MMJ Business Daily

Report: Oregon Rec Sales Could Hit $300M

Oregon’s fledgling recreational cannabis industry could generate nearly $300 million in sales this year and $46 million in wages, a new study predicts.

The report, compiled by a Portland economist and a cannabis industry consultant, provides a peek at the potential of the state’s rec marijuana market, which launched last October and so far has created 2,156 retail-related cannabis jobs.

The projections focus on the sale of cannabis flower at the retail level. They do not include sales of edibles or extracts, which currently can be sold only for medical purposes (though that will change later this year).

The

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Report: Oregon Rec Sales Could Hit $300M is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Proposal to Limit Cannabis Businesses in Denver Fails

The Denver City Council effectively rejected a proposal early Tuesday morning to cap the number of marijuana retail and cultivation site locations in the city, which would have limited the industry’s growth.

The measure would have applied to both medical and recreational businesses, but not testing labs or infused product manufacturers.

It failed after a 6-6 vote in which one council member was absent.

The measure is far from dead, however.

Councilwoman Robin Kniech promised to resubmit her bill next week, according to the Denver Post.

The paper noted that the council member who was absent previously voted to advance the bill from committee, so it

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Proposal to Limit Cannabis Businesses in Denver Fails is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Canadian Insurance Firm Covering Patient’s Cannabis

A Canadian health insurance firm has agreed to cover medical cannabis for a university student who uses the drug to help with severe headaches.

The development is a small step for the legitimacy of medical marijuana in the world of health insurance and could convince other firms in Canada – and perhaps even the U.S. – to consider covering cannabis.

If that happens, more patients will sign up for medical marijuana programs, thereby increasing the market for cannabis businesses.

Jonathan Zaid, a student at the University of Waterloo and executive director of Canadians for Fair Access to Medical Marijuana, lobbied to get his medical cannabis

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Canadian Insurance Firm Covering Patient’s Cannabis is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Vancouver’s Medical Marijuana Industry in Flux as City Rolls Out Regulations

By Omar Sacirbey

Cannabis entrepreneurs in Vancouver, British Columbia, are about to find out whether local law enforcement will shutter scores of unlicensed medical marijuana dispensaries in the western seaport city.

Vancouver officials have notified more than 100 dispensaries that they won’t receive licenses under the city’s new regulatory framework, giving them until April 29 to close.

Whether the city enforces the rules is expected to play a key role in determining the ultimate size of Vancouver’s MMJ industry and where the business opportunities will be going forward.

At the same time, entrepreneurs and dispensaries that don’t make the

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Vancouver’s Medical Marijuana Industry in Flux as City Rolls Out Regulations is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Competition Bringing Down MMJ Prices in New Jersey

A pair of medical cannabis dispensaries that opened in New Jersey late last year have had a significant impact on the state’s MMJ industry, helping to lower prices and boost choices for patients.

Compassionate Sciences Alternative Treatment Center and Breakwater Treatment and Wellness Center, which both opened last fall, immediately instituted price-slashing measures, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

As a result, the average price of cannabis has fallen from $489 an ounce “down to the $300 range,” according to the report.

That could encourage more patients to sign up for the state’s MMJ program, as high prices have been an

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Competition Bringing Down MMJ Prices in New Jersey is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

MassRoots Taking Another Stab at Nasdaq Listing

MassRoots, the popular social network for cannabis enthusiasts, is taking another shot at getting listed on the Nasdaq.

The Colorado-based company filed an S-1 registration form on Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission to raise up to $6.5 million by selling shares and warrants – a key part of the process for getting listed on the Nasdaq.

MassRoots first applied to trade on the exchange last August and filed an earlier S-1 registration form with the SEC in November.

The company, however, failed to meet all of the Nasdaq’s listing requirements.

Most notably, it needed to raise $5 million to meet a shareholder’s equity

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MassRoots Taking Another Stab at Nasdaq Listing is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Detroit Dispensaries Drop Suit Against New Regs

A group of medical marijuana dispensary owners has abandoned a lawsuit challenging Detroit’s new zoning and licensing regulations.

The rules, which took effect March 1, are expected to cut the number of dispensaries in the city to as low 50 from more than 200.

March 31 was the final day dispensaries could apply for licenses to remain open.

In their lawsuit, the 10 dispensary owners argued they should be grandfathered into the new system because they began operating before the zoning ordinance took effect last month. They dropped their lawsuit on Friday without comment, according to the Detroit Free Press.

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Detroit Dispensaries Drop Suit Against New Regs is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Chart of the Week: Optimism Running High in All Marijuana Sectors

By Marijuana Business Daily staff

Cannabis professionals are bullish on the future these days.

About 40% of marijuana entrepreneurs, founders and executives from across the industry predict that their businesses will boom this year, with those in testing, wholesale cultivation and retail among the most optimistic.

The figure – which stems from a survey of nearly 1,000 professionals taken for the Marijuana Business Factbook – indicates that many executives are confident not only in their own companies but also in the overall market.

Whether their predictions will materialize is an entirely different question, and some businesses expecting big growth could certainly

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Chart of the Week: Optimism Running High in All Marijuana Sectors is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Maine Judge Gives Rec Initiative New Life

A Superior Court judge has sided with a campaign to legalize recreational cannabis in Maine over the secretary of state, and ruled that more than 26,000 signatures in support of a legalization ballot measure were improperly tossed out.

The ruling gives Secretary of State Matt Dunlap another three days to consider the roughly 5,000 petitions that were invalidated without due process.

Justice Michaela Murphy ruled that Dunlap’s office “committed an error of law by applying a vague, subjective and/or unduly burdensome interpretation” of the law, the Bangor Daily News reported.

The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, which

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Maine Judge Gives Rec Initiative New Life is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Sales Drop for WA Rec Shops on Oregon Border

Washington State marijuana stores along the Oregon border have seen their sales plummet since their southern neighbor’s legalization program went online last October, according to The Oregonian.

For example, cannabis tax revenues in Washington’s Klickitat County, to the northeast of Portland, dropped 47% since October, when marijuana stores started opening in Oregon.

Stores in Clark County, Washington, which is straight north from Portland, accounted for 12% of all cannabis sales in the state last September, but only 7% just three months after Oregon began rec sales in October.

Some observers also blamed the border store sales drop on

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Sales Drop for WA Rec Shops on Oregon Border is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs