On Monday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) joined the Pod Save America podcast and revealed who her “dream blunt rotation” would be when asked. It was hypothetical, as she doesn’t smoke, and the senator kept things positive in her responses. In what they called a special President’s Day edition episode Feb. 19, Pod Save America co-host Jon Favreau (the former Barack Obama staffer, not the MCU actor) asked her about her push to deschedule pot, and also who she’s most and least likely… Read more.
The governor of Massachusetts is promoting the testimony of activists who spoke in favor of her veterans-focused bill that would, in part, create a psychedelics work group to study the therapeutic potential of substances such as psilocybin. During a hearing before the legislature’s Joint Committee on Veterans and Federal Affairs on Tuesday, psychedelics reform advocates urged members to pass the Honoring, Empowering, and Recognizing our Servicemembers and Veterans (HERO Act) that Gov. Maura Healey (D) introduced last month. This comes as… Read more.
In a decisive 3-1 vote, Massachusetts regulators have given the green light to cannabis transport businesses to streamline their delivery operations by reducing the mandatory two-person team to a single cannbais delivery driver. This potential cost-cutting measure is poised to benefit operators in the industry. The Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission (CCC) reached a consensus on Thursday to revise the state's marijuana delivery regulations, relaxing the existing requirement for a two-person delivery team. It's important to note that this rule adjustment is pending… Read more.
Have you ever pondered the landscape of cannabis regulations across the United States? Amid a shifting legal terrain where nearly half of the states have embraced recreational cannabis and 38 have legalized medical marijuana, the complexities abound. Despite federal law maintaining cannabis as an illegal substance, each state charts its course with unique rules and regulations. Deciding on the optimal cannabis state involves considering various factors, such as whether the state permits medical, recreational, or both cannabis programs, the presence of… Read more.
The U.S. attorney general and a coalition of marijuana businesses represented by an influential law firm have jointly agreed to request a deadline extension for the filing of initial briefs in a much-anticipated lawsuit against the federal government that seeks to block the enforcement of cannabis prohibition against state-legal activity. In the lawsuit, the businesses have claimed that perpetuating prohibition in state markets is unconstitutional, creating undue public safety risks while precluding licensed marijuana businesses from accessing critical financial services and tax… Read more.
While Schedule 3 banter has the marijuana industry in a "postiive spin mode", the facts of the industry present day are gruesome and harsh. Selling Cannabis Licenses for Pennies on the Dollar was a story Cannabis.net did on the bleak state of the Oregon cannabis industry after the Fall harvest was so large it is putting growers and culitvators out of business. The race to the bottom on pricing and lack of access to credit or created cash-flow is killing many cannabis… Read more.
Lawmakers in Provincetown, Massachusetts, voted this week to adopt a resolution in support of decriminalizing the use, possession and noncommercial sharing of psychedelic plants and fungi. It’s the seventh municipality in the state to deprioritize arrests for entheogens. The statement also calls on the county district attorney to cease prosecutions for psychedelics-related activity as well as for simple possession of all drugs. Further, it urges state lawmakers to amend a pending proposal that would legalize psychedelics in all of Massachusetts and could… Read more.
In the midst of years marked by rapid expansion and recent swift exits, some of the nation's leading cannabis multistate operators (MSOs) have continued to streamline their operations this year, as revealed in the latest update on the activities of several major MSOs in the country. Over the past five months, two of the largest MSOs in the country, Trulieve Cannabis based in Florida and Cresco Labs based in Chicago, have withdrawn from state-legal cannabis markets. This strategic move reflects their ongoing… Read more.
The THC potency of marijuana flower sold in legal stores in four states is routinely and systematically inflated, sometimes by as much as 25% or more, according to an independent analysis of licensed cannabis testing-laboratory data obtained by MJBizDaily. But perhaps even more troublingly, the analysis – conducted by Yasha Kahn of MCR Labs, a state-licensed cannabis testing laboratory in Massachusetts – also found evidence of data manipulation in lab testing for yeast and mold. The analysis suggests tainted products that… Read more.
In last week’s seventh annual Cannabis Start-Up Competition at Boston University (BU) in Massachusetts, on the same night Ohio became the 24th state to legalize adult-use cannabis, a stoner-friendly app JoinME took home the grand prize. It enables users to locate and meet up and join with stoners who share the same goals and interests. Now in its sixth year, the BU alumni-founders behind Green Lion Partners sponsored an annual start-up competition for current BU Terriers and alums who are developing innovative cannabis-adjacent companies. BU… Read more.
Massachusetts Governor Maura T. Healey last week filed legislation to increase benefits and modernize services for the state’s military veterans that includes a proposal to study the medical benefits of psychedelic drugs. The bill, known as an Act Honoring, Empowering and Recognizing Our Servicemembers and Veterans (HERO Act), was unveiled on November 9 by Healey and Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll at the Massachusetts Executive Office of Veterans Services. The Healey administration said in a statement that the legislation would positively impact the… Read more.
The Magnolia Bakery, perhaps one of the most famous bakeries in the world, is now entering the cannabis edibles market. You may know Magnolia Bakery from scenes in Sex and The City, Saturday Night Live, or Broad City. Their cakes (and world-famous cupcakes), are to die for. And now, thanks to their collaboration with incredibles, an award-winning edibles brand, you can get high off their scrumptious confections. In the Sex and the City episodes, pies are thrown, although any sane person would only toss such creations into… Read more.
When Massachusetts-based multistate operator MariMed decided to launch a delivery service in its home state two years ago, company executives started studying other cannabis carrier services to become experts on the subject. They considered launching a distribution service from scratch and also looked at acquiring a delivery company in Massachusetts before deciding to invest in Little Dog Delivery. The state had granted a social equity delivery license to Sebastian Pollack, a senior production manufacturing administrator at MariMed, and the two… Read more.
The Massachusetts cannabis industry has been grappling with considerable uncertainty regarding the legal and enforceable nature of the "Community Impact Fees" in the wake of the enactment of "An Act Relative to Equity in the Cannabis Industry" in November 2022. This uncertainty has raised significant concerns within the industry and has even prompted multiple legal disputes between operators and their host communities. One of the most recent lawsuits in this regard has been initiated by Berkshire Roots, a Pittsfield-based cannabis company. On… Read more.
The Harvard Gazette announced that the venerable Ivy League University will create a Study of Psychedelics in Society and Culture with a multi-million dollar gift from the Gracias Family Foundation. According to the announcement, the study will be interdisciplinary across the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard Law School, and Harvard Divinity School. “We are thrilled to have the opportunity to bring students, faculty, and researchers together around the important issue of how psychedelics impact our society,” said Robin Kelsey, Shirley Carter… Read more.
A Pittsfield, Massachusetts cannabis company is suing the city over its Community Impact Fees, alleging officials have not identified any “impacts” the company has had on the community, JD Supra reports. Under the state’s legalization law, the Community Impact Fees imposed on cannabis businesses must be “reasonably related” to the costs incurred by a municipality as a result of cannabis business operations and municipalities must furnish annually documentary proof of such costs to operators. Berkshire Roots is seeking to recoup $440,000 in Community Impact… Read more.
Shannon O’Brien, the suspended chair of the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission, dropped her lawsuit seeking to block the suspension after being granted a hearing over the matter. The hearing is scheduled for Nov. 7, according to The Boston Globe. State Treasurer Deborah Goldberg, who suspended O’Brien with pay on Sept. 14, granted the hearing. An Oct. 6 court date for the injunction was canceled after the lawsuit was dropped. Beyond Goldberg saying “several serious allegations” were made about O’Brien, the reason for the suspension remains a… Read more.
The former chairwoman of the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission (CCC) is suing the state treasurer after she was removed from her position leading the agency, SHNS reports. In the lawsuit, Shannon O’Brien accuses Deborah Goldberg of removing her as head of the CCC “without notice, without articulated reason, and without any opportunity to be heard, all of which is required by the clear and unambiguous provisions of Massachusetts law … as well as basic norms of due process.” Goldberg had appointed O’Brien… Read more.
New details have emerged about the suspension of Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission Chair Shannon O’Brien, who has filed a lawsuit alleging the punishment is unlawful. Treasurer Deb Goldberg, who appointed O’Brien last year, said in a statement that the Cannabis Control Commission (CCC) hired a law firm to investigate “several serious allegations” made by a commissioner and other agency staffers, according to the Boston Herald. “The law firm undertook an investigation and has returned with a report,” the statement noted, without elaborating on the… Read more.
After the market closed on Friday, SNDL Inc. (NASDAQ: SNDL) told investors that it finally took steps regarding its SunStream joint venture and its underperforming Parallel cannabis assets. The company’s joint venture Sunstream Bancorp launched SunStream USA with the expectation that Parallel will be restructured. In March 2021, Sundial Growers Inc., now known as SNDL, formed SunStream Bancorp, a 50/50 joint venture with SAF Opportunities LP, a member of the SAF Group. SunStream Bancorp is the owner of $145 million of junior notes owned by Parallel that… Read more.
Berkshire Bank, one of the largest banks in Massachusetts, is expanding services for cannabis companies and entrepreneurs nationwide. The new banking unit will be established through a partnership with Florida-based Green Check Verified, a cannabis financial services and software company, to offer a platform for clients to conduct and monitor transactions, according to the Boston Business Journal. Berkshire Bank joins a growing number of Massachusetts financial institutions that are beginning to serve marijuana businesses. Available services for plant-touching, ancillary and… Read more.
As marijuana consumers develop a better understanding and appreciation for terpenes, flavonoids and other chemical compounds found in cannabis flower, live resin products are becoming increasingly popular. Live resin can be used in many different products, but it mostly appears in vape cartridges, dabbable concentrates and edibles. The best way to create live resin is from freshly harvested material that still contains moisture, according to Nic Robertson, vice president of operations in Massachusetts for Phoenix-based multistate operator 4Front Ventures. Moisture… Read more.
Chicago-based Cresco Labs and Columbia Care called off their $2 billion cannabis megamerger Monday, citing “evolving” market conditions that include falling stock prices, tightening credit and flattening industry sales. The companies also scratched the $185 million sale of cannabis facilities in Illinois, New York and Massachusetts to rapper/producer Sean “Diddy” Combs, which were part of required antitrust divestitures for the merger. “In light of the evolving landscape in the cannabis industry, we believe the decision to terminate the planned transaction… Read more.
The cannabis business background of Massachusetts’ director of marijuana testing is raising eyebrows among industry watchers already concerned about the way state regulators are treating MJ companies. James Kocis became the director of testing for the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission (CCC) last October after years of working in the marijuana testing industry. At a legislative hearing last week, a lobbyist representing local testing labs called the CCC “unpredictable” and “unaccountable.” A testing industry executive, meanwhile, alleged that Massachusetts faces “a… Read more.
A Massachusetts cannabis testing laboratory is accusing the Cannabis Control Commission (CCC) of retaliating against it after its CEO testified to lawmakers about public health concerns and lab fraud related to the state’s cannabis industry, the Boston Herald reports. During a hearing Tuesday testifying on bills that would change the way the cannabis industry operates in the state, MCR Labs CEO Michael Kahn said the “CCC enforcement staff may be misusing investigations as a pretext to silence and harass licensees.” Kahn said… Read more.
Now that most of New England has legalized cannabis in some form or another, it’s worth looking at which states are the largest markets. While the smaller states with the least population are expected to be the ones with the lowest total sales, the largest state – New York is lagging. In just five years, Massachusetts has become the leader in the region having reached the billion mark in just two years. New Jersey is in second place, but quickly… Read more.
Amid a pending lawsuit and serious allegations of funds misappropriation, Canadian producer iAnthus Capital Holdings, Inc. (CSE: IAN) (OTCPK: ITHUF) has appointed Richard Proud as its new chief executive officer and director on the board of directors. The announcement comes in the wake of accusations by a Maryland-based cannabis dispensary, and in a RICO lawsuit filed last month, LMS Wellness Benefit LLC. alleges that iAnthus diverted at least $4.5 million of its funds into iAnthus’s other business interests. According to court documents, a… Read more.
A Massachusetts man found inspiration in his mother's Alzheimer's diagnosis and created an alternative to THC. The popular product, known as The Best Dirty Lemonade, is now available in dispensaries across the state. This heartfelt endeavour began when a devoted son, Omari Anderson, sought to assist the person he loved most. In 2013, Omari's mother, Jacquelin Rickerby-Anderson, affectionately called Lady J, received a devastating early-onset Alzheimer's diagnosis at 53. Though saddened, Omari had noticed changes in his mother's behaviour, so the diagnosis… Read more.
250 years after the original Boston Tea Party, cannabis protests against 280E. As hopes for Federal legislative relief for the cannabis industry begin to fade, the focus has returned to the issue of 280e. In that spirit, MariMed Inc. (CSE: MRMD) (OTCQX: MRMD) surprised the crowds at Boston Harbor when they boarded the Liberty Star schooner and reenacted the tea party revolution. The executives dressed in colonial costumes tossed boxes with the word “weed” overboard instead of tea and chanted anti-280e slogans. MariMed CEO… Read more.
At least five states with medical marijuana programs have shared key data – including the products patients are using and how they are affected – with U.S. health regulators as part of the Biden administration’s review of whether to remove marijuana from the federal government’s list of the most dangerous drugs, MJBizDaily has learned. The state data sent to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) offers federal researchers a wider and deeper look… Read more.
Political strategists in Massachusetts have quietly filed paperwork to put a therapeutic psychedelics legalization initiative on the state’s 2024 ballot. The newly formed Massachusetts for Mental Health Options (MMHO) committee submitted initial documents to the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF), signaling their intent to secure ballot placement for the measure, details of which are currently sparse. An organization statement filed last week says that the purpose of the group will be to “expand mental health treatment options… Read more.
After the markets closed on Friday, MedMen Enterprises Inc. (CSE: MMEN) (OTCQX: MMNFF) announced the resignation of Ana Bowman as Chief Financial Officer, effective June 29, 2023. Bowman has served as CFO since 2022 and MedMen has begun a formal search for a new CFO. “We thank Ana for her leadership and guidance during MedMen’s restructuring. Ana was instrumental in helping us achieve positive adjusted EBITDA for the last two quarters,” said Ed Record, MedMen’s CEO. “We wish her all the best in her future endeavors.”… Read more.
Online cannabis platform Leafly recently removed two in-depth articles investigating the death of cannabis worker Lorna McMurrey, 27, who passed away after collapsing during her shift at a Trulieve cannabis factory in Holyoke, Massachusetts. Mike Crawford, the host of The Young Jurks podcast in Massachusetts, which broke the news of McMurrey’s death, first posted about the articles’ removal last week on LinkedIn. Leafly, which closed down its newsroom in March after reporting financial difficulties, offered no explanation for why the stories were pulled,… Read more.
Multistate cannabis operator Trulieve Cannabis Corp. on Thursday announced plans to “wind down” its operations in Massachusetts. The company said the move is part of its broader plan to “preserve cash and improve financial performance.” Since mid-2022, Trulieve has also shut down some of its California assets, exited the Nevada wholesale market, and idled some of its production capacity “to match consumer demand across multiple markets.” The company said it would close its dispensaries in Framingham, Northampton, and Worcester by… Read more.
Regulators in the Massachusetts marijuana industry made a decision this past Monday to abandon previous plans for a limited pilot program involving cannabis cafes and social consumption sites in twelve municipalities. One official said this move would help get the voter-approved market sector online "a little quicker." The Cannabis Control Commission changed course from earlier restrictions that would have limited the launch to a dozen cities and towns nine months after a new state law defined a procedure for cities and towns to… Read more.
A Boston family’s address has been used as part of a cannabis delivery scam for which perpetrators created a fake business, known as Starlight Greens Delivery Dispensary, and collected money from would-be customers but delivered no product, WCVB reports. Denise King, the Boston homeowner, said several people have shown up at her home seeking an order they placed through the website – but Starlight does not exist in the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission database. King noted that the Starlight Greens website had no telephone… Read more.
The Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission (CCC) on Tuesday authorized the sale of cannabis seeds and clones. The products can be sold by adult-use and medical retailers and through licensed delivery services. If licensees sell seeds or clones at wholesale or to consumers, the CCC requires that they be tracked via METRC, the state’s seed-to-sale tracking system. Seeds will be tracked in packages, while clones are tracked as immature plants. Clones are also subject to pesticide screening in accordance with state regulations. In a… Read more.
Rebecca got involved in cannabis in 2014. Legal: Rebecca Rutenberg, Vicente With more than 50 cannabis clients, legal wizard Rebecca Rutenberg is plenty busy for the foreseeable future, helping them win licenses all over the U.S. East Coast, from Florida to Maine. “I’m in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Florida, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, a little bit in Maine, and of course Maryland,” said the Boston-based attorney. And she doesn’t see that career focus changing anytime soon, as the… Read more.
The Nasdaq stock exchange has warned another marijuana company that it could be delisted if it doesn’t comply with the rules. Agrify Corp., a Massachusetts-based cannabis cultivation and extraction solutions company, received a notice of noncompliance from Nasdaq because the company hasn’t filed its 10-K form with its full-year financial results to the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission on time. The company, which trades on the Nasdaq as AGFY, could be delisted from the exchange if it fails to regain compliance, according to a… Read more.
The 4/20 brand campaigns are coming in hot, so we're keeping tabs early and updating this page often with the best and brightest. Jack in the Box Jack's Edible Assortments launches on April 20 at food trucks in Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco, with help from TBWA\Chiat\Day L.A. It includes a reintroduction of the Pineapple Express Shake, which includes munchies like popcorn chicken, onion rings, tiny tacos, mini pancakes, whipped cream and cherries. The first 100 food truck… Read more.
Temescal Wellness is opting to close its door on one of the biggest sales day of the year. April 20 may be the biggest sales day of the year for the vast majority of cannabis retailers, but Temescal Wellness is placing its priorities on employee mental health rather than profits for this year’s marijuana holiday. In keeping with that spirit, the vertically integrated company has chosen to buck business trends and give all of its nearly 100 employees the day off… Read more.
Inspectah Deck (nee Jason Hunter) is the latest Wu-Tang Clan member to have a cannabis brand. He's teamed up with Massachusetts craft hash rosin producer Coyote Cannabis. Deck tells the Grow Bud Yourself podcast: "I met a great cannabis lawyer, Blake Mensing. He wanted to get me more into the business. I'm not normally into the vape pens, the oils and waxes that are out there. He convinced me to try some shatter. I was impressed with the quality of it. A lot of the market… Read more.
Here’s how you know the world has changed: there’s an adult-use cannabis dispensary on Nantucket. And not just one, but two, including The Green Lady Dispensary, which carries product actually grown on Nantucket and is the first women- and minority-owned cannabis company in Massachusetts. It’s safe to say that our city and state are now awash in adult-use dispensaries both great and small and corporate and indie, which means you no longer have to hoof it to Western Mass to get… Read more.
THE FIRST THING YOU SEE upon entering the Core Social Justice Cannabis Museum in Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood is a digital stained glass window stamped “Cannfessional.” Behind it is a small sound booth, wrapped in cloud-print wallpaper, with a glowing neon chair and a microphone dangling from the ceiling. Facing the chair on the wall is a TV with a camera mounted on top. This is where you reveal your truth. With the Cannfessional, the museum encourages participants to record themselves telling stories… Read more.
Marijuana regulators from three states, advocates and small business representatives of the cannabis industry will share advice on charting an equitable path forward in the legalization movement at an upcoming event organized by a non-profit focused on preventing corporate monopolization of the market. The Parabola Center for Law and Policy, a think tank working to educate lawmakers and advocates about the potential ramifications of consolidated ownership in the marijuana sector, also announced on Friday that it has partnered with 50… Read more.
Massachusetts-based cannabis cultivation and retail company Insa laid off an undisclosed number of workers in the past few months. The downsizing was a result of increased competition from “out-of-state” companies in the Massachusetts marijuana market, Insa CEO Peter Gallagher told MassLive.com via email. “To address these new challenges, we have been focused on implementing important cost-saving measures to align with the new market,” Gallagher said. “It was through this process that the difficult decision was made to eliminate various positions in the… Read more.
After the extraordinary winter most of North America suffered through this year, the balmy weather of last May and June may feel like a figment of our imaginations. Fortunately, time is flying by, and friends and families soon will gather at the beach or for cookouts. There will be good music, great food, festive libations … and perhaps a new item will find its way onto the menu: infused beverages. At first glance, it is easy to overlook or dismiss the beverage… Read more.
A New Jersey hemp company is suing a Massachusetts biotech company claiming it operated a “Ponzi scheme” by using more than $700,000 it raised from the firm to fund its own projects, Salem News reports. In its lawsuit against the Salzman Group, Delta Technologies claims the drug development company took their money and used their machinery in other, failed, projects. According to the lawsuit, Salzman Group Chairman and CEO Dr. Andrew Salzman agreed to put together a “large team of scientists” to help Delta and its… Read more.
Mere months before Robert Fireman died suddenly in December, the co-founder and former CEO of Massachusetts-based MariMed shook up the cannabis company’s management team and created a succession plan. Doing so would prove to be prescient. After MariMed hired Susan Villare as chief financial officer in May 2022, former CFO and co-founder Jon Levine briefly moved to the role of chief administration officer. “Then we decided that I would be better off as president of the company, which put me… Read more.
The cannabis industry is evolving in Massachusetts, with competition eating away profits and prices plummeting per ounce as more dispensaries enter the market. "Everybody's looking at that newest technology to maximize yield," said Marc Shepard, founder of the New England Cannabis Convention. "Maximize profitability, better marketing, better product." Shepard says with hundreds of dispensaries operating in the state, and many more on the way, it's not necessarily a financial bonanza for dispensary owners. "It's just not the cash cow, automatic,… Read more.
One of the challenges facing multistate marijuana operators is creating standardized operating procedures for cultivation facilities in various markets. Such was the case with Massachusetts-based Curaleaf Holdings in November 2020, when the company hired Matthew Indest, a plant breeding and development expert, for a newly created role: technical director of agronomy and plant improvement. At the time Indest joined Curaleaf Holdings, the company was operating in 19 states. “With our expansion and acquisitions, there were a lot of things done… Read more.
Do psychedelics like mushrooms and LSD have anti-aging effects? Dr. Andrew Steele, a physics professor who has ventured into the field of biology, presents a fascinating perspective on longevity in his new book. He emphasizes that it's not cancer or heart disease but aging that is the root cause of the most significant suffering and deaths worldwide. Dr. Steele proposes that by finding pharmacological remedies that target the cells responsible for degrading tissue function, we could unlock the potential for… Read more.
Massachusetts-based Harpoon Brewery has launched its first THC-infused beverage, Rec. Weed, in partnership with Novel Beverage Company. Harpoon Brewery has launched its first THC-based beverage, Rec. Weed, in partnership with Novel Beverage Company. The company describes Rec. Weed as “hop-forward yet approachable.” It contains no alcohol, 5 milligrams of THC, real passionfruit puree, green tea, and hops. Dan Kenary, CEO and co-founder of Harpoon, said it partnered with Novel on the product because of its “vast knowledge” of the cannabis… Read more.