Business
Licensed Recreational Weed Sales Launch in Maryland on Saturday
Regulated sales of recreational cannabis begin in Maryland on Saturday, July 1, only seven months after voters approved a ballot measure to legalize adult-use pot.
Regulated sales of recreational marijuana begin in Maryland on Saturday, leaving retailers with only days to prepare for the launch of legal adult-use cannabis in the state.
In November, Maryland voters legalized recreational marijuana with the passage of Question 4, a state referendum that was approved with nearly two-thirds of the vote. In April, lawmakers passed legislation to regulate adult-use cannabis production and sales beginning on July 1, followed by the signing of the bill by Governor Wes Moore early last month. Under the measure, all adults in Maryland age 21 and up will be allowed to purchase regulated cannabis products including flower, vapes, gummies and more from the state’s existing medical marijuana retailers.
The legislation also changed the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission, which regulated the production and sale of medical marijuana, to the Maryland Cannabis Administration. Will Tilburg, the acting director of the new agency, said that regulated sales of cannabis in Maryland are expected to triple over the next year with the advent of adult-use sales.
“There’s more than 4 million eligible consumers versus 168,000 medical patients,” Tilburg said, according to a report in local media.
Meg Nash, a partner at the cannabis and psychedelics law firm Vicente LLP, praised Maryland’s lawmakers and regulators for their quick action to implement adult-use cannabis legalization.
“Maryland’s swift implementation of its adult-use cannabis program is remarkable, and will hopefully serve as a model for other states that share the policy goals of increased access to safe cannabis products and to deterring participation in the unregulated industry,” Nash wrote in an email to High Times. “The Maryland Cannabis Administration shows no signs of slowing down, as a new licensing round that will be exclusively available to social equity applicants is expected to be announced in the coming months, with new licensees selected via lottery before the end of the year.”
Medical Marijuana Companies Prepare for New Customers
The impending start of licensed recreational marijuana sales in Maryland has prompted the state’s licensed medical marijuana providers to prepare for the influx of new customers expected with the legalization of adult-use cannabis. Jake Van Wingerden, the owner of SunMed Growers in rural Cecil County, told the Baltimore Sun that he and his staff of 150 workers have been busy harvesting and processing marijuana products to prepare for the upcoming launch of recreational marijuana sales in Maryland.
“We cranked it up,” Van Wingerden said of the company’s production. “We believe that demand will skyrocket for those first couple months.”
The company has been stockpiling cannabis flower for Saturday’s launch and added an extra shift for packaging cannabis products. SunMed has also purchased new delivery vehicles and built a $16 million, 25,000-square-foot facility to make weed edibles.
Maryland MMJ Legalized in 2014
Maryland legalized medical marijuana in 2014 and regulated sales began in 2017. The state’s adult-use cannabis legalization bill allows medical marijuana operators to pay a fee to upgrade their license to serve recreational customers, a provision that was added to the legislation to ensure a swift launch of regulated sales. When purchases of adult-use cannabis begin on Saturday, approximately 100 medical marijuana dispensaries across the state will be ready to serve recreational marijuana customers.
Maryland state Delegate C.T. Wilson led efforts in the legislature to legalize cannabis for adults. Drafting the legislation presented challenges, he says, because lawmakers wanted to ensure a smooth transition to the regulated market. They also wanted to establish a market with wide availability and low prices to challenge the success of the illicit cannabis economy. Another aim was to avoid the racial disparity seen in Maryland’s medical marijuana industry, which is dominated by white-owned companies.
“The goal, again, is to make sure this is fair and equitable,” Wilson said. “But we need to have product available on the market July 1.”
In addition to allowing the state’s medical marijuana operators to serve adult-use customers, the cannabis regulation bill passed in April includes social equity provisions to encourage diverse ownership in the industry. Van Wingerden applauded the state’s lawmakers for their swift work to regulate adult-use cannabis that saw the legislation drafted and passed less than six months after voters ended the prohibition on recreational marijuana.
“It’s a heavy lift and they did it fairly quickly. Hats off to the General Assembly and the people behind the scenes,” he said. “They got it all done and I think it’s going to be a model for the rest of the country.”
Mitch Trellis of medical cannabis operator Remedy said that the company’s dispensaries in Baltimore County and Columbia are larger than most medical marijuana retailers, with each store featuring more than 9,000 square feet, a minimum of 20 cash registers and parking lots that can accommodate hundreds of cars. Typically, the dispensaries serve 300 to 600 patients daily. But when recreational marijuana sales begin on Saturday, the number of customers served each day could climb as high as 2,000.“Expect long lines at most places. It’s going to be hot,” he said. “People are definitely excited.”
Source: https://hightimes.com/news/licensed-recreational-weed-sales-launch-in-maryland-on-saturday/
Business
New Mexico cannabis operator fined, loses license for alleged BioTrack fraud
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/
Business
Marijuana companies suing US attorney general in federal prohibition challenge
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.”
Business
Alabama to make another attempt Dec. 1 to award medical cannabis licenses
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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