MjLink Cannabis Business News and Press
Oklahoma cannabis advocates began gathering signatures May 3 in an effort to send an adult-use legalization measure to the November ballot.
The group behind State Question 820 must collect signatures from 8% of the total number of voters who casted votes during the last general election for the office of governor, according to a NonDoc.com report. This year, the required number of signatures is 94,911.
SQ 820 would allow adults 21 and older to purchase cannabis from dispensaries without a medical cannabis card, NonDoc.com reported, and would levy a 15% excise tax on adult-use purchases to fund the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority (OMMA), as well as schools, court systems and drug addiction treatment programs.
The measure would also establish a judicial process for those convicted of cannabis-related crimes to seek “modification, reversal, re-designation, or expungement” of those convictions, according to NonDoc.com.
Organizers have 90 days to gather the required number of signatures, meaning signatures must be submitted by Aug. 1, according to the news outlet.
Cannabis businesses in New Mexico’s second largest city can set their own hours after the Las Cruces City Council voted against setting operating hours for adult-use cannabis sales.
City council members heard from the city attorney and the community May 2 before voting 6-1 to not establish operating hours for adult-use cannabis retailers that coincide with liquor sales, according to a KFOX14 report.
Mayor Ken Miyagishima cast the lone vote in favor of setting operating hours for adult-use sales, the news outlet reported.
“I am disappointed that council didn't pass the law ordinance that will allow operating hours to coincide with liquor sales,” Miyagishima told KFOX14. “I think anytime you have that type of traffic, 24/7, that’s a lot, it’s a lot of stress on both the business owners, the employees, the city.”
Monday’s vote will allow adult-use cannabis retailers within Las Cruces to set their own business hours to meet consumer demand, which has increased since adult-use sales launched April 1.
In Toronto, DoorDash Canada will now provide cannabis ordering and pickup services through a new partnership with retail and lifestyle brand Superette.
“Every element of the experience has been carefully considered with the goal of making our retail experience digital on the DoorDash platform,” Superette co-founder and chief brand officer Drummond Munro said in a public statement.
The goal, according to the Superette team, is to recognize and actively embrace evolving consumer demands for convenient online ordering and pickup options. This is a long-running dynamic in commercial retail landscapes—the ability to shop easily online—and the pandemic certainly accelerated the average consumer’s willingness to engage with online ordering services. Now, cannabis businesses are rapidly acclimating to this strategy.
Each Superette location will display curated menus through the DoorDash app, offering consumers up-to-the-minute selections from the store.
According to a press release announcing the news, “Superette will verify IDs and strictly enforce maximum possession amount at the store during pickup.”
]]>Shawn Carden had never thought to try cannabis before April 1. The 44-year-old lifelong resident of Santa Fe was told for most of his life that marijuana was a dangerous and evil drug. That sentiment came not only from his parents, but from elected officials down the street.
When Carden stepped up to the front door at Southwest Cannabis Dispensary on the first day of adult-use sales in his home state, he glanced at the New Mexico State Capitol, kitty-corner across the street. He let out a short chuckle as he reflected on the irony of the moment.
“I think it’s safe to say everyone’s on board now,” he quipped. Turning back to the door and the decisions he’d soon have to make—flower or concentrates, a cannabis chocolate bar or an infused soda—Carden struck a more serious tone. “Honestly, I never thought I’d be here doing this. Or that a day like this would ever come.”
The Santa Fe native was one of nearly 42,000 adults to commemorate the first day of adult-use sales in the Land of Enchantment with a legal dispensary purchase. Carden had to wait 45 minutes at Southwest Cannabis on the big day, but others stood in line for up to two hours at some of the state’s 118 open stores for the chance to make history.
After passing House Bill 2 on March 31 of last year, New Mexico took a full 12 months to get the new industry launched. But the pent-up demand made it every bit worth the wait. New Mexico scored $2.76 million in sales on the first day alone, and $39.5 million for the entire month.
Besides the first day of sales—a Friday—and the following weekend, dispensaries also welcomed record crowds on 4/20. And as April turns to May, most of New Mexico’s stores still have customers lining up outside their doors each morning.
Curaleaf was one of seven businesses approved to sell adult-use cannabis for New Jersey’s expanded retail launch on April 21, but the largest cannabis company in the world (by market cap) still has one of its dispensaries sitting on the sidelines.
While Curaleaf’s Bellmawr medical cannabis dispensary in South Jersey was one of 12 retail facilities that made the transition to adult-use sales last month, the company’s Edgewater Park dispensary remains a medical-only facility despite being approved by the state’s Cannabis Regulatory Commission (CRC) to serve the new customer base.
After the Bellmawr dispensary began serving adult-use shoppers, Curaleaf officials announced they anticipated their Edgewater Park and Bordentown locations to quickly follow. But the company’s approved Edgewater Park site might take a little longer than expected to expand its operations, NJ.com reported.
Instead of joining its competitors, like Acreage Holdings, Columbia Care, Green Thumb Industries, TerrAscend and Verano, which all opened two adult-use dispensaries on April 21, Curaleaf had a police officer patrol the Edgewater Park site and turn away traffic for most of the day, the news outlet reported.
That’s because Curaleaf has yet to satisfy land-use conditions to build a larger parking lot, drainage basins and additional lights, attorney Tom Coleman, who represents the Edgewater Park Township Land Use Board, told NJ.com.
“Two years ago, they agreed that if they ever decided to sell recreational cannabis, they would come back to the board and get site plan approvals,” Coleman said.
Lauderdale County, the eighth largest county in Mississippi, has opted out of the state’s medical cannabis program.
The Board of Supervisors voted May 2 to block cannabis cultivators and dispensaries from setting up shop in the county, according to a local WTOK report.
“I voted to opt out after giving people a considerate amount of time to contact us,” board member Jonathan Wells told the news outlet. “I felt like it was the best thing to do. We don’t have building codes or zoning in the county. That means it is wide open. We could put a dispensary or growery wherever you wanted to. I think it is my job to look out for our citizenry. At this time, I thought it was the right time to opt out and watch what happens in the city. We can revisit this subject in the future.”
RELATED: More Mississippi Cities Opt Out of Medical Cannabis Ahead of Deadline; Tupelo Appears In
Another member of the board, Kyle Rutledge, shared with WTOK that he voted against opting out of the program because he wanted the county to regulate medical cannabis operators like businesses in any other industry.
A southwest Missouri family that didn’t win one of the state’s 60 medical cannabis cultivation licenses awarded in December 2019 still does not have the right to farm, the Missouri Court of Appeals for the Western District ruled May 3.
Paul Callicoat and his family members, who’d hoped to turn their 70-acre Sarcoxie property into a cannabis cultivation site, filed a lawsuit against the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) shortly after their application was denied in late 2019.
With more than 500 applications submitted for those 60 licenses, the family’s lawyer argued the state should allow the market to decide which cultivation businesses survive and criticized the “geographical bonuses” that favored applicants from ZIP codes with high unemployment rates.
RELATED: Judge Denies Restraining Order Request in Missouri Medical Cannabis Lawsuit
Roughly a year later, Cole County Circuit Judge Patricia Joyce rejected those arguments that the state’s limit on cultivation licenses violated the family’s “right to farm” under the state Constitution, upholding Missouri’s medical cannabis rules that were adopted after voters approved an amendment in the November 2018 election.
On Tuesday, Missouri Court of Appeals for the Western District Judge Alok Ahuja wrote an opinion that also dismissed the Callicoats’ (the appellants) case. All 11 judges in the judicial body concurred.
LAS VEGAS – May 3, 2022 – The Source+, an award-winning cannabis company with five dispensaries in the Las Vegas Valley, Reno and Northampton, Mass., has announced Sequoah Turner as its new director of retail. In this role, Turner will leverage her 15+ years of experience in retail to support more than 160 retail employees across the company’s retail locations.
“We are incredibly excited to welcome Sequoah to our growing team,” said Simon Nankervis, CEO of The Source+. “Through her vast retail and cannabis expertise, we are confident that she will continue to foster our culture of community and place our customers first in everything we do.”
Prior to joining The Source+, Turner served as the director of retail for both the Missouri-based dispensary, Agri-Genesis, and Essence Dispensary in Las Vegas. Outside of the cannabis industry, she served as operations manager for Tiffany & Co. from 2007 to 2014, and director of retail for AREA15, an experiential retail and entertainment complex located in Las Vegas, from 2019 to 2021.
“I am grateful to join The Source+'s incredible team and guide its locations in exciting new directions," said Turner. "By further enriching the culture that The Source+ has created for its team members and customers, I look forward to crafting memorable customer experiences by bringing a new perspective to the company."
A graduate of both Davidson College as well as AIU University, Turner intends to make an immediate impact by continuing to propel and build The Source+’s overall growth strategy. She will also focus on delivering excellent service while complying with state regulations to strengthen the dispensary’s position as an operator.
With less than two weeks until the Missouri Legislature adjourns, the lawmaker behind the push to legalize adult-use cannabis in the state says his legislation is “held up” in the House.
Rep. Ron Hicks, R-Defiance, told the Missouri Independent that his House Bill 2704 was supposed to come up for debate in the House May 2 but that House Majority Leader Dean Plocher said he will not allow the bill to advance without further discussion on business licensing caps in the adult-use market.
Hicks has advocated for unlimited licenses, according to the news outlet, arguing that the free market should determine how many businesses emerge in the industry and that the license caps in Missouri’s medical cannabis market have created a monopoly and possible corruption.
Plocher maintained that his insistence on license caps in the adult-use market is not the result of industry lobbying and that his position instead stems from a recent conversation with Lyndall Fraker, the director of medical cannabis regulation at the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, according to the Missouri Independent.
The constitutional amendment that Missouri voters approved in the 2018 election to legalize medical cannabis mandated a minimum of 338 licenses for businesses to cultivate, process and sell cannabis to patients, the news outlet reported. That’s how many licenses regulators ultimately issued, arguing that the license caps would help ensure that oversupply did not fall into the hands of the illicit market.
In the fast-paced, ever-changing world of cannabis, 20 years can seem like a long time. Yet, that’s how long Tyson Lewis has been cultivating the plant.
For the past seven of those years, Lewis has run High Noon Cultivation, or High Noon Cult. The business grows in raised soil beds using low-till and no-till methods and has about 7,000 square feet of indoor canopy space for flowering cannabis.
Craft producers like Lewis aim to meet cannabis connoisseurs’ needs and wishes by searching for and growing the best genetics while paying attention to the minute details of their cultivation operations.
High Noon sells flower to retailers and also works with water hash makers, Lewis said. (“That market segment’s exploding right now,” he said of water hash.)
The business uses about 1,200 square feet of its indoor grow for what Lewis called a "continuous pheno hunt." The business cycles through about four crops each year. “…Between eight and 10 genetics come out of that room at the end of the year that actually meet our standard,” he said. “So, out of thousands of seeds, that’s about what we get.”
Explaining some of how the process works, Lewis said that if his team wants to find the best phenotype of Tropicana Cookies, they will purchase numerous seeds of five to 10 different Tropicana Cookies genotypes from various seed providers and try them out.
Fluresh, a vertically integrated cannabis business based in Michigan, closed a $25-million note with a federally regulated bank back in December. The company announced the loan transaction just this past week. It’s a headline celebrated as an “important rite of passage” for the industry by Stephen Lenn, Managing Partner of Brennan, Manna & Diamond in Phoenix.
And for Fluresh, it’s a major feather in the company’s cap. The business also completed a $23-million debt refinancing on its Grand Rapids property—also through the federally regulated bank, which is based in southeast Michigan.
"For the industry, [the note closing] reflects its inexorable movement out of the shadows and into the mainstream,” Lenn said in a public statement. “Possibly of greater significance is the normalization of cannabis, which likely extends far beyond banking. This substantiates the view that, whether any of the pending federal legislation is enacted, bank lending to the cannabis industry will continue to accelerate."
The note is secured by that Grand Rapids property, according to the company, and it’s set to mature in December 2024.
"We are pleased to successfully complete one the largest debt financings of a cannabis operator by a federally chartered bank," CFO Jacob Fein said in a public statement. "This non-dilutive debt financing represents an industry-leading cost of capital and simplifies our capital structure. This debt financing is a significant milestone for both Fluresh and the cannabis industry."
New Hampshire will likely be the last state in New England to reform its laws to allow adult-use cannabis.
That’s because a pair of House-passed bills were voted down in the Senate on April 28: one to legalize an adult-use market, and the other to permit possession and home grows.
With Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts and Vermont already joining the adult-use green wave, Rhode Island and New Hampshire are the only states in New England that have yet to fully legalize cannabis. But Rhode Island remains poised to pass adult-use legislation with its bicameral Legislature on the same page and two months left in its legislative session.
In New Hampshire, adults 21 and older would have been allowed to possess up to three-fourths of an ounce of cannabis, 5 grams of hashish or 300 milligrams of infused edibles under House Bill 629. In addition, adults would have been allowed to home cultivate up to six cannabis plants. But the legislation, sponsored by Rep. Carol McGuire, R-Epsom, would not have allowed for the commercial sale of cannabis.
While the bill gained broad support in the New Hampshire House, where it passed, 241-113, earlier this year, it was defeated by a 15-9 vote Thursday in the Senate.
The upper chamber’s opposition to a cannabis reform effort is not something new, New Hampshire Public Radio reported.
Louisiana’s registered medical cannabis patients now have access to smokable flower as lawmakers consider additional ways to expand the program, but the state’s current laws say nothing about medical cannabis in the workplace.
Rep. Mandie Landry, D-New Orleans, aimed to change that with a bill that would make it illegal for public companies or departments to refuse to hire a candidate because they are a medical cannabis cardholder, according to a local WAFB report.
The legislation would not have prevented employers from reprimanding employees who are impaired or using medical cannabis at work, the news outlet reported.
The bill ultimately died in committee this week when some lawmakers deemed Landry’s bill unnecessary since employers can make changes to their policies about medical cannabis and the workplace without a new law, WAFB reported.
Landry voluntarily deferred her bill and now intends to work with committee members who offered suggestions to rework the legislation, according to the news outlet.
GATINEAU, Quebec, April 29, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PRESS RELEASE -- HEXO Corp today announced that Charlie Bowman has been appointed the company’s acting president and chief executive officer, effective today. Bowman will move into a permanent role upon the successful completion of Health Canada’s security clearance process for key personnel, which has been initiated. Concurrently, Scott Cooper is stepping down from his role as HEXO’s president and chief executive officer.
"I am honored to lead HEXO into the future," said Bowman. "We are entering the next phase of HEXO’s strategic growth plan by remaining laser-focused on becoming cash-flow positive, expanding our leading brands market share across Canada’s recreational market, whilst growing our international business and launching new products for medical."
Bowman, who previously served as HEXO’s acting chief operating officer and general manager of HEXO USA, brings a wealth of global leadership experience in spanning the past two decades. After resetting operations as acting COO, he is well positioned to guide HEXO towards becoming cash flow positive.
“I am pleased to welcome Charlie to his new role at HEXO. I have no doubt that his leadership and commitment to executing HEXO’s strategic plan will lead the organization into its next phase of growth,” said Executive Chairman Mark Attanasio, “On behalf of the entire organization, I would like to thank Scott Cooper for his leadership through a very challenging period.
The company also announced the departure of acting Chief Financial Officer Curtis Solsvig and the appointment of Julius Ivancsits as acting chief financial officer, effective May 16, 2022. Ivancsits will move into a permanent role upon the successful completion of Health Canada’s security clearance process for key personnel, which has been initiated.
The American Bankers Association and bankers associations from all 50 states are urging Senate leadership to pass the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act in the House-Senate conference version of the America COMPETES Act.
In a letter sent to lawmakers April 28, the bankers associations said, “The SAFE Banking Act is an urgently needed, and widely supported, bipartisan legislative solution to allow banks to handle the proceeds from state-licensed cannabis business and the accountants, skilled trades, landlords, law firms, and other service providers they rely on for legal operations.”
Currently, federal law prohibits banks from providing services to state-legal cannabis businesses, as well as ancillary businesses that serve the industry.
In their letter, the bankers associations argue that without access to financial institutions, the cannabis industry “is operating primarily in cash, which causes significant public safety concerns and undermines the ability of cannabis regulators, tax collectors, law enforcement and national security organizations to monitor the industry effectively.”
The SAFE Banking Act, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo., passed the U.S. House five times between 2019 and 2021, including twice as a standalone bill and as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act.
MIAMI, April 29, 2022 – PRESS RELEASE – Ayr Wellness Inc., a leading vertically integrated U.S. multistate cannabis operator, announced the opening of its 46th Florida dispensary, located in southern Tampa.
The new dispensary encompasses approximately 3,000 square feet of retail space in Hillsborough County, and is located just off the Dale Mabry Highway, an artery connecting several major shopping destinations, MacDill Air Force Base and Tampa International Airport. The store features Ayr’s full line of concentrates, edibles, gummies, vapes, and a selection of high-quality flower, including whole flower and prerolls.
“We are proud to welcome the latest addition to our Florida footprint,” Ayr founder, chairman and CEO Jonathan Sandelman said. “This opening, our 46th in the state, coincides with the recent launch of Kynd premium flower and Walking STIX prerolls, representing further expansion of our product portfolio and selection of high-quality product offerings available to our Florida patients.”
In February 2021, Ayr purchased Florida-based Liberty Health Sciences (LHS), which included 31 dispensaries across the state. Since then, the company has opened 15 additional locations—bringing the current total to 46 stores. This location marks Ayr’s fourth LHS location serving patients in the Hillsborough area.
In 2021, Ayr relocated its U.S. headquarters from New York City to Miami, underscoring the company’s commitment to the region. Florida has approximately 710,000 patients enrolled in its medical cannabis program as of April 22, 2022, per Florida’s Office of Medical Marijuana Use. Florida’s cannabis market ranks fourth in the nation by total legal cannabis sales, per BDSA, and generated more than $1.8 billion in medical cannabis revenue in 2021. BDSA expects Florida’s cannabis market to generate $3.4 billion per year by 2026.
For more information about Ayr Wellness or to locate your nearest dispensary, please visit https://ayrwellness.com.
]]>Despite lawmakers’ efforts this year to revive the rollout of Georgia’s medical cannabis program, the licensing process has largely stalled due to challenges brought by unsuccessful applicants.
Now, a medical cannabis company that was not granted a license has sued the state’s regulators, alleging that the licensing process was marred by “conflict of interest,” according to a local FOX 5 report.
The lawsuit, filed by Cumberland Curative against the Georgia Access to Medical Cannabis Commission, claims that the licenses were “bought and sold through closed door politics and back room deals,” the news outlet reported.
"If there is no wrongdoing or corruption, then why not turn these applications, evaluation sheets, etc. over to the public?" Cumberland Curative President Charlie Arnold told FOX 5.
Sharing a border with Massachusetts and New York, Connecticut no longer wants to see cannabis advertising from out-of-staters leading up to its own adult-use retail launch later this year. Or at least that’s the way lawmakers voted earlier this week.
With bipartisan support, Connecticut House members voted, 98-48, to pass House Bill 5329. In part, the legislation takes aim at banning those without a Connecticut-issued cannabis license from advertising cannabis products or services within the state.
The legislative action comes after billboard ads from out-of-state cannabis retailers started emerging along roadways near the state’s border with Massachusetts, The Associated Press reported.
The bill is being sponsored by the Joint Committee on General Law, which Rep. Mike D’Agostino, D-Hamden, chairs.
D’Agostino said lawmakers from both sides of the aisle who represent border towns approached the committee and said, “Look, I’m sick of seeing these billboards with cannabis leaves splayed all across them, within 1,500 yards across from a school or church or whatever. Can’t we do something more about that?” the AP reported.
But the border-town lawmakers aren’t the only ones taking aim at the advertising.
Kansas lawmakers began their final medical cannabis negotiations for this year’s legislative session this week.
A House and Senate conference committee met for the first time April 27 to draft a new medical cannabis legalization proposal under Senate Bill 12, according to a KSNT report.
RELATED: Will Kansas Join the Medical Cannabis Legalization Club?
The committee’s chair, Sen. Rob Olson, R-Olathe, told the news outlet that lawmakers are working to draft a bill that can garner the support of both chambers.
“We still got some time,” Olson said. “If we don’t get it done this session, … we still have a couple weeks when we come back for sine die to run that. But I believe we’ll probably work hard the next few days trying to get a bill together.”
PHILADELPHIA, April 26, 2022 — PRESS RELEASE — Ethos Cannabis has announced its acquisition of two cannabis businesses in the Ohio medical cannabis market. The acquisition of these businesses will further the Ethos footprint westward.
Previously, Ethos’s footprint included retail and production operations in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Maryland. This expansion into the Ohio market allows the company to continue advancing its intent to deliver high-quality cannabis to consumers across the United States.
In December 2021, Ethos acquired Agri-Med Ohio, a Tier II Medical Cultivation Licensee located in Langsville. Agri-Med Ohio is being integrated into the Ethos platform to further enhance and expand operations. Ethos will continue to produce the Meigs County line of products and looks forward to introducing additional products to the Ohio market in the future.
In April 2022, Ethos acquired About Wellness Ohio, a medical dispensary licensee located in the Greater Cincinnati Area in Lebanon. In the near-term, the dispensary will continue to operate as About Wellness Ohio but the company plans to transition the dispensary to the Ethos Cannabis brand later in 2022. Ethos is focused on continuing to provide all the positive attributes of the About Wellness Ohio experience, while launching attractive enhancements to continue to improve the patient experience.
“The acquisitions in Ohio position us to continue extending our retail experience and products to benefit more patients. As one of the most populated states in the U.S., Ohio is a natural progression for us as we further expand our operations. We are thrilled to continue leading this industry forward in a manner that puts health and wellness at the forefront,” said David Clapper, Ethos CEO.
