Join the CCMA and the Manufactured Cannabis Safety Branch of the California DPH for a panel discussion on packaging and manufacturing requirements. June 19th from 6-9pm in Santa Monica. This is an opportunity for brands and manufacturers to hear how and why the requirements were developed, ask questions about the requirements and, most importantly, provide feedback to help influence packaging and manufacturing requirements going forward. Regulations are not set in stone. This is your chance to interact with the agency that determines the regulations. Event details below.

LA Weekly (June 15, 2018) Rigo Valdez is one of the good guys in the burgeoning California cannabis business yet he’s never sold a joint. Part of Valdez’s job as vice president of United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 770 is to make sure marijuana dispensary and collective workers get what they deserve, like a living wage, in cash and not in cannabis. On Thursday, June 14, Valdez and his union received the Ethical Emerging Industry Award, honoring them as trailblazers in their commitment to workers, from the watchdog group Labor 411 at the inaugural Blue Tie Gala, held at the W Hotel in Hollywood.

Marijuana Business Daily (June 18, 2018) Large-scale cultivation operations are beginning to emerge in California’s newly legal marijuana industry, despite regulations meant to curtail their presence. The data reinforce the fear among many smaller growers in the state that large, well-capitalized and more efficient growers will eventually come to monopolize the cultivation landscape.

Marijuana Business Daily (June 18, 2018) A commercial cannabis grow in California that had been legally registered and apparently attempted to obtain legal permits was recently raided by local law enforcement agents after a county ban on marijuana cultivation took effect. Calaveras County Sheriff’s deputies raided a grow in Railroad Flat and seized more than 1,300 cannabis plants, as well as over 170 pounds of processed marijuana.

The Cannifornian (June 18, 2018) State, county and local officials still have work to do in refining recreational pot laws and ensure public safety, those same officials said during a marijuana seminar in Long Beach on Thursday. Officials from across California converged on The Grand Long Beach Events Center for an all-day seminar called “6 since 64,” so-called because June marks the six-month anniversary since Proposition 64, which legalized recreational marijuana, went into effect.

Santa Monica Daily Press (June 15, 2018) A proposal in Congress to ease the U.S. ban on marijuana could encourage more banks to do business with cannabis companies, but it appears to fall short of a cure-all for an industry that must operate mainly as a cash business in a credit card world. Marijuana is legal in some form in about 30 states, but companies that grow or sell it often are locked out at banks.

420 Intel (June 18, 2018) Change is coming for a small but blooming corner of the marijuana industry. A compound in marijuana that’s been linked to a range of potential health benefits — but doesn’t cause a high — is increasingly being eyed for use in salves, oils, balms, and beverages. It’s also the active ingredient in a new drug that’s on the cusp of federal approval.

The Marijuana Times (June 16, 2018) Most treatments are meant to heal, but some are for palliative care (end of life care) in terminally ill patients. Palliative care is to provide symptomatic relief from a chronic and serious illness, and to reduce the risk of developing co-morbidities and also to improve the patient’s quality of life. The aim of the palliative care is not to treat or cure the underlying disease, but to treat the bothersome symptoms of the disease. Some of the illnesses that may utilize palliative care treatments include cancer, HIV/AIDS, ALS, multiple sclerosis, etc.

Marijuana.com (June 15, 2018) Strains by the same name sold at different dispensaries have significant genetic variations that could result in inconsistent physiological effects on consumers, according to recently released research. Doctoral candidate Anna Schwabe, who is studying population and evolutionary genetics at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, tested 122 strains of cannabis in Washington, Colorado and California. She tested strains that were widely available — including strains like Golden Goat, Blue Dream, Purple Kush and Green Crack, among others — and compared their genetic makeup which often varied widely.

Herb (June 15, 2018) Earlier this month, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper made what he called one of the hardest decisions he has had to make this year. Ultimately he decided to bar those suffering from autism spectrum disorders from accessing medical cannabis legally. The bill sailed through both the Senate and House, with widespread support, but will not become law due to Hickenlooper’s veto.

Forbes (June 17, 2018) Delegates at the Republican Party of Texas convention on Saturday voted to approve platform planks endorsing marijuana decriminalization, medical cannabis and industrial hemp. They are also calling for a change in cannabis’s classification by the federal government.