MjLink Cannabis Business News and Press

When 13-year-old Charlotte Figi passed away in early April, cannabidiol (CBD) company Charlotte’s Web says it lost its “northern star.” The young girl had found relief for her seizures through the Stanley Brothers’ low-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) strain of cannabis, inspiring them to name the strain after her and, eventually, their company, now called Charlotte’s Web.

“We had to say goodbye to our sweet little Charlotte, who we really consider to be our original founder and the founder of this industry,” said Charlotte’s Web Co-Founder and Chair Joel Stanley.

Around the same time of Charlotte’s passing, people had begun reaching out to Charlotte’s Web in need. The spread of COVID-19 was preventing some from buying the CBD they had come to rely on.

After some thought, company executives have devised a solution to both honor Charlotte and help others like her by giving away Charlotte’s Web products to people who need it.

“We know some people are struggling, and we got our heads together, and I’m very thankful to be able to announce that we are able to donate a million dollars’ worth of products to these struggling families,” Joel Stanley said in a video announcing the donation.

The company has teamed up with its charitable partners at the Realm of Caring, Adaptive Training Foundation and High Fives Foundation for the sizable donation.

HUMBOLDT COUNTY, CA – PRESS RELEASE – Sun+Earth, the nonprofit certification program for regenerative organic cannabis, celebrates its one year anniversary on Earth Day. Founded on April 22, 2019, by cannabis industry leaders, experts and advocates with a common commitment to regenerative organic agriculture, farmer and farm-worker protections, and community engagement, Sun+Earth has more than doubled in size, certifying businesses across five states in the past year, demonstrating the consumer demand for regenerative organic cannabis grown under the sun by small-scale family farmers.

Amid the combined global crises of the COVID-19 pandemic, accelerating climate change, and increasingly diminished local supplies of food and medicine, Sun+Earth Certified offers a model for ecological resiliency.

“If we’re serious about addressing the combined threats to our health, environment, and economy, we must take bold action quickly,” said Sun+Earth Executive Director Andrew Black. “The multi-billion dollar cannabis industry has a critical obligation to shift away from high levels of energy consumption and chemical-intensive farming practices, and Sun+Earth has the blueprint for how to do that."

In the one year since its founding, Sun+Earth has expanded from California to Colorado, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin, certifying 32 licensed businesses that sell their products in more than 350 retail outlets across the country. The Sun+Earth website has a list of certified farms and manufacturers, as well as a map of retail locations where certified products are sold. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when social distancing precautions preclude on-site visits and inspections to farms and manufacturers, Sun+Earth is making efficient use of online tools to remotely recruit and certify new organic farms and manufacturers in these and additional states this year.

The Sun+Earth seal sets itself apart from other organic programs by guaranteeing that certified businesses cultivate and manufacture products using cannabis grown under the sun with regenerative organic farming practices. The regenerative organic cultivation standards set by Sun+Earth encourage the planting of cannabis alongside food crops, and strategic use of cover crops, composting and reduced soil tillage. Regenerative organic farming practices help sequester carbon from the atmosphere, further reducing a farm’s carbon footprint. No chemical fertilizers or toxic pesticides are used to grow cannabis certified by Sun+Earth, whose standards go beyond USDA Organic to set additional criteria that benefit family farmers and farm-workers.

GREENWICH, CT and DENVER, CO, April 22, 2020 /CNW/ - PRESS RELEASE - Today, BR Brands LLC, a house of brands within the legal cannabis sector, and Dixie Brands Inc., one of the legal cannabis industry's most recognized consumer packaged goods companies, have entered into a definitive agreement to complete their previously disclosed business combination, pursuant to which Dixie will indirectly acquire from BR Brands all of the outstanding voting shares of Mary's Brands, the creator of such brands as Mary's Medicinals, Mary's Methods, Mary's Nutritionals and Mary's Tails, and certain other assets of BR Brands, including securities of Edgewater Foods, Inc. and Lost County, Inc. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2020, subject to satisfaction of all closing conditions, including receipt of required Dixie shareholder and regulatory approvals.

Following completion of the transaction, BR Brands will own and control approximately 80% of the outstanding voting shares of Dixie, with existing Dixie shareholders holding the balance of the outstanding voting shares. The non-participating voting shares of Dixie will be redeemed as part of the transaction. Subject to the satisfaction of all applicable listing requirements, it is the intention of the parties that the  voting shares of Dixie will, following completion of the transaction, continue to be listed and posted for trading on the Canadian Securities Exchange as a single class.

The combination will strengthen the balance sheet of the combined entity and is expected to drive upside synergies as well as operational efficiencies, providing long-term, stable growth for shareholders and a best-in-class product portfolio for consumers across the globe.

"Through the combination of BR Brands and Dixie, the resulting entity will represent a dominant platform and preeminent house of brands within the global cannabis consumer packaged goods sector. Combined, the company will boast an unrivaled product offering across one of the largest THC geographic footprints, representing more than 200 SKUs across 10 states and Puerto Rico," said BR Brands Chairman Andrew Schweibold. "It is a challenging economic environment, however the legal cannabis industry continues to thrive and the power of our product portfolio, intellectual property and team position the company to capitalize on the underlying cannabis macro trends and drive value to our stakeholders as the industry continues to mature and consolidate."

Alongside the progression of deal documentation, BR Brands and Dixie have initiated key integration initiatives across both companies' portfolios to drive early synergies for existing stakeholders. Current integration efforts are focused on sales, distribution, operations and manufacturing in key states. Beginning with California, significant progress has been made to create a fully integrated sales team and optimize commercial efficiencies via shared distribution capabilities and procurement practices. Plans to combine production operations in California are also underway. Additionally, the combined team is turning its attention to replicating these efforts in other states, including Colorado and Michigan.

TORONTO, April 22, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PRESS RELEASE -- Aleafia Health Inc.’s AssureHome Delivery, a fast, direct-to-door delivery service in Canada, has launched next-day distribution of medical cannabis products.

Providing patients with fast and complementary service, the first Toronto deliveries were completed on April 21, 2020. Service highlights include:

Next-day AssureHome Delivery is immediately available to Toronto patients, with a 30-day rollout to the Greater Toronto Area and surrounding communitiesSignificantly faster delivery times compared to third-party parcel servicesPatients will receive a shipment tracking number and phone call 15 minutes prior to the driver’s arrivalAll orders received before 9 p.m. will be delivered the following business day between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m.The company expects to offer same day delivery beginning in June, and will expand to other major metropolitan areas including Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver, while also eventually offering weekend distribution

“Aleafia Health’s introduction of contactless, next-day medical cannabis delivery is based on our commitment to ensuring our patients receive their medicine in a safe, secure and convenient direct-to-door delivery,” said Aleafia Health CEO Geoffrey Benic. “With COVID-19 negatively affecting third-party delivery service times, we are demonstrating that our commitment to patients does not end until medicine is safely in their hands.”

Aleafia Health’s home delivery benefits from the supply chain logistics experience of Benic and COO Greg Rossi, who were among the founding partners of the award-winning online grocery fulfillment and delivery service, GroceryGateway.com. The pair have also worked as executive consultants on supply chain logistics projects for some of the world’s largest companies including Walmart Inc., Nestlé S.A., Kraft Heinz Company, Campbell Soup Company and Mondelez International. Benic and Rossi were also the architects of Trust Delivery, the first and only same-day Canadian medical cannabis delivery service.

California regulators have announced $30 million in grants for local jurisdictions to fund social equity initiatives in the state’s cannabis program.

The Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) has partnered with the Bureau of Cannabis Control (BCC) to provide the grant funding through the Cannabis Equity Grants Program for Local Jurisdictions, which aims to support cannabis entrepreneurs from communities disproportionately impacted by prohibition.

The grants can be used for small business support services such as technical assistance, reduced or waived licensing fees, recruitment assistance, workforce training and retention, and emergency preparedness.

Roughly $23 million of the funding represents low or no-interest loans or grants that will be directly allocated to cannabis applicants and licensees that jurisdictions have identified as being from communities most harmed by the war on drugs.

“These Cannabis Equity Grants reflect California’s desire to lead our legalization efforts with equity and inclusivity,” Nicole Elliott, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s senior advisor on cannabis, said in a public statement. “We applaud these jurisdictions for not only embracing the challenge of creating pathways to participate in a legitimate cannabis marketplace, but for doing so in a thoughtful way that seeks to uplift all communities. It is our hope that these efforts lead to the creation of a truly diverse industry and that these programs serve as a blueprint for others who share in our commitment to address systemic discrimination and create real prosperity for all."

Lebanon has legalized cannabis cultivation for medical purposes, according to a Reuters report.

Parliament passed the law April 21, eyeing medical cannabis as a potentially lucrative export for Lebanon’s economy, which is facing an impending financial crisis, the news outlet reported.

Cannabis cultivation of any kind was previously illegal, although many have farmed the plant in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, according to Reuters.

Alain Aoun, a senior MP in the Free Patriotic Movement, told the news outlet that Parliament’s decision to legalize medical cannabis cultivation was driven purely by economic factors.

“We have moral and social reservations but today there is the need to help the economy by any means,” he said.

Cannabis arrests persist, even in this age of reform, according to a new report published by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The report, titled “A Tale of Two Countries: Racially Targeted Arrests in the Era of Marijuana Reform,” highlights the unsettling disparities among who is being targeted by law enforcement in recent years.

From the top, the ACLU notes that cannabis arrests are down overall in states that have legalized or decriminalized cannabis. (Even in states where cannabis is legal, certain amounts in possession and illicit sales are still illegal.) But in states where cannabis remains illegal (17 states as of early 2020), cannabis arrests have actually increased from 2010 to 2018.

 

In certain states that have legalized or decriminalized cannabis, racial disparities in arrests continue.

Read the full report. 

The ACLU report is a clarion call for legalization on a broad scale, similar in spirit to the vision behind the Marijuana Justice Act. That congressional bill, which has been sidelined in the Senate Judiciary Committee for more than a year, contains a very clear social equity and criminal justice reform element. 

When U.S. Sen. Cory Booker introduced that bill back in 2017, he said: “Our country’s drug laws are badly broken and need to be fixed. They don’t make our communities any safer—instead, they divert critical resources from fighting violent crimes, tear families apart, unfairly impact low-income communities and communities of color and waste billions in taxpayer dollars each year.”

The start of 2020 looked promising for the cannabis industry as policy reform efforts inched forward at the federal level. The U.S. House passed the SAFE Banking Act in September to allow financial institutions to work with the industry, and in November, the House Judiciary Committee approved the MORE Act to federally decriminalize cannabis, marking the first time a congressional committee has approved legislation to end federal prohibition.

While much of this political progress has slowed as the country deals with the COVID-19 pandemic, NORML Executive Director Erik Altieri says the outlook for the industry remains positive as cannabis businesses are declared essential in many U.S. states’ stay-at-home orders, giving the industry a newfound sense of legitimacy.

Here, Altieri discusses how businesses and consumers are adapting in response to COVID-19, how the political climate has shifted in the wake of the crisis, and how the pandemic might help shape future cannabis policy.

Cannabis Business Times: What are some of the key takeaways regarding the current political climate surrounding cannabis policy?

Erik Altieri: It certainly is clear that the ongoing situation with COVID-19 has slowed down a fair amount of political progress, not just for marijuana law reform but certainly anything political in this country. We had good momentum coming into this year. We had a large number of states that were looking to get [legalization] onto the ballot. We had a number of states looking to pass either medical laws or full legalization at the state legislative level. But come the middle of March, state legislatures basically shut down, and with the stay-at-home orders, it became impossible to collect signatures to get something placed on the ballot. Certainly, the scope of what we thought possible for 2020 seems to have narrowed a bit due to the situation, but on the bright side, we still have a number of states that are moving forward with their initiative process that had already placed it on the ballot prior to the lockdown.

In a lot of ways, we’ve seen some newfound legitimacy through the coronavirus crisis when it comes to a regulated cannabis market. That’s easy to see when you take a look at the incredibly large number of states that have deemed medical marijuana dispensaries and, in a fair amount of states, recreational dispensaries as essential services. Marijuana dispensaries as an essential service just shows how far we’ve come in the past eight or so years in terms of it being taken seriously as a legitimate industry and one that provides an essential good to the communities they operate in.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought much of the world to a screeching halt as municipalities, states and entire countries respond to the crisis.

While the U.S. cannabis industry has been deemed essential in many states, cultivators looking to launch or expand their operations may be left wondering how to navigate pending construction projects in the wake of the pandemic.

According to Ryan Douglas, the owner of Ryan Douglas Cultivation LLC, a company that provides cannabis cultivation services, it is critical that cultivators press on as much as possible with their startup or expansion plans during the pandemic in order to meet patient and consumer demand, as well as prepare for a speedy return to normalcy after the crisis.

Here, he shares how construction projects may be affected by COVID-19, as well as steps that cultivators can take to minimize its impact on their plans.

Cannabis Business Times: Broadly speaking, how might cannabis cultivation facility construction projects be affected by the COVID-19 crisis?

Ryan Douglas: What I would assume is that you’ll certainly have delays. If someone was building an indoor facility or a greenhouse facility, since the entire economy is affected, I’d assume growers are experiencing delays in the manufacturing of the equipment and the shipping of the equipment, and then of course the construction of the facility. I don’t think there’s any way around that.

DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--PRESS RELEASE--Medicine Man Technologies Inc. has announced that the company will now be doing business as Schwazze (pronounced SHHwahZZ). The new branding reflects the company’s goal to create a dynamic, innovative culture and brand identity while supporting the current and future house of brands as Schwazze continues to grow.

Schwazze originates from the company’s proprietary cultivation technique from the Three A Light methodology, which stimulates plant growth and health. The new corporate brand Schwazze inspires a call to action to innovate, grow and nurture plants, products, experiences and environment to benefit the human experience.

“We are excited to bring this new brand to life to further realize our vision of becoming the most admired cannabis company by positively impacting the health, well-being and happiness of our customers, team members and communities,” said Shane Sampson, Chief Marketing and Merchandising Officer of Schwazze. “Last year the company set out to make major changes within the Colorado cannabis industry with Colorado House Bill 19-1090. Our new brand, Schwazze enables differentiation as a true leader across all facets of cannabis and marks the next stage of our strategic growth. After finalizing the announced acquisitions, Schwazze will be one of the largest vertically integrated cannabis operators from seed to sale. We are proud to be building a great cannabis company at Schwazze.”

The Schwazze leadership team, which includes top-tier executives from Fortune 500 companies, looks to the future of cannabis when planning what is next for the company. Schwazze is executing our strategy to bring new products and experiences to customers through scalable digital technologies, cannabinoid-based health and wellness, customer-centric retail formats and omnichannel innovation.

“As a leader in the cannabis industry, we have a responsibility to drive sustainable growth and deliver top-quality service and products to our customers,” Sampson added. “With our experienced management team and unparalleled expertise in product development, the company’s rebrand to Schwazze amplifies our purpose-driven mission to recognize the full potential of cannabis and continue promoting its ability to improve the human condition.”

Effective, Tuesday, April 21, the company will begin trading under the Schwazze name and OTC ticker symbol SHWZ.

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Portland, OR -- PRESS RELEASE -- The Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) has given the go-ahead for random testing of marijuana products for the presence of undisclosed ingredients and additives. The Commission approved the permanent rule for Audit, Compliance and Random Testing at its regular monthly meeting on April 16, 2020.

OLCC staff recommended the testing approach in the wake of the 2019 EVALI respiratory illness outbreak.  That public health crisis resulted in the hospitalizations and deaths of hundreds of people known to vape nicotine and cannabis. In Oregon, 22 people were afflicted with vaping-associated lung injuries, including two fatalities.

During the vaping crisis OLCC took the position that specific additives suspected of being contained in nicotine and cannabis vaping products were adulterants and based on existing OLCC rules should not to be contained in marijuana products. But the OLCC lacked specific authority to require random sampling and testing to detect adulterants and other contaminants in the marijuana products of licensees. The rule, which takes effect April 20, 2020, changes that. [OAR 845-025-5760]

The Commission also approved a temporary rule related to the pre-licensing inspections of recreational marijuana license applicants to align with the social distancing requirements of Gov. Kate Brown’s Executive Orders.

For the next six months the OLCC will not require an in-person inspection by OLCC staff of a proposed licensed premises. This will reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19 by limiting contact between Commission staff and license applicants. [OAR 845-025-1290]

LAS VEGAS, April 17, 2020 /CNW/ - PRESS RELEASE - Planet 13 Holdings Inc., a vertically-integrated Nevada cannabis company, has announced that following the announcement on April 13, 2020 that it had terminated a definitive agreement to acquire a cannabis sales license and lease for a dispensary in Santa Ana, Calif., from Newtonian Principles, Inc., it has renegotiated the terms of acquisition and has entered into an amendment to the initial definitive agreement.

Upon closing of the acquisition, which is expected to occur when final state and local regulatory approvals are obtained, which is forecasted to be obtained in the next one to three weeks, Planet 13 will pay Newtonian $800,000 in cash (which, along with the deposit (as defined below), results in a total cash purchase price of $1,000,000) and 3,940,932 Class A Restricted Shares in the capital of the company valued at $4.0 million. Newtonian will retain the $200,000 deposit that Planet 13 paid to Newtonion upon entering into of the initial definitive agreement. The parties have also negotiated a 25% lease abatement with the landlord,  effective during construction and until opening, reducing costs and increasing flexibility for Planet 13. The shares will be subject to a four-month and one day hold period under Canadian securities laws and following such period will be subject to a lock-up whereby 1/8 of the shares will be released from lock-up each month beginning on the date that is four months plus one day from the acquisition closing date.

This compares to the initial definitive agreement pursuant to which Planet 13 would have been required to pay an additional $5.8 million in cash and 2,039,808 Class A Restricted Shares in the capital of the company valued at $4.0 million for the acquisition.

"We've evaluated hundreds of locations in California and continue to believe that our Santa Ana location is the best suited for a Planet 13 style dispensary," said Bob Groesbeck co-CEO of Planet 13. "While we can't forecast how COVID-19 might affect our timeline, we've negotiated an agreement that reduces the upfront capital invested, gives us control over the timing of fixed costs and provides flexibility on dispensary buildout. We de-risked the transaction substantially while securing the next stage of growth for Planet 13."

Mexico’s Supreme Court has extended an April 30 deadline for lawmakers to draft legislation to legalize and regulate cannabis for medical, adult and industrial uses, as first reported by Politico.mx.

Lawmakers now have until Dec. 15, the end of the next legislative session, to approve legislation to end cannabis prohibition, according to Marijuana Moment.

Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled last year that an absolute ban on adult-use cannabis was unconstitutional, which forced lawmakers to regulate it at the federal level.

The Senate considered legislation last year to legalize and regulate cannabis, but lawmakers missed a Supreme Court-imposed deadline to pass the bill by the end of October, which prompted the deadline extension to April 30.

Senators asked the Supreme Court last month to extend the deadline again due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has caused Mexico to suspend many legislative procedures.

Cannabis retail applicants are suing Los Angeles, arguing that the city’s controversial process to award its latest round of dispensary licenses was “flawed,” according to a Los Angeles Times report.

The Social Equity Owners and Workers Association and one of its members filed the lawsuit to force the city to vet all the dispensary applications it received last fall under its first-come, first-served process, which has been met with backlash. Alternatively, the lawsuit asks the city to launch a new licensing process that gives all applicants an equal shot at licenses, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The Department of Cannabis Regulation (DCR) launched its latest round of licensing in September to issue 100 additional cannabis retail licenses to social equity applicants. Some stakeholders alleged that some applicants gained early access to the online application system while others were locked out due to slow internet speeds.

While DCR Director Cat Packer indicated that two applicants did access the system early due to a staff error that occurred while resetting their passwords, she said those applications were pushed back in line to where they would have been otherwise.

Regardless, Los Angeles City Council President Herb Wesson called for the suspension of the licensing process in October, and Packer announced in November that the DCR would not issue the final retail licenses until the city completed a third-party audit of the licensing process.

The Alaska Marijuana Control Board adopted emergency regulations last week to allow the state’s cannabis dispensaries to offer curbside pickup services to their customers in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a local webcenter11.com report.

The new rule took effect April 17 and allows customers to place orders online and over the phone for curbside pickup or pickup through a walk-up window or drive-thru service at certain dispensary locations.

In order to offer this service to customers, Alaska’s dispensaries must request an operating plan change to their license, provide written verification that their municipality allows the change and obtain written approval from the Marijuana Control Board, webcenter11.com reported.

Arkansas medical cannabis sales have surpassed $63 million since the first dispensary opened in May 2019, according to a local 5 News Report.

As of April 16, Arkansans have spent $63.37 million on medical cannabis and have purchased over 10,000 pounds of products, the news outlet reported.

Green Springs Medical, located in Hot Springs, has seen the most sales of any dispensary in the state, surpassing 2,000 pounds in total sales last week, according to 5 News.

Arkansas now has 21 operational dispensaries, the news outlet reported, and the Alcohol Beverage Control Board recently approved Comprehensive Care Group to open as the state’s 22nd dispensary location under the name Body and Mind.

As COVID-19 takes its toll on human life and health, it also is upending economies worldwide. During a four-week period beginning March 23, more than 22 million people in the U.S. filed for unemployment insurance—a record, by far. The number is sure to keep climbing for weeks, if not months.

Many businesses, from restaurants to yoga studios to dentists’ offices have either closed entirely or offer a fraction of the goods and services they depend upon to survive the economic slowdown. It is very likely that the U.S. is about to experience a larger concentration of bankruptcies in a shorter period of time than ever before.

Most businesses in the country can take advantage of some form of bankruptcy to restructure and/or seek relief from creditors. Unfortunately, as bankruptcy is a federal matter, and the federal government considers cannabis companies illegal, declaring bankruptcy is not an option for cannabis businesses. For those companies that just can’t pull through, it’s a total loss.

That’s bad enough, but cannabis business owners have known this fact for a long time. Unfortunately, COVID-19 and the federal government’s response to the pandemic has created some additional unfair and discriminatory conditions for the industry.

Families First, Cannabis Last

On March 18, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) became law. The FFCRA states that if a company has fewer than 500 employees, it must offer paid sick leave to any employee who contracts coronavirus, or to an employee who has a dependent who has the disease (although companies with fewer than 50 employees can apply for an exemption). The FFCRA calls for companies to pay for such sick leave by utilizing the funds they retain for federal employment taxes, including federal income tax withheld from employees and the companies’ and their employees’ share of social security and Medicare taxes, that would normally be paid to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). It also requires the IRS to grant tax credits covering any funds paid to sick employees. It even accounts for companies that do not have enough funds set aside to pay sick employees by allowing employers to apply for an advance on the tax credits.

The Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act picked up a great deal of momentum last year, winning approval in the U.S. House last fall before ultimately stalling in the Senate.

The legislation, which would provide a safe harbor for financial institutions that work with cannabis business clients, may be back on the table in the coming weeks, however, as members of Congress look to include a revised version of the proposal in the next COVID-19 stimulus bill.

Lawmakers argue that many medical cannabis patients are at increased risk of contracting the coronavirus, and forcing them to purchase products in cash could also put dispensary employees at risk, according to an NJ.com report.

“There is no positive in having cash outside of the banking industry for the safety of our employees and facility, but also no positive for the economy either,” said Michael Sassano, founder and CEO of Solaris Farms, a Las Vegas-based cultivation facility.

For Sassano, the federal government’s focus should first be on its response to the COVID-19 crisis, but after the immediate threat is behind us, he would like to see a more comprehensive legalization effort at the federal level, which would not only address banking reform, but would also alleviate the rest of the federal-state tension that has long plagued the industry.

Canopy Growth Corp. took a big step back from several international operations last week, cutting ties with its assets in South Africa, Lesotho, Colombia and the U.S.

Among the company’s attempts to reduce its workforce and its cash-burn rate was the closure of Waterpoint Hemp Farm in Springfield, N.Y. more than 1,000 acres of former dairy farmland. Canopy bought the property in early 2019. “Canopy Growth purchased Waterpoint not just because it had the good land for hemp, but it also had the housing, electrical infrastructure, buildings, diesel tanks,” Branson Skinner, Canopy Growth’s farm manager for New York State, said at the time.

As of last week, however, Canopy had closed the farm and turned its attention elsewhere in the hemp market.

“We have made the difficult but necessary decision to close our Waterpoint Hemp Farm based in Springfield, New York,” according to a statement from the company. “Like many other growers in the state, Waterpoint Hemp Farm produced an abundance of hemp in 2019, which does not commensurate with current market demand or the regulatory delays surround hemp extracts.”

The surplus biomass will be used in Canopy’s CBD isolate products manufactured under the brand First & Free, which includes soft gels, tinctures and creams, a company spokesperson told Hemp Grower. Canopy continues to build out its hemp production facility on the site of a former vacuum cleaner production plant in Kirkwood, N.Y.

The company also works with contract farmers in the U.S. to produce hemp for extraction purposes.

This week, Canopy Growth, the Canadian licensed producer that once touted itself as the largest cannabis company in the world, announced drastic steps to reduce its operations and cash-burn rate, ceasing operations at several of its locations. Elsewhere, in Virginia, Gov. Ralph Northam signed legislation to decriminalize the simple possession of cannabis.

Here, we’ve rounded up the 10 headlines you need to know before this week is over.

Virginia: Gov. Ralph Northam has signed legislation to decriminalize the simple possession of cannabis. The decriminalization measure, which is an amendment to House Bill 972, reduces the penalty for the possession of up to one ounce of cannabis to a $25 fine. Read moreMaine: The Office of Marijuana Policy (OMP) has issued a letter to conditional and prospective adult-use cannabis licensees, indicating that it is indefinitely postponing the launch of the state’s adult-use market due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The OMP cited safety and social distancing concerns in its decision, saying “it now appears as though a spring launch of Maine’s adult use industry is simply unrealistic.” Read moreNew Hampshire: The state has announced that it will extend the deadline for patients to renew medical cannabis cards due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Patients with cards expiring in April, May and June now have until July 31 to renew them amid concerns that patients will have a difficult time visiting their doctors for recertification. Read moreColorado: Denver City Council has approved a new cannabis research and development license as part of the city’s efforts to update its cannabis laws. The city council also approved a lottery cap for new dispensary licenses and plans to eventually roll out a social equity plan. Read moreWashington, D.C.: Mayor Muriel Bowser and the D.C. Department of Health announced an emergency rule this week that temporarily allows medical cannabis dispensaries to provide delivery and curbside pickup services to their patients. The new rule takes effect immediately and will remain in effect for 120 days or until 45 days after the public health emergency ends, whichever comes first. Read moreOhio: The Ohio Board of Pharmacy has established a new process for calculating a patient’s 90-day supply of medical cannabis, with the news rules taking effect April 17. The process is aimed at simplifying the way that patients, caregivers and dispensaries calculate days’ supply while ensuring that patients do not exceed the maximum 90-day possession limit outlined in Ohio’s medical cannabis law. Read moreMissouri: A campaign to place an adult-use cannabis legalization initiative on Missouri’s 2020 ballot is suspending its efforts due to the COVID-19 crisis. Dan Viets, chairman of Missourians for a New Approach, told the Springfield News-Leader this week that the petition initiative campaign is officially over due to public response to the pandemic, which is prohibiting supporters from gathering signatures. Read moreCalifornia: Following an audit of its licensing process and after receiving feedback from stakeholders and the local community, the Los Angeles Department of Cannabis Regulation (DCR) has put together recommendations to amend the licensing process. “Although the Department agrees that its normalization process was reasonable, it acknowledges that the process and the policy itself can and should be improved in a number of substantive ways,” according to a report the DCR sent to Los Angeles City Council. Read moreGuam: Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero has declared a public health emergency on the island that suspends all “non-essential” government activity through May 6 in a move that will likely delay the release of Guam’s forthcoming adult-use cannabis regulations. The Cannabis Control Board—established by Guam’s legalization bill to regulate and oversee the industry—has been shut down since Leon Guerrero’s order went into effect March 16, although the board did hold several meetings before the shutdown in an attempt to meet its deadline, which passed during the first week of April. Read moreCanada: Canopy Growth, the Canadian LP that once touted itself as the largest cannabis company in the world, is taking drastic steps to reduce its operations and cash-burn rate, ceasing operations at several of its locations. The company announced this week that it is selling all of its African cannabis assets (located in South Africa and Lesotho) to a local business, as well as ending cultivation operations at its Latin American facility in Colombia and shuttering its indoor cultivation facility in Yorktown, Saskatchewan, Canada. Read more