MMJ Business Daily

Israel to Begin Exporting Medical Cannabis Overseas

Israel plans to begin exporting medical marijuana overseas, the nation’s agriculture minister said, a decision that comes soon after the government approved steps to make MMJ more widely available to patients in the country.

The Times of Israel reported the shipments would begin “soon.”

Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel told Israel Radio over the weekend that in two years the country will have “protocols in place that will allow farmers to grow cannabis,” according to Israel’s online Hebrew-language magazine Cannabis.

He added that his ministry has taken steps to establish facilities for research and trials involving cannabis cultivation.

Ariel said

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Israel to Begin Exporting Medical Cannabis Overseas is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Chart of the Week: Recreational Marijuana Pushing Down MMJ Patient Counts

By Eli McVey

The legalization of recreational marijuana can put a big dent in a state’s pre-existing medical cannabis market, according to a look at changes in the number of registered patients in Colorado and Oregon.

Patient numbers have fallen 8% in Colorado and 14% in Oregon since the first day of adult-use sales in each market, and it’s unclear where the bottom lies.

Both states could conceivably see further decreases as patients who use marijuana only occasionally continue to switch to the rec market.

The figures offer medical cannabis businesses an idea of what happens to the

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Chart of the Week: Recreational Marijuana Pushing Down MMJ Patient Counts is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Opposition to Nevada Rec Now Includes AG, Law Enforcement

Nevada’s attorney general and other top law enforcement officials have come out forcefully against the ballot initiative to legalize adult-use marijuana in the state.

The group cited various concerns late last week, ranging from the initiative being a money grab by the marijuana industry to public safety and the possibility that edibles would appeal to kids, an NBC affiliate in Carson City reported. Nevada has a medical marijuana program.

“This ballot initiative was written by major marijuana interests, whose biggest concern is making money,” Attorney General Adam Laxalt said.

A spokesman for the Question 2 ballot initiative, Joe Brezny, brushed

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Opposition to Nevada Rec Now Includes AG, Law Enforcement is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Marley Natural Expanding Across State Lines

A cannabis company sporting a legendary name is expanding into multiple states, joining a limited number of marijuana businesses that have crossed state lines.

Marley Natural, which is backed by Seattle-based Privateer Holdings, first launched in California in February and is now available in Oregon, in dispensaries in Portland and Eugene. Further expansion across the state is on the way.

A Marley Natural spokesman said in an email the company plans to have cannabis products on shelves in Washington State this fall. It also has “team members” in New York.

In addition, the company has hemp-based products

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Marley Natural Expanding Across State Lines is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Montana MMJ Dispensaries May Stay Closed Until Next June

Organizers of a ballot initiative to reverse a Montana law that will shutter the state’s medical cannabis dispensaries may have accidentally set their effort back by six months, owing to a mistake in the measure’s wording.

If so, dispensaries wouldn’t be reopened until next June – assuming Montana voters approve the initiative, the Associated Press reported. That would be a blow to the dispensary owners and the customers they serve.

Due to a “clerical error” in the language of I-182, as the measure is known, a limit of three patients per MMJ provider – which is what will

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Montana MMJ Dispensaries May Stay Closed Until Next June is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Week in Review: New York’s Health Dept. Proposes Changes, Oregon Rec Market Red Hot & MI Stumbles

By John Schroyer

New York’s health department recommends doubling the size of the state’s medical marijuana industry, Oregon recreational applications flood in as adult use sales skyrocket, and Michigan’s MJ legal limbo may persist a few more years.

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

Doubling Down

In a rare move for a state agency, the New York State Department of Health this week issued a report recommending – among other things – that the number of MMJ business licenses be doubled, to 10 from five.

Various

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Week in Review: New York’s Health Dept. Proposes Changes, Oregon Rec Market Red Hot & MI Stumbles is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

MIT Grads Raise $4.5M to Fund Hemp Trading Platform

A pair of recent Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduates have packed up, moved to Chicago, and raised $4.5 million to launch a first-of-its-kind trading platform for industrial hemp.

The duo said traditional markets have overlooked hemp, Crain’s Chicago Business reported. And the two are off to a solid start, having won regulatory approval from the Commodity Futures and Trading Commission for a portion of their company, Seed CX, to become a swap execution facility.

The two twentysomethings also hope to become a “designated contract market, or essentially a futures exchange,” the paper reported, which would allow them to

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MIT Grads Raise $4.5M to Fund Hemp Trading Platform is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Maryland MJ Commission Releases Rankings for License Winners

Maryland’s medical marijuana commission on Wednesday released how it ranked top applicants for grower and processor licenses in the state, shedding light on its decision-making process.

The rankings included two growers that were dropped from the top 15 and two that were moved up for geographical reasons, the Associated Press reported.

Commissioners earlier this month named 15 preliminary winners for licenses in the processor category and 15 in the grower category.

The two growers that were dropped from the top 15 planned to operate in areas that already had winning applicants. The two companies that

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Maryland MJ Commission Releases Rankings for License Winners is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Anchorage Cannabis Rep Fills AK Regulatory Board Vacancy

The chair of the Anchorage Cannabis Business Association is joining Alaska’s Marijuana Control Board, filling a four-week-old vacancy and bringing a second industry representative to the regulatory body.

Nick Miller, who plans to open a recreational store in Anchorage, was appointed by Governor Bill Walker, according to the Alaska Journal. Walker fired Miller’s predecessor, former board chairman Bruce Schulte, on July 29.

Schulte, after he was removed, accused Walker and his administration of deliberately trying to sabotage the state’s unfolding recreational marijuana program. State officials have begun issuing cultivation, processing and laboratory licenses, and plan to

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Anchorage Cannabis Rep Fills AK Regulatory Board Vacancy is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Landing a Bank Account: Q&A With Sundie Seefried of Partners Colorado Credit Union

By Omar Sacirbey

Sundie Seefried was ready to retire as CEO of a Colorado credit union when some lawyer friends asked why she couldn’t bank their marijuana business clients.

Good question, she thought. Seefried met with bankers, lawyers and cannabis business owners. What she learned scared her out of retiring.

Bankers, in short, were telling MJ companies to break the law, Seefried said, inspiring her to postpone retirement and work with cannabis businesses.

Seefried, CEO of Partner Colorado Credit Union, launched her institution’s marijuana banking program in 2014. Today it counts about 85 clients. She recently published a book about MJ

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Landing a Bank Account: Q&A With Sundie Seefried of Partners Colorado Credit Union is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs