Mexico’s health ministry published rules Jan. 12 to regulate the country’s forthcoming medical cannabis market, according to a Reuters report.
The move will allow pharmaceutical companies to start conducting medical research on cannabis products, and is part of broader policy reform efforts to regulate medical and adult-use cannabis in Mexico, the news outlet reported.
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has signed off on the regulations, which require companies to obtain approval from COFEPRIS, Mexico’s health regulator, before launching medical cannabis research, according to Reuters. Once approved, companies must conduct research in strictly controlled, independent laboratories, the news outlet reported.
The regulations also include rules for the cultivation and harvesting of medical cannabis, according to Reuters, and while some cannabis plant imports will be allowed for companies looking to produce medical cannabis products, the regulations prohibit cannabis exports.
The Mexico Supreme Court ruled in 2018 that an absolute ban on cannabis was unconstitutional, which forced lawmakers to pass legislation to legalize cannabis at the federal level. Lawmakers have delayed an adult-use cannabis legalization vote several times, but final legislation is expected to pass in the next period of Congress, according to Reuters.
Katherine | Adobe Stock
Group Tries Again to Place Adult-Use Cannabis Legalization Measure on North Dakota’s Ballot
Legalize ND refocused its efforts on the 2022 election after the COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult for the organization to collect enough signatures to qualify its initiative for the 2020 ballot.
Legalize ND is again working to get an adult-use cannabis legalization measure in front of North Dakota’s voters, according to a local KVRR report.
The group filed a petition with the Secretary of State’s office Jan. 11, the news outlet reported. If the petition is approved, Legalize ND will have one year to collect a minimum of 26,904 signatures to qualify its initiative for the 2022 ballot.
The group refocused its efforts on the 2022 election after the COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult for the organization to collect enough signatures to qualify its initiative for the 2020 ballot.
Legalize ND collected just short of 24,000 signatures in last year’s effort, KVRR reported.
Photo courtesy of Lightshade
How Unique Cannabis Genetics Drive Brand Building
Colorado-based Green Dot Labs and Lightshade share how breeding programs can help differentiate brands, as well as how the companies approach breeding in their own operations.
Cannabis genetics are the cornerstone of Green Dot Labs’ Boulder, Colo.-based concentrates operation, and according to co-founder Dave Malone, the craft beer industry provided the inspiration he needed to give the company’s unique cultivars their own identities.
Malone says the craft brewing industry started out as a select few companies with lines of beers that were almost indistinguishable among consumers, but as soon as brands began investing in marketing, consumers started gravitating toward specific brands.
The cannabis industry, he says, has a lot to learn from this approach.
“That’s what we’re aiming to do with our genetics, is give them their own identity,” Malone says. “People may prefer different brands for whatever reason, but they still look at our Cherry Fluff strain, for instance, which is [branded as] a beautiful cherry on a big pile of whipped cream, and [the marketing is] very captivating and seductive. People identify with that.”
Photo courtesy of Green Dot Labs
Green Dot Labs' Peach Brain Freeze cultivar
Dan Banks, director of cultivation strategy for Denver- based Lightshade, echoes this sentiment, adding that marketing is beginning to play a large role in the cannabis genetics space, with name-brand recognition starting to emerge among consumers.
“You have a couple different demographics,” Banks says. “You have people who are used to getting certain things from dispensaries, [and] they want to see those things maintained. Then you have people who are interested in anything new and checking that out, and if it’s new, then they’re like, ‘I want more of that’ or ‘I want more from that lineage.’”
Founded in 2011, Lightshade is one of the largest Colorado-owned, vertically integrated cannabis operators in the state. The company operates a greenhouse operation in Denver, as well as four indoor grow facilities.
When Banks joined Lightshade in late 2019, the company was cultivating roughly a dozen varieties across its five facilities, but it has since grown its genetics library to nearly 70 cultivars, with roughly 30 in regular production.
“Over the last year and some change, we’ve grown the library of genetics in the company and then implemented what we call a phenotyping program,” Banks says. “Basically, that’s a systematic way of introducing new varieties into production and gathering information about their performance, both on the horticultural side and also on the quality [and] potency side, as well.”
Lightshade acquired vertically integrated cannabis operator Sacred Seed last summer, which provided the company with a large bank of new genetics. Heading into 2021, Lightshade will establish an in-house breeding program to produce unique and proprietary varieties.
“[We’re] really trying to get some unique variety, … while also trying to cater to consumers that are looking for specific name-brand strains, as well,” Banks says, adding, “A lot of the things that people are excited about right now, there’s a lot of marketing behind that. Sometimes that marketing has a lot of substance backing it up, and other times it’s just a lot of hype.”
Photo courtesy of Lightshade
Lightshade plans to establish an in-house breeding program this year to produce unique and proprietary cannabis varieties.
Along those same lines, Malone says that companies can invest in robust marketing for a mediocre product, but that product still won’t do as well as better-quality offerings—product quality and marketing must go hand in hand.
“You can put all of the branding in the world on a jar of undifferentiated product and it won’t do well, but if you have integrity from the core, which is your genetics, it really extrapolates the value downstream when you do add these marketing layers to the product,” he says.
Green Dot Labs is entering its seventh year and maintains an in-house breeding program to create genetics specifically for its extracts.
“A lot of cannabis companies are curating genetics through a vast network that are available worldwide, whereas we’ve taken that into our own hands and steered the ship toward the goals that we set out, [so we’re] not necessarily … at the mercy of the market to provide content for the brand,” Malone says.
As it breeds new strains, Green Dot Labs brands them, which Malone says has become especially important in recent years as consumers have started to expect more from cannabis extracts.
“The consumer wants to know more,” he says. “They want to know the heritage, the lineage, where the strain came from, [and] what kind of flavors and experience they can expect when they open the package.”
Green Dot Labs has roughly 20 branded strains in its genetics library, and Malone says the branded cultivars outsell the company’s non-branded offerings, 3-to-1.
“There is so much content out there for the average consumer,” he says. “It’s overwhelming to find what strains work best for you. Everything in the current market, specifically here in Colorado, is extremely generic. A lot of companies haven’t taken this extra measure to differentiate their genetic portfolios.”
It’s a cultivator’s responsibility to tell the consumer why his or her product is better than others through branding, Malone says. The main points of brand differentiation, he adds, will be proprietary genetics that offer unique flavors and experiences, as well as the quality and efficiency with which these cultivars are produced.
Creating a Differentiated Experience
When Green Dot Labs launched its breeding program, Malone says it took a qualitative approach. The company pursued genetics that mirrored nearly every type of fruit, from a banana to an apple, and also started breeding what he calls “gassy” varieties. Since not all genetics are created equal when it comes to performing well in the extraction process, data collected during extraction helped the Green Dot Labs team further refine its genetics offerings. Specifically, the company looked at extract yields, and pursued cultivars with differentiated flavors that offered as much resin as possible.
Green Dot Labs recently closed on a new facility in Colorado that will allow the company to expand and increase its R&D capacity as it heads into the new year.
“We’re going to be delivering new strains and new flavors that have never even been imagined by the most sophisticated cannabis connoisseur,” Malone says. “That’s the goal now.”
Another one of the company’s goals, he adds, is to find strains that perform well during solventless extraction.
Photo courtesy of Green Dot Labs
Green Dot Labs will expand its extracts line this year by improving the resin structure of its favorite plants while also creating new cultivars.
“You see a lot of connoisseurs wanting to enjoy the solventless extract, but the problem with this and why it’s so expensive is because your yields are highly unpredictable and heavily predicated on the quality of the plants you produce and the genetics,” Malone says, adding that Green Dot Labs currently has 10 cultivars in its genetics library that work well with solventless extraction.
As the company heads into 2021, it will expand its extracts line by improving the resin structure of its favorite plants while also creating new cultivars.
“We like to offer something for everyone,” Malone says. “Each consumer has a certain taste, and we don’t want to alienate anybody. We want to make it so anybody who likes cannabis can come to Green Dot Labs and this can be their one-stop shop.”
For Banks and the Lightshade team, 2021 will be focused on establishing the company’s breeding program, which will include sourcing more genetic material and identifying desirable plants to work with.
“What we’ll do is try to establish a bank of male plants that we can then use to start crossing with females, and the other thing that we’ll do is look at partnering with some of the companies that are offering genetic mapping in order to get a better understanding of the source genetics that we have,” Banks says. “You bring something in and it has a name, but is it what they’re saying it is? We don’t know, but we can look into that.”
The market continues to change rapidly as consumers gain a better understanding of terpene profiles and minor cannabinoids, adds Nick Drury, Lightshade’s director of cultivation operations, and Lightshade will lean into consumer education and marketing to address these topics.
“People are realizing that it’s not just about THC content,” Drury says. “It’s also about your overall terpene profile, and how those terpenes and cannabinoids are interacting to produce a high. As people start to increase their own education into certain things, I think what you’ll start to see in the market as a whole is a shift … in terms of what people are looking for, and a little bit more interest in specific profiles, [which will do] away with the indica/sativa/hybrid terminology. … That will open up the market to a lot of cultivars that may be low in overall THC, but they might be high in CBN and all these other cannabinoids and all the different terpene profiles. … I would say education and marketing are huge in the upcoming year.”
“I think branding is just going to become more important than ever,” Malone adds. “[With] the quality [and] the differentiation being so vast, how you present the product to the consumer is really where the rubber is going to hit the road once competition elevates to this level."
CULTA Announces Move to New Bethesda Office to Support Continuing Growth
The new headquarters will allow CULTA to add employees as it scales its business.
BETHESDA, Md., Jan. 12, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- PRESS RELEASE -- CULTA, a Maryland-based producer of craft cannabis and extracts, has announced a move to a larger workplace in Bethesda as part of its expansion. The new headquarters will allow CULTA to add employees as it scales its business.
The two-floor office space is nearly 150% larger than CULTA's previous office in Silver Spring. The new facility will provide CULTA with much-needed space to accommodate additional administrative headcount. "The decision to relocate to our new, larger office in Bethesda was a logical next step in our long-term growth strategy," said CULTA Chief Financial Officer Jonathan Clark.
This relocation comes less than a year after CULTA expanded the footprint of their outdoor grow facility in Cambridge to three acres, and only months after hiring Jonathan Lassiter as the vice president of retail sales. Most recently, CULTA announced plans to enter the edibles category with a new brand launching in Q1 of 2021.
"The new office is a physical example of our evolution," said CULTA President and Co-Founder Mackie Barch. "I'm incredibly proud of what my team achieved in 2020. I want to continue to provide the team with the tools and human resources needed to hit goals in 2021."
This year, CULTA plans to add 100 more employees across its farm in Cambridge, retail dispensary in Baltimore, and headquarters in Bethesda. Those interested in joining the CULTA team can view open positions here. At this time, CULTA plans on recruiting all new employees in-house.
FDA Report Finds Insufficient Safety Data Available on CBD Risks
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a report on Jan. 8, arguing that additional research is necessary to understand better the potential long-term health effects of cannabidiol (CBD) on humans and animals.
The FDA's report calls for additional research, including extensive use of real-world data (RWD)—data relating to patient health status and health care delivery to understand potential adverse reactions to CBD better. This information, the agency says, is necessary to approve its use to treat various ailments.
"While the FDA appreciates the information and engagement from numerous stakeholders on CBD-related issues, many evidence gaps remain," the report's authors, FDA Commissioner Stephen M. Hahn and Principal Deputy Commissioner Amy Abernethy said.
"Filling these gaps will not be a trivial exercise but will require high-quality data analyzed using robust methods," According to the report. These methods would include "better sources of RWD to provide incremental improvements in our scientific understanding of the safety profile of CBD in the general population and, potentially, in specific populations."
Next Steps
Hahn and Abernethy add that the agency is planning to engage with various stakeholder groups to obtain the RWD necessary to understand any safety risks better. "We strongly believe that RWD, when collected and analyzed using rigorous methods, can be important for moving the science forward—including by aiding hypothesis generation and by refining the design of follow-up studies," they said.
The FDA will also be partnering with other government agencies, industry stakeholders, and members of academia to develop the foundation for CBD data collection and analysis projects. Hahn and Abernethy added that these efforts would build upon existing independent state and national quality and safety monitoring efforts, observational study data models, and novel data sources.
Simultaneously, there is a need for more than just RWD research as such observational data would be insufficient to address specific toxicological issues, they said. Using animal studies would be necessary to determine chronic, developmental, and reproductive toxicity resulting from CBD use, Hahn and Abernethy noted in the report.
The FDA is planning to apply a series of guiding principles for this work, including:
Research projects should develop a more sophisticated data infrastructure for understanding the safety and quality of CBD products.
These projects should yield information that helps refine future studies.
Research projects should be designed to complement existing work by other public health agencies, such as NIH and SAMHSA, and other stakeholders, including poison control centers and emergency departments.
Potential Challenges Ahead
Regardless of the guiding principles used, the type of research undertaken, or the partners identified by the FDA, the agency sees several challenges to obtaining the safety data it needs.
First, as the report describes, the FDA needs more systematic data collection and analysis of safety risks, something more active than the prevalent method of collecting adverse events as they arise from places such as poison control centers. Researchers also need to understand better CBD use rates, including rates of use for specific CBD products. For example, what populations have the highest CBD exposure, and what products are most frequently used?
There is also a need for “longitudinal studies” that consider subjects' health over an extended period to understand CBD use's long-term health effects better. There is also a lack of specific codes to precisely identify CBD products that could hinder data collection.
Upcoming Research
Hahn and Abernethy conclude by noting that the agency, in the coming months, will develop and refine its plans for research projects to obtain additional safety data. These research projects will use a variety of strategies to get this data, including:
Working with existing and emerging data systems enables precise identification of CBD products that may be associated with reported adverse events.
Evaluate approaches to link adverse event data with CBD product sampling and testing data.
Collaborate on developing and evaluating systems and methods to understand safety outcomes better and incorporate data from other sources.
Evaluate the use of market research data and other data sources that provide insights on the use of specific CBD products in different populations.
Evaluate the use of data linkage approaches to provide insights about safety risks that may appear across time while protecting patients' and consumers' privacy.
Evaluate the value of combining multiple research and data approaches to synthesize an aggregate view of CBD safety and quality across the market and across time.
Evaluate which strategies are best for safety and quality monitoring for different types of CBD products.
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