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This week, U.S. Attorney General nominee Bill Barr said he would “not go after” marijuana companies in states where cannabis is legal, instead relying on Obama-era guidance that kept federal authorities from cracking down on the industry. Elsewhere, in California, the Office of Administrative Law has officially approved permanent state regulations for cannabis businesses across the supply chain.
Here, we’ve rounded up the 10 headlines you need to know before this week is over.
- Federal: U.S. Attorney General nominee Bill Barr said he would “not go after” marijuana companies in states where cannabis is legal. Barr said at his confirmation hearing on Tuesday that companies had relied on Obama-era guidance that kept federal authorities from cracking down on the cannabis trade in states where the drug is legal. Read more
- Rhode Island: Facing the “inevitable” prospect of being encircled by states that have legalized recreational marijuana, Gov. Gina Raimondo will propose that Rhode Island do the same. The proposal, included in her budget plan for the fiscal year beginning July 1, would create one of the most regulated recreational cannabis industries in the country, the governor said, aimed at reducing the health and safety problems experienced in some of the 10 other states that have approved recreational use in recent years. Read more
- Massachusetts: Surterra Wellness, one of the fastest growing health and wellness companies in the United States, and New England Treatment Access (NETA), a Massachusetts-based cannabis company, have announced a definitive agreement for Surterra to acquire NETA. The partnership adds a fourth significant cannabis market to Surterra’s rapidly growing national footprint, which also includes Florida, Texas and Nevada. Read more
- Arkansas: State regulators have cleared the first medical-marijuana growing facility in Arkansas to begin cultivating. The Alcoholic Beverage Control agency inspected Bold Team’s Cotton Plant greenhouse last week, making it the first cannabis cultivator approved to begin growing the plant in Arkansas. Read more
- New York: Canopy Growth Corp. will spend as much as $150 million to build its first production facility in the U.S. after the Canadian cannabis company was granted a hemp license by New York state. Canopy said it’s been granted a license by New York to process and produce hemp and plans to establish a hemp industrial park in the state focused on extraction and product manufacturing. Read more
- As part of his sweeping state budget, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo proposed a plan to legalize, tax and regulate adult-use cannabis and to expunge past cannabis-related conviction records of residents. Cuomo’s pitch would cap the number of cultivation, distribution and retail licenses allowed in the state, and would prohibit companies from vertically integrating. Read more
- South Carolina: Lawmakers have introduced the “Compassionate Care Act” to the statehouse, which would allow doctors to legally prescribe medical marijuana for some chronic conditions. Sen. Tom Davis said this is the most socially conservative medical marijuana bill in the country, and he doesn’t want it to lay the foundation for recreational use in the state. Read more
- Ohio: Ohio began its first medical marijuana sales Jan. 16, with four dispensaries opening for business. Right now, dispensaries can only sell marijuana buds, which patients can vaporize, but not smoke. Read more
- Michigan: At the recommendation of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Michigan’s medical marijuana licensing board will allow facilities waiting for their license to resume operations until March 31. The board, which meets once a month, has approved a little more than 50 provisioning centers in the state. Read more
- California: California’s Office of Administrative Law has officially approved state regulations for cannabis businesses across the supply chain from cultivation to retail. These new regulations take effect immediately and replace the previous emergency regulations. Read more
