A key Connecticut committee held a lengthy hearing on Monday about a marijuana legalization bill that legislative leaders filed on behalf of Gov. Ned Lamont (D). While the General Assembly’s Judiciary Committee did not vote on the proposal during the meeting, the panel’s discussion is the first step in what supporters hope will be a process that ends up in the state being one of the next to end cannabis prohibition this year. Several top state officials testified in support of the legislation. “We can’t stick our heads in the sand. Cannabis will be increasingly available to the residents of Connecticut,” Jonathan Harris, senior advisor to the governor, told lawmakers in opening remarks at the hearing, referring to the growing number of other states in the region that are legalizing marijuana. “We need to come together on how to most effectively protect our children and public health and safety.” If the bill is enacted, adults 21 and older could legally possess up to 1.5 ounces of marijuana. Regulators would establish a system of licensing for cannabis growers, retailers and other businesses. There would be a three percent tax on sales, and retailers and manufacturers would be taxed $1.25 per dry weight gram of cannabis flower. Part of the tax revenue would go toward communities disproportionately impacted by prohibition. The bill contains other social equity provisions, including a mechanism for people with prior cannabis convictions to have their records expunged. A nine-member “Cannabis Equity Commission” would be directed to encourage “participation in the cannabis industry by persons from communities that have been disproportionately harmed by cannabis prohibition and enforcement.” The commission would establish micro-licenses for cannabis retail and delivery operations, and would be charged with making recommendations on further restorative justice policies by January 1 of next year. “SB16 puts equity front and center through the creation of an equity specific commission to deep dive into crafting an effective and actionable plan to undo the damage done by the racist war on drugs” Jason Ortiz, the Connecticut-based president of the Minority Cannabis Business Association (MCBA), told Marijuana Moment. “Creating that plan is what MCBA is here to do, and for that reason we support SB16.”
Learn more
Two groups gave lawmakers two widely differing cost estimates for implementing an industrial hemp program in South Dakota. The Joint Appropriations Committee, which oversees the state budget, heard $245,000 or $3.5 million for cost estimates from the Legislative Research Council and state agencies, respectively, to implement a hemp program, lawmakers heard Tuesday. Bill sponsor Rep. Lee Qualm, R-Platte, said meetings with the Governor's Office are ongoing and he believes they'll be able to negotiate a budget that is agreeable to both sides. To get a hemp program up and running, state agencies told the committee that it'll take 15 additional staff and $3.5 million in one-time and ongoing costs, of which $1 million would fall to the state to pay. But legislators' research department, the Legislative Research Council, told the committee that it'll take 1.6 additional staff and $245,000 in one-time and ongoing costs, of which $164,000 would come from the state coffers. The LRC's estimate differs from the state because it asserts that the state won't need testing and lab space or additional staff, based on what occurred in North Dakota and Montana when they began their hemp programs. Providing adequate funding for a hemp program is one of Gov. Kristi Noem's four "guardrails" that need to be in place before she'll consider signing House Bill 1008 legalizing industrial hemp this session. Her Cabinet told the committee on Tuesday that the LRC's estimate won't fulfill Noem's guardrail requirement. Qualm said that at this point, he's not concerned that Noem will veto the hemp bill for a second consecutive year. Qualm said the state's cost estimate includes new lab space and equipment that won't be needed in the first year of the program. If the bill passes, the state needs to submit its hemp plan to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which has up to 60 days to approve it. State officials and Qualm said it could likely be late in the planting season before farmers can legally plant it. "I don't see a lot of acres being planted this first year. I think one (staff) person will very much be able to take care of it," Qualm said. Additionally, the state has two questions on the November ballot related to hemp and marijuana that would completely change what the state has to do and it wouldn't make sense to add staff and equipment this year, Qualm said.
Learn more
Public officials in Pennsylvania warned state lawmakers on Tuesday that the proliferation of unregulated CBD products into the marketplace endangers consumers while undermining the efficacy of its tightly controlled medical marijuana program. Some private physicians say, however, that this demonization detracts from the reality that both crops – when controlled and regulated – hold enormous medical potential and can coexist together. “This is about real science and real healing,” Dr. Steve Groff told the House Health Committee. “I’m representing hemp, but I’m here as a physician and a scientist and I want to see both of these industries grow appropriately.” Groff, an orthopedic surgeon, opened Farmacy Partners in 2018 after researching the effectiveness of cannabinoids in treating pain and other medical conditions. His clinic offers CBD and hemp products and referrals for patients seeking medical marijuana through the state-administered program. “I’m not here to defend the CBD being sold in convenience stores,” he said. “That’s not the way it should be done.” Groff said the term medical marijuana, itself, leads to confusion. Both hemp and cannabis come from the same plant, though the former contains less than 0.3 percent of the psychoactive compound known as THC. “There’s really no such thing as medical marijuana,” he said. “Cannabis either has high THC or low THC, and it is used medically or it is not.” Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine said that although hemp and medical marijuana both come from the cannabis sativa plant, the strains are genetically and clinically different. The latter, she said, is tightly regulated from seed to sale, guaranteeing that the product consumers receive contains the ingredients as listed. “I think that the public does not understand that,” Levine said. “They think that it’s part of our program, but it has nothing to do with our program. Our products are for 23 serious medical conditions, and you have to see a physician to get certified, and that none of that is true with CBD." In 2018, Congress enacted legislation that reclassified hemp and officially removed it from the Schedule 1 list of controlled substances, allowing for commercial crop production. The state Department of Agriculture has since approved 324 growing permits that encompass 4,000 acres planted across 55 counties. The problem is, the department’s oversight ends as soon as farmers pass crops onto processors – where the final product can vary widely in quality and advertise illegal medical claims. By comparison, Pennsylvania's 22 medical marijuana grower/processors and 77 dispensaries undergo extensive inspections and quality testing in order to maintain their licenses. Levine, in her testimony, cited studies from the Journal of the American Medical Association that found nearly 70 percent of CBD products sold online were mislabeled and others were tainted with bacterial and fungal contaminants. “I’m not saying they are all bad, but they are just not regulated,” she said. “We have no idea about the location of where these CBD products are made. I would suspect most are not made in Pennsylvania and are made somewhere else.” Natalie Krak, policy director for the Department of Agriculture, and Deputy Director Fred Strathmeyer defended the state’s hemp farmers and blamed uneven federal enforcement on specific regulations that govern the sale and advertising of CBD products for creating these problems. “There’s not been a consistent application of the rules, and we’ve seen a proliferation of these products from gas stations to grocery stores,” Krak said. “Some varieties high in THC are making it to our farmers,” Strathmeyer said. “Our growers are good people. They are not intending to show up with the wrong product.” Billy Woolf, chief operating officer of Steep Hill PA and a member of the Pennsylvania Cannabis Coalition, said the federal law indeed came with unintended consequences.
Learn more
March 2, 2020
Utah’s 1st medical marijuana dispensary set to open
Utah’s first medical marijuana dispensary is set to open Monday as the state begins a slow rollout of a program that will allow residents with certain health conditions to use pot for medicinal purposes. The online application process for people to get medical marijuana cards started on Sunday. To get cards, people must first receive a recommendation from one of 60 approved health professionals, said Rich Oborn, director of the state’s Center for Medical Cannabis. The group includes doctors, nurse practitioners and physician assistants who received training to approve patient cards. The first dispensary set to open is Dragonfly Wellness in Salt Lake City. A second dispensary is expected to open in March and seven more by June. The final five dispensaries, which will be called pharmacies, will open after July, Oborn said. Patients with qualifying conditions have been able to use marijuana with a doctor’s letter since December 2018, but they had to go to other states to get it. Those letters are valid through the end of 2020, but they don’t allow patients to buy medical marijuana products in Utah. People seeking medical marijuana cards are most likely to cite having chronic pain condition, defined as pain that lasts longer than two weeks, Oborn said. Utah became the 33rd state to legalize medical marijuana after voters passed a ballot initiative in November 2018 that legalized doctor-approved marijuana treatment for certain health conditions including cancer, chronic pain and epilepsy. State lawmakers then replaced the measure with a law they said puts tighter controls on the production, distribution and use of the drug. It was part of a compromise involving The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose positions carry out-sized sway in its home state. The faith, widely know as the Mormon church, had long frowned upon medical marijuana use because of a key church health code called the “Word of Wisdom,” which prohibits coffee as well as alcohol, tobacco and illegal drugs. They also worried that allowing medical marijuana could lead to broader use in Utah. But as opinion polls indicated that majority of the state’s voters would approve the 2018 medical-legalization measure, leaders publicly came out in support of patients using the drug if prescribed by a doctor, saying it can alleviate pain and suffering.
Learn more
Connecticut lawmakers will hear from the public about the latest plan to possibly legalize the recreational use of marijuana for adults. The General Assembly’s Judiciary Committee has scheduled a public hearing for Monday on legislation supported by Democratic Governor Ned Lamont and Democratic leaders that would allow adults 21 and older to possess and purchase up to one and a half ounces of cannabis from licensed retailers. The hearing is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. Under the wide-ranging bill, the state's Department of Consumer Protection would make recommendations on public health and safety standards to the legislature by January 1, 2021. That would allow time for them to be finalized before sales begin. Lamont has said he believes it makes sense to work a regional basis with surrounding states to come up with the same standards and similar regulations. But as in previous years, lawmakers are receiving resistance to the idea of legalization. A diverse group of clergy have spoken out against the bill, raising concerns about potential harm to the human brain and increased drugged driving crashes.
Learn more
March 2, 2020
Republicans claim flaws in marijuana legalization
Republicans on the powerful Judiciary Committee on Monday probed flaws in the governor’s proposal to fully legalize marijuana for adult use and sales, underscoring potential obstacles it faces with two months to go in the General Assembly session.
Learn more
March 2, 2020
Cannabis giants — formerly of Canopy Growth — band together to build out U.S. hemp supply chain
Three titans of the North American hemp industry on Monday announced they had joined forces to build out the U.S. hemp supply chain. Geoff Whaling is the Pennsylvania-based Chairman of the National Hemp Association who is credited with launching the first Hemp Industrial Park in the Southern Tier of New York State. Bruce Linton is the founder and former CEO of Canopy Growth Corporation (CGC), the world’s largest cannabis company and the first marijuana firm to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Tim Saunders was Canopy Growth’s executive vice president and chief financial officer. The trio — all Canadian born — announced the formation of Collective Growth and said the new company had received preliminary approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission to issue an IPO worth $150 million March 17 on the NASDAQ. The funds raised by Collective Growth will be used to build “decortication” and processing facilities in the United States. Both Whaling and Linton played a significant role in legalizing industrial hemp in the U.S. in 2018. Though farmers embraced hemp enthusiastically after legalization, many found that there was no market for their crops because there were very few places to have it processed into a marketable good. Whaling’s nonprofit National Hemp Association partnered in January with New Holland Agriculture, the farm machinery giant, to assure farmers there will be a market for their industrial products and the infrastructure to support it. “We’re telling them that if they grow it, we will come” to process it, Whaling said. “It an absolutely essential next step if we’re going to rekindle the hemp industry to reach the potential of being a great competitive commodity crop.” Whaling said there’s no time to waste. “Unless we get the infrastructure in place, and do it on a commercial scale within the next 12 to 16 months, I’m afraid interest by farmers and end users will start to wane,” Whaling said. Linton said he was fired in June 2019 from Canopy after the beer and liquor giant Constellation Brands spent $4 billion for a 38 percent stake in the company. When the Canopy stock slumped on weaker-than-expected Canadian sales, the new board ejected Linton without ceremony.
Learn more
A majority of Connecticut residents favor legalizing marijuana, according to a new poll released Thursday. But even among those who oppose the reform move, a significant number said they could still be persuaded under certain circumstances, the survey found. As lawmakers push to advance a governor-backed legalization bill, the poll — showing that 63.4 percent of state residents support ending cannabis prohibition — comes as a welcome result for advocates. Its release also comes weeks after a key Connecticut committee held a hearing on the legislation. Asked whether they back legalizing cannabis for adult use, 34.4 percent of respondents said they “strongly support” the policy, and 29 percent said they “somewhat support” it. About 19 percent said they “strongly oppose” legalization, and 10.7 percent said they “somewhat oppose” it. In response to a separate question, fewer people (45.3 percent) said they back the specific legalization proposal in the Legislature that would give municipalities partial tax revenue from cannabis sales only if they allow a dispensary to operate in their jurisdiction. As is typically the case with cannabis surveys, younger people and Democratic voters proved most likely to favor legalization. But unlike many others, this poll dove into the opposition and found that a solid percentage of respondents would be inclined to change their position if legalization produced specific results. Of the roughly 30 percent who said they don’t support taxing and regulating cannabis, about 24 percent said they would back legalization if it lowered crime and incarceration in the state. Twenty percent said they would support legalization if tax revenue from sales would “help with Connecticut’s fiscal situation and resolve the budget deficit,” and about 28 percent said they’d change course if marijuana was regulated similarly to alcohol in a way that prevents youth access and impaired driving. The main reasons people said they opposed legalization were concerns that marijuana leads to more dangerous drugs (18.4 percent), that it impairs driving (12.6 percent), and simply because they are “against drug usage” (10.5 percent). Taken together, these results stand to embolden lawmakers as they work to pass a legalization bill, though the specific result on tax revenue only for cities that allow sales could lead some legislators to support amending the current proposal. In any case, the effort, like several others across the country, could be impeded by the coronavirus outbreak. The Senate president and House speaker, who sponsored the legislation, recently said that because the state Capitol is closed until at least March 30 to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus, legislative priorities have shifted and that could interfere with legalization. The survey — conducted by the Hartford Courant and Sacred Heart University, involving interviews with 1,000 residents from February 24 to March 12 — also asked participants about a proposed “clean slate” bill and its provisions. Less than half said they’d heard about the existing legislation, which would make people eligible for expungements for certain offenses seven years after their latest conviction. However, after the proposal was described, 62.5 percent said they either strongly or somewhat support it.
Learn more
When San Francisco announced its "shelter in place" order this week, it said only "essential businesses" could remain open to support the public's needs, such as grocery stores and gas stations. Missing from that list were marijuana dispensaries. But a day after residents were told to stay home, the city revised its position and deemed cannabis "an essential medicine," allowing stores to open. Mayor London Breed announced "adjustments" to the city's public health order issued the previous day. It originally said essential businesses, including banks and pharmacies, could remain open while residents were required to stay in their homes. Now dispensaries and marijuana deliveries are deemed critical. "We know this is an evolving situation," Breed said at the Tuesday evening press conference. "In terms of the cannabis dispensaries, the Department of Public Health today clarified that since cannabis has medical uses, dispensaries will be allowed to operate as essential businesses, just as pharmacies are allowed to do," she added. After the city's initial announcement ordering residents to remain inside "with the only exception being for essential needs," officials from both the city's health department and its Office of Cannabis got in contact with local marijuana industry leaders, according to SFGate.
Learn more
March 1, 2020
After medical marijuana laws pass, hydroponics shops grow. Springfield has had one for six years.
Hydroponics — growing plants using liquid nutrients, usually without an earth-based medium — is a form of indoor gardening associated with certain stereotypes, acknowledged Matt Wolfel, owner of Indoor Garden Supply in south Springfield. Which stereotype might that be? "Well, that this type of business is just for cannabis-growing," Wolfel said. That impression was stronger among Springfield residents when he started operating, in 2014. When U.S. states add legal medical marijuana, hydroponics stores generally see a bump of increased attention and interest, Wolfel said. "Some people that have never had a garden before will come in," he said. But hydroponics is not a world made up entirely of weed, and Amendment 2 didn't change his business very much, even though new customers came through the doors. They had already been spreading the word about indoor gardening. "You can grow anything indoors you could grow outdoors, and then some," Wolfel explained. "You could grow tropical plants in Missouri." That variability allowed the business to develop at a time when medical marijuana wasn't yet on the horizon for Missouri. Tucked on a side street between Sunshine and Seminole, Wolfel's shop celebrates its sixth year in April. He's proud to call it the longest-running store of its kind in Springfield. Two other Springfield hydroponics shops currently show up in directories like Google Maps: Harvest Grow Supply and American Grower's Supply, both located on the north side of town. Missouri Secretary of State records show that both of the newer stores filed registration forms in November 2018, weeks after voters approved medical marijuana through Amendment 2. Other local stores have popped up, then disappeared not long afterward. But Wolfel had a head start on them, returning to Springfield from a seven-year stint in Colorado in 2012 before opening Indoor Garden Supply. Last year, he worked with a group of investors on a separate venture, Sho Me Kanah, that sought a cannabis cultivation license from the Missouri health department for a facility they hoped to locate in the Highlandville area. Despite earning a high score on their application, they were turned down when licenses were awarded shortly after Christmas. "That was a big roller coaster," he said. But he's disappointed, not distressed, about it. He said he and his business partners submitted a good application, which stays on file with state authorities for roughly a year. If the Missouri medical marijuana program decides to increase the number of cultivation licenses above the 60-license minimum, Sho Me Kanah might have a good chance at getting approved in the future. "(Missouri health department authorities) have given themselves an opportunity to look at the marketplace once it's been established ... and then fill in some of the gaps," he said. Along the licensing journey, Wolfel earned respect from folks in Missouri's pro-cannabis camp. "He's a good dude," Josh Loftis told the News-Leader recently when asked about Wolfel and his operation. Loftis owns Home Grow Solutions Missouri, which consults with lawful medical marijuana patients who have state approval to grow their own weed.
Learn more
