MMJ Business Daily

L.A. Dispensaries Submit Signatures for Ballot Question

A coalition of Los Angeles medical cannabis dispensaries has turned in over 100,000 signatures to support their bid to get an initiative on the city ballot that would give licensing priority to 135 storefronts.

The UCBA Trade Association, which is comprised of roughly 40 dispensaries that have been operating since before September 2007, needed only 61,500 signatures to make the March ballot, the Los Angeles Business Journal reported.

The initiative is intended to get out in front of an expected ballot measure by the city council to bring the city MMJ licensing system into line with state MMJ

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L.A. Dispensaries Submit Signatures for Ballot Question is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Missouri MMJ Campaign Loses Fight for Ballot Spot

A Missouri judge has ruled against a medical marijuana legalization campaign, effectively ending its chances to get a pro-MMJ ballot question before voters this November.

A technicality brought the campaign’s chances to a close this year.

The weekly Riverfront Times reported Tuesday afternoon that Judge Daniel Green “ruled that the Missouri Secretary of State and local election authorities had acted properly when they invalidated hundreds of petition signatures that had been collected on the wrong county form.”

The Kansas City Star further reported that a spokesman for New Approach Missouri, the group behind the ballot measure, acknowledged the

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Missouri MMJ Campaign Loses Fight for Ballot Spot is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Grow Applicant Sues Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission

A marijuana cultivation company that was bumped from among the initial 15 winning applicants for a Maryland grower’s license is suing the state’s Medical Cannabis Commission.

The case could further delay the rollout of the Maryland medical marijuana program, which already is several months behind its originally anticipated launch.

The commission said it bumped GTI Maryland in a bid to broaden the geographic diversity of the state’s MMJ program, as required by law, the Baltimore Sun reported.

GTI Maryland originally was among the top 15 applicants for a grower license, but it was the lowest-ranking applicant of three companies that applied for

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Grow Applicant Sues Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Trademarks: Some, But Not Many, Protections For Cannabis Companies

By John Schroyer

Rapper Snoop Dogg and a Washington State marijuana entrepreneur learned the hard way that cannabis businesses must tread carefully when it comes to trademark protection.

Both recently encountered trademark snafus, underscoring the pitfalls cannabis companies face. Still, MJ entrepreneurs do have options to safeguard their names, logos and other intellectual property.

Experts said state-level trade protection is one option, given that federal trademark protection typically is unavailable for plant-touching companies because of marijuana’s status as a Schedule 1 controlled substance.

Cannabis entrepreneurs also can turn to “common law” trademark rights, experts said. And it helps to

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Trademarks: Some, But Not Many, Protections For Cannabis Companies is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Colorado Officials Won’t Promote Cannabis For Tourists

Colorado won’t be making marijuana a hallmark of the state’s pitch to tourists, but will instead educate visitors about marijuana laws.

The federal government has a say in what states can and can’t include in marketing materials, the director of Colorado’s Tourism Office told the Coloradoan newspaper in Fort Collins. Instead, the agency is focusing on public education, including informing tourists that it’s still illegal to light up cannabis public.

“If you are here and choose to use, we want to make sure people have information about the educated use,” Cathy Ritter, the tourism department director, said.

Cannabis,

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Colorado Officials Won’t Promote Cannabis For Tourists is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Major Marijuana-Related Campaign Donations Late in Campaign

Proponents and opponents of cannabis legalization are gearing up for the final stretch of the 2016 political campaign, and for both camps that means some big last-minute donations.

In Florida, casino mogul Sheldon Adelson – who funded most of the anti-medical marijuana ads two years ago – has jumped back into the fray with a $1 million donation to Drug Free Florida, the Sunshine State News reported. Adelson, who is reportedly worth more than $30 billion, gave $5.5 million to fight MMJ legalization in 2014 in Florida. But Adelson so far has not contributed to combatting adult use

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Major Marijuana-Related Campaign Donations Late in Campaign is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Cannabis Pod Company Execs Face Fraud Charges

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for Colorado has charged two men who ran a Denver-area company that transformed shipping containers into growing pods for food and cannabis with securities fraud, mail fraud and wire fraud.

William Sears, 50, and Scott Dittman, 47, were also barred from securities trading,  the Denver Business Journal reported. Their company is named FusionPharm Inc.

Federal authorities allege that Sears and Dittman hid their stock ownership in the business from securities regulators. Sears was also charged with filing a false income tax return.

Dittman and Sears held a majority of the shares in FusionPharm, but the two

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Cannabis Pod Company Execs Face Fraud Charges is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Top Credit Union Times Editor: Embrace Cannabis Businesses

A top editor at the Credit Union Times says more credit unions should begin taking on marijuana businesses as customers.

“With a major state like California coming close to legalizing recreational pot – something that may tip the scales on legalization efforts in other states and pressure the federal government to give existing pot businesses easier access to financial services – it’s time for more credit unions to embrace the idea of serving the marijuana industry,” Natasha Chilingerian wrote in a piece published Sept. 16 on her trade publication’s website.

Chilingerian added that accepting marijuana businesses as customers is

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Top Credit Union Times Editor: Embrace Cannabis Businesses is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

New York Medical Marijuana Company Claims First Labor Pact

Medical marijuana producer Vireo Health has signed what it claims is the first agreement with organized labor in New York State.

According to the Daily Gazette, Vireo, which holds cannabis business licenses in New York, Maryland and Minnesota, has entered into an agreement with Local 338 of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. The union will represent all of Vireo’s current New York workers, and covers all future employees as well.

Vireo has dispensaries in Albany, Johnson City, Queens and White Plains, and claims to be the only marijuana company to have “partnered with labor in three

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New York Medical Marijuana Company Claims First Labor Pact is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Chart: Does Arkansas MMJ Legalization Stand a Chance With Two Competing Measures?

By Eli McVey

Medical marijuana in Arkansas is dead in the water.

This is the popular thinking among many industry insiders now that two competing MMJ initiatives have made the Arkansas ballot this fall.

But don’t lose hope just yet.

Both initiatives have strong support from voters, and evidence from previous elections where competing proposals made the ballot suggests that at least one – if not both – measures could win.

The Arkansas Medical Cannabis Act (AMCA) was the first initiative to make the ballot back in early July, garnering 77,516 verified signatures. A competing legalization proposal called the

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Chart: Does Arkansas MMJ Legalization Stand a Chance With Two Competing Measures? is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs