MMJ Business Daily

Chart of the Week: How Marijuana Patients and Consumers Locate Dispensaries, Rec Stores

By Becky Olson

Marijuana retailers often face huge hurdles when trying to attract customers due to strict regulations on advertising and marketing in many markets.

So how do patients and consumers find dispensaries and recreational shops to visit?

Online listing services such as Weedmaps, Leafly and THC Finder are particularly popular, with 51% of patients and recreational consumers who buy legally in states with open dispensaries/rec stores saying they use these types of sites, according to data in the 2015 What Cannabis Patients & Consumers Want report.

These services have become key tools for marijuana businesses to

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Chart of the Week: How Marijuana Patients and Consumers Locate Dispensaries, Rec Stores is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Maryland AG: Counties Can’t Ban Medical Marijuana Businesses

There could be a local governmental fight brewing in Maryland, with the state on one side and an anti-cannabis county official on the other.

Maryland’s attorney general recently informed Anne Arundel County Executive Steve Schuh that his plan to push a bill effectively banning medical cannabis businesses is against the law.

Schuh, however, has decided to proceed with the measure anyway, according to the Capital Gazette.

The bill would essentially ban all types of medical cannabis businesses in the county by prohibiting MMJ operations in every local zoning classification. It would not, however, prohibit possession of MMJ by

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Maryland AG: Counties Can’t Ban Medical Marijuana Businesses is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Week in Review: Progress in New Jersey, More WA Rec Licenses Up for Grabs + Snoop Triples Down

By John Schroyer

The fourth medical cannabis dispensary in New Jersey prepares to open, Washington State gears up to accept applications for new recreational marijuana permits, and a celebrity unveils plans to start a marijuana-related business.

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

New Jersey Inching Forward

The news this week that New Jersey’s fourth dispensary is slated to open in October likely came as a relief to patients in the state who have been waiting for years for all six allowed by law to begin serving customers.

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Week in Review: Progress in New Jersey, More WA Rec Licenses Up for Grabs + Snoop Triples Down is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Mixed Results for Hemp Farmers in Tennessee

With more than a dozen states establishing some sort of commercial industrial hemp program, scores of entrepreneurs – and traditional farmers – are exploring ways to get involved in the budding industry.

However, there is no guarantee that growing hemp will be a money-making endeavor.

In Tennessee, for example, farmers participating in a pilot hemp-growing program that kicked off this year have experienced mixed results.

One farmer told a local television station that he planted about 50 pounds of seeds this summer but only ended up harvesting about an ounce worth of crop.

Others, though, have had a

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Mixed Results for Hemp Farmers in Tennessee is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

WA to Begin Accepting Applications From Dispensaries Next Month

The Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB) announced Wednesday that it will begin accepting applications for recreational marijuana licenses from existing dispensaries on Oct. 12, with no cap on the number of permits to be issued.

The new licensing process is the latest step in the state’s plan to regulate its longstanding medical marijuana industry, which in the past hasn’t been subject to any comprehensive rules.

“If phase one was implementation of the recreational marijuana marketplace then (this) marks the beginning of phase two – the public process of aligning the medical marijuana system with

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WA to Begin Accepting Applications From Dispensaries Next Month is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Quandary for Dispensaries, Recreational Marijuana Shops: Produce Extracts or Buy From Third Parties?

By Marijuana Business Daily staff

Kevin Lamb, who’s been advocating for marijuana legalization over the past three decades, has been around long enough to know one thing about the cannabis industry: set yourself apart or get left behind.

That thought was paramount when he and his business partners – two growers and a dispensary owner – decided to purchase extraction equipment costing about $280,000, which they plan to use to start a company that will make cannabis oil cartridges for vape pens.

“There are a lot of people growing marijuana right now, and to differentiate yourself, it helps to

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Quandary for Dispensaries, Recreational Marijuana Shops: Produce Extracts or Buy From Third Parties? is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Colorado Edibles Company Expands to Oregon

Denver-based Mary’s Medicinals has entered yet another state, bringing its line of cannabis-infused patches, topicals and capsules to Oregon.

The company has teamed up with Oregrown, which describes itself as a “farm-to-cable cannabis company,” to distribute its products there, according to the Cannabist.

Aside from Colorado and Oregon, Mary’s Medicinals also sells products in California and Washington State.

Numerous infused products companies are developing national brands by expanding into multiple markets, including Dixie Brands, Bhang Chocolates, EdiPure and G Farma Labs.

Oregon likely will not be the last stop for Mary’s Medicinals. On its web page,

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Colorado Edibles Company Expands to Oregon is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

New Attempt to Defund DEA’s Anti-Cannabis Program

A new bipartisan bill has been put forward in the U.S. House of Representatives to quash an anti-marijuana program under the Drug Enforcement Agency.

The initiative, officially called the Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program, allows the DEA to distribute federal money to state and local governments to help them seize cannabis and destroy cultivation sites. In 2013, the DEA used $18 million for the program, according to Forbes.

The new congressional bill would ban the use of federal funds for the program, effectively abolishing it. The measure would also prohibit the transfer of any property to local governments if

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New Attempt to Defund DEA’s Anti-Cannabis Program is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Cannabis Manifesto, California Regulations & the 2016 Elections: Q&A With Steve DeAngelo

By John Schroyer

Steve DeAngelo’s new book, titled “The Cannabis Manifesto,” hit store shelves on Tuesday.

The mostly autobiographical work focuses largely on the social justice side of reforming marijuana laws, but there’s a host of insight and advice that cannabis business owners can glean from its pages.

As a longtime businessman and co-founder of multiple marijuana businesses – including Harborside Health Center, the ArcView Group and SteepHill Labratory – DeAngelo shares a trove of lessons and advice for those in nearly every aspect of the industry, from dispensary managers to testing lab directors to lobbyists working with government

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Cannabis Manifesto, California Regulations & the 2016 Elections: Q&A With Steve DeAngelo is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Fourth New Jersey Dispensary to Open in October

More than five years after New Jersey legalized medical marijuana, the state’s fourth dispensary is finally ready to launch.

Compassionate Science Alternative Treatment Center plans to open in the town of Bellmawr next month, according to an announcement by the state’s health department.

It will join three other dispensaries in the state, the last of which opened in late 2013.

“We anticipate opening the first week of October, once we get our product harvested and lab-tested by the state and approved for distribution,” Compassionate Sciences spokesman Andrei Bogolubov told the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The dispensary will eventually

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Fourth New Jersey Dispensary to Open in October is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs