The New Mexico Senate Judiciary Committee has voted 6-4 to table a bill that would have legalized adult-use cannabis in the state.
The bill’s supporters told the Albuquerque Journal that after the committee’s Feb. 12 vote, the legislation is likely dead for this year’s 30-day legislative session, which ends next week.
“We’d have no chance of getting it through now,” Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino (D-Albuquerque) told the news outlet. “This is a setback, but I think in the long run it will produce a better bill.”
Ortiz y Pino introduced NM S.B. 115 Jan. 16, and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham seemed eager to sign a legalization bill this year after announcing that she was officially adding cannabis legalization to the state’s 2020 legislative agenda.
NM S.B. 115 overcame a key hurdle Jan. 28 when it cleared the Senate Public Affairs Committee in a 4-3 vote, but its fate in the Judiciary Committee was always a bit more uncertain. Committee Chairman Sen. Joseph Cervantes (D-Las Cruces) has expressed concerns in the past about adult-use legalization in the state, and questioned provisions in this particular bill, including one that would give labor unions a role in deciding who would be awarded cannabis dispensary licenses, the Albuquerque Journal reported.
“I am disappointed but not deterred by tonight’s committee motion,” Lujan Grisham said in a public statement following the Judiciary Committee’s vote. “The door remains open. We will keep working to get it done. And ultimately, we will deliver thousands of careers for New Mexicans in a new and clean and exciting industry, a key new component of a diversifying economy."
Emily Kaltenbach, New Mexico state director for the Drug Policy Alliance, echoed this sentiment.
"We are very disappointed that a bill that would have done the right thing for New Mexicans—an overwhelming majority of which support marijuana legalization—was tabled," she said in a public statement. "As a result, the communities that have been most impacted by prohibition will continue to be left out in the cold, along with those that could have benefited from the investment made in substance use disorder treatment and education, not to mention the boost this would have provided to New Mexico’s economy. This fight is far from over, but it’s unfortunate that New Mexicans will have to continue to wait."
Photo courtesy of Clever Leaves
Medical Cannabis Exports in Colombia Promise Massive Market Potential
“Colombia will be a world leader in cannabis in a few years," a national cannabis association leader tells CBT.
International cannabis companies are rushing to Colombia, attracted by the country’s relatively advanced regulation, beefed-up security, cheap production costs and perfect weather conditions with many companies already anticipating growing exports of medical cannabis beginning this year.
Unlike many countries in the region that only recently approved the clinical use of cannabis (like Perú), Colombia is further along the track after approving its regulatory framework in July 2016, which sets rules for the production, distribution, sale and export of seeds as well as derivative cannabis products.
With the passage of Law 1787, Colombia joined the more than a dozen countries that have put into practice different types of regulation to explore the advantages of this plant as an alternative pharmaceutical, Rodrigo Arcila, president of the Colombian Cannabis Association (Asocolcanna), said.
Clever Leaves
Greenhouse-grown medical cannabis in Colombia.
“Colombia will be a world leader in cannabis in a few years. Investors have poured about US$600 million in medical cannabis, including farms and laboratories of by-products in about three years,” Arcila told Cannabis Business Times,noting that companies invested between US$200,000 and $300,000 per hectare cultivated and as much as $1.5 million per hectare in laboratory buildout.
Located close to the equatorial line, cannabis plantations can soak up sun 12 hours all year, compared with cannabis producers in Europe or North America who must install greenhouses to guarantee production throughout the year.
Investors have also compared the costs of growing cannabis in Colombia with international counterparts as they can find skilled cheap labor force with experience in the flower industry and inexpensive land. According to the consultancy firm Crop America, while a gram of cannabis flower costs between US$0.50 and US$0.80 to produce in Colombia, in Canada it can cost US$2.10.
Colombian-Canadian company Pharmacielo said the country’s strong sunlight, fertile soil and even 12-hour day and night cycle makes this country the best place in the world to grow cannabis.
“Our producing costs per gram of dry flower are US$0.04. In Canada, the cheapest that anyone has declared is US$0.95. That is dramatically different. Our outdoor cultivation process in Rionegro [Antioquia] receives 12 hours of light and 12 hours of dark. It is the perfect location and the perfect temperature,” David Gordon, chief corporate officer of Pharmacielo, told Cannabis Business Times in an interview.
Pharmacielo has 12.1 hectares (1.3 million square feet) of production and a sophisticated laboratory in the northwestern province of Antioquia.
Colombia’s business attraction also includes the range of trade agreements, especially those with countries where medical cannabis has also been regulated—such as Canada, the European Union and certain parts of the United States.
All those factors explain the frenzy in the industry. Currently, there are 160 companies with licenses operating in 22 of Colombia’s 32 departments, Arcila said.
Investment comes from Canada, followed by the U.S. and the EU. As a result, 70% of the companies with licenses for medical cannabis are 70%-owned by foreign capital and 30%-owned by national investors.
Colombian think tank Fedesarrollo sees export revenues from the cannabis industry bringing in US$109 million in 2020 before ballooning to US$800 million 2025 and then hitting an average of $2.3 billion in a decade.
(Other studies are even more optimistic. The firm Econcept—backed by three former ministers Juan Carlos Echeverry, Mauricio Santamaría and Tomás González—stated that this sector could achieve exports worth as much as than US$17.7 billion in the long term, even more than the oil industry, which for now remains the top source of government revenues.)
Private producer medcann Colombia, the local unit of Canadian producer medcann Pharma, believes the number of hectares licensed for medical cannabis this year has surpassed the estimates of Fedesarrollo. medcann Colombia alone expects to have 300 hectares cultivated by February 2021, Jon Ruiz, president of medcann Pharma, said in an interview.
“This is an industry that will have several thousand hectares in production in a few years,” he noted.
medcann, which currently has 23 hectares in production, expects to end the year with as much as 70 hectares cultivated and reach 300 hectares in February 2021 in the eastern province of Meta, Ruiz said.
medcann Pharma signed an agreement with Colombian laboratory Botaniki Lab to supply 600 annual tons of dried cannabis flower. The delivery of CBD-rich cannabis will demand from medcann to initially cultivate 300 hectares.
While cannabis exports are set to grow, so too will the number of hectares licensed for cannabis production.
By 2030, Fedesarollo estimates that 1,558 hectares will be licensed to cultivate cannabis plants, resulting in exports of as much as $3.06 billion under an optimistic scenario with international prices only dropping slightly, according to Fedesarrollo.
“Like in coffee, we hope Colombia will be distinguished as a world potential in production of very high-quality medical cannabis,” Arcila said.
Exports set to rise
Asocolcanna said small quantities of cannabis exported last year are part of sample research purposes, but formal exports of non-psychoactive and psychoactive cannabis are set to begin this year.
Clever Leaves, a leading vertically-integrated licensed producer of pharmaceutical grade medical cannabis and hemp extracts, became the first company to legally export cannabis from Colombia. In February of last year, it sent 360 grams of CBD-rich cannabis for research purposes to Canada. It also sent 5,500 hemp oil byproducts to the UK in August 2019. The company also sent CBD isolate to Australia, according to Gustavo Escobar, chief innovation officer at Clever Leaves.
With 15 hectares fully in production in the central province of Boyacá and a sophisticated laboratory in Tocancipá, located 44km north of Bogotá, Clever Leaves said it is capable of extracting 24,000 kilograms of dried flower, with plans to expand extraction capacity to 324,000 kilograms of dried flower in the near future, depending on revenue traction, the consolidation of international demand and the acceleration of regulatory approvals not only in Colombia but also in buying nations.
“Our goal is to expand to 100 hectares by around 2023,” Escobar said. “This is an important year for the consolidation of exports of different companies. In our case, we have built an important operational capacity in terms of cultivation and extraction capacity.”
Clever Leaves, controlled by Northern Swan Holdings Inc. and Eagle Canada Holding, is also expanding its cultivation and extraction capabilities to Portugal, where it has 85 hectares.
“The reason why it was promoted having an operation in Portugal is because Colombia by regulation does not allow the commercialization of dried flower as a final product. The regulation in Colombia is oriented to the added-value-products and the extraction of final products. Global demand mostly recognizes the flower as a final product. Since there is a possibility to produce dry flowers and offer it, we considered the Portugal operation,” Escobar said.
Clever Leaves also received a quota to cultivate, extract and commercialize high-THC medical cannabis in Colombia. The grant comes as a result of commercial quotas allocated to by the Colombian Technical Quotas Group (TQG), although the company declined to provide exact figures about the quota granted and amount set to export.
Clever Leaves expects cannabis plantations with THC content to be ready during the second half of this year.
Meanwhile, the company is also eyeing growing exports of pharmaceutical products to Germany, but it declined to provide an export target. It is also seeing exports to CBD and THC to Perú and Brazil.
Meanwhile, PharmaCielo announced Jan. 27 that it entered into a three-year agreement with Canadian XPhyto Therapeutics Corp to supply at least 30,000 kilograms of medicinal-quality cannabis extract oils and isolates over a three-year period, including those containing THC for the German market where XPhyto has subsidiaries.
“PharmaCielo could supply CBD isolates, broad-based or full spectrum (cannabis) depending on the market needs,” Gordon said. The company expects its exports to begin mid-2020
In August of last year, PhamaCielo exported CBD isolate to Swiss pharmaceutical company Creso Pharma, but the company declined to provide the amount exported.
When asked Pharmacielo’s export target, Gordon declined to provide those figures, claiming that Pharmacielo is a publicly-traded company in Canada.
On Jan. 17, PharmaCielo Colombia Holdings, the local unit of Pharmacielo also received by the TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV) approval for exports of Colombian medicinal-grade CBD isolate in the U.S. in an order for up to US$3 million.
“Each of those exports is important. Each one is the first time someone has opened the door from Colombia to that market. Once the door is open, we can do more,” Gordon said. “Every first shipment is a regulatory challenge. Each country has their own import requirements.”
PharmaCielo, which currently has 12.1 hectares in production, said it will supply plant seedlings to over 1,000 hectares (2,500 acres) of contract growers’ open-air greenhouses ready for cultivation.
“That doesn’t happen overnight but it happens over time and the first two growing facilities have been identified, and are coming on stream soon,” he said .
In August of last year, medcann Colombia became the first company with a quota granted by the government for the processing and export of psychoactive cannabis. medcann is currently negotiating high-THC cannabis with three companies but declined to provide further details, Ruiz said.
The headache of licenses
Stiff regulation has complicated the production and exports of cannabis products with many investors saying the export approval process is tortuous. Companies also warned that Colombia could lose its competitive advantages quickly if permits are not approved quicker.
“The regulatory framework has proven to be a bit complex to accompany the speed of industry development and world demand. Even the domestic market has proven to be too strict,” Ruiz said.
Regulation requires growers to get licenses from government offices ranging from the Justice Ministry to the National Food and Drug Surveillance Institute, INVIMA. Companies are required licenses for the manufacture of cannabis by-products, the use of seeds for planting, growing psychoactive cannabis plants and growing plants.
“Colombia has deregulated something that was forbidden for 40 years. The problem is that regulation is so cumbersome that other countries like Peru and Ecuador are boosting proceedings now, and they advancing by leaps and grounds,” Ruiz said.
The other problem is the avalanche of requests for licenses, which has required increasing government staff to process them.
As of September, the Ministry of Justice had approved 325 licenses for the cultivation of psychoactive and non-psychoactive cannabis of the total 1,802 requests. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health had granted 135 licenses for manufacture of by-products as of September, compared with the 646 applications received, Arcila said.
License requests to cultivate cannabis jumped from 68 in 2017 to 1,017 in 2018 and 717 in 2019. Of that total, there are 1,388 licenses pending approval, while 66 were rejected.
But obtaining a license is not a guarantee to be fully in the business
‘It’s like holding a passport without a visa,” said Ruiz.
The industry has also complained about the delays to obtain quotas to cultivate, extract, and commercialize THC medical cannabis. Clever Leaves requested THC medical cannabis quotes early in 2019, for instance, but it only obtained them at the end of 2019.
Hemp Goes Hot Because of Genetics, Not Stress, Researchers Find
Recent findings from Cornell University highlight the importance of genetics and the need for early testing to determine a plant’s sex and THC and CBD levels.
Researchers from Cornell University have concluded that high levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) are a result of genetics, not—as commonly thought—as a stress response to growing conditions.
The study of hemp’s likelihood to test “hot,” meaning it contains more than the legal limit of 0.3% THC, was recently published in the journal Global Change Biology-Bioenergy.
“[People thought] there was something about how the farmer grew the plant, something about the soil, the weather got too hot, his field was droughted, something went wrong with the growing conditions,” said Larry Smart, Ph.D., senior author and professor at the School of Integrative Plant Science at Cornell to the Cornell Chronicle. “But our evidence from this paper is that fields go hot because of genetics, not because of environmental conditions.”
Smart and his team studied the genetics and chemistry of 217 hemp plants at two sites in Ithaca and Geneva, New York. They found that differences in growing conditions between the sites had no significant influence on which chemicals the plants produced. However, they did find a correlation between the plant’s genetics and THC and cannabidiol (CBD) levels.
Jacob Toth, first author and second-year doctoral student in Smart’s lab, developed molecular markers to determine if their hemp plants fell into one of three genetic categories: plants with two THC-producing genes, plants with two CBD-producing genes or plants with one gene each for CBD and THC.
Researchers concluded that to minimize the risk of plants going hot, hemp growers should grow plants with two CBD-producing genes. To help breeders and cultivators, they have developed genetic markers that can be used on seedlings to determine genes for THC production and the sex of hemp plants prior to flowering.
Hemp Bill Moves Forward in South Dakota
The state House passed a bill that would legalize and regulate growth, processing and transportation of industrial hemp.
The South Dakota House has passed a hemp bill, signaling the latest step forward in the crop’s trudge toward legalization in the state.
If passed, the bill would legalize and regulate growth, processing and transportation of industrial hemp, reports Kota TV.
The news station reports House legislators passed the bill with a two-thirds majority without debate. They passed a bill last year for hemp legalization as well, but it was vetoed by state Gov. Kristi Noem.
Up until recently, Noem was outspoken in her opposition to hemp in the state due to concerns over “public safety, law enforcement [and] funding,” she said in her latest State of the State Address in January. But the governor recently changed her tune and said she was willing to pass the bill “in the interest of being proactive.”
The bill now heads to the state Senate, where it will also need a two-thirds majority vote to pass. If Noem then signs it into law, the bill has an emergency clause that would allow it to go into effect immediately.
South Dakota’s legislative session for the year ends March 30.
The state is currently just one of three in the country that doesn’t allow farmers to legally grow hemp (the other two are Mississippi and Idaho)
Greenhouse Wellness: 'Doing Dispensary' Their Way
Greenhouse Wellness co-founders Gina Dubbé and Dr. Leslie Apgar have created a family-like and entrepreneurial culture, fueling a positive, profitable business.
Greenhouse Wellness co-founder and Medical Director Dr. Leslie Apgar wanted to create “an atmosphere of learning and growth and support” when she and Gina Dubbé started the Baltimore-area dispensary less than three years ago. Their vision is reflected in the dispensary’s design, which features natural lighting, white leather furniture, fresh flowers and crystal chandeliers—a warmth they feel distinguishes them from other medical or retail settings. It’s a work environment that the company has described as feeling “like family.”
The dispensary’s homey vibe may be one of the reasons the company continues to receive recognition as a great workplace. Greenhouse Wellness has twice been named one of Baltimore Business Journal’s Best Places to Work. Now it adds top billing in Cannabis Dispensary’s 2020 “Best Cannabis Companies to Work For” ranking. From the company’s furnishings to its culture, Greenhouse Wellness’ Dubbé and Apgar are “doing dispensary” their way.
Knowledge Workers
For Apgar and Dubbé, creating an exemplary workplace was a priority from the start. “I’m too old to work with people who aren’t amazing,” Apgar jokes. “To cultivate a culture of kindness and collaboration and to create win-win relationships is always top of mind for me.”
Education for patients and employees was a key component of the culture the pair conceived. “I wanted [our employees] to be ambassadors for the medical cannabis journey,” Apgar says.
Hiring employees in tune with those goals has been fundamental to the dispensary’s success. Given Maryland’s status as a medical-only cannabis state, Dubbé and Apgar felt a commitment to health and fitness was an important employee prerequisite. Most of the dispensary’s employees have advanced degrees in one of those areas.
But academic achievements aren’t the qualification that really makes Greenhouse Wellness tick. “We also felt that kindness was an essential part of who we hired,” Dubbé says. “As a point of fact, we hire people based on those criteria, and then if we have to teach them cannabis, we do. But we really want them to be kind to people that come in.”
Apgar agrees that personal qualities outshine impressive backgrounds and cannabis knowledge. “We do feel that you should hire the personality and train the skill,” she says. “We don’t expect to hire people that have our level of understanding or sophistication about the science behind why [cannabis] is working, but we really want to hire the personality.”
In the quest for kindness, Greenhouse Wellness looks for applicants who go the extra mile. And for anyone who sees kindness as intangible, Dubbé can list the ways it manifests at the dispensary every day. She shares the example of some retired nurses on the dispensary staff.
“I’ve watched them walk people to their car, give people a hug, and they just seem to know and understand the temperature of the person—not in degrees, but in where their soul is that day,” she says. At Greenhouse Wellness, healing encompasses both symptomatic issues and the person within.
The Greenhouse Wellness dispensary features an open design and natural lighting to create an approachable, inviting environment.
Career and Personal Growth
As entrepreneurs with numerous academic and professional achievements between them, Dubbé and Apgar actively seek to share their experience and expertise with the dispensary staff. Employees are trained and nurtured with personal and professional development in mind.
“We want people who want to be their own operators,” Dubbé says. “We’ll help train them to be at our place, but we think that we’re growing future entrepreneurs.” To cultivate entrepreneurial seeds and further Greenhouse Wellness’ educational goals, employee learning programs go way beyond cannabis benefits and product formats.
As one example, the company brought in its accounting firm to teach its employees how to start a company. The class covered topics such as how to incorporate, how to create an LLC, what to look for in a business plan and how to formulate a cash strategy, among other things.
While some dispensary owners might see the class’s content as irrelevant to dispensary staffers or, even worse, as equipping future competition, the pair doesn’t see it that way. “We figure the smarter they are and the more they want to succeed, the better it is for us and our patients,” Dubbé says.
Greenhouse Wellness employees also benefit from mentorship programs, leadership training, self-development activities, job shadowing and cross training—all intended to further the dispensary’s goals for employee education and growth.
Most of Greenhouse Wellness’ staff has a background in health or fitness, and collaboration between employees is encouraged.
Feeling ‘Like Family’
Family-centric thinking is an important piece of what makes the company a great place to work. Opportunities for flexible working hours and minimal overtime add to the family-owned business’s appeal. Full-time employees qualify for medical benefits after 30 days on the job. Staff dinners, retreats and outings serve to reinforce the family-like workplace atmosphere.
While business-focused development plays an important role, Greenhouse Wellness’ commitment to personal development and fulfillment extends beyond its walls. One of the most popular and valued benefits among the dispensary’s employees is the company’s policy of unlimited, unpaid personal time off.
“As for vacation and time off, we accommodate most anything and any duration,” Dubbé explains. “We don’t pay for the vacation, but we encourage our employees to experience the world the way that they want to.” The company actively encourages staff to take advantage of this benefit.
“They can go to India, they can go to Russia or wherever they want to go, and if they need two or three or four weeks, we’re going to do whatever we have to do to accommodate that,” Dubbé says.
The co-founders believe that granting employees the flexibility to experience life in ways that many employers don’t allow—whether that’s a dream vacation or a month-long wedding break—delivers a payoff in the end. “What happens is the employee that comes back is appreciative and will go the extra mile for the business,” Dubbé says.
The same accommodating philosophy applies to sick time. “If one of the staff is sick, we’re going to do whatever we have to do to accommodate [that person’s] needs,” Dubbé explains. Different employees have different needs; some have chronic illness, while others care for sick loved ones. “How could we say no?” she asks.
“If you are sincere and true to your mission statement and to your goals about why you started the company and what you’re trying to get out of the company, [then] you’re going to create a workspace that perpetuates that—and it spreads like wildfire,” says Dr. Leslie Apgar, co-founder and medical director
Employee Empowerment
Employees must feel respected in the workplace for a strong, supportive staff to take shape, Apgar says. She believes that Greenhouse Wellness pays employees a little more than its competitors, but compensation is only one part of the formula for workplace respect.
A greater factor in employee satisfaction is the collaborative atmosphere where patients and employees benefit from everyone’s expertise. With a staff that includes retired nurses, fitness enthusiasts and chemistry majors, Dubbé and Apgar encourage collaboration among team members whenever a patient visits the dispensary.
“When a patient comes in, it isn’t like, ‘Oh, you’re meeting with her.’ If somebody else at the [counter] has something to offer, we like them to chime in,” Dubbé says. “It’s a group project, and every patient is important to all of us. So, we just operate a little differently.”
“We want people who want to be their own operators. We’ll help train them to be at our place, but we think that we’re growing future entrepreneurs.” Gina Dubbé, co-founder, managing director
Sharing the dispensary’s perspective with the greater community is also an integral part of the company culture. The company offers paid time for employees to participate in community outreach, company-sponsored community service initiatives and volunteer opportunities.
“We invest in the community. We’ll teach. We’ll go into hospitals, hospice and doctor offices. We also have classes for the community,” Dubbé says. In addition, the company plans to launch a recycling program later this year. “We strongly believe in our community and that our job is to support it,” she shares.
Apgar reiterates that the dispensary’s educational focus is its most important asset. “With any kind of community outreach and with any kind of effort outside of our dispensary, we’re only increasing the number of those that are exposed and trained to what medical cannabis is and does,” she says. “That’s why our focus is there; it’s the right thing to do. When you cultivate a culture of kindness, it returns to you. So, we’re really just trying to model the way in everything that we do.”
Dubbé and Apgar hold quarterly employee meetings, where information is shared between the leaders and employees. They also conduct satisfaction surveys twice a year, as open and ongoing feedback is important to the co-founders.
Leading by Example
Open communication is another key to overall workplace satisfaction and employee engagement. Dubbé and Apgar hold quarterly employee meetings, conduct satisfaction surveys twice a year and encourage an environment of open, ongoing feedback from their employees. Apgar says she and Dubbé also try to “lead by example,” which helps to build employee buy-in.
“What I’m trying to say is that if you are sincere and true to your mission statement and to your goals about why you started the company and what you’re trying to get out of the company, [then] you’re going to create a workspace that perpetuates that—and it spreads like wildfire,” Apgar says.
With a company culture designed to cultivate an intangible quality like kindness, it’s only fitting that employees cite an equally intangible benefit when explaining what gives their jobs meaning and makes Greenhouse Wellness the cannabis dispensary industry’s best place to work.
“They say it is the ability to touch people’s lives so intimately and so impactfully, and that the gratitude that it brings them is unlike anything that they’ve ever experienced,” Apgar says. “That’s the unifying theme: Our employees’ ability to really get down into the dirt with our patients and really figure out what’s going on and really create impactful change. That’s the thing that keeps them warm at night.”
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
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