Financial services industry veteran, Adam Stettner has launched a new lending company, FundCanna to provide financing for growers, manufacturers, retailers, and all participants in the cannabis supply chain. The company said it raised $30 million but could tap even more through its principals, investors and partners, including an extensive nationwide network built over the last 20+ years of financing American Small Businesses.
“The cannabis industry is in a rapid and dynamic phase requiring significant sources of working and growth capital that have not until now been available to it. This lack of debt financing has hampered growth and driven up borrowing costs,” said Adam Stettner, co-founder, and CEO of FundCanna. “It is common for there to be a gap between the need to make payment and the time to turn purchases into revenue. FundCanna will fill that gap and provide access to working capital for the licensed Cannabis Industry. After having helped in facilitating and directly underwriting, originating, and servicing billions in small business and education loans, I am confident the skills and tools I and my team have developed will translate seamlessly to the cannabis industry. Plainly said, FundCanna is here to solve the debt deficit in the cannabis industry.”
Stettner and his team of financial services industry executives have more than 20-years of lending experience, having facilitated more than $20 billion in funding across all credit types including business, personal, and student loans. Stettner was the CEO and founder of Reliant Funding prior to starting FundCanna.
With the cannabis banking language recently getting excluded from the NDAA, FundCanna may find its timing is auspicious. FundCanna noted in its statement that what little debt financing is available to the industry is generated by high-cost sources of capital including sale-lease backs, non-conforming asset-based loans, and other forms of debt capital that are more expensive than available to traditional, federally regulated industries.
FundCanna said it will initially launch with a suite of lending products specifically targeting distributors and their clients; these include distributors, growers, manufacturers, and retail industries plus the vendors servicing these groups. Additionally, FundCanna will offer products to all other components of the cannabis supply chain. The initial products will resemble factoring offerings, often seen in the garment and retail industries offering term loans of 30 to 180-days however, FundCanna offerings will be flexible and highly customizable.
The post FundCanna Raises $30 Million For New Lending Company appeared first on Green Market Report.
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New Jersey: Regulators Approve Provisional Licenses for 30 New Medical Marijuana Dispensaries
After months of delay, state regulators on Tuesday provided provisional licenses to 30 applicants seeking to operate medical cannabis facilities.
Currently, only 23 medical cannabis facilities are operational in the state. That low total has led high prices and low supplies for the state’s estimated 120,000 registered medical cannabis patients. Under the state’s medical marijuana law, patients are not permitted to home-cultivate cannabis.
Those issued provisional licensure will still need pass a series of background checks as well as site approval prior to opening their businesses.
State lawmakers earlier this year approved legislation legalizing the adult-use marijuana market. Under the law, medical cannabis facilities that have been operational for at least one year can apply for licensure to serve both patients and adult-use customers. However, state regulators have not yet begun the process of reviewing applications for those wishing to operate adult-use facilities. That process is not anticipated to begin until March 2022 — several months later than regulators had initially intended.
Adult-use retail sales are also anticipated to begin next year in the neighboring states of Connecticut and New York.
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A Missouri lawmaker on Wednesday pre-filed a bill to make it so police could no longer use the odor of marijuana alone as justification to conduct searches of a person’s home, vehicle or other private property. The move comes as efforts to more broadly legalize cannabis are heating up in the state—both via the ballot and in the legislature.
Rep. Ian Mackey (D) is sponsoring the new legislation, which he said is meant to build upon the state’s 2018 vote to legalize medical cannabis.
The one-page bill text simply states: “Notwithstanding any provision of law, the odor of marijuana alone shall not provide a law enforcement officer with probable cause to conduct a warrantless search of a motor vehicle, home, or other private property.”
“Missourians overwhelmingly voted to legalize marijuana as medicine, so to allow officers to continue to search our citizens simply because they smell medicine is discriminatory and wrong,” Mackey told St. Louis Today. “It’s time for Missouri to follow the example of other states on this issue.”
“It’s time to update our marijuana criminalization statutes to be more reflective of the 21st century,” he added.
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Separately, St. Louis lawmakers unanimously approved a bill last month to decriminalize marijuana possession and cultivation for adults. That local measure would also prevent police from using the smell or visual presence of cannabis smoke as a basis to conduct a search or arrest someone.
The proposal wouldn’t change Missouri state laws that continue to criminalize marijuana, but the city’s ordinances penalizing low-level possession and cultivation would be repealed.
The St. Louis action from the comes one year after the Kansas City, Missouri City Council voted to approve an ordinance ending all penalties for marijuana possession under the municipality’s local laws.
In that city, Mayor Quinton Lucas (D) and four local lawmakers filed the cannabis measure, which similarly repeals a provision of the Code of Ordinances stipulating that possession of 35 grams or less of marijuana carries a $25 fine and more than 35 grams is punishable by a $500 fine.
In September, the City Council also approved a measure making it so most government workers in Kansas City will no longer face pre-employment drug tests for cannabis.
Meanwhile, a Republican Missouri lawmaker is again making a push to place marijuana legalization on the ballot in 2022.
Rep. Shamed Dogan (R) pre-filed his joint resolution this month to place a constitutional amendment on legalization on the 2022 ballot. He introduced a similar proposal last year, but it did not advance.
Under the lawmaker’s plan, adults 21 and older could purchase, possess and cultivate cannabis for personal use. It does not specify allowable amounts.
If enacted, no police or state funds could be used to assist in the enforcement of federal cannabis prohibition. And the state could no longer allow asset or civil forfeiture for citizens of age who conduct marijuana activities made lawful under the measure.
There are some advocates who want to see the legislature take the lead on establishing a regulated marijuana market, but others remain skeptical that will actually happen in the state’s GOP-controlled House and Senate. That’s why there are currently two separate campaigns working to get legalization initiatives on the state’s 2022 ballot.
On group of activists kicked off its campaign this month, with plans to deploy hundreds of signature gatherers at major cities throughout the state.
New Approach Missouri, which successfully got a medical cannabis initiative passed by voters in 2018, announced its plans to put the reform proposal on the ballot through its new campaign committee Legal Missouri 2022 earlier this summer.
The organization tried to place the issue of legalization before voters last year, but the COVID-19 pandemic derailed that effort.
Despite the health crisis, activists managed to collect 80,000 raw signatures within months, though they needed 160,199 valid signatures to qualify.
A separate campaign, Fair Access Missouri, is separately exploring multiple citizen initiatives with the hopes of getting at least one on the ballot next year. Three of the four would create a system of legalized cannabis sales for adults 21 and older, while another would simply amend the state’s existing medical marijuana program.
Aside from recreational marijuana legalization, three of the proposed initiatives would amend the state’s medical cannabis program. Among other changes, they would remove licensing caps, repeal the application scoring system, reduce patient fees and allow patients to access a one-year supply instead of 90 day.
Free Access Missouri, which has ties to the Missouri Cannabis Industry Association (MCIA), does seem to be living up to its name based on the measures, which contain provisions that appear to specifically promote industry participation by proposing a system without licensing limits.
For 2022, proposals to amend the state Constitution will need 171,592 valid signatures from registered voters.
Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.
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South Dakota Voters Disapprove Of Governor’s Handling Of Marijuana Legalization, Poll Finds
South Dakota voters are giving Gov. Kristi Noem (R) good marks on her job performance—except when it comes to marijuana policy and the way in which her administration has sought to undermine the will of the electorate which approved a legalization ballot measure last year.
A statewide poll released on Tuesday showed that an average of 61 percent of voters strongly or somewhat approve of Noem’s job performance across five categories in her first term. But just 39 percent said they approve of her handling of marijuana legalization, with 51 percent disapproving.
One-third of respondents said that they strongly disapprove of the governor when it comes to cannabis, while 18 percent said they somewhat disapprove.
Twenty-eight percent of Republicans, 38 percent of Democrats and 39 percent of independents said they strongly disapproved of Noem’s handling of the issue. Another 16 percent of GOP voters, 23 percent of Democrats and 17 percent of independents somewhat disapprove of the governor’s actions on cannabis.
While Noem—who is up for reelection next year—has seemingly recognized the popularity of marijuana reform in recent months and has attempted to tie herself to the rollout of a voter-approved medical cannabis program, it appears that voters haven’t forgotten how she adamantly opposed a separate adult-use legalization initiative that residents also passed last November.
In fact, it was a lawsuit funded by her administration that led to a court ruling voiding the recreational marijuana law—a decision upheld by the state Supreme Court last month when justices affirmed that the measure is unconstitutional because it violated a single subject rule for ballot initiatives.
“The people did weigh in on [cannabis reform], and it’s very easy to see what she is doing as far as working to counter what 53 percent of the voters said they wanted in regard to recreational marijuana,” David Wiltse, a political science professor at South Dakota State University, said of the survey results.
The poll—which was sponsored by South Dakota News Watch and the Chiesman Center for Democracy at the University of South Dakota—involved interviews with 500 registered voters from October 20-23 and has a +/- 4.5 percentage point margin of error.
“Of the five topics on which Noem was rated in the poll, she fared by far the worst in regard to marijuana,” South Dakota News Watch said in its analysis.
Noem has consistently faced criticism from advocates and stakeholders over her early opposition to cannabis reform.
She released an ad ahead of last year’s election urging residents to vote against the legalization initiative that ultimately passed, 54-46 percent.
“The fact is, I’ve never met someone who got smarter from smoking pot,” the governor said in the ad. “It’s not good for our kids. And it’s not going to improve our communities.”
Noem also drew the ire of advocates after she vetoed a hemp legalization bill in 2019. But after outlining a series of policy requests, she approved amended legislation to legalize the crop and CBD oil last year.
Lately, however, the governor seems committed to associating herself with the implementation of a medical cannabis legalization initiative that voters overwhelmingly approved last year, despite having opposed the proposal in the run-up to the election.
After regulators approved rules for the medical marijuana program in September, Noem said her administration “is fully on board to make certain South Dakota continues to implement the most responsible, patient-focused medical cannabis program in the country.”
I’m proud of the job the Department of Health did in streamlining this process. My Administration is fully on board to make certain South Dakota continues to implement the most responsible, patient-focused medical cannabis program in the country. https://t.co/kj0KrYHoGs
— Kristi Noem (@KristiNoem) September 15, 2021
Noem tried to get the legislature to approve a bill to delay implementation of the medical cannabis program for an additional year, but while it cleared the House, negotiators were unable to reach an agreement with the Senate in conference, delivering a defeat to the governor.
In response, her office started exploring a compromise earlier this year, with one proposal that came out of her administration to decriminalize possession of up to one ounce of cannabis, limit the number of plants that patients could cultivate to three and prohibit people under 21 from qualifying for medical marijuana.
Advocates weren’t enthused with the proposal, and South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws (SDBML) is now taking a two-track approach to enacting legalization.
In the legislature, a draft cannabis legalization bill has been formally recommended by a leadership panel for the upcoming session. SDBML intends to work with lawmakers on that measure while continuing to collect signatures for a separate 2022 ballot initiative.
A Marijuana Interim Study Committee recently made the formal recommendation for the legislature to take up legalization following a series of hearings. The recommendation was agreed to last month by the legislature’s Executive Board, which is led by the House speaker and Senate president pro tempore.
Sen. Bryan Breitling (R) said the legislature will see two adult-use marijuana legalization bills and 23 proposals related to the state’s medical cannabis program during next year’s session. Any marijuana legislation that lawmakers pass, however, will end up on Noem’s desk.
Marijuana Banking Not Included In Congressional Defense Bill Following Bicameral Negotiations
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