MMJ Business Daily

Local Concerns in Maryland Travel a Well-Worn Path

Industry officials in Maryland are navigating local community concerns about cannabis businesses, following a storyline which has played out in many other states rolling out MMJ programs.

A standing-room crowd gathered at the Maryland Association of Counties conference on Thursday to hear county leaders discuss regulations governing the state’s MMJ program. At particular issue is how much control county officials will actually have with regard to zoning rules, according to WBAL TV.

An executive at the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission tried to reassure locals, saying areas where dispensaries are located will be “boring offices in

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Local Concerns in Maryland Travel a Well-Worn Path is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Week in Review: Trio of MJ Capital Raises, New CO Edibles Rules + Ohio Legalization Fight Coming

By John Schroyer

A trio of marijuana-related companies announced significant fundraising milestones, a series of strict new edibles regulations in Colorado could be costly to manufacturers, and Ohio will host the newest state legalization campaign fight this fall.

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

Week in Review: Trio of MJ Capital Raises, New CO Edibles Rules + Ohio Legalization Fight Coming is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Union Official Indicted for Bribery, Corruption in MMJ Industry

Dan Rush, the former head of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union’s Cannabis Division, has been indicted over allegations that he took bribes and illegally interfered with the unionizing process.

According to an criminal complaint affidavit filed with the Northern U.S. District Court of California, Rush took $600,000 in loans in 2010 from Martin Kaufman, who runs the MMJ dispensary Blum Oakland in the bay area. Kaufman is also a business partner and employee of Derek Peterson, the CEO of Terra Tech.

Once it became clear that Rush would not be able to repay the

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Union Official Indicted for Bribery, Corruption in MMJ Industry is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Massachusetts Dispensary Accidentally Shares Patient E-mail Addresses

Massachusetts’ first and (thus far) only dispensary accidentally shared patients’ e-mail addresses with other patients, potentially violating the Department of Public Health rules on patient confidentiality.

Alternative Therapies Group (ATG) sent an e-mail to 157 people, listing their addresses in the carbon copy, or CC, field rather than the blind carbon copy, or BCC, field, meaning everybody receiving the e-mail could see others’ addresses, according to an exclusive report by the Boston Globe.

The situation underscores how important it is for new cannabis companies to have full systems and processes in place from the outset of

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Massachusetts Dispensary Accidentally Shares Patient E-mail Addresses is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Cannabis Real Estate Company Secures $800k in Financing

An Arizona-based real estate company that specializes in cannabis-related facilities announced Wednesday that it has wrapped up an $800,000 round of funding and is immediately starting a second round.

The firm, Scientific Botanical Leasing, will use the funding for improvements on a facility leased by an Arizona MMJ dispensary that signed a 10-year agreement, as well as to pay off bridge financing and finalize some of the dispensary’s signing incentives.

The facility leased by the dispensary includes “proprietary facility operating software, clean room standards and comprehensive support systems to give the company tenant a competitive advantage,” according to a press

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Cannabis Real Estate Company Secures $800k in Financing is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Illegal Dispensaries Hurting Canada’s Licensed Producers

The CEO of Tilray, a licensed medical cannabis producer in Canada, says the failure of Vancouver to regulate unlicensed dispensaries is negatively affecting the company’s business results.

Greg Engel said the proliferation of federally illegal dispensaries in British Columbia “has been a challenge,” according to a report in the Georgia Straight.

Only 7% of the cannabis grown by licensed producers has been shipped to British Columbia, even though almost half of the country’s registered medical marijuana patients live in the province.

Tilray announced in June it would eliminate 61 positions, and Engel said the company has

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Illegal Dispensaries Hurting Canada’s Licensed Producers is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Leafly Founders Leverage Experience for New Cannabis Venture

By Tony C. Dreibus
Cy Scott, Scott Vickers and Brian Wansolich started Leafly about five years ago, when cannabis was not a topic discussed at cocktail parties.
Now they’re taking that hard-won experience building a successful cannabis company to tackl…

Tacoma to Shut Down Majority of its 60+ Dispensaries

Dispensaries in Tacoma, Washington, will receive letters from the city this month ordering them to close within 45 days, though a handful that meet specific criteria may be allowed to continue operating at least for awhile.

The Tacoma City Council made the decision this week to shut down most of the area’s 60-plus unregulated dispensaries, with officials expressing concern about the proliferation of such businesses, according to the News Tribune.

The council previously planned to crack down on dispensaries but delayed action against them to see how the state would decide to handle medical marijuana businesses

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Tacoma to Shut Down Majority of its 60+ Dispensaries is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Ohio to Vote on Marijuana Legalization

Now the real campaign begins.
On Wednesday, state election officials certified a proposal to legalize both medical and recreational cannabis, meaning residents will vote on the measure this November.
ResponsibleOhio, the group behind the measure, initi…

The Word ‘Candy’ Could Be Nixed From Edibles Packaging in CO

Edibles producers in Colorado won’t be able to put the word “candy” on packaging if the state adopts draft rules proposed by regulators.

Companies that make edibles also would be required to include a new symbol indicating their products contain marijuana: a red stop sign emblazoned with the letters “THC,” the Associated Press reported.

Infused beverages would be limited to single servings containing no more than 10 milligrams of THC, according to the proposal.

The draft rules must face a public hearing before being adopted, the AP reported. Regulators in the state have until January to implement

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The Word ‘Candy’ Could Be Nixed From Edibles Packaging in CO is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs