Among this week’s don’t-miss headlines, North Dakota Secretary of State Al Jaeger will place an adult-use cannabis legalization measure on the state’s November ballot after 14,637 signatures backed a petition. Across the border in Canada, Constellation Brands Inc., the owner of Corona beer, spent $3.8 billion to increase its stake in cannabis grower Canopy Growth Corp.
Here are the 10 headlines you need to know before this week is out.
- Federal: Inc. magazine ranked Cura Cannabis Solutions No. 45 on its 37th annual Inc. 5000, making Cura the first and only cannabis company to ever make it into the top 50 on the list. Cura, a cannabis oil provider, launched in Portland, Ore., in 2015 and continues to grow in Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona and into international markets via its upcoming Canadian headquarters. Read more
- Washington: The Washington State Liquor Control Board (WSLCB) will be rewriting its cannabis quality assurance testing and packaging rules, and regulators would like industry stakeholders to share their thoughts. Comments are due to the WSLCB by Oct. 24, while the final draft of rule changes will be filed one week later, on Oct. 31. Read more
- New Jersey: The competition is already fierce to win one of the six new medicinal marijuana licenses that New Jersey will issue later this year. More than 800 people—a mix of lawyers, consultants and entrepreneurs from as far as Colorado and as close as Pennsylvania—attended a State Health Department meeting in Trenton Aug. 9 to learn the ground rules for the application process. Read more
- North Dakota: With 14,637 qualified signatures backing the petition, North Dakota Secretary of State Al Jaeger will place an adult-use cannabis legalization measure on the state’s November ballot. A central tenet of the measure was simplicity—giving lawmakers at the state and local levels a clear path to implementation. Read more
- Michigan: A state board has approved 16 medical marijuana licenses, and licenses have now been issued for all stages of the medical marijuana system– from dispensaries to testing labs. However, there’s been some concern about having enough cannabis shops open for patients. Read more
- Louisiana: Louisiana’s first medical marijuana crop will take longer than expected to reach patients. GB Sciences, the marijuana grower for the LSU AgCenter, had hoped to provide product to the state’s nine licensed medical marijuana pharmacies by September, but the company now says the earliest harvest will likely be in November. Read more
- Missouri: Springfield attorney Brad Bradshaw, who is backing one of the three medical marijuana questions on Missouri’s November ballot, has filed lawsuits in Cole County to disqualify the other two questions. Bradshaw alleges that one of the initiatives failed to collect enough signatures, while the other broke the law when it circulated its petitions. Read more
- California: California lawmakers killed a plan Aug. 16 to create a state-backed banking system for the recreational marijuana market, meaning the industry must keep operating in cash for now. Democratic Sen. Bob Hertzberg, who suggested the creation of the state-backed bank, said forcing operators to deal in large sums of cash can be dangerous. Read more
- Canada: Ontario provincial leaders on Aug. 13 announced their intent to regulate private retail operations in the impending Canadian adult-use cannabis market. Nationwide, sales will begin Oct. 17, while in Ontario, the private stores are expected to open April 1, 2019. In between those dates, the province will operate an online sales portal and a home-delivery system through the Ontario Cannabis Store (OCS). Read more
- Constellation Brands Inc. is spending C$5 billion ($3.8 billion) to increase its stake in cannabis grower Canopy Growth Corp. in what the owner of Corona beer described as the biggest investment yet in the burgeoning marijuana industry. Constellation will raise its stake in Canopy to 38 percent in an agreement that follows an initial purchase of a 10-percent stake in the Canadian grower last year. Read more
Top Image: © Soru Epotok | Adobe Stock
