Business
Rhode Island Ushers In New Era for Medical Weed Patients with Digital Applications
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Move over paper, Rhode Island just launched its online medical cannabis portal.
The Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDHO) recently announced its initiative to allow residents to apply for medical cannabis card registration online. The Rhode Island Cannabis Licensing Portal went live as of June 1, which covers a basic foundation for new and existing patients.
“The new system, known as the Rhode Island Cannabis Licensing Portal, lets existing card holders renew registrations, update personal information, and make necessary changes to their existing registration cards,” the press release states. “New patients applying for a medical marijuana registration card will now apply through the Cannabis Licensing Portal as well.”
A press release announced the launch of the program on June 1 and specified that the previous system was “entirely paper-based.” Now applications can be approved or denied within 35 days of submitting an application.
As the new system rolls out, the press release adds that they will eventually phase out mail-based notifications, but did not provide an end date. “RIDOH will stop mailing registration reminders and renewal forms in the coming months,” the announcement explained. “It is very important that patients create an account in the portal to be sure they get important messages and updates from RIDOH, including renewal reminders 60 days before the expiration date.”
Rhode Island’s medical cannabis program was enacted in 2006, according to a breakdown by Americans for Safe Access. At the time, patients were legally allowed to possess up to 2.5 ounces of cannabis, could cultivate up to 12 plants at home, and could appoint two caregivers, and only eight medical conditions qualified for medical cannabis. The state did not establish a foundation for medical dispensary access for almost seven years. In 2011, former Gov. Lincoln Chafee suspended licensing for compassion centers, but licensing resumed in 2012, and compassion centers began to open by 2013. After that, state officials helped expand the list of qualifying conditions and slowly began to roll out new rules.
The state’s recreational cannabis sales began much more recently, in December 2022. During the first week, with only five retailers operating at the time, the industry collected $1.6 million in sales. The total is broken up into recreational sales ($786,000) and medical cannabis ($845,400). Between February and March, the state collected $8.7 million in total sales, with a split of $3.3 million in medical cannabis sales and $5.3 million in recreational cannabis sales.
In December 2022, the medical cannabis patient count sat at 15,062, but has declined slightly following recreational cannabis legalization. In January 2023, there were 14,590 registered patients, followed by a slight increase of 14,673 in February, and then a decrease to 13,691 in March.
In a statement from Gov. Dan McKee, who signed the recreational cannabis bill earlier that year in May, he praised the potential of Rhode Island’s expansion into recreational cannabis. “This bill successfully incorporates our priorities of making sure cannabis legalization is equitable, controlled, and safe,” said McKee. “In addition, it creates a process for the automatic expungement of past cannabis convictions. My Administration’s original legalization plan also included such a provision and I am thrilled that the Assembly recognized the importance of this particular issue. The end result is a win for our state both socially and economically.”
Most recently, McKee nominated three individuals in May to take part in a regulatory panel that “will oversee the regulation, licensing and control of adult use and medical cannabis in the Ocean State.” McKee’s appointed chair of the panel, Kimberly Ahern, expressed her hope to continue the “good work” that has been accomplished by regulators so far in her state. “The first six months of adult-use have demonstrated our state’s success in carefully expanding into this new industry,” Ahern said. “I look forward to working with my fellow Commissioners to regulate cannabis in a manner that is safe, transparent and equitable in the years going forward.”
Business
New Mexico cannabis operator fined, loses license for alleged BioTrack fraud
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New Mexico regulators fined a cannabis operator nearly $300,000 and revoked its license after the company allegedly created fake reports in the state’s traceability software.
The New Mexico Cannabis Control Division (CCD) accused marijuana manufacturer and retailer Golden Roots of 11 violations, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Golden Roots operates the The Cannabis Revolution Dispensary.
The majority of the violations are related to the Albuquerque company’s improper use of BioTrack, which has been New Mexico’s track-and-trace vendor since 2015.
The CCD alleges Golden Roots reported marijuana production only two months after it had received its vertically integrated license, according to Albuquerque Business First.
Because cannabis takes longer than two months to be cultivated, the CCD was suspicious of the report.
After inspecting the company’s premises, the CCD alleged Golden Roots reported cultivation, transportation and sales in BioTrack but wasn’t able to provide officers who inspected the site evidence that the operator was cultivating cannabis.
In April, the CCD revoked Golden Roots’ license and issued a $10,000 fine, according to the news outlet.
The company requested a hearing, which the regulator scheduled for Sept. 1.
At the hearing, the CCD testified that the company’s dried-cannabis weights in BioTrack were suspicious because they didn’t seem to accurately reflect how much weight marijuana loses as it dries.
Company employees also poorly accounted for why they were making adjustments in the system of up to 24 pounds of cannabis, making comments such as “bad” or “mistake” in the software, Albuquerque Business First reported.
Golden Roots was fined $298,972.05 – the amount regulators allege the company made selling products that weren’t properly accounted for in BioTrack.
The CCD has been cracking down on cannabis operators accused of selling products procured from out-of-state or not grown legally:
- Regulators alleged in August that Albuquerque dispensary Sawmill Sweet Leaf sold out-of-state products and didn’t have a license for extraction.
- Paradise Exotics Distro lost its license in July after regulators alleged the company sold products made in California.
Golden Roots was the first alleged rulebreaker in New Mexico to be asked to pay a large fine.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/new-mexico-cannabis-operator-fined-loses-license-for-alleged-biotrack-fraud/
Business
Marijuana companies suing US attorney general in federal prohibition challenge
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Four marijuana companies, including a multistate operator, have filed a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in which they allege the federal MJ prohibition under the Controlled Substances Act is no longer constitutional.
According to the complaint, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, retailer Canna Provisions, Treevit delivery service CEO Gyasi Sellers, cultivator Wiseacre Farm and MSO Verano Holdings Corp. are all harmed by “the federal government’s unconstitutional ban on cultivating, manufacturing, distributing, or possessing intrastate marijuana.”
Verano is headquartered in Chicago but has operations in Massachusetts; the other three operators are based in Massachusetts.
The lawsuit seeks a ruling that the “Controlled Substances Act is unconstitutional as applied to the intrastate cultivation, manufacture, possession, and distribution of marijuana pursuant to state law.”
The companies want the case to go before the U.S. Supreme Court.
They hired prominent law firm Boies Schiller Flexner to represent them.
The New York-based firm’s principal is David Boies, whose former clients include Microsoft, former presidential candidate Al Gore and Elizabeth Holmes’ disgraced startup Theranos.
Similar challenges to the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA) have failed.
One such challenge led to a landmark Supreme Court decision in 2005.
In Gonzalez vs. Raich, the highest court in the United States ruled in a 6-3 decision that the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution gave Congress the power to outlaw marijuana federally, even though state laws allow the cultivation and sale of cannabis.
In the 18 years since that ruling, 23 states and the District of Columbia have legalized adult-use marijuana and the federal government has allowed a multibillion-dollar cannabis industry to thrive.
Since both Congress and the U.S. Department of Justice, currently headed by Garland, have declined to intervene in state-licensed marijuana markets, the key facts that led to the Supreme Court’s 2005 ruling “no longer apply,” Boies said in a statement Thursday.
“The Supreme Court has since made clear that the federal government lacks the authority to regulate purely intrastate commerce,” Boies said.
“Moreover, the facts on which those precedents are based are no longer true.”
Verano President Darren Weiss said in a statement the company is “prepared to bring this case all the way to the Supreme Court in order to align federal law with how Congress has acted for years.”
While the Biden administration’s push to reschedule marijuana would help solve marijuana operators’ federal tax woes, neither rescheduling nor modest Congressional reforms such as the SAFER Banking Act “solve the fundamental issue,” Weiss added.
“The application of the CSA to lawful state-run cannabis business is an unconstitutional overreach on state sovereignty that has led to decades of harm, failed businesses, lost jobs, and unsafe working conditions.”
Business
Alabama to make another attempt Dec. 1 to award medical cannabis licenses
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Alabama regulators are targeting Dec. 1 to award the first batch of medical cannabis business licenses after the agency’s first two attempts were scrapped because of scoring errors and litigation.
The first licenses will be awarded to individual cultivators, delivery providers, processors, dispensaries and state testing labs, according to the Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission (AMCC).
Then, on Dec. 12, the AMCC will award licenses for vertically integrated operations, a designation set primarily for multistate operators.
Licenses are expected to be handed out 28 days after they have been awarded, so MMJ production could begin in early January, according to the Alabama Daily News.
That means MMJ products could be available for patients around early March, an AMCC spokesperson told the media outlet.
Regulators initially awarded 21 business licenses in June, only to void them after applicants alleged inconsistencies with how the applications were scored.
Then, in August, the state awarded 24 different licenses – 19 went to June recipients – only to reverse themselves again and scratch those licenses after spurned applicants filed lawsuits.
A state judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Chicago-based MSO Verano Holdings Corp., but another lawsuit is pending.
Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/alabama-plans-to-award-medical-cannabis-licenses-dec-1/
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