CCMA Greenbrief June 1: Proposal Establishing CA Cannabis Bank Passes Senate Floor…Cannabis Taxes Aren’t Helping With The Illegal Market… Cannabis Industry Growth Expected…

CCMA Political greenBrief

Friday, June 1, 2018

www.cannabismanufacturers.org

California Is Launching The World’s First Cannabis Bank

“The status quo for our growing legal cannabis industry is unsustainable. It’s not only impractical from an accounting perspective, but it also presents a tremendous public safety problem. This bill takes a limited approach to provide all parties with a safe and reliable way to move forward on this urgent issue.”

CA State Senator Bob Hertzberg On The Future Of A Cannabis Bank

“The black market has no rules so they produce the product at a considerable discount and consumers are very sensitive to price. There are some things we can learn from other states. When they reduced the tax rate it allowed the regulatory market to compete against the black market. … It’s not just going to be able to compete because it’s legitimate. People are sensitive to price. It’s just human nature.”

CA Assemblymember Tom Lackey On How Illegal Grows Are Affecting The State

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World’s First Cannabis Bank Advances in California (USA – Cannabis Industry)

Leafly (May 31, 2018) California cannabis consumers and industry operators could enjoy a safer, more regulated legalized industry in the future, thanks to the passage of a bill to create the world’s first marijuana-focused bank. Senate Bill 930 to set up a state charter bank for the cannabis industry survived a crucial floor vote in the California Senate Thursday. Friday is the deadline for all California bills this year to clear their house of origin.

https://www.leafly.com/news/politics/worlds-first-marijuana-bank-advances-in-california

State-Backed Bank For Marijuana Businesses Passes California Senate (CA – Cannabusiness)

Sacramento CBS Local (May 30, 2018) California lawmakers moved Wednesday to create a state-backed bank to handle the billions of dollars flowing from the newly legal recreational marijuana market. The world’s largest legal recreational marijuana economy, created under a law that took effect this year, is projected to grow to $7 billion.

http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2018/05/30/marijuana-banking-california/

Californians See Marijuana Tax Sticker Shock, And There’s No Relief In Sight (CA – Cannabis Taxes)

Marijuana.com (May 30, 2018) California cannabis users got a surprise at the start of the year, when new taxes on cannabis purchases kicked in for the newly legal industry.  group of five California legislators backed  a bill that would lower taxes on all cannabis consumption — both medical and recreational — and cultivation for three years to bolster the burgeoning legalized industry, but AB 3157 failed to make it out of the Assembly appropriations committee in late May 2018.

https://www.marijuana.com/news/2018/05/californians-see-marijuana-tax-sticker-shock-and-theres-no-relief-in-sight/

The Jeff Sessions Cannabis Crackdown Has Arrived—And It’s Awesome (USA – Illegal Market) 

Leafly (May 30, 2018) This isn’t the cannabis crackdown Jeff Sessions envisioned. Back in the early days of 2017, when the newly ensconced attorney general had the cannabis industry popping Xanax and praying twice on Sunday, Sessions loved to talk smack about legal marijuana. “Good people don’t smoke marijuana,” he once declared.

https://www.leafly.com/news/politics/the-jeff-sessions-cannabis-crackdown-has-arrived-and-its-awesome

New Numbers Reveal the Marijuana Industry Boom Has Only Just Begun (USA – Cannabis Industry)

Entrepreneur (May 31, 2018) The marijuana industry has continued its explosive growth in 2018, and a new report has quantified just how explosive. Sales of legal marijuana in the United States could hit $10 billion this year and skyrocket to $22 billion by 2022, according to the 2018 Marijuana Business Factbook released by Marijuana Business Daily. That’s big growth year-over-year, with last year’s figure for both recreational and medical marijuana hitting about $6.2 billion.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/314241

The Four Pillars of Quality Cannabis Processing (USA – Cannabis Manufacturing)

Ganjapreneur (June 1, 2018) Cannabis extraction has been used as a blanket term for what is best described as cannabis processing. A well-designed cannabis process goes far beyond just extraction, overlapping heavily with cultivation on the front-end and product development on the back-end [1]. With this mindset, four pillars emerge as critical capabilities for developing the ideal cannabis process: Cultivation, Analytics, Extraction, and Biochemistry.

https://www.ganjapreneur.com/the-four-pillars-of-quality-cannabis-processing/

How To Start A Cannabis Business – The Legal Stuff You Need To Know (USA – Cannabis Cultivation)

Black Enterprise (May 30, 2018) If you are anything like most entrepreneurs looking to get in on the green rush, you’ve probably been doing your research for quite some time now on the ins and outs of the cannabis industry. While there are hundreds, if not thousands, of people speaking on what it takes to enter the industry and grow a successful business, it is not every day that one gets advice from a cannabis attorney on how to start a cannabis business (legally)!

http://www.blackenterprise.com/how-to-start-a-cannabis-business/

Marijuana Poses Dangers For Drivers, Study Finds (USA – Safety First)

Mass Live (May 31, 2018) It remains unclear whether marijuana affects a driver’s risk of crashing. But there is no doubt that marijuana impairs someone’s judgement and the skills needed to drive a car, according to a study released Thursday by the Governors Highway Safety Association. The message of “don’t drive drunk” has been pervasive in American culture for years. But that message is not necessarily getting out to people using drugs. 

http://www.masslive.com/politics/index.ssf/2018/05/marijuana_poses_dangers_for_dr.html

Mary Janes, The Women Of Weed: Yes We Can(nabis)! (USA – Cannabis Market)

Leafly (May 30, 2018) “Just say no.” When, as a high schooler, I heard Nancy Reagan’s simplistic, national anti-drug mantra, I immediately questioned it. (What? Why?) Filmmaker Windy Borman heard it as the imperative intended: don’t fry your brain like an egg. In MARY JANES: THE WOMEN OF WEED, Ms. Borman, now all grown up, challenges why she listened and whether she should join America’s burgeoning pot party, never having partaken herself.

https://www.leafly.com/news/lifestyle/mary-janes-the-women-of-weed-yes-we-cannabis

Got Cannabis Q’s? We’ve Got Cannabis A’s (USA – Cannabis Info)

The Stranger (May 30, 2018) It is time again for our reader mailbag session, in which I place a mailbag over my head and readers beat me senseless until I answer their questions. No, wait… I’m thinking of how the new CIA director operates. In this case, I’ll simply answers questions that showed up in the mail, no beating necessary. Sorry. #bongwaterboarding

https://www.thestranger.com/weed/2018/05/30/26829957/got-cannabis-qs-weve-got-cannabis-as

Inside Washington DC’s Pop-Up Marijuana Markets (Washington D.C. – Cannabis Vendors)

High Times (May 31, 2018) Though Washington D.C.’s marijuana laws are far from complete, cannabis policy in our nation’s capital has long been at a standstill. In D.C., you can smoke marijuana in private residences, own a small amount of weed, and grow marijuana plants at home. You cannot, however, buy or sell marijuana. So how are people who don’t want to grow their own herb getting weed? Despite federal restrictions, marijuana pop-up markets that ‘gift’ rather than sell weed are flourishing throughout the district.

https://hightimes.com/business/inside-washington-dcs-pop-up-marijuana-markets/

Underage Kids Have A Harder Time Buying Weed Than Booze Or Cigs In Colorado (CO – Underage Use)

The Fresh Toast (May 31, 2018) Memo to underage Colorado cannabis consumers: Don’t even try buying your weed a regulated marijuana retailer. You’re going to walk out of the establishment red-faced and empty-handed. The state’s Marijuana Enforcement Division issued the results of its 2017 underage compliance testing and reported that 95 percent of the retailers passed. The agency’s operation sent underage operatives into 264 marijuana stores across the state attempting to buy cannabis products. Of those interactions, only 13 resulted in a purchase. In Colorado, and other legal marijuana states, only adults 21 years and older with a valid ID can buy cannabis in regulated stores. 

https://thefreshtoast.com/cannabis/underage-kids-have-a-harder-time-buying-weed-than-booze-or-cigs-in-colorado/