Latest Cannabis News: October 6, 2020

Stay up to date with the latest legalization and cannabis news with the CB Advisors. Every week, we will release a snippet of what’s happening with each state in the cannabis industry. Did you miss last week? No worries – click here for last week’s cannabis news. 

CBD:

Mississippi: People supporting and opposing two medical marijuana initiatives in Mississippi are getting the chance to speak at public hearings before the Nov. 3 election. About two dozen people attended a public hearing Wednesday in Oxford, where supporters said marijuana is a low-risk, effective way to treat pain and opponents said it is an addictive substance that can lead to other problems, the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal reported. It was first of five public hearings about the two medical marijuana initiatives.
Source

Medical:

Arkansas: The state Medical Marijuana Commission considered licensing a fifth dispensary in Zone 6 at its meeting Tuesday but decided against it in a 3-2 vote. Zone 6, which is made up of eight counties between Pulaski County and the Oklahoma border, has four dispensaries. The commission, which meets online due to the coronavirus pandemic, briefly discussed adding a new dispensary because customer demand has been high. Green Remedies of Hot Springs would have received the new license.
Source

Delaware: Looking to increase availability to underserved areas of Delaware, a Request for Applications was issued by the state’s Medical Marijuana Program that would open four new compassion centers. Delaware Office of Medical Marijuana Director Paul Hyland said more centers are needed because the program continues to expand. According to data from the Division of Public Health, as of Sept. 3, there were 10,587 medical marijuana patients in Delaware. That’s roughly a 29 percent increase in patients since Columbia Care opened its Rehoboth dispensary in October 2019, and about a 278 percent increase since First State Compassion opened its Lewes dispensary in May 2017.
Source

Hawaii: As Hawaii faces a massive budget shortfall, some lawmakers think this is the year the state might legalize recreational marijuana. “Going into the next session I think there’s a different attitude emerging, maybe looking at things that can raise money,” said state Sen. J. Kalani English, a longtime proponent of legalization. House Speaker Scott Saiki believes that some of the tax revenue increases from legalizing recreational marijuana could be offset by these higher social costs. “It’s important that we not react and look at quick fixes. Quick fixes usually don’t work out for our state,” he said.
Source

Maryland: Maryland regulators handed out 11 long-awaited cultivation and processing business permits. The state’s Medical Cannabis Commission licensed three cultivation and eight processing companies on Thursday, The Baltimore Sun reported. The cultivation permits went to Viola Maryland, Herbiculture Cultivation and MAS Alliance.
Source

Missouri: A St. Louis County lab’s approval to start testing samples of marijuana means that commercial marijuana for medical use could be on the shelves this month. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that EKG Labs in Maryland Heights on Sept. 26 became the first of 10 licensed medical marijuana testers to start operations after passing a state inspection. As a result, marijuana being grown by commercial cultivators may undergo state-required testing for safety and potency. Once approved, it can be sold at dispensaries.
Source

Montana: A recreational cannabis market in Montana could generate sales of more than $200 million in its first year of operation in 2022, according to a new study from the University of Montana’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research. The first barrier, however, is getting Montana voters to approve a ballot initiative on Nov. 3 that would legalize the cultivation and sale of recreational marijuana.
Source

New Jersey: In case he hasn’t made it abundantly clear already, the governor of New Jersey wants residents to vote in favor of a referendum to legalize marijuana this November. In his latest call-to-action, Gov. Phil Murphy (D) recorded a video that was released on Tuesday by the pro-legalization coalition NJ CAN 2020 to promote the measure. The governor made the case that the ongoing criminalization of cannabis in New Jersey wastes taxpayer dollars, and he emphasized that prohibition is enforced in a racially disproportionate manner.
Source

Ohio: Ohio medical marijuana regulators have issued a mandatory recall on marijuana-infused chocolate products after they found higher than allowed levels of heavy metal cadmium. Dark chocolate indica didn’t pass all the required tests before being sold at eight dispensaries across the state, the Ohio Department of Commerce announced in a Thursday recall message. The products were sold between Aug. 17 and Oct. 1.
Source

West Virginia: West Virginia regulators awarded 10 medical cannabis cultivation permits as one of the country’s slowest MMJ programs to launch took a major step toward a possible market start in spring 2021. The cultivation license award winners included at least three multistate operators – New York-based Columbia Care, Illinois-headquartered Verano Holdings and Massachusetts-based Holistic Industries – as well as a number of out-of-state and West Virginia investors.
Source

Recreational:

California: California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed a handful of marijuana bills into law on Tuesday, making a series of small adjustments to the nation’s largest legal cannabis system. More sweeping proposals such as overhauling the state’s marijuana regulatory structure will have to wait until next year, the governor said. “This bill has the potential to increase the provisions of financial services to the legal cannabis industry,” Newsom wrote in a signing statement, “and for that reason, I support it.”
Source

Colorado: People who have been convicted of possession of one ounce or less of marijuana in Colorado are being pardoned by Gov. Jared Polis. Polis signed an executive order on Thursday issuing the pardons, according to a news release from the governor’s office. “We are finally cleaning up some of the inequities of the past by pardoning 2,732 convictions for Coloradans who simply had an ounce of marijuana or less.”
Source

Illinois: Illinois broke another record for marijuana sales in September, selling nearly $100 million in combined adult-use and medical cannabis. Total sales for September was $99,086,699.10, compared to more than $95 million in sales in August. Adult-use recreational marijuana comprised more than $67 million, compared to just under $64 million in August. That brings the total amount of recreational marijuana sales in Illinois since legalization to about $431 million.
Source

Maine: Maine’s marijuana market opening could be a letdown for many. The state’s recreational cannabis market is set to finally open Friday, but few stores will be, and supplies are expected to be extremely limited. The long-awaited launch of Maine’s recreational cannabis market will likely fall short of expectations, with some shops unsure if they will even have marijuana to sell, much less the THC-infused food and drinks readily available on the state’s existing medical market.
Source

Michigan: Michigan will open up recreational cannabis licensing opportunities to applicants who did not previously hold medical marijuana licenses starting in March. The move is expected to help the legal cannabis industry in the state compete economically with the illicit market. Another plus: Municipalities that have previously opted not to participate in legal marijuana will now have to an opportunity to allow recreational cannabis.
Source