MMJ Business Daily

Pennsylvania medical cannabis firm kicks off $500K marketing push

In a first for Pennsylvania, a marijuana cultivation and dispensary business has launched a cannabis marketing campaign.

Cresco Yeltrah – which is affiliated with Illinois-based Cresco Health – is spending roughly $500,000 on billboards, magazine and newspaper advertisements as well as a social media campaign, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported.

The campaign – designed to inform residents about the state’s MMJ program – has been approved by Pennsylvania’s health department, according to the newspaper.

The first phase of Cresco’s campaign includes three images that will appear on electronic billboards statewide beginning Sept. 27.

One of the images depicts a

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Pennsylvania medical cannabis firm kicks off $500K marketing push is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Massachusetts marijuana agency seeking executive director

The Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission is hiring. And not just for any job.

The board needs an executive director.

The director “will guide internal operations and chair the Cannabis Advisory Board,” according to TV station WWLP. Qualifications for the position include a bachelor’s degree and at least five years in a supervisory role.

Applications will be accepted until Oct. 3.

The board, meanwhile, has until mid-March to establish regulations for the state’s recreational marijuana industry, along with protocols for awarding business permits.

But industry insiders have expressed concerns that Massachusetts may take much longer

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Massachusetts marijuana agency seeking executive director is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Wisconsin tribe next to join hemp business via new CBD law

A Native American tribe in Wisconsin has voted to produce hemp-derived cannabidiol, and the St. Croix Chippewa say a new CBD law in the state will enable it to avoid federal raids and other road bumps that have beleaguered other tribes getting into the cannabis industry.

The vote last week by the tribe in northwestern Wisconsin – also called the St. Croix Band – sets up a CBD production facility in a former fish hatchery on tribal land. The facility has 200,000 square feet of usable space.

Hemp production will begin this fall, Brad Bartlett, the tribe’s lawyer,

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Wisconsin tribe next to join hemp business via new CBD law is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

L.A. marijuana businesses unhappy with draft rules, but talks continue

By John Schroyer
Newly released draft regulations that would govern Los Angeles’ licensed marijuana industry starting next year immediately created a firestorm amid stakeholders, with some fearing they could force many companies to set up shop in other…

Acting DEA chief Rosenberg is stepping down

Chuck Rosenberg, who has been the acting administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration since 2015, said Tuesday he’ll be leaving the job.

That means President Donald Trump will get to appoint a successor.

It also means the DEA could reverse course on a cannabis-related policy announced in August 2016 to grant more research permits to scientists who want to study marijuana.

That, along with several other policy points, has led Rosenberg to butt heads with other members of the Trump administration, The Washington Post reported.

Just last month, news broke that the Justice Department,

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Acting DEA chief Rosenberg is stepping down is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Vermont issues fifth medical marijuana business license

Vermont may soon see its medical marijuana dispensary total double thanks to a law designed to expand the state’s small MMJ program.

PhytoScience Institute has been granted a preliminary MMJ dispensary license, according to The Barre-Montpelier Times Argus. Once the company meets state regulators’ requirements for full approval, it has six months to acquire the necessary permits and be up and running.

PhytoScience is the fifth company licensed to operate dispensaries in Vermont and the first to be licensed under a law that took effect in June.

That new MMJ regulation allows licensees to

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Vermont issues fifth medical marijuana business license is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

New York reinvigorating hemp program with $10M in grants

New York state is opening its ramped-up hemp program with a call for new growers and an offer of up to $10 million in grant funding.

The grants come in two categories:

• $5 million will fund industrial hemp research, including nearly $1 million in partnerships with Cornell University and Morrisville State College to support industrial hemp research during the 2017 growing season. Cornell plans to concentrate its work on designing industrial hemp seed certification standards for New York.
• $5 million will go to economic development opportunities for industrial hemp businesses. Winning applicants will get funding for capital costs related

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New York reinvigorating hemp program with $10M in grants is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Montana MMJ dispensary gets win over city ban – for now

One of two medical marijuana dispensaries in Billings, Montana, has won at least a temporary stay of execution.

Montana Advanced Caregivers has won a preliminary injunction against a new city ordinance prohibiting dispensaries within city boundaries, meaning the dispensary will be allowed to continue operating until the district court can hold a hearing on the matter.

A district judge agreed with the dispensary and an MMJ patient who signed onto the suit against the city and hit pause on the new ban, according to Billings TV station KTVQ.

Rich Abromeit, the dispensary’s CEO, said he hasn’t

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Montana MMJ dispensary gets win over city ban – for now is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Maine’s smoking rules may hamper cannabis consumption clubs

The topic of marijuana public consumption and social clubs has been a hot issue in the cannabis industry, particularly in Alaska, Colorado, Maine and Nevada.

Maine is poised to become one of the first states to allow public consumption, but a key restriction could handicap potential marijuana clubs: no smoking.

According to the Portland Press Herald, nothing in the language of the bill to legalize recreational marijuana in Maine prohibits smokable forms of cannabis, but it also doesn’t provide an exemption to the

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Maine’s smoking rules may hamper cannabis consumption clubs is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Colorado marijuana edibles makers bracing for new standards

By Kristen Nichols

Colorado’s ban on edible marijuana products shaped like animals, humans or fruits takes effect Oct. 1 – but manufacturers say they’re prepared for the change.

The 2016 law, which bans certain shapes of edibles, was spurred by concerns children may be attracted to gummies or hard lozenges in forms associated with common candies.

“Children are more likely to consume products that resemble familiar foods,” Colorado’s chief medical officer, Dr. Larry Wolk, testified before legislators who eventually revamped the law.

Colorado manufacturers seem prepared for the change.

“I honestly think only a handful of companies were affected” by the law, said

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Colorado marijuana edibles makers bracing for new standards is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs