CCMA Greenbrief August 7: CA Company Creates Instant Cannabis Breathalyzer…CA To See Potential Cannabis Bank…Congress Can Finally Tell The Difference Between Hemp & Cannabis…

CCMA Political greenBrief

Tuesday, August 7, 2018

www.cannabismanufacturers.org

Santa Cruz Is Seen As A Cannabis Startup Breeding Ground By Entrepreneurs

 

“This study aims to settle the lingering critical questions about whether a public cannabis bank is possible. And if it is determined to be feasible, the report will place in our hands what amounts to a set of blueprints to design such a bank and make it fully operational.”
California State Treasurer John Chiang On Opening Up The First Cannabis Bank 
“The criteria for the program is having been directly impacted by the criminalization of cannabis which includes having been arrested for a cannabis-related crime or having a family member arrested. The program is a recognition that past policies had real, negative impacts on families and communities. This is an attempt to assist those who were negatively impacted by that and get them into business ownership positions.”
Joe Devlin, Chief Of Sacramento’s Cannabis Policy & Enforcement Department, On A City-Wide Cannabis Equity Program

California Company Says It’s Created An Instant Marijuana Breath Test Device (CA – Stoned Driving)

MPR News (August 4, 2018) As legalization of recreational and medical marijuana continues to expand, police across the country are more concerned than ever about stoned drivers taking to the nation’s roads and freeways, endangering lives. With few accurate roadside tools to detect pot impairment, police today have to rely largely on field sobriety tests developed to fight drunk driving or old-fashioned observation, which can be foiled with Visine or breath mints.

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2018/08/04/npr-california-company-says-its-created-an-instant-marijuana-breath-test-device

 

California Has Started Seriously Considering A Public Cannabis Bank (CA – Cannabis Industry)

Cannabis Now (August 4, 2018) This week, California State Treasurer John Chiang announced that a San Diego firm, Level 4 Ventures, had been selected to determine how feasible it would be for the state to establish a public cannabis bank. In a statement announcing the selection, the Office of the State Treasurer noted the need for a public cannabis bank has stirred intense interest and debate among financial experts, public officials and the cannabis industry, as well as people seeking an alternative to too-big-to-fail Wall Street behemoths.

https://cannabisnow.com/california-has-started-seriously-considering-a-public-cannabis-bank/

 

Entrepreneurs See Santa Cruz As Fertile Ground For Cannabis Startups (CA – Cannabusiness)

Mercury News (August 6, 2018) Entrepreneurs hoping to make it big in California’s new cannabis marketplace Area initiatives include an online pot marketplace, a smart-growing solution that harnesses big data and an app that allows cannabis companies to manage their delivery and transportation – to name a few. Santa Cruz Foundry, founded by Andy Van Valer and Kurt Grutzmacher, is billed as the Central Coast’s first cannabis-centered accelerator that would provide budding businesses with co-working space, mentorship and other support.

http://www.thecannifornian.com/cannabis-news/central-california/entrepreneurs-see-santa-cruz-fertile-ground-cannabis-startups/

 

Sacramento Proposes Marijuana Equity Program To Redress ‘Criminalization Of Cannabis’ In Communities Of Color (CA – Cannabis Convictions)

Capital Public Radio (August 6, 2018) From 2004 to 2016, 6,800 people were arrested solely for marijuana-related charges in Sacramento. About half of them were black. Joe Devlin, chief of the city’s Cannabis Policy and Enforcement Department, is asking the city council to approve on Tuesday a cannabis-equity program that might serve as restitution for those prosecuted under the war on drugs.

http://www.capradio.org/articles/2018/08/06/sacramento-proposes-marijuana-equity-program-to-redress-criminalization-of-cannabis-in-communities-of-color/

 

Sonoma County To Consider Pot Policy Changes (CA – Cannabusiness)

The Press Democrat (August 6, 2018) Sonoma County supervisors will consider Tuesday revising the rules governing cannabis businesses, hoping to balance the competing interests of pot farmers and neighborhood activists who don’t want commercial growing operations near their rural homes. The Board of Supervisors also is set to discuss opening the door to recreational cannabis sales in the county’s unincorporated areas, where dispensaries currently can only sell medical marijuana.

https://www.petaluma360.com/news/8607276-181/sonoma-county-to-consider-pot

 

Alameda Attracts Little Cannabis Business Interest (CA – Local Ordinances)

East Bay Times (August 7, 2018) Cannabis businesses have shown little interest in operating here in the wake of the city adopting regulations on their use. Among the reasons? A lack of suitable space to purchase or rent, and the fact that state regulations regarding cannabis are still being hammered out, leading to uncertainty within the industry.

https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2018/08/07/alameda-attracts-little-cannabis-business-interest/

 

Congress Finally Can Tell Hemp From Pot (USA – Legality)

The Atlantic (August 7, 2018) Hemp is currently a Schedule I federally controlled substance, in the same legal category as LSD, heroin, and Ecstasy. Like all forms of cannabis, it was criminalized in 1970, partially because Congress was worried that law enforcement couldn’t tell the difference between hemp and marijuana. Now, four years after universities and state agriculture departments were allowed to begin growing limited quantities of hemp for research purposes, Congress is expected in September to make the crop legal for Americans to grow for the first time in nearly 50 years.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/08/congress-finally-knows-the-difference-between-hemp-and-pot/566942/

 

Marijuana News Today: Billionaires Begin To Invest In The Marijuana Market (USA – Cannabis Investments)

Profit Confidential (August 7, 2018) You may not immediately associate chewing gum with pot in your mind, but that soon could change, as the marijuana news today features William Wrigley Jr. II, billionaire heir to the Wrigley gum fortune, jumping in with both feet into the pot industry. Wrigley Jr., through his personal investment firm, led a $65.0-million equity financing round for Surterra Wellness, a Florida-based medical marijuana company. He also now head’s the company’s board following the investment.

https://www.profitconfidential.com/marijuana/news-today-billionaires-begin-take-notice-marijuana-market/

 

4 Great Reasons To Buy This Top Marijuana Stock Right Now (USA – Cannabis Investments)

The Motley Fool (August 5, 2018) Is Scotts Miracle-Gro a lost cause? You might be tempted to think so, looking at its dismal stock performance so far this year. And a recent CNBC report about Scotts Miracle-Gro CEO Jim Hagedorn probably didn’t give investors the warm fuzzies about where things are headed, as he let loose with a profanity-laden rant directed at the management team of Hawthorne Gardening, the company’s cannabis-focused subsidiary.

https://www.fool.com/investing/2018/08/05/4-great-reasons-to-buy-this-top-marijuana-stock-ri.aspx

 

Age Matters For Marijuana Users (USA – Cannabis Use)

Psychology Today (August 7, 2018) Ask many cannabis users and they’ll insist: Marijuana is not a gateway drug. Amid the escalating, tragic opioid crisis and a growing acceptance of cannabis use in recent years, it seems that fewer equate marijuana with serious drug use or drug problems. For teens, however, there’s plenty of reason to worry. New research finds that it makes a difference how young you are when you start using marijuana—namely in terms of later developing an addiction to other substances. The younger the user is, the greater the risk of drug abuse in adulthood.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/singletons/201808/age-matters-marijuana-users

 

Will Cannabis Drinks Leave Marijuana Up In Smoke? (USA – Cannabis Products)

The Cannafornian (August 7, 2018) In three short months, Canada will become the first industrialized nation to legalize the use of recreational cannabis. While the world watches, the global cannabis industry continues to evolve in preparation for the moment. Unfortunately, the legal cannabis market is too new to be predictable. There is no way to anticipate what kinds of product consumers will choose once the new law goes into effect. Some companies, however, are banking on an alternative cannabis market.

https://www.potnetwork.com/news/will-cannabis-drinks-leave-marijuana-smoke

 

Cannabis Beer: The Latest Variation Of A 10,000-Year-Old Tradition (USA – Cannabis Products)

Haaretz (August 7, 2018) Over 10,000 years after beer was first invented, it’s hard to innovate. Apparently, though, it is possible. Among the latest wrinkles in designer quaffs are cannabis beer, and beer made using secretions harvested from models’ vaginas. Thank God the scratch ’n’ sniff era is pretty much over. Creating cannabis beer involves more than merely ashing a joint in your stein.

https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/.premium.MAGAZINE-cannabis-beer-the-latest-variation-of-a-10-000-year-old-tradition-1.6360157