MMJ Business Daily

Weedmaps Highlights Difficulties Facing Consumer Review Websites

By John Schroyer

Weedmaps has long been a popular online destination for cannabis consumers seeking quality retailers, but recent press coverage questioning the company’s credibility underscores the pitfalls facing online review websites.

A Los Angeles Times article last month suggested more than 60% of the consumer reviews appearing on Weedmaps were fake.

The article also raised a red flag about the source of those reviews, noting many originated from the same IP address. Weedmaps’ consumer reviews cover dispensaries and recreational marijuana retailers.

The Los Angeles Times story raised alarm bells within the MJ industry. It could haunt Weedmaps, and

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Weedmaps Highlights Difficulties Facing Consumer Review Websites is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Experts Predict Increase in Canadian Cannabis M&A

Canada’s cannabis industry is poised for a period of increased mergers and acquisitions, according to financial market observers in the country.

M&A activity has already accelerated, Jacob Cawker, an attorney with Norton Rose Fulbright in Toronto, said in an article published on the online site Mondaq.

Cawker cited data from Virdian Capital and Research, a cannabis-focused index that showed 33 acquisitions conducted in 2014, with even more M&A activity predicted for the future.

Some analysts predict Canada’s cannabis industry will generate between $2.5 billion and $5 billion in annual revenues.

Cawker also noted that Canada’s

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Experts Predict Increase in Canadian Cannabis M&A is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

MJ Freeway and Weedmaps Partner On New Service

Two big names in the cannabis industry, software company MJ Freeway and online retail guide Weedmaps, are partnering to offer a service for marijuana vendors to automatically update their online menus.

According to a press release, the two companies will offer retailers who use MJ Freeway’s seed-to-sale tracking platform an opportunity to use Weedmaps to update their online menus, reducing the need to manually update their menus. Price changes or when a product is out of stock will be updated automatically on Weedmaps via MJ Freeway’s software, and can apply to flower, edibles, concentrates, topicals, and more.

MJ Freeway has customers in 23 states,

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MJ Freeway and Weedmaps Partner On New Service is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Poll: Half of Arizonans Support Rec Marijuana Initiative

Roughly half of Arizona voters are likely to support a ballot initiative to legalize recreational marijuana in the state, a new poll has found, suggesting growing support for legalization.

The study, commissioned by the Arizona Republic, the Morrison Institute for Public Policy, and Cronkite News, found that 50% of voters surveyed are “likely to vote in favor” of Proposition 205, an initiative to legalize adult-use cannabis. The poll also found that 40% are opposed and 10% are undecided.

The new numbers are a flip from two earlier polls, one of which found in July that only

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Poll: Half of Arizonans Support Rec Marijuana Initiative is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

AK Board Set To Approve First Rec Marijuana Retailers, Manufacturers

The Alaska Marijuana Control Board is meeting today and tomorrow to approve what will be the first licenses for recreational marijuana retailers and manufacturing facilities in the state.

According to the board’s agenda, nearly 20 retail stores are listed for review, broadcaster KTVA reported.

The Marijuana Control Board is expected to consider dozens of other marijuana business license applications as well, and debate whether certain retail stores will be allowed to have areas on their premises where customers can consume their cannabis, the Associated Press reported.

Because Alaska’s regulations prohibit public consumption of cannabis, the board is

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AK Board Set To Approve First Rec Marijuana Retailers, Manufacturers is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Washington MJ Company Sets Sights on Kroger, Other Mainstream Retailers

By John Schroyer

A Washington State marijuana entrepreneur may be close to landing her cannabis-based health and beauty product line on the shelves of mainstream retailers such as Kroger-owned groceries and others.

If successful, it would mark a first for today’s cannabis industry: conventional retailers selling products containing THC.

Ah Warner, the founder and CEO of Cannabis Basics, said she struck a tentative deal last month with Crown Pacific Fine Foods to distribute her infused product line to retailers.

Crown Pacific is a Kent, Washington-based importer and distributor of gourmet specialty foods and confections, including olive oil, pasta, coffee, cookies and other goods.

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Washington MJ Company Sets Sights on Kroger, Other Mainstream Retailers is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

New Etheridge Marijuana Products to Hit CA Shelves

Yet another celebrity is expanding her footprint in the cannabis trade.

Singer Melissa Etheridge will debut a second line of marijuana products for medical patients by the end of the year in dispensaries around the San Francisco Bay Area, Billboard reported late last week.

Etheridge Farms, as her company is called, is producing flower, edibles, oil cartridges, and topicals for dispensaries, on top of the cannabis wine tincture she already sells.

Etheridge said she’s aiming her product lines at consumers who are “looking to unwind at night and not have a couple of drinks and feel like crap

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New Etheridge Marijuana Products to Hit CA Shelves is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Oregon Lab Accreditation Problems Could Delay Rec Cannabis Rollout

The full rollout of Oregon’s much-anticipated recreational cannabis industry next month could be delayed owing to problems with the accreditation of marijuana testing labs.

The Register-Guard reported that the Oregon Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program, or ORELAP, is overworked and understaffed. That means the agency may not be able to accredit enough labs to satisfy required testing for rec products in time for the industry to begin full adult-use sales.

In addition to cannabis, ORELAP oversees water and other health laboratory testing in Oregon.

“We are on the precipice of collapse of environmental, drinking water, and cannabis accreditation because of the

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Oregon Lab Accreditation Problems Could Delay Rec Cannabis Rollout is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Thousands of People Ask New Jersey’s Christie to Add PTSD

An outspoken opponent of legalized cannabis, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is coming under pressure to sign legislation that would add post-traumatic stress disorder to the list of qualifying conditions for the state’s medical marijuana program.

The inclusion of PTSD would be a shot in the arm for the state’s MMJ industry, given that many military veterans suffer from the condition. New Jersey remains one of the most restrictive MMJ markets in the nation.

Nearly 18,000 people have signed a change.org petition urging Christie to approve the PTSD legislation, which the state legislature passed overwhelmingly on Aug. 1,

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Thousands of People Ask New Jersey’s Christie to Add PTSD is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

MN Medical Cannabis Businesses See Jump in Pain Patients

Minnesota’s struggling medical marijuana market could be poised for dramatic improvement thanks to a surge in new chronic pain patients, who have become the second-largest group of enrollees in the state after becoming eligible for the program on Aug. 1.

According to figures released by Minnesota’s Office of Medical Cannabis, roughly one-third of the state’s patients, or 847 people, are registered based on recommendations for chronic pain, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported. The newspaper added there are more pain patients than those with cancer, epilepsy and terminal illnesses combined.

But the paper noted that despite the surge in pain patients,

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MN Medical Cannabis Businesses See Jump in Pain Patients is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs