This week, the newly established Nevada Compliance Board met for the first time and signed off on a disciplinary settlement that will revoke six of CWNevada’s 14 business licenses. Elsewhere, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a much-anticipated report that provides guidelines on how researchers can pursue investigational new drug applications for cannabis and its derivatives.
Here, we’ve rounded up the 10 headlines you need to know before this week is over.
Federal: The FDA released a much-anticipated document this week that the federal Office of Budget and Management (OBM) had been reviewing since late May. While the document did not provide an update on regulating consumer CBD products, as some in the hemp industry had hoped, it did provide guidance on regulating cannabis in drugs as well as present a new way to calculate THC in finished products. Read moreArkansas: The Department of Finance and Administration has reported that medical cannabis sales have surpassed $100 million since the program’s launch in May 2019. The state’s 68,069 registered patients have spent $109.65 million and have purchased 17,447 pounds of medical cannabis to date. Read moreRhode Island: The state has issued its first medical cannabis testing license to Green Peaks Analytical, located in Warwick. The company is the first third-party business licensed to test products for pesticides, metals and solvents. Read moreCalifornia: Lawmakers are considering a bill that would impose fines on businesses that provide aid, such as building space or advertising platforms, to illegal cannabis operations in an effort to combat the state’s illicit market. The legislation, introduced by Assemblywoman Blanca Rubio, has been unanimously approved by the California Assembly, and the Senate is expected to vote on the measure after lawmakers reconvene later this month. Read moreThe California Bureau of Cannabis Control (BCC) has sent a report to the state legislature on equity grant funding. The report compiles information from numerous California cities and counties that altogether received $40 million in funding—outlining demographics, cannabis arrests and other statistics as well as plans to create equity programs. Read moreMassachusetts: The Massachusetts House of Representatives has released its version of a police reform bill, which proposes directing tax dollars from the state’s Marijuana Regulation Fund to police training. The proposal has drawn criticism, as have draft rules and regulations issued by the Boston Cannabis Board, which met this week to finalize them. Read moreOklahoma: The Oklahoma attorney general’s office announced earlier this month that the state will temporarily suspend the enforcement of certain cannabis business regulations that threatened to close some medical cannabis dispensaries. The Oklahoma State Department of Health and the Oklahoma Medical Marijuana Authority will temporarily halt the enforcement of certain residency and location requirements for cannabis businesses after some operators sued the state over the legality of the rules. Read moreArizona: Opponents of an adult-use cannabis legalization measure in Arizona have filed a lawsuit to keep the issue off the state’s 2020 ballot. The lawsuit, filed in Maricopa County Superior Court, challenges the measure’s 100-word description, alleging that it misled people into signing the petition to put the issue before voters this fall. Read moreNevada: The newly established Nevada Compliance Board met for the first time this week and signed off on a disciplinary settlement that will revoke six of CWNevada’s 14 business licenses. The action stems from a series of lawsuits that accused CWNevada of withholding payment from its employees, breaking contracts with business partners and destroying evidence in ongoing civil cases. (A state investigation into CWNevada’s activities began in 2018.) Read moreNew Mexico: Last week, Ultra Health, one of New Mexico’s largest medical cannabis producers, sued the state’s Department of Health over its new medical cannabis regulations, alleging that several of the rules are “arbitrary and capricious.” Now, two additional medical cannabis producers, a cannabis manufacturer, a testing lab and a patient licensed to grow medical cannabis have also filed petitions to ask a judge to annul the new rules. Read more