Missouri has approved roughly 25,000 medical cannabis cards, according to a local KCTV report.
The state has 10 qualifying conditions in its medical cannabis program, and released its applications for patients, caregivers and businesses in June.
Missouri residents must complete the application and provide proof of a qualifying medical condition, as well as pay a fee, to participate in the program, KCTV reported. Within a few weeks, they receive a digital medical card from the state, although Missouri has not yet licensed dispensaries to serve the market; the licenses are expected to be issued by Jan. 24.
U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter and three other representatives who co-sponsored the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act submitted a letter to Senate committee chairman Mike Crapo Jan. 21 to address his concerns about the legislation and to urge him to approve the bill.
In comments released Dec. 18, Crapo, chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, recommended that lawmakers add public health and safety requirements to the bill, including a potential 2% THC limit on cannabis products and a requirement for companies to disclose product potency as a prerequisite to obtaining financial services from banks, according to The Denver Post.
Crapo also suggested including regulations in the legislation that would prevent “bad actors” from laundering money through banks, the news outlet reported.
The lead sponsors of the SAFE Banking Act, Reps. Steve Stivers (R-OH), Denny Heck (D-WA) and Warren Davidson (R-OH), have remained hesitant to expand the SAFE Banking Act, writing in their letter that, “The primary objective of our bill is to address public safety concerns resulting from marijuana-related transactions being forced outside the regulated banking system.”
The legislators expressed that they must be cautious about “adding limitations to the legislation’s safe harbor that impose unworkable burdens on financial institutions, or would jeopardize the larger, bipartisan effort to address public safety concerns associated with cash-only transactions,” and reiterated, “Our bill is about safety. It does not change the legal status of marijuana and is focused solely on taking cash off the streets and aligning federal banking laws with the decisions states are already making regarding cannabis.”
Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO), a co-sponsor of the SAFE Banking Act in the Senate, has had several discussions with Crapo regarding the legislation, The Denver Post reported.
“It’s no secret that I, too, was opposed to marijuana legalization in Colorado,” Gardner said in a public statement. “But the people of Colorado chose to try a new approach to legal cannabis, and the sky is not falling. Seven years later, 95% of the United States’ population lives in a state with some form of legal cannabis. Every day that Congress continues to ignore reality, unintended negative consequences pile up for legitimate businesses—both in the cannabis industry and outside it.”
The House passed the SAFE Banking Act in September in a historic vote of 321-103. The bill would ultimately provide a safe harbor for financial institutions that work with cannabis clients, effectively opening the door to formal banking relationships in the industry.
Growing Tips from Farmer Tom’s Hemp Farming Academy
Tom Lauerman, known in the industry as 'Farmer Tom,' breaks down top cultivation mistakes and tips covered in his new online course for hemp farmers.
With nearly three decades of experience growing organic cannabis, Tom Lauerman has become affectionately known in the industry as “Farmer Tom.” Lauerman, however, is more than a farmer—he’s also carved out his identity in the industry as an advocate, speaker and educator.
When the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (the 2018 Farm Bill) legalized hemp, Lauerman added it to the list of crops grown on his 5-acre farm in Vancouver, Wash. The crop’s legalization also allowed Lauerman to add to his educational lineup.
Last year, Lauerman founded the virtual Hemp Farming Academy. Using lessons he’s learned from his own growing experience, as well as from talking to hemp farmers around the country, Lauerman created a course comprised of 10 video modules that teach farmers the ins and outs of growing hemp for cannabidiol (CBD). The course also includes access to a private Facebook group to ask questions and interact with Lauerman and other farmers.
Here, Lauerman breaks down the top issues he saw this growing season, along with tips on how to solve them, based on the ten modules included in his course.
What’s Needed: Equipment and Supplies
“There's a lot of shady businesses going on out there, and we want to make sure that when we're recommending a piece of equipment or showing you how to use it, it’s the top of the line and we've done the research on it. A lot of times, people go to shows and events and get caught up in something that may or may not work for them. We suss out the good and bad players and the quality equipment and products because everything's changing every year.”
Genetics: All About Seed
“Do your due diligence and verify the quality of the seed. When you're buying the seed, you have to talk to two or three farmers who've had success growing that seed before in your region. Make sure you have at least two to three certificates of analysis that prove these genetics are stable and able to grow under the current limits set forth by the government. “Next, you're looking at a germination rate. You want to make sure that when you're buying the seed for $1 to $2, you're actually getting the value of that seed, and if it's a feminized seed, that you're not getting a male. You want to make sure those things—both the germination rate and the feminized rate—are well up into the 90s. “I think people were in a hurry last year, and they didn't do their due diligence to find good, stable genetics out there that are going to give you the results you’re looking for. You don’t want to spend on the front end and then at the end of the year, have a hot crop [a crop that tests above 0.3% tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)] like we’ve seen a lot of. I believe that a lot of the hot crops are out there because of the genetics that were purchased.”
Field Preparation
“A lot of farmers here on the West Coast got so greedy that they stuck their plants super close together. What happens is if you put those plants so close together, there's no air ventilation between the plants. There’s a lot of stagnant air, and with stagnant air you have mold. “We've set up more like a vineyard style, so I'm doing a 3-foot row of plants with 8 to 10 feet in between [rows]. This allows me to get my equipment up and down, it allows for air flow and it allows me to do the work with ease and find problems. If your plants are too close together and you're walking your field looking for males or mold or powdery mildew or some sort of a bug infestation, you really don't have a good eye on what's going on with the plants. When you put your plants too close together, you're going to have test issues also.”
Seed Propagation & Germination
“Germination rate is pretty standard on all seeds and basically that tells you that if you plant 100 seeds, how many are going to germinate and how many are going to fail. Again, the seed quality is everything, and you really have to get the germination rate [in the 90s]. If you can get certified seeds from a state university, like Colorado, then your chances of having a successful crop are way higher than if you're just going to buy from somebody who has a low price. “As far as propagation, if you don’t have a facility, it’s better to send [seeds] off to a professional facility and they’ll do the work for you. If you don't have a greenhouse or the skills, you buy the seeds and then you find a nursery that does propagation work. They'll put them in the trays and grow them out for you. And then they can schedule it out so that when you're ready, the plants are the perfect height to go into the ground.”
The Ins and Outs of Irrigation
“I’m a big T-tape fan, which is drip irrigation that waters the beds where the plants are. Overhead watering can be tricky. If your plants are really close together and you’re overhead watering, like on a pivot watering system, we see problems with those plants being too close. Again, there’s no ventilation. Also, you really want to water in the morning so the plant has time to dry off during the day so that water doesn't sit on the plant overnight, which can cause mold.”
Lay Rows Like the Pros
“The common way out there [to lay rows] is a black mulch and T-tape. The mulch keeps weeds from coming out. Weed suppression is a big deal, because there's a lot of different weeds everywhere that come into your farm on people's tires, blowing through the wind, many different ways. Again, when you're lining your beds up, give enough space between the plants so they have proper ventilation.”
Transplanting Seedlings
“When transplanting out of the seeds, there's two different ways. A lot of people just put the soil right into the trays and add the seed in there, but what we've found over the years is that peat pots are super handy. They're great for transplanting, especially in large scale because the dirt isn't flying all over the place and it keeps the root core stable, together and not disturbed. If you disturb the roots too much, it can take up to a week to 10 days for the plant to recover and start to grow. The only thing you need to do when you're transplanting [from peat pots] is if there aren’t a lot of roots coming out of the bottom, make sure you rip that mesh up the sides so you have a better chance of that plant being successful. If the roots are protected and you rip up the sides, you won't have as much transplant shock time to have to deal with.”
Fertilization For Growth
“We found hemp is like growing corn, so it likes a lot of nitrogen up front and then less nitrogen on the backside. We like to use fish emulsion or fish powder—it really works well for growth. We're also really big on foliar feeding with fish and kelp on the leaves because the leaves uptake the nutrients. It goes right to where they need it, and they don’t need to draw it up through the root system.”
Daily Duties
“Daily duties include getting out there and walking your rows, looking for bug infestations, looking for any kind of irregularity in areas, looking for males and making sure everything's getting water.”
Harvest
“The most important thing is having the space to dry. That's where the big bottleneck has been is drying and storage the last couple of years. Five acres can fill an enormous facility pretty easily. You really need to know where it's going to go, and you’ve got to have a place for it to sit, or it's going to go bad. When you lay out your season, you’ve got to work backwards. Don't get ahead of yourself and grow more than you think you can, or the plants will rot in the fields like they did this year.”
rcfotostock | Adobe Stock
Current Hemp Regulations Aren’t Working for Farmers or Regulators
There’s more than meets the public eye when it comes to hemp farming regulations. Here’s a look at some of the current challenges facing both farmers and regulators.
Most farmers who decide to grow hemp go into it with good intentions and high hopes. With all the excitement generated by the opportunity to legally grow hemp, it’s easy for farmers to get caught up in the “it won’t happen to me” attitude when it comes to regulatory compliance issues.
However, compliance issues can and do happen, leaving farmers to face the real possibility of crop destruction with no way to derive economic benefit from their failed hemp plants.
If hemp exceeds the 0.3% tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) threshold set by federal regulations, a farmer can be ordered to destroy the crop, otherwise known as a “hot crop.” As the former Colorado Industrial Hemp Program Manager for over three years, I had the dreadful task of telling farmers that their hemp crop tested hot.
Prior to delivering the news about the hot crop, I would brace myself for the farmer’s angry reaction. In fact, what I typically encountered was just the opposite. Farmers were polite, respectful and often even gracious— but of course, they expressed their deep disappointment at having to destroy what they worked all season to grow.
As the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prepares to implement additional rules that will regulate hemp farmers, these farmers continue to struggle with how to legally grow hemp within the proposed regulatory framework. Shouldn’t we be seriously exploring how hot hemp can be used for non-ingestible hemp products like t-shirts or hempcrete where THC levels aren’t an issue? This issue must be explored and solutions must be found.
Beyond the Farm: Challenges for Regulators
As the USDA hemp rules are rolled out, regulators will also have their own share of difficulties, including:
Personal conflict. Most government regulators are good people who try to do the right thing. For these regulators, it will be personally challenging to enforce the crop destruction rules and watch the impact of crop destruction on farmers.
Reporting burdens. On the administrative side, regulators will be faced with processing a massive number of harvest reports in a very short time frame. Is the information on the harvest report accurate? Additionally, myriad farmers will have to resubmit their report because the harvest time originally submitted must be moved up or delayed. Farmers routinely deal with hail, rain, insect infestation and a variety of other factors, all of which require them to change their anticipated harvest date. These revised harvest dates compound the administrative burden on the regulatory agency and impact inspections. From my experience, it can actually be described as “mass chaos.”
Legal challenges from hemp farmers. The 800-pound gorilla in the regulatory room is when regulators impose a sanction on a farmer and the farmer legally challenges the sanction. Once issued, a hemp registration issued by the government becomes a property right of the farmer. Property rights carry with them due process rights and an opportunity to be heard. Government agencies have tight budgets that aren’t designed to handle the financial burden of too many legal challenges.
The regulators and the hemp industry agree that regulation of hemp farming is a good thing because it protects the public and brings certainty and validity to the industry. It’s time that those rules are revisited through the lens of practicality and government efficiency, and that can’t happen until both sides are willing to listen to each other.
Maureen West is general counsel and compliance officer at Functional Remedies, a pioneer in the wellness industry known for its full-spectrum, hemp-based seed-to-bottle products. Prior to her role at Functional Remedies, Maureen served in the roles of Colorado Industrial Hemp Program Manager and Colorado assistant attorney general.
How to Market Your Cannabis Dispensary to Gen X Customers
Part Two of a three-part series on understanding generational differences in dispensary customers explores the elusive Generation X.
Sandwiched between baby boomers and millennials, Generation X grew up operating under the radar. As marketers drooled over those larger adjoining generations, Gen Xers went about their business, rejecting baby-boomer mindsets, perfecting latchkey-kid independence and resisting definition. (Read our feature on marketing to baby boomers here.)
Turning 39 to 54 years old in 2019, with birth dates between 1965 and 1980, Gen Xers are at their peak of earning and spending power. They comprise 33% of the nation’s workforce, according to a 2017 Pew Research report. And, according to cannabis data experts BDS Analytics, they account for 30% of the cannabis-consuming public in fully legal states.
Got your attention? Dispensaries that heed these Gen X insights can get a head start on winning big shares of this generation’s cannabis dollars:
1. Gen Xers exemplify the average cannabis consumer
Given their place between baby boomers and millennials, you’d be right to assume Gen X’s habits and preferences overlap with both groups. When it comes to cannabis, Gen X aligns with the average for all cannabis consumers, across age groups.
Jessica Lukas, vice president of consumer insights at BDS, breaks down the average U.S. cannabis consumer in adult-use states: 60% prefer inhalables, about 30% prefer edibles and 10% prefer topicals. With Gen X cannabis consumers, those numbers run nearly the same, with just a slightly higher preference for edibles versus topicals.
“We talk a lot about boomers and younger generations, but as we look at Gen X, they look very much like the ‘average cannabis consumer,’” Lukas says. “They’re kind of what you’d expect—a combination of consumption preferences and a combination of the reasons why they consume.”
2. Gen Xers highly value health and personal wellness
Gen X’s emphasis on health and wellness, particularly among female consumers, presents a “huge” opportunity for dispensaries that cater their message to those concerns, says Jennifer McLaughlin, vice president of merchandising for cannabis operator Calyx Peak Companies.
“Female cannabis consumers in this age group are growing at double the rate of men,” McLaughlin says. “They’re under pressure and stress, looking to have control of their health. They’re looking for their health and wellness go-tos. Cannabis is falling into that group for them.”
In addition, BDS data shows Gen X cannabis consumers are health conscious, Lukas says. “About 50% of them put a high priority on taking care of themselves, and 66% believe marijuana is healthier than alcohol,” she says. “It’s not surprising that cannabis is part of their personal health and personal wellness.”
3. Gen Xers want convenience and clarity
Gen X is the busiest generation of cannabis consumers, which is why they place a high value on convenience, says Jennifer Culpepper, creative director and founder of cannabis branding agency Brand Joint. “Anything that adds convenience is definitely going to be a plus,” she says.
Culpepper suggests dispensaries offer convenience-oriented services, such as delivery or drive-thru options. “Being able to order online and pick it up, or order online and pick it up through the drive-thru, would definitely be a benefit and a service that would be appreciated,” she says.
These types of services are particularly appealing to women in this age group.
“Female Gen Xers don’t have the time,” McLaughlin says. “The way to speak to her is to make it clear and quick and appealing. It can’t be confusing.”
Lukas says the quest for convenience extends to consumption format, a key driver for Gen X purchases. BDS data suggests this is less about discreteness than ease of consumption.
4. Gen Xers’ habits shift with clock and calendar
Across all generations, consumption habits vary depending on the time of day and time of week. But Lukas says the shift in consumption reasons and product preferences is accentuated with Gen X. Pain relief, stress management and recreational uses are common preferences among Gen X consumers, according to Lukas.
BDS insights reveal 71% of Gen X cannabis consumers in adult-use states consume for recreational/social reasons, with inhalables a typical recreational choice. Fifty-seven percent consume for health/medical reasons, with topicals leading the way for that use.
Culpepper attributes Gen Xers’ taste range, in part, to their place in the generational scheme—old enough to have been exposed to traditional forms of cannabis but young enough to have an open mind.
“Because it’s that in-between generation, I still see a lot of flower use,” she says. “But I also see a lot more trying new things and being more open … and not necessarily tied to one particular type of consumption method.”
5. Gen Xers buy more per trip and per month—from places they trust
One pivotal way Gen X cannabis consumers deviate from their “average” profile is spending. Lukas reports that Gen X cannabis consumers in adult-use states buy more per shopping trip and more per month than other generations, reflecting the multiple uses in their lives.
“In most cases, they’re buying different products for different needs,” she shares.
Where Gen X spends those dollars depends on trust—the No. 1 driver for their dispensary choice. The No. 2 driver for Gen X dispensary choice? Convenience of location. With this generation, Lukas says it’s less about products, cultivars, prices, discounts and loyalty programs than with other consumer segments.
“Their focus on where they shop is really tied to the staff and how they feel when they walk in,” she explains. “They want to feel like they’re getting good recommendations and that it’s a trustworthy place.”
Tune in next issue for part three of this series when Cannabis Dispensary examines millennials and Gen Z.
Jolene Hansen is a freelance writer and frequent contributor to GIE Media Horticulture Group publications. Reach her at jolene@lovesgarden.com.
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Melissa Schiller
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