MMJ Business Daily

British Columbia aims to pass recreational marijuana rules in ’18

British Columbia’s government plans to pass legislation next spring regulating recreational marijuana, a move that will have vast implications for dispensaries, lounges and other small businesses already operating in the province’s thriving gray market.

The province is also asking the public to share their views by Nov. 1 on where cannabis should be sold, consumed and grown for private use, according to CBC News.

The ruling New Democratic Party hasn’t announced specific plans yet. But British Columbia isn’t expected to take Ontario’s lead in selling adult-use cannabis only at state-run outlets and limiting consumption to private homes,

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British Columbia aims to pass recreational marijuana rules in ’18 is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Cannabis campaign in Fairbanks, Alaska, heads into final days

Leading up to a municipal election next week, it appears that marijuana companies in Fairbanks, Alaska are well-positioned to keep their business interests alive.

Voters in Alaska’s third-largest city, along with Fairbanks North Star Borough, will decide on Oct. 3 whether to continue to allow cannabis companies to operate within the municipality’s boundaries, and so far, a pro-industry committee has raised more funds than a group supporting a ban, according to the Daily News Miner.

The Keep Cannabis Legal Fairbanks political action committee has brought in $47,500 for its cause, including nine marijuana companies that donated $5,000

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Cannabis campaign in Fairbanks, Alaska, heads into final days is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Nevada suspends Las Vegas marijuana testing lab’s license

A testing lab in Las Vegas has been temporarily shut down, a first for the state’s new recreational marijuana program.

No reason has been given for the Department of Taxation’s decision to suspend G3 Labs’ business license on Aug. 24, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

A department spokeswoman indicated G3 Labs wasn’t in compliance but said no marijuana it had tested needed to be recalled, according to the newspaper.

Nevada’s labs test cannabis for toxic metals, pesticides and fungi and also to establish potency.

G3’s lab director, Dr. Chao-Hsiung Tung, is a member of Nevada’s Independent

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Nevada suspends Las Vegas marijuana testing lab’s license is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Southern U. picks contractor to grow medical cannabis in Louisiana

Southern University has selected a vendor to run its medical marijuana program, moving Louisiana’s MMJ industry a step closer to reality.

Southern’s Board of Supervisors chose Lafayette-based Advanced Biomedics to grow the marijuana for the Baton Rouge-based university, which will receive more than $6 million over five years from its cultivation partner.

Under regulations established by the legislature in 2016, Southern and Louisiana State University are the only entities permitted to grow medical cannabis for legal MMJ patients in the state.

LSU completed its cultivation contract with Las Vegas-based GB Sciences earlier this month.

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Southern U. picks contractor to grow medical cannabis in Louisiana is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Suit alleges Florida medical marijuana law discriminates

A black farmer from Florida has filed a lawsuit alleging that business license requirements in the state’s medical marijuana law are so restrictive they prevent most black farmers from participating and therefore renders the program unconstitutional.

The lawsuit, filed by Columbus Smith, of Panama City, according to Sunshine State News.

Under Florida’s MMJ law, state regulators must award 10 medical marijuana business licenses by Oct. 3 in addition to the five that already were operating – and one of those must go to a black farmer. Florida has awarded five of those 10 licenses

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Suit alleges Florida medical marijuana law discriminates is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Suit alleges Florida medical marijuana law discriminates

A black farmer from Florida has filed a lawsuit alleging that business license requirements in the state’s medical marijuana law are so restrictive they prevent most black farmers from participating and therefore renders the program unconstitutional.

The lawsuit, filed by Columbus Smith, of Panama City, according to Sunshine State News.

Under Florida’s MMJ law, state regulators must award 10 medical marijuana business licenses by Oct. 3 in addition to the five that already were operating – and one of those must go to a black farmer. Florida has awarded five of those 10 licenses

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Suit alleges Florida medical marijuana law discriminates is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Canopy Growth moves into Danish medical marijuana market

Canopy Growth signed a strategic partnership to expand into Denmark and will invest 10 million Canadian dollars ($8.12 million) in the joint venture, continuing the flurry of activity in Europe by Canadian marijuana companies.

Canopy Growth will form a joint venture with Danish Cannabis ApS, to be called Spectrum Denmark, to serve the needs of Danish medical marijuana patients when MMJ sales begin there Jan. 1, 2018, the company said in a news release.

In addition to providing CA$10 million, Smiths Falls-based Canopy – traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol WEED – said it will issue up

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Canopy Growth moves into Danish medical marijuana market is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Pennsylvania support for legal recreational marijuana nears 60%

Nearly six in 10 Pennsylvanians support recreational marijuana legalization, a dramatic upturn over the past decade, a new poll shows.

According to the poll by Franklin & Marshall College’s Center for Opinion Research, 59% of the roughly 400 voters surveyed approve of adult-use legalization, The Inquirer reported.

That’s up from the 22% who supported legalization in 2006, the first year the Lancaster-based college started polling Pennsylvanians about rec marijuana legalization, according to the Philadelphia newspaper.

Pennsylvania currently is working to launch a medical marijuana program in 2018. Gov. Tom Wolf signed Pennsylvania’s MMJ act into

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Pennsylvania support for legal recreational marijuana nears 60% is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Chart: Medical marijuana patient counts keep rising in Canada

By Eli McVey

Canada’s medical marijuana program continues to surge, with over 30,000 patients enrolling last quarter to bring the total count over 200,000.

That marks three straight years of quarter-over-quarter patient growth for the program and a 168% increase from just one year ago.

To put these figures in perspective, the number of registered MMJ patients in Canada sits just below Michigan – the second-largest U.S. medical marijuana market in terms of patient counts – though it will likely surpass the state before the end of 2017.

Growth in the number of Canadian MMJ patients corresponds with

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Chart: Medical marijuana patient counts keep rising in Canada is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

California congressman calls for action from cannabis industry

Freshman Congressman Lou Correa, a Democrat from Southern California, had a simple message for those in the marijuana industry Friday.

“Right now is the time to get involved … Don’t let this golden opportunity pass,” Correa told hundreds of marijuana entrepreneurs at the California Cannabis Business Conference in Anaheim. “This is when all of you have to raise your voices loud and clear throughout the United States and let policymakers know what is really going on when the rubber meets the road.”

Correa urged the business community to contact their members of Congress about the renewal of the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer

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California congressman calls for action from cannabis industry is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs