September 29, 2020
Study – Marijuana Taxes Could Net State $45-$52 Million Per Year
“We'd looked at the experience of other states and the bottom line is that we think the revenue potential from a 20% sales tax on legalized recreational cannabis, but the size that revenue varies. It's roughly between $45 and $52 million per year, which is comprised of a resident share and a tourist share which is expected to grow in the coming years.”
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September 29, 2020
Arkansas medical marijuana millions
Since the state’s first dispensary opened about 16 months ago, Arkansas patients have purchased more than $131 million worth of medical marijuana. These sales have generated more than $13 million in state tax revenue, contributing to the state’s goal of achieving a coveted cancer institute designation for the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
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September 28, 2020
Top Illinois And Michigan Officials Give Marijuana Legalization Advice To Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor
The lieutenant governors of Illinois and Michigan recently gave their counterpart in Pennsylvania some advice on how to approach marijuana legalization in his state.
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September 27, 2020
Utah’s new medical marijuana program more popular than officials expected
Six months after medical marijuana became legal for purchase inside Utah for the first time, the program has already surpassed enrollment projections.
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September 26, 2020
Draft Regulations For Delivery Cannabis Licenses Approved In Massachusetts
The Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission on Thursday approved draft regulations that would create licenses for adult-use cannabis delivery companies in the Commonwealth.
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September 26, 2020
Largest California wildfire threatens marijuana-growing area
Firefighters battling the state’s largest wildfire braced for the change in weather by constructing fuel breaks on Friday to keep the flames from reaching a marijuana-growing enclave where authorities said many of the locals have refused to evacuate and abandon their maturing crops.
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September 25, 2020
Massachusetts marijuana regulators close in on cannabis home delivery plan
The Cannabis Control Commission filled in the blanks Thursday of its long-discussed marijuana home delivery rules, agreeing upon a framework that creates two types of delivery licenses and settling on a timeline that would have new cannabis industry rules in place in about a month. The CCC adopted draft delivery regulations Thursday that would create two distinct delivery license types: a “limited delivery license” that would allow an operator to charge a fee to make deliveries from CCC-licensed retailers and dispensaries, and a “wholesale delivery license” that would let an operator buy marijuana wholesale from cultivators and manufacturers and store it in a warehouse. The licensees would augment retail stories and serve as a new means for people to acquire recreational marijuana. “What we’ve done in addition to creating those two license types is also to establish new fees and fee structures, to require warehousing for wholesale delivery licensees, to authorize white labeling for wholesale delivery licensees, we’re defining specific operational requirements that will be in addition to the general operational requirements, and we are amending existing relevant regulations to incorporate the license types and the activities that they can undertake,” Commissioner Britte McBride, who led the regulation writing process, said. McBride said the limited delivery license “isn’t much of a change at all from the delivery-only license that had been included in our regulations.” When it started this latest round of regulatory revisions earlier this year, the proposed rules would have limited delivery operators to a courier role, sourcing marijuana and marijuana products from CCC-licensed retailers and making same-day deliveries. Several prospective cannabis delivery operators told commissioners during a public hearing that the framework for delivery would not work as initially written.
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September 25, 2020
These States Will Be The Next To Legalize Marijuana
Hopes were at an all-time high for sweeping cannabis policy reform and industry expansion as 2019 turned into 2020. With widespread, and bi-partisan, public support, the MORE ACT passing the House Judiciary Committee, and the prospect of nearly a dozen cannabis policy votes in 2020, there was plenty of reason for optimism. I even wrote in this column that “2020 was shaping up to be the biggest year ever for marijuana policy reform.” All bets were off when the Covid-19 pandemic plunged us into global uncertainty this past spring. Individuals, families, and corporations were left scrambling towards a proverbial “new normal,” with the majority of policy initiatives taking a backseat to the public health crisis demanding our attention. This meant that qualifying ballot initiatives became vastly more challenging, with traditional signature gathering, and the amount of social contact it requires, no longer considered acceptable or safe. Montana ordered 150,000 pens so each petition signer could have their own. Other states, however, weren’t so lucky, with Arkansas unable to meet their July 3rd signature deadline for adult- use cannabis legalization and Idaho preemptively anticipating the same fate, opting to suspend their medical cannabis campaign in early April (they needed 55,057 by May 1 to qualify). California, Missouri and Nebraska also saw cannabis related policy efforts halted by Covid-19. Efforts to legalize cannabis in state legislatures similarly suffered, with state legislatures shutting down for months at a time, and most only reconvening virtually to handle essential business. Anticipated legislative pushes to legalize in states like New York, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Mexico all stalled due to Covid-19 related legislative paralysis.
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September 25, 2020
Santa Barbara County supervisors disagree with most of critical grand jury report on cannabis
The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors disagreed, in whole or in part, to all but two of the 12 findings in a highly critical grand jury report on cannabis regulation and said only one of the report’s 19 recommendations would be implemented. Although 3rd District Supervisor Joan Hartmann took issue with the reply to Finding 11, she agreed with the overall response to the report as recommended by staff and joined in the unanimous vote approving it. Finding 11 essentially said odor has not been controlled at cannabis cultivation boundaries, leading to a significant public outcry about odor, quality of life and health. The board partially disagreed with that. While acknowledging odor control has been a challenge in regulating cannabis, the board’s response said permitting and business licensing processes come with stringent requirements for odor control. It also said business licenses mandate annual reviews, and a significant portion of those will consider odor control compliance. “There are, to my knowledge, no odor control requirements on AG-2 properties,” Hartmann asserted. “[The response] implies there are odor control requirements across the board.” Planning and Development Department Director Lisa Plowman agreed odor control is not required on properties zoned Agriculture 2 and said her staff will work with the County Executive Office to clarify odor control requirements in the response. The board said it will not implement the recommendation that unpermitted cannabis cultivation be suspended until operators prove odor is controlled at the property line because that action is not warranted. “I still believe technology will eventually improve this situation,” 1st District Supervisor Das Williams said. Findings 6 and 7, which both criticized using affidavits to certify legal nonconforming use status without requiring proof, were the only two the board agreed with.But the response said the accompanying recommendations — suspending unpermitted legal nonconforming operations pending proof of prior cultivation — were unreasonable and would not be implemented. The boardpartially disagreed with Finding 9 that the county treasurer/tax collector “was not included in the creation of the tax portions of the cannabis ordinance,” noting the treasurer concurred with two board letters on cannabis taxes. But it said the treasurer would be involved in creating any future tax-related ordinances. Of eight people who spoke during public comment, three with industry connections supported supervisors for “choosing facts over emotion,” saying the grand jury report didn’t reflect the process and was written from the viewpoint that cannabis should not be legal. The rest supported the grand jury’s “exhaustive investigation” and “thoughtful recommendations” and criticized the board using some of the report’s assertions, including that the board granted unfettered access to cannabis lobbyists, developed ordinances outside public scrutiny, allowed the industry to operate unchecked, failed to control odor and permitted an excessive number of cannabis operations. Responding to the comments, 5th District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino said representatives of the cannabis industry had no more access than anyone else.
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September 25, 2020
State ballot measures to legalize cannabis could add $9 billion to US marijuana market
Despite a delay in the U.S. House of Representatives vote for a bill that would seek to legalize cannabis at the national level, the legal cannabis market in the U.S. still stands to substantially grow as more states plan to let voters decide whether they want to legalize it. According to a new report from cannabis market firm New Frontier Data, state ballot measures slated for 2020 in five states — Arizona, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey and South Dakota — could be the green light for adding $9 billion dollars to the size of the nation’s legal cannabis market if all are approved by voters this November. “The 2020 election could be one of the most consequential and historical events to change the landscape of the legal U.S cannabis industry,” New Frontier Data CEO Giadha DeCarcer said in a release. “With $9 billion in new revenue from 2022-2025, should all five states ballot measures pass, New Frontier Data estimates that revenues from all legal U.S. markets will reach $35.1B in 2025.” In a way, the upcoming state votes could have a more immediate impact on legal cannabis in the U.S. than even the delayed House vote on the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement (MORE) Act would have since it’s not expected to be taken up as long as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell remains atop the Republican-controlled chamber. In Arizona, Proposition 207 would legalize recreational adult-use in the state in non-public places. With an estimated 1.2 million cannabis consumers in the state, New Frontier Data estimates that annual revenues for legal adult-use cannabis will exceed $1 billion in Arizona by 2024 if the proposition passes. Polling remains close, however, with only 51% support at last clip — roughly in-line with where support was when a similar initiative failed in 2016. In New Jersey, potentially the largest new state market if voters approve the similar ballot initiative there, annual sales of legal adult-use cannabis could reach $1.8 billion by 2024, according to New Frontier Data. The state would become the first Mid-Atlantic state to approve recreational cannabis and could draw significant demand from neighboring states. The latest polling on the ballot initiative shows nearly two-thirds of likely voters approve of legalizing cannabis. And in a sign of the times, even South Dakota is looking poised to approve legal cannabis use in some form — whether it be medical or recreational — through two separate ballot measures that both appear poised to pass. With an estimated 97,429 current cannabis consumers in the state, New Frontier Data estimates that annual sales of legal adult-use cannabis in South Dakota will exceed $122 million by their fourth year. Whether or not all state measures, past momentum at the federal level has clearly mounted. As Cowen Managing Director Vivien Azer recently noted, “it was inconceivable four years ago that the House would vote to legalize cannabis. The safe position for a Democrat in 2016 was to oppose legalization. Today it is to support legalization.” As odds of Democrats retaking control of the Senate rise, so too do the odds of cannabis legalization at the federal level. As Curaleaf CEO Joe Lusardi told Yahoo Finance earlier this year, Democrats taking the Senate could set up a quick move to legalize marijuana at the federal level even if President Trump wins re-election.
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