co-founder and president of The Pass, a vertically integrated adult-use cannabis operator in Massachusetts, the cannabis industry gave him a second opportunity to be at the start of something big.
Cohen launched one of the first internet ad buying agencies in 1996, when online advertising was in its infancy.
“I was part of this string of industry professionals where we were all true believers,” Cohen says. “People would say, ‘I don’t get online advertising, I would never click on one of those banners.’ We would tell people, ‘This is the future of marketing,’ and three years later, it was just booming.”
Cohen sold the company and turned to consulting and investing as he waited for his next business opportunity. Now, almost 20 years later, he’s found it in the cannabis industry.
Cohen and his partner have been building their cannabis business for nearly three years, and currently hold three licenses in Massachusetts for cultivation, processing and retail. They operate indoor and greenhouse cultivation facilities in Sheffield, Mass., in Berkshire County, and have a provisional license for an outdoor grow site. The Pass opened its first dispensary location in the Berkshires July 17 and has the option to open two more storefronts with its current retail license.
Over Father’s Day weekend in 2013, Jawara McIntosh, son of reggae musician Peter Tosh and himself a father of four, was arrested for marijuana possession. After making bail later that year, he was given a plea deal of 20 years in prison, but finding it outlandish, proceeded through years of pretrial motions. Over time, he received more favorable offers. Then, despite his devout Rastafari religion, Jawara struck a plea deal in 2017 for a six-month sentence, lest he “be made an example of,” as his sister Niambe McIntosh tells the story.
Jawara lived in the Bergen County, New Jersey, jail for a month and a half in 2017 for the possession charge, his first, before a fellow inmate attacked him, causing him to suffer a traumatic brain injury. Today, he can’t talk or walk, and he needs 24-hour care.
After the attack, the family visited the intensive care unit. When they arrived, Jawara’s face was swollen, tubes were stuck down his throat. He wore, as dictated by the legal system, a brace on his neck and a handcuff on his ankle.
“It was devastating to see that here he is fighting for his life, but treated like an animal, with a handcuff on his ankle,” said Niambe McIntosh, executive director of the Peter Tosh Estate. “And when we asked the hospital about the handcuff and if we could remove this—that’s not helping his medical condition—they told us that the prison had hierarchy over the hospital. And we were also told that we were lucky that we could visit my brother.”
Jawara’s is one of the many stories shared during Marijuana Policy Project’s July 15 virtual live event “Reimagining Justice: Race, Cannabis & Policing,” streamed on Facebook and YouTube and using the hashtag #ReimaginingJustice. The speakers throughout the three-and-a-half-hour event spoke about how politicians made cannabis use illegal through racist motives and policies; how police use the plant as a weapon against Black and brown people; what a better image of justice can look like; and how to reverse harms.
Panel 1: Cannabis Criminalization and Oppressive Policing in Communities of Color
The New Jersey Treasury Division of Taxation recently announced that, effective July 1, sales tax on medical marijuana is reduced to 4% from the previous 6.625% sales tax rate (the rate imposed under the state’s “Sales and Use Tax Act”). The tax reduction is the first of three scheduled tax reductions designed to eliminate the sales tax on medical cannabis sales in the Garden State.
The 4% sales tax rate will apply through June 30, 2021, when the tax rate will be reduced to 2% until June 30, 2022. Then, effective July 1, 2022, medical marijuana sales will not be taxed.
The tax reductions resulted from the passage of the Jake Honig Compassionate Use Medical [Marijuana] Cannabis Act, named after the late Jake Honig, “a 7-year-old from Howell for whom medical marijuana provided the only relief from an inoperable brain tumor,” according to a recent New Jersey Herald article. Gov. Phil Murphy signed the act into law July 2, 2019, “to dramatically reform New Jersey’s Medicinal Marijuana Program (MMP) and expand patient access to medical marijuana,” according to a statement from the governor’s office.
“Activists have decried the policy of instituting any tax on medical marijuana purchases as ‘criminal,’ since over-the-counter and prescription medicines at traditional pharmacies are exempt from New Jersey sales tax,” the NJ Herald reported.
The Herald article cited comments made by Sen. Robert Singer in 2019, as the bill was headed for a vote: “How dare we use the term ‘medical’ and charge poor people and working people and families sales tax on something that helps them feel better.”
According to the act, municipalities may adopt ordinances to impost a “transfer tax,” not to exceed two percent of the medical cannabis price, on medical cannabis sales made at local dispensaries.
