MMJ Business Daily

Legalization Advocates Protest MA Dispensary Opening

For perhaps the first time in history, cannabis advocates lined up outside a new medical marijuana dispensary in Massachusetts…not to welcome it, but to protest it.

Why? Because they say a lobbyist tied to the dispensary’s parent company opposes ending prohibition on adult-use marijuana.

Lobbyist Dan Delaney, who is employed by the parent company of the Lowell, Massachusetts, dispensary Patriot Care, recently started a group that is seeking to counter a recreational legalization initiative in the state that’s expected to be on the November ballot.

Protesters also accused Patriot Care, which has three licenses in the state, of trying to create a marijuana monopoly.

Nicholas

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Legalization Advocates Protest MA Dispensary Opening is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Washington State Scrutinizing Cannabis Pesticide Use

Washington State’s Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB) is cracking down on illegal pesticide use in the marijuana industry, but has yet to issue product recalls against offending cultivators.

In December, the LCB slapped “stop sales orders” against BMF Washington and New Leaf Industries, two of the state’s biggest marijuana growers, pending investigations into their use of prohibited pesticides, according to The Stranger. The LCB did not announce the stop sales orders to the public.

The stop sale orders have since been lifted, but the LCB did fine the cultivators $2,500 apiece for the violations. The board also mandated

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Washington State Scrutinizing Cannabis Pesticide Use is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

NV City Fighting to Keep MMJ Business Owner Identities Secret

A suburb of Reno, Nevada is fighting a local newspaper in court in an attempt to keep its medical cannabis licensee identities a secret.
The city of Sparks, which is just east of Reno, has asked a district court judge to stay his ruling that it must im…

Hawaii No Paradise for Companies That Win Medical Marijuana Licenses

By Omar Sacirbey

Hawaii may be a tropical paradise for tourists, but companies that win licenses to grow and sell medical cannabis in the state might feel as if they’re in purgatory for a while.

Businesses will face enormous challenges at first because of high licensing fees, a patient base that might be reluctant to purchase MMJ from dispensaries, exorbitant electricity costs and strict prohibitions on advertising.

Startup costs could approach $6 million or more, according to estimates from several companies that have applied for licenses, and it might take a while to recoup those expenses and climb into the black.

Dr. Michael

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Hawaii No Paradise for Companies That Win Medical Marijuana Licenses is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Rhode Island May Add PTSD to MMJ Condition List

Rhode Island’s three medical cannabis dispensaries could be in for a big boost in their customer base if a proposal to add post-traumatic stress disorder to the list of qualifying MMJ conditions becomes law.

A state senator unveiled the legislation on Monday, saying that it’s the state’s responsibility to help treat military veterans suffering from PTSD.

Currently, there are just under 13,000 registered patients in the state that use MMJ for 11 legal conditions. Adding PTSD to the list could grow the patient pool by thousands, if the bill becomes law.

Although cannabis is widely used to treat

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Rhode Island May Add PTSD to MMJ Condition List is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

IRS Agent Guilty of Soliciting Dispensary Bribe

One way in which the marijuana business is similar to any other industry? Those trying to play by the rules can still get taken advantage of by corrupt government overseers.

Case in point: a Washington State jury has found an Internal Revenue Service agent guilty of trying to bribe a medical cannabis dispensary owner in Seattle, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington.

According to trial records and testimony, Paul G. Hurley of Seattle was assigned to audit the corporate taxes of Have a Heart Compassion Care, Inc. in the summer of 2015. After conducting

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IRS Agent Guilty of Soliciting Dispensary Bribe is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

MA Raises Amount of Cannabis Patients Can Buy

Dispensaries in Massachusetts are now allowed to sell more than double the amount of medical marijuana to patients than they could before.
State health officials raised the amount of medicine that medical marijuana patients can buy to up to 10 ounces e…

Hawaii May Tweak MMJ Cultivation Rules, Allow Outdoor Grows

Hawaii lawmakers, concerned with a possible disadvantage to medical cannabis growers and the cost of power for warehouse cultivation operations, could tweak the law soon to allow greenhouses and even outdoor growing.

If they do so, the ramifications for the eight upcoming licenses would be enormous, since real estate in Hawaii is a precious commodity and the law currently requires all MMJ to be grown “in an enclosed structure,” the Associated Press reported on Saturday. Allowing for greenhouses or outdoor growing could save dispensary license winners enormous amounts of money, just on electricity costs alone.

Some lawmakers even

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Hawaii May Tweak MMJ Cultivation Rules, Allow Outdoor Grows is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Chart of the Week: Wholesale Recreational Cannabis Revenues Rocket 163% in Colorado

By Becky Olson

Recreational cannabis sales via licensed stores ballooned 88% in Colorado last year to hit nearly $600 million, according to calculations based on data released last week by the state’s revenue department.

But an equally compelling story is tied to wholesale recreational cannabis sales, which soared 163% in 2015 to hit $234 million vs. $89 million the previous year. 

The wholesale numbers indicate a thriving market for companies that cultivate marijuana for retailers (as opposed to rec shops that only grow for their own needs).

The spike is somewhat expected: During the first nine months of recreational sales in 2014, stores were required

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Chart of the Week: Wholesale Recreational Cannabis Revenues Rocket 163% in Colorado is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Latest Celeb to Enter MMJ Industry: Roseanne

It seems like every month there’s a new celebrity getting into the cannabis business. Next up, longtime comedian Roseanne Barr.

Barr is throwing her name and at least some of her fortune behind a new dispensary license winner in Santa Ana, a southern suburb of Los Angeles, according to the Orange County Register. The vendor will be called “Roseanne’s Joint,” and will sell cannabis products that also bear the comedian’s name.

Construction for the new dispensary could be finished as early as the end of April, and it could open for business in May, according to attorney Aaron

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Latest Celeb to Enter MMJ Industry: Roseanne is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs