COLUMBIA -- In the flurry of activity near the end of this year's legislative session, a proposal to legalize medical marijuana quietly passed committees in both the S.C. House and Senate and was sent to the floor of both chambers.

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico's medical marijuana advisory board had to cancel a May meeting to consider recommending program changes because it lacked enough members.

The Santa Fe New Mexican reports that the Medical Cannabis Advisory Board hasn't had a full roster of members for years and that its membership recently dropped to two members, one short of the three needed for a quorum.

The canceled May meeting was one of two the panel holds annually to consider possible changes such as adding new health conditions that allow patients to qualify to use medical marijuana.

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The Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks city councils have placed measures on their cities’ Nov. 6 ballots that will ask voters whether marijuana businesses in their respective towns should be taxed.

The two east Ventura County councils voted to do so last week.

Simi Valley thus far is not allowing any marijuana businesses in the city. Thousand Oaks is permitting one medical marijuana dispensary and one marijuana testing facility

In west Ventura County, meanwhile, the Oxnard City Council also voted last week to place a marijuana business tax measure on the city’s Nov. 6 ballot. Oxnard this year approved medical marijuana deliveries in the city.

Currently, the cities’ measures would pass if approved by a simple majority of voters. But, if a proposed statewide ballot measure, the Tax Fairness, Transparency and Accountability Act, makes it onto the November ballot and passes by a two-thirds margin, all proposed local tax measures would also need to pass by a two-thirds vote. The act would retroactively apply to all 2018 local tax measures.

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Alberta-based Aurora Cannabis — which has been growing at a facility in Pointe Claire since last fall — has acquired 19.99 percent of Capcium for $10 million, the companies said on Thursday.

“This is, honestly, a huge game changer for us,” said Mitch Greenspoon, the chairman and co-founder of Capcium. “This is credibility and endorsement from one of the largest players in the space. They’ve looked in detail at our expertise and the plant that we intend to bring online and they’ve said these are they guys that we want to partner with. It’s extremely transformative for us, as a young company.”

Capcium, which was created in 2013, currently makes softgel capsules for the pharmaceutical and nutraceutical industries. It plans to use some of the proceeds from the deal to build a new production facility, Greenspoon said.

“That state-of-the art facility will be able to do both cannabis as well as our nutraceutical and pharmaceutical business,” he said.

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