VANCOUVER, British Columbia, April 09, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PRESS RELEASE -- Segra International Corp., an agriculture technology company, has announced that it has appointed Jerry Kieran to the position of executive chairman. In this role, Kieran will contribute his expertise in the areas of business development, strategic pricing and go-to-market strategies to bolster Segra’s position in the rapidly evolving global cannabis market.

“Jerry is a well-established thought leader and innovator in the cannabis space. It’s no surprise he has an intimate understanding of the value presented by our plant tissue culture technology,” stated Segra CEO Todd McMurray. “He shares our vision for accelerating the industry’s progress toward providing licensed producers with pathogen-free cannabis plantlets. His proven ability and focus on augmenting financial performance and mitigating risk for all stakeholders across the cannabis ecosystem made him the clear choice as Segra’s executive chairman.”

Kieran adds more than two decades of business development and horticulture experience to the Segra team. As the former chief business development officer for Fluence Bioengineering, a global leader in horticultural lighting solutions, he was responsible for creating and executing the business strategies that fueled Fluence’s rapid growth. In 2018, Fluence was acquired by German lighting technology group Osram Licht AG.

“It’s been a privilege to partner with so many professionals across the commercial agriculture and cannabis industry, and my sincere pleasure to help accelerate the convergence between these two industries,” said Kieran. “My journey continues with Segra and their many genetics partners as the cannabis industry shifts toward scale production and naturally embraces tissue culture. The benefits of tissue culture for the cannabis industry far outweigh those derived from widespread use within traditional commercial agriculture, and it is my pleasure to lend my talents to the incredible team at Segra, as we collaboratively explore the next frontier of optimized cultivation with our partners in cannabis."

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Kentucky Democrat Adam Edelen is offering a plan to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use.

The gubernatorial hopeful's plan stops short of fully legalizing marijuana. The former state auditor has scheduled media events in Louisville and Lexington on Monday to announce details of his plan.

His campaign says the goal is to reduce taxpayer-backed incarceration costs by keeping people out of jail for marijuana possession.

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HELENA- Two years after the Montana Legislature passed a bill to overhaul the state’s medical marijuana system, Democratic Sen. Tom Jacobson of Great Falls says more changes are still needed.

“This is all brand-new to Montana. We’ve not really done things to this extent in the past,” he said. “We knew there would be some changes that would have to come about.”

This year, Jacobson is sponsoring Senate Bill 265, another major reform to medical marijuana in Montana. The bill passed the Senate on a 36-14 vote last week and is set for a hearing in the House Taxation Committee Tuesday at 8 a.m.

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The future of Canada’s cannabis industry may not be as rosy as once believed after one research firm cut their estimates for the outlook on the country’s burgeoning marijuana market.

Cannabis industry research firm BDS Analytics said Canada’s cannabis market is expected to grow to US$5.2 billion by 2024 up from US$569 million last year. While that growth reflects a relatively strong compound annual growth rate of about 44 percent over the next five years, it also is shy of BDS’s previous January forecast of the Canadian market of US$5.9 billion by 2022.

“Everybody was somewhat taken aback at how Canada hasn’t exploded the same way it did in Colorado, Oregon and California,” said Tom Adams, managing director of BDS Analytics, who was a lead author of the report released on Tuesday.

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