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Harvest Health or rather Trulieve since it bought Harvest Health must be heaving a sigh of relief that it’s High Times on the hook for the rent at Geary St. in San Francisco. Before it was acquired Harvest Health had tried to quickly jump into the San Francisco market by signing numerous agreements. One of them was with Alexis Bronson from the Have A Heart 2 CA LLC  as a social equity licensee for a dispensary at a prime shopping spot on the famous Geary Street.

Touted at the time as snagging a spot in the luxury shopping street, neighbor Chanel boutique protested. This was early 2020 and right before the pandemic struck. However, Harvest Health didn’t waste much time on some of the assets including 152 Geary and flipped some of its properties to High Times who was anxious to diversify into dispensaries. Soon thereafter, COVID took hold and San Francisco’s downtown has yet to recover. The problem with retail rental contracts is that many of them can’t be broken with covid blame. Something High Times has learned the hard way.

Cannabis Law Report wrote that on May 31, a judge found that Vijaya Properties (High Times) owes the building owner $4.9 million in back rent. The dispensary was never opened and to add insult to injury, the building is only worth $20 million. The landlord Thor Equities actually wanted $5.9 million, but the judge said that since the landlord basically took the $1 million in a credit facility that was somewhat like a deposit, that money would be subtracted. 

The judge noted that a tenant can get out of a lease if another tenant comes along. The landlord could ask the current tenant to leave and replace them and in effect take back possession. But 152 Geary hasn’t done so and so High Times is stuck. Geary St has experienced some scary smash and grab robberies this past year that were so frightening that police were blocking the street from car traffic as closing hours came near. So it’s no surprise that with crime and a depleted downtown along with a moribund retail scene the landlord probably couldn’t find a tenant willing to pay that much. 

There was also nothing in the rental contract that gave High Times an “out” in case it never opened the dispensary.

The trial had no jury and was handled remotely. High Times or Vijaya Properties as it’s listed in the case did not dispute the money owed. Side note – Vijaya is a botanica plant with medicinal properties and shares a lineage with cannabis.

The post High Times Owes $5 Million in Back Rent appeared first on Green Market Report.

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The Justice Department is due this week to respond to a marijuana lawsuit filed by Florida’s top agriculture official, who is also running as a Democratic gubernatorial candidate. The case concerns the constitutional rights of medical cannabis patients to purchase and possess firearms.

Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried spoke to Marijuana Moment about the case, how cannabis has played into her race for governor and the federal government’s drug testing policy for marijuana in a phone interview on Friday.

She also pushed back against anti-cannabis comments recently made by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), previewing how the issue might be argued before voters in November if she wins her party’s nomination to challenge the incumbent governor.

In the meantime, the federal lawsuit at hand comes at a critical time for gun policy in the U.S., with another wave of mass shootings fostering skepticism about any proposal that isn’t overtly restrictive. But Fried, as well as key gun control advocates, are making the case that this challenge, if successful, would promote firearms safety.

“This is not about guns, per se,” Fried said. “This is about the fact that, for decades, marijuana patients have been discriminated against—that they see their rights not being completely afforded to them, whether it is on housing or access to banking or employment. And this is one of their other rights.”

As it stands, in order to buy a gun, people are required to fill out a federal form that explicitly asks about the use of illegal drugs—including cannabis. Those who admit to marijuana use are ineligible to make the purchase and could face up to five years in prison if they lie, regardless of state cannabis laws.

That’s a major problem, Fried and other advocates say, because it creates an incentive for people who are lawfully using medical cannabis in their state to either fill our the form falsely, seek out firearms in the illicit market or simply accept the denial of their constitutional rights.

Removing that marijuana stipulation from the federal background check form, in contrast, would bring more people above board and promote safety, Fried says.

“If we can work with the [Biden] administration on changing this, it will actually make sure that everybody has to complete a thorough background check when it comes to purchasing a firearm,” the commissioner said. “And so the reality of the end result is that people will be more safe.”

It took some work to educate the gun safety community about this particular issue. Fried has an established record as a gun reform advocate, and so when activists initially heard about this proposal to give medical cannabis patients lawful access to firearms, some balked. The commissioner participated in roundtables to help inform those who were reluctant, and key advocates have come around to the idea.

Now the ball is in the Justice Department’s court. It’s deadline to file a response in the case is set for this week, but it’s unclear how it will react even as White House officials have recently recognized that the policy of blanket cannabis prohibition has failed.

A spokesperson for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), which is listed as a defendant in Fried’s lawsuit, said the agency is “unable to comment on this while in litigation” in an email to Marijuana Moment on Monday. The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.

Fried said that her office has had “little communication with the Department of Justice since we filed” but has reached out to Biden administration officials in an attempt to educate them on the topic.

“We had offered a conversation with any of their attorneys, or even somebody from the White House, to continue briefing them on it,” she said, “because, at the end of the day, what we are looking for is for federal government to take action on on cannabis reform.”

Attorney Will Hall, who is representing the commissioner in this case, told Marijuana Moment that he expects DOJ to take one of two approaches to the litigation this week: either submit a response on the merits or file a motion to dismiss.

In the recent past, on cases pertaining to drug policy such as in an ongoing lawsuit about the legality of safe drug consumption sites, the Justice Department has requested deadline extensions.

“If they file a motion to dismiss, that’s not at all uncommon, but we’ll see,” Hall said. “Whatever they think is most appropriate. Neither [scenario] would surprise me, frankly.”

Fried brought the lawsuit alongside two medical marijuana patients in the state, as well as Neill Franklin, a retired police officer and former executive director of the Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP) who has declined to use medical cannabis despite its therapeutic value for pain he experiences because of the potential gun rights ramifications.

The lawsuit states that the DOJ and ATF’s “irrational, inconsistent, and incoherent federal marijuana policy undermines Florida’s medical marijuana and firearms laws and prevents Commissioner Fried from ensuring that Floridians receive the state rights relating to them.”

Denying Second Amendment rights to people who lawfully use medical marijuana in compliance with state law “does not survive any level of appropriate legal scrutiny,” it says.

A key component of the legal challenge is based on a unique interpretation of a congressional spending bill rider known as the Rohrabacher-Farr Amendment, which prevents the Justice Department from using federal funds to interfere in the implementation of state medical cannabis programs.

By preventing people like Franklin from using medical marijuana without risking the loss of their right to buy firearms, the federal government is effectively violating that rider by blocking Florida from adding new patients to grow its program, the suit says.

The suit seeks to enjoin the federal agencies from enforcing the gun ban based on state-legal medical marijuana use on the basis that the policy violates the Second Amendment and the congressional rider.

It also specifically challenges the justification of the ban, arguing that marijuana use does not make a person more inclined to violent or dangerous behavior.

“I just don’t think that fits any level of scrutiny that really would be applied,” Hall, a former prosecutor, said of the idea that cannabis makes people inherently more dangerous.

The attorney also said that “it’s certainly possible” that Congress takes up the medical cannabis and gun rights issue apart from this lawsuit, and that he’d encourage lawmakers to take ownership over the problem.

In 2020, ATF issued an advisory specifically targeting Michigan that requires gun sellers to conduct federal background checks on all unlicensed gun buyers because it said the state’s cannabis laws had enabled “habitual marijuana users” and other disqualified individuals to obtain firearms illegally.

There have been previous efforts in Congress to specifically protect medical cannabis patients against losing their right to purchase and possess guns, but those efforts have not been enacted.

Fried, for her part, has made marijuana reform a key component of her office’s focus, as well as her gubernatorial campaign.

For example, she drew a sharp contrast to her stance compared to that of incumbent DeSantis, who recently complained that he doesn’t like the smell of cannabis while saying he does support the idea of ending cannabis criminalization.

“Ron DeSantis doesn’t understand the cannabis space,” Fried said. “He doesn’t understand that this is a healthcare issue, that this is criminal justice reform, economic opportunities. He doesn’t understand it, and instead wants to say that there is a pungent odor attached to it.”

“I certainly want to question, does he not go into cigar bars?” she said, adding that “the fact of the matter is that [in] our own state, polling is over 70 percent for full legalization. So his own personal opinions are getting in the way of good policy that the people on the ground want.”

Separately, the department Fried currently oversees recently announced a scholarship essay contest where Florida students from grades 4-12 are being invited to brainstorm new uses for hemp.

Fried has publicly stated that she’s a medical cannabis cardholder in the state, and she previously lobbied on behalf of a plant farm that was later bought out by a major cannabis company before she became the Florida’s top agriculture regulator.

She frequently talks about her advocacy for cannabis policy reform on social media, and she has investments in a marijuana company.

Regulators in her office have criticized Oregon hemp businesses over hemp products that they say contain rocks and sticks and have failed to meet regulatory guidelines on allowable THC content. Instead, consumers should buy local products made in Florida, Fried’s department said.

In 2018, the national bank Wells Fargo fired Fried as a client because her campaign has received donations from “lobbyists from the medical marijuana industry.”

In the interview with Marijuana Moment, the commissioner also criticized a recent letter from the federal Environmental Protection Agency, reminding workers that they’re barred from using cannabis regardless of state policy changes.

“That’s the wrong direction. It’s the wrong direction for our country,” she said. “Are we asking people whether or not they downed a bottle of alcohol the night before [going on the job]?

Fried’s major Democratic primary opponent, U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist (D-FL), has also worked to align himself with the cannabis reform movement, and he’s taken special interest in the workplace protections aspect of marijuana, filing standalone legislation to provide protections for federal workers who consume cannabis in compliance with state law. But the bill has never received a hearing or a vote and has not been refiled so far this Congress.

Crist was also among more than a dozen congressional lawmakers who requested earlier this year that President Joe Biden grant mass clemency for people with federal marijuana convictions.

Medical Marijuana Legalization Linked To Reduced Drunk Driving And Safer Roads, Study On Auto Insurance Data Suggests

The post Florida Official Awaits Justice Department’s Response To Medical Marijuana Patients’ Gun Rights Lawsuit This Week appeared first on Marijuana Moment.

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Town in Colorado Might Rename Itself ‘Kush’ in Honor of the Cannabis Industry

A small town in Colorado – currently known as Moffat – is considering changing its name to “Kush”. The idea for changing the town’s name came from Mike Biggio, the owner and founder of Area 420. Biggio’s company licenses land in Moffat to grow cannabis. Over the past six years, cultivation licenses in the area went from two to 70. According to town mayor Cassandra Foxx, this growth is driven by Area 420. Foxx says she credits the cannabis industry and Area 420 for breathing new life into the tiny town of 120 residents and providing them with an opportunity to grow.

Recent Data Shows Medical Marijuana Legalization is Associated with Safer Roads

A recent study published in the journal Health Economics found that auto insurance premiums went down in states that legalized medical marijuana. This indicates that medical cannabis legalization correlates with safer driving. The study analyzed insurance data from 2014 to 2019, which showed that auto insurance premiums decreased by an average of $22 per year after states legalized medical cannabis. The researchers behind the study concluded that this premium decrease may be due to less drunk driving, possibly indicating that people switched from alcohol to cannabis use once it was legalized for medical purposes. While a $22 average premium reduction may not seem significant on its face, the study found that “medical cannabis legalization has reduced auto insurance premiums by $1.5 billion in all states that have currently legalized, with the potential to reduce premiums by an additional $900 million if the remaining states were to legalize”. The overall conclusion of the study was that legal access to medical cannabis had a positive impact on road safety. While more research in this area is always helpful, this is contrary to a prohibitionist argument that legalization leads to unsafe road conditions.

DEA’s Marijuana Seizures Increased in 2021

Despite strides forward for cannabis reform in many states and even some effort on the federal level, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) released a report which shows that the agency seized far more cannabis last year than it did in recent years. The annual report from DEA’s Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program showed that the agency seized more than 5.5 million plants in 2021 and arrested about 6,600 people for cannabis in the same year. Compared to 2020, that is a notable increase of approximately 22 percent in confiscated plants and about 32 percent more arrests. Interestingly, the report from DEA shows a contrast to data and trends regarding cannabis seizures and arrests from other federal agencies like the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting and the Congressional Research Service, which showed declines in cannabis arrests and illegal marijuana from Mexico, respectively. 

The post Town in Colorado Might Rename Itself ‘Kush’ in Honor of the Cannabis Industry, Recent Data Shows Medical Marijuana Legalization is Associated with Safer Roads, and DEA’s Marijuana Seizures Increased in 2021 first appeared on The Marijuana Times.

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Herbal health enthusiast Scarlet Ravin has enjoyed a supportive counterculture following since the 2007 launch of her White Fox Medicinals, a CBD infused topical and tincture line of health and beauty mixtures.  When she eventually left Colorado for California, her business expanded with bottling, branding, and wider distribution. Today however, White Fox Medicinals rests nestled in the northern mountains of New Mexico, with Ravin crafting and selling her soul healing remedies via the White Fox Medicine Wagon, a traveling storefront tribute to ancient and traditional practices. While still available online at https://whitefoxnectars.com, Ravin is going against the grain and seeking to nurture her local community with hands-on service that harkens earlier times and better days.

“While most business are moving into meta space, I feel compelled to create a business module that honors healing from a heart attuned space,” explains White Fox Medicinals founder and creator, Scarlet Ravin. “The 1900’s style gypsy medicine wagon is my antidote to being cancelled across social media. Medicine is about love from the maker and connecting to the roots from which it came.  Servicing my community, in person, with a traveling store, redeems what White Fox Medicine has always been about, which is plant based, spirit infused preventative care, that honors the earth and her animals.”

From CBD infused body rubs and soothing skin balms to crystal enhanced bath salts and scrubs to cosmically aligned herb teas, Ravin has expanded with novel therapeutics that reflect the locally grown sage made available from her New Mexico environment. The Los Ojos Sage Soap and Miracle Balm body potion are part of her newly launched 100% natural New Mexico desert restorative offerings.

“White Fox Medicine has been able to survive the pandemic because our clientele appreciates the value of herbal alchemy as a long-term recipe for multi-layered restoration,” notes Ravin.  “Now more than ever, with so much of our lives compromised and sacrificed in our post pandemic world, it is important to be able to access sustenance that still vibrates with the high frequency essence of Mother Earth. I’m extremely excited to present the White Fox Medicine Wagon as a reminder of our early curative roots and power.”

Scarlet Ravin has always enjoyed a special relationship with plants. Her deep love for plants and animals led her to leave behind chemical-based products and explore alternative cures.  White Fox Medicine was born and through Scarlet’s spiritual insight she found herself channeling formulas and potions that her customers came to love.  

The cannabis community found her CBD imbued creations to be exceptional, with rave reviews from High Times, Weedmaps and Rolling Stone.  As an international best-selling author, Scarlet enjoys public speaking while she allows higher wisdom to come through her.  Her newest book “Psilocybin Transmissions” is a channeled book explaining the benefits of the sacred plant.

White Fox Medicinals are packaged in biophotonic glass packaging offering unique filtering to both protect and revitalize the contents while amazingly extending the shelf life. Animal totems grace each label as another layer that harkens the remembrance of ancient rituals. Everything is 100% organic and typically made on full moon evenings under the power of prayer before bottled.

As White Fox Medicine continues its mission to educate, heal and support wellness using ingredients straight from the earth, the Medicine Wagon is an important earmark of Scarlet Ravin’s commitment to spread love across the planet, one road at a time.

To book the White Fox Medicine Wagon for an event, email scarlet@whitefoxmedicinals.com. 

The full White Fox Medicinals line is also available at https://whitefoxnectars.com.

The post Scarlet Ravin’s White Fox Medicinals Invokes Traditional Herbal Healing with Traveling Storefront Medicine Wagon first appeared on The Marijuana Times.

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