Business
Forget Gas Station CBD, Gas Station Weed Is Coming to Florida!
Circle K has teamed up with Green Thumb Industries to sell weed in Circle K gas stations
Green Thumb Industries Inc. (OTC:GTBIF), a multi-state cannabis business, and Circle K Stores, an American network of convenience stores, have partnered. According to the agreement, Green Thumb will sell legal marijuana at Circle K gas stations in Florida, according to Bloomberg. The original idea of the two teaming up made sense, as Cananbis.net covered the Fire and Flower and Circle K connection here.
Sales will begin at 10 of the company’s 600 locations in the Sunshine State in 2023. According to Ben Kovler, CEO of Green Thumb, sales of cannabis would “continue to normalize” when it is combined with other consumer goods. This agreement is long-term.
It may be possible for marijuana to become entirely accepted by society if it is sold at places where people commonly purchase food and cigarettes. Reports show Green Thumb will lease space from Circle K outlets, and both businesses will split the profits.
Fuel and Weed at Circle K
Green Thumb Industries Inc. revealed on Wednesday that it intended to leverage its agreement with Circle K to ramp up the retail space available for its Florida medical marijuana business. Soon you’ll be able to fill up your tank and purchase a joint at the same gas station in Florida. This is not “gas station CBD” which has popped up all over the country either, this is the real-deal cannabis with THC.
About 10 Green Thumb’s “RISE Express” branded dispensaries will be located next to Circle K stores as part of the group’s test and learn phase of the implementation starting in 2023 in various Florida regions. The specific locations of the selected stores are still undisclosed, but several reporters say they have contacted the stores to know where they are. Circle K will only let Green Thumb rent space from it; Circle K already has about 600 stores in Florida. The “RISE Express” outlets will offer patients branded cannabis products, including flowers, concentrates, pre-rolls, and vapes.
Green Thumb also explained that their brand-new 28-acre growing facility in Ocala will be up and running by the end of 2022, supplying the products sold at these retail locations. The owner of Circle K, Quebec, Canada-based Alimentation Couche-Tard, clarified that Circle K would not provide marijuana for sale in its areas in the United States but rather in the adjacent spaces next to the stores. Ben Kovler also noted that the agreement with Circle K would make it quicker and more efficient for patients to purchase high-quality cannabis as part of their regular routine while going by their local convenience store.
According to the Florida Department of Health, more than 700,000 Floridians currently have active cards registered in the state’s medicinal marijuana program.
About GreenThumb and Circle K Industries
Green Thumb Industries is a national provider of cannabis cultivation, extraction, and dispensary management services. Under well-known brand names like Beboe, Dogwalkers, Doctor Solomon’s, Good Green, incredible, and RYTHM, it manufactures and distributes a range of cannabis products. Additionally, the company owns and operates RISE, a network of rapidly growing national retail hemp businesses. Green Thumb operates in 15 U.S. markets, has 17 manufacturing facilities, and 77 open retail locations. Its corporate office is in Chicago, Illinois. About 4,000 people work for Green Thumb, which began operations in 2014 and yearly serves millions of patients and customers.
With outlets all over the world, Circle K is one of the biggest American convenience store businesses. With a beverage fountain, coffee bar, frozen and chilled foods, packaged and dry goods, a variety of groceries, and gasoline in some locations, Circle K stores have everything a customer could possibly need on the go. The Canadian convenience store holding company Alimentation Couche-Tard, which also owns On the Run locations, is the owner and operator of the Circle K chain of stores. The Southern, Western, Southwestern, and Midwestern regions of the country may be home to the bulk of Circle K convenience stores. Due to its broad selection of food and other products and its global presence, Circle K has developed a reputation for convenience.
Latest Initiative to Legalize Marijuana in Florida
Prior attempts to legalize adult usage in the state have been resisted and denied by the Florida Supreme Court. The Smart & Safe Florida political committee believes that the text of their suggested amendment to the state’s marijuana statute will be successful and prevent such a discussion.
The Bellamy Brothers are featured in the first campaign ad, which explores the effects of legalizing recreational usage on civil liberties and employment opportunities. The largest medical marijuana company in the state, Trulieve, supports the budding measure.
To kickstart the campaign, Trulieve is contributing $5 million in first seed money. However, the company’s CEO, Kim Rivers, stated that they also anticipate financial support from other industry players.
The state Supreme Court of Florida has rejected subsequent attempts to put broader legalization on the ballot, even though Florida voters approved a medical cannabis constitutional amendment in 2016. The court established that the language of the proposed measures by Make It Legal Florida and Sensible Florida was deceptive, invalidating them. In a discussion with the News Service of Florida, Rivers said that every effort towards cannabis decriminalization in the state had brought some form of learning to the team and her.
Medical Cannabis in Florida
Since June 16, 2014, Florida joined the group of 22 states that have partially authorized access to medical marijuana. Patients with cancer, seizure disorders, recurrent seizures, or muscle spasms were permitted to consume low-THC cannabis products that a licensed physician had recommended. Both doctors and patients had to sign up for the Compassionate Use Registry, an online database organized by the Florida Department of Health. The governor also passed Senate Bill 1700, which protects the privacy of patients and medical professionals who support low-THC cannabis.
With the passage of State Bill 307 in March 2016, terminally ill patients who were given less than a year to live by attending physicians gained access to medical marijuana at its maximum potency. Finally, In November 2016, 71% of Florida voters approved the total legalization of medicinal marijuana.
Bottom Line
As giants in their industries, there’s enough reason to believe that the partnership will not only promote medical cannabis within the state but all over the country.
Source: https://cannabis.net/blog/news/forget-gas-station-cbd-gas-station-weed-is-coming-to-florida
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/
New Mexico cannabis operator fined, loses license for alleged BioTrack fraud
Marijuana companies suing US attorney general in federal prohibition challenge
Alabama to make another attempt Dec. 1 to award medical cannabis licenses
Pot Odor Does Not Justify Probable Cause for Vehicle Searches, Minnesota Court Affirms
New Mexico cannabis operator fined, loses license for alleged BioTrack fraud
Alabama to make another attempt Dec. 1 to award medical cannabis licenses
-
Business10 months agoPot Odor Does Not Justify Probable Cause for Vehicle Searches, Minnesota Court Affirms
-
Business8 months agoNew Mexico cannabis operator fined, loses license for alleged BioTrack fraud
-
Business8 months agoAlabama to make another attempt Dec. 1 to award medical cannabis licenses
-
Business10 months agoWashington State Pays Out $9.4 Million in Refunds Relating to Drug Convictions
-
Business10 months agoLegal Marijuana Handed A Nothing Burger From NY State
-
Business10 months agoCan Cannabis Help Seasonal Depression
-
Business8 months agoMarijuana companies suing US attorney general in federal prohibition challenge
-
Blogs10 months agoCannabis Art Is Flourishing On Etsy