MjLink Cannabis Business News and Press
Due to the stay-at-home advisory, a local software company is shifting its focus to front door medical marijuana deliveries.
Medical marijuana delivery has been legal in Massachusetts for quite some time but, Meredith Mahoney, president of the new marijuana delivery service, Lantern, said they are looking at ways to expand that amenity for people dependent on deliveries.
“People love convenience, they love privacy, they love having access to products that they don’t have to leave their homes to get,” she explained.
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Justin Dougherty ~ WHDH.com ~
Minnesota House Democratic Majority Leader Ryan Winkler (DFL-Golden Valley) introduced an adult-use cannabis legalization bill May 5 after months of public discussions on how to approach legalization in the state, according to a KSTP.com report.
The legislation would create a regulatory structure with the goal of establishing a craft market with micro-businesses, the news outlet reported, and the bill also includes a home grow provision.
The proposal allows for the expungement of past cannabis-related convictions, and provides funding for public health awareness, youth access prevention, and substance abuse addiction and treatment. Small businesses would also have access to grants, loans, technical assistance and training under the legislation, according to KSTP.com.
“Minnesotans have been loud and clear that our current cannabis laws are doing more harm than good,” Winkler told the news outlet. “By creating a regulatory framework, we can address the harms caused by cannabis and establish a more sensible set of laws to improve our health care and criminal justice systems and ensure better outcomes for communities.”
Winkler’s bill is the result of a series of “Be Heard on Cannabis” discussions that he hosted around the state last year to gather public input on legalization.
The Georgia Medical Cannabis Commission has appointed Andrew Turnage, the leader of the state boards that oversee cosmetology and nursing, as its executive director, according to Saporta Report.
The commission is responsible for establishing rules to regulate Georgia’s medical cannabis program, and Turnage’s appointment comes more than a year after Gov. Brian Kemp signed the program into law in April 2019.
State officials appointed members to the commission late last year, including three doctors, a police chief, a health policy professor, the president of the Georgia Board of Pharmacy and a small business owner. The commission is chaired by Dr. Christopher Edwards, the principal surgeon for the Atlanta Neurological & Spine Institute.
The commission held its first meeting in December, and will ultimately license six companies to cultivate medical cannabis and turn it into low-THC cannabis oil (containing less than 5% THC) that will be distributed to qualified patients.
A Highly Curated Cannabis Collection Michael A. Stusser The Coronavirus is a global pandemic, and to be taken seriously. And while we’re following scientific advice and protocols, we’re also aware of the need to medicate – which is where the Higher Ground Legal Stash Box: CoronaVirus Edition comes in. Curated from legal markets across the Read the full article...
Regulators in the California Department of Food and Agriculture have unveiled their OCal program, which will label organically grown cannabis products in a market scorned by federal regulators.
The proposal, which was released last week, would “ensure that cannabis products bearing the OCal seal have been certified to consistent, uniform standards comparable to the National Organic Program,” according to a CDFA statement.
California regulators also announced they would be accepting public comment on the proposal until July 7.
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Graham Abbott ~ Ganjapreneur.com ~
TORONTO, May 7, 2020 /CNW/ - PRESS RELEASE - The Green Organic Dutchman Holdings Ltd., a producer of premium certified organic cannabis, has announced that it has received Health Canada's approval for the totality of its main Valleyfield hybrid greenhouse.
With all 24 zones now licensed, TGOD has the flexibility to quickly expand its operations at Valleyfield as the market develops. The company also plans to leverage parts of the newly licensed space to shift a portion of its processing activities currently being handled at Ancaster or intended to be outsourced to third parties in order to optimize costs and production timelines of its 2.0 products. This will accelerate its supply chain timelines and reduce bottlenecks in production of high-demand products such as Infusers and teas.
Designed specifically for organic growing, the facility boasts cutting-edge climate control systems, water recapture networks and LED lighting. As the market develops, TGOD intends to gradually recommence growing operations at Valleyfield which have temporarily been paused.
The licence amendment is valid until June 8, 2021 and is subject to customary terms and conditions.
CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--PRESS RELEASE--Cresco Labs, one of the largest vertically integrated multistate cannabis operators in the United States, has announced that it has completed the expansion project for its cultivation and manufacturing facility located in Brookville, Pa. The expansion project provides an additional 66,000 square feet of indoor and greenhouse cultivation area, bringing the total cultivation space in the facility to 88,000 square feet. The Brookville site supplies Cresco’s house of brands to 100% of the licensed dispensaries in Pennsylvania and the company currently maintains one of the largest wholesale market shares.
The company also concluded a significant expansion of its manufacturing capabilities with new and advanced extraction booths and integrated safety systems. The expansion project provides a 300% increase in capacity for butane extraction and a 90% increase in ethanol extraction which enables Cresco to efficiently process its increased biomass to manufacture its full portfolio of brands, including Cresco, Remedi and Reserve, with new brands launching soon. As a result of tripling the site’s capacity in a phased approach, the company expects products from the third, 22,000-square-foot phase to enter the market this month, with production from the fourth, 22,000-square-foot phase starting in July 2020 and gradually increasing throughout the remainder of the year.
Charlie Bachtell, Cresco Labs’ CEO and co-founder, said, “Pennsylvania continues to be one of the most attractive and highly coveted markets in the country. Today’s announcement marks a strategic milestone towards building our leadership in this high-growth market. This expansion enables us to more efficiently cater to patients across the Keystone State and increase our operating leverage. This expansion project follows the recently completed scale up of our cultivation facilities in Lincoln and Kankakee, Ill. It is testament to our stated strategy of going deep in key states and focusing on branded products and wholesale distribution.”
Pennsylvania is a high-barrier, limited license market that is expected to become one of the biggest medical markets in the U.S. and has already witnessed rapid demand acceleration with over 284,000 registered patients and nearly 80 operational dispensaries as of April 2020.
Cresco Labs first entered the Pennsylvania market in February 2018, with the opening of its CY+ branded retail dispensary in Butler making the first-ever legal sale of cannabis under the state’s medical marijuana program. Cresco’s flagship location opened in June 2018 in the historic Strip District in Pittsburgh. A third dispensary opened in New Kensington in February 2019. The company has plans to open three more dispensaries in the Philadelphia area as well as rebrand all dispensaries in the state to its Sunnyside national retail brand.
Oklahoma collected $9.8 million in medical cannabis tax revenue in April, which breaks the previous record of $7.8 million that was set in March, according to The Oklahoman.
The Oklahoma Tax Commission’s figures include traditional sales taxes and a 7% medical cannabis tax, the news outlet reported.
Oklahomans spent roughly $61.4 million on medical cannabis in April, which equates to nearly $217 per registered patient, according to The Oklahoman.
The tax revenue increase from March to April represents the highest month-to-month increase since last summer, the news outlet reported.
Massachusetts lawmakers met virtually May 5 to discuss a bill that could provide much-needed relief to the state’s medical and adult-use cannabis industry.
The hearing of the Joint Committee on Development and Small Businesses focused on a bill to establish a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) at the state level for companies that don’t qualify for federal assistance, such as cannabis businesses, as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been detrimental to cannabis companies licensed to cultivate or sell through Massachusetts’ adult-use program because, unlike most other states, Gov. Charlie Baker did not deem adult-use retailers essential like their medical counterparts. Dispensaries have been closed since the shutdown orders took effect March 24. Gov. Baker recently extended the nonessential business shutdown, which was scheduled to lift May 4, to May 18.
National cannabis law firm Vicente Sederberg represented a group of cannabis companies and a military veteran in a lawsuit in response to Gov. Baker’s emergency orders not declaring adult-use businesses “essential,” but a judge ultimately denied the plaintiff’s request, noting that the governor was acting within his constitutional authority but that there were avenues he could have explored to keep citizens safe. Brandon Kurtzman, one of the attorneys representing the cannabis companies, says there is no update on whether they will appeal the decision now that the shutdown orders have been extended.
RELATED: Adult-Use Cannabis Dispensary Shutdown in Massachusetts 'Catastrophic' for Industry
If S. 2643 is approved, eligible recipients could use the loan for business expenses including payroll costs, various health care benefits and insurance premiums, employee salaries, mortgage interest payments and rent.
Smart and Safe Arizona has already collected more than the minimum number of signatures required to qualify its adult-use cannabis legalization measure for the state’s 2020 ballot, but the campaign is continuing its efforts in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure it has enough valid signatures to get the issue before voters this fall.
The statutory measure would allow adults 21 and older to purchase and possess up to one ounce of cannabis, as well as grow up to six plants at home for personal use.
The Arizona Department of Health, which already regulates the state’s medical cannabis program, would oversee the adult-use industry, which would launch by June 1, 2021, under the initiative. The department would grant vertically integrated licenses to businesses to cultivate, process and sell adult-use cannabis, as well as issue licenses to adult-use testing facilities.
Existing medical cannabis dispensaries would be considered “early applicants,” as would applicants seeking to locate their business in a county with fewer than two existing medical cannabis dispensaries. Medical dispensaries ultimately awarded adult-use licenses would then have to co-locate medical and adult-use sales in one storefront.
The initiative levies a 5.6% sales tax and a 16% excise tax on adult-use cannabis to fund state agencies for expenses related to implementing the program, and any remaining funds would be divided among community college districts, police and fire departments, the Highway User Fund and a newly created Justice Investment Fund, which would support grants and programs related to public health, expungement, nonprofit services and social equity efforts.
Hightimes Holding Corp. will see former Green Growth Brands Executive Peter Horvath step in as CEO at a critical time for the company. Long the publisher of High Times, the holding corporation is in the midst of a strategic move into the retail segment of the legal cannabis industry. Hightimes Holding Corp. has acquired two dispensaries (in Los Angeles and Las Vegas) and is working on closing a deal for 13 more in California.
Horvath’s retail experience mostly stems from his time at L Brands, which owns Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works. At Green Growth Brands, he served as CEO for a year. The Green Growth strategy was based largely on the mall retail business that drove L Brands’ sales; Green Growth’s Seventh Sense CBD kiosks were seen as the next step in the company’s retail plan.
“All of the retail industry has seen a massive shift in consumer behavior and it’s been accelerated by COVID,” Horvath told IPO Edge. “It’s going to be very exciting to really be the first post-COVID cannabis company.”
Hightimes Holding Corp. is in the middle of a Reg+ IPO, a type of pre-public capital raise that allows investors to maintain liquidity. The company plans to list on the OTC markets under the ticker symbol “HTHC.”
“High Times is a unique brand with an important and rich heritage that deserves amplification and broader reach,” Horvath said in a public statement. “I think of brands like Glossier, who first earned high affinity followers through compelling and relevant content, and then demonstrated that you can also serve their followers through commerce. So, it’s been done before, I wouldn't suggest that it will be easy, but we have all the resources to succeed. I look forward to joining Adam’s accomplished team at High Times, and I am intent on understanding, protecting, and building on the High Times legacy.”
]]>When it comes to Michigan’s cannabis supply chain, Allison Ireton, co-owner of Ann Arbor’s Bloom City Club dispensary, says supply has represented either a feast or famine as the rules governing the regulated marketplace evolve.
At the heart of the issue are the state’s regulations surrounding caregiver-sourced cannabis. Ireton says the rules regarding caregivers have changed several times already since Bloom received its state license in 2018, and last month, regulators abruptly tweaked them again.
On April 8, the Michigan Marijuana Regulatory Agency (MRA) issued an advisory bulletin saying that the state’s adult-use cannabis retailers can no longer purchase products produced by caregivers, who have been cultivating cannabis for patients since Michigan legalized medical cannabis in 2008.
Under the new regulations, only medical dispensaries can continue sourcing cannabis from caregivers.
This is a sudden shift from a plan that MRA outlined in a March 1 bulletin, which immediately barred licensed dispensaries from purchasing cannabis concentrates, vape cartridges and other infused products from the state’s caregivers, but which allowed retailers to continue sourcing flower from caregivers until Oct. 1.
MEDFORD, MA – May 6, 2020 – PRESS RELEASE – The DesignLights Consortium (DLC) has released for comment draft Technical Requirements for LED-based Horticultural Lighting: Version 2.0, an update designed to increase the efficacy threshold for the DLC’s Horticultural Qualified Products List (QPL), while continuing the transition to specific data and metrics that best represent horticultural lighting performance. The DLC is also seeking comment on proposed changes meant to reduce manufacturers’ testing burden, as well as application complexity and cost, by introducing “family grouping” and “private labeling” to the DLC’s horticultural lighting program.
Following consideration of stakeholder comments, the draft policy is scheduled to take effect in January.
“This revision speaks to the need for a more appropriate and accurate way to measure and report the performance of LED horticultural lighting,” DLC Executive Director & CEO Christina Halfpenny said. “At the same time, we are seeking to drive greater efficiency in the expanding controlled environment agriculture industries that depend on horticultural lighting, including energy-intensive legal cannabis cultivation.”
According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the annual electricity consumption of all indoor U.S. horticultural installations is about 5.9 terawatt hours--approximately equal to the annual usage of more than half a million U.S. households. Consumption is estimated to grow between 15 and 25 percent between 2017 and 2025. A 2019 Strategies Unlimited report forecasted that the LED lighting market for cannabis alone will grow more than 300% in the next five years.
Against this backdrop, the DLC proposes to increase the efficacy threshold for Horticultural QPL listing by 10. 5 percent. This change is based on an analysis of all products currently on the QPL and set at a value that allows the top 85 percent of products in terms of photosynthetic photon efficacy to remain listed. Under the V2.0 update, LED products on the DLC’s Horticultural QPL would be approximately 40 percent more energy efficient, on average, than the most efficient legacy products--double-ended high-pressure sodium fixtures.
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Six years after the idea was germinated, the nation’s first state-authorized medical marijuana research program is being launched in Philadelphia, state officials said.
Medical marijuana is legal in some form in 33 states, but to date, there has been very little scientific evidence that it is an effective treatment for any ailment.
Pennsylvania’s medical schools are now gearing up to determine whether cannabis works.
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Sam Wood ~ Philadelphia Inquirer ~
Legalized cannabis represents a significant new business opportunity for the insurance industry, according to a report released Tuesday by New Dawn Risk Group Ltd., a London-based brokerage.
The insurance industry could issue more than 100,000 policies, were insurers to sell only a single policy to each active marijuana business in the United States, according to the report.
“The legal U.S. cannabis industry would pay about $1 billion in annual premiums were it insured to levels normal for other businesses,” the report said.
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Matthew Lerner ~ BusinessInsurance.com ~
A Kansas City-area couple whose home was raided in a 2012 search for marijuana has settled for $150,000 their federal lawsuit against the Johnson County sheriff’s deputies who led the operation.
The amount of the settlement reached in April with Robert and Adlynn Harte, of Leawood, was unsealed Thursday after the parties redacted portions related to the couple’s children, KCUR-FM reported.
The agreement ends years of litigation that began in 2013 when the Hartes, retired CIA employees, sued the sheriff’s office and the deputies.
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Associated Press ~
Roll aside, toilet paper. Oklahomans rushed to purchase another product in record volume last month, as medical marijuana dispensaries logged enough sales to spike tax collections by more than 25%.
According to the Oklahoma Tax Commission, dispensaries remitted almost $9.8 million in state taxes during April.
That includes traditional sales taxes and the 7% medical marijuana levy.
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Dale Denwalt ~ The Oklahoman ~
California-based MedMen has temporarily closed the majority of its Florida dispensary locations for undisclosed reasons, according to a Florida Politics report.
The company shuttered five of the its eight retail locations in the state as of May 3, the news outlet reported, including the dispensaries in Jacksonville Beach, Key West, Orlando, Sarasota and Tallahassee.
MedMen’s dispensaries in Pensacola, St. Petersburg and West Palm Beach are still open, Florida Politics reported.
“MedMen Sarasota is temporarily closed effective Sunday May 3rd. Thank you for your patience and support, please check back for updates on MedMen.com,” a closure notice on the company’s website says.
MedMen plans to open six additional dispensary locations throughout the state in Deerfield Beach, Fort Lauderdale, downtown and Southside Jacksonville, Miami Beach, and Orlando, according to its website.
The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation announced May 4 that adult-use cannabis sales surpassed $37 million in April, according to a press release.
The state’s dispensaries sold 818,954 items for total sales of $37,260,497.89.
Illinois residents purchased $29,735,650.41 worth of cannabis, while out-of-state visitors spent $7,524,847 on cannabis products.
The sales figures do not include taxes collected, according to the press release.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker deemed medical and adult-use cannabis dispensaries as essential businesses in his March 20 executive order in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
