MMJ Business Daily

MedMen acquires troubled New York medical cannabis licensee

MedMen, a California-based marijuana management and consulting firm, has acquired Bloomfield Industries, a financially troubled New York cannabis business license holder that in recent months has been unable to pay vendors and has been casting for new investors.

A New York Health Department spokeswoman emphasized to Politico that Bloomfield would not be transferring its license to MedMen, a move that is prohibited under state cannabis business laws. Rather, she described the transaction as a change in ownership, which is permitted if approved by the health department.

Bloomfield Industries is one of five licensed medical marijuana companies

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MedMen acquires troubled New York medical cannabis licensee is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

New career, MMJ-rec tensions and cannabis under Trump: Q&A with pioneer Becky DeKeuster

By Omar Sacirbey

Becky DeKeuster went from being a Catholic high school teacher to a cannabis pioneer who co-founded the Wellness Connection of Maine.

DeKeuster helped Wellness Connection earn a reputation for caring service and left her mark nationally on an industry trying to find its footing. She’s now switching gears again.

New career, MMJ-rec tensions and cannabis under Trump: Q&A with pioneer Becky DeKeuster is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

AG pick Sessions ‘won’t commit to never enforcing’ U.S. law on MMJ

The murky legal situation between the federal government and states that have approved cannabis in some form was not made any clearer Tuesday when U.S. attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions dodged questions about his planned approach to the issue.

During Day One of his confirmation hearing, Sessions – the Alabama senator who has been picked for AG by President-elect Donald Trump – took a middle-of-the-road approach to states’ cannabis laws and said he “won’t commit to never enforcing federal law” when asked about his approach to medical marijuana statutes.

But he added: “It’s a problem of resources for the federal

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AG pick Sessions ‘won’t commit to never enforcing’ U.S. law on MMJ is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Marijuana Business Daily’s annual industry survey underway

Marijuana Business Daily has launched its annual survey of executives and major investors in the cannabis space, which will help the company provide key market, financial and operational data for businesses and entrepreneurs.

Executives with dispensaries/retail stores, commercial cultivation operations, infused products manufacturers, testing labs and ancillary firms as well as investors funding cannabis companies are invited to take the anonymous survey here.

Information gleaned from the survey will help cannabis companies build business plans, develop budgets, set key performance metrics, analyze competitive benchmarks and prepare for fundraising.

Survey data will be used in market research reports (such as the Marijuana Business

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Marijuana Business Daily’s annual industry survey underway is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Canadian medical cannabis biotech firm to get CA$4 million infusion

CannaRoyalty Corp., a marijuana-focused Canadian investment company, plans to pay 4 million in Canadian dollars ($3.03 million) for a 20% stake in Anandia Laboratories, a biotech firm that breeds and tests cannabis plants.

Anandia, of Vancouver, British Columbia, also recently received a “dealers license” from Health Canada that permits it to cultivate cannabis for breeding and strain improvement, as well as to extract and analyze cannabis, according to Business in Vancouver.

Anandia hopes it can turn some of that research and development into salable products. The company is especially interested in creating pest-resistant strains, Business in Vancouver reported.

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Canadian medical cannabis biotech firm to get CA$4 million infusion is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Oregon received nearly 2K rec cannabis applications last year

The agency that governs Oregon’s recreational marijuana industry was swamped with nearly 2,000 adult-use business license applications in 2016, far above the 800-1,200 it expected.

The Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) received 1,907 total applications last year, the Portland Business Journal reported Monday. Of those applications from retailers, growers and other types of businesses, 762 have already been approved by the department to begin operating.

While adult-use sales in Oregon began in October 2015, with medical retailers allowed to sell limited amounts of cannabis to recreational consumers, a transitional period to the full rec system ended last month.

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Oregon received nearly 2K rec cannabis applications last year is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Chart: Sharp rise in Minnesota medical marijuana patients buoys businesses

By Eli McVey

The number of medical marijuana patients in Minnesota more than quadrupled in 2016, breathing life back into a struggling industry that some observers feared was unsustainable.

Chalk it up to the addition of intractable pain in August to the state’s list of qualifying conditions, which had an immediate and dramatic impact on patient counts and the two licensed businesses supplying the market.

Minnesota’s MMJ patient registry ballooned by 3,129 in 2016 to hit more than 4,000, with 82% of the growth coming in the months after intractable pain was added.

Patients with intractable

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Chart: Sharp rise in Minnesota medical marijuana patients buoys businesses is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Report: CA dispensaries illegally selling rec cannabis

Some California dispensaries are skirting the law and selling recreational cannabis to non-medical customers, according to the Orange County Register.

The newspaper reports that since voters legalized adult use last November, dozens of retail outlets throughout the state are allowing customers to purchase cannabis with little more than a driver’s license – versus a doctor’s recommendation, which California’s medical marijuana law has long required.

The stores are deeming themselves “Proposition 64 friendly,” according to the Register.

However, the regulations for California’s recreational cannabis market have not been issued and no retail marijuana stores

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Report: CA dispensaries illegally selling rec cannabis is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

MJ Freeway: Full recovery from software outage could take weeks

MJ Freeway said Monday it could take two or three weeks to fully restore service to dispensaries and recreational marijuana stores after an alleged cyber attack knocked out the company’s software platform over the weekend.

The Denver-based firm – which provides software that helps businesses manage inventory, handle sales transactions and comply with regulations – initially expected to have all of its 1,000-plus customers in 23 marijuana states fully up and running on the system again by Tuesday.

But an MJ Freeway executive said Monday afternoon it will take anywhere from 24 to 72 hours for customers to get access

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MJ Freeway: Full recovery from software outage could take weeks is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Maryland medical marijuana businesses form trade group

In Maryland, 20 growing and processing license winners have formed a trade association tasked with improving patient access and slashing bureaucratic red tape.

The Maryland Wholesale Medical Cannabis Trade Association (MedCan) is made up 20 firms: Seven of them won both growing and processing licenses, seven won only processing licenses and six won only cultivation licenses, according to the Baltimore Business Journal.

The association is the latest entry in the growing field of trade groups in the cannabis industry.

MedCan has hired lobbying firm Manis, Canning & Associates to work with state lawmakers and regulators on

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Maryland medical marijuana businesses form trade group is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs