MMJ Business Daily

Chart of the Week: Profit Margins for Infused Products Can Be Sky High

By Marijuana Business Daily staff

Making marijuana-infused chocolate bars, sodas, oils and patches can be a highly profitable endeavor.

Profit margins for infused products and concentrates companies in the cannabis sector typically hover around 32%, according to data in the 2016 Marijuana Business Factbook.

That’s significantly higher than the average for businesses that make other consumer goods such as alcohol, soft drinks and cigarettes.

The relatively high profit margin for companies that make marijuana edibles, topicals and concentrates shows why entrepreneurs are rushing into this part of the industry in states that allow the production and sale of infused

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Chart of the Week: Profit Margins for Infused Products Can Be Sky High is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

MMJ Company Appealing to Google Over Rejected Online Ads

New York-based Vireo Health, one of the five licensed medical cannabis producers in the state, is trying to persuade Google to let it run ads via its online platform, even though the search engine giant has rejected proposed ads from the company seven times now.

Vireo CEO Ari Hoffnung penned a letter directly to Google, the Journal News reported, and tried to make the case that his company has complied with all of Google’s requirements, which include a ban on the “promotion of substances that alter mental state for the purpose of recreation.” That ban is what Google

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MMJ Company Appealing to Google Over Rejected Online Ads is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Privateer Wins Major Public Relations Award

PR Week, a major advertising magazine, awarded cannabis equity firm Privateer Holdings and its public relations company, Colehour and Cohen, its top honor for “Investor/Financial Communications Campaign of the Year.”

Thursday night’s announcement is yet another boost for the legitimacy of the cannabis industry, which continues to grow rapidly despite strict advertising restrictions and hurdles with major companies with big advertising platforms like Facebook and Google.

PR Week specifically lauded the two Seattle-based companies for their campaign to win over investors skeptical about putting their money into marijuana businesses. But with a budget of $250,000, Colehour and Cohen

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Privateer Wins Major Public Relations Award is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Report: New Jersey Has Highest MMJ Prices in Nation

New Jersey’s five operating medical cannabis dispensaries may have the highest MMJ prices of any market in the country, according to the state’s own officials.

The state department of health released a report on March 11 that found the average ounce of cannabis in New Jersey is priced at $489, which is roughly 37% higher than other states with comparable markets such as Arizona, Maine, New Mexico, Rhode Island and Vermont, Philly.com reported. Of those other states, New Mexico had the lowest average price, of $284 an ounce, the report found.

One dispensary owner countered the

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Report: New Jersey Has Highest MMJ Prices in Nation is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Effort to Expand New York’s MMJ Program Underway

A slew of bills proposed in New York seek to expand the list of qualified conditions, double the number of dispensaries, and would allow nurse practitioners and physician assistants to recommend patients for receiving medical cannabis, according to the Journal News.

Backers hope the bills will improve the state’s struggling medical marijuana program which has been beset with low patient numbers and a dearth of doctors certified to approve patients for MMJ.

As of March 8, just 455 physicians out of an estimated 90,000 in the state have become certified to recommend medical cannabis, while

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Effort to Expand New York’s MMJ Program Underway is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Week in Review: Medical Marijuana in Pennsylvania, OSHA Fines + Obstacles in Two States

By John Schroyer and Omar Sacirbey

Pennsylvania moves closer to legalizing medical cannabis, a New Mexico MMJ business gets hit with a five-figure fine, and crackdowns in two states highlight the dangers of operating in unregulated markets.

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

MMJ in PA?

A medical marijuana legalization bill in Pennsylvania took a major step forward this week when lawmakers in the state House voted in favor of the measure.

Cannabis entrepreneurs should pay close attention, as Pennsylvania could become the next hot MMJ market.

The

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Week in Review: Medical Marijuana in Pennsylvania, OSHA Fines + Obstacles in Two States is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Product Shortage, Price Increase Predicted in CO and OR

New testing regulations and quality control rules are going to bring about both a shortage of cannabis in Colorado and Oregon and a general price hike, according to industry estimates released on Wednesday.

The national spot price for a pound of cannabis will increase from $1,918 as of March 11 to $2,250 in August, “based both on new testing regulations and seasonal summer shortages,” according to a projection by Cannabis Benchmarks, which is a joint venture between Comprehensive Cannabis Consulting and New Leaf Data Services.

In Colorado and Oregon in particular, upcoming testing requirements will likely “knock significant

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Product Shortage, Price Increase Predicted in CO and OR is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Colorado Grower Fighting Back Over Product Recall

Pesticide-related product recalls in Colorado’s cannabis industry have become increasingly common over the past year, but possibly for the first time, a company facing a “massive” recall is decrying the action by the state and claiming it never used the pesticide officials say contaminated its samples.

MGI Inc., which does business as Kindman, is the target of a recall involving possibly dozens of strains grown over a nearly two-year period, according to the Denver Post. The recall was initiated by state officials after samples from Kindman tested positive for imidacloprid, an insecticide not approved for use on cannabis.

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Colorado Grower Fighting Back Over Product Recall is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Licensing Delay Could Hurt Oregon Extract Companies

The Oregon Health Authority plans to launch the licensing application process for commercial extract companies on April 1, and in the meantime, is warning medical marijuana dispensaries not to accept cannabis extracts from unlicensed processors.

The wait will likely disrupt the state’s marijuana processing industry, which makes extracted products like butane hash oil and CO2 oil for the MMJ market, according to The Oregonian.

Dispensaries can keep selling extracted products already on their shelves, but there will likely be a pause on new products until the licensing system is operational.

The manager of the state’s medical marijuana program,

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Licensing Delay Could Hurt Oregon Extract Companies is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

OSHA Fines New Mexico Dispensary After Explosion

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has fined a New Mexico medical cannabis company $13,500 for a dozen violations after the agency completed an eight-month investigation into a hash oil explosion that seriously burned two employees.

The powerful explosion (see video of it in the link above) occurred at New MexiCann Natural Medicine in Santa Fe last July, when two employees were making concentrated hash oil with butane, the Journal reported.

The incident landed both employees in the hospital, one of whom was in critical condition for several weeks and had to undergo multiple surgeries. The other had to

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OSHA Fines New Mexico Dispensary After Explosion is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs