MjLink Cannabis Business News and Press
DENVER (Sept. 17, 2021) – PRESS RELEASE – Wana Brands will continue its partnership with The Green Solution (TGS), one of the first recreational cannabis brands in the nation, and the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment (CDPHE), to host six additional COVID-19 vaccination clinics through October.
The vaccination clinics, at key Denver metro TGS dispensaries, are part of Wana’s Summer of Quick Tour initiative to roll out its Wana Quick Fast-Acting Gummies in more markets across North America. TGS and Wana Brands partnered with the CDPHE to host COVID-19 vaccination clinics earlier this summer, helping to vaccinate participating Coloradans. Locations and times for additional pop-up clinics include:
Sunday, Sept. 19 from 4-6 p.m.Ohio’s medical cannabis cultivators can seek state approval to expand their operations as regulators at the same time plan to license additional dispensaries to serve the market.
The state announced Sept. 15 that it will grant expansion requests to growers that are in compliance with the program’s regulations, that are already using the maximum amount of cultivation space allowed and that demonstrate a need to expand their operations to meet demand.
Ohio has 20 licensed Level I cultivators that can grow up to 25,000 square feet of cannabis and 15 licensed level II cultivators that can grow up to 3,000 square feet, according to a Cincinnati Enquirer report.
The expansion would allow Level I cultivators to grow up to 50,000 square feet of cannabis, while Level II cultivators could grow up to 6,000 square feet.
The Ohio Department of Commerce will begin accepting and reviewing expansion requests on Oct. 1, and cultivators can only submit one expansion request during a 12-month period.
Episode 14 of Cannabis Conference’s newest podcast ‘Beyond the Show’ drops today, during which Digital Editor Eric Sandy interviews Schwass Law Firm founder Jared Schwass.
In the episode, Schwass weighs in on this week’s California’s recall election of Gov. Gavin Newsom, which failed by 63% to 36% margin, according to the New York Times, and what this means for the cannabis industry.
“The Republicans were riding the wave of the disgruntlement of Gavin Newsom in addition to the COVID response, but also—there’s a lot of disgruntled individuals in the cannabis industry, and they desire Gavin Newsom to take additional action. In my opinion, he has expressed his willingness to make the needed changes [to the regulatory rollout of Proposition 94]. I understand the cannabis industry feels like he’s been moving too slow on it. I would agree … but … I do believe we do have an ally in Gavin Newsom in the state government,” Schwass says.
Schwass also outlines some of the most recent challenges for small growers in the Emerald Triangle, including environmental disasters as well as pricing pressure and exposure to consumers.
“How I see it is that the limited number of retailers, they’re able to gate-keep the product. And I don’t think it’s necessary—I’ve heard people say, ‘Oh, you just make good product and it sells itself.’ I’ve seen fantastic product from these small growers, some of the best I’ve seen in the state, and they’re getting offered like $500 a pound for this amazing outdoor product, just because it’s outdoor. … Right now it’s very difficult for them to get their product in front of a consumer, in addition to the marketing struggles because it’s hard to compete with celebrity,” he says.
Listen to the entire 35-minute conversation, as well as previous episodes of ‘Beyond the Show’ on Spotify, Google Play, iTunes or CannabisBusinessTimes.com.
The Farmer’s Wife celebrated the grand opening of its third dispensary in Missouri’s developing medical cannabis market Aug. 20.
The new Springfield location incorporates many of the attributes that Director of Retail David Brodsky says sets the company apart in the state: a focus on retail paired with robust branding and a wide selection of products.
The Farmer’s Wife is locally owned by a group from Southwest Missouri, with its two other retail locations in Mountain Grove and West Plains. Brodsky spent the last decade working in the cannabis industry in California and Colorado before returning home to Missouri shortly after the state legalized medical cannabis in 2018.
One of the company’s owners previously worked in the pharmaceutical market and wanted to enter the cannabis industry to provide an alternative form of relief to patients, Brodsky says.
The Farmer’s Wife submitted its licensing applications in 2019 and ultimately won three retail licenses in early 2020, with its first dispensary opening on 4/20 of this year.
LOS ANGELES | September 16, 2021 09:00 AM Eastern Daylight Time | PRESS RELEASE | engin sciences, the creator of AI-powered recruitment platform, and Würk, an industry provider of human capital management software, announced today that they have entered into a partnership, creating the first fully-integrated recruitment, employment and human capital management platform for the regulated cannabis industry.
Through the partnership, Würk’s first-of-its-kind, comprehensive software will be integrated into engin’s proprietary AI-enabled hiring platform, white labeled for the cannabis industry as FlowerHire X. Together, the companies have deployed to cannabis industry HR leaders a unified solution to handle all aspects of the hiring process, from job posting to onboarding and payment.
Launched in April 2021 and powered by engin, FlowerHire X allows cannabis operators to quickly recruit and identify best-fit candidates for hourly positions. By automating job distribution and assigning a proprietary FitScore to candidates based on both hard and soft skills, assessments, and location, FlowerHire X creates a hiring process that prioritizes candidate experience, time to hire, and employee retention.
“Due to the endless regulations placed on this industry, one-stop HR vendors will not service cannabis businesses, forcing employers to navigate multiple platforms to recruit, hire, onboard, and pay new employees,” said Sloane Barbour, founder and CEO of engin sciences and partner at FlowerHire. “The seamless integration of Würk’s technology into the engin platform will allow us to provide leaders with a unified tech and services stack that will help simplify recruiting, onboarding, payroll, and compliance into one fully integrated solution to support the fastest growing industry in the country.”
Since 2015, Würk has been helping both startups and the largest MSO’s navigate cannabis banking, taxes, payroll, and compliance, by automating the most complicated and risk-prone processes associated with HR. Würk’s platform and managed services allows employers to protect and streamline their operations, while providing an environment where people are a priority every step of the way.
OAKLAND,Calif., Sept. 16, 2021 – PRESS RELEASE – Harborside Inc., a California-focused,vertically integrated cannabis enterprise, announced that it has entered into astrategic research agreement with Utah State University to conduct a studyled by world-renowned plant physiologist Dr. Bruce Bugbee on cannabis cropsteering. This complex cultivation approach manipulates all environmentalinfluences to increase crop yield, improve product quality and save resources.
Byadjusting irrigation, lighting and climate throughout the grow cycle, proper cropsteering gives cannabis growers more control over the performance of theirharvest. Bugbee's research will study all influencing factors to plant growthincluding light intensity, CO2 levels, ambient temperatures andsubstrate moisture levels which affect the yield, cannabinoid potency andterpene composition of cannabis plants. Harborside's vice president of production,Travis Higginbotham, will work closely with Bugbee to identify relevant andpractical crop steering techniques while contributing to the science ofcannabis. The research will be conducted in Bugbee's plant physiology laboratoryat Utah State University.
"Harborsideis committed to creating a cannabis industry that can meet growing consumerdemand for the product by finding ways to increase yields without compromisingquality," Higginbotham said. "We are eager to work alongside Dr.Bugbee to increase the collective scientific understanding of growing cannabisand discovering new production practices that maximize the performance of thiscrop."
"Froma practical perspective, this study will not only impact our scientificunderstanding of cannabis but also present relevant practices that can beimplemented in commercial cannabis production to potentially boostsustainability and help the industry scale efficiently," Bugbee said."We have used the crop steering approach in collaborative research withNASA to improve the yield of food crops in highly controlledenvironments and are now applying our insight to cannabis."
Bugbeeis the founder and president of Apogee Instruments Inc. and professor of crop physiologyat Utah State. He is a fellow of the American Society of Agronomy and AmericaSociety of Horticultural Science and has authored more than 137 peer-reviewedstudies in his field.
Forthe latest news, activities and media coverage, please visit the Harborside’scorporate website at www.investharborside.com.
]]>OTTAWA,Ontario, Sept. 16, 2021 – PRESS RELEASE – HEXO Corp. announced the company achievedits goal to become carbon neutral by September 2021, offsetting 100% of its2020 operational carbon emissions in addition to the personal emissions of its1,200 employees.*
InJune 2021, HEXO embarked on a missionto counteract its carbon footprint through a partnership with Offsetters, aVancouver-based organization that supports renewable energy and forest carbonprojects across the world. As a leading cannabis player in Canada, on the pathto becoming one of the top three global cannabis products companies, it was importantfor HEXO’s offset investments to have a global reach. At home in Canada, HEXOis helping reduce old-growth tree harvesting by supporting the GreatBear Forest Carbon Project. This landmark project balances human well-beingand ecological integrity through carbon finance and is the first carbon projectin North America on traditional territory with unextinguished aboriginal rightsand title. Globally, HEXO is supporting two other carbon offset projects—alarge-scale solar energy project in Asia and another forest conservationproject in South America.
Toachieve carbon neutrality, HEXO offset a total of 25,965 tonnes of carbon—19,610tonnes of operational carbon emissions and 6,355 tonnes of its employees’personal carbon emissions. If the top 100 Canadian companies pursued similarsustainability initiatives, it would be a significant contribution to Canada’srole in combatting climate change.
“Atthe start of the summer, we pledged that HEXO would not only become carbonneutral, but that we would also offset the personal carbon emissions generatedby every one of our employees. Today we are proud to say we have achieved ourgoal, setting a new standard in sustainability for our industry,” HEXO CEO and co-founderSébastien St-Louis said. “Consumers and investors demand greater environmentaland social integrity from companies. We are proud to share our commitment tosustainability and support our consumers’ ability to purchase products thatalign with their values.”
Inaddition to carbon emissions, HEXO is counteracting the use of plastic in itspackaging. Working alongside its primary packaging supplier Dymapak, in conjunction with Plastic Bank, HEXO has supported PlasticBank’s ethical recycling ecosystems in coastal communities, collecting andreprocessing ocean-bound plastics for re-introduction to the globalmanufacturing supply chain. In doing so, HEXO initially offset 63,000 kilogramsof plastic. By October 2021, HEXO will have supported the collection of anadditional 8,000 kg of ocean-bound plastic—making it a total equivalent of over3.55 million plastic bottles stopped from entering the world’s oceans.
Insupporting environmentalism, HEXO will continue to monitor and report on itscarbon emissions and plastic production and seek opportunities to reduce both.HEXO plans to emulate its success in the Canadian cannabis industry throughoutthe United States.
Earlier this summer, the team at Dark Heart Nursery announced the findings of a formal survey of cannabis growers across California: After some 200,000 tissue tests, 90% of California facilities researched were testing positive for hop latent viroid (HpLVD).
All told, the presence of that pathogen—to that degree—could account for a $4-billion loss in cannabis crops, according to the Dark Heart team.
The tests ran across more than 100 licensed cannabis facilities, from August 2018 to July 2021. This endeavor began during the research phase that saw Dark Heart connect HpLVd to a suite of worrying symptoms known as “dudders” or “dudding” at the time. This included stunted plants, low trichome production, weak stems and so on.
“Very early on, we knew there was this problem in the industry where plants wouldn't produce: low yields, low trichomes. We took the time to do the science, to do some RNA sequencing and figure out what was the actual cause of that. Hop latent viroid was only in the infected [plants], not in the healthy ones.” But simply identifying the pathogen was not enough. Once it was found, the Dark Heart team removed the pathogen, isolated it in a pure culture and then infected an otherwise healthy plant with it. Quickly, they noticed the familiar symptoms.
After approving an increased number of medical cannabis dispensary licenses earlier this year, the State of Ohio Board of Pharmacy will launch its licensing process to issue 73 new retail licenses, bringing the total number of dispensaries in the state to 130, according to a local News 5 Cleveland report.
The Board of Pharmacy will release its official Request for Applications (RFA) on Sept. 20, according to the news outlet, and the licensing process will be different than when Ohio regulators issued their initial 57 retail licenses.
State officials have split Ohio into 31 dispensary districts and have charted where the state’s 56 medical cannabis retailers are located, News 5 Cleveland reported. (The remaining licensees have not yet received final approval to open their doors to patients, according to the news outlet).
Using a new allocation method, the Board of Pharmacy is trying to ensure that there will be roughly 1,200 registered medical cannabis patients per retailer in each dispensary district.
The state will hold two Question and Answer sessions between when the new RFA is released on Sept. 20 and the end of October, and will accept applications from Nov. 4 through Nov. 18, according to News 5 Cleveland.
A bipartisan group of state lawmakers introduced the Michigan Cannabis Safety Act Sept. 14 to fine-tune testing, tracking and labeling regulations in the state’s medical cannabis market, according to a local WILX report.
Under Michigan’s current medical cannabis laws, caregivers, also known as unlicensed marijuana growers (UMGs), are not required to test, track or label products for their patients.
The Michigan Cannabis Safety Act, made up of House Bills 5300-5302, would update the Michigan Medical Marijuana and Michigan Medical Marijuana Facility Licensing Acts to include a new Specialty Medical Grower (SMG) license for UMGs, WILX reported.
RELATED: Michigan’s Cannabis Industry Grapples with New Regulations Surrounding Caregiver Products
Under the new license type, caregivers could still grow medical cannabis for themselves and one patient, but would be required to test, track and label their products in an effort to promote patient safety and increase caregiver accountability.
DENVER — Vicente Sederberg LLP (VS), a leading national cannabis law firm, announced Tuesday it has formed an environment, health, and safety (EHS) practice led by environmental attorneys with extensive public and private sector experience in the field. The new practice group will focus on helping marijuana and hemp businesses maintain compliance with state and local EHS rules, as well as federal regulations handed down by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), and other agencies.
With the legal cannabis industry growing rapidly, regulators at every level of government are showing heightened interest in holding cannabis businesses accountable for requisite environmental permits, licenses, and regulatory compliance. States and municipalities are increasingly incorporating sustainability requirements into license applications and regulations, and federal enforcement actions have been taken against cannabis companies for violations of the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.
On Wednesday, September 22, leaders of the VS EHS practice will host a free online review of the environmental laws and regulations that most commonly impact the cannabis industry. The webinar will also cover lessons learned from recent environmental enforcement actions, and it will highlight sustainability opportunities that result in cost savings. Register now and find more details.
“EHS is an area in which cannabis companies may be highly exposed to regulatory enforcement actions,” said Michelle Bodian, a senior associate attorney and co-chair of the EHS practice group at VS. “Noncompliance can result in significant civil or criminal liability for not only the businesses, but also the individuals who operate them. With enforcement activities ramping up, it is more important than ever for operators to understand their obligations and engage relevant resources to help them navigate these nuanced issues.”
The VS EHS practice group offers cannabis businesses a variety of services across the following areas: compliance and permitting; land use and real estate; litigation and enforcement; sustainability; and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) matters. A full list of services is available.
“In most cases, noncompliance with environmental regulations is likely unintentional and stems from a lack of in- or out-of-house personnel with experience in EHS law,” said VS counsel Marc Ross, co-chair of the EHS practice group and head of the Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) practice VS launched in July. “Up until now, cannabis operators have tended to devote more attention and resources to health and safety rules aimed at protecting consumers and employees. But with significant potential for hefty fines, criminal charges, and bad publicity, the ‘E’ in EHS is equally important.”
LONG BEACH, Calif., and TORONTO, Sept. 15, 2021 – PRESS RELEASE – Glass House Brands Inc. ("Glass House" or the "Company"), one of the fastest-growing, vertically integrated cannabis and hemp companies in the U.S., announced that its subsidiary has completed its previously announced acquisition of an approximately 5.5-million-square-foot greenhouse facility in Southern California (the "SoCal Facility") for total consideration of $93 million in cash, reduced from $118 million previously, plus stock considerations payable to the original holder of the option to purchase the SoCal Facility (the "Option Holder").
SoCal Facility Highlights:
Approximately 160 acres of agricultural property located in Ventura County, California.Approximately 125 acres of ultra-high-tech and efficient KUBO Ultra-Clima greenhouses, on-site well, water treatment facilities, automated roof washing system, supplemental lights and natural gas cogeneration facilities producing power, heat and CO2.Includes six greenhouses totaling approximately 5.5 million square feet:Phase 1 of the SoCal Facility retrofit will include the conversion of two greenhouses and two packhouses totaling approximately 1.7 million square feet and is expected to be completed in Q1 2022, with initial planting expected to follow shortly thereafter, contingent on regulatory approval.Planned upgrades include:Installation of black-out curtains, ebb and flood floors, high-density gutter system, dry rooms and processing facilities.Upgraded HVAC system to further optimize climate conditions.Automated nutrient delivery and irrigation systems.The initial Phase 1 capacity is expected to conservatively produce over 180,000 dry pounds of sellable cannabis (flower, smalls and trim), representing a more than 300% increase from our current capacity."We are thrilled to officially close escrow after significantly reducing the price which will keep an additional $25 million of cash on our balance sheet which is essentially debt-free today," Glass House Chairman and CEO Kyle Kazan said. "We can now commence the first phase of the facility's conversion and licensing which will dramatically increase our cultivation capacity. This milestone, together with our market-leading brand portfolio, which includes our Glass House Farms flower brand which was recently ranked the No. 1 in flower brand in the state of California in July, an improvement from the No. 2 position that we finished 2020 at (per BDS Analytics), and our extensive planned retail footprint has positioned us to lead the world's largest cannabis market."
Kazan added, "Our massive Southern California facility has the scale and the tools necessary for us to combine the highest quality with the lowest cost of production along with sustainable, environmentally friendly and responsibly grown craft cannabis. I'm excited to turn over this facility to our Chief Cannabis Officer and President Graham Farrar and his team."
"The Southern California facility is an absolute unicorn and will give us the ability to produce the highest quality cannabis at the lowest possible cost. This should allow us to thrive no matter what the competitive environment looks like," Farrar said. "The market is already responding to Glass House quality, as evidenced by our No. 1 market position. This new greenhouse will allow us to take that to another level and scale. We look forward to leveraging our supply chain and retail to replicate this success across more brands and categories. The entire team has been chomping at the bit to get started. An amazing greenhouse facility, in an ideal climate, with a fantastic team, we couldn't ask for anything more."
Transaction Details
After nearly seven years of being in the cannabis industry, Belushi's Farm has entered the CBD (cannabidiol) pet product market.
In 2015, American actor and comedian Jim Belushi founded Belushi's Farm to operate within Oregon's medical cannabis market.
The farm has grown from 48 plants in 2015 to a now 93-acre cannabis farm.
Belushi tells Hemp Grower he's been "flirting with and examining" CBD for a few years to learn about what's in the oils, distillate, isolate, what works, what doesn't work and more. Still, it wasn't until recently that he decided to segue into the market.
But it's no surprise that entering the CBD market right now is a risk as the industry struggles with oversupply issues. CBD prices have fallen considerably since 2019 after the number of acres grown skyrocketed that year, Hemp Grower previously reported.
Several farmers decreased operations and the number of licensed acres decreased from 511,442 in 2019 to 336,655 in 2020. And last year, only 70,530 acres of hemp were planted—all in an effort to fix the oversupply issue, which remains, Hemp Grower reported. PanXchange, a commodities trading platform that provides baseline prices for hemp, estimates hemp acreage will decline even further in 2021.
Earlier this summer, California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom faced uncertainty in serving out the remainder of his four-year term, which meant the future of the state’s cannabis industry also faced uncertainty.
While California rides heavily blue during elections, a late-July poll revealed the race for the Sept. 14 gubernatorial recall election was tightening and voters in support of removing Newsom from public office more energized. At that time, 50% of likely recall voters wanted to keep Newsom and 47% wanted him gone.
But Newsom picked up steam in the weeks after and kept his seat by a landslide Tuesday night, delivering a 28-point victory with 70% of precincts reporting as of Wednesday morning to stymie a Republican-backed effort that was sponsored by those who are “no friends of cannabis or criminal justice reform,” California NORML Director Dale Gieringer said in a news release last week.
With roughly 64% of voters casting “no” ballots to the recall (with 70% of precincts reporting), Newsom claimed a victory that was more convincing that the 2018 gubernatorial election, when he sailed to office by 24 points over Republican opponent John Cox.
Less than an hour after the polls closed Tuesday night, Newsom gave a victory speech to his supporters and said:
“It appears we’re enjoying an overwhelmingly no vote tonight here in the state of California. But ‘no’ is not the only thing that was expressed tonight. I want to focus on what we said yes to as a state. We said yes to science. We said yes to vaccines. We said yes to ending this pandemic. We said yes to people’s right to vote without fear of fake fraud or voter suppression. We said yes to women’s fundamental constitutional right to decide for herself what she does with her body. We said yes to diversity. We said yes to inclusion. We said yes to pluralism. We said yes to all those things that we hold dear as Californians and I would argue as Americans—economic justice, social justices, racial justice, environmental justice, our values where California’s made so much progress. All of those things were on the ballot this evening.
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- PRESS RELEASE -- StandardC has announced the addition of a leading payroll and benefits provider to its growing network of banking, lending, insurance and financial services that are available to compliant cannabis businesses.
"Until now, the cannabis industry has had limited payroll and benefits solutions, leading to a host of problems ranging from the inability to process a direct deposit for their employees to the failure to timely pay payroll taxes. We are delighted that our technology and expertise have enabled this national payroll provider, in addition to multiple banks and credit unions, to meet the growing needs of the cannabis industry," said Robert Mann, CEO and co-founder of StandardC.
This payroll processing partnership adds features for the cannabis industry, including direct deposit, automated payroll tax calculation, payment, filing, accounting system integration, online employee access and self-service, labor distribution, and job costing. Other key features include HR information system, employee onboarding, recruiting / applicant tracking, job board integrations, ACA compliance, COBRA, Cal Savers data feeds, and benefits administration with carrier connections. Cannabis companies now have access to time and attendance monitoring that satisfies state wage and hour requirements and monitoring employee covid vaccine and testing status. Beyond those basics that other industries take for granted, our new partner can provide fully outsourced payroll and HR—allowing the cannabis industry to expand and scale by focusing on its core functions. Employers are facing increased federal, state, and local HR mandates, in addition to the federal, state, and local cannabis industry laws and regulations. The new partner has a dedicated cannabis consulting and service team ready to help at their standard pricing—no overcharging the cannabis industry.
StandardC helps cannabis-related businesses with far more than payroll with its proprietary universal application for banking, insurance, lending, and payroll services. "Partnering with StandardC is helping entrepreneurial companies to scale and reach their potential in the market," said Erin Gore, CEO and founder of the Garden Society. "By transforming how the cannabis industry obtains financial services while automating how financial institutions fulfill their regulatory obligations, StandardC is solving a major dilemma for many of us."
Vomiting, hallucinations, trouble standing and loss of consciousness are some of the adverse effects associated with consuming hemp-derived products containing delta-8 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced in a warning statement Sept. 14.
Deep sedation, slowed breathing, irregular heart rates and decreased blood pressure were some of the symptoms experienced by children who ingested a parent’s delta-8-infused gummies purchased from a vape shop, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a separate health advisory statement Sept. 14.
The admonitions come after months of rising consumer demand and poison control reports associated with the cannabinoid, which is naturally found in the Cannabis sativa plant. Concentrated amounts of delta-8 can be manufactured from hemp-derived cannabidiol (CBD) and then introduced to products that are sometimes marketed as “weed light” or “diet weed,” according to the CDC.
Many states have already taken action to ban or regulate delta-8 products, which gained traction from, perhaps, a legal loophole—the 2018 Farm Bill specifically defines the legal delta-9 THC concentration of 0.3% for hemp but does not define delta-8 concentrations.
But enforcing those bans can face obstacles with online marketing and mislabeled delta-8 products, which have the potential to be confused with hemp or CBD products that are not intoxicating, according to the CDC.
“The health effects of delta-8 THC have not yet been researched extensively and are not well-understood,” the CDC stated. “However, delta-8 THC is psychoactive and may have similar risks of impairment as delta-9 THC. As such, products that contain delta-8 THC but are labeled with only delta-9 THC content rather than with total THC content likely underestimate the psychoactive potential of these products for consumers.”
South Dakota lawmakers approved the majority of regulations for the state’s medical cannabis program Sept. 16, while rejecting a handful of rules proposed Gov. Kristi Noem’s administration, according to an AP News report.
The Legislature’s Rules Review Committee, which approve the proposed regulations, told the Department of Health it must revise several of its proposals, the news outlet reported.
While lawmakers signed off on most of the Department of Health’s 124 pages of draft rules, which covered topics ranging from the fees for medical cannabis cardholders to the required height of fences around cultivation facilities, they rejected proposals such as a limit on the amount of high-potency cannabis that patients can possess, as well as a defined list of qualifying conditions, AP News reported.
The approved regulations set a $75 application fee for medical cannabis cards, according to the news outlet, and offer a $20 discount for low-income patients. They also establish a $5,000 state licensing fee for medical cannabis businesses.
The Department of Health held public town halls and meetings with industry groups throughout the summer, AP News reported, and Secretary of Health Kim Malsam-Rysdon told the news outlet that the department adjusted its regulations based on 42% of comments submitted by industry groups and individuals. She said the rest of the suggested changes were rejected due to conflicts with existing state law and impacts on health and safety, or they were deemed unnecessary.
The Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission has appointed its executive director and unveiled plans to begin cultivation next year.
AL.com reported that the 14-member commission selected State Treasurer John McMillan in a unanimous voice vote to lead the newly created agency, which will license and oversee Alabama’s medical cannabis industry.
McMillan served 14 years on the State Personnel Board and is also a former commissioner of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, according to AL.com. Alabama voters twice elected him as commissioner of the state Department of Agriculture and Industries in 2010 and 2014, and he was elected state treasurer in 2018.
McMillan plans to accept the role and resign as state treasurer, AL.com reported, which would prompt Gov. Kay Ivey to appoint a replacement to complete McMillan’s term.
“More than anything it’s just the challenge of being able to start a significant state agency that I think stands to really help a lot of people that need it as we move forward,” McMillan told the news outlet when asked why he wants the executive director role. “We’ve had some good research going on and there’s been interest in this for a number of years. It just appeals to me with my experience in state government and government agencies, you might say fixing some of them, that this is an opportunity to start something from scratch and get it right and see it bloom.”
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 13, 2021 – PRESS RELEASE – Viola, a premium Black-owned cannabis brand rooted in equity, announced the launch of the HarringtonInstitute, a school for cannabis education created in partnership with Cleveland School of Cannabis, which is currently on pace to be the first cannabis focused school accredited by the Middle States Association.
Aligning with Viola and its commitment to excellence, the mission of the Harrington Institute is to provide equitable access to the cannabis industry by providing high quality education to its community. With cultivation in Colorado, Michigan and Oregon along with long-standing partnerships across the greater U.S. and Canada, Harrington Institute provides unique access to a vast network of industry professionals, cutting-edge information and community investment.
“Harrington Institute is something that's very important for me and something that's needed,” Viola Brands CEO Al Harrington said. “I feel like right now the cannabis industry isn't seeing all of the talent available, so we wanted to create a platform and program that educates on all verticals within the industry. It's really important to us to provide access for young entrepreneurs and people from our community looking to get into the space.”
Harrington Institute will offer the Viola Build Scholarship to students of color who have been affected by the war on drugs up to $3,000 toward tuition. While classes are available to take individually, scholarships will be prioritized to students taking the full six-course program. To create more access to education, Harrington Institute will also provide student loans that will protect the students from predatory situations. The first classes will begin on Nov. 8, 2021. Interested donors are invited to invest in this life-changing opportunity to meet the growing demand for cannabis industry professionals.
“Access to education is paramount to advancing our communities that have been overlooked, left behind and marginalized. We’re providing in-depth education so that our folks have the ability to get in the game and I'm extremely excited for what's to come,” said Tyrone Russell, president of Cleveland School of Cannabis.
To apply or find more information visit harringtoninstitute.com.
]]>When Houseplant launched in the U.S. on March 11 earlier this year, the cannabis company’s website famously crashed. Brand co-founder Seth Rogen spent the day tweeting with eager customers, ensuring that folks in California would indeed be able to buy Houseplant flower and Housegoods products.
Within the first 24 hours, Houseplant cannabis inventory was sold out. As the week went on, the brand notched more than 500 million media impressions.
It was an auspicious start for the business’s foray into the U.S. after two years in the Canadian marketplace.
“Launching in the U.S. was always the plan, and years of work went into making it possible, so March 11 was a very exciting day for the team,” Mikey Mohr, Houseplant co-founder and CEO, says. “We had high hopes and expectations as we had prepared for so long and poured so much creativity and enthusiasm into what we were about to share with the world, but, honestly, we were blown away by the initial response. It was so overwhelmingly positive and showed how much our thesis and our brand resonated with people—obviously we never expected the excitement to crash our website, but looking back it was such a fun ride and has pushed us to continue to deliver at a high level.”
The enthusiasm matched what Houseplant had seen in Canada before the California work began. Product moved quickly in British Columbia and Ontario, and Mohr says that the brand learned how to convert those fast-moving sales metrics into business lessons.
“We learned that patience and discipline were critical,” Mohr says. “We were the first brand to treat cannabis products with the reverence they deserve across all touchpoints. We rolled out a best in class go to market strategy from innovative award-winning packaging to breakthrough in-store displays.”
