Grow Life 420

#KahliBuds #MMJ #CBD #THC



420GrowLife

via www.KahliBuds.com

The Hill Times, KahliBuds, 420GrowLife

#KahliBuds #MMJ #CBD #THC

Feds File Charges Against Maine Weed Grower After Probe Spanning 20 States Image Cannabis News April 24, 2024 Maine Man Arrested for Alleged Illegal Cannabis Cultivation Amidst Federal Investigation. A Maine man was arrested and held without bail last week on federal charges of illegal cannabis cultivation as part of a yearslong investigation encompassing 20 states. A Maine man was arrested and held without Marijuana Politics Marijuana Business News High Times

Image

Cannabis News April 24, 2024

• Marijuana Politics
• Marijuana Business News

420GrowLife

via www.KahliBuds.com

Cannabis News, KahliBuds, 420GrowLife

#KahliBuds #MMJ #CBD #THC

“We said we were doing this bill for criminal justice purposes, and to partially correct the very failed multi-billion war on drugs campaign that happened for decades in New Jersey, so this is frustrating. I feel like we’re not headed in the right direction.”

By Sophie Nieto-Munoz, New Jersey Monitor

For the last two years, people have been able to stroll into New Jersey dispensaries to buy weed. But growing your own cannabis plant remains a third-degree felony.

Despite a growing number of nearby states legalizing the growing of marijuana plants at home, bills to do the same in New Jersey have languished every session since cannabis was legalized.

A state senator and chief sponsor of a bill to allow medical marijuana patients to grow cannabis, plus another bill that would expand that to 10 plants for medical patients and six plants for recreational users, said the fight for home grow is “at a standstill.”

“We said we were doing this bill for criminal justice purposes, and to partially correct the very failed multi-billion war on drugs campaign that happened for decades in New Jersey, so this is frustrating. I feel like we’re not headed in the right direction,” said Sen. Vin Gopal (D-Monmouth).

Under the state’s cannabis laws, the only people allowed to grow marijuana are those with cultivator licenses. Lawmakers, particularly Senate President Nicholas Scutari (D-Union), have previously voiced hesitancy over a home grow program, saying it would stunt the growth of the legal industry and allow the underground market to flourish without regulations. Scutari long pushed to make marijuana legal and sponsored the recreational legalization law.

In an interview last April, he said discussions had started about “perhaps allowing for a very, very slim amount of home grow applicants, some of the more significant or medical patients.”

Scutari did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

Marijuana advocates say lawmakers opposed to home grow are misinformed about its financial impact on the cannabis industry, and have stressed the importance of a home cultivation program for medical marijuana users. Growing cannabis at home would be beneficial to patients who have trouble getting to a dispensary or who can’t afford the high prices of medical marijuana. The average cost of an eighth ounce of recreational weed is around $60.

Plus, they argue, Scutari’s argument is moot—the cannabis industry in New Jersey is thriving.

More than 100 dispensaries have opened their doors since sales first began April 21, 2022. Hundreds of licenses have been awarded for cultivation, manufacturing, and retail. Recreational sales exceeded $675 million in 2023, nearly double the year prior. And in February, the Cannabis Regulatory Commission said the state surpassed $2 billion in recreational and marijuana sales since 2018. The agency predicted that sales could exceed $1 billion alone this year.

At that meeting, officials noted that while legalizing home cultivation is not in their purview, they would encourage the Legislature to look into it.

Chris Goldstein is an organizer with the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and a longtime cannabis activist in New Jersey. He questioned where Scutari “gets this idea that he needs to protect the industry from home cultivation.” He said it’s ironic that Scutari helped get the cannabis industry off the ground but now continues to stifle it.

“The small business owners I talk to, the consumers, the patients, they say he’s off base,” said Goldstein. “And again, the delay has been really terrible for New Jersey. We’ve seen nothing but the highest prices as well.”

Goldstein noted that six senators from both sides of the aisle have cosponsored Gopal’s and Sen. Troy Singleton’s (D) bill to allow medical marijuana patients to grow their own cannabis.

“I’m not sure what Scutari’s new excuse will be, but I think this is a sort of critical mass on home cultivation coming up pretty fast,” he said. Goldstein joined other cannabis advocates at a protest in front of the Statehouse Monday to bring attention to the need for home grow.

Gopal noted that without a home grow program, people can still be arrested for growing a plant for personal purposes that is otherwise legal, he said.

—
Marijuana Moment is tracking more than 1,400 cannabis, psychedelics and drug policy bills in state legislatures and Congress this year. Patreon supporters pledging at least $25/month get access to our interactive maps, charts and hearing calendar so they don’t miss any developments.

Learn more about our marijuana bill tracker and become a supporter on Patreon to get access.
—

He said he hasn’t talked to Scutari about the home grow bills since the winter, noting that issues like NJ Transit’s financial woes and school funding have been at the center of the conversation in the Statehouse. He said support from the governor’s office would help put a spotlight on the issue.

A spokeswoman for Gov. Phil Murphy (D), who campaigned in 2017 on legalizing marijuana, noted that in 2023 Murphy said he’s “very much open-minded” to home grow.

“I’d love to see the governor and the governor’s office get louder on this,” Gopal said. “I’d love to see him play a more active role in this. We’re two years in and constituents have had trouble getting affordable, accessible, legal cannabis.”

This story was first published by New Jersey Monitor.

More Than A Decade After Approving Marijuana Legalization, Colorado Voters’ Support Continues To Grow, New Polls Show

The post New Jersey Lawmakers And Marijuana Activists Push To Legalize Home Cultivation, Which Is Still A Felony appeared first on Marijuana Moment.

420GrowLife

via www.KahliBuds.com

Marijuana Moment, KahliBuds, 420GrowLife

#KahliBuds #MMJ #CBD #THC

This story was republished with permission from Crain’s Detroit and written by Dustin Walsh.

Business was humming on Saturday at Bazonzoes’ three marijuana dispensary locations. Hundreds were in line to take advantage of the retailer’s large 42% discount to celebrate the 4/20 holiday.

Then it all started to fall apart as Bazonzoes’ point-of-sale system, Dutchie, began to experience outages. The cannabis retailer quickly adjusted by handwriting sales, calculating taxes and discounts using a calculator. Pandemonium.

“We were out for about two hours total,” said Erin McCann-Sabo, operations director for Bazonzoes, which has two locations in Lansing and one in Walled Lake. “We were already at a backup of 35 minutes to an hour and a half due to the sheer volume of people in line. We had to rely on our budtenders to quickly do math and transcribe METRC numbers (the state’s product tracking system). For people to hand-write METRC, excise and sales tax on a subtotal with various discounts is an exercise in not only math skills and patience, but in perseverance. Especially in front of 400 angry customers.”

The Dutchie point-of-sale system outages began at about 12:30 p.m. on Saturday, about 30 minutes after the west coast of the U.S. began cannabis sales, indicating volumes probably overwhelmed the systems.

McCann-Sabo estimates that upwards of 500 people walked out of line due to the slow down, costing the retailer thousands of dollars in marijuana sales.

“It was a devastating impact on what could have been a very victorious 4/20,” she said.

Bazonzoes wasn’t alone: the outage from Oregon-based POS provider Dutchie was widespread across the U.S., impacting roughly 20% of its customer base. The company services roughly 6,000 customers in the U.S. and Canada.

In a statement to Crain’s, the company acknowledged the outage but said it was still a very successful 4/20 holiday, which represents the largest sales day of the year for cannabis retailers.

“This year’s 4/20 was a record-setting day for the majority of Dutchie-powered dispensaries,” a Dutchie representative said in an emailed statement. “Our systems powered over two million transactions, representing $165 million dollars in retail commerce — a 50% increase from 2023 4/20. While Dutchie and our partners prepared extensively for this year’s 4/20, a group of customers local to a specific instance of our POS system experienced serious issues that impacted their ability to transact. Dutchie is committed to stability and will be continuing to invest heavily to provide a reliable platform for all customers.”

It was a record-setting day in Michigan, as well. The state’s industry sold more than $28.5 million in product on the holiday, a 32% increase from last year’s 4/20.

But it’s unknown how many sales were lost due to the Dutchie outage and whether the customers that walked away from Bazonzoes and other retailers simply visited another dispensary or forwent a marijuana purchase all together.

Birmingham-based Quality Roots, which operates eight retail locations across the state, benefitted from the misery of others, said Aric Klar, CEO of the operator.

Quality Roots uses Dutchie competitor FlowHub as its POS system.

“We were good and saw customers lining up at our stores quickly when other stores went down,” Klar said. “Quality Roots had the biggest day ever.”

Klar said the company grossed more than $500,000 in sales on 4/20.

Other major retailers like C3 Industries, which operates 11 High Profile dispensaries, uses Dutchie for its POS system but did not experience any outages or slow downs, said CEO Akur Rungta.

Lume Cannabis Co. and House of Dank also use Dutchie but did not experience the outages on 4/20.

Greenhouse of Walled Lake experienced a major slow down in Dutchie’s system, co-owner Jerry Millen told Crain’s.

But he’s not angry about it.

“The problem is that it’s such a new industry and it’s hard to get all this straight on the day with the most volume. When it went down, we switched to a manifest and I went out and greeted our customers to make sure they were taken care of. No one was mad,” Millen said. “This happens. A hiccup on 4/20 is fine as long it works the other 364 days of the year. I give Dutchie a pass.”

Millen said the retailer barely makes money on the marijuana on 4/20 anyway because of the deep discounts.

McCann-Sabo isn’t so forgiving.

“I’m more angry than understanding because this happens every year with Dutchie,” she said. “It’s usually only for 10 minutes or 15 minutes, but this was quite a long period of time in the middle of the busiest day of the year. It’s not getting better, it’s getting worse.”

However, McCann-Sabo isn’t yet convinced the company will change POS providers.

“There’s nothing worse than switching a POS system,” she said. “It’s another time-consuming and costly thing in this industry and none of them are great. There’s a joke in the industry that they are called POS for a reason.”

The post Software crash hit Michigan marijuana dispensaries on 4/20 appeared first on Green Market Report.

420GrowLife

via www.KahliBuds.com

Dustin Walsh, KahliBuds, 420GrowLife

#KahliBuds #MMJ #CBD #THC

A new settlement between the federal government and an Arizona-based nonprofit will permit the group to import and use ayahuasca as a religious sacrament—an agreement leaders are calling a historic milestone for spiritual freedom.

Under the settlement announced by the Church of the the Eagle and the Condor (CEC), the group will be permitted “to import, receive, manufacture, distribute, transport, securely store, and dispose of ayahuasca solely for CEC’s religious purposes.”

Specifically, the agreement says the church will import ayahuasca, which contains the psychedelic substance DMT, “in concentrated paste or in liquid form” and then “combine the ayahuasca paste with water to manufacture ayahuasca tea for sacramental uses” at a location in Phoenix.

CEC says it’s “the first non-Christian church to receive protection for its spiritual practices regarding Ayahusca,” adding that the development under the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Action marks “the first time in history a church’s right to import and share its sacrament has been secured without going to trial.”

On the other side of the dispute was the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

CEC sued in 2022 over DHS’s seizures of shipments of ayahuasca intended for ceremonial use as well as the government’s threats that the group and its members could face federal prosecution.

The settlement document shared by CEC on Monday establishes that the group can now import, process and use ayahuasca, though DEA reserves the right to take spot samples of the imports “for the purpose of confirming that the consignment is in fact ayahuasca which contains no controlled substance other than DMT.”

Joseph Tafur, a doctor and ayahuasquero for CEC, said in a statement that the “Ayahuasca ceremony is an essential sacrament for our church.”

“Our ceremony is rooted in the Shipibo Amazonian tradition which has been passed down by countless generations. Now, in fulfillment of the ancient Prophecy of the Eagle and the Condor, this tradition has come to North America,” Tafur said. “Our ancestral practice will continue to support the community and nourish our holistic well-being.”

The group’s general counsel called the agreement “a watershed moment in the United States.”

“The resolution of this case represents the government’s recognition of this community’s right to exercise their religious beliefs without interference,” Martha Hartney said in a CEC release about the settlement. “Indigenous ways are returning to a place of honor, respect, and care in American culture–a culture made more beautiful because of Indigenous ritual, art, and cosmology in which all of creation is family.”

While some U.S. jurisdictions have recently loosened psychedelics laws, none has included provisions around importing psychedelic substances internationally.

Separately, DEA argued late last week in a U.S. appeals court case that the federal Right to Try Act—intended give patients with terminal conditions the opportunity to try investigational medications that have not been approved for general use—“does not provide anyone with a right to dispense or receive controlled substances.” The agency’s claim came in a new brief in a lawsuit filed by a Washington State doctor seeking to legally use psilocybin to treat cancer patients in end-of-life care.

Meanwhile, earlier this year DEA called for the production of even more DMT—along with psilocybin and THC—for research purposes than it had initially proposed for 2024, raising quotas for those drugs while maintaining already high production goals for marijuana and psychedelics.

DEA has touted its Schedule I drug production quotas as evidence that is supports rigorous research into the substances, but it’s faced criticism from advocates and scientists over actions that are viewed as antithetical to promoting studies.

For example, DEA in December announced that it would take another shot at banning two psychedelics after abandoning its original scheduling proposal in 2022, teeing up a fight with researchers and advocates who say the compounds hold therapeutic potential and who more recently argued that the agency’s administrative approach to the proposed scheduling is unconstitutional.

The agency separately backed down from a proposal to ban five different tryptamine psychedelics in 2022 amid pushback from researchers and advocates.

Read the full settlement agreement below:

Study Finds Natural Psychedelic Mushrooms Produce ‘Enhanced Effects’ Compared To Synthesized Psilocybin, Suggesting Entourage Effect

Photo courtesy of Apollo/Flickr.

The post Federal Settlement Will Allow Arizona Church To Import, Process And Use Ayahuasca As Religious Sacrament appeared first on Marijuana Moment.

420GrowLife

via www.KahliBuds.com

Ben Adlin, KahliBuds, 420GrowLife

#KahliBuds #MMJ #CBD #THC

Since New York marijuana regulators last met earlier this month, a small firestorm has cropped up among the Empire State’s cannabis trade organizations and business license applicants, after one of the leading trade associations appeared to call for a slow-down in the marijuana permitting process or a cap on the number of businesses allowed.

The episode erupted quickly into anger on social media, with critics of the trade group asserting that it was undermining its own membership in order to protect the relatively small number of companies that have landed state marijuana business permits to date.

Internal divide or miscommunication?

The conflict arose when the Cannabis Association of New York penned a letter to marijuana regulators, asking for a “stakeholder meeting” if the agency planned to “dramatically” increase the number of business permits. The letter asserted that “flooding” the New York market with new operators could have “disastrous consequences” for existing companies.

The letter was sent in the days following the April 11 meeting of the state’s Cannabis Control Board and was signed by CANY President Damien Cornwell, the owner and operator of Just Breathe, a licensed dispensary in Binghamton.

When the New York Post ran a story the following Sunday, proclaiming that CANY had asked the state to slow down license expansion, it was quickly applauded by some social equity advocates online. That included Shaleen Title, a former Massachusetts cannabis regulator and founder of the Parabola Center for Law and Policy, who wrote on X, “Don’t flood the market.”

But that New York Post story was also the first that many of CANY’s roughly 700 members had heard about the policy suggestion of slow-walking licensing in order to avoid market saturation – and a lot of them didn’t like it.

“I had to reread that letter like four times. I just couldn’t believe that they were speaking out against something I was fighting for. I’m one of the applicants that’s paying rent and just in limbo, not knowing what’s going on,” said Pete Longo, a dues-paying CANY member and one of thousands of business license applicants waiting to hear if he’ll receive a permit or not.

Longo applied in November for a microbusiness license and locked down a retail site in Westchester that’s been costing him $9,000 per month in rent, which was supposed to give him priority consideration in the pool.

Now, Longo said he’s considering leaving CANY, because its position is in direct contrast to his own business success.

“This was something that just came out of nowhere. And I think it only benefits the people who already have their licenses,” Longo said of the CANY letter. “And that’s a very small amount compared to the entire (pool of) applicants.”

Christian Talgo, the CEO of microbusiness applicant Pure Cannabis, wrote in an email to Green Market Report that his “immediate reaction was downright bewilderment” after he read the New York Post story.

“After reading the Post article a few times, I became angry as it was clear the intent was to stall licensing,” Talgo said.

Another dues-paying CANY member from Buffalo also waiting on a state license, Roaring 420s Lounge owner John Averill, said the letter made him feel like “I am paying for the right to be part of my own firing squad.”

“Everyone I speak to at CANY who doesn’t currently hold a cannabis license is up in arms,” Averill said, who also called it “self-serving” by Cornwell, since he owns an already-operational dispensary in Binghamton.

Other members who have won permits downplayed the letter from CANY, which Averill said translates to little empathy for those in his and Longo’s situation.

“The response we’re getting from these other people is basically, ‘You’re making a mountain out of a molehill.’ … It’s like, you don’t understand. We’re all going bankrupt here, and you’re telling them to take more time,” Averill said.

CANY’s government relations director, Jesse Campoamor, said the blame for the situation lies with the New York Post and its mischaracterization of CANY’s position.

“The suggestion that CANY is asking for a full stop in the market is categorically not our position,” Campoamor said.

“If the (governor) and the control board are considering adding more licenses than what’s already been allotted – meaning, they’ve told us they’re going to award 200 or some in the November queue and another 450 in the December queue – if they’re thinking of going beyond what they’ve already announced, all we’re asking for is a public conversation, some type of public engagement, to talk about how to do that,” Campoamor said.

“If I can be clear to anyone, CANY supports expanding licensing, especially with market participants,” he said.

CANY also wrote on Instagram that its board of directors fully supports the issuance of 1,500 business permits this year by New York regulators, an estimate that the agency provided last fall. That includes 500-1,000 dispensaries and another 220 microbusinesses in 2024. The OCM also disclosed in court filings last year that it envisions a statewide market of about 2,000 retailers to meet demand.

“Internal discussion in the industry is circulating about the expansion of the licensing pool beyond that number,” CANY wrote on Instagram. “Based on the current pace of licensing to date, we are suggesting that any new expansion should be based on data driven research and at a minimum, should have input from our members, industry operators and stakeholders.”

CANY members were not the only ones in the New York marijuana trade upset by the suggested slowdown in the pace of licensing.

Last week, the Cannabis Farmers Alliance issued its own open letter to CANY to express its “strong disagreement.”

“Your suggestion to slow down the issuance of retail licenses, presumably to prevent market flooding, does not align with the needs of the industry,” CFA President Joseph Calderone wrote. “This stance inadvertently supports the proliferation of the illicit market – a direct competitor that undermines our regulated system.”

Estimates of unlicensed marijuana sellers in New York range from 2,000 to 8,000, depending on the source.

CFA_Open_Letter_to_CANY_Retail_04_16_24_Proofread_1 2

Yet another parallel letter with a similar take was sent to Gov. Kathy Hochul, legislative leaders, and the Office of Cannabis Management and CCB by the New York Cannabis Retailers Association, the Association of New York Cannabis Processors, and the Black Cannabis Industry Association. The letter opposed CANY’s original missive “in the strongest possible terms,” and said more retail permits should be issued “without restrictions or further delay.”

“As long as the flow of new licenses remains at a trickle, the illegal industry will keep expanding because consumers don’t have a legal option,” the letter states. “Consumers need many more legal retail options if illegal operators are to be eliminated.”

Cannabis industry licensing memo 4-18-24

The numbers

As of Friday, only 112 legal adult-use cannabis shops have opened for business in New York, according to an OCM press release. Those establishments are likely part of the conditional adult use retail dispensary cohort of 463 “justice-involved” entrepreneurs granted retail permits last year.

Another 118 retail permits and 79 microbusiness licenses have been awarded thus far this year, for a possible total of 660 legal retailers that could eventually open. And regulators are not done awarding permits.

Last year during the general application window between October and December, the state received 6,875 business license applications, of which 4,303 were retail applications with another 1,320 for microbusinesses.

Thus far, the CCB and OCM have proceeded cautiously, issuing only a handful of new permits each month. The state earlier this year said that it only expects to issue 250 retail permits and 110 microbusiness licenses from the applications submitted last year.

But the word through the grapevine was that Hochul – who has been infuriated by the achingly slow market rollout – has been pushing the OCM and CCB to ramp up their pace of licensing, possibly even by granting initial permits to everyone who put in a business license application last year.

Formally, the New York state law that legalized adult-use marijuana doesn’t cap the number of cannabis companies allowed; that’s up to regulators to decide.

That was the backdrop for CANY’s letter, according to sources. But even the possibility of actual market flooding in such a way hasn’t mitigated the discord.

Averill said he and many other CANY members simply disagreed with the trade organization’s leaders on a policy level, and said they’d prefer to be licensed and allowed to compete in an open market for their survival instead of being left out completely of a limited-license market structure.

“As one of those applicants, I think that CANY’s only stance on that should be, ‘Yes, please, absolutely do that, and do that as quickly as possible,’” Averill said when asked about the possible addition of thousands of new licenses.

“The idea that we would hear that they’re finally seriously contemplating the kind of sweeping change that could have a real impact on the industry, and then to immediately advise them to pump the brakes, is deeply offensive to me,” Averill said.

But to Campoamor, the real issue that CANY was trying to bring to the forefront was transparency and a say in the process for industry.

“This is a real opportunity to ask for more staff for the licensing unit, so that we can expedite these licenses getting out. … It’s an opportunity to ask for legal and technical funding support,” he said. “For the life of me, I can’t fathom why somebody in this market that wants New York state to be successful would oppose that.”

The OCM did not respond to a request for comment for this story.

The post ‘Don’t flood the market:’ Fault lines emerge among New York cannabis stakeholders over licensing appeared first on Green Market Report.

420GrowLife

via www.KahliBuds.com

John Schroyer, KahliBuds, 420GrowLife

#KahliBuds #MMJ #CBD #THC

Kentucky advances Medical Marijuana business application date for smoother rollout Image Cannabis News April 23, 2024 Kentucky lawmakers took action to make sure the new medical marijuana program rolls out smoothly. The program is set to go online January 1. To meet demand, they're moving up the date businesses can begin applying for licenses. “We have a wide range of clients, we have young 20 something year old's Medical Cannabis News Recreational Marijuana News Local 12

Image

Cannabis News April 23, 2024

• Medical Cannabis News
• Recreational Marijuana News

420GrowLife

via www.KahliBuds.com

Cannabis News, KahliBuds, 420GrowLife

#KahliBuds #MMJ #CBD #THC

A long-running showdown between a doctor and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration that could affect the legal status of psychedelics is heating up.

The agency last week urged the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal to block the physician’s efforts to use psilocybin to treat depression in terminally ill cancer patients, Law360 reported. The case centers on the scope and application of federal and state “Right-to-Try” laws, which allows the use of unapproved, investigational drugs for therapeutic purposes.

Dr. Sunil Aggarwal, co-founder of Seattle-based psychedelics research and treatment clinic, Advanced Integrative Medical Science Institute (AIMS), has repeatedly argued that the Right to Try Act grants him the authority to administer psilocybin to his patients.

However, in a new filing, the DEA maintained that the Right to Try Act only amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act and does not impact the restrictions imposed by the CSA. The agency asserted that doctors who wish to dispense controlled substances must comply with both sets of regulations.

“The CSA and the FDCA (which the Right to Try Act amends) are separate regulatory schemes with separate requirements and restrictions,” the DEA wrote. “Nothing in the Right to Try Act changes that.”

Aggarwal, who has been engaged in litigation over this for a few years now, says that psilocybin has shown promise in treating major depression in clinical trials and should be accessible to terminally ill patients. However, the DEA has repeatedly rejected his proposals, stating in a 2022 denied petition that offering psilocybin to terminally ill patients would not be consistent with public health and safety.

The doctor also claimed that the DEA wants him to register as a researcher to obtain the drug, which goes against the law.

That led him to appeal to the Ninth Circuit on the grounds that the agency’s decisions were arbitrary and contradict public health interests and established legal precedents. In February, he argued that the DEA must explain how their decision aligns with the CSA and the agency’s own precedent, since the DEA has granted waivers for therapeutic use of other drugs, like cannabis for children.

The DEA doubled down on its position, arguing that Aggarwal has not provided adequate evidence to support his claims. The agency also contended that it could not fully evaluate Aggarwal’s proposal because he failed to provide the text or scope of the waiver he was seeking.

Psilocybin is currently classified as a Schedule I drug, meaning it has no accepted medical use. However, the drug has received “breakthrough therapy status” from the FDA twice and is currently in stage III clinical trials.

It remains unclear when the appellate court may issue a ruling on this case.

In a separate case, the Ninth Circuit ordered the DEA to clarify why psilocybin should remain a Schedule I substance after the agency rejected Aggarwal’s petition to move it to Schedule II, which is for drugs with accepted medical use but severe restrictions.

deapsychedelicsappeal

The post DEA resists permitting psilocybin for terminal patients under ‘Right to Try’ appeared first on Green Market Report.

420GrowLife

via www.KahliBuds.com

Adam Jackson, KahliBuds, 420GrowLife

#KahliBuds #MMJ #CBD #THC

South Carolina Medical Marijuana Bill Ready for the House Image Cannabis News April 23, 2024 South Carolina Nears Medical Cannabis Legalization Amid Political Support. The South Carolina Senate initially approved medical cannabis in February, 2024. Strong political endorsement by Nancy Mace helps propels SC legislation Governor McMaster’s comments suggest backing for medical cannabis. The Medical Cannabis News Marijuana Politics The Dales Report

Image

Cannabis News April 23, 2024

• Medical Cannabis News
• Marijuana Politics

420GrowLife

via www.KahliBuds.com

Cannabis News, KahliBuds, 420GrowLife

#KahliBuds #MMJ #CBD #THC

This story was republished with permission from Crain’s Cleveland Business and written by Jeremy Nobile. 

Jim Canepa is proud of his role in helping grow state liquor sales from $970 million in 2017 to $1.8 billion in 2023. Similarly, marijuana industry stakeholders are quite fond of Canepa’s business-first approach as a regulator, which he brings along from leading the Ohio Division of Liquor Control to his latest role as superintendent of the state’s new Division of Cannabis Control (DCC).

Crain’s sat down with Canepa as he continues to settle into his latest job as the top regulator for the state’s growing marijuana industry as it prepares for non-medical sales to commence faster than what was originally anticipated when voters approved Issue 2 last fall.

Here are some of his takes on regulation, avoiding the pitfalls seen in other markets, Delta-8 products, and what could support or hinder non-medical marijuana sales from launching as soon as June. (The following Q&A has been edited.)

You were asked to join DCC, right? Why make the move?

My epitaph will probably read, “liked the challenges.” Being pigeonholed as the liquor guy, or before that the EPA guy, or before that the inspector general guy, or before that the attorney general guy, or before that the criminal trial prosecutor guy—it’s less about the title, more about the substance of what I do, which is solve problems.

I like the challenges that go with standing up new programs, fixing broken things. It’s almost like the same reason I like refinishing furniture or doing landscaping or cooking. I get to use my determination and creativity in problem solving and to me, this is just another series of challenges and problems to resolve and solve in a way that makes sense. And anybody who knows me knows, as soon as I get it fixed and running well, I start looking to the next thing.

So what do you think is next after DCC? Perhaps you go from liquor control to cannabis control to gaming regulation?

After this, I’ll be an old man. I did liquor for seven years. I’m 61 now. So what’s next after this? Maybe a professional hunting/fishing guy. I don’t know.

Whether it’s a management approach, lessons earned, or other things along these lines, what’s something from your time in liquor control that you’re applying to your work now at DCC?

I’m going from 80 permit types in liquor to five permit types in DCC. And I’m going from 10,000 permit holders to somewhere right now under 300. So it’s a much narrower permit-type field, but it’s the same principles that I bring over, which are: these are businesses that employ people, that pay people, that make, test and sell a product.

Their viability as a business is time-sensitive. And time is money. So when they’re seeing changes to products, or new products, or expansion of facilities, you have to be sensitive on the liquor side—and now here—that you are supporting businesses that employ people and their livelihoods. And their success and failure can’t be conditioned upon a bureaucratic government taking its good old time and not being sensitive to those challenges.

I was very business-focused over in liquor. And I set it up so we had great visibility on the challenges to the businesses in the process so that we could either remove those impediments if they were unnecessary vestiges from the past no longer needed in the present, or through process improvement to make if more efficient for the applicant/permit holder.

For better or worse, my own approach is sort of very indicative of my approach to my own personal affairs. Like I don’t have junk drawers. I don’t like extra junk in places where it doesn’t need to be. The stuff that needs to be there should be there and the stuff that is there should work. That’s my approach in liquor, and that’s my approach here.

How about on the enforcement side?

Liquor is a $1.8 billion business with 490 outlets. That’s a lot of logistics. And like cannabis, liquor is a controlled and regulated substance. So it is really, really important that the purveyors at those retail locations, their staff and the ownership, follow the rules.

While I’m very business-friendly and will bend over backward to find a way forward so that these businesses are successful, I really give no quarter for not following the rules. That expectation or that ethos, if you will, becomes very apparent to the group that I regulate. So I’m bringing that with me here so that those who have the permit privileges to do something that those without the permit are prohibited from doing, means they have to do it right or I take a different approach, which is less business-friendly.

So while they all understand that I’m trying to help them be successful, violating the rules, relative to selling to people under 21, or advertising to people under 21, or not keeping careful inventory control, for example, all those carry a very, very heavy penalty, likely to mean removal of those permit privileges.

Are there any particular states or markets that you’re looking to for cues in terms of standing up the non-medical marijuana program?

We have really done a deep dive in all the states. And that really goes to what you said, where do we see best practices, or good intentions but failed efforts? For example, Michigan, there are things there I would not like to recreate, including the business failure rate. There are a lot of vacant storefronts that used to sell cannabis. As we build the rules here, we do it through that lens, to not recreate that.

Sometimes, if you’re not careful when you look at access and placement, the businesses load up on each other’s bumpers, which causes failure rate. So as we move forward, we look at buffers around the dispensaries to kind of keep them from causing failure because of over-saturation. I’ve also gotten a lot of strong comments and opinions about the eye pollution with the billboard there. So we do not want to re-create that issue.

I also look to states like Missouri and Maine and Nevada, how they kind of plot out their field operations and compliance based on number and types of facilities. Like the number of inspectors per facility, I’ve looked at that to help me staff.

Frankly, those who have learned the most on what works and doesn’t work are industry people. I’ve made it my business to front-load my efforts here with meeting them all about what are the challenges? What can we change or improve? So that is what I’ve done to a painful degree on the front end. And that has really paid off. We’re trying to help these business but make it so things are safe, secure, healthy and legal.

So as far as you’re concerned, we should not expect marijuana ads on billboards or any cannabis business strips in Ohio, yeah?

Well, I would say more of the same consistent with what you’ve seen or not seen thus far. The current rule under the medical rules is there is no advertising on billboards. You’re not going to see me speak up to change that.

Now in terms of when rec marijuana sales could actually begin, I know that Issue 2 requires that the state begin accepting applications for adult-use retailers around early June and that licenses are to be allocated no later than early September, which has led to the expectation that adult-use sales could begin in September. But there’s recently been talk that adult-use sales could launch as soon as June. Can you walk me through how that would work?

The initiated statute said applications no later than June 7 and issuing permits no later than Sept. 7. To meet those deadlines, we had to sort of reverse engineer the timeframes to create rules for applications and permit privileges in the non-medical space.

The first rule package that we proposed was dual-use privileges. In other words, those medical facilities that have been permitted and have been selling medical cannabis for the last five years—under a paradigm that is far more limited and conservative than what was passed under the initiated statute for non-medical—could sell non-medical with a dual-use permit. That was the first rule that we put through so that it could get through that rulemaking process in advance of the June 7 timeframe.

So as a factual matter, if that dual-use rule proposal pops out at the end of the process sometime on or prior to June 7, our application will be ready and approved through the rulemaking process. And those who have been selling already would apply by the deadline as proposed in the initiated statute.

We would then be required to take those applications and turn them around for issuing a permit. Conceptually speaking, that application would not be very complicated because they’ve already gone through all the traps to receive their permit to sell medical cannabis. So the question really comes down to a business decision on the industry side. A lot of them are multi-state operators who have to go through their corporate approval and legal channels, so that will take time.

So what you’re saying is, we should expect some retailers to be ready to go as soon as possible, but there’s no guarantee that every business will be ready to—or interested in—doing non-medical sales immediately, yes?

Savvy retailers are going to have to decide what kind of customer experience they want right out the gate. That is why you see a lot of bars or restaurants that have liquor permits really focus on a first customer interaction, because those first impressions are going to matter for those customers.

If you think of a demographic like me, a 61-year-old suburban guy who has never been to dispensary, it’s going to matter, that experience. So for scaling from medical customer traffic to a larger, higher-volume, non-medical-customer traffic is going to matter to many of them.

And in order to accommodate that, they are going to have to change their floor plan, which is a major modification that requires some processing time that they’re willing to accept to make that first customer interaction a positive one. There will be others who throw caution to the wind and say damn the torpedoes, we’re going to be open as soon as we can. So there will be people who want to sell as soon as possible.

When you hear that June timeframe, it is because the application process will have begun and the processing of someone who just wants to turn around and sell non-medical the same way and under the same medical rules but to non-medical customers, that process will not be lengthy or complicated.

In other words, what you’re saying is there is a legitimate pathway for adult sales to begin in June.

There is a factual pathway because of the way the initiated statute is written and because these players are not new players, they’re existing permit holders selling in the last five years in the medical realm, which is far more complicated, strict and secure than what the initiated statute proposed for non-medical sales.

If you’re looking at the bell curve, on the left there will be that skinny entrance into the market, which will represent like June and July. As that curve goes up to August, September, October, that will be that sort of meaty part of the bell. And people who are really thoughtful about the retail experience will on the right side, which gets into November, December and maybe even the new year.

One might assume that these dual-use license holders could require another site visit as a condition of securing that license. Is that true? And would that slow things down?

All these sites are visited all the time now as part of their permit enforcement. They were inspected when permitted under the medical rules. And then there’s an annual renewal inspection. And then there are spot inspections. And then there are compliance or complaint-driven inspections. So they are visited a lot. And remember, there are less than 300.

The only real change is going to be at the point of sale. So that software that rings out a customer, in order for them to get the green light from us to start sales, that has to be correctly identifying between medical and non-medical customers, and it has to be getting the taxes correct because the excise tax won’t apply to medical patients. And not to mention the THC delta that the initiated statute included between medical and non-medical. So all that has to be correct in the software at the point of sale. If they change nothing—including footprint or ownership—they have to have that correct, which will require a final certification.

To drive the point home on this, what we are trending toward initially is a dynamic where adult-use sales first commence subject to medical marijuana rules and regulations. Is that accurate?

Exactly. So dual-use under the exact same medical rules. Then, as the new non-medical operational rules come out and are approved, they can start following those.

As advertising rule packages come out, they can start following those. All those will be after June. That is why I’m saying that as dual-use comes out, they’ll be following the exact same medical rules they’ve been following for five years. That’s an umbrella under which are all the requirements for security, retail, point of sales, testing, packaging. Those do not change. And operators know what those are because they’ve either been following them or dinged for non-compliance on them.

I think that is why the governor was proposing that the legislature act sooner than later under the principle that they would sell non-medical under the medical rules out of the existing medical dispensaries. So that is the rule that we moved first based on what he was pushing the legislature to do sooner than later because of the Delta-8 problem and the black market. This is why we pushed for the dual-use rules first.

So what could prevent us from seeing non-medical sales in June? Is it primarily actions by the legislature or individual business decisions?

Check and check. Really, any intervening causes outside of DCC, which could also include (the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review) or a lawsuit. Those are things outside my control. Setting aside any third-party interventions, I’m going to meet the deadlines.

To that point, there has been murmurings for some time now about lawmakers fussing with the adult-use law approved by voters, though all those efforts have so far failed to gain any traction. Do you have any feelings or concerns about the legislature altering the adult-use cannabis law voters approved?

I have a very pragmatic lens that I look through. A lot of what you’re referring to falls under the categories of public consumption and children walking through clouds of marijuana smoke, THC content caps, Delta-8. With those sorts of things, I say right on. You have my full support.

To the extent that there are industry-related murmurings, that is the reason for all the stakeholder outreach to get their input on the rules and to get their buy-in on the front end. I will never get 100% enthusiasm for everything. But there’s this 80/20 principle. I aim for the 80% and let them self-police the 20%. And I kind of feel that is where I’m out.

What about the risks of lawsuits from industry interests potentially suing to stop the rollout of adult use? Are you at all worried about such things?

No, I’m not.

I’m painfully direct and I’ve said this to them. I’m like, hey, it’s your own discretion to throw a Scud missile into the process here. All that does is delay you from starting dual-use. So that doesn’t bother me. It’s just self-inflicted injury. And there are some who are like geez, I can’t believe he just said that, but he’s right. So more power to them if they really want the rest of the 80% in that 80/20 to jump on them with all fours because it is a symbiotic industry, and that concept requires relationships. And if those who are suing don’t care about those relationships, it’s a big business risk. And that doesn’t bother me, but it should bother them.

I will also say as a side note, I’m a lawyer. If, in 35 years, I had $5 for every time someone said well somebody is thinking about suing and it never came into fruition, I’d have enough to go to a fine-dining restaurant with my entire family.

Thinking about what you referenced earlier in terms of kids being exposed to marijuana smoke, what are your thoughts on consumption lounges? Should we have those?

That is an effort in speculation in how a market matures. We haven’t even begun the recreational market yet. We’ve been in a medical market where the idea of a lounge is obtuse.

I look back to liquor and my role there, and it took since 1937 to evolve and mature where it is now, to be accepted by those in the community where it has matured. Westerville was dry when I moved to Columbus in 1985. (Designated outdoor refreshment areas) were sort of the Voldemort in the liquor world and took years to become acceptable. It comes down to a local, community attitude, just like the DORAs. So I don’t know how that is going to mature. It depends on whether or not these businesses are good community members.

That said, this is where we’d point out that Ohio doesn’t actually have any laws in place today that permit marijuana consumption lounges to exist. We would have to write new state laws on this before local municipalities could decide if such a business were appropriate for them, right?

Yes, it would require statutory changes. Something open to the public would require input from health and safety, local zoning, local health departments. And statutory changes are usually bottom up. Like, because of a maturing market, that might feel like something that is needed. So a legislator would have to decide if that’s something that they’re being asked to do.

But certainly, and more directly, you can’t have a consumption lounge in a bar, because there is already a liquor permit in a bar that specifically prohibits, in their privileges, that permit holder from allowing, facilitating, accommodating or possessing a controlled substance, which marijuana still is.

Do you have any thoughts at this time on how many dispensaries Ohio ultimately needs?

Needs? I don’t know. How many will be populated on a map? Well, we have 132 now, including 12 that still have only provisional licenses. Under the initiated statute, certain classes get one or three. And based on those, roughly, you’re talking about adding another 200 dispensaries on top of those 132.

But in terms of net new ownership dispensaries—so not dual-use licenses or existing permit classes that get additional 10(B) dispensaries under the initiated statute—there is a timeline for Sept. 7, 2026, for us to start accepting applications for net new entrants for the dispensary business.

There’s a lot of almost anxiety about licensing amongst a small group who are going to be operating until 2026, and I’m like, you guys have a captured market until 2026.

You’ve referenced Delta-8 a couple times. To what extent is that really a concern of yours with respect to the legal cannabis industry?

From a business standpoint or a risk and health and safety standpoint, I think people are just whistling past the graveyard on this.

Delta-8 is an intoxicating substance that is unregulated and untested and not age-gated. We’ve been talking about all the safeguards, guard rails and concerns about the cannabis industry, but people are just whistling past the graveyard on these intoxicating substances being sold at gas stations. It is outrageous nothing is being done about it.

From a business impact analysis, that is all siphoning away from the legitimate, tested, permitted industry. These take great, huge investments. Meanwhile, you have this sketchy interloper causing poisoning to children without any packaging requirements—they look exactly like candy— and without any testing requirements, so you don’t know if you’re getting rat poison or a placebo. I think so much appropriate attention is being paid to the cannabis industry, which has been in place for five years and regulated and tested, but none at all to an intoxicating substance that is being cooked up in kitchens around the country. And I think that needs addressed.

The post Here’s how recreational marijuana sales in Ohio could start in June appeared first on Green Market Report.

420GrowLife

via www.KahliBuds.com

Staff, KahliBuds, 420GrowLife

#KahliBuds #MMJ #CBD #THC

Federal agents have begun filing criminal charges in a sweeping 20-state investigation into an international cannabis ring, Attorney General Merrick Garland said during a congressional hearing last week.

According to the Associated Press, at least one defendant – Xisen Guo, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in China – has been arrested and charged with federal marijuana crimes in Maine, where he allegedly ran an unlicensed grow operation. Guo on Friday was ordered held without bail and had a detention hearing slated for Monday, the AP reported.

Garland said that it’s not only the DEA investigating international cannabis criminal organizations with footprints in the United States. The Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the DEA, and local law agencies are all teaming up to target the illegal cultivation operations in 20 states, Garland told a Senate committee.

There are about 200 such illegal cannabis grow houses in Maine, U.S. Sen. Susan Collins asserted during the hearing, while pressing Garland on what the DOJ was doing to combat the issue.

Garland replied, “It’s not only a Maine problem.”

“DEA is reporting that there are transnational criminal organizations in some 20 states that are not so much grow houses, but illegal marijuana grows,” Garland said, adding that the Maine U.S. attorney has made the investigations “a priority.”

The U.S. Attorney for Maine, Darcie McElwee, told the AP that shutting down all illegal marijuana operations is an ongoing quest. McElwee said there’s been “dozens of operations” closed in recent months.

“The possible involvement of foreign nationals using Maine properties to profit from unlicensed marijuana operations and interstate distributions makes it clear that there is a need for a strong and sustained federal, state and local effort to shut down these operations,” McElwee told the AP.

The post Charges filed in 20-state DEA investigation into illegal cannabis operations appeared first on Green Market Report.

420GrowLife

via www.KahliBuds.com

John Schroyer, KahliBuds, 420GrowLife

#KahliBuds #MMJ #CBD #THC

The receiver for ExWorks, the company that lent High Times Chairman Adam Levin money to buy the business, has appointed Kevin Singer of Receiver Specialists to oversee the sale of High Times’ assets to settle ooutstanding debts.

High Times and Levin used several properties as collateral that are now poised for sale after ExWorks wasn’t paid back.

Stephen Kunkle, the receiver for ExWorks, filed a court document on April 4 in the Superior Court of California, Los Angeles County, naming Singer as the High Times receiver. The document also issued a temporary restraining order against the business and its related entities, which could explain why High Times dispensaries were recently closed.

The assets include:
The cannabis licenses were listed as follows:

According to the court document, High Times must cooperate with Singer and deliver all revenue and income generated from the properties. They also must turn all property keys and the originals of all books, records, ledgers, bank records, documents, subcontracts, contracts, computer software, tax ID numbers, and other business records wherever located relating to the property.

In addition, all cash and security deposits derived from the estate, rents, profits, and all maintenance materials, supplies, equipment, inventory, and tools, plus the real property located at 2991 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd in Lynwood, California.

Singer will be able to operate, manage, and control the estate, plus collect and receive any rents, sub-rents, lease payments, profits, and other income from the estate, to protect, preserve, improve, and maintain the estate. However, Singer won't be responsible for paying any unpaid bills from before he took over as a receiver.

The court document also states that the borrower could declare bankruptcy, or it could enter into a settlement with ExWorks. If the latter comes to fruition, Singer would return the assets to High Times.

Neither option appears likely, as bankruptcy is not usually an option for cannabis businesses and the two entities have been unable to settle for some time now.

Singer did not comment on the court document other than to say he would issue a report to the court by the end of May.

2991 Appointing Order

The post Receiver appointed for High Times’ assets appeared first on Green Market Report.

420GrowLife

via www.KahliBuds.com

Debra Borchardt, KahliBuds, 420GrowLife