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High Times Cannabis Cup Illinois: People’s Choice Edition 2023 Kicks Off

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Cannabis Cup is returning to The Prairie State to represent the state’s finest flower and cannabis products.

The time is upon us, so pack your bowls and fire up your torches, and if you’re a brand with the best, may the odds ever be in your favor. High Times Cannabis Cup Illinois: People’s Choice Edition is coming to town. For over 35 years, High Times Cannabis Cup events—often imitated but not duplicated—have showcased the finest cannabis and cannabis products on the planet. But like all People’s Choice events, Judge Kits are open to the public.

The High Times Cannabis Cup Illinois: People’s Choice Edition aims to identify and award the best cannabis products across Illinois, representing the many facets of cannabis in a wide range of categories, to be judged by the great people of The Prairie State. This year, new concentrate and edible categories have been added to the mix to crank it up a notch.

This event will be the fourth-ever competition that is open to the Illinois public and will see one of the largest pools of judges in history. This is a sampling dream if you’re a connoisseur of exquisite cannabis profiles. 

New flower products will face off what’s new in town in three categories, as well as infused and non-infused pre-rolls. But if it’s concentrates you’re after, solventless and non-solventless offerings will face off as well as edibles, vape pens, sublinguals, capsules, and tinctures. Flower and other products are judged on Aesthetics/Visual Appeal of product, not the packaging, as well as Aroma/Scent, Taste/Flavor Profile, Burnability, Effects/Effectiveness, and Terpene Profile.

Last year at High Times Cannabis Cup Illinois: People’s Choice Edition, some notable winners include the unforgettable and psychedelic Fig Farms Figment (Purple Fig x Animal Mints 199 #4, First Place Sativa Flower) with a lavender and confetti cake taste, which is now emerging in the Illinois market, and RYTHM Brownie Scout (Platinum Girl Scout Cookies x Kosher Kush, First Place Indica Flower) that has “a blazingly intense initial surge, then dives into an exultant indica trance.”

Among the concentrate winners of last year, Gorilla’d Cheese Rosin (GG#4 x Clementine, First Place Concentrates & Extracts) by Revolution Cannabis snagged for its cheesy, earthy flavor with Limonene, Beta-Caryophyllene, Beta-Myrcene, Linalool, and Elemene.

Competitor product submissions will be accepted August 7-11 across Illinois. Judge Kits will be available across Illinois Saturday, August 19, including official intake partners RISE DispensarynuEra, and Zen Leaf locations. Judges simply login to the Judging Portal and select the corresponding event to begin judging. The judging deadline is October 22, and on November 5, winners will be announced via digital Awards Show.

May the best products win.

15 CATEGORIES:

  1. Indica Flower (3 entries Max per Company)
  2. Sativa Flower (3  entries Max per Company)  
  3. Hybrid Flower (3 entries Max per Company) 
  4. Non-Infused Pre-Rolls (2 entries Max per Company) 
  5. Infused Pre-Rolls (1 entry Max per Company)
  6. Solvent Concentrates (2 entries Max per Company) 
  7. Non-Solvent Concentrates (2 entries Max per Company) 
  8. Vape Pens & Cartridges (1 entry Max per Company) (Category may split)
  9. Edibles: Gummies & Fruit Chews  (1 entry Max per Company)
  10. Edibles: Chocolates & Non-Gummies  (1 entry Max per Company)
  11. Edibles: Beverages (1 entry Max per Company)
  12. Sublinguals, Capsules, Tinctures + Topicals (1 Entry Max per Company) 
  13. Medical: Flower (3 entries Max per Company)
  14. Medical: Vape Pens (2 entries per Company)
  15. Medical: Edibles (1 entry Max per Company)

Now’s the time to visit the High Times Cannabis Cup website to see how you can get involved with the The High Times Cannabis Cup Illinois: People’s Choice Edition this year.

A special thank you to our partners!

Source: https://hightimes.com/news/illinois/high-times-cannabis-cup-illinois-peoples-choice-edition-2023-kicks-off/

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:

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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