MjLink Cannabis Business News and Press
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Congresswoman Barbara Lee (CA-13), co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, today applauded the passage of the Blumenauer, McClintock, Holmes Norton, Lee amendment to the Commerce, Justice, and Science Department funding bill. The measure, which would prevent the Department of Justice from using its funds to impede the implementation of cannabis programs in Read the full article...
OREGON: The OLCC has released the audio from the July 29, 2020 Licensee and Industry RAC. The topic of the advisory meeting was draft rules concerning additives and added substances in the states legal marijuana products. Listen to the audio here: AUDIO
FV Pharma to shut down operations within 30 days CANADA: FSD Pharma Inc. today announced that it has notified Health Canada of the Company’s decision to forfeit the licenses of its wholly-owned subsidiary, FV Pharma, Inc. and suspend all activities by FV Pharma within 30 days of the notification date. FSD Pharma has begun the Read the full article...
The U.S. House of Representatives passed an amendment July 30 that protects state-legal cannabis businesses from federal intervention.
The amendment, included in a Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) Appropriations bill, bars the Department of Justice from using taxpayer funds to enforce federal anti-cannabis laws in U.S. states that have legalized medical and/or adult-use cannabis.
“This is the most significant vote on marijuana policy reform that the House of Representatives has taken this year,” NORML Political Director Justin Strekal said in a public statement. “The importance of this bipartisan vote cannot be overstated as today, nearly one in four Americans reside in a jurisdiction where the adult use of cannabis is legal under state statute. It is time for Congress to acknowledge this reality and retain these protections in the final spending bill.”
Since 2014, Congress has passed annual spending bills that included the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer amendment, which protected state-licensed medical cannabis businesses from federal law enforcement.
CALIFORNIA: COVID-19 has wreaked havoc on the California economy, and the cannabis sector has not been immune. Supply chains have been disrupted, revenues have taken a hit, and labor has been impacted. California’s cannabis industry is feeling the pain and seeking a path to recovery through economic stimulus, innovation and new business models, and solid Read the full article...
With Maine’s first adult-use cannabis cultivators, manufacturers and testing labs expected to open this fall, the Office of Marijuana Policy (OMP) anticipates that adult-use sales will launch by the end of the year, according to the Portland Press Herald.
The OMP delayed its planned June launch due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but now the office’s director, Erik Gunderson, says that licensing the supply chain will give the state’s adult-use industry time to grow, manufacture and test products for Maine’s first recreational dispensaries, the news outlet reported.
Gunderson expects the first adult-use cannabis sales taxes to roll in sometime in the second quarter, which ends in December, according to the Portland Press Herald, and the delayed market launch means the state will likely fall short of the projected $84 million in retail sales during fiscal year 2021.
However, the volume of license applications indicate that the state will reach the predicted $118 million in adult-use sales in fiscal year 2022, the first full year of operations, the news outlet reported.
As of July 28, the OMP had received 342 adult-use cannabis business applications, with 27 now in the final phase of licensing, according to the Portland Press Herald. Of the remaining applications, 151 have a conditional state license and are awaiting local approval, and 164 are still awaiting conditional approval from the state, the news outlet reported.
Adult-use cannabis sales in Michigan have topped $200 million so far this year, according to a Michigan Radio report.
The Michigan Regulatory Agency has indicated that for the past two months, cannabis businesses have reported between $10 million and $14 million in weekly sales, according to the news outlet.
Adult-use sales have generated nearly $35 million in excise and sales tax revenues since the market launched in December 2019, Michigan Radio reported.
Last month, the market reached another milestone when the state’s weekly adult-use cannabis sales exceeded medical sales for the first time.
The Netherlands has received 149 applications from growers hoping to participate in the country’s regulated cannabis cultivation experiment, according to an NL Times report.
Prospective cultivators could apply for the program from July 1 through July 28, and now the Ministries for Medical Care and of Justice and Security will evaluate the applications and license 10 growers by early 2021, the news outlet reported.
Ten local municipalities are participating in the experiment by hosting the cultivators, including Almere, Arnhem, Breda, Groningen, Heerlen, Hellevoetsluis, Maastricht, Nijmegen, Tilburg and Zaanstad. Government officials will consult with these municipalities to ensure plans are in place for public order and safety, according to the NL Times.
WARMINSTER, PA (July 29, 2020) – PRESS RELEASE – SP Industries (SP) CEO Brian Larkin has announced the signing of a partnership agreement with Ecodyst (NC, USA). In making the announcement Larkin stated, “This new partnership enables our SP Genevac brand to be the comprehensive, one-stop-shop for all evaporation solutions. Ecodyst’s revolutionary single sample evaporator line complements our SP Genevac world-renowned centrifugal evaporators for parallel sample evaporation and together lets us work with customers more effectively to help streamline and accelerate the drug discovery process.”
George Adjabeng, CEO of Ecodyst, commented, “Ecodyst is passionate about the innovative devices that we bring to the laboratory equipment industry and have emerged as an innovative leader and creator of high quality, high capacity single evaporator technology. This new partnership with SP is a significant milestone for Ecodyst and it will enable us to make these products available to more customers worldwide.’’
During sample preparation, evaporation is used if samples need to be dried prior to analysis. If there is just one sample, a single sample evaporation system is used, and Ecodyst offers a full range of single sample evaporators from benchtop to industrial models, all offering their self-cooling condenser technology for maximum efficiency, sample quality and lower environmental impact. When multiple samples need drying, SP Genevac parallel centrifugal evaporators eliminate the solvent drying bottleneck in the drug discovery and synthetic organic chemistry laboratory. These systems, which come equipped with Genevac Dri-Pure patented anti-bumping technology, range from bench-top to high throughput scale and have been proven capable of removing even the most difficult solvent mixtures without compromising sample purity or integrity.
Larkin added: “We are excited to partner with a like-minded organization that approaches product design with a keen understanding of the needs and challenges facing today’s customers. Having a broader offering that includes single sample evaporators is particularly relevant for those engaged in pharmaceutical and cannabis sample preparation workflows. The SP team is looking forward to working with our customers to provide them with the best solution for their requirements in conjunction with the unparalleled service and lifetime applications support that have led to SP Genevac being the recognized market leader.”
For further information on the expanded SP Genevac range of sample evaporation systems for single or multiple sample drying, visit www.spscientific.com/Genevac or contact SP Scientific at +1-800-523-2327 (+44-1473-240000 in Europe).
TORONTO—July 30, 2020--PRESS RELEASE--FSD Pharma Inc. today announced that it has notified Health Canada of the Company’s decision to forfeit the licenses of its wholly-owned subsidiary, FV Pharma Inc., and suspend all activities by FV Pharma within 30 days of the notification date. FSD Pharma has begun the process of liquidating all FV Pharma assets, including the sale of the Company’s cannabis production facility in Cobourg, Ontario.
“It is now clear to us that our shareholder value is best served in closing down our medicinal-grade cannabis operation in Cobourg, Ontario and reinforcing steps to advance pharmaceutical R&D efforts on our lead compound FSD201 (ultra-micronized PEA) and continuing to explore the acquisition of other compelling compounds to expand our drug development pipeline," said Raza Bokhari, MD, Executive Co-Chairman & CEO.
“Our pharmaceutical R&D team led by Dr. Edward Brennan is actively working to submit an Investigational New Drug Application (IND) to the FDA for the use of FSD201 (ultra-micronized PEA) to treat hospitalized COVID-19 patients by down-regulating the over-expressed pro-inflammatory cytokine immune response to SARS-CoV-2 virus infection. We are hopeful to initiate the phase 2 clinical trial before the end of this year and remain cautiously optimistic that our study may improve treatment outcome for COVID-19 patients."
The Company is not making any express or implied claims that its product has the ability to eliminate, cure or contain the COVID-19 (or SARS-2 Coronavirus) at this time.
]]>The Minority Cannabis Business Association (MCBA) will host a webinar titled, “Real Estate 101 for Social Equity Owners and Applicants,” at 2 p.m. EST on Wednesday, Aug. 5, according to a press release.
The free webinar, sponsored by CohnReznick, is exclusive to MCBA members, social equity owners and those applying for social equity licenses.
Those who attend will learn about cannabis real estate; as well as how to submit a competitive application, protect their investment and protect their rights.
The release states the webinar will include the following:
Real estate basics and terminology
Best real estate practices for operators
New Jersey voters will decide whether to legalize adult-use cannabis this fall after lawmakers decided to place the issue on the state’s November ballot, and a new poll has revealed that the majority of voters support the legalization measure, according to an NJBIZ.com report.
In the first in a series of polls, Brach Eichler LLC’s cannabis law practice and DKC Analytics questioned 500 registered New Jersey voters from July 7 through July 12, the news outlet reported.
Sixty-eight percent of respondents said they would vote in favor of the ballot question in November, while 26% indicated they would oppose the measure and 6% said they were unsure, according to NJBIZ.com.
Seventy-eight percent of Democrats indicated support for legalization, while 19% said they would oppose it, the news outlet reported. Fifty-seven percent of Republicans answered in favor of legalization with 39% opposed, and Independents had 63% in support of the measure and 27% opposed.
A Monmouth University poll, released in April, also found strong support for cannabis legalization with sixty-one percent of roughly 700 registered voters indicating that they would vote in favor this fall.
NEW YORK: Cage-Free Repair, advocates working towards an equitable, just, and reparative cannabis industry, has launched SHOW YOUR LOVE, a campaign to raise funds for National Expungement Week and its signature expungement and record clearing/sealing events (N.E.W. 2020). Education, awareness, and transparency are in focus for this fundraising initiative, which also includes the creation of Read the full article...
Multistate cannabis operator Red White & Bloom Brands (RWB) announced July 22 that it had signed a binding letter of intent to acquire Platinum Vape, a producer of vape cartridges, edibles and flower that is spearheaded by father-and-son team George and Cody Sadler.
Previously focused on the Michigan, Illinois, Massachusetts and Florida cannabis markets, RWB will enter California’s market through its first acquisition since going public earlier this year.
Platinum sells its products at more than 700 retailers throughout Michigan, California and Oklahoma, and co-founder and President George Sadler said the company has been building a relationship with RWB for the past few years.
“It was maybe three years ago when [RWB] talked to us about doing a purchase and at that time, it just didn’t work out—[it] just didn’t seem feasible,” Sadler told Cannabis Business Times and Cannabis Dispensary. “This all came along kind of rapidly, but our relationship has been there for quite some time.”
For Sadler and his son, Cody, Platinum Vape has been their baby for the past nine years, since the company’s inception, and both Sadler and RWB CEO Brad Rogers said they view the acquisition as more of a partnership between the two companies.
Once again, the U.S. Congress is taking up a Commerce, Justice, Science (CJS) Appropriations bill that contains a layer of protection for cannabis businesses. Whether the cannabis amendment gets through is a routine matter of debate in Washington, D.C., and this latest iteration is even more of an open question.
Historically, the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer amendment has conferred protection from federal law enforcement on state-licensed medical cannabis businesses. Because of its placement in the CJS bills, the amendment specifically bars the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) from using federal funds to prosecute state-compliant medical marijuana operators in states that have legal cannabis programs. It has been included in every budget deal passed in Congress since its introduction in 2014.
Now, the measure has morphed into the Blumenauer-McClintock-Norton-Lee amendment, and it’s been written to extend that federal protection to state-licensed adult-use cannabis businesses. This latest revival of the amendment was first reported by Marijuana Moment.
“It is time for Congress to expand these important protections to adult-use legalization states,” the team at NORML wrote in a message to its audience. “Today, nearly one in four Americans reside in a jurisdiction where the adult use of cannabis is legal under state statute. This expanded language passed the House last year, but was later removed by the Senate leadership.”
]]>CHICAGO, JULY 28, 2020 - NuMed, a rapidly expanding Chicago-based vertically integrated cannabis company, has launched its new name and brand NuEra. NuEra covers its three current Illinois retail locations, a newly acquired cultivation center in Rochelle, Ill., and its new brand of flower and prerolls.
The name NuEra highlights the fact that legalization in Illinois didn't just change the laws on the books - it unleashed a whole new era of cannabis. An era in which cannabis is safer, higher quality and available in a greater variety than ever before. Canna-consumers have more methods of consumption, more strains, more precise dosage labeling, and better information about the effects of each of our products than any generation before them.
“We will always remain committed to our medical patients and medicinal values, which is why we are one of Illinois' best providers of cannabis products for all people of legal age,” said Robert Fitzsimmons, CEO.
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BOSTON (28 July 2020) - Boston City Councilors Lydia Edwards and Kim Janey have filed amendments to Boston’s cannabis equity ordinance in an effort to bring transparency to the municipal approval process for marijuana businesses by changing the process for executing host community agreements. The Boston Cannabis Board adopted its final rules and regulations on July 22. Under those rules and regulations, the host community agreements are negotiated after approval by the BCB and there is no set timeline for their execution.
OHIO:The Ohio Medical Marijuana Control Program (MMCP) is scheduled to accept new testing laboratory license applications beginning the week of August 3, 2020. On its testing laboratories webpage, the MMCP has posted two documents for potential applicants to assist in understanding the key substantive attributes of the application. Potential applicants may submit questions regarding the application Read the full article...
“The difference between marijuana and hemp is a matter of measurement,” says the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a physical science laboratory that is part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, on its website.
And yet, taking those measurements to distinguish hemp—defined as having up to 0.3% tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)—and its higher-THC cousin, marijuana, is difficult in the burgeoning industries.
It’s why NIST has launched a program to help laboratories accurately measure key chemical compounds in marijuana, hemp and other cannabis products.
The goal of NIST’s Cannabis Quality Assurance (CannaQAP) program is to help labs produce consistent measurement results, which would both increase accuracy in product labeling and help forensic labs distinguish between hemp and marijuana.
According to a NIST news release, laboratories have limited experience taking cannabinoid measurements, which can lead to unreliable results. This has been a problem especially for cannabidiol (CBD) products, which have been found to contain wildly different cannabinoid contents than what is printed on their labels.
“When you walk into a store or dispensary and see a label that says 10% CBD, you want to know that you can trust that number,” says NIST research chemist Brent Wilson in the news release.
OKLAHOMA: The OMMA has received multiple inquiries regarding the processing and dispensing of marijuana-infused slushies on-site at medical marijuana dispensaries. It is the OMMA’s position that marijuana-infused slushies are unlikely to meet requirements set forth in Oklahoma statutes and rules, including, but not limited to: All products must be in child-resistant packages. Generally, this means the package must Read the full article...
