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Cooking With Cannabis Class in Colorado Fights Stigma, Promotes Education
One Denver professor shares insight regarding her cannabis class at Metropolitan State University of Denver (MSU), with the hope that it will help normalize careers in cannabis.
At MSU Denver, Affiliate Professor Shannon Donnelly teaches the class “Cannabis 101.” The course was only offered in Spring 2021, but began again on Nov. 8, 2022 according to the university’s class description.
Among learning about medical and recreational cannabis industries, the inner workings of a dispensary, various products being sold, and the legal aspects of cultivation, distribution, and possession are among the main topics of discussion.
In addition to this, students are taught about cannabis and CBD in a kitchen setting as well. According to Donnelly, who also holds the position of Cannabis Process Navigator for the city and county of Denver, explained that students will experiment with cooking using CBD. “We start with federally compliant CBD isolate which has no THC in it whatsoever,” Donnelly said.
While the class is a legitimate exploration of one of the nation’s most robust cannabis markets, Donnelly shared that not everyone agrees. “Most of the feedback when I tell people I’m cooking with cannabis is ‘no, that’s not actually happening,’” she said. “‘That’s not a real class for a college,’ and it’s like yes, it is, and your students can take it.”
Students are taught how to infuse vegetable oil with CBD, and after mastering that, they begin to experiment with different recipes. Donnelly told 9News that last week, they made barbecue shrimp and cornbread puree with a local chef.
The news outlet also spoke with one of the students, Liad Sherer who is pursuing a cybersecurity major, about why he chose to take the elective course. “I’m trying to just improve both as a cook as well as someone who enjoys cannabis and wants to know how to use it,” Sherer said. “I’d love to do this as a hobby, and I’d love to do this maybe as a part-time job.”
The class is an introduction to the many facets of the industry, which could help build early knowledge for possible careers. Roles such as a private chef, edibles creator, or budtending, are just a few of the many jobs that cannabis can create, and normalizing these jobs helps break down the stigma too. “That’s kind of this fun thing that I get to kind of help the students figure out,” she said. “Classes like this allow me and our students to realize there’s a pathway for them in this industry, which is what we need.”
Voters in Colorado approved recreational cannabis 10 years ago in November 2012. Since then, new data shows that the state has collected more than $2.2 billion in cannabis taxes and $13.4 billion in legal cannabis sales. According to the 2022 Leafly Jobs Report, Colorado offers 38,337 jobs (second only to California, which offers 83,607). The job market is thriving, and educated individuals are in high demand.
Colorado also recently saw a dip in its usual cannabis sales growth, month-by-month, according to data published in September 2022 for the month of June 2022. Medical marijuana sales sat at $19,235,656, which is a $34,534,293 decrease from numbers recorded for June 2021. Likewise, recreational cannabis sales only reached $127,157,358 in June, which is a decrease from $152,719,813 collected in June 2021. This downward trend is concerning to some industry members, who believe that it could lead to lay-offs, small shop closures, and the end of brands that can’t keep up.
Although Colorado is experiencing a downward trend in sales overall, newer cannabis markets are showing evidence of rapid growth. New Mexico adult-use sales went live in April 2022, and as of Nov. 7, the state has topped cannabis sales records for the last four months, through October, which netted $40 million. New Jersey’s adult-use sales also went into effect in April this year, and sold $80 million in cannabis within the first 10 weeks. In 2022 fiscal year earnings, the state of Nevada collected nearly $1 billion in sales.
Source: https://hightimes.com/news/cooking-with-cannabis-class-in-colorado-fights-stigma-promotes-education/
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/
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.”
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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