CCMA Greenbrief June 25: CA Cannabis Industry Seeing Big Business Take Over Market…NorCal Cannabis Community Seeing Light After Wildfire Devastation…STATES Act Seeing No Signs Of Advancement…

CCMA Political greenBrief

Monday, June 25, 2018

www.cannabismanufacturers.org

“Right now what we need to be doing, especially with the folks that have come into the system, is working on compliance, working on implementation, making sure that the regulations are working in the way they are supposed to. And we should be putting a clearer focus on those operating in the unregulated market who are making no attempt to be better stewards. More barriers in the way of permitting right now seems like a bad idea.”
Hezekiah Allen, Executive Director Of The California Growers Association, On The Humboldt County Illicit Grow Operations That Are Potentially Hurting The Environment 
“Support for ending marijuana prohibition is stronger than ever and growing fast among members of Congress. While the Judiciary Committee chairs’ statements are disappointing, it’s promising to see members like Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who fought reform efforts for years, come out in support.”
Mason Tvert, Spokesperson For The Marijuana Policy Project, On The STATES Act
Big Business Is Taking Over California’s Marijuana Industry (CA – Cannabis Industry)
The Motley Fool (June 23, 2018) The legal cannabis industry is budding in North America. Yeah, it may sound cliche, but there’s really no better way to describe the rapid growth in legal weed sales. According to cannabis research firm ArcView, legal pot revenue grew by 33% in 2017 to $9.7 billion in North America, and it’s expected to near $25 billion by 2021, representing a compound annual growth rate of a scorching 28%.
Northern California’s Cannabis Community Is Picking Up The Pieces Six Months After The Wildfires (CA – Cannabusiness)
Civilized (June 22, 2018) At 1:30 a.m. on October 8th, Jennifer Michaels was awake in bed in her Sonoma County home. She had two important meetings the next day, and while she noticed the fire out the window, she was mostly thinking about the cannabis seed company in Las Vegas she was meeting with. It wasn’t until they were heading out the next morning that Michaels and her husband saw the full reach of the wildfire all around them. They turned around, hoping to grab what they could from their home.
California To Destroy All The Pre-Legalization Weed Dispensaries Don’t Sell By July (CA – Cannabis Retailers)
Herb (June 24, 2018) Dispensaries across California are rushing to sell all of their products that will be illegal after June 30th. Starting on July 1st, cannabis retailers in the state will only be able to sell products that have been independently lab-tested, as required by the recreational marijuana law passed in 2016. This means everything they have on their shelves from the medical marijuana-only days will have to go or, according to state law, be destroyed.
Efforts To Regulate California’s Cannabis Capital Spark Legal Fight (CA – Cannabis Cultivation)
News Deeply (June 25, 2018) When Californian’s voted to legalize recreational cannabis in 2016, the new law left room for municipalities to decide if, and how much, of the industry they wanted in their jurisdictions. That reckoning is happening now up on the rugged northern coast of the state in Humboldt County – part of the heralded “Emerald Triangle” – where (mostly unregulated) cannabis cultivation has been a key driver of the local economy for decades.
VIDEO: High Pot Taxes Are A Drag For Californians (CA – Cannabis Market)
Reuters (June 25, 2018) The legalization of recreational marijuana in California this year was meant to bring the drug out of the dark and into the open. But half a year in, industry experts say surprisingly high taxes are giving some consumers sticker shock and sending them back to the black market.
Meadowlands Mixes California Legislators With Public Consumption (CA – Cannabis Event)
Cannabis Now (June 18, 2018) In an outdoor amphitheater at a former Boy Scouts’ camp in the Mendocino County redwoods, Lori Ajax, chief of California’s Bureau of Cannabis Control, is addressing a crowd of business leaders from all aspects of the California cannabis supply chain. In the audience, many people are openly enjoying cannabis as they listen closely to the responses she provides to the moderator and event organizer, Meadow co-founder and CEO David Hua.
Full Vending Machines. Pot On The Pillow. What Some California Hotels Are Doing To Attract Marijuana Smokers (CA – Cannabis Hospitality) 
Los Angeles Times (June 22, 2018) A few months after California legalized recreational use of marijuana, the Desert Hot Springs Inn in the Coachella Valley began advertising itself as cannabis friendly — a place where guests can smoke by the pool or heat up a vaporizer in the rooms. What surprised innkeeper John Thatcher was not only that business improved by as much as 50% but that most of his pot-smoking guests were upper-income baby boomers.
San Francisco Remembers Dennis Peron (CA – Cannabis Activism)
Dope Magazine (June 22, 2018) The Castro District restaurant Flore had blocked off Noe Street to accommodate the tent at the center of the day’s events. I was greeted at the blockade by Lynette Shaw, friend of Dennis Peron’s who last year reopened her dispensary, Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana—the first under California’s Prop 215—after years of fighting the government. She proudly sported her Compassionate Use Act t-shirt from the 90s in honor of the man who helped draft it. Throughout the day, I spotted more of those shirts, many of them faded and with holes from years of wear—all of them worn proudly.
Pot Bill Supported By Trump Going Nowhere Fast In Congress (USA – Cannabis Legislation) 
High Times (June 22, 2018) The cannabis bill supported by President Donald Trump does not appear to have much traction with lawmakers. So far, congressional leaders have failed to back the Strengthening the Tenth Amendment Through Entrusting States Act. Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) introduced the bill in the Senate on June 7. Then the following day, Trump told reporters that he “would probably support” the STATES Act, as the bill is also known.
Legal Cannabis Market Expected To Grow 1,000% Globally Over Next Decade (USA – Cannabis Market)
Chasing Markets (June 23, 2018) Data by Arcview Market indicates that while California gets the media attention and Canada gets the investment dollars, as the country expects to legalize cannabis for recreational use, it’s the recent changes in European nations that made the biggest news of 2017 from a worldwide perspective. According to a research report provided by European investment bank, Bryan, Garnier & Co., the legal global cannabis market is expected to grow more than 1,000% over the next decade and could reach USD 140 Billion dollars by 2027.
Where Pot Is Now Legal, No-Longer-Criminals Seek Forgiveness (USA – Cannabis Convictions)
U.S. News (June 22, 2018) Despite its name, hippie reputation and liberal spirit, Vermont hasn’t always been kind to pot smokers. Now, as the state moves to legalize weed beyond medical use, those punished in the past for marijuana misdemeanors are seeking forgiveness. On July 1, Vermont will become the ninth state, along with Washington, D.C., to legalize recreational marijuana.
Pot-Derived Anti-Seizure Drug Tested (USA – Medical Benefits)
Watertown Daily Times (June 25, 2018) At 3 months old, Marissa Parsons began having frequent seizures, some lasting a half-hour. For almost two decades, her desperate parents tried drug after drug to treat her rare type of childhood epilepsy, but the medications mostly produced side effects — pancreatitis, hives and extreme drowsiness — and she was frequently hospitalized. Family outings became almost impossible. Eventually, her mother said, Marissa stopped smiling.
The Pot Industry Is Reinventing Child-Resistant Packaging Design (USA – Child Safety)
Quartzy (June 24, 2018) As anyone who’s opened a pill bottle in the last fifty years can attest, childproof packaging has remained remarkably consistent: push and twist, and off the top pops. It’s a concept that hasn’t changed in decades, until now. The legalization of recreational marijuana is unleashing a wave of creativity among package makers, as they look for ways to reinvent child-resistant design.
Could This State Be the Next To Legalize Marijuana? (USA – State Legalization)
The Motley Fool (June 24, 2018) Don’t blink. Otherwise, you might miss the rapid rate at which the legal cannabis industry is transforming before our eyes. Back in 1995, there wasn’t a state in the U.S. or a country in North America where medical marijuana or recreational marijuana were legal. Fast-forward to today, and things are markedly different.
3 Marijuana Stocks To Consider Buying Right Now (North America – Cannabis Industry)
The Motley Fool (June 25, 2018) The North American legal marijuana industry is transforming before our eyes. Canada, after years of talk, appears to be on the verge of becoming the first developed country in the world to legalize adult-use cannabis. Following passage of the Cannabis Act in the Senate and House of Commons, the bill has made its way to royal assent. By Oct. 17, 2018, adults should be able to legally purchase cannabis in Canada.
The New Model For A Health-First Approach To Legalizing Weed (Canada – Cannabis Regulations)
The Atlantic (June 22, 2018) Recreational marijuana will no longer be a priority for Canada’s criminal-justice system. This week the Senate passed legislation that will make the country the second in the world to strictly regulate weed—but technically legalize it—beginning in October. The first was Uruguay, so Canada is the first major economy, and an experimental model for the rest of the world that will inform policy for decades to come.