MjLink Cannabis Business News and Press

The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture issued its version of industrial hemp regulations at the start of the year, following federal guidance and generally tightening the rules on what was a robust 2019 season in the state.

Now, prospective hemp growers may apply for a license in Pennsylvania for just $150 (down from $3,000 just two years ago), but the supply chain has been tightened in its own way. Where farmers grew about 4,000 acres of hemp in 2019, much of that supply is languishing in storage warehouses, victim to an early boom in hemp production.

Farmers sitting on biomass from 2019 harvests may have an even more difficult time working with licensed processors now; the new rules in Pennsylvania will include THCA content in the 0.3% THC threshold. This means that hemp growers will have an even more onerous hurdle to jump when selling harvested material into the market.

Geoff Whaling, president of the Pennsylvania Industrial Hemp Council, says that this tension between available hemp biomass and supply-side regulations is something that all farmers should take into consideration this year. So much of the nascent hemp industry remains in flux, with CBD extraction guiding much of the early demand, that a cautious approach may be warranted from those itching to get into the space.

“We know what the challenges are for us at both the National Hemp Association and the Pennsylvania Hemp Industry Council,” he tells Hemp Grower. “We know that the supply chain is today's issue, which has allowed for the proliferation of CBD—CBD as a small, horticultural crop rather than a farm and field crop. We've always delivered the message of ‘slow and steady.’ Let's figure out what's going to work. Let's find out what varietals are best in what regions—not only in Pennsylvania, but across the United States.”

Pennsylvania jump-started its industrial hemp pilot program in 2016, and the focus on research has been clear from the beginning. Whaling says that heedful farmers may do well to take into account the research that’s been done for years in Canada, where hemp was legalize in 1998. Health Canada, the country’s regulatory agency, has published a list of approved cultivars. Now, regional and climatic differences may come into play for farmers interested in importing certified seeds of particular cultivars from Canada, but it’s that certification process, Whaling says, that may give U.S. farmers a reliable sense of consistent THC-content testing over a five-year period—consistent results under the 0.3% threshold. “That is kind of the cautious approach to it while we make these fixes,” he says.

NESS ZIONA, Israel and SAN DIEGO, USA – January 13th , 2020 – PRESS RELEASE – NRGene, a genomics solutions provider, is announcing a global contest today as part of a new product campaign.

Following 150 successful genomic projects performed to market leaders in the seed business and more than 10 successful genomic projects done in cannabis and hemp, NRGene has gained a broad understanding of how to best employ genomics for breeding new elite varieties. This know-how is crucial in order to meet the unique challenges the cannabis and hemp markets are facing in developing elite varieties that perfectly suit their medicinal, wellness or recreational purposes.

The company is now offering a full portfolio of genomic solutions that helps any cannabis company accelerate the development of new varieties through artificial intelligence-based breeding, including highly accurate genome mapping, diversity analysis and trait mapping. Access to such services allows growers and breeders to efficiently and precisely develop new cannabis varieties with desirable characteristics while significantly reducing costs and timelines.

During 2019, NRGene made great strides in the cannabis industry and expanded its customer base through deals with such market leaders as Cronos Group, Aurora, Oregon CBD, Pure Holding and more.

QuickGenetic – Data-Driven Decision Making for Superior Plants and Accelerated Breeding

Washington Rep. Drew MacEwen introduced legislation Jan. 7 that would authorize CBD as a legal ingredient in food products, according to an East Oregonian report.

H.B. 2296 not only conflicts with the Washington State Department of Agriculture’s warning to processors to not use CBD as an ingredient in products meant to be ingested by humans or animals, but also defies the FDA’s prohibition of CBD as a food ingredient on the federal level.

“We still have concerns about allowing CBD in food,” Chris McGann, a spokesman for the agriculture department, told East Oregonian. “A state-led effort to allow food ingredients not allowed by the FDA would be complicated to enforce and put processors and markets at risk.”

The Washington Legislature passed a bill last year to regulate hemp in response to the 2018 Farm Bill, East Oregonian reported, and while the legislation allows the hemp plant to be used as food, it also directs the state agriculture department to defer to federal a law in regulating hemp as a food ingredient.

MacEwen introduced a second bill, H.B. 2300, on Jan. 7 that would allow CBD-infused products to be sold by the state’s cannabis retailers, East Oregonian reported. Under current law, retailers can only sell cannabis products that contain at least 0.3% THC.

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) has started the process of awarding medical cannabis manufacturing licenses to 86 facilities that will be able to manufacture cannabis-infused products such as edibles, tinctures and concentrates.

Applicants were notified via email whether their licenses have been approved or denied, according to a local KCTV report.

The 86 facilities awarded licenses are the top-scoring applicants that met all eligibility requirements set forth by the state’s medical cannabis program, the news outlet reported.

The final scores and rankings of the medical cannabis manufacturing license applicants have been posted on the department’s website. There were 373 total applicants for the 86 licenses.

Each applicant had to submit a nonrefundable application fee of $6,000, and the 373 applicants generated $2.23 million in total application fees, according to a News Tribune report.

Patients who live in states where medical marijuana is legal are less likely to use opioids to treat their chronic pain. That's according to a recent study by three Florida International University professors who sought to examine the effect of cannabis laws on opioid use.

The study also concluded that although medical marijuana laws corresponded with less reliance on opioids, those same laws did nothing to mitigate the misuse of opioids.

In other words, people currently abusing the drugs won't likely be affected by changing medical marijuana laws in their states.

Click here to read the complete article

Kristine Gill ~ MiamiNewTimes.com ~ 

Marijuana seizures at the U.S. border jumped in the year after Canada legalized recreational cannabis.

Figures provided by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) show American officers seized 2,214 kg of marijuana from travellers entering the U.S. between Nov. 1, 2018 and Oct. 31, 2019, up from just 1,259 kg over the same period a year earlier.

That's an increase in volume of about 75 per cent.

Click here to read the complete article

Kathleen Harris ~ CBC News ~

Colorado marijuana dispensaries have set a new sales record for the sixth consecutive year, according to the state Department of Revenue.

Commercial pot sales accounted for just over $141 million in November, state data shows.

That was good enough to put 2019's overall sales total past $1.6 billion, breaking 2018's record of approximately $1.55 billion...and there's still one month of sales figures to add to the total.

Click here to read the complete article

Thomas Mitchell ~ Westword.com ~

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed budget would consolidate the state’s three cannabis licensing authorities into one organization, “In an effort to improve access to licensing and simplify regulatory oversight of commercial cannabis activity,” according to a press release issued Jan. 10 by the California Bureau of Cannabis Control. 

That agency, along with the Department of Food and Agriculture and the Department of Public Health, is up for possible restructuring under this plan. Newsom’s proposal would pin the consolidation to a July 2021 deadline.

“Establishment of a standalone department with an enforcement arm will centralize and align critical areas to build a successful legal cannabis market, by creating a single point of contact for cannabis licensees and local governments,” Lori Ajax, chief of the Bureau of Cannabis Control, wrote Jan. 10. 

More information will be coming this spring.

“This next year is going to be very critical in seeing how quickly we can course-correct and how quickly we can start to see the impacts of these changes,” Josh Drayton, spokesman for the California Cannabis Industry Association, told the Orange County Register. “We have to see who survives.” 

For more than two years now, the story in California has been one of survival along razor-thin margins—both in terms of business balance sheets and economic access to the legal market. As of late 2019, the illicit market in California continued to outpace legal adult-use cannabis sales. 

Last week, South Dakota became the first state to place medical and adult-use cannabis legalization measures on the same ballot, a situation that has its challenges, as well as unique opportunities, according to Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) Deputy Director Matthew Schweich.

“It’s exciting that we’re able to make progress more quickly, and we did our research and we found that a majority of South Dakota voters support both medical marijuana and adult-use legalization,” Schweich told Cannabis Business Times. “We’ve done our homework and we’re confident that both can pass if we run an efficient campaign.”

South Dakota is currently one of three U.S. states that has no legal cannabis program on the books whatsoever.

The Secretary of State officially certified the adult-use legalization initiative, led by South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws, on Jan. 6, after the campaign submitted over 50,000 signatures.

The initiative, a constitutional amendment called Constitutional Amendment A, would legalize cannabis for adults 21 and older, establish a system for regulated sales and require the state legislature to enact a hemp cultivation law by 2022. The measure would also establish a 15% tax on cannabis sales and use a portion of the revenue to fund the state’s public school system.

This week, the Utah Department of Health announced the 10 companies that will ultimately be licensed to sell medical cannabis at 14 locations across the state beginning in March. Elsewhere, Illinois dispensaries grappled with supply issues in the state’s nascent adult-use market, with some retailers halting adult-use sales.

Here, we’ve rounded up the 10 headlines you need to know before this week is over.

Federal: The House Small Business Committee advanced the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement (MORE) Act (H.R. 3884), making it the second House committee to advance the legislation, which would end federal cannabis prohibition. The House Judiciary Committee passed the bill Nov. 20 in a vote of 24 to 10. Read moreUtah: The Utah Department of Health announced the 10 companies that will ultimately be licensed to sell medical cannabis at 14 locations across the state beginning in March. The medical cannabis pharmacy licenses were divided among four geographic regions and will open in two phases, with eight retailers opening in March and the remaining six launching sales in July. Read moreIllinois: At least six Chicago cannabis dispensaries halted sales to adult-use customers Jan. 6 due to supply issues, while others placed limits on adult-use sales. Illinois saw nearly $3.2 million in adult-use cannabis sales Jan. 1, the first day of sales. Read moreMeanwhile, the Illinois Department of Agriculture has released the applications for Cannabis Infuser, Transporter and Craft Grower licenses. The department will begin accepting completed applications Feb. 14 and will award licenses by July 1. Read moreMassachusetts: The state drew $420 million in total cannabis sales in 2019, with adult-use sales only just beginning in November 2018. As of January, Massachusetts has more than 30 licensed adult-use cannabis retailers. Read moreSouth Dakota: South Dakota’s Secretary of State officially certified an adult-use legalization initiative for the 2020 ballot Jan. 6, and, in December, a separate medical cannabis ballot initiative was also certified. South Dakota will now be the first state in American history to vote on medical and adult-use cannabis legalization initiatives on the same ballot. Read moreFlorida: Rep. Shevrin Jones is backing a cannabis decriminalization bill that would reduce criminal penalties for the possession of 20 grams or less of cannabis and make first-time juvenile offenders eligible for civil citations or diversion programs. Under current law, the possession of 20 grams or less of cannabis is a first-degree misdemeanor, but many Florida cities and counties have granted law enforcement the option to issue a civil citation in these cases. Read moreNew Hampshire: The New Hampshire House passed legislation Jan. 8 that would add insomnia and opioid use disorder to the state’s list of qualifying conditions. The same day, the Senate voted against a more expansive bill that would have legalized medical cannabis for any condition that a medical provider determined could be helped by the substance. Read moreTennessee: Sen. Janice Bowling has reintroduced a bill this legislative session that would legalize medical cannabis in the state. Bowling introduced similar legislation last year, but the bill ultimately stalled in the legislature. Read moreMississippi: A medical cannabis initiative will appear on Mississippi’s 2020 ballot after Mississippians for Compassionate Care submitted more than the required number of signatures in September. The secretary of state’s office certified the signatures as Ballot Initiative 65, and the initiative was formally filed with the state legislature Jan. 7. Read more

As 2019 came to a close—a year defined, in many ways, by a sharp rise in cannabis research interest—a report from a team of Italian researchers in the journal Nature on the first-ever isolation of two newly named natural cannabinoids: Δ9-tetrahydrocannabiphorol (THCP) and cannabidiphorol (CBDP). 

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Rhode Island lawmakers have rewritten a medical cannabis bill that awarded themselves the power to veto medical cannabis regulations, and that in turn caused Gov. Gina Raimondo to sue the legislature.

In the state’s budget last year, lawmakers authorized six additional medical cannabis dispensaries (called “compassion centers”) in the state but mandated that all new cannabis regulations be approved by the General Assembly. Raimondo objected to the latter provision.

New legislation was introduced Jan. 8, according to a local NBC 10 News report. Under the revised bill, the six new compassion centers will not be confined to six separate geographical zones as originally planned, and will have no limit on the amount of cannabis they can grow—and lawmakers no longer have the right to veto regulations.

The governor’s lawsuit has not yet been dropped, but will likely be declared moot by the court, NBC 10 News reported.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall voiced his opposition to medical cannabis legalization this week in a Jan. 6 letter to lawmakers, according to an AP News report.

Marshall’s letter called cannabis an addictive substance and drew parallels with the ongoing opioid crisis, the news outlet reported, and also noted federal prohibition.

During last year’s legislative session, an Alabama House committee turned a medical cannabis legalization proposal into a bill to establish a commission to develop legislation and regulations for medical cannabis in the state. The legislation ultimately passed the legislature, and the Alabama Medical Cannabis Study Commission started work on a medical cannabis legalization bill to present to the legislature early this year.

Alabama’s 2020 legislative session begins next month.

TEL AVIV, Israel and BETHESDA, Maryland, Jan. 9, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Cannabics Pharmaceuticals Inc. (OTCQB: CNBX), a leader in personalized cannabinoid medicine focused on cancer and its side effects, announced today that in a pre-clinical study held at the company's High Throughput Screening (HTS) lab facilities in Israel, preliminary findings show that the cannabinoid Cannabigerol (CBG) was shown to have a greater anti-tumor effect on human stomach and bone cancer cell lines compared to CBGA, the acidic form of the compound. 

CBG is a non-psychoactive cannabinoid found in minute quantities in the raw cannabis plant. Also known as the "mother" cannabinoid, other cannabinoids such as THC, CBD, CBN and CBC are synthesized from CBG. It is anecdotally known to show promise in having anti-inflammatory qualities and may act as an antibacterial agent.

In the current experiment, the HTS platform was utilized to screen the necrotic effects of both CBG & CBGA on various types of cancer cell lines. Interestingly, CBG was found to induce necrotic effects while CBGA had no such effect. 

These findings further support previous research performed by the company, which has consistently shown differential anti-tumor effects when using a variety of cannabinoids on human cancer cells, derived from both fresh biopsies and cell lines.

These preliminary findings could allow Cannabics Pharmaceuticals to offer in the future, pending further research, a more extensive and thorough personalized report for patients advising them on cannabinoid medicine therapy protocols in order to maximize positive outcomes. 

Dr. Yaakov Waksman, the company's Head of Cannabidiol Research, said: "CBG is gaining a lot of interest as of late by the scientific community due to its potential therapeutic properties. The recent preliminary findings from our research team illustrate how purified cannabinoids can potentially yield anti-tumor activity and enable us to examine the entourage effect of botanical extracts versus the purified compounds. We are excited by these preliminary findings and plan to perform additional experiments in the near future to further support them."  

“It’s like when you drink whiskey or wine — there’s more to it than just the alcohol content.”

The smell smacks your nostrils. A cocktail of earthy, citrusy and skunky scents are swirling in a flowering room tucked inside a 27,000-square-foot factory planted in Sparks.

Hundreds of green plants are lined in rows, standing tall and strong, each one identical in shape and color.

Two people sporting teal scrubs, hairnets and ear buds are trimming the pungent plants. 

Click here to read the complete article

Currently, Tennessee is among a dwindling number of states where marijuana has been neither decriminalized nor legalized for medical or recreational use.

Proponents of medical marijuana launched their next legislative effort Thursday with an attempt to convince law enforcement officials from across the state not to oppose legal dispensaries selling cannabis products to sick Tennesseans.

Sen. Janice Bowling, R-Tullahoma, said she intends to introduce a bill in the coming months that would create a state government infrastructure to issue marijuana cards and regulate the sale of marijuana vapes, edibles and non-smokable products.

Click here to read the complete article

Brett Kelman ~Tennessean.com ~ 

CTA, the organization behind both CES and the CES Innovation Award, barred Keep Labs from using the word "cannabis" on its booth or on any marketing materials -- in spite of marijuana being legal to buy in Nevada.

A 15-year veteran in enterprise technology, Phil Wilkins has epilepsy and uses cannabis medicinally to ease his seizures -- but he also has three children.

Alongside a business partner, he created a solution: Keep.

On the outside, Keep looks like a charming little smart alarm clock. But it's all deception. Keep is a safe, subtle way to store cannabis. 

Click here to read the complete article

The compound is said to have a mild psychoactive effect, slightly more so than CBD but much less than THC.

This post concerns CBN (cannabinol). Like CBD and THC, CBN is among the 100+ molecules in the cannabis plant.

CBN comes from oxidation and decomposition of THC, meaning that when THC is heated and exposed to CO2 (oxygen), it converts to CBN.

Click here to read the complete article

Vince Sliwoski ~ TheFreshToast.com ~ 

TORONTO, Jan. 9, 2020 /CNW/ - PRESS RELEASE - The Green Organic Dutchman Holdings Ltd., a producer of premium certified organic cannabis, has announced changes to streamline its leadership structure.

The company's president, Csaba Reider, will be departing the organization. Reider's duties will be assumed by the company's CEO, Brian Athaide.

Mike Gibbons, Vice President of Sales, is also leaving the organization. Robert Gora, Vice President of Medical Commercialization, will assume the consolidated role of Vice President, National Sales, leading sales and revenue generation across medical and recreational channels.

"The changes we announce today are part of a comprehensive review of our operations to reduce costs and improve cash flow. This will result in significant G&A savings and a leaner, more efficient organization. We are also very focused on ramping up production, expanding our product portfolio with innovative organic products and gaining market share across the country," commented Athaide.