MMJ Business Daily

Colorado’s marijuana czar warns of possible Trump enforcement

Colorado’s top marijuana regulator is sounding the alarm bells that President-elect Donald Trump’s administration could crack down on the state’s cannabis industry, warning such a move could throw thousands out of work and shutter many businesses.

“I think there’s very good reason to be concerned,” Andrew Freedman, Colorado’s director of marijuana coordination, told the Denver CBS affiliate. “It could become an enforcement priority overnight.”

It would be impossible to make adult-use marijuana illegal in Colorado because it’s in the state constitution. But federal authorities could render state law moot by issuing cease-and-desist orders against the governor and state regulators

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Colorado’s marijuana czar warns of possible Trump enforcement is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

New York lets MMJ firms wholesale products, sell more brands

New York regulators unveiled more steps to pump new life into the state’s struggling medical marijuana industry, including new rules allowing MMJ growers to sell their products at one another’s dispensaries to alleviate potential supply shortfalls and boost sales.

The New York State Department of Health’s changes also include an expansion in the number of products MMJ companies can manufacture and sell, the New York Business Journal reported. The wider product line should give companies more flexibility to respond to patients’ needs and increase sales.

The latest moves come a week after the health department added

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New York lets MMJ firms wholesale products, sell more brands is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

CO’s planned crackdown on home growers could benefit legal market

Colorado’s planned legislative crackdown on legal cannabis home growers who sell their product into the black market could push more consumers to buy product from licensed marijuana stores.

As President-elect Donald Trump continues to nominate people for his cabinet who are anti-cannabis, Colorado appears to be trying to preserve its legal marijuana industry, the Associated Press reported.

Gov. John Hickenlooper says the state’s hefty cannabis allocations for home growers make it difficult for police to determine who is legal and who is operating in the black market, according to the AP.

Colorado currently allows an MMJ patient or caregiver

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CO’s planned crackdown on home growers could benefit legal market is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Week in Review: New life in Montana, Oregon tweaks rules & New England hits obstacles

By Bart Schaneman and Omar Sacirbey 

Montana’s medical marijuana industry is reactivated, Oregon adjusts its testing regulations, and New England’s adult-use industry encounters obstacles.

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

Back from the dead

Medical marijuana dispensaries in Montana will be flipping their closed signs to open after a state judge gave the industry a new lease on life.

“We’re elated,” said Bob Devine, president of the Montana Cannabis Information Association and a dispensary owner in Bozeman. “Patient access won’t be delayed now. We can get the program

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Week in Review: New life in Montana, Oregon tweaks rules & New England hits obstacles is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Report: Colorado poised to top 3,000 MJ business licenses in 2017

Colorado will surpass 3,000 marijuana business licenses by the middle of next year, a report from a University of Denver business professor predicts.

As of Dec. 1, there were 2,913 active licenses in the Centennial State, according to Paul Seaborn, an assistant professor at DU’s Daniels College of Business. That’s a long way from the 1,708 licenses that existed in 2014, when adult-use marijuana was legalized in the state.

Seaborn pointed out in a news release “the state has experienced a 70% increase in licenses in just under two years.”

The report states that while the majority of licenses

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Report: Colorado poised to top 3,000 MJ business licenses in 2017 is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Testing rules sinking Oregon marijuana sales, report shows

Marijuana sales in Oregon have been sliding since the state implemented stringent new testing rules on Oct. 1, dropping 8.5% to $29.5 million that month.

The October decline marked the first time since May that the market posted sales below $30 million, according to a new report.

The report, by Colorado-based BDS Analytics, shows the impact of the new testing rules, which the state tweaked on Dec. 2 in a bid to offset supply shortages that arose after the regulations were introduced.

The sales decline worsened in November, BDS said, based on a pool of dispensaries

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Testing rules sinking Oregon marijuana sales, report shows is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Cannabis research gets almost $20 million in funding

Proponents of scientific research in the cannabis industry got encouraging news with recent announcements that two major universities received nearly $20 million in donations for marijuana-related studies.

The University of Miami’s Project to Cure Paralysis and Miller School of Medicine received a $16 million grant from Scythian Bioscience in October to research whether a CBD-based pill can help reduce brain cell inflammation that occurs after injuries such as concussions, the Miami Herald reported.

Scythian BioSciences is a private research and development company based in Canada that focuses on the prevention and treatment of concussions and traumatic brain injury.

The Miami researchers are required

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Cannabis research gets almost $20 million in funding is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Arkansas governor announces MMJ commission

Arkansas’ governor unveiled the five members a Medical Marijuana Commission, which will administer and oversee the licensing of dispensaries and cultivators under the state’s new MMJ program.

The group – selected by the governor and state lawmakers – is a mixture of health and legal experts, according to the Arkansas Times.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson used his one allotted appointment to select Dr. Ronda Henry-Tillman, a breast cancer surgeon and professor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Service.

Speaker of the House Jeremy Gillam selected attorney Travis Story and Dr. Stephen Carroll, a pharmacist.

Senate President Pro Tem Jonathan Dismang

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Arkansas governor announces MMJ commission is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

L.A. cannabis businesses face regulations, uncertainty with new ballot measures

By John Schroyer

“Trust us.”

That seems to be the Los Angeles City Council’s message to cannabis businesses, given that a new regulatory ballot measure approved by the council for March includes few details on how the industry will be governed.

The types of business licenses – from dispensaries to cultivators to testing labs – aren’t spelled out in the initiative. It also doesn’t address areas such as delivery or certain aspects of cultivation and manufacturing.

That ambiguity is disconcerting to some in the Los Angeles marijuana trade. But others say the current city government has indicated a desire to establish

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L.A. cannabis businesses face regulations, uncertainty with new ballot measures is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Montana judge clears way for MMJ dispensaries to reopen

A Montana judge Wednesday ruled that the state’s medical marijuana dispensaries should be reopened in accordance with a recently approved ballot initiative, paving the way for thousands of potential patients to receive MMJ again.

A drafting error in the Nov. 8 ballot initiative had postponed the measure’s implementation until next summer.

But District Judge James Reynolds of Helena cleared the path for dispensaries to immediately drop a three-patient limit enacted by state lawmakers in 2011 and implemented this past summer, local TV station KTVQ reported. That law had effectively shut down Montana’s MMJ trade, and the ballot initiative was intended

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Montana judge clears way for MMJ dispensaries to reopen is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs