As Massachusetts was creating its legal marijuana industry, farmers lobbied for the creation of craft cooperatives—a business model that lets local farmers band together to each grow marijuana and split the costs for things like production, packaging and marketing.

In response, the Cannabis Control Commission established regulations allowing growers who have lived in Massachusetts for at least a year to join together, grow up to 100,000 square feet of marijuana plants among them, pay lower licensing fees and sell wholesale to marijuana retailers.

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Photos courtesy of Kentucky Cannabis Company

Kentucky Cannabis Company, the parent company of Bluegrass Hemp Oil, a producer of full-spectrum extracts, has unveiled Batch, a CBD extract made from the blooms of Kentucky-grown hemp.

“We wanted to … help the smaller Kentucky farmers find use for their products,” Adriane Polyniak, owner of Kentucky Cannabis Company and Bluegrass Hemp Oil, told Cannabis Business Times. “We have a lot of farmers who are producing high-quality hemp varieties here in the state and doing a great job, so we purchase hemp on the open market in the hopes of helping build them up and support the local market.”

Kentucky Cannabis Company partners with farmers who cultivate hemp varieties with a high concentration of CBD. The company vets potential partners by learning about their cultivation processes and testing their plant materials, Polyniak said.

“From there, we do a bloom-only extraction,” she said. “We feel strongly about only extracting from the bloom of the plant, where the majority of the cannabinoids and terpenes are found, and we use a hydrocarbon distillation process. It’s really gentle on the plant, … so, it produces a product that truly resembles the plant from which it came. You get the terpenes, you get the flavor, you get everything that’s going to be in that plant material in the product, essentially.”

Named after its small-batch production, Batch joins Bluegrass Hemp Oil’s Genesis Blend line of extracts. In addition to third-party lab testing, Kentucky Cannabis Company performs in-house testing on all products throughout the production process to verify potency and purity.

“It’s literally just cannabinoids, terpenes and an MCT oil,” Polyniak said. “We feel like the most natural way is the best way to go, and offering it in the way it was intended, which is in its full-spectrum form.”

While Genesis Blend products are sold only at pharmacies, Batch will be available through grocery stores, health food stores, holistic nutrition coaches and yoga studios that want to offer CBD products, Polyniak said. There is a space on the company’s website where those interested in selling Batch can reach out and receive information about partnering with Kentucky Cannabis Company.

Each run of Batch has a unique terpene profile and flavor.

The first round of Batch products released consisted of 2,000 bottles, which is a very small run, Polyniak said.

“In this style product, we want to focus on the farm, … highlighting the differences in the terpene profiles and so forth,” she said. “It’s going to be really focused on trying to differentiate ourselves [by] providing the flavor [and] highlighting the farm, and each batch is going to change a little bit in its flavor profile. You’re guaranteed to get the cannabinoid content per milliliter that’s labeled on the bottle and so forth, but that terpene profile is going to vary from batch to batch because … not every farmer here in Kentucky is growing the same cultivars.”

Kentucky Cannabis Company is one of the original six hemp growers that were granted permission to cultivate within the state, and it has been cultivating for cannabinoid production since 2014, Polyniak said.

“We’re focused on growth,” she said. “We’re focused on creating the highest-quality product out there, looking at the science of the plant, advocating and educating consumers on not only product differentiation, but also … the science of the plant.”

With new companies and products entering the hemp and CBD space every day, differentiation is key, Polyniak added.

“There are a lot of companies here in this state but also across the U.S. that are mass-producing the same product for several different labels, white labeling for them, so a lot of the products that are on the shelf may be produced by that same manufacturer,” she said. “You have to be able to produce something that’s different, something that’s going to get the consumer’s attention, something that’s going to be beneficial for them so that they’ll continue investing their money. Because there are so many products on the market, if they don’t feel like they’re getting the quality that they deserve, they’re going to move on to somebody else pretty quickly."

Luxembourg has called on its EU neighbors to relax their drug laws as its health minister confirmed plans to become the first European country to legalize cannabis production and consumption.

“This drug policy we had over the last 50 years did not work,” Etienne Schneider told Politico. “Forbidding everything made it just more interesting to young people. … I’m hoping all of us will get a more open-minded attitude toward drugs.”

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PRESS RELEASE - Medicine Man Technologies, Inc. has announced that the company has entered into a binding term sheet to acquire Colorado-based Dabble Extracts, an award-winning cannabis concentrate company that specializes in processing medical and recreational marijuana into premium-grade extracts.

Under the terms of the term sheet, the company will pay $3,750,000 for Dabble Extracts. The purchase price will consist of $750,000 in cash and 996,678 shares of common stock priced at $3.01/share, which is the average closing price of the company's stock for the five trading days prior to Aug. 6, 2019. The terms can also be referenced in the 8-K, which outlines the closing conditions. The obligations of the company and Dabble Extracts under the term sheet are conditioned upon the satisfaction or mutual waiver of certain conditions, including regulatory approval.

"The proposed acquisition of Dabble Extracts will further enhance our product portfolio, as it will bring the expertise and unique extraction capabilities necessary to create high-quality cannabis concentrates in the form of shatter and wax products," said Andy Williams, co-founder and chief executive officer of Medicine Man Technologies. "Josh marks the fifth industry pioneer that we have announced in the span of three months to come on board, which is a testament to our vision in bringing the best and brightest to join forces and compete in a rapidly changing market. His background and mastery as an extraction technician will help us create, produce and distribute a superior portfolio of products. As a market leader, we believe it is incumbent for the Company to offer a comprehensive and exceptional product offering in all market segments, and Dabble Extracts' award-winning product line and unique and proprietary extraction process certainly helps us meet this goal."

"We have essentially pioneered our own extraction process and have grown through a grassroots approach similar to that of Andy's experience," said Josh Hindi, founder of Dabble Extracts. "The team at Medicine Man Technologies shares our vision for the long term, and this accelerates our growth trajectory by creating a complementary approach at the forefront of the explosive opportunity in the cannabis industry. Our shatter is of the highest quality, and we are one of the top producers today for concentrates, based on the numerous awards we've received. We're excited to join the team and believe this enables us to take a huge step forward in our business as we combine our technical capabilities with the critical distribution capabilities that should allow us to go national and international in the future."