Business
Legal Weed Sales In Minnesota Expected To Hit $1.5 Billion By 2029
The regulated cannabis market in Minnesota is expected to grow to more than $1.5 billion per year by the end of the decade, according to a projection from Vicente LLP.
The regulated marijuana market in Minnesota is expected to grow to more than $1.5 billion per year by 2029, according to a projection from a leading cannabis law firm. As the market matures, Minnesota cannabis businesses are projected to serve nearly 700,000 adult-use cannabis customers and medical marijuana patients across the state.
At a recent seminar on cannabis entrepreneurship hosted by Surly Brewing in Minneapolis, Travis Copenhaver, a partner at cannabis and psychedelics law firm Vicente LLP, said Minnesota’s legalization of adult-use cannabis, which was signed into law by Democratic Governor Tim Walz last month, presents new economic opportunities for entrepreneurs in the state.
“The growth of Minnesota’s cannabis market will be a lucrative opportunity for people interested in the adult-use cannabis market,” said Copenhaver.
The market analysis from Vicente projects that the growth of Minnesota’s adult-use cannabis market will largely follow patterns in other states that have legalized recreational marijuana for adults. Once adult-use cannabis sales begin, the market is expected to be characterized by limited supplies of recreational marijuana, leading to high prices. But as more producers and retailers enter the market, supplies will increase and prices will drop, with the state’s total cannabis economy expected to peak at about $1.5 billion per year by the end of the decade.
The projection estimates that approximately 650,000 Minnesotans, about 15% of the state’s population aged 21 and up, will consume cannabis on a monthly basis or more frequently. But getting current recreational cannabis consumers to transition to the regulated market will not happen overnight. The analysis projects that it will take until 2030 for the vast majority of consumers to buy cannabis from regulated retailers.
New Products For New Customers
Brian Vicente, founding partner at Vicente LLP, said that Minnesota’s consumers have been primed for the legalization of cannabis for adults with last year’s legalization of hemp-derived edibles and beverages. He also noted that consumers in neighboring states that have not yet legalized recreational marijuana and other visitors to Minnesota will also help fuel the growth of adult-use cannabis sales in the state.
“I think Minnesota stands to have a fair amount of tourist traffic from individuals that are coming from Iowa and North Dakota … to buy Minnesota products,” Vicente said.
Colin Ferrian, a Minnesota native and cannabis industry veteran who serves as a portfolio manager for the cannabis investment firm Poseidon, recently said that the legalization of recreational marijuana will lead to new innovations in the regulated cannabis industry.
“Minnesota is poised to become the most innovative location for cannabis products and branding, upon Governor Walz’s approval of adult-use legalization,” Ferrian said in a statement to Forbes.
“Last July, the state was the first in the country to allow hemp-derived drinks and edibles to be sold across many of the channels where consumers could find alcohol, and soon, Minnesotans over the age of 21 will also be able to access flower and extracted products in dispensaries,” Ferrian added.
Minnesota Legalized Cannabis Last Month
Minnesota ended the prohibition on marijuana last month when Walz signed legislation to legalize adult-use cannabis. The legalization bill, which was approved by the Minnesota legislature on May 20, allows adults 21 and older to use marijuana recreationally and to possess up to two ounces of cannabis in a public place, beginning on August 1.
The bill also legalizes the possession of up to two pounds of marijuana in a private residence and the limited home cultivation of cannabis by adults aged 21 and older. Under the legislation, adults would be allowed to grow up to eight cannabis plants at home, including four mature, flowering plants.
The bill also legalizes commercial cannabis production and sales, with regulated sales of recreational marijuana coming after rules are drafted and approved by the Office of Cannabis Management, a new state agency created by the legislation. The new agency will also regulate medical marijuana and cannabis products derived from hemp.
State agencies have set a target date of May 2024 to begin accepting applications for adult-use cannabis retailers, according to a report from Minnesota Public, with dispensary sales of recreational marijuana anticipated to start in January 2025. Once regulated sales of recreational marijuana begin, adults will be permitted to purchase up to two ounces of cannabis, eight grams of cannabis concentrate and edible products containing up to 800 milligrams of THC.
Source: https://hightimes.com/news/legal-weed-sales-in-minnesota-expected-to-hit-1-5-billion-by-2029/
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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