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West Virginia opening first medical cannabis dispensary

by The Real Dirt | Nov 12, 2021 | Blog, Business, Cannabis Business, Cannabis Law, Cannabis News, Medical Marijuana

West Virginia medical cannabis dispensary opening

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia’s first medical cannabis dispensary is opening more than four years after state lawmakers allowed a regulatory system for those products to be established.

Trulieve Cannabis Corp. is set to debut a retail location in Morgantown on Friday with a second shop opening in Weston next Monday.

“We’re thrilled to be first to market in West Virginia and to continue building the foundation for the West Virginia’s emerging medical cannabis market,” Trulieve CEO Kim Rivers said in a statement.

She said the company’s goal is to “bolster local economies by creating sustainable jobs and investing in marginalized communities.”

The 2017 state law allows for medical cannabis use in pills, oils, topical gels, liquids, dermal patches and a form that can be vaporized.

In order to access and buy products from a dispensary, residents must have a West Virginia medical marijuana card. Residents with serious medical conditions can register for the card at www.medcanwv.org.

Original Story from Times Union

New Jersey to Begin Accepting Cannabis Business License Applications in December

by Travis C | Nov 10, 2021 | 420 News, Blog, Business, Cannabis Business, Cannabis Law, Cannabis Law and Compliance, Cannabis News, Industry News, Legalization, Medical Marijuana

New Jersey cannabis business applications will begin December 15

After missing a September deadline to begin licensing recreational cannabis businesses in New Jersey, the Cannabis Regulatory Commission has announced it will begin accepting application on December 15, 2021. However these applications will only be available to growers, processors and testing labs.

Applications for dispensaries will not be available until March 15, 2022. The New Jersey cannabis legalization law originally mandated legal sales begin by mid-February 2022, or six months after the commission adopted its initial rules.

However due to the past delays, the likelihood of cannabis businesses being up and operational by February 2022 is low. The Commission however has said that during the time that they delayed the application process, they created a way to better process applications, implicating the process could move more quickly than initially expected.

New Jersey currently has medical cannabis dispensaries across the state, which is the only legal way to obtain cannabis currently and requires a patient card to purchase cannabis. The state has recently issued 14 new medical dispensary licenses, however these stores must be in operation for one year before they can apply to also sell recreational cannabis.

The Cannabis Regulatory Commission is concerned that due to their delays, there won’t be sufficient supply of cannabis for recreational sales come February. However, already established dispensaries will have the option to apply for recreational sales, and many owners of these businesses say they are ready for recreational sales now with plenty of cannabis in stock.

The New Jersey cannabis legalization bill also allows for delivery, distributors and wholesalers in the recreational cannabis industry. However the Commission has yet to establish the rules for guiding these license types, and a date to begin applications has not been set.

When applications for businesses begin, women-, veteran- or minority-owned businesses will have priority. If an applicant has been arrested for marijuana or lives in a municipality with disproportionate rates of marijuana arrests or is economically disadvantaged, they too have priority. Additionally the rules allow priority for micro-businesses, or those with 10 employees or less.

The Commission will hold an informational webinar on November 30 for those who want to apply for licenses. The Commission has also heard comments on labeling for cannabis products, as well as invited testimony regarding cannabis edibles.

American Native tribes partner up to cash in on marijuana business opportunities

by The Real Dirt | Nov 8, 2021 | 420 News, Blog, Business, Cannabis Business, Cannabis News, Culture, Industry News, Legalization

Native american tribes are teaming up to take advantage of cannabis business opportunities

American Indian communities are increasingly collaborating to get a piece of the explosive growth of the cannabis industry by offering products based on tribal medicine from their ancestral origins.

The partnerships are helping break down longstanding barriers to Indigenous entrepreneurship in the marijuana and hemp industries.

“When we all are doing this together, we all win,” said Chenae Bullock, managing director of New York’s Little Beach Harvest and the Shinnecock Nation cannabis division, which has joined with Tilt Holdings, a Massachusetts-based multistate cannabis operator, to establish a vertically integrated marijuana business on Shinnecock tribal lands.

“I call them ancient trade routes,” she said. “We’ve been doing commerce with tribes since before colonialism.”

Tribes are also joining forces to share expertise.

“In order for us to be competitive, we had to make it a collaborative, inclusive, sustainable ecosystem,” said Jeff Sampson, CEO at Everscore, an online marijuana marketplace working with the Native American Cannabis Alliance (NACA).

Collective growing

Three American Indian tribes – the Mohawk Nation and Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes – announced this fall an agreement to dedicate 500,000 acres of land to cannabis cultivation.

They’re joining the NACA, a joint initiative between Cherokee Nation’s Native Health Matters Foundation and Everscore, a direct-to-consumer, online cannabis marketplace.

The NACA was established in 2020, when the partners were working to develop a fulfillment center in Oklahoma as a way to get tribes involved in the cannabis industry, said the organization’s creator, Tim Houseberg of Stilwell, Oklahoma.

Because the supply chain was so fragmented, the effort turned into something much bigger.

“We just heard story after story about farmers who had the experience and wanted to participate, but they felt like the risk to actually commit to planting was too great because they couldn’t access markets,” Sampson said.

“We facilitate the connection between a customer and a brand. We felt like we could facilitate a connection between a brand and a grower – in this case, Indigenous farmers.”

Read Full Story on Marijuana Moment

Delta 8 THC Banned in New York

by The Real Dirt | Nov 5, 2021 | Blog, Cannabis Business, Cannabis Law, Cannabis Law and Compliance, Cannabis News, Culture, Hemp, Hemp Law, Industry News, Legalization

Rules to allow for delta-8 THC could come in the “future,” but in the meantime, those for CBD in food and beverages have been finalized.

Delta-8 THC was front and center during the latest meeting of New York’s cannabis regulators, as officials work to stand up what will be one of the world’s biggest cannabis markets.

The state’s Cannabis Control Board (CCB) met on Wednesday, for the third time, to approve Cannabinoid Hemp regulations presented by the Office of Cannabis Management. The package of rules will now regulate hemp products, including CBD products, by creating “clear” guidelines for what kinds of products and activities are allowed, and which ones aren’t, “to help foster the development of a robust cannabinoid hemp industry.”

The rules also seek to enhance consumer protection and quality control through testing and labeling, and to “enforce against” products that don’t meet the bar and those that are explicitly banned.

“Delta-8, similar to delta-9 THC, is psychoactive, has psychoactive properties, particularly when synthesized through the processing process. Because of that, we’ve decided to hold off on including the regulations for those products in this package and that will be addressed in the future adult use packages,” Chris Alexander, executive director of the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM), within which the Board sits, said during a question and answer portion of the meeting, when asked specifically where delta-8 rules stood.

The regulations do, however, allow for cannabinoids, like CBD, to be added to foods and beverages, if they meet the state’s standards, which will require that each product be made using Good Manufacturing Practices. Last month, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 45, which will now allow hemp-derived CBD (or other cannabinoids) in supplements, foods, drinks, cosmetics, and pet food.

“I’m pleased that we will be advancing the cannabinoid hemp program today, just as we have done with the expansion of the medical marijuana program at prior meetings,” Tremaine Wright, chair of the Board, said at the start of the meeting. (As Cannabis Wire recently reported, the Board has already moved to allow for medical cannabis shops to sell flower products, which several have started to do, and released rules for patients to home grow.)

Board member Jen Metzger gave an overview of the hemp program in New York. In 2015, the Department of Agriculture and Markets launched the state’s Industrial Hemp Agricultural Research Pilot Program. Metzger said this program “exploded” after it launched, with 800 farmers registered to grow, most for cannabidiol (CBD).

When the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act passed in March, legalizing cannabis for adult use, the Cannabinoid Hemp Program was transitioned under the umbrella of the new Office of Cannabis Management.

Read Full Story on Cannabis Wire

Cannabis Is America’s New Cash Crop, More Profitable Than Cotton Or Rice

by The Real Dirt | Nov 4, 2021 | 420 News, Blog, Business, Cannabis Business, Cannabis News, Growing, Hemp, Industry News, Legalization

cannabis is now the 5th most profitable cash crop in America

Cannabis marketplace Leafly Holdings, Inc. released its inaugural Cannabis Harvest Report on Wednesday revealing that cannabis is America’s 5^th most valuable crop. The report takes the first look at cannabis data, insights and projections across the 11 states where Americans can currently purchase both adult-use and medical cannabis.

To conduct the analysis, Leafly’s investigative team teamed up with Whitney Economics and ended up discovering that cannabis has become a major agricultural commodity that supports thousands of American farmers and farm communities.

Based on the report, cannabis crops in adult-use states now support 13,042 licensed farms in the aggregate. On an annual basis, those growers harvest 2,278 metric tons (5,022,990 pounds) of cannabis. To give you a better idea: that’s enough weed to roll more than two billion joints or fill 57 Olympic-size swimming pools

Cannabis Is More Valuable Than Cotton, Rice And Peanuts

That amount makes cannabis the fifth most valuable crop in the United States. With a wholesale harvest value of $6.2 billion, America’s cannabis harvest ranks above cotton and below wheat, based on US Department of Agriculture data for 2020. Only corn, soybeans, hay and wheat bring in more money to American farmers.

Based on wholesale harvest value, this is how U.S. crops rate:

Corn $61 billion
Soybeans $46 billion
Hay $17.3 billion
Wheat $9.3 billion
Cannabis $6.2 billion
Cotton $4.7 billion
Rice $3.1 billion
Peanuts $1.3 billion

“America’s adult-use wholesale cannabis crop returned a mind-boggling $6.175 billion to farmers last year, ranking it as the 5th most valuable crop in the United States,” David Downs, the report’s lead author and Leafly’s California bureau chief stated. “ Yet, due to federal prohibition, America does not treat cannabis farmers like farmers. They are subject to more state and federal taxes, regulations, and stigma than any other type of farmer. These barriers hurt small legacy farmers the most. This plant is helping generate wealth, employment, and community investment around the country, and our legislators need to recognize the opportunity cannabis presents for Americans—today.”

The report also revealed that legal cannabis is the single most valuable agricultural crop in Alaska, Colorado, Massachusetts, Nevada and Oregon, but remains completely uncounted and ignored by state agriculture officials. In Alaska alone, the state’s cannabis crop is worth more than twice as much as all other agricultural products combined.

Original Story from Benzinga

New York Will Not Issue Adult-Use Licenses Until 2023

by The Real Dirt | Nov 3, 2021 | Blog, Business, Cannabis Business, Cannabis Law, Cannabis Law and Compliance, Cannabis News, Industry News, Legalization, Politics

New York recreational cannabis licenses delayed until 2023

The head of New York’s Cannabis Control Board said last week she does not anticipate the state will begin issuing industry licenses until the spring of 2023 at the earliest.

The head of New York’s Cannabis Control Board said last week that she does not anticipate the state will begin issuing industry licenses until the spring of 2023 at the earliest, WXXI News reports. Tremaine Wright’s comments came during a cannabis conference at Comedy at the Carlson in Rochester.

“What we do control is getting (dispensaries) licensing and giving them all the tools so they can work within our systems. That’s what we are saying will be achieved in 18 months. Not that they’re open, not that they’ll be full-blown operations, because we don’t know that.” — Wright via WXXI

The state’s legalization law included a launch date of April 1, 2022, at the earliest and Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) only appointed members to the Cannabis Control Board in September. Hochul was not governor when lawmakers passed the broad legalization bill last March; she would replace Gov. Andrew Cuomo in August following his resignation over sexual misconduct allegations.

During the board’s meeting in late October, Wright declared the practice of “gifting” cannabis — including it with the purchase of another, often overpriced product — illegal and that violations could be met with “severe financial penalties.”

While state regulators have been slow to get the cannabis licensing process underway, adult-use cannabis sales have already commenced under the jurisdiction of several New York tribes, including the St. Regis Mohawks.

A bill has also been introduced that would allow licensed cannabis cultivators to start growing their crops prior to the launch of the formal program, creating provisional licenses that would allow businesses to operate if the Office of Cannabis Management doesn’t propagate program rules by January 1. That bill remains in the Senate Rules Committee.