MjLink Cannabis Business News and Press
Eighteen states have legalized adult-use cannabis to date, providing 18 different examples of how to establish a licensed and regulated market.
NORML announced March 29 the release of a new report, “Marijuana Policies in Legal States: A Comprehensive Review of Adult-Use Marijuana Rules and Regulations,” which examines various aspects of the regulated adult-use cannabis programs in the 18 states that have legalized.
The report is meant “to educate decision-makers at the state and federal level on the common features of states’ adult-use marijuana legalization laws and regulations so that they can make informed decisions on cannabis policy and better understand how existing state-licensed programs are successfully being implemented in jurisdictions throughout the country,” according to NORML’s announcement.
“Despite the continued expansion of regulated adult-use cannabis markets and overwhelming public support for ending cannabis prohibition, many elected officials are still relatively unfamiliar with the specific policies that states have implemented over the last decade or with the lessons they have learned,” NORML Political Director Morgan Fox said in a public statement. “We are releasing this report in anticipation of a vote on the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement (MORE) Act in the U.S. House of Representatives and ahead of the impending introduction of the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act in the Senate, which will put a spotlight on cannabis policy reform and jumpstart conversations at all levels of government on how to best regulate this substance to ensure justice, efficacy, and public safety.”
The MORE Act, House Bill 3617, is sponsored by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y. The legislation, which aims to remove cannabis from the U.S. Controlled Substances Act, was first introduced in July 2019 and was passed by the full lower chamber in December 2020.
South Dakotans affected by one of 28 qualification conditions have been eligible to receive medical cannabis cards since November but gaining access to the newly regulated market may be more of a challenge than expected.
As of March 29, the state’s Department of Health (DOH) had only approved 90 doctors to recommend medical cannabis to their patients, CBS-affiliate KELOLAND News reported.
That has left patient and business participation crawling along.
Those 90 doctors are currently the gatekeepers to the program, as prospective patients need to have an in-person visit with a physician whom they have “bona fide” relationship with as part of a five-step process to be issued a medical cannabis card.
After that in-person visit, the physician determines whether the patient would benefit from the “therapeutic or palliative use” of medical cannabis for one of the qualifying conditions. That physician must then create an account with the DOH for each patient before the patient can apply for a medical card.
When announcing the issuance of the state’s first medical cannabis patient cards in November, medical cannabis program administrator Geno Adams said, “Today marks the culmination of months of hard work in preparation for the kickoff of a responsive and efficient medical cannabis program for eligible South Dakotans. In the months ahead, we will continue to ensure that patients and their caregivers can continue to obtain medical cannabis permits in accordance with their written certifications.”
The South Dakota Aberdeen City Council approved four medical cannabis dispensary licenses March 28.
According to the meeting agenda, the four licenses were approved for the following businesses:
Genesis Farms LLC, to operate dispensaries at 1812 Sixth Ave. S.E., 10 Railroad Ave. S.W. and 428 N. U.S. Highway 281, Suite 1; andDakota Herb LLC, to operate a dispensary at 3307 Seventh Ave. S.E., Suite 10.According to the “Issues/Alternatives to Consider” section within the applications, the current population of Aberdeen is 28,495. The number of cannabis dispensaries was limited to one per every 5,000 people; however, that has changed to six dispensaries based on the population.
RELATED: South Dakota Governor Signs Medical Cannabis Bills
Joe Gaa, Aberdeen city manager, said the council is currently processing a fifth medical cannabis license application, and a sixth one was submitted last week, Aberdeen News reported.
]]>New Jersey’s Cannabis Regulatory Commission (CRC) has repeatedly delayed the launch of the state’s commercial adult-use cannabis market, and now, Senate President Nicholas Scutari, D-Linden, wants to know why.
Scutari announced March 29 that a special bipartisan legislative committee will be formed to investigate the delays, according to the New Jersey Globe.
“These delays are totally unacceptable,” Scutari said in a statement to the news outlet. “We need to get the legal marijuana market up and running in New Jersey. This has become a failure to follow through on the public mandate and to meet the expectations for new businesses and consumers.”
Scutari has long been a proponent of cannabis legalization, which became a reality in New Jersey in the November 2020 election, when voters approved an adult-use legalization measure.
Gov. Phil Murphy, who also supports cannabis policy reform and campaigned on adult-use legalization in 2017, then signed legislation into law in February 2021 to implement the program.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla., March 30, 2022 – PRESS RELEASE – Trulieve Cannabis Corp., a leading and top-performing cannabis company in the U.S., announced its results for the quarter and full year ended Dec. 31, 2021. Results are reported in U.S. dollars unless otherwise indicated.
2021 Full Year Financial and Operational Highlights*
Revenue increased 80% year-over-year to $938.4 million in 2021.Gross profit of $566.1 million and gross margin of 60.3% in 2021 compared to gross profit of $386.4 million and gross margin of 74.1% in 2020.Adjusted gross profit of $621.4 million and adjusted gross margin of 66.2% in 2021 compared to adjusted gross profit of $389.9 million and adjusted gross margin of 74.8% in 2020.* The decline in adjusted gross margin is primarily attributable to strategic diversification into new lower margin markets and channels.Net income of $18 million and adjusted net income of $123.4 million*, which excludes $105.4 million of non-recurring compensation, fair value of inventory step up, and transaction, acquisition and integration charges primarily associated with the Harvest Health & Recreation Inc. ("Harvest") acquisition.Adjusted EBITDA of $384.6 million, or 41% of revenue in 2021 compared to adjusted EBITDA of $260.1 million, or 49.9% of revenue in 2020.*Cash at year end of $234 million.Raised $227 million in equity and $350 million in five year senior secured notes at 8% interest, representing industry leading terms for U.S. plant touching cannabis operators.Welcomed two new members to the Board of Directors, which now includes four women representing half of the board.Closed seven total acquisitions valued at approximately $1.5 billion in 2021 including Harvest and Keystone Shops. The Harvest acquisition closed in less than five months from the announcement, accelerating integration and optimization activities.Added 84 dispensaries in 2021, increasing retail footprint by 112% to 159 retail locations nationwide at year end.Added approximately 1.6 million square feet of cultivation and processing capacity through organic growth and acquisitions in 2021, increasing capacity by 89% to over 3.5 million square feet at year end.Commenced cultivation and retail operations in Massachusetts and West Virginia and received a notice of intent to award a Class 1 production license in Georgia.Exited 2021 with operations in 11 states, with 30% of our retail locations outside of the state of Florida.*See "Non-GAAP Financial Measures" in the full press release for additional information and a reconciliation to GAAP for all Non-GAAP metrics.
Q4 2021 Financial and Operational Highlights*
Revenue increased 81% in the fourth quarter compared to the fourth quarter of 2020 and 36% sequentially to $305.3 million.Gross profit of $132.4 million and gross margin of 43.4% in the fourth quarter of 2021 compared to gross profit of $119.9 million and gross margin of 71.2% in the fourth quarter of 2020.Adjusted gross profit of $180.6 million and adjusted gross margin of 59.1% in the fourth quarter of 2021 compared to adjusted gross profit of $121.7 million and adjusted gross margin of 72.2% in the fourth quarter of 2020.*Net loss of $71.5 million and adjusted net income of $1.8 million*, which excludes $73.3 million of non-recurring fair value of inventory step up, and transaction, acquisition and integration charges primarily associated with the Harvest acquisition.Adjusted EBITDA of $100.9 million, or 33% of revenue in the fourth quarter of 2021 compared to adjusted EBITDA of $81.4 million or 48.3% of revenue in the same period of the prior year.Added 58 dispensaries in the fourth quarter including 49 acquired through Harvest and Purplemed, nine opened in Florida, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, and completed the relocation of two dispensaries in Florida.Rebranded and reopened 14 legacy Harvest dispensaries in Florida during October as required following the Harvest acquisition.Released our inaugural ESG report, building upon the work done in our Sustainability Report in 2020.*See "Non-GAAP Financial Measures" in the full press release for additional information and a reconciliation to GAAP for all Non-GAAP metrics.
Recent Events
Location is key to capitalizing on cannabis markets throughout the U.S., and elected officials from one small city in New Mexico know it.
Sunland Park, a city of roughly 17,000 people in southern New Mexico, is nestled on the border with El Paso, Texas, to the east, and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, to the south. Those two cities provide a metro population of more than 2.5 million potential retail customers.
Specifically in Texas, only low-THC medical cannabis that’s capped at 1% is available to qualifying patients, while adult-use cannabis is not legal.
With New Mexico set to launch commercial sales of adult-use cannabis April 1, Sunland Park Mayor Javier Perea said he plans to take full advantage of welcoming the city’s cross-border neighbors to the new retail market, NBC-affiliate KOB reported.
“That’s the market that we’re going to try to capitalize on with the marijuana industry coming in,” Perea said. “That has opened up an opportunity that didn’t exist before.”
Referring to Sunland Park as a “bedroom community,” Perea said many of the city’s residents work and spend money in El Paso, but he thinks the retail script will flip with New Mexico’s forthcoming cannabis market, he told KOB. He expects a $7-million boost to nearly double the city’s current revenue.
Over the past couple years, many states across the country have seen a drop in the number of licensed hemp producers as oversupply stifles production and hurts prices.
But one state where interest has held steady is Minnesota. In 2019, the state licensed 353 hemp growers and 214 processors.
By 2021, the number of growers remained nearly the same at 348, while the number of processors jumped to 247.
That interest has translated to acreage. In 2021, Minnesota farmers harvested the third-most amount of hemp–2,300 acres–than producers anywhere else in the country.
RELATED: Colorado and Montana Top Lists of Most Hemp Acres Planted and Harvested in 2021
Katy Mutschler, the hemp program coordinator with the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA), attributes much of the interest in hemp to the state’s natural resources. “I just think Minnesota has really great farmland,” Mutschler says.
WAKEFIELD, Mass., March 30, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- PRESS RELEASE -- Curaleaf Holdings, Inc., an international provider of consumer products in cannabis, has been named on the second annual TIME100 Most Influential Companies list – an extension of the annual TIME100 list of the world's most influential people – that highlights 100 companies making an extraordinary impact around the world.
To assemble the list, TIME solicited nominations from every sector – ranging from health care and entertainment to transportation and technology – from its editors and correspondents around the world, as well as from industry experts. TIME editors then evaluated each one on key factors including relevance, impact, innovation, leadership and success.
Curaleaf's inclusion on the TIME100 Most Influential Companies list is an acknowledgment of the company's vision to advance the cannabis industry and lead the world in cannabis education, accessibility, and customer satisfaction with high-quality products backed by science. The award comes at an inflection point for the industry as proposed cannabis legislation reform once again makes its way through Washington this week, and states like New York and New Jersey move toward opening the adult use market as a result of voter demand.
"Being recognized as one of the world's most influential companies by TIME is further confirmation that our work is breaking down the stigma of the plant, building an equitable and exciting industry, launching innovative new products for a wide consumer base and tangibly supporting the communities that we serve," said Joe Bayern, CEO of Curaleaf US. "We are humbled and honored to be included alongside change-making companies that are revolutionizing their industries as well. As the only cannabis company included on this list, we hold a unique responsibility in shaping and leading our industry for continued success in the future."
For the complete TIME100 Most Influential Companies list, please visit www.time.com/100companies.
Zoning parameters for cannabis dispensaries, such as restrictions on operating near schools, churches and residential neighborhoods, often create an added hurdle for aspiring entrepreneurs in the space.
For those who plan on opening a retail facility in Tucson, Ariz., following the state’s April 8 lottery to issue 26 social equity retail licenses, special zoning rules for the winners could take six months.
But elected officials in the state’s second largest city said establishing exceptions for real estate locations is part of a plan to help ensure those who are supposed to benefit from Arizona’s social equity provisions in the state’s adult-use cannabis program are the ones who actually benefit, the Arizona Daily Star reported.
Tuscon Mayor Regina Romero and city council members voted unanimously last week to direct zoning department officials to begin drafting a special exception process that would impose certain conditions on adult-use facilities in the city limits, according to the news outlet.
While the Arizona Department of Health Services’ (ADHS) intent in issuing 26 social equity licenses is to uphold provisions in the state’s voter-approved Proposition 207 from the November 2020 election, Romero wrote in a memo that several people who were disproportionately impacted by prohibition were excluded entirely from applying for one of the licenses because a $4,000 application fee imposed by ADHS caused a barrier to entry for low-income residents.
ADHS officials said the department received more than 1,500 applications for the social equity licenses. Leaving leeway in the regulatory groundwork, Prop. 207 established that the 26 licenses be awarded to applicants impacted by prohibition.
Understanding the nuances of various customer journeys in the cannabis space has become increasingly pivotal among companies trying to gain a bigger share of a burgeoning market through brand recognition, exclusive partnerships and product offerings.
But understanding trends and habits of potential customers is one thing. Launching a marketing strategy to acquire those customers is another.
Since Valda Coryat took the reins in December 2019 as chief marketing officer at Florida-based Trulieve—one of the fastest-growing and most profitable multistate operators in the U.S., with an 11-state footprint and more than 160 dispensaries—the company has continued to thrive in ways big and small.
Specifically, Trulieve acquired Harvest Health & Recreation in a deal that had a $2.1-billion all-stock price tag when the agreement was first announced in May 2021. In addition, the company has launched brands like the Cultivar Collection, Muse, Sweet Talk, and Momenta, and struck exclusive partnerships with celebrities like Wiz Khalifa and Survivor: Africa winner Ethan Zohn as part of its strategic expansion.
Trulieve also set in motion a nationwide Supplier Diversity Initiative earlier this month that focuses on providing education and professional development resources while creating mutually beneficial business partnerships with a supplier base reflective of the customers and communities the company serves.
Those moves and more have been driven, in part, by key company insights that have helped shaped marketing plans that resonate with targeted demographics, Coryat told Cannabis Business Times.
Vermont won’t officially open its cannabis business licensing process until April 1, but the state has already received more than 400 prequalification applications from entrepreneurs looking to participate in the adult-use market, which is slated to launch this fall.
As of midday on March 29, 427 business hopefuls had submitted applications for prequalification, according to an Associated Press report.
The official application process opens April 1 for small growers and testing facilities, May 1 for all cultivators, July 1 for product manufacturers and wholesalers, and Sept. 1 for retailers, the news outlet reported.
In January 2018, Vermont became the first state in the U.S. to legalize cannabis through legislation, rather than through a voter-approved ballot initiative.
It wasn’t until October 2020, however, that the state legalized commercial adult-use cannabis sales, promising to get the market up and running by spring of 2022.
Planet 13, the Las Vegas-based, vertically integrated powerhouse that recently began offering cannabis-themed weddings and is branching out in markets such as California and Florida, has announced fourth-quarter (Q4) and full-year financial results for 2021.
Those numbers include the Q4 2021 revenue of $29.9 million, a 48% increase from Q4 2020, and $119.5 million in full-year revenue, up 70% compared to all of 2020, according to a press release.
Meanwhile, in 2021, Planet 13 established $66 million in gross profit, a net loss of $19.5 million, and an adjusted EBITDA of $16.9 million.
"During a quarter that is seasonally slower and marked by significantly less tourist traffic, Planet 13 was able to maintain a market share above 10 percent in the Las Vegas cannabis market. In addition to the competitive performance demonstrated by our SuperStore and neighborhood store, our brands grew 21 percent in a market that was down 5 percent in Q4," Larry Scheffler, co-CEO of Planet 13, stated in the release. "Similarly, while the California market was down sequentially in Q4 , our Orange County store grew 7.2 percent in the quarter on the back of increased brand awareness."
"Over the last couple months, the Planet 13 team has been working hard to operationalize all of the exciting new assets we've acquired over the past year. We are making strong progress on our Florida roadmap working in dual tracks to bring cultivation and retail online," added Bob Groesbeck, co-CEO of Planet 13. "In California, we closed the acquisition of Next Green Wave in March allowing us to become vertically integrated in the state and bring our award-winning brands to Planet 13's California fans."
]]>Bermuda’s House of Assembly has passed a cannabis legalization bill for the second time, sending it to the governor for Royal Assent.
The Cannabis Licensing Act of 2022, passed in an 18-6 vote, would establish a regulatory framework for the cultivation and sale of cannabis in Bermuda, a British Overseas Territory.
The legislation, introduced by Home Affairs Minister Walter Roban, creates a series of cannabis licenses that will be issued through a licensing authority, according to a Caribbean National Weekly report.
Smoking cannabis in public will be prohibited except in designated shops, the news outlet reported. Selling cannabis to anyone under the age of 21 will also remain illegal.
The House of Assembly approved the legislation last year, only to have the Senate block its passage, Caribbean National Weekly reported.
The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act is still scheduled for a March 30 hearing in the House Rules Committee, but lawmakers have a growing array of amendments to consider.
The legislation, House Bill 3617, received 10 additional proposals (15 amendments total) as of mid-afternoon March 29. The new offerings range from topics of deporting illegal immigrants to cannabis product additives, packaging, funding and more.
One of the amendments was offered by Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., whose name has become infamously tied to Washington, D.C.’s, current ban on commercial cannabis sales. Despite district voters approving adult-use cannabis via Initiative 71 in the November 2014 election, a rider, commonly referred to the “Harris rider,” was introduced by Harris the following year, which stripped the district’s elected officials of the power to regulate a retail industry.
RELATED: D.C. Remains on Cannabis Sales Sideline in New Omnibus Bill
Harris, who voted against a previous version of the MORE Act that U.S. House members passed in 2020, now wants to prohibit any portion of the current MORE Act from being carried out until the Comptroller, the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Secretary of Transportation “have studied the societal, public health and public safety implications” of enactment of the bill, and until the director of the National Institute of on Drug Abuse has certified that “the societal, public health and public safety benefits of enactment of this bill outweigh the societal, public health and public safety risks.”
That change and others come on the heels of the House Rules Committee announcing March 24 that it plans to take up the MORE Act this week with the legislation calendared for possible floor debate in the full lower chamber thereafter.
DENVER—March 29, 2022—PRESS RELEASE—The 420 Hotels Inc. has obtained a provisional license from the city of Denver, clearing a major cannabis licensing hurdle to operate a cannabis consumption lounge as an amenity to the adjacent hotel. The owner of the historic Patterson Inn is transforming the carriage house of the property into a first in the nation, in-hotel licensed legal cannabis consumption lounge.
Denver has become a popular destination in recent years for tourists who want to incorporate legal cannabis into their vacation plans. And yet with sufficient options within the neighborhood to purchase, public consumption of cannabis was banned in the city.
Chris Chiari, CEO and founder of The 420 Hotels, is changing that by incorporating a sophisticated cannabis consumption space into the century-old National Landmark in Denver’s storied Capitol Hill neighborhood.
“The 420 Hotels sees cannabis hospitality as the most unique and exciting amenity in the hotel industry today,” Chiari said. “We are excited to be the first cannabis lounge to be licensed as an amenity to overnight hospitality, and to provide a welcoming space for legal cannabis consumption.”
With the provisional license in hand, The 420 Hotels Inc. is moving forward on renovating the carriage house of the Victorian era inn with a lounge that adheres to recently passed state laws for commercial cannabis consumption spaces. The goal is to have the updates, funded by an equity crowdfunding campaign through Republic.com, complete by the end of 2022.
After introducing a bill that aims to end federal cannabis prohibition, U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., is now the target of a new political action committee (PAC) backed by a notorious prohibitionist group’s executive.
Mace’s States Reform Act (SRA) offers a path to reform that includes a 3% federal cannabis excise tax and provides state governments the power to regulate cannabis products through the health-and-safety oversights of their choosing, while authorizing the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) to oversee cannabis products in interstate commerce.
Although Mace’s proposed legislation is one of three high-profile bills aimed at broad federal cannabis reform introduced this Congress, it was a little too ambitious for a PAC called Protect Our Kids, which prohibitionist group Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) Executive Vice President Luke Niforatos filed with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) in January.
The PAC announced March 28 it would be running digital advertising “educating Republican primary voters on Rep. Mace’s destructive policy positions,” The Post and Courier reported.
While Protect Our Kids will operate separately from SAM, the ties remain.
Formed in 2013, after Colorado and Washington voters approved adult-use legalization measures in the November 2012 election, SAM was co-founded by Kevin Sabet, a former three-time adviser for the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy. The organization aims to create policies that decrease cannabis use.
The fate of South Carolina’s medical cannabis legalization measure is in the hands of a House panel this week after the bill passed the Senate last month.
The six-member Medical, Military, Public and Municipal Affairs subcommittee will hold a hearing on S. 150, the SC Compassionate Care Act, on March 31, according to The State.
The legislation, sponsored by South Carolina Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, outlines 13 qualifying conditions, including cancer, multiple sclerosis, post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic medical conditions causing serious muscle spasms, and any chronic or debilitating condition for which an opioid is prescribed.
The bill would allow patients to access a two-week supply of medical cannabis in the form of oils, vaporizers, salves, topicals and patches.
The legislation would levy a 6% sales tax on medical cannabis products, and would grant South Carolina’s cities and counties the power to opt out of hosting the industry within their jurisdictions.
Grenco Science, the company behind the G Pen, is celebrating its 10-year anniversary this year since the company's founding in 2012.
Not only is Grenco Science celebrating its decade milestone, but company founder and CEO Chris Folkerts also recently celebrated his 40th birthday earlier this month. As he reaches new milestones both professionally and personally, Folkerts sat down with Cannabis Business Times to reflect on his company’s history, his career in cannabis, the California market, and more.
Zach Mentz: How did you get your start in this industry and how did you end up here as founder and CEO of Grenco Science?
Chris Folkerts: Not only did my company turn 10 [in February], but I turned 40 [in March], so it's kind of an interesting moment … I think it's a nice intersection of where I expected I would be in life and where I thought the company (Grenco Science) would be.
There was this ‘it’ moment in a dispensary called LA Confidential in Los Angeles that was very known as an epicenter for a lot of the culture and lifestyle that happened. They had a hash bar, and they did jazz and comedy nights, things like that, and so this became very much of a hangout for me and a lot of people. The (California) market was still medicinal, shops were plentiful, it was pretty easy to get yourself into a space and it was pretty easy to get yourself set up. That was the landscape for the industry. You had growers and you had shops and you had middlemen in between.
As I was hanging out and being there, I saw the very first product where somebody figured out how to utilize e-cig technology that was currently available. I saw somebody that figured it out, a guy out of the Bay Area with a product called the “Vape Pen,” literally. It came with little prefilled cotton cartomizer that had been filled with some sort of a tincture which has some sort of either an ethanol or a glycerin mix and could be vaporized. So I screwed that in, I hit the device, vapor came out, and there was an ever-so-faint taste of cannabis. And I thought that was a lightbulb going off over my head.
Legislation on Capitol Hill would allow for research on cannabis as a treatment for veterans with chronic pain and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)—if it can first pass out of committee.
Senate Bill 1467 and House Resolution 2916, known as the “VA Cannabis Research Act of 2021,” would require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to conduct a series of clinical trials on the effects of cannabis on patients with these conditions.
The Senate version of the legislation was introduced in April 2021 by Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and has not seen any movement since a June 2021 hearing by the Committee on Veterans Affairs. S.B. 1467 has picked up one cosponsor, Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska.
The House version of the legislation, also introduced in April 2021, is sponsored by Rep. Lou Correa, D-Calif., and has four co-sponsors: Reps. Peter Meijer, R-Mich.; Elaine Luria, D-Va.; Andy Kim, D-N.J.; and Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., who just recently signed on to the legislation earlier this month.
Disabled American Veterans (DAV), a nonprofit organization that, in part, helps fight for veterans’ interests on Capitol Hill, backs both bills.
Cannabis Amnesty, a Canadian non-profit advocacy group, and TOQi Technologies have partnered to launch the TOQi Fellowship for Cannabis Amnesty program.
The fellowship program will support two salaried internship positions during the summer of 2022, with support from Aurora Cannabis. The internships were designed to create economic opportunities for those from communities most impacted by decades of cannabis prohibition.
Throughout the program, fellows will gain experience in advocacy and communications through mentorship, networking opportunities, and additional perspective on the cannabis industry and Cannabis Amnesty's mission.
"Historically, cannabis laws were unequally enforced by law enforcement in Canada, disproportionately impacting Black, Indigenous and under-resourced communities," said Annamaria Enenajor, executive director of Cannabis Amnesty. "Cannabis convictions limit economic opportunities for people from these communities, thus further entrenching systemic racism through poverty and disenfranchisement. We are grateful to TOQi and Aurora Cannabis for their leadership in supporting our efforts to dismantle these economic barriers, and look forward to welcoming more cannabis brands to our shared vision of justice and equality in the cannabis industry."
The program will run from May through August, and prospective applicants can apply here. Applications will be accepted through April 19.
