MMJ Business Daily

California MJ regulators promise timely licensing for industry

A pair of top state cannabis regulators delivered a promise this week to those in California’s enormous marijuana trade: They will be on schedule and have a formal state permitting system up and running by January 2018.

That was the word out of the state capital on Wednesday, after cannabis executives and growers met with Lori Ajax, the head of the California Bureau of Medical Cannabis Regulation, and Amber Morris, a branch chief of CalCannabis Cultivation Licensing (a division of the state department of food and agriculture).

Pursuant to both Proposition 64 – which legalized recreational marijuana –

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California MJ regulators promise timely licensing for industry is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Week in Review: Florida’s restrictive plan, slow returns in NH & Pennsylvania app processs

By Bart Schaneman, Omar Sacirbey and John Schroyer

Florida’s draft medical marijuana rules would bar new entrants, New Hampshire dispensaries have a ways to go before breaking even, and Pennsylvania releases MMJ business applications.

Here’s a closer look at some notable developments in the marijuana industry over the past week.

Work in progress

Entrepreneurs angling to capitalize on Florida’s new MMJ program may be out of luck – if state health regulators have their way. MMJ advocates, however, are confident this week’s draft regulations aren’t set in stone.

Health officials proposed giving the seven companies currently licensed under Florida’s CBD-focused

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Week in Review: Florida’s restrictive plan, slow returns in NH & Pennsylvania app processs is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Marijuana data firm announces $2.5 million capital raise

One of the cannabis industry’s leading sales data firms announced Wednesday it has secured $2.5 million in private funding to expand its product line.

Seattle-based Headset, which specializes in business intelligence for marijuana-related companies, revealed that it has partnered with Arizona-based Hypur Ventures, a venture capital fund, and Salveo Capital, an Illinois-based private equity fund, to bolster its services for clients in the cannabis trade.

Headset did not specify what exactly it intends to use the $2.5 million for, but according to a news release, the funding “will help close the information gap that has hampered companies in

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Marijuana data firm announces $2.5 million capital raise is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

German parliament backs medical cannabis legalization

The German parliament voted unanimously on Thursday to legalize medical marijuana, but the market will remain tightly controlled with limited opportunities for cannabis entrepreneurs.

Thursday’s action spelled out a conditions list that includes “serious illness,” such as multiple sclerosis, chronic pain, appetite loss or nausea from cancer treatment.

The costs of cannabis will be covered by health insurance for patients without any treatment options, and patients can buy MMJ from pharmacies with a doctor’s prescription, according to Deustche Welle.

Previously only around 1,000 Germans with serious medical conditions were permitted to use medical cannabis. According to

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German parliament backs medical cannabis legalization is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Canadian consumer-oriented cannabis firm raises CA$3 million

A Toronto-based cannabis, coffee and clothing business, Tokyo Smoke, secured 3 million in Canadian dollars ($2.25 million) from investors, claiming it’s the first marijuana-related consumer brand in Canada to raise capital.

The company, which describes itself as a premium cannabis-oriented lifestyle brand, said in a news release that the first-round raise was oversubscribed and that the amount was more than 50% above its initial target.

Investors hail from Canada, the United States and South America and include Chuck Rifici, co-founder of two cannabis-related Canadian companies: Canopy Growth Corp., Canada’s first publicly traded medical marijuana company, and Nesta Holding

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Canadian consumer-oriented cannabis firm raises CA$3 million is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Pennsylvania releases medical cannabis business applications

Applications are now available for hopeful medical cannabis entrepreneurs in Pennsylvania.

The state’s department of health released the forms Tuesday for companies that would like to apply for permits to grow or dispense MMJ. Applications are due back by March 20.

But any applicants will have to have fairly deep pockets, the Tribune-Review reported.

The cultivation application fee will be $210,000, and applicants will have to have proof of $2 million in capital on hand, though $200,000 will be refunded if an applicant doesn’t win a license. Dispensary applicants will have to pony up

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Pennsylvania releases medical cannabis business applications is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Trump, Sessions + the future of the cannabis industry: Q&A with Steph Sherer

By John Schroyer

Steph Sherer has a good read on the pulse of cannabis politics, having spent years in Washington DC lobbying on behalf of medical marijuana patients and fighting for national MJ reform as executive director of Americans for Safe Access.

With Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration imminent, she’s not optimistic about the cannabis industry’s near-term future.

Trump, Sessions + the future of the cannabis industry: Q&A with Steph Sherer is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Proposed Florida MMJ rules would strictly limit licenses

Florida state health officials proposed rules for its new medical marijuana program that would keep the available licenses in the hands of a few existing businesses and add new patients to the current but limited MMJ market.

The draft rules, issued by the Florida Department of Health, would maintain the license cap at seven “dispensing organizations” that already are permitted to grow, process and sell MMJ. The seven would serve some 500,000 patients eligible under the constitutional amendment voters passed in November to significantly expand the state’s MMJ program, according to the Sun Sentinel and Bradenton Herald.

The

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Proposed Florida MMJ rules would strictly limit licenses is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Guam medical marijuana sales could begin this summer

Regulators in Guam have received at least 40 applications for medical cannabis business licenses since the application process opened Wednesday (Tuesday in U.S.).

An official predicted MMJ sales could start as soon as summer for certain medical qualifying conditions, the Pacific Daily News reported.

Though most of the license applications have been for commercial cultivation, permits also are available for dispensaries, commercial manufacturing and testing labs, a Department of Health and Social Services spokesman told the newspaper. The maximum number of licenses to be granted is unclear.

There are three cultivation licenses: Type 1 for

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Guam medical marijuana sales could begin this summer is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Brazil allows sale of cannabis-based MS drug

Brazil’s health care regulator Anvisa handed out the nation’s first license for the sale of a cannabis-based drug – one designed for the treatment of multiple sclerosis.

According to Reuters, U.K.-based GW Pharmaceuticals PLC developed the marijuana-based oral spray, which is known internationally as Sativex. It will be marketed in Brazil as Mevatyl.

Anvisa announced Monday that it had issued a license to São Paulo-based Beaufour Ipsen Farmacêutica to sell and distribute the drug.

Sativex is already sold in 28 other countries, according to Anvisa.

For several years, Brazilian patients have waged a legal battle to get around

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Brazil allows sale of cannabis-based MS drug is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs