CCMA Political greenBrief
Friday, August 17, 2018
www.cannabismanufacturers.org
“As state insurance regulators, one of our responsibilities is to understand new legal businesses and their insurance needs and then work to encourage the availability of insurance to meet these new risks and coverage needs. I look forward to working with my fellow state insurance regulators to better understand the insurance needs of the legalized cannabis industry and the role we can play in helping to address those insurance needs and other insurance regulatory issues.”CA Insurance Commissioner Daves Jones On Being Appointed Chair Of The National Association Of Insurance Commissioners To Help The Legal Cannabis Industry In The U.S.
“The evolving cannabis industry has sales in the billions, yet the industry has been consistently shut out of the banking system leading to unavoidable issues in business management, but more importantly, public safety.”Amy Jenkins, Spokeswoman For The CA Cannabis Industry Association On The Rejection Of Cannabis Banks
California Insurance Commissioner Appointed Chair Of National Cannabis Insurance Committee (USA – Cannabis Leadership)
The Press (August 15, 2018) The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) (recently) voted to establish a Cannabis Insurance Working Group to address the issue of insurance availability for the legalized cannabis industry. Recognizing California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones’ leadership on the issue, the NAIC appointed Jones chair of the NAIC Cannabis Insurance Working Group. At the NAIC’s Summer National Meeting, Jones proposed that the NAIC establish this working group to enable state insurance regulators to better understand where there are insurance coverage gaps for the legalized cannabis industry and to share and develop best practices for state insurance regulators to follow to address coverage gaps and cannabis insurance regulatory issues.
California Bill To Create State-Backed Pot Bank Stalls (CA – Cannabis Legislation)
The Sacramento Bee (August 16, 2018) California lawmakers killed a plan Thursday to create a state-backed banking system for the recreational marijuana market, meaning the industry must keep operating in cash for now. Most banks refuse to do business with marijuana growers, distributors and sellers because the drug is still illegal under federal law. 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.
https://www.sacbee.com/news/bu
California Lawmakers Reject Marijuana Banking Plan And Panic Buttons For Hotel Workers In A Frenzy Of Sacramento Action (CA – Cannabis Banking)
Los Angeles Times (August 16, 2018) Facing a key deadline for legislation to move forward, California lawmakers on Thursdayrejected dozens of bills, including a state-run bank for marijuana growers, government healthcare services for those in the U.S. illegally and hotel panic buttons for cleaning crews who fear sexual assault. Lawmakers on the appropriations committees in both houses of the California Legislature acted on more than 600 bills, rejecting about 150 of them. The Legislature will adjourn for the year at the end of the month and the bills that moved forward will head to final votes in the Assembly and Senate.
http://www.latimes.com/politic
Tax Revenue from California’s Legal Marijuana Falls Short Of Estimates (CA – Cannabis Taxation)
High Times (August 16, 2018) Tax revenue from California’s legal marijuana market fell far short of estimates in the second quarter, state officials have announced. The California Department of Tax and Fee Administration released figures for the period April through June 2018 on Wednesday. California’s excise tax on cannabis generated nearly $43.5 million in revenue during that time. The cultivation tax generated almost $4.5 million, and the sales tax generated more than $26 million in revenue.
https://hightimes.com/news/tax
Proposed State Legislation Could Allow Legal Home Deliveries Of Marijuana Across California (CA – Cannabis Legislation)
ABC 30 (August 16, 2018) Pizza, pasta, and now pot? Cannabis supporters are pushing to add marijuana deliveries to Fresno’s menu. Not everyone is happy. For the last two years, Proposition 64 gave the city the power to prohibit pot stores and services from opening here. Now, California’s Bureau of Cannabis Control wants to change the law. They want marijuana businesses to be able to deliver to any private address in the state, even if it’s banned there.
https://abc30.com/politics/pro
California Legal Cannabis Market Struggles Could Reshape Rules (CA – State Regulation)
NBC San Diego (August 14, 2018) The nation’s largest legal marijuana market is struggling. Illicit sales continue to thrive. A shaky supply chain has customers looking at barren shelves in some shops. There are testing problems. And a proposal to allow home marijuana deliveries in cities that have banned pot sales could lead to a courtroom fight. A Los Angeles hearing Tuesday provided a window into the state’s emerging cannabis economy, in which early enthusiasm for broad legal sales has been followed by anxiety and frustration across a swath of the industry.
Judge Blocks SLO County From Ripping Marijuana Plants Off California Valley Farm — For Now (CA – Cannabis Cultivation)
San Luis Obispo Tribune (August 16, 2018) A judge has maintained a San Luis Obispo County finding that a cannabis farm in California Valley is violating code — upholding the county’s new cannabis abatement process — but he blocked the county from ripping out plants at the farm for at least the next 30 days. While the legal dispute is over a single cultivation site, it’s a test case for a group of cannabis growers looking to challenge county code enforcement abatement orders in an effort to save their harvests.
https://www.sanluisobispo.com/
Medical Marijuana Services Now Permitted In Arroyo Grande (CA – Delivery Services)
Cal Coast News (August 15, 2018) The Arroyo Grande City Council repealed a disputed regulation on Tuesday that required marijuana delivery services to have a physical location — that had to be outside the South County city — in order to deliver to customers with its jurisdiction. Following the ordinance amendment, any medical marijuana delivery service licensed in California can now make deliveries in Arroyo Grande.
https://calcoastnews.com/2018/
California Cannabis Taxes Generate $74 Million In 2nd Quarter (CA – Cannabis Taxation)
Ganjapreneur (August 16, 2018) California’s cannabis tax numbers are in for the second quarter of 2018 and the numbers suggest the market is trending toward compliance, despite the market’s rocky start. In contrast, the state’s first quarter cannabis tax total was $60.9 million ($32 million in excise taxes, $1.6 million in cultivation taxes, and $27.3 million in sales taxes). Medical cannabis is not taxed in California.
https://www.ganjapreneur.com/c
This Bill In Congress Could Bring Top Marijuana Companies To The U.S. (USA – Cannabis Policy)
Investor’s Business Daily (August 16, 2018) Canopy Growth reportedly said it would be able to “move ahead” into the U.S. if legislation were in place preventing the federal government from interfering with state cannabis policies, as marijuana stocks eye a potentially friendlier U.S. market. While more states are legalizing cannabis, the uncertainty at the federal level has kept some marijuana companies and their partners on the sidelines. In January, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded the laissez-faire Obama-era guidance that enabled many states to move forward with some form of pot legalization.
https://www.investors.com/news
DEA Wants More Marijuana Grown And Fewer Opioids Produced In 2019. Really. (USA – CaCannabis Cultivation)
Forbes (August 16, 2018) The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) isn’t exactly known as big fan of marijuana. But in a new Federal Register filing set to be published soon, the anti-drug agency is moving to more than quintuple the amount of cannabis that can legally be grown in the U.S. for research purposes—from roughly 1,000 pounds in 2018 to more than 5,400 pounds next year. At the same time, DEA is also pushing to reduce the amount of certain opioid drugs—such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, morphine, fentanyl and others—that are produced in the U.S.
5 Marijuana Stocks With The Highest Expected Sales Next Year (USA – Cannabis Investments)
The Motley Fool (August 17, 2018) Exactly two months from today, what had once seemed impossible will become a reality. On Oct. 17, 2018, recreational marijuana will go on sale in our neighbor to the north, making Canada the first industrialized country in the world to legalize adult-use weed. As you can probably imagine, legalizing pot is expected to yield some potentially huge dollar figures for the industry and hopefully for investors who’ve placed their hard-earned money into marijuana stocks, as well.
https://www.fool.com/investing
New Report Shows Medical Marijuana Job Postings On The Rise (USA – Cannabusiness)
Pot Network (August 15, 2018) According to a new report out by international job and hiring platform Joblift, overall job growth in the medical marijuana sector is “outstripping the national average.” The company, which uses machine learning techniques and big data-based algorithms in its hiring platform analyzed over 3,300 online postings for medical marijuana jobs from the past year, constituting the whole of the sector. Still, the data found that while employment prospects in the cannabis space are trending upwards nationally, out in California, which has one of the largest legal cannabis economies of scale, job growth in the sector is declining.
https://www.potnetwork.com/new
Navigating The Top 3 Post-Startup Challenges For Cannabis Businesses (USA – Cannabusiness)
New Haven Register (August 17, 2018) Setting up a cannabis business is complicated. However, the challenges won’t end when you open your doors. As per Marijuana Business Daily, the top challenges that at least one in three cannabis businesses face are federal laws, compliance and scalability/growth. Make sure you have a really solid understanding of compliance requirements and have a compliance program in place. What other type of problems should you look out for?
