MjLink Cannabis Business News and Press
Republicans called it a waste of time, but an adult-use cannabis bill passed the Minnesota House by a 72-61 vote after roughly five hours of floor amendments and discussion Thursday night.
The legislation, House File 600, would allow for adults 21 years and older to possess up to 10 pounds of cannabis in a private residence, up to 2 ounces in public and grow up to eight plants (four mature) for personal use. It passed mostly along party lines, with six of 64 Republicans in the lower chamber voting in favor of the bill. Four of those delegates were successful in receiving majority support for their adopted amendments.
Overall, the bill has 35 lawmakers signed on for sponsorship—all Democrats—including chief author and House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler.
“Cannabis prohibition in Minnesota has been a failure,” Winkler said during his opening remarks on the floor May 13. “The criminal penalties associated with cannabis prohibition have been unfairly applied to communities of color and especially Black Minnesotans.”
Winkler went on to say that roughly 680,000 Minnesotans use cannabis every year.
According to Munira Mohamed, a policy associate at the American Civil Liberties Union of Minnesota who testified in favor of the bill during the committee process, a Black person is 5.4 times more likely to be arrested for cannabis possession than a white person in Minnesota, which is significantly higher than the national average of a Black person being 3.6 times more likely to be arrested.
Louisianatook a step toward minimizing cannabis prohibition in the state when the Houseof Representatives approved a bill to decriminalize possession on May 11.
Underthe state's current law, those who possess an ounce of cannabis or less can becharged with 15 days in jail and a $300 fine for the first conviction, with thepenalties significantly increasing for those who face a second, third andfourth conviction.
House Bill 652, which passed in a 65-25 vote, wouldremove the threat of jail time and reduce the maximum penalty to a $100 finefor the possession of up to 14 grams for first-time offenses. The measure nowheads to the Senate for consideration.
Andthe state House Committee on Administration of Criminal Justice approveda measure last week that would remove criminalpenalties for the possession, distribution or dispensing of cannabis in thestate, which is now headed to the House floor, the National Organization for the Reform ofMarijuana Laws (NORML) reported.
Furthermore,the House also approved House Bill 391 in a 73- 26 vote last week, which nowheads to the Senate. The measure would permit dispensaries to dispense up to 21/2 ounces of cannabis to any individual patient per 14 days and would revokethe prohibition on physicians who recommend medical cannabis for"inhalation" or in flower forms, the reform organization reported.
Andlawmakers also recently approved legislation for a levy tax on raw or crude cannabisproducts recommended for therapeutic use.
Tune into Fluence by OSRAM's next free webinar, where the team will answer some of the most fundamental questions about what lighting solutions best suit your cultivation goals.
In this presentation, Fluence's horticulture service experts will discuss the evolution of cannabis lighting technology and share best practices when evaluating the right light for your farm. The team will show you how to optimize your environment when upgrading to an LED lighting strategy and will also share some grower case studies illustrating the benefits achieved by cultivators who have taken these steps.
Join the free webinar at 11 a.m. CT Thursday, May 20!
]]>At Texas Original Compassionate Cultivation (TOCC), a vertically integrated medical cannabis producer in Austin, research goes hand-in-hand with production. Exhaustive research on lighting equipment, in partnership with Fluence by OSRAM, an LED lighting fixture manufacturer also located in Austin, has allowed the cultivation company to gain a deeper understanding of how light quality and intensity affect crop outcomes.
“Before, we never really had lighting options. You just [grew with] HPS [high-pressure sodium] or metal halide, and you just grew with whatever spectrum that bulb came with,” explains Jason Sanders, the cultivation manager for TOCC. “Well, the beauty of LEDs is we now have full control over the light quality and the intensities, really allowing us to maximize plant performance.”
TOCC has conducted studies on light spectrum, “everything from broad white to high red and everything in between,” Sanders says, as well as on light intensity. In the most recent study conducted at the facility, researchers examined the impact of the amount of red light hitting the canopy.
The findings? Using a whiter light (meaning a light with a broader spectrum) throughout all phases of growth correlates to larger dry weight flower yields than LEDs with a higher red light content (typically referenced as pink light).
The study required each of TOCC’s three flowering rooms to be broken into four zones, each representing a different spectral treatment. The light treatments differed with varying fractions of red light. The R4 zone was set at 40% red light (meaning it had the broadest/whitest spectrum), the R6 zone at 60%, and the R8 zone at 80% red light. The treatments were deployed in a randomized complete block design across the three rooms to ensure statistical validity to the study.
Additionally, each zone had a variety of type 1 (THC-rich), type 2 (THC:CBD balanced) and type 3 (CBD-rich) cannabis cultivars, to identify cultivar-dependent spectral responses. Light intensity was normalized across spectral treatments applying high photosynthetic photon flux density (PPFD) at the top of the canopy.
According to the 2020 “State of the Lighting Market” study conducted by Cannabis Business Times and made possible by Fluence by OSRAM, most cannabis cultivators are growing indoors, as 85% of participants said they operated this type of facility. However, an increasing number of growers also are running year-round greenhouses, as nearly a third (29%) indicated they grow in greenhouses with supplemental lighting.
Taylor Kirk, horticulture service specialist with Fluence by OSRAM, says while there are lighting fundamentals that apply matter what type of facility growers are operating, there are certain strategies that indoor growers must use to be successful that are different than approaches greenhouse growers take.
“When you're in a greenhouse supplementing with LEDs or another source, you are basically working with what you have from Mother Nature with sunlight, and then figuring out what you could add to offset low light levels at certain times, like cloudy days or certain times of the year where you just don't get as much sunlight. And that becomes a lot more challenging because you have to take a holistic approach to how much light the plant receives in a given day,” Kirk says. “With sunlight, you have sunrise and sunsets and this natural bell-shape curve of light intensity throughout the day, and there are a lot of different ways to manage it.”
While most growers consider light spectra, or the quality of light, light intensity and photoperiod when planning lighting strategies, Kirk says one of the most important inputs for boosting yield whether growing indoors or in greenhouses is light intensity. Growers who dial up this parameter carefully can see higher yields and other benefits.
Here, Kirk shares seven lighting tips and strategies for cannabis cultivators, whether they are growing indoors or in greenhouses.
1. Optimal lighting spectrum varies by facility type.
While indoor growers rely on lighting fixtures exclusively, greenhouse growers receive some of their power from the sun. Because sunlight provides a wider spectrum naturally, greenhouse growers are often interested in options other than broad-spectrum light-emitting diodes (LEDs), Kirk says.
A pair of House Republicans aren’t holding their horses on cannabis reform activity in the Senate.
Reps. Dave Joyce, R-Ohio, and Don Young, R-Alaska, introduced a bill May 12—the “Common Sense Cannabis Reform for Veterans, Small Businesses and Medical Professionals Act”— that would remove cannabis from the list of scheduled substances under the Controlled Substances Act.
In addition, the legislation would also protect depository institutions that provide financial services to “legitimate” cannabis-related businesses; provide safe harbor for veterans to use, possess or transport medical cannabis in compliance with state laws; and direct two studies on cannabis as it pertains to pain management and impairment through the National Institutes of Health (NIH), according to the bill’s text.
Joyce and Young’s efforts come as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and fellow Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., continue to work on drafting a federal reform bill to end prohibition in the upper chamber. They released a joint statement regarding their comprehensive reform efforts in February but have yet to introduce the measure.
Comprehensive cannabis reform took hold in the House last Congress via the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act, which would have removed cannabis as a Scheduled I controlled substance and eliminated criminal penalties for an individual who manufactures, distributes or possesses cannabis. While it passed the House last year, 228-164, the bill never advanced in the Republican-controlled Senate.
The chief sponsor of the MORE Act, Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., plans to reintroduce the 87-page legislation this Congress, he said during a House Judiciary Subcommittee meeting in March.
A legislative committee unanimously postponed a bill proposing restrictions on Colorado's cannabis delivery program after the bill's sponsor requested it to be delayed on May 6.
House Bill 1159, which Democrat Rep. Marc Synder introduced in March, would require dispensaries to be open at least five days a week for five hours a day to have a delivery permit. The bill would also limit delivery sales to only in-store products and would require them to be sold at the same price. Additionally, it would prohibit dispensaries from accepting online prepaid sales for delivery—which is already legal under the state's current program—the bill summary states.
Since Synder introduced the bill, it has encountered several amendment changes, the Westword reported. Some of those changes include, continuing to allow prepaid sales online for delivery and cutting the five-hour requirement for the daily operation to three hours.
Although Synder's bill has already undergone several changes, advocates of the original delivery program still asked him to pull the bill, citing "philosophical differences," Westword reported.
Prior to the vote, Snyder expressed to the committee that his bill was created to protect the delivery program, as he is concerned that many delivery-only stores would open and essentially take over, the news outlet reported.
And some of the state's largest dispensary chains have already shown pushback to the state's original delivery program because they are worried that "Amazon-like warehouses could take advantage of language that doesn't specify that a delivery permit must be connected to an active, operating storefront," the Westword reported.
Columbia Care launched Cannabist, its new dispensary retail brand.
According to Columbia Care, the Cannabist brand will provide patients and customers with a simple and approachable cannabis shopping experience while accommodating a range of experience levels. Cannabist will feature a number of premium brands, the company says, and will collaborate with brands run by social equity businesses and other industry leaders.
The first Cannabist location in Springville, Utah, saw its first sale on April 30, and three more Columbia Care locations—in San Diego; Tempe, Arizona; and Villa Park, Illinois—will rebrand as Cannabist by the end of May. An additional pipeline of more than 60 new and existing locations will follow over the next two years, according to Columbia Care.
“Cannabist is not only a reflection of where we are now and all of the markets we serve, but it is also a commitment to where we are going,” says Jesse Channon, Chief Growth Officer at Columbia Care. “We believe Cannabist will become a hub for all those who incorporate cannabis into their lives—regardless of what brought them to us. The Cannabist brand can grow with an ever-changing industry, continue to meet the needs of our patients and customers and serve as the platform for continuous innovation.”
According to Columbia Care, Cannabist stores are designed to encourage employee and customer interaction through both product recommendations and general education. Cannabist staff will undergo training to ensure a positive customer experience, the company says.
In addition, Cannabist locations will continue utilizing digital shopping platforms, including its own web-based application that is scheduled to launch in June, according to the company.
ALPHARETTA, Georgia, May 11, 2021 - PRESS RELEASE – MerchantE, an end-to-end digital commerce platform, is now offering its payment processing services to the growing CBD market.
“We are expanding our merchant portfolio into markets that have had a difficult time finding support from a payment processor, and the CBD business is now a focus for us," said Mike Rouse, chief executive officer at MerchantE. “The CBD industry has grown rapidly in the past few years and is only expected to get larger. We’re looking forward to providing payment services to clients in this emerging industry."
The global cannabidiol (CBD) market was valued at $2.8 billion in 2020 and is estimated to grow to $13.4 billion by 2028, according to a February 2021 report from Grandview Research. This growth is being fueled by increasing demand for CBD-based health and wellness products and more favorable government regulation of CBD production and distribution.
MerchantE has partnered with Fresno First Bank to serve as the sponsor bank for CBD clients. The CBD market has traditionally been considered high-risk for payment processing, making it more difficult and more expensive for merchants to accept and manage credit and debit card transactions. MerchantE, working with Fresno First, is now able to provide more transparent, reliable and affordable payment processing to clients in this growing market. For more information about services available to the CBD market, please visit MerchantE.com/NewMarkets.
]]>If you’ve attended Cannabis Conference or any number of other industry events over the past decade, you may have seen the late Roger Martin. A towering figure at 6’6”, the grayish-white-haired man could be found strolling the expo floor or sitting in conference session rooms, talking with everyone he could in a kind, soft-spoken manner to spread the word about HeroGrown Foundation, an organization he and his son Nick Martin founded in 2011. Originally named “Grow for Vets,” the organization’s founding mission was to help provide veterans with access to cannabis and CBD as an alternative to opioids. Roger—a former U.S. Army veteran and law enforcement officer who developed (and overcame with cannabis) a “VA-fed opioid addiction,” as Nick explains it—died in June 2020; Nick is now continuing to carry out HeroGrown’s expanded mission as its director and working to “save heroes” by providing access to cannabis as a safer alternative to opiates to as many veterans and first responders as possible.
Here, Noelle Skodzinski, editorial director of GIE Media’s Cannabis Group (including Cannabis Business Times, Cannabis Dispensary, Hemp Grower, Cannabis Conference and Hemp Grower Conference), talks with Nick about what it’s like working to build on his and his father’s original vision, how the Reno, Nev.-based 501(c)(3) charitable organization has evolved over the years, and what those in the cannabis industry who want to support veterans and first responders can do to help.
Noelle Skodzinski: What inspired you and your dad to launch HeroGrown (then Grow for Vets)?
Nick Martin: I helped my father beat his VA-fed opioid addiction using cannabis in 2010. Having discovered the power of the plant, we began giving free cannabis to veterans starting in 2011. In 2018, we began accepting first responders as members and changed our name to HeroGrown Foundation.
NS: What was the original mission vision for it and why were you and your father passionate about it?
NM: Over 50 veterans and first responders die every day from suicide and drug overdose. Cannabis saved my dad’s life, so we set out to save as many heroes as we could using cannabis.
T
The Green Organic Dutchman Holdings (TGOD) is in the process of selling its Valleyfield cultivation and processing facility in Valleyfield, Quebec, Canada.
TGOD expects the Valleyfield facility sale to "increase its financial flexibility in order to reduce its debt and capitalize on future opportunities," the company says. TGOD anticipates closing a purchase agreement for the facility by the end of June.
"We are pleased with the level of bids for the full Valleyfield facility, which upon closing would allow us to potentially retire all debt and provide additional expansion working capital," says Sean Bovingdon, CEO and interim CFO at TGOD. "Furthermore, most of the offer include the ability for TGOD to leaseback the small portion of the Valleyfield facility we are currently using, such that there will be minimal disruption to our current operations at the Valleyfield facility and no requirement for the company to expend capital for any relocation."
To date, TGOD has realized $2.64 million in various excess asset sales, the company says.
Minority Cannabis Business Association Elects New President and Vice President to Board of Directors
WASHINGTON, May 11, 2021 – PRESS RELEASE – Members of the board of directors for Minority Cannabis Business Association (MCBA), the largest trade association dedicated to serving the needs of minority cannabis businesses and minority communities, held their annual election last month to fill four open board seats and elect the association’s board officers.
New board members include: Mario Guzman, owner of cannabis brand Sherbinskis, who is best known as the breeder behind legendary strains such as Sunset Sherbert and Gelato; Cedric Haynes, who currently serves as the director of emerging marketplaces for WeedMaps; Willie Mack, a brand marketing executive who has worked for clients including Absolut Vodka, Estee Lauder, GQ, Microsoft, Obama Administration, Vanity Fair and Wired Magazine (he now serves as CEO and co-founder of Think BIG and Frank White); and Kika Keith, founder and CEO of Life Development Group, and co-founder and president of Social Equity Owners and Workers Association.
“I could not be more proud to represent minorities in the cannabis space. It’s always been in my heart to help people, now I have a tribe of like-minded people that I can join arms with and help make much-needed changes in our community. Thank you MCBA for the honor of being able to serve on this board,” Guzman said.
“It’s an honor and privilege to serve on the MCBA Board of Directors, and I’m excited to offer my public policy experience in furtherance of the mission. I look forward to working with MCBA leadership, staff, members and partners to create equal access for minority-owned cannabis businesses and advance economic empowerment for communities of color,” Haynes said.
“The team at MCBA has been vital to Think BIG’s education around cannabis legalization. I am grateful and honored to be joining the board as it will allow me to continue as a resource and representative of the Black and Queer communities’ fight for cannabis industry access, funding and legalization,” Mack said.
In addition to adding four new board members, MCBA’s board also elected Kaliko Castille, an industry veteran and co-founder of ThndrStrm Strategies, as its president and Jazmin Aguiar, president of The Working Group, as its vice president.
Trulieve Cannabis Corp., the largest fully licensed medical cannabis company in Florida, announced May 10 its definitive arrangement agreement for the acquisition of Arizona-based Harvest Health and Recreation Inc., in a $2.1-billion deal.
Primarily a vertically integrated “seed-to-sale” company, Trulieve touted the all-stock transaction as one that creates the most profitable multistate operator in the U.S. Harvest Health and Recreation, a multistate operator in its own right, has a retail and wholesale footprint that recorded continued growth over the past decade.
The handshake was not surprising as far as merger-and-acquisition activity in the cannabis space, which has been hot and heavy since the November 2020 election, but the whopping price tag attached to the deal was a head-turner, said Jonathan Havens, a partner at Saul, Ewing, Arnstein and Lehr’s Philadelphia-based law firm. He counsels clients on transactional matters in the cannabis industry.
“This is a big deal. The price tag is obviously quite notable,” Havens said. “But look, the M&A, the deal activity in the cannabis space, has been hot for a while and I think will continue to be hot. The price tag here is big. Trulieve is a very strong operator with a strong balance sheet, which gives them the opportunity to go out and make acquisitions like this.”
RELATED: M&A Uptick Expected to Continue in 2021
The Trulieve-Harvest deal shows that the cannabis industry is maturing and pursuing more targeted, strategic acquisitions rather than the land grab of early 2019, said Sander C. Zagzebski, a member at Clark Hill, a multidisciplinary, international law firm. Based in California, Zagzebski represents clients in mergers, acquisitions, dispositions and other change-of-control transactions.
MINNEAPOLIS, May 5, 2021 – PRESS RELEASE – Cannabis retailers have a new tool to enhance legal compliance, fight fraud, protect their staff and be certain of their ID checks. Veridocs Inc., a leader in solutions for ID authentication and identity management, is introducing the Veridocs BrightTower Retail Safety and Security System. This affordable, modular system automates the age verification process with technology far more advanced than a barcode scan and can also check internal and external watch lists according to state and local regulations. With ID readers, software, training, and additional options and integrations, BrightTower Retail delivers a flexible tool that outperforms standard ID verification systems and helps cannabis retailers maintain strict compliance.
BrightTower Retail’s ID authentication starts when a customer or staff member inserts an ID into the reader. It is quickly compared against a global database to confirm the presence of security features such as UV and other specialized inks, plus other electronic features present in the document. The technology confirms a match between the encoded data (such as barcodes and chips) with the data printed on the front of the document. This helps retailers easily spot barcode forgeries, which are increasingly common on fake IDs.
Cannabis retailers also have the option of incorporating watch list checks, automatically comparing the data on the ID document to databases as required by any state and local regulations. An option for facial matching compares the ID photo to a live image of the person presenting the ID, giving staff a useful tool to flag customers “borrowing” an older sibling or friend’s ID. Retailers can also use the technology to keep audit trails of ID scans for future reference and enforcement concerns.
BrightTower Retail includes on-demand training modules designed by experts in organizational safety and security. With this training, retailers can easily onboard staff members and help them make the right decisions when a fake ID is flagged, or a security concern arises.
Additional options such as security cameras with covert triggers are available for users to add extra layers of protection customized for their environments. BrightTower’s security experts—veterans of safety, security and fraud prevention—are also available for custom consulting and on-site assessments and trainings.
“BrightTower Retail was designed to help eliminate staff guesswork in spotting fake or ‘borrowed’ IDs,” Veridocs President and CEO Joe Oprosko said. “We’re giving retailers the tools—in both technology and training—to be certain they’re protecting themselves against fines, possible threats and fraud.”
]]>The legalization and taxation of recreational marijuana remains one of the hottest trends in state taxation. Currently, 16 states (Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, South Dakota, Vermont, and Washington) and the District of Columbia have passed bills or approved ballot measures that allow for the sale of recreational marijuana, and more states are poised to pass legislation this session. In total, actual recreational marijuana sales are happening in 11 states.
The Virginia legislature now has passed a bill that would legalize sales starting in 2024; legislators are currently working with Gov. Ralph Northam (D) to amend and finalize legislation. New Mexico lawmakers are very likely to pass legislation during an ongoing special session.
Voters in four states approved ballot measures in November, but only one state (Arizona) has established an operational marketplace. Vermont, which passed legalization back in 2018, has finally approved legislation, and the state plans to be operational starting in 2022. Recreational sales are delayed due to pending legal action in South Dakota and federal prohibition in the District of Columbia, although change is on the horizon in DC.
The unique legal framework under which marijuana use and sales operate—that of differing state and federal legality—means that every state market is essentially a siloed market. Marijuana products cannot cross state borders, so the entire process (seed to smoke, so to speak) must occur within state borders. This unusual situation, along with the novelty of legalization, has resulted in a wide variety of tax designs.
The following map highlights the states that have legal markets and levy taxes on recreational marijuana.
While the governor has not yet signed the bill (as of Friday), Alabama looks to be the latest state to pass a medical cannabis bill. It’s a good reminder that there’s much progress to be made for cannabis patients in the U.S.—even as a wave of adult-use legalization measures cruises across the country this year.
“Passing the Compassion Act will allow seriously ill patients to finally get the relief they deserve,” said Karen O’Keefe, director of state policies at MPP. “Alabama is one of only 14 states in the country that continues to criminalize the medical use of cannabis, and while this bill is more restrictive than is ideal, it is a dramatic improvement from the status quo and would improve the lives of thousands of Alabamians. We urge Gov. Ivey to sign it into law.”
We’ve rounded up some of the key cannabis headlines from the week right here.
As GrowGeneration zips through a series of acquisitions in the garden supply center world, we caught up with CEO Darren Lampert to learn about the strategy behind the transaction spree. Read more
As adult-use cannabis sales are on pace to break $1 billion this year in Illinois, plans to roll out 110 new retail licenses are adding fuel to the hot, hot market. Read more
Assistant Editor Andriana Ruscitto reports on the Texas House of Representatives approving three legislative proposals, which would expand the state's medical cannabis program, reduce penalties for concentrates and decriminalize possession. Read more
Contributor Chris Kudialis brings us the latest from Las Vegas, where on-site consumptions lounges are coming soon. Read more
And elsewhere on the web, here are the stories we’ve been reading this week:
Syracuse.com: “With recreational marijuana now legal in New York, Syracuse University is launching a new set of courses to prepare workers for careers in a new and somewhat complicated new field.” Read moreSpectrum News 1: “The tribal council for the Cherokee in western North Carolina voted Thursday to legalize medical marijuana on tribal lands. The tribal land will be the first area in the state with legal possession of pot.” Read more
Westword: “The tribal council for the Cherokee in western North Carolina voted Thursday to legalize medical marijuana on tribal lands. The tribal land will be the first area in the state with legal possession of pot.” Read more
WXYZ: “The Holistic Industries' consumption lounge will be adjacent to their retail dispensary, Liberty Ann Arbor, which has already been operating on Ashley Street.” Read more
Nevada Current: “As the Nevada Legislature debates a variety of cannabis-related measures, dissension among dispensary owners could impede efforts to take Nevada’s fledgling weed industry to the next level, says Clark County Commissioner Tick Segerblom.” Read more
]]>
Kansas took its first step toward legalizing medical cannabis on May 6, when the House of Representatives advanced House Substitute for Senate Bill 158 in a 79-42 vote.
The bill would permit patients with qualifying conditions to register to receive a medical cannabis card as long as they have a recommendation from a doctor whom they've been treated by for at least six months, with the exception of military veterans. The measure would also set up a licensing process for growers and dispensary owners, as well as permit the sale of medical cannabis tinctures, oils, patches or edibles, but not flower or additional smoking and vaping products, The Associated Press reported.
Before the bill entered the House, it received backlash, according to the article. Several law enforcement groups argued that there is not enough evidence to prove that medical cannabis can treat conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and Parkinson's disease.
But cannabis advocates proclaimed that it's challenging to get data on medical cannabis and its treatment due to legal status in the U.S., the article states.
During Thursday's debate, the majority of Democrats and some Republican lawmakers supported the bill; however, some Republican House members argued that legalizing medical cannabis would be the first step to adult-use legalization, while others classified cannabis as a "gateway" drug, the article states.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures website, Kansas is one of few states that does not have an established medical or adult-use cannabis program. Some lawmakers in favor of the bill said the state shouldn’t wait for the federal government to act, as “Kansans are tired of waiting on Kansas being last or falling behind other states on major issues such as this,” said Republican Rep. Adam Thomas.
Medical cannabis legislation was first introduced in the Alabama House of Representatives two decades ago. Eight years ago, it was the laughingstock of the lower chamber. Now, a medical cannabis bill has supermajority support.
After a nearly 10-hour filibuster Tuesday, House lawmakers reconvened Thursday and considered several floor amendments before passing the Senate-originated bill, 68-34, which would allow registered patients diagnosed with qualifying conditions to access cannabis. The legislation returned to the Senate for final consideration Thursday night, when the upper chamber voted, 20-9, to concur with the House changes.
The legislation, Senate Bill 46, now heads to Republican Gov. Kay Ivey’s desk. In a statement from Ivey’s office Thursday night, press secretary Gina Maiola said the governor looks forward to thoroughly reviewing the bill and providing the diligence it deserves, but did not say whether she would sign it.
If Ivey provides the ink, Alabama will become the 37th medical cannabis state, joining the likes of nearby Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi, according to reform organization Marijuana Policy Project (MPP).
“Passing the compassion act will allow seriously ill patients to finally get the relief they deserve,” said Karen O’Keefe, director of state policies at MPP. “Alabama is one of only 14 states in the country that continues to criminalize the medical use of cannabis, and while this bill is more restrictive than is ideal, it is a dramatic improvement from the status quo and would improve the lives of thousands of Alabamians. We urge … Gov. Ivey to sign it into law.”
The Alabama Senate has passed medical cannabis bills three years in a row, but this is the first time the House has passed legislation. Last year, pandemic-related circumstances derailed the lower chamber’s possibility of a vote.
GrowGeneration Corp. recently announced its acquisition of Downriver Hydroponics, a Michigan-based indoor garden supply center. The headline news was the latest in a long string of garden supply center acquisitions that has seen GrowGen take a growing claim to the market segment.
It was the ninth acquisition for GrowGren this year alone, and an opportunity that the company took to raise its 2021 revenue guidance to $415-$430 million.
CEO Darren Lampert spoke with Cannabis Business Times about the company’s acquisition spree, noting that these transactions have been a pillar of the company’s growth. GrowGen has targeted “best-in-breed” supply centers that mesh with the company’s outlook and corporate culture.
He said this growth is a symptom of a maturing cannabis industry, even while a hefty portion of the business involves hemp, fruits and vegetables. A wave of legalization is sweeping across the U.S., and cultivation resource needs are increasing. Budgets are increasing, too.
“In order to properly represent these big, large grows around the country, you need stores that can handle it. The product mix is enormous. We carry 10,000 SKUs, usually at least 3,000 SKUs in our stores. You need distribution. The big growers are just too large—the multi-state operators, the single-state operators. So, we saw this evolution. We saw the sea change switch. And what GrowGen did was we started small.”
The company began with four stores in Pueblo, Colo.: 2,000 square feet apiece, $1 million in business. By 2018, GrowGen was pulling in $30 million in annual business, still a far cry from the latest 2021 guidance.
