Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker declared a public health emergency and announced a four-month ban on vape sales statewide. This includes cannabis vape cartridges sold in licensed dispensaries.
Naomi Martin of The Boston Globe tweeted live from the press conference today:
Breaking: Gov Baker bans all sales of vapes - both marijuana and nicotine. Online and stores effective immediately. He says state has 61 possible cases of vaping-related lung illness pic.twitter.com/vZdtAlpB7M
Baker reported that Massachusetts has seen 61 cases of the vaping-related pulmonary disease that’s appeared all over the U.S. in recent weeks. President Trump has urged the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to pull flavored e-cigarettes from the market, but the cannabis industry has not been immune to skepticism and scrutiny of its own vape products.
CBSN Boston screenshot
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker announced a public health emergency in his state today.
"This thing has our full attention," Baker told reporters earlier in the day. He noted specifically that his office has worked with the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission (CCC)—and that the commission will enforce this ban.
Massachusetts is the first state in the U.S. to issue a total ban on vape sales.
"It's pretty clear at this point that there's something going on with vaping, and everyone should keep that in mind," Baker said at the press conference today.
Shaleen Title, a commissioner with the CCC, tweeted: "This is a terrible decision. Purposely pushing people into the illicit market — precisely where the dangerous products are — goes against every principle of public health and harm reduction. It is dangerous, short-sighted, and undermines the benefits of legal regulation."
And Kris Krane, president of 4Front Ventures, which operates its retail arm as Mission Dispensaries in Massachusetts, concurred: “The governor’s decision to ban the sale of vape products in Massachusetts is an unfortunate reaction to a genuine public health concern. Evidence suggests the overwhelming majority of vape-related illnesses have resulted from the use of unlicensed and unregulated vape cartridges obtained from the illicit market. Though he may have the best intentions, banning the sale of legal vape products produced in a heavily regulated industry will only serve to drive consumers and medical patients to the illicit market, possibly exacerbating these public health concerns rather than alleviating them. We stand behind our products and are confident the legal and highly regulated market is capable of protecting consumers.”
Cannabis Goes Social With On-Site Consumption Spaces in U.S. Markets
On-site consumption slowly spreads, but not without regulatory hurdles to climb.
Consuming cannabis has long been a social activity. An ancient nomadic tribe called the Scythians built fire pits that they used to burn cannabis for ceremonial purposes. In the 1960s and 1970s, hippies smoked while standing in circles to tell stories, laugh and share ideas. Even throughout the height of prohibition, in the 1980s and 1990s, people shared cannabis at concerts and “smoke-ins.”
Which clearly brings up a problem with most of the current cannabis legalization laws: There’s no place to smoke it but home. This means every consumer, including tourists, in a legal market is supposed to figure out how to get or give an invitation to someone’s private home. Awkward.
Only California’s 2016 voter-approved legalization measure, Proposition 64, permitted municipalities to allow cannabis lounges from the outset. After all, lounges have been running across the state since 1999, regulated under local medical cannabis regulations. Alaska and Colorado both modified their state laws to allow them earlier this year. And, in May 2019, Las Vegas created city regulations to allow consumption at a limited number of qualified dispensaries, hopefully setting the stage for a Nevada state law change, too.
Out of 482 municipalities in California, only around a dozen (based on my tracking of statewide regulations) have laws regulating cannabis lounges. San Francisco has 12 retail dispensaries where you can smoke or vape on-site, from small neighborhood spots like the Vapor Room and SPARC to Moe Greens, a giant space featuring large, luxurious booths in the smoking room.
I operate a cannabis lounge in Oakland, called Magnolia Wellness, where vaporizing cannabis and eating edibles is allowed, as is live music and events of all kinds. But because of local restrictions, we don’t allow people to smoke cannabis inside. Magnolia hopes to solve this soon by installing an outdoor marijuana smoking patio, which is allowed by local law. Emeryville, another Bay Area city, allows lounges as well, and nearby Berkeley is deliberating a lounge law right now.
But, the big news in California is West Hollywood, which has awarded eight licenses that permit smoking, vaping and edibles and another eight licenses for edibles only, according to a December 2018 license application report from the city. To get more insight, I interviewed lounge permittee Jackie Subeck, one of the owners of a West Hollywood dispensary (still to be named), who’s helping to lead both local and statewide regulatory efforts for on-site consumption.
According to Subeck, her space is licensed as an “edibles consumption” lounge, meaning she can’t sell cannabis flowers, only edibles for patrons to consume while there.
If Denver saw the emergence of the Church of Cannabis laser light show, it’s easy to imagine that Las Vegas lounges will blow our minds.
Subeck’s company, Hey Jackpot, has partnered with CannaKids, a California-based supplier of medical cannabis oil tinctures and cannabis products to patients of all ages, to launch the lounge. CannaKids will create a full-service day spa with THC, CBD and whole-plant cannabinoid treatments available.
It’s a challenge to actually be able to open the doors for business though, Subeck explains, as the local licensing scheme is broader than state law allows. In other words, while local law allows licensees to make and sell both infused and non-infused foods, state law forbids it.
Legal Hurdles
While companies with state manufacturing licenses could certainly make edibles, state law requires all cannabis products to be lab tested, so it’s impossible to make fresh goods to sell. Testing is expensive, so large batches are required for cost effectiveness; to be worthwhile, batches are generally 500 units or more, and it can take upwards of a week to complete the tests. That’s a lot of baking for a small local kitchen, whose baked goods would then be a week old before even hitting shelves.
Subeck is leading the statewide effort to change this and other, related laws and formed a coalition of other lounge owners and advocates for the fight. “Perhaps by 2021, we will be able to infuse our own fresh foods and beverages and serve them directly to the customer,” she says. “Although state law prohibits us from doing this today, we are certainly planning for the future.”
While companies with state manufacturing licenses could certainly make edibles, state law requires all cannabis products to be lab tested, so it’s impossible to make fresh goods to sell.
Such a change could allow restaurants serving cannabis-infused foods to exist. In the meantime, Subeck says lounge operators are getting creative to find work-arounds.
None of the West Hollywood lounges has opened yet (as of July), but Lowell Cafe is likely to be first. Places like Subeck’s are at an obvious disadvantage, though, because edibles-only lounges, a forward-thinking idea when the local license type was created in 2017, are now out of sync with current trends. Most of the state’s lounges, about 45 total, are located in retail dispensaries. Without the right to sell cannabis flowers and concentrates, it will certainly be hard to compete with those.
Colorado’s cannabis lounge law, set to take effect in 2020, looks really fun, in comparison. It includes two tracks, one where dispensaries have tasting rooms, like wineries, where people can sample the goods and purchase on-site. The other is where businesses like movie theaters and cafés can get licenses for cannabis consumption, so people can bring their own and use it on-site.
The city of Denver has a pilot project underway, having licensed several cafés for on-site consumption, events, and sales of items like t-shirts and coffee, but without cannabis sales allowed. Colorado Springs has a similar pilot project, and others will surely follow now that the state law has changed.
As Cindy Sovine, a Colorado leader of the on-site consumption movement, recently pointed out to me, this law provides a way for an entirely new group of people to enter the industry—a variety of small entrepreneurs can gain access to the Colorado market by opening lounges, cafés, and entertainment facilities for consumers.
I recently visited the International Church of Cannabis in Denver, which only allows members to consume during their weekly Sunday services. Other days of the week, people are invited to visit the church store and game room or to attend any number of its special events.
Most exciting, though, is its laser light show, held in its psychedelic rectory at 20 minutes past most hours (hint: that means it’s 4:20 somewhere). The walls and ceilings are painted with intense patterns and images, and the laser show is an actual 30-minute Pink Floyd laser light show with guided meditation.
Colorado’s cannabis lounge law, set to take effect in 2020, will allow dispensaries to have tasting rooms, like wineries, where people can sample the goods and purchase on-site.
Laying down on a pew, about an hour after eating a legal edible, and watching the show, I felt such a great experience of peace, happiness and wonder that tears came to my eyes, and I hoped that every single person could experience the same. Of course, you can; just visit the church any day they’re open.
If Denver saw the emergence of the Church of Cannabis laser light show, it’s easy to imagine that Las Vegas lounges will blow our minds. Dispensaries farther than 1,000 feet from schools and casinos will be able to apply for these licenses, as long as they have room to separate the smoking spaces from the sales floor. About 12 dispensaries are qualified, so these should start popping up soon.
California’s law also allows special event licenses, where applicants can hold events with on-site consumption allowed. All county fairgrounds are covered by this law, as are other designated locations controlled by local municipalities.
The High Times Cannabis Cups, The Emerald Cup and the Hall of Flowers events are all licensed under these rules. This is a great way to equalize the movement and to preserve our culture. Anyone can apply for these licenses, even for just a one-time event, and host the cannabis festival of their dreams.
Together, dispensary operators must push for these rules across all legal states and in cities. Yes, we are an industry, but more importantly, we are a community and a culture; we always have been, and we always will be.
Sue Smith | Adobe Stock
Utah Governor Signs Medical Cannabis Amendments into Law
The amendments, approved during a special session of the state legislature, eliminated state-run dispensaries and increased the number of private cannabis pharmacy licenses.
Utah Gov. Gary Herbert has signed the state’s revised medical cannabis law, which lawmakers approved Sept. 16 during a special session of the legislature.
The amendments to the law eliminated Utah’s original plan for state-run dispensaries, instead taking the traditional route of licensing private businesses for cannabis sales. The revised law also increases the number of “cannabis pharmacy” licenses to 14, and the state's medical dispensaries will be spread evenly across geographic areas. Home delivery will also be allowed under the new regulations, according to The Salt Lake Tribune.
Lawmakers said the emergency fixes to Utah’s medical cannabis law were needed in order to launch sales by March 2020, the news outlet reported. The amendments take effect immediately with Herbert’s signature.
Berkeley Patients Group's 19th anniversary celebration last year.
Photo courtesy of Berkeley Patients Group
Berkeley Patients Group Turns 20: An Eye Toward the Future
In the final installment of a three-part series, BPG Co-Founder and Vice President Etienne Fontan shares how the company continues to fight for policy reform, how it educates and supports the community, and which market trends have its attention going into 2020.
Berkeley Patients Group will celebrate its 20th anniversary in October, and as the dispensary continues to navigate California’s post-Prop. 64 regulatory landscape, it is keeping one eye toward the future while it continues fighting for policy reform and giving back to its community.
To commemorate its anniversary, BPG will launch its newest community outreach effort, the “$1MM for Good” campaign, which will donate $1 million to 10 different nonprofit organizations over the next 10 years. The organizations focus on health care, re-entry support, affordable housing/homelessness, the LGBTQ+ community, the environment and more. Each month, BPG will highlight a different community partner and drive funds to that particular organization through awareness campaigns, staff volunteers and donations from sales of partner brands.
Here, BPG Co-Founder and Vice President Etienne Fontan discusses how the dispensary supports its community and the causes it believes in, how it approaches lobbying in California, and which industry trends the company is watching going into 2020.
Editor’s Note: Read Part I of this series here and Part II here.
Cannabis Business Times: What mistakes are today’s retailers in California making, and what advice do you have for them that you can offer with the benefit of your own experience?
Etienne Fontan: We’re all in the same boat together—everyone’s just trying to get regulated and up to standard. The state dragged its feet, unfortunately, with its cannabis oversight organizations that they created, so it took a long time just for us to get our annual permit. For us, one of the original ones, it still took a year and a half. So, for those who are just starting out, it’s very challenging and very intimidating, what you have to go through, and it was still daunting and challenging for a retailer of nearly 20 years, ourselves.
It’s hard to look around and say who’s making mistakes. I think the mistakes are people thinking they’re going to exist outside of the lines of regulation and still do storefronts. Originally, they stated they expected about a third of the market to stay illegal. We came from the illegal market. We ran the underground market. We understand the realities that are taking place and that are going to continue to take place because so many people—definitely more than a third, I guarantee you—did not make that leap. They could not make that leap to legal, so people have gone to places around the world or stuck around here and are just going back to the underground market because the taxes were way too high.
The customer, especially early on, felt that they were not getting the quality of cannabis that they needed from the legal market, which was true. As the market scaled up [and started] dealing with distributors and manufacturers, the quality standards were not what we at Berkeley Patients Group had created over the past 18-plus years. It was very frustrating to now have to deal with product that was in price points that were two price points higher than what I would price it. Initially, people were buying an overly inflated product at an overly inflated tax rate, which why would you buy that? I understand the frustration.
CBT: How does BPG approach lobbying? How does it work to advance policy reform in the state?
EF: Berkeley Patients Group is one of less than a handful of dispensaries and organizations that has a government relations person, which is Sabrina Fendrick. She is in Sacramento, dealing with the state senators and legislators all the time, making them aware of the different aspects of the laws that have changed and the problems that are inherently there. Fortunately, the Bureau of Cannabis Control in California came to the public and wanted public input, and we have had a great working relationship with the BCC in helping them understand the laws. They’re brand new, so they went from literally no organization to hiring the former head of the ABC to run the organization. Lori Ajax is a very competent person and she has been open and her department receptive to all aspects of the cannabis community. [We are] educating them on the problems that were caused by some of the ideas or suggestions that had been put forth by the BCC, which we have since changed by imparting our wisdom as well as our knowledge directly to them.
Photo courtesy of Berkeley Patients Group
BPG's celebration of 18 years of service to the community.CBT: In what other ways does BPG work to educate the community?
EF: At BPG, we volunteer on our weekends to educate educators. We had health department teachers from the 7th through 12th grade in the Bay Area saying, “Hey, now that DARE has been taken out of the schools, we have no education on cannabis anymore—none. And we have kids who are hitting vaporizers in our class. We need to know.” So, we created our own syllabus and volunteered our time, and recently, we even met with pulmonary surgeons who also need education.
It’s showing us that the lack of education is still ongoing and there needs to be actual certification programs so that doctors and teachers have certain accreditations to show that they’re still learning and staying on point. If there are companies out there with the ability to create actual training seminars that they could actually get credit for, it would be a benefit to our educational as well as our medical community because they’re greatly lacking now. The laws have changed so fast that the education has been unable to keep up with the times. There’s an absence of actual certification information, again, due to federal prohibition. We, from the ground up, have to create these things.
CBT: How is the company working to help veterans and supporting other community outreach programs?
EF: As a combat veteran myself, it is and has always been a labor of love for me to work behind the scenes. We offer discounts for veterans, but we also support organizations like the Veterans Cannabis Coalition, which I help mentor. They are the ones working at the federal level. They’re the top lobbyists in D.C., who are from the Disabled American Veterans, the VFW and the American Legion, who have all combined forces to put pressure on senators and congresspeople so that cannabis can get into the hands of our veterans. We know there are over 22 suicides a day still from service members who have come back from combat situations, and we have found that cannabis helps exponentially with PTSD. We also support a local organization called Operation Evac, which is a veterans organization and support group that meets here at BPG a few times a month so that veterans can get support that they need directly and a supportive environment with other vets who are educated and in the same boat.
CBT: How is BPG helping to advance social equity and social justice reform in the industry?
EF: We’re continuing to work at the federal level until we actually change the laws. I was in D.C. in May, along with the National Cannabis Industry Association, of which I am a founding member and a board member, and we were talking [about] social equity regarding cannabis because, as we know, many aspects of our society have been detrimentally harmed by the drug war, so we want to make sure those who have been most harmed have access to be in the legal sphere. We want to remind our congresspeople and our senators that that needs to be in consideration, that we need people of color, as well as veterans, to be able to gain from finally lifting prohibition so that those who were most harmed can have a stake in the future. These are the people who were arrested for marijuana. These are the people who know how to grow marijuana. It would be a shame if they were [barred] from being able to participate in the market. We want to constantly educate and make people aware so we can arrive at a point where we can all feel proper about how this industry is and where it’s going.
CBT: Which market trends are you most closely watching going into 2020?
EF: For me, it’s the lack of environmental concern. We are pumping out [vape] pens at record levels in every state that [allows] these pens, but there’s no recycling for these pens. There’s no way for them to go but into landfill. There’s no one recycling. There’s nobody pulling these metals out. There’s nobody offering a recycled product. So, the biggest problem is waste.
We see a huge waste with the reality of what Prop. 64 has brought upon us. It has made an onerous packaging situation where you have to have child-proof products. The amount of plastic and waste and no forethought into the environmental challenges their products [present] is a huge point where retail customers and patients need to start asking the manufacturers to [address it]. If they don’t convince them to do so, they’re just going to continue to buy cheap, shoddy products from China. We don’t know what metals are in there, what chemicals are being put in the vapes, as you saw with the popcorn lung and various other lung problems that have popped up in the last couple of months.
Prohibition has driven people and products that fail into the underground market. Those products that fail have pesticides and herbicides that are concentrated because the outside of the plant is sticky. Any type of chemical near or sprayed onto the plant stays on the plant. It never goes away, and it comes out in testing later. If it fails for us, it’s supposed to be destroyed, but a lot of people realize they’re growing illegal stuff, and they don’t care. They just create a bathtub gin situation, [like] we saw in Prohibition—people poisoned people when dealing with alcohol prohibition. “What’s in your vaporizer?” is kind of becoming the bathtub gin of 2020. If it’s not tested and you don’t know what’s in it, you don’t know what you’re getting. Buyer beware.
When people are asking what they should do, I recommend buying from legally tested shops because that oil has been tested to be clear of pesticides, and it’s known exactly what’s in it, whereas illegal carts, you have no idea. The individual customer has to be aware. There’s a reason your cannabis costs a little bit more at a dispensary, because we started all this testing to find all those naughty things that we can’t see so that you are not buying them. I can never sit here and say to you, “Never go to the underground market,” when I came from the underground market. However, if you want to buy a safe product, we know that there are safe products that are tested at dispensaries currently, and that is, right now, the only safe point, unless you know the grower and actually tested it yourself. You need to question what it is you’re inhaling.
Editor’s Note: This interview has been edited for style, length and clarity.
Nextleaf Solutions Acquires Water-Soluble Technology for Cannabis Beverages
The intellectual property enables the creation and formulation of premium infused products, delivers a repeatable consumer experience, and can be produced at mass market scale.
VANCOUVER, Sept. 23, 2019 - PRESS RELEASE - Nextleaf Solutions Ltd. has announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire intellectual property pertaining to water-soluble cannabinoid formulations. Based around a Nano and Micro Emulsification process, the technology utilizes food-grade emulsifiers already approved by Health Canada. These water-soluble cannabinoids are shelf stable, resulting in no constituent separation and boast a rapid onset time.
"This nanotechnology increases onset time from over 90 minutes to less than 10 minutes when consuming cannabinoids in a beverage. We believe this represents a quantum leap for the industry, as fast onset is a pre-requisite for mass market acceptance of THC and CBD infused drinks." said Paul Pedersen, CEO of OILS.
Under the agreement, OILS will acquire the processing methodology and ingredient formulation from a private company led by a team with extensive experience in emulsifying hydrophobic molecules into various matrixes. The developers combine expert chemical engineering with tenured experience from one of the largest Canadian dairy product manufacturers. "This is a cannabis specific innovation built on proven and validated food and beverage technology," said Ryan Ko, chief technology officer of Nextleaf Solutions. "The technology and formulation allow for versatile application into hot or cold liquids, semi-solid, or solid mediums. Homogeneity is crucial for a reliable consumer experience so that every bite or sip delivers a consistent amount of cannabinoids."
The company's proprietary extraction, purification and refinement system paired with the newly acquired water-soluble formulation gives a superior advantage to Nextleaf's commercialization partners as products will represent cleaner ingredient profiles, minimizing the use of additives for flavor masking. OILS has granted an exclusive license to BevCanna Enterprises Inc., a BC-based emerging leader in cannabis-infused beverages, for the use of intellectual property related to water-soluble cannabinoids for the development, manufacturing and sale of BevCanna products. Nextleaf also has a supply agreement with BevCanna to provide cannabinoids for the production of their products.
As consumer packaged goods companies enter the cannabis infused product landscape, OILS believes the scalability of its patented technology and ability to standardize ingredients is what sets it apart. Paul Pedersen, CEO of Nextleaf Solutions, said, "As the industry evolves, there's going to be increased demand for more sophisticated processing solutions to formulate standardized products."
Under the agreement, Nextleaf will compensate the developer for the intellectual property upon each of two milestones being met. For the first milestone, which has now been met, Nextleaf will pay the developer $100,000 in cash and issue Nextleaf common shares having an aggregate value of $100,000 through the issuance of 196,078 shares at a price of $0.51 per share. Upon the developer meeting the second milestone, Nextleaf will pay the developer an additional $65,000 and issue additional shares having an aggregate value of $300,000, with the price per share and number of shares being determined once the second milestone has been met.
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
