Industry News:
Hemp Legalization Is Officially Headed to President Trump’s Desk For Signature: The 2018 Farm Bill, which would legalize industrial hemp, is officially headed to President Donald Trump’s desk. The House passed the legislation on Wednesday, one day after the Senate approved it. It’s been decades since the ban on hemp was imposed—a byproduct of the federal government’s war on marijuana and other drugs. The ban, it seems, will be lifted in a matter of days. The House passed the bill, 369-47. Marijuana Moment
Senate Votes to Send Farm Bill on Hemp Legalization to President Trump’s Desk: The Senate approved by a vote of 87-13 a far-reaching agriculture bill that includes a provision to legalize industrial hemp on Tuesday. The House is expected to take it up soon. If the House approves the bill, it will be sent to President Donald Trump’s desk to be signed into law.Passage of the bill as worded would ending its decades-long prohibition of a non-psychoactive plant in the cannabis family, empowering farmers to cultivate and sell a lucrative crop that can be used to create an exceptional range of products—from cosmetics to concrete. Marijuana Moment
Trump Threatens Government Shutdown, Raising Concern for Legal Marijuana Industry: If the president makes good on his promise to withhold his signature from essential appropriations bills this time, that could inadvertently leave the legal marijuana industry vulnerable to federal drug enforcement actions. A spending bill rider that has protected state medical cannabis programs from federal intervention since 2014 would expire, while the Justice Department and prosecutors would generally remain operational. That’s because the Department of Justice has a contingency plan in place in the event of a government shutdown, and it exempts many employees, including U.S. attorneys and those who work for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), from furlough. The so-called Rohrabacher-Farr amendment would not be exempted, though. The legislation—which bars the Justice Department from using federal funds to interfere with state medical cannabis laws—is part of the the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) appropriations bill. While five out of the 12 annual appropriation bills for Fiscal Year 2019 have already been signed into law by the president, the CJS bill is yet to receive House of Senate floor votes. Typically, the deadline to get appropriations passed is the end of the preceding fiscal year, September 30. But rather than hold a vote or allow federal departments to lose funding, lawmakers have passed a series of continuing resolutions this year, providing temporary funding and pushing back the deadline. The most recent two-week continuing resolution passed on December 7, so the new deadline is December 21.It lawmakers don’t pass, or President Trump doesn’t sign, either a full-year or temporary extension of funding by then, the medical cannabis rider will expire, but federal drug enforcement capabilities will not. And that would leave medical marijuana patients and the businesses that serve them in a dicey position.Marijuana Moment
Nevada Awards 61 More Recreational Marijuana Dispensary Licenses: Nevada awarded 61 conditional recreational dispensary licenses, including 31 in Clark County. Currently, there are 65 dispensaries operating in the state. The Nevada Department of Taxation, which oversees the industry, declined to name the awardees until they receive a final state license after inspection. That could take up to a year. However some companies announced their license wins. Green Growth Brands and TapRoots Holding have each been awarded seven licenses to operate in the state, while MPX Bioceutical Corp subsidiary GreenMart NLV took home four. The state posted nearly $425 million worth of recreational marijuana sales in its first 12 months, beating expectations. Brokerage firm Canaccord Genuity forecasts Nevada sales will reach $1 billion by 2022. Surging sales mean licenses can fetch a hefty buck. Dispensary licenses in Clark County sell on the secondary market for between $10 million and $20 million, said John Lamb, president of the Las Vegas Medical Marijuana Association. Las Vegas Review Journal
Michigan Approves 24 More Medical Marijuana Licenses: Michigan regulators approved 24 more medical cannabis operating licenses under a new regulatory framework, bringing the statewide total of licenses issued to 91. Here’s the breakdown of the newly approved licenses:
- 45 dispensaries
- 28 growers
- 10 processors
- 4 transporters
- 4 testing facilities com
PA Medical Marijuana Advisory Board Accepting Applications for New Qualifying Conditions: The Pennsylvania Medical Marijuana Advisory Board is now accepting applications for new qualifying conditions through January 21. Those conditions will be discussed at the board’s next meeting in February.More information in regards to the application process can be found here. Fox 43 News
New York State Bans CBD Foods, Vape Products: New York state is banning CBD vape and food manufacturing and asking 2019 hemp licensees to sign a waiver acknowledging the “inherent risk” of making a dietary supplement considered off-limits by federal health authorities. The New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets also will require hemp-derived CBD supplements to go through the same testing as medical marijuana products. The rules were posted as the state announced a new license category for processing hemp for CBD. CBD products can’t go in food. Infused chocolate can be sold, but as a dietary supplement rather than as a food, a distinction that relates to production standards. CBD beverages must also be sold as dietary supplements. New York bans any “vaping product or product introducing CBD through inhalation.” Suppositories are banned, too. Production of “ready-to-eat food with additional CBD infusions or CBD extracts, such as CBD chocolate syrup or CBD soda or CBD-infused frosting-drizzled cookies” will not be allowed. New York’s new rules are giving the state’s young CBD industry a scare. The state’s changes put it alongside Oregon, California and Ohio in requiring that CBD products be produced according to regulations governing MMJ products. hempindustrydaily.com
Trump Official Wants to ‘Legally Permit’ Medical Marijuana in Federally-Subsidized Housing: A Dept of Housing and Urban Development official in attempting to resolve conflicting federal and state marijuana laws as it applies to residency in federally-subsidized housing said that landlords should be required to “legally permit” medical cannabis in federally-subsidized housing. Her comments came in response to the case of a 78-year-old man who was evicted from his Niagara Fall, NY apartment due to medical marijuana use to treat chronic pain. Amid media coverage of the move, his landlord reversed its position on Monday and invited him to move back in. Marijuana Moment
Feds Call for Even More Marijuana Research After Hosting Cannabis Workshop: After hosting a day-long marijuana research workshop, the National Institute of Healthreleased a list of funding opportunities for cannabis studies—several of which don’t even explicitly mention cannabinoids, which suggests an effort to greatly expand cannabis science. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) shared a list of four research grant opportunities for studies on “natural products” like cannabis. One would examine how cannabinoids other than THC affect pain and three others call for more broad clinical trials of natural products involving human participants. Marijuana Moment
After One Week, the Number of Medical Marijuana Cards in Ohio is Over 1,000: After accepting patient registrations for one week, the Ohio Medical Marijuana Control Program totaled 1,948 recommendations in the registry, which is an online portal where physicians with a certificate to recommend medical marijuana can register patients and caregivers. Out of those with a recommendation, the state says 1,062 activated their registry card. 420intel.com
New Zealand Passes Laws to Make Medical Marijuana Widely Available: New Zealand’s government has passed a law that will make medical marijuana widely available for thousands of patients over time, after years of campaigning by chronically ill New Zealanders who say the drug is the only thing that eases their pain. The legislation will also allow terminally ill patients to begin smoking illegal pot immediately without facing the possibility of prosecution. The measures come ahead of a planned referendum on recreational marijuana use, which the government has pledged to hold within two years, as part of their confidence and supply agreement with coalition partner the Greens. The law would also pave the way for New Zealand companies to manufacture medicinal cannabis products for both the local and international market, an industry which is being touted as a potential game-changer for deprived Māori communities on the east coast of the North Island, who hope to turn the thriving illegal industry into a thriving legal one. www.theguardian.com
Some Licensed Producers are Selling Weed Oils That are Placebos: Researchers: A biopharmaceutical company hoping to disrupt the cannabis extraction market is claiming some Canadian licensed producers are selling cannabis oils that are tantamount to placebos. Scientus Pharma is a Whitby, Ontario-based pharmaceutical company that will soon bring to market cannabis oils and gel capsules strictly for medical patients. Scientus recently patented its decarboxylation method, which it says will be a game changer in terms of standardizing the potency of weed oils; it claims it can achieve 99.9 percent decarboxylation every time. In a nutshell, Scientus is saying the industry standard—using a carbon dioxide extractor to decarboxylate weed and then turn it into oil—has too many variables and as a result some oils don’t have the amount of active THC or CBD they claim to have on the label. That means that a patient won’t necessarily be getting the effects they think they’ll be getting. “[Patients] are paying $300 to $500 a month for that product and it’s not doing anything for them,” said Har Grover, chairman and CEO of Scientus. Their preliminary findings show that of 14 THC oils listing full potency, only two actually had full potency. In one of the oils, less than 20 percent of it contained activated THC. Of 10 samples of CBD oil that claimed to be 100 percent potent, only three were fully potent. One of them had no activated CBD. “That’s a placebo,” said Grover. However, both Health Canada and the organization representing Canadian LPs maintained that LPs are subject to the strictest regulations in the world. www.vice.com
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