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Michigan Sees A Shortage of Medical Cannabis So Unlicensed Facilities Are Re-opened

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At the beginning of the year Michigan legislature required that all non-licensed medical marijuana dispensaries shut down until proper licensing is obtained. Unfortunately, the closing of over 70 dispensaries left very few with their doors open to patients. This, in turn, abruptly left many patients without access to their medicine.

Last Wednesday, the Medical Marihuana Licensing Board agreed in a unanimous 4-0 vote to allow dispensaries that are in the process of applying for a license and have a local buy-in to re-open their doors – at least until March 31st.

“We have heard from Michiganders closely affected by the ongoing transition to licensed marijuana facilities,” Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said in a news release Tuesday. “It is important that we ensure that patients have access to their medicine while the medical marijuana industry continues to develop.”

Along with the lack of open dispensaries, 72 unlicensed provisioning centers were closed at the start of the year and there are not enough established licensed growers in the state. All of this has led to an extreme shortage of product. Regulators have now put temporary regulations in place in an effort to fix this problem, allowing licensed provisioning centers to continue buying marijuana from a caregiver or temporarily operating facility and sell it without testing it until March 31st.

“There is a shortage of supply in the market because there are only a handful of licensed growers in Michigan,” Jeff Schroder with law firm Plunkett Cooney said. “This would allow dispensaries and retail provisioning centers to purchase their quantities from caregivers again.”

However, patients are required to sign an acknowledgement that states that the product has not met complete testing requirements before they are able to purchase it. As it stands now, there are nearly 300,000 medical marijuana cardholders in the state of Michigan. For several years they have been purchasing their medical marijuana from local dispensaries that get their product from unlicensed growers or even local caregivers – so most of them are frustrated with the less than smooth transition to a more regulated market.

“I think it’s a step forward,” said The Reef’s Rush Hassan. “It’s definitely a short term solution but it does open up patient access for these products.”

Until the medical marijuana industry in the state is functioning optimally, it will be almost impossible to successfully roll out the recreational industry that was legalized in November 2018. Hopefully by the time these temporary regulations expire at the end of March there will be enough licenses for the industry to properly sustain itself.


Michigan Sees A Shortage of Medical Cannabis So Unlicensed Facilities Are Re-opened
Source: Marijuana Times

What Would Legal Cannabis Mean for New York City?

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Earlier this year, New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo announced his support of a regulated program for recreational marijuana. Many believe it’s only a matter of time until cannabis is legal on the streets of America’s biggest city. But what effect would legalization have on the Big Apple? According to a city budgetary executive, it would be more than just a financial windfall.

The Big Apple is where Bob Dylan cemented his place in folk history and Shawn Carter began his ascent from crack dealer to nine-figure rapper and business mogul. It’s where Jimi Hendrix solidified his status as a rock star and Jerry Seinfeld developed the backdrop for the most successful sitcom in American history.

Could New York also become the largest U.S. city with legal cannabis?

Signs point to yes. A New York State Health Department study released in July 2018 painted a positive picture of legalizing marijuana, and a NYC comptroller study projected a tax windfall of $336 million for New York City and $1.3 billion for the state. After calling the plant a “gateway drug” in 2017, governor Andrew Cuomo has gotten with the times and is now open to a recreational market in New York. State legislators are expected to discuss concrete plans for legalization in the next few months.

What could this additional cash buy for Empire City?

To find out, I talked to Daniel D. Miller, MPA, deputy executive director of New York City’s Board of Education Retirement System. He is responsible for developing policy guidelines and allocation strategies for over $6 billion in city assets.

Miller told me that legalizing cannabis would have a significant social impact on the city, in addition to its fiscal boon.

“Using the comptroller estimate as a baseline and accounting for savings from enforcement, legal marijuana would have a fiscal impact of $372.4 million on New York,” he said. “The additional revenue would impact communities disproportionately affected by marijuana arrests.”

The Financial Impact of Legal Cannabis in New York City

Miller explained how this extra money could make a serious difference in the city’s social programs.

“$20.6 million alone could be used to expand the city’s Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) by 10,000 slots. This would keep at-risk youths off the streets and provide them with income during the summer.”

According to the program’s website, SYEP provides youth employees to city employers at no cost. The effect of an additional 10,000 employees in the city, even for just the summer months, would be significant.

Miller also said revenue from legal cannabis could help support NYC’s Comprehensive After School System, which currently runs 900 programs that 97,000 students participate in. These programs offer young people recreation and academic development that is critical to their success as adults.

“Increased funding also has the additional impact of saving parents money on for-profit after school programs,” he said.

But the city program that needs the biggest financial windfall is also its most significant: The NYC subway system, run by the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA). Over 5.5 million people squeeze into city subway cars every weekday. And as most of them will tell you – probably with a few four-letter words strewn in – the subway system is less than reliable. According to The New York Times, the MTA could need as much as $60 billionto get back to an acceptable service level.

Cannabis alone wouldn’t be a one-shot solution to raise this type of money. Almost nothing would, but combined with already-proposed steps like congestion pricing for drivers and fare hikes for subway riders, legal weed could be a key step out of the Manhattan-sized fiscal hole the metro is currently trying to claw its way out of.

Extra money could also make the subway more accessible to those who need to get around. Launched in the first week of January, the city’s Fair Fares program allows working New Yorkers at or below the poverty level to purchase discounted fare cards.

“The current Fair Fares budget allocates $106 million to launch the program for half-priced MetroCards for subway and local bus service,” Miller said. “With additional funding the city could double the number of city residents eligible to 1.6 million.”

What About Social Justice in New York City?

Outside of its additional tax revenue, the biggest impact legal cannabis would have on Gotham is by far on marijuana-related arrests, which disproportionately impact communities of color.

The New York Times summed it up perfectly in a headline from a May 2018 studyof the racial disparity in NYC marijuana arrests: “Surest Way to Face Marijuana Charges in New York: Be Black or Hispanic.” Their data found some alarming trends. Despite roughly equal rates of use among whites and minorities, on the island of Manhattan, being black makes you 15 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana.

NYPD has tried to defend this injustice by stating that more complaints about marijuana are made in neighborhoods with larger populations of blacks and Hispanics. But the Times debunked that claim: They found that cops in Brooklyn’s Canarsie neighborhood, which is 85 percent black, made arrests for marijuana four times more often than in Greenpoint, which is four percent black, despite both precincts receiving about the same number of calls from that lame old dude down the hall.

“Since stop and frisk has been severely reduced, marijuana possession has become the de facto issue between police and young people of color,” Miller said.

Fortunately, in 2018 the city took big strides towards throwing out this racist policy for good. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced in June that the NYPD would cut arrests for smoking in public by 50 percent, allowing people without a prior arrest for a violent crime to receive a summons instead of being handcuffed and taken to a station.

According to POLITICO, arrests for marijuana possession in New York City dropped 90 percent between September 2017 and September 2018. Legalizing cannabis would make the practice of arresting someone in New York for possessing the plant a thing of history, relegating it to America’s vast inventory of racist relics like Plessy v. Ferguson and the Three-Fifths Compromise.

Considering it would bring significant revenue to important public programs and do away with a law enforcement practice used unfairly against people of color, maybe it’s time for New York to let the Statue of Liberty’s torch illuminate more than just the path to freedom.

 

The post What Would Legal Cannabis Mean for New York City? appeared first on DOPE Magazine.


What Would Legal Cannabis Mean for New York City?
Source: Dope Magazine

A Pisos State of Mind: Giving Back When the Grass Is Green

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In Nevada’s first full year of taxable pot sales, $27.5 million tax dollars are now being spent on school funding, as well as $42.5 million for the state’s “rainy day” fund. While this is promising, there are still thousands of people out there who do not share in these gains because of their education, income or lack of mobility. Pisos dispensaryin Las Vegas realized this vast social and economic challenge and decided to do something about it.   

Since its inception, Pisos has had a generously charitable mindset when it comes to those who have less. “We all have challenges in our lives, but we need to put things in perspective and help those who may have it more difficult than us,” says co-owner Chad Christensen when discussing Pisos’ Pay It Forward Program, which helps those in low-income communities pay for their groceries and goods. 

A Pisos State of Mind: Giving Back When the Grass Is Green

The shophas also been a firm supporter of our military and veterans. In August of last year, Pisosdonated a $27,000 check to Veterans Village, a transitional and permanent housing residence for United States veterans operated by SHARE, a nonprofit organization. They also donated another $10,000 this past Veteran’s Day to fund housing for female veterans. These types of contributions help build homes and provide education, job training and physical and mental health programs for those who might never receive it otherwise. 

“We all have challenges in our lives, but we need to put things in perspective and help those who may have it more difficult than us.” – Chad Christensen, Pisos co-owner

Canned food drives and cash donations are also run year-round. During Thanksgiving, Pisosstaff volunteered at a local soup kitchen to help feed those without a home and a warm meal. Pisos alsorecently chose one of the poorest schools in Las Vegas and donated 40 computers and computer carts so lower-income families could have access to the same education and technology as neighboring schools.

A Pisos State of Mind: Giving Back When the Grass Is Green

In the current federal landscape, nothing is deductible in the cannabis industry. Not charities or nonprofits — nothing. These donations are not for write-offs. Every contribution made by Pisos comes from the heart. I’m writing this piece in hopes that more dispensaries will follow suit and start their own programs to help groups who need our support. Pisosis setting the standard in Nevada for humanitarianism and philanthropic work, and with the help of more like-minded dispensaries, we can support even more at-risk communities in the years to come.

The post A Pisos State of Mind: Giving Back When the Grass Is Green appeared first on DOPE Magazine.


A Pisos State of Mind: Giving Back When the Grass Is Green
Source: Dope Magazine

01-16-2019 – Cannabis News with Joe Klare

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Joe Klare discusses one year of legal recreational marijuana sales in California, a video on legalization from John Stossel and medical schools teaching medical cannabis classes.

Is Medical Marijuana Denial the New Flat Earth?

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No matter how many people say something is true, there will always be a segment of the population that will deny the truth of it no matter what evidence they are shown. To be clear, there is something to be said for a healthy amount of skepticism; humanity wouldn’t have lasted long without it.

But the stalwart denial of something in the face of overwhelming evidence goes beyond mere skepticism. In most cases, it doesn’t matter on a practical level. For instance, if people gather in groups online and in real life to discuss why they believe the Earth is flat, it really doesn’t affect anyone else. Prohibitions haven’t been enacted by governments over adult human beings based on Flat Earth. People haven’t gone to jail for thinking the Earth is round and acting accordingly.

Marijuana, however, was prohibited by those who claimed it had no worth and was dangerous for people to use. For their own good, citizens had to be barred from possessing, growing, selling or consuming cannabis.

While much of this has been wiped away, there still remain to this day people who claim that cannabis has no medical value. I’m not talking about government officials who say that because the only substances they will admit are medicine are those that are FDA-approved; I’m talking about people who really believe that every person who claims to have medical ailments alleviated by cannabis use is either delusional or lying because they are trying to justify their urge to get high.

Is this group of people small? Maybe so, relatively speaking. But they each have a vote and many of them also have deep pockets and they use those deep pockets to fight legalization measures across the country.

Sadly, all it would take for these people to see their error is for someone they know to get sick and be helped by medical cannabis. It happens all the time. But some refuse to see. The evidence is there, even if they don’t see what medical marijuana can do on a personal level. Studies show people using cannabis to get off prescription painkillers, and there are studies that show cannabis use being effective for treating pain, nausea and a myriad of other ailments.

But beyond the studies are the millions of people who will tell you that they use cannabis to help with medical problems – millions of people who are able to function because cannabis exists. Telling those people that you think marijuana has no medical value makes you sound like a moron.

And if you truly believe that cannabis has no medical value, maybe moron is the best word to use to describe you. Perhaps your absolute refusal to look deeper into an issue you espouse an opinion on brings you the ridicule you deserve.


Is Medical Marijuana Denial the New Flat Earth?
Source: Marijuana Times

Hump Day High: A Romantic Getaway to a Dark Sky Community with the CannaSexual

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“This is where they keep the stars,” my boyfriend whispered in my ear. His arms encircled me as I gazed upward, eyes wide, mouth agape. All I could say was, “Wow!” over and over again.

Polyamory life usually means splitting or working around holidays, so since B was going to be spending NYE with his wife, we decided to go away for an overnight getaway the weekend prior. He chose the location, a quaint inn in Borrego Springs, California, because it boasted in-room fireplaces, beautiful views and a clothing-optional heated pool and hot tub.

As I began researching the locale, I learned the real reason he chose it — Borrego Springs is in the middle of the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, which is designated as an international “Dark Sky Community.” This means they actively curtail light pollution so you can see infinitely more stars with the naked eye than you could in a typical city. We could actually see the Milky Way from our patio. There are about 15 of these Dark Sky locations in the United States, and we’re lucky enough to live about an hour and a half from one of them.

A Romantic Getaway to a Dark Sky Community with the CannaSexual

He got to my house at 9 a.m. on Saturday. We couldn’t check in until 3 p.m., so we had to occupy our time somehow. I made breakfast, then we cuddled naked in bed for an hour, then had sex for two, then cuddled more. At some point lunch happened. We arrived in the afternoon with luggage in hand — two suitcases each. This may sound like overkill for one night, but we always approach packing with a “more is more” mindset. One of my suitcases was filled with nothing but sex toys, lube and lingerie. The other one held my VapeXhale and some Galactic Jack flower, incense, tea lights, essential oils, a diffuser and some fuzzy warm things, because the desert gets cold at night!

As an eager service submissive, I took charge of the unpacking and setting up process while B showered and relaxed. Once the room was arranged to my liking, we had sex for another hour. Then we donned our fluffy cotton robes, took a few puffs from the vape, turned on the gas fireplace and went to check out the hot tub and watch the sunset. It was glorious. The sky was streaked in pink and orange and the stars started appearing right away. We soaked for a bit in the blissfully hot tub, naked, then meandered back to the room for more sex. By the time we took our next break, the sky was pitch black. He led me out to the patio with blankets and a sleeping bag and held me as I looked up at the stars in wonder. I touched the Tiffany chain and lock around my neck (my anniversary gift last year) and passionately proclaimed that I was his in every conceivable way. God, I love that man.

A Romantic Getaway to a Dark Sky Community with the CannaSexual

We stayed up until 2 a.m. having sex, making love, touching souls and flying through the universe together in every way we could think of. Toys, hands, mouths — nothing was off-limits. It was magical. One of the most romantic and connective nights we’ve ever spent together. Wow.

 

 

The post Hump Day High: A Romantic Getaway to a Dark Sky Community with the CannaSexual appeared first on DOPE Magazine.


Hump Day High: A Romantic Getaway to a Dark Sky Community with the CannaSexual
Source: Dope Magazine

Key to success? Hiring a Full-Time Compliance Officer

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Almost every week, there is a new report of someone breaking with a state cannabis commission regulation and getting nailed.

Issues arise generally in three areas: security/safety, pesticides, and packaging.

Most recently, it was pesticides, from an investigation completed by the California Bureau of Cannabis Control on December 21 of Sequoia Analytical Labs in Sacramento. The bureau claimed the lab was faking results for four months about inadequate pesticide testing on cannabis products.

That means nearly 850 batches – tens of thousands of pounds of flower, edibles and marijuana products – will have to be returned and either destroyed or retested. Quoted in an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, Tony Daniel, the chief revenue officer with Steep Hill Labs in Berkeley, said the incident is “that doomsday scenario that everybody has been anticipating.”

“Everybody up and down that chain is going to want their money back, and not everyone’s got 25 to 50 grand to cover a recall,” Daniel said.

Then there is the case of ForwardGro, which became the first cultivation operation licensee in Maryland in mid-2017. After a six month investigation and 17 witness interviews, on December 17 the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission (MMCC) issued a consent order stating that the company used some of the banned pesticides listed by MMCC.

During that investigation, the commission also found additional compliance violations: failure to ensure employees used adequate personal protective equipment when they were spraying crops with the unauthorized pesticides, and failure to have appropriate security measures in place as required by the commission’s regulations when plants were moved to an area without security cameras.

As a result, ForwardGro has agreed to pay a fine of $125,000 within 30 days of the issuance of the consent order, serve a 24 month probation period, make critical changes in its leadership structure (which meant getting rid of CEO Mike McCarthy), and offer refunds on any flower or pre-roll products produced by ForwardGro before May 31, 2018.

The consent also noted: “The respondent shall ensure an expanded role for its compliance officer in the management and operations of the respondent’s business reporting directly to the CEO … and create a revised compliance officer job description …”

To some industry watchers, companies that get in trouble about compliance are even deeper behind the eight ball than they realize. “If you don’t start with that compliance at the core of everything you do, it is very difficult to catch up,” Joe Hodas, CEO of General Cannabis Corporation, said at a presentation during the 2018 Marijuana Business Conference in Las Vegas, adding that the cannabis business is a compliance business. “You are putting your business at risk if you don’t have someone focused on compliance on a day-to-day basis. If you are not compliant you will not be in business.”

What will probably go down in cannabis history as the biggest compliance failure to date occurred with Sweet Leaf in Denver, where undercover Denver police found that budtenders there were doing multiple daily cannabis sales to the same buyer, in violation of regulations. The city revoked 26 Sweet Leaf licenses in total: seven retail licenses, six medical center licenses, seven medical cultivation licenses, one infused products manufacturing license and five retail cultivation licenses, effectively putting Sweet Leaf out of business. “The biggest lesson learned from that experience was that you are being watched, you are being observed,” Hodas said. “If you think no one is looking, that can come back to bite you.”

Now with other states opening up recreational sales – ten so far, with New Jersey, New York, Vermont and other states on the cusp – and more regulators getting in the mix who have never had to regulate an agriculture commodity the way that cannabis has to be regulated, things could get tricky fast.

California, where adult use cannabis sales began on January 1, 2018, is still tweaking rules and regulations, ready to roll out the final version of the state’s cannabis regulations on January 19, 2019. “California dispensaries I think are having some trouble because of this sudden shift from a sort of gray market, loose framework to this very strict framework,” Kyle Sherman, founder and CEO of Flowhub, a point of sale software supplier, said during a presentation at the 2018 Marijuana Business conference in Las Vegas. “Now having to integrate compliance is actually really difficult because people are so set in their ways.”

To a business already deep in the red just to open its doors with all the capital equipment investments and license fees, adding another full-time employee can seem like an unnecessary burden. A quick search on a jobs site shows compliance officers annual salary as high as $80,000.

Hodas advised hiring someone as a compliance officer who not only knows and understands the particular state regulations, but how to create institutional compliance. “You have to choose a person who understands how to integrate that into the culture – in sales, in product development, whatever. They need to understand culture and messaging.”

Everyone needs to be onboard with compliance, Hodas said, not just the assigned compliance person. “The compliance person is that one person responsible for checking every box and every label and those parts and pieces what I would call end-of-the-funnel stuff,” he said. “You can set that person up for failure because there will be mistakes made.”

So what can be done now? Sherman said that more technical assistance in developing new applications for getting and reporting data is already impacting how cannabis businesses make compliance work better. But he also advises to just try to understand the spirit of the law. “If you know what that law is intended to do, go with that.”

The post Key to success? Hiring a Full-Time Compliance Officer appeared first on DOPE Magazine.


Key to success? Hiring a Full-Time Compliance Officer
Source: Dope Magazine

Truly Oreganic: Three Friends Champion All Things Organic

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Truly Oreganic – Bandon, OR

Truly Oreganic is a sustainable, socially responsible farm focused on cultivating high-quality cannabis under a business model of integrity. Rainwater is collected while the plants grow in active soil in a closed-loop system. Natural soil amendments — locally-sourced chicken manure and earthworm castings — keep Truly Oreganic’s cannabis plants free of synthetic or liquid nutrients. Staying true to their desire to fully embrace Mother Nature, the sun is their main source of light, with high-pressure sodium and metal halide lighting filling in when needed. All of their attention to growing is impressive, but the secret ingredient might just be the sea spray from the Southern Oregon coast, adding that special something to the farm’s crop.

Truly Oreganic - Bandon, OR

The Product

Truly Oreganic produces several signature strains that truly deserve their own individual reviews. Their THC-rich, indica-dominant Oregon Huckleberry tests in at around 24 percent THC and 3.59 percent terpenes; their CBD Skunk Haze is a sativa-dominant hybrid at 10 percent CBD and 6 percent THC with 1.743 percent total terpenes. Last, I’ll mention their Honey Badger Haze, which aspires to have as many fans as the YouTube “Honey Badger Don’t Care” video — this sativa-dominant strain has about 20 percent THC and a whopping 4.36 percent total terpenes. I sure hope there is a Honey Badger Haze joint in my future.

Truly Oreganic - Bandon, OR

The People

Three has always been my favorite number. Upon doing a little research, I found that, in Chinese culture, the number three is considered lucky because the pronunciation of the word “three” is similar to the pronunciation for the word “alive.” Three passionate friends with entrepreneurial visions came together with a dream in 2016 to combine their interests in organic agriculture and innovative business savvy as Truly Oreganic. Basing their ideology on the 2012 book “True Living Organics: The Ultimate Guide to Growing All-Natural Marijuana Indoors”by The Rev, the three friends used this foundation to grow their successful business — and have had an amazing time doing it. The trio is always smiling. They love what they do. I guess that’s what happens when you start with luck on your side.

Truly Oreganic - Bandon, OR

“All of their attention to growing is impressive, but the secret ingredient might just be the sea spray from the Southern Oregon coast.”

The post Truly Oreganic: Three Friends Champion All Things Organic appeared first on DOPE Magazine.


Truly Oreganic: Three Friends Champion All Things Organic
Source: Dope Magazine

Bodhi High’s Sam Kannall: Prioritizing Charity and Authenticity

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Sam Kannall believes in community service — the owner of the cannabis production company Bodhi High spent significant time abroad in Southeast Asia to study and teach organic farming techniques to orphanages in developing economies. And while his work in places like Thailand and the Philippines paid off abroad, he knew there was more work to do at home in the Northwest. “I realized after doing a lot of work in Asia,” reflects Kannall, “that there’s a big need for people in our own local areas.”

So, he followed his passion and manifested a vision he had for his Spokane-based company, which launched in 2015. Kannall created a business entity that empowers its employees and community by providing well-paying jobs and career training. Known for growing high-quality, pesticide-free products with organic methods in mind, Bodhi High focuses on high terpene extraction for their popular vape pens, crumbles and shatter. Bodhi High, a Tier II farm that grows most of the flower used in its oil extractions, now services over 200 dispensaries statewide and employs about 45 people.

“‘You spend eight to 10 hours a day working … For somebody to spend half of their life not being their authentic selves doesn’t do anyone justice.’” – Sam Kannall, Bodhi High owner

“We try to help people be their [best] selves day to day,” he maintains. “It starts in the way our company engages with employees, giving them the opportunity to learn and grow and by holding a high set of ethics and standards for the products we produce.” A simple idea underpins these high-minded efforts: come to work as you are, naturally. “You spend eight to 10 hours a day working,” Kannall says. “For somebody to spend half of their life not being their authentic selves doesn’t do anyone justice. One thing I appreciate at Bodhi High is our team. We support each other as individuals. We realize all our differences are actually all assets.”

And while Bodhi High is growing as a company, they remember to reach out to other organizations in their neighborhood. Recently, the team partnered with animal rescue facilities in the Spokane area and a women’s recovery center to help in their efforts. As Kannall looks to the future, he hopes his brand and ideas will grow to larger markets. “We want to take Bodhi High to national and international markets,” he declares. “The future is looking bright.”

The post Bodhi High’s Sam Kannall: Prioritizing Charity and Authenticity appeared first on DOPE Magazine.


Bodhi High’s Sam Kannall: Prioritizing Charity and Authenticity
Source: Dope Magazine

01-14-2019 – Cannabis News with Joe Klare

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Joe Klare discusses a Vermont Supreme Court ruling on cannabis odor, a medical marijuana attempt in Tennessee and a story about Hertz and cannabis odor.