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Are All Edibles The Same State to State?

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Can I get the same gummies on a cross country road trip?  Well no, um…maybe

People are getting in their cars or boarding planes and enjoying travel this year.  According to the U.S. Travel Association, traveling is up 4% over 2019.  Airports were a bit wild on Memorial Day weekend as people want to go and do. But intermingled with new experience people like also find comfort in things they know like Starbucks Coffee, Cracker Barrel breakfast, tried and true fast foods, and favorite edibles.

When you travel, you might find the same edible by the same brand, but is it exactly the same? After all, a Hershey bar in Texas is the same as in Toronto, Honolulu and New York City. It is a complicated answered mired in a slow moving Congress.

Adult-use marijuana is still illegal at the federal level, and interstate commerce between the states regulating the industry is not allowed.  Rumors on Capitol Hill say once SAFE Banking passes, interstate commerce will be next.  Even if just for connected states like California/Oregon/Washington or New York/New Jersey.

This is a bigger challenge than it seems since federal regulations dictate that legal, regulated cannabis products can only be sold within the same state where they are manufactured, from the seed to grow to the facility where the gummy is produced, packaged and distributed, to the dispensary where you buy the product. Product companies cannot make their products from one hometown facility and then ship the finished product around the world.

This was a tricky situation but early leaders like Dixie Elixers (then known as Dixie Brands) took a page from McDonalds and Burger King and begin finding licensees to make exactly the same product in other states.  Sort of a franchise model with tight control over quality.

Now this is tougher than it sounds.  Some companies do it very well, think McDonalds.  Other companies, like Dairy Queen are a bit more loosey goose.

Colorado based Wana Brands, which prides itself on quality control and has products in 15 states and Canada is more like McDonalds.  Wana was sold to Canopy Grow, which has the alcohol giant Constellation Brands behind them. Their CEO, Nancy Whiteman, has the knowledge, runway and strength to ensure quality products from all their production products.

Not every company can do this and it makes it even harder for small startups to succeed.  Think building a solid product and having trouble moving it out of your midsized state.

Another issue is fake products. Green Market Report did an article from industry sources.  They share despite the continued prohibition of interstate commerce for cannabis, legally produced and packaged marijuana products from California are increasingly making their way to hundreds of smoke shops and bodegas in New York City. When questioned about where he’d obtained the goods, a proprietor said it from what’s known as a “burner distro” in California. In layman’s terms, he got it from a licensed California distribution company that willingly broke state law by shipping legal cannabis out of state.

It is also rumored some of the “verified California products” sold in NYC are knocks offs. Not unlike the Channel and Guccci bags on Canal Street.

So if you are traveling this summer you have a couple of options.  One, try something new or, if you have to have a favorite, go online and see where they sell their product around the US and Canada.

Source: https://thefreshtoast.com/featured/are-all-edibles-the-same-state-to-state/

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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:

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/

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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.”

Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/marijuana-companies-suing-us-attorney-general-to-overturn-federal-prohibition/

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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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