Since the beginning of the year, California's Bureau of Cannabis Control has issued more than 1,000 cease and desist letters to marijuana businesses operating without state licenses.

"As of January 1, 2018, any business wanting to engage in commercial cannabis activity in California must have a license,” says Aaron Francis, Public Affairs Analyst with the Bureau of Cannabis Control.

This is the first step by the state in an attempt to shut down unlicensed marijuana businesses who are not paying state and local taxes on cannabis, unlike their licensed competitors. The Bureau of Cannabis Control has been using online platforms that advertise cannabis businesses to find those unlicensed businesses. The Bureau then sent notices to each business that included information on how they can apply for a state license.

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This article originally appeared in the March 2018 print issue of Cannabis Business Times. To subscribe, click here.

Washington’s cannabis market has had its share of issues since the state passed Initiative 502, legalizing adult-use cannabis in 2013. Folding the state’s medical market into the I-502 program left many medical operators unable to secure recreational licenses; the sustained glut of product has crippled many operators’ ability to break even (forget turning a profit); and odor issues have caused some communities to shun outdoor cannabis farmers.

However, the state’s latest issue regarding greenhouse definitions could potentially throw the state’s entire cannabis market into disarray.

Building codes across the country are based on the International Code Council’s (ICC) guidelines, and building inspectors use those codes and definitions to guide their daily work. However, the ICC does not specifically define what constitutes a greenhouse, but Washington’s energy code does. (The Washington State Building Code Council (SBCC), the entity that develops and adopts building code policy, developed the state’s energy code.) The code splits greenhouses into two categories: traditional greenhouses and “controlled plant growth environments.”

According to the state energy code, a greenhouse is “a structure or a thermally isolated area of a building that maintains a specialized sunlit environment that is used exclusively for, and essential to, the cultivation, protection or maintenance of plants.”

Meanwhile, controlled plant growth environments are “buildings or spaces that are specifically controlled to facilitate and enhance plant growth and production by manipulating various indoor environmental conditions. … Controlled indoor environment variables include, but are not limited to, temperature, air quality, humidity and carbon dioxide.”

The Issue at Hand

These definitions are proving to be problematic, mainly because they allow for personal interpretation. According to a spokesperson for Washington’s Department of Enterprise Services (DES), “the State Building Code is enforced by cities and counties” using local government-hired building code inspectors. When there is overlap between the definitions, “generally the more restrictive requirements apply,” the DES says.

Crystal Oliver, co-founder and owner of Washington’s Finest Cannabis, an outdoor cannabis farm in Deer Park, Wash., says the state’s energy code is being used “as a tool to manipulate the market” by deterring both indoor and outdoor cultivators from moving to a greenhouse structure.

To read the full article in Cannabis Business Times'  March 2018 issue, click here. 

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HARTFORD, Conn. — The Joint Committee on Appropriations approved a bill that would legalize and regulate marijuana for adults in Connecticut on Thursday, potentially setting it up for floor consideration before the end of this year’s legislative session.

HB 5394, which was introduced by the committee, would task the commissioners of Mental Health and Addiction Services and Consumer Protection and Revenue Services with developing regulations for possession and retail sales of marijuana for adults 21 and older. More details will be added to the bill as it moves forward over the coming weeks.

“This committee vote reiterates what most Connecticut residents already know: it is time to make marijuana legal for adults,” said Becky Dansky, legislative counsel for the Marijuana Policy Project. “The discussions that have taken place in the legislature this year have provided more than enough information to effectively move forward with legalization. Connecticut should stop punishing adults for using a substance that is safer than alcohol, and it has an opportunity to regulate marijuana before it starts losing tax revenue to other states in the region that have already started this process.”

There are nine states that have made marijuana legal for adults, as well as the District of Columbia. Neighboring Massachusetts is in the process of implementing its regulated marijuana market, and in nearby New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy has made legalizing and regulating marijuana a priority this year.

A poll conducted by Sacred Heart University in October 2017 showed that 71% of Connecticut residents support regulating and taxing marijuana for adults.

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This article originally appeared in the March 2018 print issue of Cannabis Business Times. To subscribe, click here.

Despite the remarkable scientific and social progress we’ve seen with cannabis in recent years, the language we use to discuss its vast and varied effects is still stuck in the past. In some ways, this disconnect between common vernacular and scientific discovery is understandable. Cannabis is uniquely complex. It defies the narrow scope of conventional “single compound, single target” pharmacology. Yet the task of resetting the language of cannabis is vital. Learning to analyze, interpret and intelligently discuss this botanical powerhouse will help ensure better experiences for longtime users and newcomers alike.

Farma, a dispensary in Portland, Ore., has proven this process can be done on a small scale. Grounded in the work of the renowned neurologist and cannabis research pioneer Dr. Ethan Russo, Farma is one dispensary paving the way to cannabis curation according to chemical composition rather than plant morphology. By aggregating and analyzing reliable lab data-that is, by focusing on chemotypes rather than folklore and strain names-dispensaries can help guide patients and consumers through a spectrum of effects that more effectively target specific needs and desired experiences.

Sound Data Begets Sound Analysis

The process of analysis begins with ensuring safe access. In Oregon, this means partnering with independent, state-accredited labs capable of testing for more than potency and primary cannabinoid content, but the full spectrum of active compounds. Other states, such as California, are in the process of developing their own testing protocols.

Without solid lab data from the start, we cannot hope to generate reliable resources and experiential predictions that help folks form a lasting, positive relationship with the plant.

Curating with Chemotypes

Not everyone coming through the doors of a dispensary will have had a pleasant experience with cannabis. Maybe this is their first time; maybe they’re gun-shy after an encounter with a strong edible; maybe they’re coming for symptomatic relief without losing clarity and functionality. But that scent! It gets them every time. It is as intoxicating as it is calming, akin to some sort of urban forest bathing experience. Yet that comforting scent belies a surprising truth: the nose knows. And it is one of our greatest tools for understanding how cannabis will interact with our individual endocannabinoid systems. (For this reason, dispensaries would benefit from allowing consumers to smell and examine the product they’re buying. Pre-packaged and sealed flower is antithetical to informed consumer judgment.)

Researchers like Dr. Russo have shown how cannabinoids and those delicious scent compounds, terpenoids, work in tandem to create, mitigate and modulate our individual responses to cannabis consumption. This is commonly known as the “Entourage Effect.” This poly-pharmaceutical phenomenon suggests that the way we experience cannabis is dictated not by the plant’s morphology (indica or sativa) or even one or two isolated compounds, but through a myriad of molecules working in conjunction with one another.

To read the full article in Cannabis Business Times'  March 2018 issue, click here.

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