On July 1st, dispensaries in Nevada began recreational cannabis sales, where thousands flocked to retail shops on opening day throughout the state. In Las Vegas, 38 dispensaries were flooded with customers in long lines, with waits up to three hours, according to the Las Vegas Sun. Nevada joins four other states, Oregon, Colorado, Washington and Alaska, in legal recreational cannabis sales.
38 dispensaries are open for rec sales in Las Vegas Photo: David Stanley
Another article on the Las Vegas Sun claims the state did a total of $3 million in total rec cannabis sales in the first four days of it being legal. Over the next six months, it is estimated the state will do $30 million in total cannabis sales. According to that article, that generated roughly $500,000 in tax revenue for the state in those first days.
An article in the Reno Gazette Journal quotes Nevada Dispensary Association Executive Director Riana Durrett as estimating roughly $1 million in tax revenue for the state in the first four days. The four dispensaries in Reno that are open for recreational cannabis sales reaped hundreds of thousands of dollars within a few days, according to Will Adler, executive director of the Sierra Cannabis Coalition.
Blum, a dispensary with locations in Las Vegas and Reno, owned by Terra Tech, did roughly $100,000 in revenue on the first day at their Reno location, according to the Reno Gazette Journal. On Friday, July 7th, after a week of record sales, the state acknowledged there might be a shortage of cannabis, with growers unable to meet market demands. In an email sent on Friday, the Nevada Department of Taxation announced Governor Brian Sandoval endorses a ‘statement of emergency’, giving officials the ability to consider more applicants for distribution licenses, according to the Reno Gazette Journal. “Based on reports of adult-use marijuana sales already far exceeding the industry’s expectations at the state’s 47 licensed retail marijuana stores, and the reality that many stores are running out of inventory, the Department must address the lack of distributors immediately,” says Department spokeswoman Stephanie Klapstein. “Some establishments report the need for delivery within the next several days,” says Klapstein. Nevada legalized recreational cannabis on Election Day in 2016, when voters approved Ballot Question 2.
Election Day last year also yielded legal recreational cannabis in Maine, Massachusetts and California, all of which are expected to roll out regulations and implement recreational sales in 2018. Given Nevada’s massive numbers in sales and tax revenue in the first week, many anticipate high opening day sales revenue numbers in Maine, Massachusetts and California.
According to a press release yesterday sent out by the National Hemp Association (NHA), on Wednesday, June 28th, Board Chairman Geoff Whaling met with senior U.S. Department of Agriculture staff, along with Erica McBride from the Pennsylvania Industrial Hemp Council. The press release says this is the first time that Agricultural Secretary Perdue has had his staff meet with the hemp industry. “The meeting reaffirmed critical elements of the working relationship that the hemp industry has established with the USDA since the enactment of Sec. 7606 of the 2014 Farm Bill,” reads the press release put out by the NHA.
The press release says the USDA will support hemp pilot projects, considering grant and loan applications and other means of funding under the USDA and NIFA. “All hemp industry participants are encouraged to participate in these funding opportunities,” says Whaling. “USDA confirmed that nine Industrial Hemp funding requests to NIFA are being processed and that USDA has encouraged those who submitted previous requests to resubmit them.”
“USDA also offered to provide a quick response to any Secretary or Commissioner of Agriculture who is looking for clarification on either the Farm Bill or SOP, which may be preventing the States that have enacted enabling Industrial Hemp legislation from advancing research,” says Whaling.
A big driver of the meeting was the support of the Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2018 on behalf of the NHA. That bill, which Congressman James Comer (R-KY) plans on introducing in July, would essentially remove hemp from the Controlled Substances Act, allowing industrial cultivation of the plant. It also would set a THC limit and give states the power to regulate their own hemp industries.
“There is new leadership in the USDA, on the Hill and within our industry,” said Whaling. “I am confident that this group will advance our industry to a level never before achieved.”
According to the Independent, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced last week that Greece will legalize medical cannabis, allowing doctors to write prescriptions for it. “From now on, the country is turning its page, as Greece is now included in countries where the delivery of medical cannabis to patients in need is legal,” says Prime Minister Tsipras at a press conference.
Greece joins six other European Union nations to legalize forms of cannabis, signaling a growing trend in Europe, where cannabis markets are just beginning to proliferate.
Barcelona, capital of Catalonia Photo: Bert Kaufmann
Catalonia, an autonomous region in Spain, legalized consumption of recreational cannabis and cannabis clubs last week. The government voted in favor of the measure with wide support after a 67,500-signature petition brought the debate to the center stage.
According to the Independent, the rules seem relatively restrictive, with measures in place to prevent the capital of Catalonia, Barcelona, from turning into a cannabis tourism capital, such as Amsterdam. One of those rules requires a waiting period for new members of clubs before they can purchase and consume cannabis. However before this measure passed the vote, cannabis clubs were in a legal gray area, with fines for public consumption. These European markets could present excellent opportunities for cannabis companies, which could cause other EU countries make the plunge into legal cannabis.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health announced today the first 12 winners of growing and processing permits for the state’s medical cannabis program. At first glance, it appears those who won the permits have teams with experience in successful cannabis operations elsewhere in the country. The permit winners now have six months to become operational, according to a press release.
The list of permit winners by region
According to that press release, John Collins, director of the Pennsylvania Office of Medical Marijuana, received 457 applications in total, with 177 prospective grower/processors and 280 for dispensaries. “With today’s announcement, we remain on track to fulfill the Wolf Administration’s commitment to deliver medical marijuana to patients in 2018,” says Collins. “The applications from the entities receiving permits were objectively reviewed by an evaluation team made up of members from across commonwealth agencies.”
A sample score card for the applicants
In the populous Southeast region of Pennsylvania, grower/processor permits were awarded to Prime Wellness of Pennsylvania, LLC, and Franklin Labs, LLC. Prime Wellness is a Connecticut-based enterprise. According to Steve Schain, Esq., attorney at the Hoban Law Group, Franklin Labs includes team members from Garden State Dispensary, a successful medical cannabis operation in New Jersey.
Two of the businesses that won permits are actually from Illinois, not Pennsylvania. GTI Pennsylvania, LLC (Green Thumb Industries), has a strong presence in Illinois and Nevada. AES Compassionate Care LLC lists their business state as Illinois as well.
Steve Schain, Esq. practicing at the Hoban law Group
“Based on the first phase award of grower/processor licensees both the strength and weakness of Pennsylvania’s program has been highlighted,” says Schain. “Many licensee recipients are affiliated with existing national marijuana-related businesses with excellent track records for operating in a transparent, compliant and profitable manner.” The applications were rated on a scorecard out of 1,000 points. “Unfortunately missing from this initial phase license winners are purely regional enterprises who may have been unable to compete with national concerns’ resources and checkbooks.” According to Schain, some of the more significant areas on the scorecard reflect a diversity plan, community impact statement, business history and capacity to operate, capital requirements and operational timetable. Capital requirements are the applicants’ demonstrable financial resources comprised of at least $2 million in capital and $500,000 in cash. All of the growers are required to grow indoors, not in a greenhouse or on an outdoor farm.
There is also a ten-day appeals process for scorecards that will undoubtedly be utilized by companies that were not successful in their bids. The next phase, according to Schain, of Pennsylvania’s Medical Marijuana Program regards “Clininical Registrants” in which grow/processor and dispensary licensure will be awarded to eight applicants, which, if able to satisfy requirements including demonstrating $15 million in capital, will be authorized to open up to six dispensary locations.
Portions of MJ Freeway’s source code were reportedly stolen and posted in Reddit threads as well as on Gitlab.com, a source code hosting website. On June 15th, the account “MJFreeway Open Source” was made on Gitlab.com, and portions of the source code were posted, but have since been taken down. Source code is essentially a list of commands of a program, the basis for making improvements and modifications to a software system. Source code can sometimes contain sensitive information. To be clear, MJ Freeway does not use an open source model; their source code is the basis of their traceability software. Open source is a tool that fosters public collaboration on software development, helping identify weaknesses or areas for improvement.
When asked to comment on the matter, MJ Freeway issued the following statement:
“Last week we discovered that someone had obtained an outdated portion of MJ Freeway’s source code. This incident has absolutely no impact on our systems or MJ Freeway services, and client and patient data is not at risk. While this theft poses no risk to our clients, patients, or business operations, we take any incident involving unauthorized access very seriously and have reported it to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
Unfortunately, it has come to our attention that our competitors are spreading inaccurate information about the incident, including baseless claims about SSL info and the potential for client data being compromised – neither of which is true. We encourage our customers to contact us directly with any questions they may have.
We follow or exceed all relevant industry security standards and are confident that we have the most robust security measures in our industry. None of our peers come close. However, we live in a world of determined cyber-criminals and we operate in a competitive environment. Success and size makes a company a bigger target for malicious actors, as other large companies also know. We will continue to investigate and take follow-up action as we learn more about this incident.”
On Sunday, June 18th, a user by the name of ‘techdudes420’ posted in the subreddit, r/weedbiz, a thread titled “MJFreeway goes open source.” The link for that post was the Gitlab.com page where MJ Freeway’s source code was published briefly. The same user then published a second reddit post the following day with the same link to the stolen code, but this time in the r/COents, a subreddit for the Colorado cannabis community. MJ Freeway is based in Denver. That post claimed the user found the stolen source code with a quick search and that the user was banned because of that. The moderator of the thread chimed in, saying they banned the user for posting the stolen code. “We received a takedown request from the software owner stating the code had been stolen and released without permission,” says the moderator. “After investigating the matter I reached the same conclusion and removed the thread.” The moderator then updated the comment shortly after: “Edit: As for OP [original poster] ‘finding’ the code, if that were true I don’t know why he or she would have created a new Reddit account just to post the link.”
In addition to their own cybersecurity analysis, a spokeswoman for MJ Freeway says they will be performing a third party audit and analysis this week as well. When that information becomes available, we will update this article.
Update: Multiple sources have reported that portions of MJ Freeway’s source code are still available online on torrent sites like PirateBay.
This week, the National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA) hosted their annual Cannabis Business Summit in Oakland, California amid some alarming news in Washington. On Monday, a letter written by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions back in early May made its way into the news, where he writes to Congress asking permission to prosecute medical cannabis businesses. The following day, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein spoke to the Congress Appropriations committee, saying that, “From a legal and scientific perspective, marijuana is an unlawful drug- it’s properly scheduled under Schedule 1.”
Those two statements identify the crystal-clear anti-cannabis stance of the two most senior-level officials at the Justice Department, a position that should alarm cannabis legalization advocates.
The former president of Mexico, Vicente Fox, a prominent legalization advocate, gave a press conference at the NCIA event, where he gave reporters his thoughts on cannabis and drug legalization, the Trump administration and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. To be blunt, he called Sessions crazy and Trump destructive and ignorant.
former Mexican President Vicente Fox speaking to a room of reporters
“I don’t know what happened to this administration,” Fox told a room of reporters. “A large majority of US states have already approved the use of medical cannabis, which I think is a great thing,” says Fox. “The state of California by itself produces more marijuana than what we do in Mexico. There is a conflict between the frameworks of law… there is no consistency in public policy.” To be clear, the former Mexican president advocates legalizing all drugs, attributing the violence in Mexico to the failed War on Drugs. “I don’t think prohibition has worked and we [Mexico] have paid a huge price for that.”
Former Mexican president Fox’s focus on international politics during that press conference sheds some much-needed light on the violence and other externalities linked to organized crime and the black market drug trade. “We are going to stand firm against what is going on- it is not only the fate of the United States, it is the fate of the whole world,” says Fox. “It is a real shame for this nation in front of the world- we are all pissed off out there hearing this crazy tweeting and crazy public policies that has nothing to do with the soul of this nation… No nation can isolate [themselves] behind a wall and still succeed.”
According to a press release, the National Association of Cannabis Businesses (NACB) launches today, becoming the first self-regulatory organization (SRO) for the cannabis industry. With their mission to help compliance, transparency and growth of cannabis companies, they will lead member businesses in establishing voluntary national standards, addressing issues like advertising and financial integrity.
A team of experienced legal regulatory professionals will lead member businesses through a process of developing those standards. Andrew Kline, president of the NACB, was a senior advisor to Vice President and then-Senator Joseph Biden, served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Columbia and in the Enforcement Bureau of the FCC. Their chief executive officer, Joshua Laterman, began working on NACB three years ago, but before that he had two decades of experience as general counsel at global financial and investment institutions. Doug Fischer, their chief legal officer and director of standards, spent the past nine years in cannabis law and financial regulation and enforcement at the law firm Cadwalader Wickersham and Taft.
Andrew Kline, president of NACB
According to the press release, SROs have proven to be effective in other industries at limiting government interference and overregulation, while preserving public safety. FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority) is an example of an SRO that serves the financial industry. It is a non-governmental organization that helps regulate member brokerage firms and exchange markets, working to help their members stay compliant with regulations set by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Much like the rapid growth of the financial markets over the past 30 years, the cannabis industry is experiencing exponential growth while regulators try to keep up.
“The cannabis industry is on a historical growth trajectory that is expected to continue for years to come, but even the most established, well-run businesses recognize that the future favors the prepared,” says Josh Laterman, CEO of NACB. “As other industries have experienced with their SROs, establishing and committing to voluntary national standards will enable cannabis business owners to demonstrate impeccable business and compliance practices to consumers, regulators, banks and investors.”
According to Doug Fischer, chief legal officer and director of standards, they will focus on a variety of topics that align with the federal enforcement priorities. So these standards might not cover some of the product safety and quality aspects that ASTM International and FOCUS touch on, rather addressing issues like advertising, financial integrity, preventing diversion across state lines, prevention of youth use and corporate responsibility. Another important distinction to make is that an organization like ASTM International sets standards, but the NACB as an SRO is tasked with enforcing them as well.
Doug Fischer, director of standards and chief legal counsel
“From our perspective, businesses have been having a hard time navigating the complex state regulations, particularly those operating in multiple states,” says Fischer. “That is further complicated by the current administration not solidifying their stance on recreational cannabis.” The Cole Memo put out under the Obama Administration set clear federal enforcement priorities, allowing cannabis businesses and states to identify ways to avoid federal government interference or prosecution.
The current administration has done nothing but fuel regulatory uncertainty. This is particularly important given this week’s news regarding the leaders at the Justice Department making inflammatory and threatening statements regarding legal medical cannabis. “It causes these businesses, who should be focused on their own day-to-day operations, instead focusing on complying with what they think the federal government wants and regulatory compliance with state regulations,” says Fischer. “We can help solve that problem by making it easier for companies to become compliant, not only with state regulations but federal guidance as well. This has been proven by other SROs, that if we set our own standards and abide by them, federal regulators might be guided by the industry’s self-policing in determining how to regulate the cannabis industry.” According to Andrew Kline, it could also provide a window of opportunity for better banking access.
The founder and CEO, Joshua Laterman, used to work in the banking industry and recognized the need for a cannabis industry SRO. “He saw an incredible opportunity in a projected $50 billion market by 2026, and as a former banker he saw the opportunity for banks to do business in the industry, but they don’t know who to trust,” says Kline. “Starting a self regulatory organization can help fill that void, allowing companies to identify and put a stamp of approval on a segment of the population that is uber-compliant, therefore giving banks a view into who they should and shouldn’t do business with.” While it won’t immediately resolve the many issues associated with cannabis businesses’ accounting, the NACB could be a major help to smaller businesses looking to prove their worth. “The important point here is that based on the experience of our team, we know what is important to the federal government, and we understand that members will be shaping standards with us, so we will also guide them to federal priorities,” says Kline.
Fischer says a self-regulatory organization is always driven by the industry and needs of the members, but they have the added unique challenge of working in a web of competing governmental interests. “Self-regulatory organizations can shape the future of regulation; we don’t know if or when federal prohibition will end, but if it does, the government is going to look at a variety of areas for regulations,” says Fischer. “We might be able to help shed light on our self-regulating nature and if we can demonstrate the best practices for specific areas, states and even the federal government could look to that, giving our members an advantage.” According to their press release, licensed cannabis growers, dispensaries or any other ancillary business may apply to become members. Some of the founding members include Buds & Roses, Etain, Green Dot Labs, Local Product of Colorado, Matrix NV, Mesa Organics, among others.
According to a press release sent out on June 8th, ASTM International and the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) announced a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on cannabis standards. The press release says that ASTM International will coordinate the work to develop the standards with all stakeholders involved and AHPA will make technical contributions and regulatory recommendations. AHPA will get recognized for their contributions per the license agreement. ASTM International is a standards development organization that develops voluntary consensus-based standards for industries.
This announcement precedes the first committee meetings for the development of cannabis standards, which began Sunday, June 11th and continue through June 12th. That committee group has now grown to roughly 200 members, including businesses, laboratories, associations, governments and more. “Many of our stakeholders – manufacturers, dispensaries, labs, consultants, and others – have laid the groundwork for guidance on the safe use and legal commerce of cannabis,” says Jane Wilson, director of program development at AHPA. “We are thrilled to now be contributing to standards development through one of the world’s top standards organizations.”
Ralph Paroli, Ph.D., the committee’s new chairman and the director of R&D in measurement science and standards at the National Research Council of Canada, says AHPA is a key organization in providing expertise on cannabis standards. “AHPA’s support for this new committee will help expedite international standards development, identify gaps, prevent duplicative efforts, and more,” says Paroli. The cannabis standards committee, officially designated D37, was formed on March 1st.
The Organic Cannabis Association and Ethical Cannabis Alliance announced today they are merging into one organization, the Cannabis Certification Council (CCC), according to a press release. The new third-party certifications include “Organically Grown” and “Fairly Produced”, granting producers a seal for marketing if they achieve the certifications.
Ashley Preece, executive director of the Cannabis Certification Council
According to Ashley Preece of the Ethical Cannabis Alliance, now executive director at CCC, they plan on starting with the “Organically Grown” certification as first certification to market. “We are launching with Organically which will include robust labor standards as well as standards that go beyond [USDA] Organic,” says Preece. “The USDA Organic standard is watered down and we want to expand on proper horticulture practices so it relates directly to cannabis producers.” The process of designing that certification involves using that USDA Organic certification as a building block to draw from but not directly adopt.
“We will start by pulling from Organic and Fair Trade standards, then we will have a technical advisory committee (TAC), made up of multi-stakeholder agricultural industry and cannabis industry professionals to give input and adjust the standard accordingly,” says Preece. “From there we will have a pilot program, engaging with producers abiding by the standards’ requirements. After the pilot phase, we make final adjustments before bringing it to market.” In order to make sure their certification works across the board, Preece says they are engaging with stakeholders around the country and eventually globally. “We need to engage each different community to make sure this is applicable on a national level.” Preece also says they plan staying abreast of other standards, such as ASTM International’s, but those are geared more towards production safety. “We are looking towards more robust Organic and Fair Trade standards, and ‘cannabinizing’ them,” says Preece.
Photo courtesy of L’Eagle Services
David Bronner, a prominent advocate of drug policy reform and CEO of Dr. Bronner’s, a top-selling soap brand in the US market place, will be providing seed funding and a matching grant to the CCC. “We are committed to making socially and environmentally responsible products of the highest value, and we are excited for the CCC to begin driving that ethos in the cannabis industry,” says Bronner. “The Cannabis Certification Council (CCC), with its unique mission, is a perfect vessel for us to support our values in the cannabis space.”
Preece says the “Fairly Produced” labor certification is going to be based off of Fair Trade practices. “That will include living wages per community and taking options of ownership into consideration, including different business models where employees might have shares or partial ownership,” says Preece. “As we know, this industry has come from the illicit market, where we saw a lot of inappropriate working environments, gender relations and pay schedules. So we want to ensure that workers have contracts in place, they are treated fairly just as any other industry and we want to mitigate any strange encounters that might have seeped into this regulated market.” Founding board members include Laura Rivero of Yerba Buena Farms; Amy Andrle of L’Eagle Services Denver; Nick Richards of Dill and Dill and Vicente Sederberg; and Ben Gelt of Par, with Ashley Preece as executive director. “This is a huge step for the cannabis industry,” says Preece. “Our collaboration reflects the priority of the mission ingrained in both parties, and together we will immediately be greater than the sum of our parts.”
The Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (WSLCB) announced today they plan to choose Franwell as their technology partner for the state’s cannabis seed-to-sale traceability system. While the release states they have not yet officially awarded them the contract, it says Franwell is the apparent successful vendor (ASV) to replace their current system. “An ASV is the procurement term used for the highest scoring, responsive vendor,” says the press release.
Rick Garza, director of the WSLCB, says they plan on making a number of changes that they couldn’t under their current contract. “Over the last four years we have learned a lot about this industry, including aspects to the industry that were unknown when the current traceability system was implemented,” says Garza. “We need a system that will grow and flex with Washington’s maturing marijuana system.”
Seven companies submitted bids for the new contract and the agency narrowed that down to three finalists, each of which gave presentations and demonstrations on their software products to WSLCB staff last week. They also worked with folks in the cannabis industry, selected by trade organizations, that provided input on the requests for proposal. Those industry stakeholders that participated with input will get a demonstration of the new software system in early June.
They plan on transitioning to the new system no later than October 31, 2017. Franwell’s METRC product is currently used in Colorado, Oregon and Alaska.
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While the release states they have not yet officially awarded them the contract, it says Franwell is the apparent successful vendor (ASV) to replace their current system. “An ASV is the procurement term used for the highest scoring, responsive vendor,” says the press release.
