MMJ Business Daily

Entrepreneur Launches CO Facility to Help Marijuana Firms

A veteran entrepreneur has launched a Denver facility, Good Life Colorado, that will focus on helping young and established cannabis-infused products companies expand.

Housed in a 1,500-square-foot space, Good Life will offer companies space to develop their products and mentoring to guide them forward.

“We decided to create a place for cannabis entrepreneurs who have fantastic ideas and solid budgets, but lack the resources for a (marijuana-infused products) license and warehouse,” Patrick O’Malley, the Boulder businessman who founded Good Life, said in a new release. O’Malley also runs a test prep company.

Besides start-ups, O’Malley said Good Life

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Entrepreneur Launches CO Facility to Help Marijuana Firms is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Hawaii’s New Medical Marijuana Businesses to Battle Entrenched Caregiver Market

By Omar Sacirbey

Hawaii’s eight medical marijuana license winners have their work cut out for them as they enter what could be a tough initial market in the state.

The winners – announced last week – are allowed to open July 15, but it is unlikely they will have their first harvests ready by then.

When the dispensaries do open, probably late this year, they will face stiff competition from nearly 3,000 caregivers who now can grow MMJ for the state’s 13,000-plus patients.

The bottom line: It could take new dispensaries several years to develop a healthy customer base,

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Hawaii’s New Medical Marijuana Businesses to Battle Entrenched Caregiver Market is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Oakland Increases Number of Medical Marijuana Businesses

Oakland lawmakers voted Wednesday to increase sharply the number of licensed medical marijuana dispensaries, cultivators and related businesses that can operate in California’s eighth-largest city.

The city approved a measure to allow eight new dispensaries each year, adding to the eight that currently exist. City officials also paved the way for an additional 30 growers, a dozen delivery companies, five distributors, five transporters, two testing labs, and 28 infused product makers, according to the Mercury News.

Oakland is known for having embraced the MMJ industry, and it stood alongside dispensaries such as Harborside Health Center in its fight against

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Oakland Increases Number of Medical Marijuana Businesses is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

CA Rec Cannabis Poised to Qualify for Ballot

Supporters of a recreational marijuana ballot measure in California handed in more than 600,000 signatures, indicating the initiative is virtually assured of going before voters in November, local media reported.

Supporters amassed a comfortable cushion of signatures. The initiative needs 365,880 valid ones.

The measure, backed by tech billionaire Sean Parker, would legalize adult-use cannabis in the nation’s most populous state, opening countless opportunities for entrepreneurs wanting to serve the market directly or through ancillary services and products.

The campaign already has garnered a significant coalition of high-profile supporters, ranging from Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom – who was on

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CA Rec Cannabis Poised to Qualify for Ballot is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Germany Close to Legalizing Medical Cannabis

Germany, the world’s fifth biggest economy, is expected to legalize medical marijuana in 2017, according to news reports.

The German cabinet approved a bill Monday that would allow medical cannabis to be used by seriously ill patients who have consulted with a physician and have no other “therapeutic alternative.”

Germany’s parliament must still approve the legislation. If passed, medicine will be available in flower form and as extracts, and would be sold through pharmacies.

The country’s health minister, Hermann Gröhe, told reporters he wants health insurance to pay for medical cannabis if patients have no other way to cover it

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Germany Close to Legalizing Medical Cannabis is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Major Flower Business Fears Migration to Marijuana

The CEO of 1-800-Flowers frets he might lose some of his best suppliers in states that have burgeoning marijuana industries, saying he’s afraid growers will realize that cannabis could be a more lucrative profession.

Such an exodus would expand the ranks of marijuana growers, adding a crop of seasoned veterans to the industry’s ranks.

“Some growers with enormous greenhouse facilities in California or Colorado or perhaps in Oregon are saying, ‘Is this the best crop I can grow, these flowers for all these florists around the country? Maybe I can switch to cannabis and get 10 times on the revenue line,’”

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Major Flower Business Fears Migration to Marijuana is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

With Harborside Lawsuit in Rearview Mirror, End of Difficult Chapter for MJ Industry is Near

By John Schroyer

Steve and Andrew DeAngelo fought the law … and the brothers won.

The duo scored a major legal victory this week after the U.S. Department of Justice dropped its high-stakes legal case against their prominent dispensary, California-based Harborside Health Center.

The four-year battle threatened to close Harborside, one of the nation’s largest and oldest dispensaries, and potentially other medical marijuana businesses if a court ruled in the DOJ’s favor.

The case was at one point the biggest news in the marijuana industry, as it stoked fears that the federal government would use civil forfeiture laws

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With Harborside Lawsuit in Rearview Mirror, End of Difficult Chapter for MJ Industry is Near is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Rec Marijuana Legalization Bill Dies in Vermont

Supporters of marijuana legalization in Vermont are in mourning after the state’s House of Representatives rejected an adult-use cannabis bill their Senate colleagues approved in March, according to the Associated Press.

The lopsided 121-28 vote means Vermont, for now, will not become the first state to pass legalization through its legislature – versus a popular vote.

It’s also the latest sign that legalization proponents face growing opposition in New England because of the region’s opiate abuse problem.

According to the AP, some Vermont House members said they favored legalization. But they opposed the Senate measure because its proposed system

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Rec Marijuana Legalization Bill Dies in Vermont is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

22 MMJ Dispensaries Shut in Vancouver, Others Vow Legal Fight

The Canadian city of Vancouver launched its crackdown on unlicensed medical marijuana dispensaries, with 22 dispensaries agreeing to close and city inspectors ticketing 44 others who defied an order to do so, according to Canadian press reports.

Vancouver became Canada’s first city last year to issue regulations governing MMJ dispensaries. It balked at issuing licenses to about about 140 dispensaries because of rule violations, such as locating too close to a school.

City officials said they will continue enforcing the new regulations, including ticketing those unlicensed dispensaries that refuse to close. Fines are $250 per day for every day

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22 MMJ Dispensaries Shut in Vancouver, Others Vow Legal Fight is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

In Major Victory, Harborside Civil Forfeiture Case Dropped

A California medical marijuana dispensary has won a landmark legal case that at one point had threatened the MJ industry’s very future.

Harborside Health Center in Oakland, once in danger of being shuttered by the U.S. Attorney’s office, announced today federal prosecutors have dropped their case brought against the dispensary four years ago.

The dismissal could set a legal precedent and protect dispensaries nationwide that abide by local and state regulations. That, in turn, should comfort dispensary owners who feared being shuttered by federal agents or kicked out by landlords under pressure from the U.S. Department of Justice.

“We are

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In Major Victory, Harborside Civil Forfeiture Case Dropped is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs