After Bruce Linton was ousted from Canopy Growth Corp. in July, the Canadian business executive has taken on a role as special adviser at Better Choice Co., a U.S.-based animal health and wellness company focused on CBD products and data with an eye to international expansion.
Better Choice CEO Damian Dalla-Longa says that the decision to bring Linton into the fold has as much to do with this his past as it does with the company’s future. “He is very focused specifically in the animal world with bringing R&D and data to the space.”
Dalla-Longa and his team started the business before the 2018 Farm Bill passage, and he says the company is propelled in part by “tremendous regulatory tailwinds” with that legislation. Now, he’s watching the FDA and other agencies to see how the puzzle piece of CBD fits into the broader consumer-packaged goods (CPG) marketplace. Better Choice is rooted in Wall Street investment backgrounds and CPG know-how among its executive team. Linton is a natural fit, he adds.
The company is fronting two major data initiatives. With a partner in Israel, Better Choice is working on a clinical trial process to develop specific chemical formulations for veterinary-based prescriptions of CBD products—specifically for canine anxiety and stress. And in the Netherlands, Better Choice is working on a dosing regime, perfecting and analyzing weight-based dosage ratios for dogs.
“The overall goal here at Better Choice is to be continuously innovating, continuously iterating on the products that we're creating, and ultimately being the leader in research-based formulation,” Dalla-Longa says. “Ultimately, that’s what’s going to create the highest-quality products for pet owners and, ultimately, pets.”
Data-backed product development increases the addressable market for products, which is important, Dalla-Longa says, because part of the challenge in the CBD space is “convincing consumers who may otherwise be skeptical of cannabinoid-based products.” Much of the marketplace now is pure marketing messaging—with little information about the efficacy of cannabinoid treatment, due mostly to the lack of federal regulations.
Bottom line, Dalla-Longa says: Linton’s business connections and knowledge of the cannabis space are an asset to any company working with cannabinoid research in a consumer-packaged goods capacity.
“He's just a knowledgeable adviser in the business who has navigated an industry that is transitioning into a legal marketplace, and we value that expertise,” he said. “We keep ourselves at Better Choice to a very high standard in the space and we run our business, trying to make sure that we maintain that gold standard the whole way through. We really value Bruce's opinion as we continue to grow.”
Better Choice Co. formed as a merger between TruPet and Bona Vida. The former was a premium dog food distributor “with a special focus on freeze dried and dehydrated raw products,” and the latter was a CBD holdings portfolio with assets in both the human and animal worlds. Better Choice is using the background of each of its company predecessors to build its way into the CBD space effectively.
“We have a fully functional non-CBD, premium, focused animal health business that we can just easily layer CBD on top of and get into the market quickly,” Dalla-Longa says.
He points to the evolution of the cannabis industry thus far, something in which Linton is very conversant. Research and development—product innovation and branding, in particular—is critical in these early days of the industry. Citing Linton’s work with Tweed and the rest of the sprawling Canopy Growth network, Dalla-Longa says the company’s vision is falling into place with broader exposure to distribution channels and a real grasp of data-oriented goals and supply chain integration.
SeanPavonePhoto | Adobe Stock
Judge Orders New Mexico Regulators to Let Non-Residents Into State’s Medical Cannabis Program
Ultra Health Chief Marketing Officer Marissa Novel says the ruling reflects the state’s broader acceptance of cannabis as the equivalent of any other pharmaceutical medication.
The New Mexico Department of Health must begin issuing medical cannabis cards to qualifying non-residents following a judge’s ruling that upholds an elimination of the program’s residency requirements.
Santa Fe District Court Judge Bryan Biedscheid’s order addressed confusion over the state’s medical cannabis law earlier this year.
During this year’s 60-day legislative session, lawmakers approved several cannabis-related bills, including one that made substantial changes to the state’s medical cannabis law, called the Lynn and Erin Compassionate Use Act.
“Among these changes was a change to the definition of a qualified patient,” Marissa Novel, chief marketing officer for Ultra Health, one of the state’s licensed vertically integrated cannabis businesses, told Cannabis Business Times. “In the former medical cannabis law, which was originally enacted in 2007, the definition of a qualified patient was a New Mexico resident who has been diagnosed with a debilitating condition. This year, during the legislative session, they struck ‘a New Mexico resident’ and replaced that terminology with ‘a person.’”
This opens New Mexico’s medical cannabis program to any person with one of the state’s 28 qualifying conditions who is certified by a New Mexico practitioner to use cannabis as treatment. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed the changes into law in April, and Ultra Health looked forward to serving a wider population of patients.
“There’s no mention of residency as a requirement for patients in the law, so we were fully expecting that change to become effective on June 14, … when the entire law became effective,” Novel said.
But not so fast.
When the law took effect, the New Mexico Department of Health, which oversees the state’s medical cannabis program, said it would not issue cards to out-of-state patients. Then the lawsuit landed in Biedscheid’s courtroom.
“Three petitioners, two from Texas and one from Arizona, who all applied for their medical cannabis cards and had been diagnosed with one of [New Mexico’s] 28 qualifying conditions, filed a Writ of Mandamus lawsuit, basically asking the judge to order the Department of Health to perform what’s called an ‘administerial duty’ in issuing medical cannabis cards to the petitioners,” Novel said. “An administerial duty is like issuing a marriage license or a fishing license. There’s shouldn’t be a discretion factor here. It’s just, if you check all the boxes, you should receive a permit, or a medical cannabis card.”
The Department of Health, however, said the point of contention in the new law was a drafting error.
“They said that change wasn’t supposed to be made in the law, but the law stands as it’s written,” Novel said.
The judge signed the petitioners’ Writ of Mandamus, indicating that he found merit in their argument. A hearing followed, where the Department of Health was able to argue why the Writ of Mandamus should not become permanent, but the judge affirmed that the Writ still stood.
In a final presentment hearing on Sept. 23, the judge issued a Permanent Writ of Mandamus and ordered the Department of Health to issue medical cannabis cards to those who qualify under the law but were either denied or put on hold due to residency alone.
Now, any patient—regardless of residency—can qualify for New Mexico’s medical cannabis program if they are diagnosed with one of the state’s 28 qualifying conditions (which include PTSD, chronic pain, opioid disorder and epilepsy) by a New Mexico practitioner and certified for medical cannabis treatment. Non-residents qualify for three-year cards, just like New Mexico residents (the change to a three-year medical cannabis card was also approved in this year’s overhaul of the program), and they can purchase cannabis products from any state-licensed dispensary and use them anywhere in the state.
“The language of ‘a person’ really does extend to a resident of any state in the United States, even Mexican Nationals and citizens of other countries, really, because it’s not specific—it’s just ‘a person,’” Novel said. “Especially when you look at geographically where New Mexico is located, so close to Mexico—Juarez is very close to the New Mexico border. So, really, any person—as long as they go through the requirements of how they should be certified and they have that medical diagnosis—can qualify for New Mexico’s medical cannabis program.”
Ultra Health is anticipating an enrollment increase in the state’s medical cannabis program following this ruling. New Mexico currently has about 77,000 registered patients, and enrollment is expected to increase anywhere from 20,000 patients to a complete doubling of the program, Novel said.
This increased demand could put a strain on the state’s currently limited supply. New Mexico caps the number of plants that its licensed producers can grow; the state recently raised the cap from 450 to 1,750 plants in response to a lawsuit, but many producers say this increase still isn’t enough to support the growing demand.
Photo courtesy of Ultra Health
Ultra Health has a cultivation facility in Bernalillo and 17 dispensary locations across the state.
This new policy will have a sweeping impact not only on the New Mexico’s medical cannabis market, but also potentially on other markets across the country, Novel added.
“When you look at the history of medical cannabis in this country, it’s kind of crazy to think that your place of residence, which could just be a few miles from the New Mexico border, would prevent you from seeking medical care in the form of medical cannabis, which we know is a health alternative, in many ways, to traditional prescription drugs,” she said. “These conditions outlined in New Mexico’s program are categorized as debilitating medical conditions, so for a lot of people, access to medical cannabis care could very well be a life or death scenario, especially those suffering from cancer and other chronic diseases.”
Many patients across the country have become “cannabis refugees,” Novel said, uprooting their lives to move to a legal state where they can access cannabis as medicine.
“When you think about requiring residency for medical cannabis care, it’s a major burden on the individual, and we don’t believe it’s warranted,” she said. “If people with a qualifying condition choose to come to New Mexico and get certified by a New Mexico practitioner, they should be able purchase medicine and medicate in the state without totally uprooting their lives in the name of residency alone.”
The new law could also benefit people who work in the state several months of the year but don’t have residency, Novel added, as well as out-of-state college students. It could also help Texas patients with limited access to medical cannabis under Texas’ program.
“We recently asked the department there just how many patients they have in their program,” Novel said. “It’s been operating for about three to four years, and they only have about 800 patients in the program. They have three dispensary locations across the entire state of Texas, and they’re very limited to what kinds of products they can acquire. They can basically only acquire high-CBD products. … So, there’s a major opportunity for Texans to actually receive medical cannabis care [in New Mexico] that many others have found therapeutic through the use of THC.”
New Mexico’s new policy could also change the way people think about medical cannabis across the country, she said. “When you look at traditional healthcare, residency usually isn’t an issue when it comes to accessing medicine or accessing treatment. We believe that medical cannabis shouldn’t be any different. We see portability in traditional healthcare, and there should be portability for medical cannabis. Your location shouldn’t determine whether you can access cannabis care. I think that idea was supported in the law.”
New Mexico’s medical cannabis law now supports the idea that cannabis is equivalent to any other form of prescription medication in many other ways, as well, Novel said. One section added this year, for example, states: “For the purpose of medical care, including an organ transplant, a qualified patient’s use of cannabis pursuant to the Lynn and Erin Compassionate Use Act shall be considered the equivalent of the use of any other medication under the direction of a physician and shall not be considered to constitute the use of an illicit substance.”
In addition, the state’s worker’s comp law was altered in late 2014, early 2015, following a lawsuit, to allow individuals injured on the job to be reimbursed for their use of cannabis, if medical cannabis care is considered reasonable and necessary by their physician.
“It’s very, very powerful, establishing that it’s the equivalent,” Novel said. “It shouldn’t be treated any differently. I think that was a major building block for what we’re looking at today, and eventually, we could see medical cannabis being a covered service [by insurance].”
New Mexico’s medical cannabis products are already very pharmaceutical in nature, she added; patients currently have access to pharmaceutical-grade, precisely dosed sublingual and oil tablets, oils, suppositories, and pastilles, for example.
“These function like a lot of other traditional medications in healthcare, and if they function the same way, they should be covered the same way,” Novel said. “We’ve always approached medical cannabis from a healthcare perspective. We’ve done a lot to normalize the use of cannabis in the state, when it comes to meeting with different organizations in the state, like the Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, and even the way we advertise our services is very clinical. As far as a long-term goal with this ruling, we want medical cannabis to be treated like any other form of healthcare. We want medical cannabis portability for our patients and for any potential patient. And we eventually want medical cannabis to be a covered service."
jStock | Adobe Stock
Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission Approves New Medical Cannabis Regulations
Under the new rules, medical dispensaries must write a plan for their financial hardship programs into their licensing applications to be considered during the licensing process.
The Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission unanimously approved new medical cannabis regulations Sept. 24, and the new rules change how the state’s financial hardship programs operate.
Medical cannabis dispensaries have always been required by law to establish discount programs for low-income patients, but under the new regulations, all medical dispensaries must create a financial hardship plan that outlines goals, programs and measurements, and include it in their licensing applications to be considered during the licensing process, according to a MassLive.com report.
The new rules also eliminate the $50 annual fee for patient registration cards.
While patients can now access Massachusetts’ adult-use cannabis market without a registration card, medical cannabis is tax-free, and purchasing from the medical market creates an electronic patient record, MassLive.com reported.
The commission’s new regulations will take effect after they are promulgated by the secretary of state, according to the news outlet.
Seth Michael/Adobe Stock
Medicine Man Pulls Vape Cartridges Containing Propylene Glycol or Vitamin E Acetate
The Colorado dispensaries have halted sales of products that include ingredients cited in lung disease investigations.
On Sept. 26, Medicine Man announced that it was pulling cannabis vape cartridges containing propylene glycol or vitamin E acetate from its shelves. The dispensary business operates four adult-use storefront and one medical cannabis location in Colorado.
Those two chemical additives have been targeted in ongoing investigations into the rash of vaping-related pulmonary disease in the U.S.
"The decision to take this particular product off our shelves was significant, as the confidence and trust of our consumers is paramount to our core values," Medicine Man President and CEO Sally Vander Veer said in a public statement. "We were extremely pleased with the reception of our internal staff and budtenders, who recognized our dedication to quality and safety even at the expense of our bottom line. As pioneers in this space, we will continue to fight for what our consumers deserve. Hopefully the rest of the industry will also conclude that removing these cannabis products with the chemical additives under scrutiny from the market is in the best interest of consumers and all of us as operators."
In a follow-up email, Vander Veer declined to list which vape products this included.
MedPharm Holdings, a cannabis research and IP development company based in Colorado, is in the process of being acquired by Medicine Man’s parent company, Medicine Man Technologies. It, too, has joined the industry-wide call for transparency and public health awareness in the vaping category.
On Sept. 12, MedPharm Holdings issued a statement in response to the pulmonary disease outbreak. The company warned against cannabis thinning agents that have been found in some vape products linked to illnesses in the U.S. and Canada. MedPharm specifically cited “vitamin E acetate, normally used in the food industry as a preservative, propylene glycol (PG), vegetable glycerin (VG), and medium chain triglycerides (MCT), which are all popular cannabis thinning agents.”
The company insisted that it had committed to never use those additives in its vape products. MedPharm scientists cited an “unacceptable health risk” in the use of those thinning agents. (On Sept. 25, Georgia and Florida health officials each reported another death caused by the vaping-related pulmonary disease, bringing the total count to 11 in the U.S.)
“Some of these chemical additives (particularly PG and VG), when heated too high during the vaping process, can degrade into harmful cancer-causing byproducts, such as formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, and acrolein,” according to the MedPharm statement. “The additives have also been linked to the presence of lipid-laden macrophages found in the lungs of people who suffer from this new vape-induced lung disease. The presence of these lipid deposits can, in turn, trigger inflammation in the lungs, a condition known as lipoid pneumonia. Many of these suspected additives simply haven't been evaluated for safety when inhaled and could very well be associated with the observed symptoms in the growing number of cases.”
Medicine Man management reported that it had “discarded” the vape products containing propylene glycol and vitamin E acetate.
“Our budtenders attend weekly education meetings to be updated on the latest information surrounding products that we sell, compliance issues, and how to discuss concerns/questions from customers related to news events such as these,” Vander Veer told Cannabis Business Times. “Removing potentially harmful products from our shelves makes these conversations easier for our team.”
Watch Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf Advocate for Adult-Use Cannabis Legalization
The press conference marked a turning point for a state that’s actively engaged a wide-ranging public policy conversation on cannabis over the past year.
As U.S. representatives were gathering in Congress to cast an historic vote for cannabis banking reform, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf and Lt. Gov. John Fetterman announced their support for adult-use legalization in their state.
The press conference marked a turning point for a state that’s actively engaged a wide-ranging public policy conversation on cannabis over the past year. Fetterman traveled to every county in Pennsylvania this past spring, speaking directly with the 10,275 state residents who attended his speaking tour. Of those men and women, 68 percent favored legalization. (Of a broader response online, 82 percent of state residents told Fetterman and the governor’s administration that they favor legalization.)
Pennsylvania legalized medical cannabis in 2016, and sales began in February 2018. Lawmakers have introduced adult-use bills this year, though it’s not yet clear which one, if any, may pick up traction in the statehouse.
“We are calling for the General Assembly to seriously debate marijuana legalization,” Wolf said. “There are multiple bills introduced to advance that measure with support from many legislators … [who] agree with the many Pennsylvanians with making adult-use regulated marijuana legal. That includes me. I agree with that. I’m looking forward to seeing what we can accomplish together.”
Wolf and Fetterman elaborated on the criminal justice components in the debate. Fetterman’s speaking tour highlighted support for justice reform and an understanding that something needs to change in Pennsylvania.
“We’re seeking a path to restorative justice through the expungement of past convictions of non-violent and small cannabis-related crimes,” Wolf said.
Watch the video here:
Legislative Map
Cannabis Business Times’ interactive legislative map is another tool to help cultivators quickly navigate state cannabis laws and find news relevant to their markets. View More
Eric Sandy
Melissa Schiller
