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Cannabis Wins Big In 2018 Midterms

11/07/2018

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During yesterday’s midterm elections, voters delivered a resounding message across the country in support of reforming cannabis laws.

Michigan voters approved adult-use legalization while voters in Utah and Missouri resoundingly embraced medical cannabis reforms. The plant’s only defeat this election season was in North Dakota, where voters rejected a bill that would have established the least restricted cannabis market in the country.

There were also some indirect victories for cannabis last night, including the defeat of incumbent Texas Rep. Pete Sessions and several gubernatorial victories by pro-cannabis candidates.

Michigan

Michigan voters approved Proposition 1 in a comfortable 56-44 percent margin, making Michigan the tenth state to legalize adult-use cannabis. Under the initiative, adults 21 and older can possess up to 2.5 ounces of cannabis and cultivate up to 12 plants in their own home. Retail sales may not launch until sometime in 2020, but cannabis will become legal just 10 days after the election results are officially certified.

See our in-depth coverage to learn more about Michigan’s legalization victory.

Missouri

Missouri voters saw three opportunities to legalize medical cannabis on their ballot yesterday, but only one of them soared far ahead for an easy 66-34 percent victory.

Missouri’s Amendment 2 was approved ahead of another constitutional amendment and a statutory amendment. Amendment 2 was seen as the safest and most progressive option, containing one of the lowest tax rates of any medical cannabis proposal (just four percent) as well as the stipulation that funds generated by the program will go to health services for military veterans and to funding the new program’s regulatory agency(s).

Amendment 2 was endorsed by NORML and the Marijuana Policy Project.

Missouri is the 31st U.S. state to legalize medical cannabis.

Utah

Utah voters approved Proposition 2, which aims to establish a comprehensive medical cannabis program, in a narrow 53-47 percent victory.

While victory is sweet, medical cannabis was more or less guaranteed already for the state of Utah after advocates reached a compromise last month with the bill’s opponents, mainly lawmakers and the Mormon Church. Proposition 2’s passage, however, means cannabis patients are significantly less likely to suffer without access if lawmakers were to renege on their agreement (which is a concern that has bothered some advocates).

“The passage of Proposition 2 illustrates just how broad support has grown for medical marijuana in the U.S.,” Matthew Scheich, deputy director of the Marijuana Policy Project, said in a written statement. “Even in socially conservative states like Utah, most voters recognize marijuana has significant medical value, and they believe it should be available to patients who could benefit from it.

The details of Utah’s Proposition 2 may be subject to change, but as it stands the initiative would allow patients with a physician’s approval to purchase up to two ounces of cannabis or up to ten grams of CBD or THC oil every two weeks. Patients who live at least 100 miles from the closest dispensary would also be allowed to grow up to six cannabis plants at home.

Notably, cannabis patients in Utah will not be allowed to smoke their medicine, relying instead on edibles, vaping, and other consumption methods.

Utah is the 32nd U.S. state to legalize medical cannabis.

North Dakota

North Dakota experienced the only cannabis defeat of the midterms. It was the first true legalization attempt in a resoundingly conservative state.

Voters rejected the state’s legalization initiative with a 59-41 percent majority. The proposal — which would have removed all penalties for cannabis from state law and allow anyone 21 or older to cultivate and sell the plant with no limitations, tax-free — was considered by some to be the most progressive legalization attempt ever undertaken in the U.S.

Legalize ND, the advocacy group behind North Dakota’s legalization push, posted the following message to their social media outlets this morning:

“Last night was not the result we wanted. We were outgunned in money, and the majority of voters said no. But we cannot give up. Our advocacy does not end. In the new legislative session, WE MUST fight tooth and nail for decriminalization of marijuana possession, and gear up for 2020. Start contacting your newly elected legislators now.” — Written statement from Legalize ND

Other elections

While only four states voted on statewide cannabis initiatives, there were many other cannabis-adjacent elections that are worth noting.

Incumbent Texas Rep. Pete Sessions (R) lost to Democratic challenger Colin Allred, a former NFL player. During his time in the House, Sessions personally blocked dozens of cannabis proposals from consideration. In fact, Sessions has been such a staunch opponent to anything cannabis that Marijuana Policy Project founder Rob Kampia worked with other advocates to launch a PAC earlier this year dedicated to unseating him in the midterms.

Five Ohio cities — Dayton, Fremont, Norwood, Oregon, and Windham — approved cannabis decriminalization laws, raising the total number of cities in Ohio with decriminalization on the books to 11.

Voters in 16 Wisconsin counties signaled support for reforming cannabis laws in the form of advisory questions. These questions appeared on the ballot but will not reflect any changes in state or county law — they were merely meant to gauge interest in the issue.

Last but not least, pro-cannabis candidates won gubernatorial races in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, and Wisconsin. NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano weighed in with a written statement following the election:

“In four states — Connecticut, Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois — voters elected Governors who openly campaigned on a platform that included legalizing adult marijuana use. In two other states — California and Colorado — voters elected Governors who have a long history of spearheading legalization reform efforts. And in Maine and in New Mexico, two of the nation’s most rabid marijuana prohibitionists, Paul LePage and Susana Martinez, have been replaced by Governors who are open to enacting common-sense cannabis reforms.”

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US Border Patrol Updates Lifetime Ban Policy

10/11/2018

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The U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency (CBP) has announced that Canadians who work in the legal cannabis industry will generally be allowed to enter the United States.

However, cannabis industry workers will not be allowed if they are coming to the U.S. on an industry-related visit.

“A Canadian citizen working in or facilitating the proliferation of the legal marijuana industry in Canada, coming to the U.S. for reasons unrelated to the marijuana industry will generally be admissible to the U.S. however, if a traveler is found to be coming to the U.S. for reason related to the marijuana industry, they may be deemed inadmissible. … CBP officers are the nation’s first line of defense in preventing the illegal importation of narcotics, including marijuana. U.S. federal law prohibits the importation of marijuana and CBP officers will continue to enforce that law.” — Excerpt from CBP statement posted online

Previously, Canadians faced a lifetime ban to the U.S. if they admitted to working — whether as an entrepreneur, investor, or employee — in the cannabis space.

The CBP is a federal U.S. agency, meaning that, even in the northern border states that have legal cannabis (Washington and Maine), border patrol officers are required to act upon and enforce federal law.

“I think this is a best-case scenario,” Len Saunders, an immigration lawyer in Blaine, Washington, told Global News.

“It should make the Canadian government a lot more comfortable knowing that Canadians doing this in Canada won’t be denied entry,” said Saunders. “It still tells Canadians they can’t get involved with the U.S. cannabis industry, and a lot of these big companies will be, but at least it protects Canadians doing it legally in Canada.”

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Tom Howard: The Many Legal Hurdles of Cannabis Commerce

9/27/2018

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Tom Howard is an Illinois-based attorney who specializes in banking and cannabis business, and he is an author who has written two works of historical fiction about the prohibition of cannabis.

In this Ganjapreneur.com podcast episode, Tom joined our host TG Branfalt to talk about the state of the cannabis industry; the hurdles that cannabis professionals, entrepreneurs, and attorneys still face; whether or not the industry should be concerned about a federal crackdown, and a whole lot more.

Tune in via the player below, or scroll further down to read a full transcript of the interview!

Listen to the interview:

Read the transcript:

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TG Branfalt: Hey there, I’m your host TG Branfalt and you are listening to the Ganjapreneur.com podcast where we try to bring you actionable information and normalize cannabis through the stories of ganjapreneurs, activists and industry stakeholders.

Today I’m joined by Tom Howard. He’s a cannabis industry attorney based in Illinois and the author of Satan Smoke and the Case of U.S. v. Yerbas, which are historical fiction reads which we’ll talk about. But before we do that, I want to get to know about you. How’d you get involved in the cannabis space?

Tom Howard: How did I get involved in the cannabis space? I guess as a freshman or sophomore in college, and I came by cannabis. Everybody kind of grows up and they just take things as they come, so they don’t really question them. By the time I got to law school when I was in my mid-twenties, then you’re learning about laws and what’s behind this marijuana stuff. I started looking into that and it blew my mind.

Just from a legal standpoint of how, and also I was a history major in college. The extent of this whitewashing of truth to ram a government policy that they wanted down the entire population and they would plug their ears to any facts and close their eyes to any facts that would say that they’re wrong, which was just amazing. Have you ever heard of, what is it, part F of the Controlled Substances Act?

TG Branfalt: What specifically does that talk about?

Tom Howard: That’s the one where in order to get the Democrats to go along with it, they actually had to shoehorn this thing onto the CSA, the Controlled Substances Act that has marijuana Schedule 1. They commissioned a study, beginning with the Shafer Report that came out in early 1972, that said oops, we got it wrong and marijuana should actually be decriminalized. They didn’t give a shit.

There was an entire Schedule, or Part F, of the Controlled Substances Act to study marijuana and determine it’s proper classification.

TG Branfalt: Yes. Yes.

Tom Howard: That study said oops, decriminalize it and they never did. That was 1972, so I always think marijuana legalization is right around the corner and when I get really excited I remember that.

TG Branfalt: I do want to talk to you a little bit later on about the federal case that recently occurred, but before that I want to talk to you about federal policy. Let’s start first with the will they or won’t they current federal policy. Last year, Sessions rescinds the Cole memo, there’s no crackdown, but obviously people are worried. Trump just a couple weeks ago at this point, maybe even less, vowed to protect the programs following his row with Senator Cory Gardner over him blocking Justice Department nominees.

In your opinion, with this sort of wishy-washy federal policy, how worried should cannabis industry operators be about federal crackdown?

Tom Howard: About federal crackdown, you see, I don’t think they should be all that worried about it, but that’s only because it’s political suicide. It’s become so popular and so widespread now that, to take an action would be a very untenable position.

TG Branfalt: We also have the FinCEN protections, which the agency released a directive saying we’re not gonna crack down on financial institutions that are doing business with state legal cannabis producers. Despite this, several banks have pulled out of the space. Why do you think banks are so sketched out when they have this federal protection from the agency that enforces their regulations?

Tom Howard: A lot of banks pride themselves on being very conservative lending institutions and employing safe and sound banking principles. In my practice, besides doing marijuana, I pretty much exclusively represent banks in high commercial finance. The reason for that is because technically all of that is money laundering. You are going to try to put a bank in a position to say it’s a safe and sound banking practice to always engage in money laundering, which of course it’s not. That’s one of the reasons why they don’t.

Not only that, Jeff Sessions’ memo from January of this year kind of surprised everybody, including FinCEN, which FinCEN is the Department of the Treasury. Department of Justice of course is a separate one. What happened was, on January 4, Sessions revokes the Cole Memo and all these other memos that T said rescind, but still, it basically means you terminate it.

Then he threw into disarray the FinCEN guidance that expressly relied upon the Cole Memo. Now you have some guidance that’s expressly relying upon something that doesn’t exist anymore because it’s been rescinded. They were really nice and they got flooded with emails and they returned mine. They said that they are still respecting the FinCEN guidance from 2014. You turned to more federal developments with Trump promising Gardner that he’s not going to step up enforcement.

It depends on what you say step up enforcement. Now, that’s why it’s out of Colorado because they have full legalization, full adult use. Regulated, it’s what you should do if you were actually regulating a thing in accordance with the original federal study on it, which gets back to the CSA, it’s hilarious. They regulated marijuana, Congress did, in 1970 without knowing what it did. They said it was like heroin, then they did the study after they equated it to heroin, but they never listened to the results of the study. It’s terrible.

But Schedule 524, something like that, of the budget every year has defunded the war on medical marijuana. The Department of Justice and Jeff Sessions gets no money, no matter what his memo says, to go after the medical marijuana businesses. However, that does not apply to the full legalization, of course. In theory, Jeff Sessions does have some money to go after the people in Colorado that are doing full adult use and that’s why Cory Gardner was holding up Department of Justice nominees until he got that tacit approval from the Donald Trump that he’s not going to enforce the law. Which, in theory he could, he has the money to do it.

TG Branfalt: With this, again, wishy-washy federal policy, that’s where we’re at right now, do you think that cannabis industry operators should be considering moves toward cryptocurrency or cashless card-based systems and what are the pros and cons of making this adjustment?

Tom Howard: The cryptocurrency market’s extremely volatile because you have to convert it into and out of dollars to be able to pay your vendors and whatnot. If you’ve seen the price of bitcoin, it went from 0 to 20,000 and now it’s what, at half that, a little less than half of that. There’s a lot of manipulation in those types of currencies because you have to get them into and out of dollars and that dollars create a problem in the sense that if you got a rack, and by that I mean like $10,000 with a little band around it, you have to watch out for those things because that triggers what they call suspicious activity report for the bank. That bank then has to log it.

Then of course it also gets into the Patriot Act because the Patriot Act trying to stop a lot of that terrorism and terrorism deals in cash. Cash, you can’t trace it. That’s one of the nice things about cash. So you have all those problems that are going on and I can’t even remember what the question was.

TG Branfalt: If you think that industry operators should move towards a cryptocurrency or cashless card based system.

Tom Howard: The cryptocurrency, no, the cashless card based system, yes, because the cashless card based system, you are still using cash, it’s just that you’re setting up a cash free ATM. Then you solve the cash problem. You don’t want to have cash, you want an account with a ledger that just says, have you checked your bank account lately online? It’s kinda nice, right? And you can send money to and from places. Pretty cool. It’s a lot easier to do that than it is with cash but the marijuana businesses are having a problem getting to that point.

If you did one of those cashless card systems, and let’s say your cultivation center, I’m not sure how regulated every different state is, but here we kind of cleave it between cultivation and dispensary. Each one is gonna have different vendors and different payments that they have to pay, but if they could get it on a system, or the best thing that I would recommend is you get the cashless ATM plus a PEO.

In Illinois, the only bank is closing and kicking people out on May 21st. Now you have a real problem in the sense that where do you get a bank account? Are these bank accounts gonna be opened at a bank that’s more amenable, say in like Colorado? Then you have a dispensary in Illinois trying to use a Colorado bank account. That can create some issues, unless of course you only do it in cash free, so you don’t accept any cash, so you never have to make any of those deposits. It’s just all being run from your cash free ATM through your PEO, into your accounts that are in Denver.

Now let’s go over this because that’s money laundering on money laundering on so much fricking money laundering because you’re talking about really trafficking a Schedule 1 substance and then turning it into a ledger, getting around the cash problem, then shipping it intrastate. But they’re being put in this position because I wouldn’t want to do business in straight cash. I would need to buy more safes, right?

That’s one of the problems. Have you heard about dispensaries getting knocked over, like robbed?

TG Branfalt: Yeah, of course.

Tom Howard: Why are they getting robbed? Because that’s where the money is. It hasn’t changed since the 30s. I can’t remember what gangster said. Why do you rob banks? That’s where the money is.

TG Branfalt: You mentioned one of the problems in Illinois, that the banks are shutting down access for cannabis companies and before we went live you were talking to me about what’s really preventing legalization from taking hold in Illinois, through the ballot initiative like it has all over the place. What’s going on? Explain what’s going on in Illinois.

Tom Howard: Alright, Illinois’s got an interesting constitution from 1970. It does not allow for direct questions to to be on the ballot to impact laws unless they’re extremely isolated to one particular provision of the Illinois constitution. I think that mostly has to do with procedural crap. Nothing substantive like, hey should we legalize marijuana, yes or no?

Those types of ballot initiatives you don’t have, but this fall, this November, the people have put a question, a non-binding referendum, let’s call it. You can get a non-binding referendum on the ballot, which is great, because then you can take the pulse of the electorate and it doesn’t matter at all.

Yeah, I know right? Why don’t we just put the Pepsi challenge on there?

TG Branfalt: So the people vote and then it would still be up to the legislature to decide if they want to follow that recommendation of the people?

Tom Howard: Exactly, exactly. It’s a representative democracy, it’s a republic, I guess. Now they’ll know the democratic opinion directly and they’ll be like, yeah maybe we should do this. Of course, right now it doesn’t matter. Your medical card in Illinois, it’s about three months from when you drop your application in the mail until you get your card in the mail, it’s about three months.

The governor has made sure that that stays like that and the governor’s not gonna sign any legalization, even if the people said it, he’d probably still try to veto them. However, we have an election in November and Rauner extremely unpopular and this other billionaire, who’s called JB Pritzker is running against him. He’s a more likable billionaire, to be honest.

TG Branfalt: Is he pro-legalization? Have the gubernatorial candidates made their opinions known?

Tom Howard: Yeah, yeah, yeah, because I liked him on Facebook and he publishes all, because he’s a billionaire, so he’s got his promotional stuff everywhere and one of the ads that I saw was him supporting marijuana legalization. In theory, Illinois, that’s why I said it’s kind of starting to pop here, it’s been stalled, but it’s gotten far enough along that people know that it works. People go to Colorado for trips in winter and all that stuff. There’s been enough canna-tourism so people know.

Then if what happens in fall is, if the referendum is like 60- 70%, it doesn’t matter. I’d be more likely to vote for something that doesn’t matter, right? You don’t even have to think about the consequences. You don’t even have to think about the children, it’s hypothetical. You get 60 or 70% of people who say that we should legalize, you get JB Pritzker in the office, then we might be able to see a bill that has a legitimate shot of passing the Illinois House and being signed by the governor and then going into law, but you still have to understand the lag times on that. The latency period. Colorado didn’t just pass the law and tomorrow you were able to buy marijuana. You have to lay the foundations.

TG Branfalt: And Maine, it’s not gonna take effect until three years nearly.

Tom Howard: Wow.

TG Branfalt: I want to talk to you a bit about patient’s rights. You are an attorney, that’s the sort of thing that you’re an expert in. When cannabis laws are enacted and professional boards often have to issue opinions to allow members of that profession, lawyers for example, to operate in the state or risk penalty in the state program. However, employers in general do not make exceptions for patients, meaning they still get drug tested, they pop positive, they get fired. In the United States, this is the case. What rights do patients have in medical states when it comes to employment and can we look to any of the legal decisions of the last few years, there was one in Massachusetts specifically that I’m thinking about, as precedent?

Tom Howard: Yeah, there have been a couple out of the New England area that did kind of say that there are some rights. However, what you have to do is look at your state’s law first. Start to look at the state’s law because those cases that came down, I believe they were by an administrative law because one of those employer relation boards or something. The opinions from those looked at the state’s laws themselves to determine the rights that the patients had.

Some states have more rights than other states. Florida’s medical marijuana law for patients is very bad. Illinois’ is actually not bad at all. It tries to do both. It tries to protect both the employer’s right to have a drug-free work place, but also the patient’s right to not be discriminated against solely because they’re a cannabis patient. That’s one of the reasons why you really have to kind of read the law, see what it says, and then if you do think you have rights, then you can make your claim and those cases have already brought and made out in the New England area, maybe more will come in Illinois, maybe one of the reasons why it hasn’t is because there’s only about 30,000 card holders here so far.

You have to look at your state’s law and there is some protection, sometimes, from being discriminated against solely for using or having a cannabis card. It’s hard to say one way or the other any definitive binary answer.

TG Branfalt: How do those two things jive? How do you protect both businesses and patients?

Tom Howard: Well, you see a law can say anything you want it to say. I know that’s a glib answer, but at the same time, it’s what the law actually provides and it’s trying to do that and it seems like these two pieces of law can’t be read at the same time and be both carried out, but there’s a lot of arguments that says yes, no, they can actually both be carried out at the same time and we can try to protect both rights of the employer and the employee to the extent that they have.

Now think about it, if the employer doesn’t have the benefit, if it’s drafted in the law that you can’t discriminate against medical marijuana patients solely because they’re a patient and the medical marijuana patient mentions or something that they have that and the boss just goes, I hate cannabis patients, you’re fired. Maybe it’s not gonna be like that, but there might be certain facts about it that it shows no, you only did this because I was a cannabis patient. Maybe then you would actually have some rights, but that’s when you would need to talk to your plaintiff employment attorney.

TG Branfalt: Moving on a little bit, trying to get to a lot of things in one sitting here, tell me about your books. Why did you decide to write historical fiction? You’re obviously an educated guy, you’re an attorney. Why did you focus on the historical fiction rather than writing a fact based book?

Tom Howard: That’s because I wanted them to win in the end. That’s right. That’s right. A lot of the history of it, you have to get back into the 30s and the history of marijuana and trying to find historical record, it’s not like it’s the Declaration of Independence. It’s something that they’ve tried to kind of bury as much as they can. It’s hard to track down those types of records and you can turn it into more of a narrative, something that’s more compelling.

For example, do we really know that the yellow journalism was caused because Hurst, was it Hurst I think, some newspaper baron bought all this farmland and was like leveraged to the hilt and then cannabis was gonna drink his milkshake, if we’re gonna borrow that phrase from There Will Be Blood. Or is that just more historical hokum? There’s those aspects, but then there’s the NORML case, which is something that I call it and the NORML case isn’t one case, it’s a case that NORML’s basically been waging for the past 40 plus years and one of them was just dismissed. It was good. It was a very nice complaint. I can’t remember the name of all the plaintiffs off the top of my head right now. I know one of them was related to the NFL because of brain damage.

TG Branfalt: You’re talking about the Alex Bortelli case? Or Bortel, I believe it is.

Tom Howard: Okay, there you go. Fairly recently dismissed I believe, just a couple months ago or something?

TG Branfalt: Yeah, so your books, Satan Smoke and Versus, which I’m gonna refer to as Versus, the full title is The Case of U.S. v. Yerbas. They both cover distinct eras. One covers the prohibition era and then the other covers the present and Versus actually makes a similar argument to this recent federal court case.

Tom Howard: It’s exactly the same and the only difference is, the reason why that recent court case and why it had to be historical fiction is because I wanted them to win, as opposed to we failed to exhaust administrative remedies. Yay! It’s just so frustrating, because that happens all the time and that’s why I call it the normal case. This was it’s most recent incantation and it was dismissed. There was cases before this and there’ll be a case again.

Trying to exhaust this administrative process is exhausting let’s say.

TG Branfalt: And the way that they lay it out, the way that they laid it out in that case is they showed everybody who’s ever attempted to take this issue of the CCA scheduling and cannabis to the DEA and showing them, and in one case it took nine years just to get a denial.

Tom Howard: Nine years for a denial, I know right.

TG Branfalt: So what was your reaction when the judge tossed it because let me tell you, I’m not a lawyer, I do fancy myself as somebody who does understand legalese and the law and the process a little bit better, just because I’m passionate about it. I had hope. I knew it was misplaced hope when I had that hope, but everything’s laid out there and it seems like they’re in a decent court. I think it was the Ninth Circuit in New York.

Tom Howard: Find the court, find the court. That’s the one where the U.S. v. McIntosh case came and they were able to establish the right to toss Department of Justice’s case against solely medical because of the section of the budget that defunds them. That was a pretty sweet case from a couple years ago.

TG Branfalt: Yeah, yeah, then some of the arguments they were making is this is one of the most comprehensive, if you wanna read a book about the history of prohibition, look no further than the brief that was filed in that case. As an attorney, what was your reaction when the judge tossed it? Were you like, ah that’s expected, because they did allow pieces of it to go forward in the beginning that again, gave you this hope.

Tom Howard: Right. Exactly. I wasn’t all that surprised that the administrative process was yet again, not exhausted. But at the same time, I have more optimism each time they do get to that stage again. Eventually a judge will say alright, cut the crap everybody. This is clearly chicanery, it has no rational basis to the sensible regulation of the commerce of marijuana. What are you doing here? And clearly, why is it all based on these racist lies from the 30s? What are you guys doing? But judges don’t like to draw lines because of the separation of powers issues. Any fricking reason that the judge can not make a ruling as to the constitutionality of the marijuana laws, they’re gonna take that out.

TG Branfalt: What are the constitutional arguments to be made against prohibition?

Tom Howard: The one that we were talking about right now, a lot of them have to do with your due process rights to not have, it’s arbitrary government. The government makes literally no sense. That’s more of your fifth amendment due process right, to be free from that. That is extremely difficult because there’s various standards of scrutiny for striking down a statute and you’re basically trying to strike down the Schedule 1 substance of cannabis. You’re trying to do what the Shafer Study … You’re trying to do Congress should have done in the first place, which was study the darn thing before it regulated it.

But no, that would have been harder to establish this rational basis. So there’s various standards of scrutiny for the striking down of laws. I can’t even recall them off the top of my head now because I’ve learned other law. But commercial regulations like marijuana is the lowest one and it’s got like a 99% failure rate. So you try to shoehorn a little bit of the racial animus into it by doing a rational basis with bite test, which is kind of a thing. It’s also a very low probability, but they didn’t even get to it. They didn’t get to it, they didn’t even address it.

That they don’t address it, that the court didn’t address it, either this makes you still have hope that it’s actually legit, you know? And they’re just trying to do a little bit more time and maybe if they just keep delaying a few more years, Congress will finally strike a line through the controlled substances act solely where is says cannabis. That’s it. The bill is extremely thin. Leave it a law that passes then changes the Controlled Substances Act so that this case Sub 1B4 whatever. Whatever line cannabis is, just red line through.

TG Branfalt: When it comes to the Controlled Substances Act, are you a proponent of descheduling or rescheduling? For people who don’t understand the difference, rescheduling would keep it on the CSA.

Tom Howard: No, like I just said, strike a line through it. Deschedule that stuff because then you allow the states to do it. Now the fun thing is, pro tip here man, back in 1969, marijuana became federally legal for a couple of years, it’s actually what, and I’m gonna apologize for using this verb, fomented the Controlled Substances Act because I guess it was the case of US v. Leary, yeah that guy, Tim Leary. The previous law was the Marijuana Tax Stamp Act and that created a Fifth Amendment self incrimination catch 22 so the high courts struck it.

For a couple of years, it was federally legal, or at least it was federally silent, let’s say. There was no law on it, but it didn’t matter, because in every state, marijuana was a crime in 1969 until the effect of the Controlled Substances Act, which I think was 1971. We can have the inverse of that now. We would strike it and have again, no federal policy, like we did back in 69 to 71. You would have all these state policies. 44 states I believe, have medical marijuana, several more have adult use.

If Schedule 1 is no longer a thing, banking can be accessed because there’s no more money laundering. The way that all these crimes are defined, it doesn’t say marijuana, it says Schedule 1 substance, that’s it.

TG Branfalt: Just having your insight into the history, the actual legal history. When you sat down to write, Yerbas, specifically Versus, how deep did you dig to come up with these arguments or were these arguments that were plodding around in your head as you were studying law?

Tom Howard: When I was in law school, I was a shitty student. I never went to school and I’m not kidding. I wrote two other books in law school, then I got into private practice and this is the book that I wrote in my first year of private practice before I went to Howard and Howard and became a bank attorney. A sophisticated banking attorney. In my first year, I did a lot of this research and wrote Yerbas. You research it as much as you can. You try to get the entire historical record as best as you can, wrench it out of the internet. How much do we trust the internet?

I’m not kidding. Google Scholar really helped. At least you could be doing case law research, but there is a case, and it has to do with, I can’t find it because it was probably an administrative law judge, but do you remember Irv Rosenfeld and the federal marijuana patients?

TG Branfalt: I am not familiar with that one, no.

Tom Howard: There was actually a federal medical marijuana policy from 1978 through 1991 and there’s still four living patients.

TG Branfalt: Oh yeah, you’re talking about the people getting federal joints mailed to their house?

Tom Howard: The joints mailed to them guys. That’s right, yes. That was a case and then you actually had a federal policy and the FDA doing this, what do they call it? IND or something, it was innovative, they’re trying to do research to determine whether or not marijuana has any use and it worked. Some of the people are still alive. That’s just how crazy the whole thing gets. And how convoluted. You’re saying one thing and you’re treating all these people one way and then you’re saying another thing and treating these people a different way. What the heck is it? Then they shut it down in the 90s and that’s when you had medical marijuana start to go into the states, California specifically first.

TG Branfalt: Where can people find out more about you, where can they buy your books? Tell us where to find you.

Tom Howard: Yeah man, go to Cannabis Industry lawyer on YouTube. You can go to our Facebook page, that’s Facebook.com/freethc, that should take you to our Facebook page and after that, Google “Tom Howard marijuana.” I’ll come up.

TG Branfalt: It’s really been great to chat with you man. I really wanna keep in touch. See what you got going on. Maybe if I ever make it out to Illinois, I’ll check in on you.

Tom Howard: Yeah, I would love to go out to the New England area, especially Vermont, I’ve never been out there. I hear it’s beautiful, you just said it.

TG Branfalt: Oh the Green Mountains man, the Green Mountains. Then Burlington’s around Lake Champlain so you can see all the way across to New York, it’s an interesting place, Burlington, Vermont. We just passed our own legalization, not we, the legislature actually did it. We’ll at least be able to grow a little bit and possess without fear of being arrested. That’s good.

Tom Howard: Awesome man. Awesome. Well cool. Thanks so much for having me on. I really had a great time.

TG Branfalt: Absolutely man. Appreciate it. You can find more episodes of the Ganjapreneur.com Podcast in the podcast section of Ganjapreneur.com and in the Apple iTunes store. On the Ganjapreneur.com website you’ll find the latest cannabis news and cannabis jobs updated daily along with transcripts of this podcast. You can also download the Ganjapreneur.com app in iTunes and Google Play. This episode was engineered by Trim Media House. I’ve been your host, TG Branfalt.

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Mormon Church Says Lawmakers, Not Voters, Should Legalize MMJ

9/18/2018

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Mormon Church leaders have continued to campaign against Proposition 2, Utah’s medical cannabis ballot measure, but have issued statements indicating they might support medical cannabis legislation created in a special session, according to the Associated Press.

The Church of Latter-Day Saints has been funding the campaign against Proposition 2 since well before they announced their opposition to the measure.

Drug Safe Utah, an umbrella organization for the various opponents of Prop. 2, has taken funds from the Mormon Church. The organization filed suit on behalf of Mormon attorney Walter J. Plumb in an attempt to remove Prop. 2 from the ballot by arguing it infringed on Plumb’s religious freedoms. That case is still pending but cannabis advocates in the state are optimistic.

Following that case, however, the Mormon Church announced its formal opposition to Prop 2. The Church urged parishioners to vote against the measure, saying that it was against the Mormon “Word of Wisdom.” Meanwhile, Drug Safe Utah began running inaccurate radio ads which incurred a formal complaint from the measure’s proponents.

The Mormon Church’s campaign against Proposition 2 does not seem to have swayed voters much, however. A poll released in September showed that public support for the medical cannabis initiative remained largely unchanged with 64 percent of respondents in support of the measure.

Now, the Mormon Church is attempting to re-frame its opposition to Prop. 2 in terms specific to the ballot measure. The Church claims that it is not opposed to medical cannabis prescribed by a doctor, but that it is only concerned about the language of Proposition 2.

“There is urgency. This isn’t ‘let’s wait till next year to have a conversation,'” said Elder Jack N. Gerard, Executive Director of PR for the Church. “It needs to be dealt with soon. There’s an urgency to accomplish this. … With this coalition, we’re calling on public officials to act and act promptly.”

However, lawmakers are not optimistic about the Legislature’s ability to draft — and much less pass — a workable medical cannabis bill. In fact, Proposition 2 exists in part because of the Utah Legislature’s failure to act on the public support for medical cannabis, which pushed advocates to collect signatures for a legalization initiative. State Rep. Brian King (D-District 28), leader of the House minority party, said that Proposition 2 is the only likely path to medical cannabis reform.

“Proposition 2 is flawed, in some ways very flawed, but I’m voting for it because if we vote it down, I think the likelihood that the state Legislature will come back and put in place meaningful medical marijuana is slim and none.” — Rep. Brian King, via Deseret News

King also said he wondered why the largely Republican Utah legislature would feel pressure to draft and pass a medical cannabis law if voters didn’t show support for one on the ballot. The Office of the Governor has also indicated that a special session would only be likely if there was clear consensus on a bill (and there isn’t even a bill, yet).

Utah voters in November will have to decide whether the Mormon Church is sincere in its desire to see medical cannabis laws passed in the state, or if this is only a delaying tactic aimed at reducing voter support for Proposition 2.

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Study: After Legalizing Cannabis, Police Effectiveness Up in Washington & Colorado

7/20/2018

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A study by researchers at Washington State University has found evidence of “demonstrable and persistent benefit” to police departments’ effectiveness in Washington and Colorado since the states voted to legalize cannabis in 2012.

Researchers used monthly FBI data to investigate crime clearance rates for the states from 2010 to 2015; crimes are normally considered “cleared” when a suspect is identified, arrested, and entered into the judicial system for prosecution.

“Our models show no negative effects of legalization and, instead, indicate that crime clearance rates for at least some types of crime are increasing faster in states that legalized than in those that did not.” — WSU researchers, via The Washington Post

Researchers looked at violent crime and property crime clearance rates — most specifically, burglary and vehicle theft — and found marked boosts after the states’ legalization laws took effect in comparison to the rest of the country.

“The clearance rate for these two offenses increased dramatically postlegalization. In contrast, national trends remained essentially flat.” — WSU researchers

The researchers noted that this data does not prove legalization is the direct cause of the changes in clearance rates. Other variables in police activity — such as new policing strategies or an increased use of overtime hours — could certainly have played a role. The study authors did note, however, that there were not any other major policy changes at that time in those states to account for the boosted police effectiveness.

“We think the argument that legalization did in fact produce a measurable impact on clearance rates is plausible.” — WSU researchers, in the study’s conclusion

 

 

 

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Workers’ Comp Judge Orders New Jersey Town to Pay for MMJ

7/16/2018

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A Workers’ Compensation Judge in New Jersey has ordered Freehold Township to pay for a claimant’s medical cannabis, according to a report by the New Jersey Law Journal. This is the second time a New Jersey judge has ruled in favor of worker’s comp covering medical cannabis for an injured worker, setting a powerful precedent.

A lawyer representing the insurance group opposed the payment claims, arguing that federal law prevents an insurance carrier from funding a patient’s medical cannabis. Judge Lionel Simon ruled against the insurance company despite this reasoning, as well as against a recent Maine ruling that held insurance companies can’t be forced to pay for cannabis that is still illegal federally.

The judge, aware of the Maine ruling and other legal precedents, held that his ruling is still correct. Judge Simon said that state and federal drug laws are crafted to prevent the illicit distribution and use of drugs, adding:

“I don’t think the New Jersey Medical Marijuana Act is in conflict with that. Certainly I don’t understand how a [insurance] carrier who will never possess, never distribute, never intend to distribute these products, who will merely sign a check into an attorney’s trust account, is in any way complicit with the distribution of illegal narcotics. … What else is important to note here is in this, Mr. McNeary’s case, there is a documented medical need and the concern is that Mr. McNeary is going to become addicted to opioids.” — Judge Lionel Simon, in a statement made in court

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The New Hampshire Capitol Building located in Concord, New Hampshire.

New Hampshire Democrats Add Legal Cannabis to Party Platform

6/28/2018

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The New Hampshire Democratic Party has made cannabis legalization a part of the party’s political platform this week, according to an Associated Press report. The move will appease advocates, who fear the state is falling far behind neighboring Maine, Massachusetts, and Vermont — the New England states that have already legalized cannabis for adult use.

Specifically, the new platform states that New Hampshire Democrats “believe that marijuana should be legalized, taxed, and regulated.” The party also chose to adopt a resolution that calls for the federal government to remove cannabis from the list of Schedule 1 substances.

“It’s clearly a matter of when and not if marijuana gets legalized in New Hampshire. I think that at the point in time when it is legalized we need to be ready to make sure that public safety is protected.” — Chris Pappas, Democratic candidate in New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District primary, in a statement to AP

Cannabis is decriminalized in New Hampshire, but recent legislative efforts to fully legalize and regulate the adult-use market have fallen flat.

 

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Why Marijuana Was Made Illegal

Why Marijuana Was Made Illegal

6/21/2018

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Cannabis has a complicated history in the United States but why was marijuana made illegal? Public interest in cannabis has gone through several cycles of boom and bust since its introduction to the West in the 19th century. Legislation for much of U.S. History has attempted to stifle consumption, though in recent decades the trend has seen some reversal.

Early History

Cannabis indica was first introduced to western medicine by William O’Shaughnessy in 1839. O’Shaughnessy had spent many years in India in pursuit of scientific discoveries. He returned to London in 1841 and spread his discovery to all of England. Medicinal cannabis had spread to pharmacies in the U.S. by the 1850s.

Cannabis use was on the rise in the U.S. in the middle to late 19th century. An 1854 New York Times article listed hemp among other “fashionable narcotics” including tobacco and opium. There was widespread use by the 1880s in “hashish parlors” found in every major city on the east coast. New York alone was estimated to have over 500 such parlors.

Efforts to regulate cannabis and many other pharmaceutical drugs began in this era in an attempt to block adulterated drugs from the market. Many states required drugs, when not issued by a pharmacy, to be labeled as poison. By the turn of the 20th century, most states had such poison laws in place, though some states explicitly did not include cannabis in their poison laws. There were attempts in California to regulate cannabis as early as 1880, made under the guise of controlling poisons.

Why Marijuana Was Made Illegal
William O’Shaughnessy brought Cannabis to the west.

Government Regulation

The first major piece of legislation that began the 20th century’s march towards cannabis prohibition was the Pure Food and Drug Act passed in 1906, which required the labeling of many drugs. Previously, patent medicines were largely unregulated. Many contained “secret” or undisclosed ingredients, or misleading labels. A second wave of legislation rolled out in 1910 to quell continued complaints about the ease of acquiring narcotics.

State-level regulations limiting sale passed in Massachusetts in 1911 and in New York and Maine in 1914. Cannabis was required to be labeled and could only be distributed by pharmacists. This state-level regulation continued in the west with California’s Poison Act of 1913, followed by many other states over the next 15 years: Wyoming in 1915; Texas in 1919; Iowa, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and Arkansas in 1923; Nebraska and Louisiana in 1927; and Colorado in 1929.

In 1938, the Pure Food and Drug Act was updated to the “Federal Pure Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Act,” which remains in effect to this day. It is one of the oldest operational pieces of legislation and creates the messy tangle of laws. Under the 1938 Act, cannabis is explicitly defined as a “dangerous drug.”

Police Enforcement

To this point, many of the regulations and controls on cannabis distribution were based on fines and economic penalties. The Uniform State Narcotic Drug Act of 1925 – 1932 was one of the first pieces of legislation that explicitly gave police the power to enforce drug laws, as well as standardizing many aspects of cannabis prohibition.

Policing infrastructure continued to expand. In 1930 the Federal Bureau of Narcotics was formed, headed by Henry J. Anslinger. Anslinger believed cannabis caused people to commit violent crimes and act irrationally. The FBN advocated harsh penalties for drug crimes, including for cannabis.

The FBN lobbied extensively for the passage of the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, which made possession or transfer of cannabis illegal in the entire U.S., excluding industrial or medical uses. Enforcement was largely based around a tax system, as the federal government lacked the authority under the 10th amendment to regulate medicines and had to do so with taxes instead.

After the Marihuana Tax Act passed, Anslinger continued his campaigns for prohibition. Anslinger also ran campaigns with William Hearst, whose empire of newspapers used yellow journalism to create a belief that cannabis caused violent behavior, among other negative effects.

cannabis prohibition
Photo credit: Elvert Barnes

Increased Punishment and Mandatory Sentencing

By the 1950s, cannabis had been successfully demonized. The Boggs Act of 1952 and the Narcotics Control Act of 1956 instituted increased and mandatory sentencing. The new laws required first-time possession offenders to be given a minimum of two to ten years and a fine of up to $20,000.

In 1969, Leary v. United States determined the Marihuana Tax Act was a violation of the 5th Amendment. Cannabis prohibition was very much still in the cards, however. As a response to the nullification of the previous law, lawmakers passed the Controlled Substances Act in 1970. The CSA was a part of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act, which repealed the Marihuana Tax Act. The new law prohibited any use of cannabis, including medical. Cannabis was given a Schedule I classification, putting it on the same tier as drugs such as heroin.

DEA & Medical Marijuana

From 1968 to 1973 the drug enforcement agencies of the U.S. government began to reorganize and on July 1st, 1973, the Drug Enforcement Administration was formed. With increased police power came increased incarceration. In 1975, the Supreme court ruled it “not cruel or unusual” for the state of Ohio to sentence an individual to 20 years for having or selling cannabis, effectively ratifying the plant’s Schedule I classification.

101315: Synergy III – 0006: DEA investigator teams up with ICE agent during Project Synergy III in Los Angeles, October 13, 2014.
Photo by: Jaime Ruiz

Prohibition began to ease in some areas at this time, however. The late 1960s saw a popular culture that was more permissive of cannabis use. California, one of the very first regulators of cannabis at the turn of the 20th century, was also one of the first states to soften the federal laws criminalizing cannabis. California introduced a law repealing certain prohibitions in 1976.

Through the 1980s, the Reagan administration created several new mandatory sentencing laws, including long prison terms for large-scale cannabis distribution. Three-strikes laws for multiple offenders went into effect at this time, which increased mandatory sentences as well as allowed the death penalty for certain “drug kingpins.” These laws were intended to curb cocaine and heroin trafficking primarily but were eagerly applied to cannabis as well.

By the late 1990s, the battle between state and federal drug laws had begun. California voters approved Proposition 215 allowing for medical cannabis use, followed by several other medical marijuana ballot initiatives in Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Nevada and Washington D.C. Federal legislators attempted to fight back with new legislation and the battle raged for some time, including in the Supreme Court.

Legal Tangle

The battle continued through the Clinton administration and continues today. Many overlapping laws and legal precedents continue to muddy the field. Recreational and medical laws at the state level have been vindicated on the federal level, while at other times declared invalid.

One of the biggest signs of support was the Obama administration’s “Cole Memorandum” which discouraged federal employees from prosecuting state-level Cannabis enterprises. The Cole Memo was later repealed by the Trump administration’s Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, continuing the pattern of mixed signals over cannabis legalization.

In 2014, in response to increased raids on medical cannabis providers, Congress adopted the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment to stop the Justice Department from prosecuting individuals acting within state law. The Justice Department attempted to ignore this amendment as well but were ordered to comply by the U.S. District Court in October 2015. The Rohrabacher-Farr amendment is still in effect today but has been rebranded the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer amendment because the rider’s sponsors have changed.

Looking Forward

Despite setbacks that seem to follow every positive decision, the pattern of legal and legislative battles against prohibition seems to be favoring legalization. Cannabis continues to see increased public support as more research reveals a large range of medical benefits. A majority of states now have legal medical cannabis and many have recently legalized recreational cannabis.

Movement towards federal legislation for legalization is slowly gaining more Congressional support — slowly, but surely. 

Last updated June 2, 2020.

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1,500 Attend New England Cannabis Convention’s Inaugural Vermont Show

5/15/2018

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About 1,500 attended the New England Cannabis Convention’s inaugural show in South Burlington, Vermont, meeting the expectations of organizers and setting the stage for an event next year – when cannabis use and possession will be legal for adults in the state.

“The hype is real,” said Eli Harrington, co-founder of Heady Vermont and one of the event organizers, Saturday on the show floor. Harrington, who also led the panel discussions over two days, noted the event’s variety of attendees – shirts, ties, camo, and flannel – and called the event “hugely important” for the state’s existing hemp producers.

“Everyone has a chance to showcase in a more conventional tradeshow space,” he remarked as the afternoon crowd bustled behind him. “This is phase one – hemp and legal CBD – and phase two is everyone getting ramped up for July 1 and ready to grow.”

Harrington, and his Heady Vermont partner Monica Donovan, laid the groundwork for the convention two years ago – in the meantime organizing a Hemp Fest last September and a series of hemp and CBD farmer’s markets throughout the state – and eyed a relationship with NECANN, who have successfully held conventions in, now, six markets.

Organizer Marc Shephard stands behind the NECANN inaugural Vermont show’s ticket booth.

NECANN CEO and co-founder Marc Shepard called the turnout “fantastic,” noting that vendor space had long been sold out. He compared the interest from the public and vendors as to that of their maiden Massachusetts and Rhode Island shows.

“We try to create a locally-focused conference and one of the main goals is to get that critical mass in a room,” Shepard said between ticket sales. “When we can do an event like this … you get the people on the outside saying ‘this is an industry convention – just like an auto show – this is real business’ and it just helps push toward normalization.”

He called the Vermont show unique because of the state’s already strong hemp and CBD industry; while the Maine shows have more of a homegrow focus and Rhode Island a more medical cannabis focus because “that’s what’s legal right now.

“All of these events are very catered toward each state’s current situation,” he said, “but we can do this event in any state that has, at least, a medical program and get that critical mass.”

While hemp and CBD dominated the show floor, ancillary businesses took the opportunity to stake their claim. Jesse Harper, owner of Vermont Security Systems, said that while he had “a little” hesitation about exhibiting at a cannabis-centric event, he wants to be “ahead of the curve” and position themselves as “the provider” for the state’s cannabis industry. He anticipates he will serve between 50 and 100 canna-business clients within the next two years but admits that “no one really knows” how many businesses will operate in the state’s industry right now because it’s unclear when the legislature will implement a tax-and-regulate regime.

“As a small business we get to pick and choose who we want to do business with – that’s one of the joys of small business ownership,” he said, “and we get along really well with our cannabis clients.”

Hemp plant on display from Humble Roots Horticulture.

Harper said the energy at the convention was “much higher” and “really positive” compared to more traditional home shows.

“People are absolutely here looking for something, there is excitement about what’s next,” he said.

Rob Smith, who with his Maine-based company Atlas Plant Trainer exhibited at the first NECANN in his home state, explained that the inaugural Vermont show was “smaller” and “more hemp-focused” than other shows; noting that he had tried to get a both for the show a month ago but booth space was sold out. He hoped that next year the event would be held in a larger hall in order to provide more booth opportunities because being an exhibitor at the shows are “absolutely critical” to his company’s growth.

“These [cannabis] conventions are a great place for consumers, growers, and enthusiasts to see all sorts of different products and learn from all sorts of different people,” said Smith, the CEO and co-founder.

Will Read, founder of Vermont-based brand development firm CannaPlanners, has attended NECANN shows in Rhode Island, Maine, and Massachusetts and called the Mother’s Day weekend show on-par with Maine’s show. He said that while he, obviously, attends the shows to sell his products and expertise, it’s also an opportunity to touch base with his current clients and other operators, who are rarely in the same room at once.

Will Read speaks with an event attendee at the CannaPlanners booth.

“This event was definitely a nice progression from Hemp Fest,” Read said in front of his booth, which displayed his designs scrolling by on a tablet and products from a few of his clients – including Atlas. “I think the next time this happens it’s going to be twice as big – it just keeps going.”

Read pointed out that many who paid for a Hemp Fest ticket eight months ago were paying for booth space at NECANN. “It shows what the organizers have been doing between each event,” he said.

While surveying the morning traffic, Harrington quipped, “It’s a billion-dollar business, whose billion dollars is it gonna be?” He attributed the quote to Shepard. “And next year we’ll be [a] legal [state] and we’ll be here again supporting that industry, too.”

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Large, trimmed cannabis nugs lie on their side on a wooden surface.

Colorado Legislature Approves Cannabis ‘Tasting Rooms’ Bill; Moves to Gov.

5/04/2018

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Colorado’s legislature has passed a social-use measure that would allow individuals to consume small amounts of cannabis – either by edibles or vaping – on site, the Denver Post reports. If signed by Gov. John Hickenlooper, Colorado would become the first state to allow social cannabis use.

The bill limits consumption to current recreational cannabis retailers and does not allow sharing or outside cannabis to be used on-location. Rep. Jovan Melton said the legislation would help address the issue of tourists and others consuming cannabis in public spaces. The bill prohibits food beyond single-serve edibles, smoking, alcohol, employee consumption, and free samples.

“I think this moves the ball forward in allowing the industry to do some sort of consumption … but does it in a way that I would say is pretty conservative. It’s actually pretty limited.” – Melton to the Post

The Marijuana Enforcement Division has opposed all previous social-use legislation. MED Director Jim Burack called this approach “incremental” and “responsible.” The American Cancer Society Action Network opposes the measure – because of the vaping provisions – and plan to submit a formal veto request to the governor.

Voters in Denver approved a social-use initiative in 2016. City officials approved the first social-use license in February. Some Colorado cities have created “private club” exemptions which allow for on-site use.

Officials in Alaska and Massachusetts are considering social-use proposals. Alaska officials have indicated they would consider the reforms next month, while Massachusetts regulators plan to consider rules in November but, so far, neither have codified plans. Maine lawmakers removed social-use language from the state’s adult-use implementation bill. California allows social-use with city approval. Nevada does not allow public use but the definition of “public spaces” does not include retail shops. Neither Oregon nor Washington allow on-site consumption.

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Massachusetts Opens Next Round of Cannabis Business Licenses

5/02/2018

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Applications for a variety of Massachusetts canna-businesses are now open including craft cooperatives, micro-businesses, transporters, independent testing laboratories, and lab agents, the Boston Business Journal reports. According to the report, 312 applications have already been submitted to the Cannabis Control Commission, but just 25 have completed at least one part of the four-part process.

The agency is still reviewing priority certification applicants. The CCC received some 813 applications by last month’s deadline, but 400 of those were reportedly incomplete. So far, 66 social-equity applicants have been approved for priority certification and 80 medical cannabis operators have been approved to operate under the recreational regime. Transporters were expected to begin applying on June 1; however, CCC Executive Director Sean Collins indicated the CCC decided to include transporters in the current round of applications. He expects the number of applications to increase “pretty dramatically.”

Adult-use cannabis sales are expected to begin in Massachusetts July 1. Collins said that the application process has “launched successfully.” Once implemented, Massachusetts will become the first New England state to allow recreational cannabis sales.

Maine and Vermont have also passed legislation to allow adult cannabis use. Although Vermont’s legislature-approved law does not provide for a taxed-and-regulated industry and Maine’s governor has twice vetoed recreational implementation bills.   

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Ryan Smith: Creating a B2B Wholesale Cannabis Marketplace

4/26/2018

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Ryan Smith is the CEO and co-founder of LeafLink, a business-to-business digital marketplace for cannabis retailers, producers, and processors to trade wholesale cannabis products.

Ryan recently joined our podcast host TG Branfalt for an interview about LeafLink’s founding, the success they have found so far, and the difficulties and goals that still lie ahead. He also shares his thoughts about the state of the industry (including which states he is eyeing for future expansion), which professional qualities he looks for when hiring for Leaflink, and more!

You can listen to the interview via the player below or scroll further down to read a full transcript of this week’s Ganjapreneur.com podcast episode.

Listen to the interview:

Read the transcript:

TG Branfalt: Hey there, I’m your host TG Branfalt and you are listening to the Ganjapreneur.com Podcast where we try to bring you actionable information and normalize cannabis through the stories of ganjapreneurs, activists and industry stakeholders. Today I’m joined by Ryan Smith, he’s the CEO and co-founder of LeafLink, which provides a wholesale management platform for the cannabis industry.

In 2016 Smith was included in the Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list. So he doesn’t really need my introduction. But how you doing this afternoon Ryan?

Ryan Smith: Great, thanks TG for having me and Leaflink on the podcast today.

TG Branfalt: I’m really excited in the way that we have a lot to cover. Before we get into the nuts and bolts man tell me about yourself. What’s your background? How did you end up in the cannabis space?

Ryan Smith: I grew up in New York City. In Manhattan and always on the east coast, so I’m just going east coast and started an investor relationship management platform for real estate companies back in college as an undergrad. We exited that to a public company in 2014. And then I’ve always been selling stuff on eBay in my free time. So my parents had a joke that if things would go missing in the house they’re probably in Ryan’s PayPal account.

So I always loved marketplace technology and there’s a really unique opportunity to empower companies in the cannabis industry because it’s so new, it’s defining itself everyday. That if we can build tech in from the very beginning like what does that mean for industry? It’s gonna be and it’s getting to be as big as it is. So that’s when Zack, my co-founder Zack and I connected and began just doing research and hearing what people needed to help grow their businesses.

That’s what gave birth to Leaflink.

TG Branfalt: So why don’t you describe to the listeners what Leaflink is. What sets it apart tech wise from other competitors?

Ryan Smith: So Leaflink is a wholesale B to B marketplace. We have tools that support those business to business transactions and then we enable and empower companies to buy the products they normally buy faster. And then also find new ones because as you know there’s a new company every morning and night in this industry and to keep track of those and their prices and admission is difficult.

So Leaflink is, there’s really two differences. The first is our team. So we brought together a mixture of people that have incredible cannabis experience, have been working in retail locations. Have worked for distributors, have worked for brands. And then we’ve also married those skillsets with people that would never be in the cannabis industry if they weren’t at Leaflink. Incredible engineers with great experience working at companies like Yelp or other tech leaders that you’d recognize.

So those skillsets together is a clear advantage. The second is our community. So we have over 2000 retailers and almost 500 brands now that are active on the platform everyday in six states. And so what we are doing, we’ve always said in the very beginning our focus is to create a new standard in this industry. Define it from the beginning and how people not only communicate with each other but also transact wholesale with each other. So that entire acceptance product fit community that we built we think is the second clear differentiator that makes us powerful and in a good position to continue to grow. Which we still have a lot of growth to do.

TG Branfalt: So you mentioned people first. What do you look for in bringing in this talent? So you’d necessarily find people who weren’t active in this space. What qualities do you look for in people that you bring in?

Ryan Smith: Execution, professionalism I think are two of the biggest ones. We’ve seen … you know everyone says in this industry one year is like seven years, the same things happen, just move so quickly. And if you even look at articles of tech companies two or three years ago, some of which are not even around anymore. There’s this whole branding and cultural story around, “Oh you know this is a tech company for marijuana. People get high there at work and they have a dab room.”

And for us and Zack and I have always thought that this industry deserves just as great software, just as incredible and skilled people working on their teams. And they deserve that same standard from us so from the very beginning we want to bring in people that if you have industry experience, amazing, but we do see this second step, this new level of maturity the whole industry’s entering and we want to do everything we can to further that because that’s how this industry goes as mainstream and becomes commercialized and just everywhere.

There just aren’t enough people that have cannabis experience to fill all the positions and so bringing in talented skilled people to further that goal is to me always been super focused on and think for ourselves. As a tech company looking for incredibly professional and skilled people that execute get stuff done. Facing the cannabis industry.

TG Branfalt: Do people that you might approach, do they ever give you the side eye because you’re in the cannabis industry? Is that stigma still persistent?

Ryan Smith: I almost laugh, because I would laugh at someone if they have that. But what we’ve seen so much more now, we’ve gone through three rounds of funding, is there is such a deep interest in companies that, either they’re institutional capital looking for opportunities or they’re just … some of the people we have one of our first angel investors was a teacher at a Catholic school.

One of friends and family, wrote a small check but albeit a check, and there’s this openness that we’re seeing now that that look doesn’t happen really as much as we think anymore. And part of what we were just talking about before, and the things that you’re seeing, some of the people that you’ve been having this podcast before, that next level of professionalism is coming to this space and it’s becoming as it should be treated as though it’s any other. With the same everything that people take for granted in other industries.

So it doesn’t happen as often as it does and if it does happen it’s clearly not a good person for us to be speaking with because they have a clearly antiquated way of seeing reality.

TG Branfalt: So you’d mentioned successful fundraising round. What has led to that success, especially in this era of uncertainty given federal policy?

Ryan Smith: Startups are always risky. They’re whatever, 80% of them fail. When you think about startups in this industry, that’s a startup itself, it’s even crazier. And I think a lot of people in this space aren’t used to it and they’re looking at deals that are … to name half a dozen companies that get a lot of press, seem really exciting, seemingly say the right things. But then the truth shakes out, who is getting stuff done, who’s moving forward, who’s achieving their goals, surpassing their goals and who’s just talking a lot.

And what we’ve built at Leaflink and what we’re always gonna continue to push ourselves to build is a company that does deliver and does complete the things that we saw and promise to our clients, the community, to our investors who our team that we’re gonna do. And then it really goes a long way. So if you can create at some level … and by the way there’s a ton of risk and we are still a startup and have a lot to do. But when you begin to mitigate some of that risk by doing what you said you were gonna do six months ago and maybe even doing a better job with it you begin to build that trust with people.

And that’s really what we’ve done and at a very high level.

TG Branfalt: So you said earlier operating in six states. And as you said this industry’s moving at a breakneck pace. We see everyday another potential medical program. You see states like where I’m at in Vermont and these gray markets that start to emerge. Which obviously isn’t a market that you would operate in because there’s really no infrastructure. But how do you identify which markets to enter and which ones not to enter?

Ryan Smith: So you’re right that Vermont is not a market for us right now. There is not gonna be as far as we know any retail locations or commercialized brands with CPGI out there, and packaged consumer goods that are gonna be selling. But what we do think … but that’s positive, it’s still positive right, it’s the right direction, it’s positive momentum for people that have become more familiar and see how the industry’s growing. See the potential that’s there.

And then maybe two or three years in a row, it advances and matures in a way that will become interesting to us, for us at Leaflink though the markets that make the most sense and the first market that we launched in … usually maybe something similar to the Colorado regulatory design. So usually states start with vertical integration, you have to own the land where it’s grown. The factory where it’s made, the store where it’s sold.

And then more licenses are given out, people begin to be allowed to specialize. Who’s an amazing retailer, who’s a rock star brand, who can do an incredible job with logistics? And then people begin to specialize in just that thing. And those are markets that, the ones that are not vertically integrated. So for us it doesn’t really matter if it’s medical or recreational, what matters more that there’s a free market with a licensing structure that let’s companies do one thing very well.

And then they can all connect to the community on Leaflink and do deals with each other. But those are the ones that we target the most. And the States that we’re live in right now are, first it was Colorado, then Washington, then Oregon, California and Nevada and Arizona. So Arizona being an example that’s medical but companies are allowed to specialize, it’s not vertically integrated and it’s been a great tip for us there so far.

TG Branfalt: And you’d mentioned brands, and man, I can’t tell you how many emails I get of brands. Then a few weeks later they’re gone. So how do you identify the brands that you guys are gonna offer?

Ryan Smith: We’ve been trying, and this is something we can definitely and are always trying to improve. The qualifying participants and members of Leaflink’s community is challenging. Because in certain states it could be let’s say if the state only has 70 retail locations, if they’re in 50 that’s amazing, they have great market penetration, they’re clearly a company that’s doing business, they’re fit. But then in some other states if you have only 25 or 30 dispensaries or retailers in your sales book you’re just getting started.

And so we see a lot companies come out really loud, they wanna get on Leaflink, they think that they’re gonna put their stuff up on our platform. They may not have a sales team, they may not even have a finished product or an advertising strategy or really any clients and they expect that magically, it’s cannabis, everyone’s making so much money and we’re gonna do a bunch of sales and here we go, eight figures of revenue. And then it doesn’t happen.

And then they kind of teeter out. And so it’s, we’re trying to be as objective as we can when we qualify leads and prospect. But it’s tough and there’s a level of subjectivity to just talking to the other side of the marketplace, which retailers are excited about certain brands, which purchasing managers want to buy and sample certain items. It’s tough and it’s changing quickly.

TG Branfalt: So what trends are you seeing? I’ve seen a lot about the plummet of flower sales while concentrates are taking over the market. I’ve heard the same thing about edibles that flowers dying and that whole thing. What trends are you seeing in terms of product? Is this flower dying narrative accurate?

Ryan Smith: Of course not. It is, I’d say it is as a business that anyone can access. But of course it’s not as the key raw ingredient. There will always be a market for flower but the people that have the ability to grow it … so let’s say two or three years ago you and I could get together and have a 15, 20000 sq ft. facility grow loose flower and sell it and that would be a good business. But what we’re seeing is that that’s becoming increasingly more difficult as the price continues to drop, even in Oregon right now. It’s just rock bottom prices.

And so what we think is gonna happen and we’re seeing more of this is there’s gonna be massive operations at scale, high volume production facilities that will be able to make money but only because they’re moving such a high amount of product at a very tight margin, kind of like a paper company. That will still be in business but what we’re seeing, the reason why concentrates are exploding is because people that were previously growing flower can’t make real money on flower so they turn to a concentrate, brand it, put it in a package.
And then there’s usually a higher margin on that. And our bet at Leaflink and what we’ve seen happen, what we see happening all of these states as they mature is that the edibles packaged branded goods are clearly the future. There’s just all of these new companies that are starting in the space need a mission, need a brand, need something that a buyer and a consumer can relate to and can understand.

And it’s hard for most demographics to understand the differences between all the different strains. But it’s easier to understand a cream that I’ve seen before that looks like it’s made from veno or something similar. And buy that, have that connection. So I think brands are the future, flower will always have its place. But raw flower will continue to drop in pricing as we’re seeing in every single market now.

TG Branfalt: That’s really really interesting stuff man. I want to talk to you a bit more about what we’re seeing on a federal level. But before we do that we gotta take a break, this is Ganjapreneur.com Podcast I’m TJ Branfalt.

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TG Branfalt: Hey there welcome back, this is the Ganjapreneur.com Podcast. I’m your host TG Branfalt here with Ryan Smith CEO and co-founder of Leaflink. Super super smart guy, really really stoked to have you on the show, man.

So in a December 2016 Marijuna Business Daily article you said that you were in the wait and see camp regarding Trump’s cannabis policy. On the campaign trail he had said that it was a state’s rights decision. Now he’s saying that all drug dealers should be murdered. That was more than a year before the Cole Memo was rescinded by Jeff Sessions. How do you feel now more than a year later about this administration as it relates to cannabis policy?

Are you still in that wait and see camp?

Ryan Smith: A lot of feelings for sure about what’s happening in DC but I think we are still in a wait and see. If you look at what’s changed, no new laws have been enacted at a federal level. No new laws have changed. There’s been a press conference and the rescinding of the Cole Memo which wasn’t a law either. And it was really just a guidance from the federal agency to each of the state district attorneys to give them guidance.

And the response that we’ve seen I think even since that announcement was made by Sessions is the federal government is beginning to force people to make a decision. So immediately after Jeff Sessions had that Cole rescinding action that he did, Vermont and New Hampshire come online. And then if you’re gonna force people to make a decision on legalization we know the vast majority of people regardless of party, regardless of demographic, regardless of territory are in favor of legalizing marijuana. And that’s just in the way we continue to move. So I think there hasn’t been any federal changes for us to react to really and if there are then we will think hard about those.

We want to be compliant, we spend a ton of time at Leaflink understanding and with lawyers to have a good comprehension of what is developing compliance wise, regulatory wise in each state. And we’ll do the same once there is something to follow and guidelines to go through by the federal government.

It just seems like there is so much changing so quickly. And until there’s a real announcement or a real enforcement action not much for us to really do right now other than keep the pace and continue the momentum that we have in building our company. And the 30 people that we have on staff that work so hard everyday to make Leaflink real.

TG Branfalt: So what do you think then would happen if they were to start cracking down? You operate in six states so you have a really good look at a large portion of this market. What ramifications would that have on the ground literally to stakeholders now?

Ryan Smith: Fear. I think that would be to me the MO behind any kind of enforcement action from the federal level. It’s just not … we’re a technology company, we don’t touch the product, we don’t touch the money. We’re just a software provider for the industry. But if something like that happened it would definitely spook some investors, but then you have other people that are running companies too, brands that are in multiple states that are employing hundreds of people, retail locations that have patients that rely on them every single day.

People that are really … this is a part of their life, they’re super passionate about it, it’s more than just a living. And I don’t think that’s gonna change. So the lives will change of anyone that the enforcement acts against of course, but for the whole market, to take something down that’s this large and growing faster than almost any other industry, really hard to do. I think fear would be the number one thing. Maybe would dry up capital coming into the space from more institutional traditionally minded investors. But the long term I think the die’s already been cast on the potential here. And just general societal acceptance.

TG Branfalt: We can hope at this point, but sometimes I have no idea what’s going on in DC most of the time, sometimes. So looking into your crystal ball, we got Maine, that’s pretty close, there might be some setbacks because of what page and some of the lawmakers there who really want to push it back. Massachusetts is still set on that July 1st date. We could be looking at social use in Alaska.

So there’s changes happening within the market that already exists and some policy changes that are the result of 2016 referendum. In your opinion looking through a crystal ball which states do you think might be next to turn green?

Ryan Smith: So I can say which ones we’re most excited about that fit for Leaflink. I think Michigan and New Jersey this year are really exciting. Very populous states, obviously not quite the size of California which is what everyone is regularly talking about. I’m actually calling from LA this week. Those two states are most interesting to me because what has, if you look at a map, the whole west coast is in line.

They’re legalized, challenges of course but industry booming. You look at the west coast, that’s what that was for. On the east coast, there are states that have legalized, there are really not super active market or they’re in this weird in between, putting their foot in the water. I think as soon as Massachusetts starts opening up some doors, New Jersey particularly being right next to New York.

Cuomo and New York already put together a commission to give him a report on the effect of legalizing marijuana because they know all of these super populous border states to New Jersey to Michigan, Michigan being in the middle, New Jersey being obviously in the east coast, it will create this domino effect I think. So those are the ones that we’re most excited about because when you have people in New York going to Hoboken to buy marijuana, New York state’s gonna say this is ridiculous, we should have the same accessibility for patients and buyers here.

And then that state turns. Some of the states that we’re looking at too, obviously Pennsylvania, Illinois, Alaska you mentioned. And Ohio. There’s a few other states that we’re looking at but our goal at Leaflink is to open up … we’re in six states now so to be in 15 by the end of the year. Some of them are very much Q3 Q4, but the Michigan and Pennsylvania really seem to be before the summer activity for us to launch there. So we’re keeping our eye on those.

TG Branfalt: I covered the New York state legislature for several years before I started writing about cannabis. One of the things I’ve always said is Cuomo won’t let this happen on his watch for a lot of different reasons. So as somebody else from New York did you get that same feeling before he put together that commission? Do you think that he will actually allow this to happen? As a centrist democrat?

Ryan Smith: All of these elected officials … so Cuomo was so incredibly against it. His father being Rockefeller drug New York days, there’s that obviously trickles down. And then all these elected officials are realizing even though Cuomo is so against legalization and even medical usage several years ago, it’s clearly a losing position. And every election it seems like this issue’s gonna be coming up more and more and they are not blind to that. The midterm election I think it’s gonna be a huge issue.

People are gonna talk about it all the time, same with the current governor of New Jersey promised first hundred days. I don’t know if that’s gonna happen but it was a point to discuss and now will continue to build up steam. So I would have said two years ago Cuomo probably wants to run for president or some other more senior office. So this issue is not a done deal and if there’s a majority of people that are in support of it, and now that’s beginning to happen, it would be ill advised for him not to at least explore it.

So him having a commission is perfect. He could say I set the things in motion for us to look at it as a state. Maybe won’t, nothing significant will happen in New York while he’s in office but he could always go back and say but I began it. These things take time. But he could also I never changed anything, I didn’t make anything open up.

So he’s playing both sides but even that’s a positive momentum. Before he wasn’t trying to play both sides. It was just against us.

TG Branfalt: It’s really frustrating as somebody who went to school in Albany and very liberal part of the state knowing that the rural part of the state is just hemorrhaging money, there’s no jobs. This is something that, that farmland, that’s how you use that farmland. Even a proper hemp program for that matter. So it’s really interesting for me to watch in my home state, or my ex-home state I guess, inch towards it but knowing what I know about Cuomo and having covered him for so long.

I want to talk to you about your personal success but before we do that we gotta take a break, this is Ganjapreneur.com Podcast I’m TG Branfalt.

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TG Branfalt: Hey welcome back to the ganjapreneur.com podcast I’m your host TG Branfalt here with Ryan Smith, CEO and co founder of Leaflink. So what, man, do you credit your personal success to, such as being named to Forbes as one of the 30 Under 30 in the emerging tech space. That’s super cool man. What do you credit that to?

Ryan Smith: I forget to say execution again. I have trouble with the question of being, crediting success because that implies that we have some success. In my mind we’re just getting started and haven’t really accomplished all that much yet. There’s way more in front of us than behind. So I appreciate the compliment and everything but I don’t feel that successful. I have way more to do before I can sit back and get comfy that way.

TG Branfalt: But when Forbes reaches out to you and tells you this what’s going through your mind? Did you think maybe at that point like you’re closer to making it?

Ryan Smith: The first thing that crossed my mind is, “Great I can now be in a group of other people that are thinking similarly or trying to do challenging and exciting things and seeing what happens from those relationships.” It is cool to be in those lists because there’s not very many, aside from taking your company public or having some great acquisition, awards for entrepreneurs. So it’s definitely an honor to be on it and I’m very excited about it. I was excited too for Leaflink and the company to be on, the first cannabis firm, cannabis facing firm to be on that list, it’s huge for mainstreaming, just to have everyone thinks about this industry.

So we’re happy about it and obviously honored to be on that list and the fast company list we were on last week. But still so much more ahead of us.

TG Branfalt: So what advice do you have for entrepreneurs looking to enter this space? From a tech perspective especially?

Ryan Smith: Meet more people. So everyone knows that the industry is … everyone knows it’s a hot industry, that it’s real, that it’s growing very quickly. But to go to states where it’s legal, to spend time with the incredible entrepreneurs there that are building these amazing companies and realize that there are serious challenges that are presented to all business owners but particularly in this space there are so many opportunities to serve them with great technology, with great services, with great solutions.

And so if you want to get into this space I do again work … what Zack and I did we flew out to Colorado, we emailed a bunch of people and whoever agreed to meet with us, we sat down with them and then built a relationship and we were helping people pack boxes and going on sales calls just to get what they do and understand the industry. So really if you want to know more, dive in and meet more people really. In person meet more people.

TG Branfalt: How nerve-wracking is that man? I don’t go to conferences, I’m a very very private person. So how nerve-wracking is it being a startup and reaching out to people cold calling them to get your opinion on what you’re selling? What goes through your head?

Ryan Smith: Two things. First is if I keep my promise or my intention behind meeting them, their life should be a little bit better from the solution that we’ve created. And the second is you gotta rev yourself up. So sometimes I’ll go into a meeting, my first thought before sitting down is, “This is gonna be an awesome get together, we’re gonna learn a bunch of things.” And the other side of this meeting … you can either go in being nervous or you can say, “You know what? The other side of this meeting is gonna one day say they had a meeting with Leaflink when we were two people or we were three people.” And there was like, “Naw, no way.”

And whether or not that’s the case you need to rev yourself up. So that’s just one of the tricks that I do. I know our team does. We want to help people but you also need to be excited to put yourself out there because it’s the only way you get things done.

TG Branfalt: This has been really a super cool conversation man. I’m really stoked that you could take the time out to join me on the show. Where can people find out more about you, where can they find out more about Leaflink?

Ryan Smith: Yeah thank you by the way TG for having us. Always love Ganjapreneur and glad we could chat about all these things. If you want to find out more about Leaflink you can visit us at Leaflink.com. If you’re a retail dispensary we’d love to have you on the community with the 2000 others that are really active in the six states that we’re currently live in, much more to come. And if you’re a brand, same thing, go to Leaflink.com, if you’re looking for work, we’re out hiring actively after our most recent raise.

So send resumes to jobs@Leaflink.com. Otherwise happy to walk you guys through any kind of demo if you send an email to sales@Leaflink.com and set it up there.

TG Branfalt: Again man, thank you so much. It’s really nice to chat with you. Pick your brain a whole lot. A fellow New Yorker too, I don’t get too many of those on this show. Congratulations. You’re a humble guy obviously, but congratulations on all your personal success this far as well as success of Leaflink man, this is super cool stuff.

Ryan Smith: Thank you for … appreciate all those kind words. Happy to chat more another time.

TG Branfalt: Looking forward to it man. You can find more episodes of the Ganjapreneur.com Podcast in the podcast section of Ganjapreneur.com and in the Apple iTunes store. On the Ganjapreneur.com website you will find the latest cannabis news and cannabis jobs updated daily along with transcripts of this podcast. You can also download the Ganjapreneur.com app in iTunes and Google Play. This episode was engineered by True Media House, I’ve been your host TG Branfalt.

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Cannabis supporters taking part in a legalization rally in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Celebrities Will Not Be Allowed to Endorse Canadian Cannabis Products

4/09/2018

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Celebrities will not be allowed to endorse recreational cannabis products in Canada and a July 1 legalization date was “never on the table,” according to the government’s legalization point-man MP Bill Blair. The former Toronto Police chief appeared on The West Block to clarify some aspects of the nation’s forthcoming legalization scheme.

“The law is explicit and clear, that celebrity endorsement, lifestyle advertising is not allowed with cannabis. It’s not the government’s intention to promote the use of this drug … We are not allowing the heavy marketing that we’ve seen with other products, alcohol for example, and so there will be severe restrictions on things like celebrity endorsement and [company] sponsorship.” – Blair on The West Block via Global News

Canadian entertainers have already entered the space, including members of The Tragically Hip, who have creative and shareholder ties to Up Cannabis, according to the report. In 2016, the Trailer Park Boys announced a brand development deal with Organigram. The TPB Productions deal with Organigram is for five years.

Blair remained confident of a July start date. Late last month, the Canadian Senate advanced the legalization bill to second reading and it’s now being studied by five committees. In the interview, Blair anticipated that “within [a] two-month window of royal assent, the government of Canada will establish and announce a date of implementation.”  

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A man uses a lighter and glass pipe to smoke some cannabis.

Alaska Cannabis Regulators Table Social-Use Action Until June

4/09/2018

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Alaska’s Alcohol and Marijuana Control Board have tabled action on regulations to allow social cannabis use under the state program until the board once again has a full panel of members, the Associated Press reports. The board is down one member after the resignation of member Travis Welch last month. The board expects to revisit the proposal in June after they find a replacement for Welch.

The board has been mulling plans since 2016. Last August, the board released a draft for on-site consumption which would allow licensed retailers to sell up to 1 gram of flower and edibles with 10 milligrams of THC or less for consumption on premises. Under the proposal, customers would not be allowed to bring their own cannabis, alcohol would not be allowed to be sold, and retailers would pay $1,000 for a new, or renewal, on-site consumption endorsement.

So far, only Denver, Colorado and some California cities will allow social use. In February, Denver regulators issued its first social-use license to The Coffee Joint, which will allow patrons 21-and-older to bring their own vaporizers and/or infused edibles to consume at the shop; smoking is not allowed. Last week, West Hollywood regulators announced they would license 16 cannabis consumption licenses which would allow customers to smoke, vape, or eat infused foods and beverages.

Ballot initiatives in Massachusetts and Maine included social-use language; however, regulators in both states rejected social-use language in their draft rules.

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No Laboratories Apply for Guam MMJ Testing License; Program on Hold

4/09/2018

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Not a single company has applied for a medical cannabis testing license in Guam, putting the start of the program on hold, the Associated Press reports. The program was approved by voters in 2014 and Gov. Eddie Calvo approved the regulations last February.

The law requires potency and safety testing. Department of Public Health and Safety Acting Director Leo Casil estimates that the startup costs for the lab are about $1 million and that the program is at “a standstill” without the lab. Application fees for all potential Guam canna-businesses are $1,000.

Sen. Dennis Rodriguez, the medical cannabis regulations bill author, said he had hoped the Health and Safety Department “would be more proactive,” noting that the agency could reach out to public entities, such as the University of Guam, to do the testing.

Jonas Macapinlac, director of integrated marketing communications for UOG told Pacific Daily News that the Maine Lab is not being considered by the institution.

“The Marine Lab serves a specific purpose and this does not seem like a good fit. We would need to consider any possible ramifications to our land grant status and in our ability to receive federal funds.” – Macapinlac to the Daily News

Rodriguez told the AP that there are no plans to appropriate more funds to the Health Department for the program at this time.

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Connecticut House Committee Advances Rec. Cannabis Bill

4/06/2018

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The Connecticut House Appropriations Committee has narrowly advanced a recreational cannabis bill, moving it to the floor which could consider the measure before the end of this year’s legislative session. The measure passed the committee 27-24.

The measure would require the Secretary of the Office of Policy and Management, in consultation with the Chief State’s Attorney and the Commissioners of Mental Health and Addiction Services, Consumer Protection and Revenue Services, to develop a plan to legalize and regulate the retail sale of cannabis in the state.

The bill would require the agencies to submit the legalization plan, along with a substance abuse treatment, prevention, and education plan to the General Assembly by Oct. 1.

Becky Dansky, legislative counsel for the Marijuana Policy Project, said the voter “reiterates what most Connecticut resident already know: it is time to make marijuana legal for adults.”

“The discussions that have taken place in the legislature this year have provided more than enough information to effectively move forward with legalization. Connecticut should stop punishing adults for using a substance that is safer than alcohol, and it has an opportunity to regulate marijuana before it starts losing tax revenue to other states in the region that have already started this process.” – Dansky in a press release

Are the dominoes falling in New England? Maine and Massachusetts voters approved recreational regimes in 2016, and the Vermont Legislature passed its own legalization measure earlier this year. The Rhode Island House approved the first reading of its own legalization measure last month but have not held additional readings. Late last month New Hampshire lawmakers punted the legalization bill for interim study, which effectively killed the bill for further consideration this year.

An October 2017 Sacred Heart University poll found 71 percent support for legalization in Connecticut.

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Derek Cloutier: Veterans, PTSD, and Medical Cannabis

3/29/2018

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Derek Cloutier is the president and co-founder of the New England Veterans Alliance, a non-profit organization that helps veterans reduce their dependency on pharmaceuticals and advocates on behalf of veterans for improved access to medical cannabis therapies.

In the following interview, Derek joins our host TG Branfalt to talk about the experience of veterans in the U.S., his own story of turning to medical cannabis as a treatment for PTSD, how the New England Veteran’s Alliance — which started as just a local group of veterans — has expanded to a community encompassing all of New England, and more!

Listen to the interview below, or scroll down read along with a full transcript of this week’s Ganjapreneur.com podcast.

Listen to the podcast:

Read the transcript:

TG Branfalt: Hey there. I’m your host TG Branfalt and you are listening to the Ganjapreneur.com podcast, where we try to bring you actionable information and normalize cannabis through the stories of ganjapreneurs, activists and industry stakeholders. Today, I’m really stoked to be joined by Derek Cloutier. He’s the President and Co-Founder of the New England Veteran’s Alliance, a veteran’s organization committed to assisting vets to improve their quality of life through more natural options in order to reduce the dependency on pharmaceuticals currently used to treat the myriad of issues that veterans face. How you doing this afternoon, Derek?

Derek Cloutier: I’m doing great. Thanks for having me.

TG Branfalt: Like I said, man, I’m stoked. I had an opportunity to meet you at the capital, get to know you a little bit, we went back and forth a few times trying to schedule this, so I’m really glad that we could finally get our lives together.

Derek Cloutier: It’s good to be here.

TG Branfalt: First, tell me about yourself, man. Tell me how you ended up in this advocacy role and about the decision to start the organization.

Derek Cloutier: Basically, I started out about 10 years ago I got back from Iraq and ended up going through getting a job. I worked at the Department of Corrections, which moving in towards the opposite side of where I am nowadays. It really wasn’t the job for me per se, or somebody with PTSD. Even just getting back I got it fairly soon and so I started having family issues, going out drinking, getting crazy, getting into fights.

I started going to the VA. I started taking all the medication that they suggested and, without question, when you’re in the military you don’t question the people that are suggesting things that are gonna improve your life or allegedly improve your life. You don’t really take into effect the side effects and other issues that come with it. I ended up drinking a lot at times and mixing SSRIs and other pills, anti-anxiety pills, and depression medication with alcohol, and ended up going down a rough road, and ended up in a 30 day rehab.

Once down there, I ended up really figuring out some things. I got home and started doing a lot of veterans outreach and talking to other guys just about what they’ve been dealing with. I actually did start another group prior that was on the same basis of what we do with the social activities and whatnot at NEVA, but it was more based around drinking, and partying, and just having a good time. It really wasn’t a wellness thing, it wasn’t really enriching anybody’s life by being out, getting drunk, and partying, and going doing pub crawls and stuff.

It led me down a road that I had issues. I started talking to a doctor and starting dealing with things like that. Then a friend suggested I try cannabis because I was having such hard times sleeping. I slept like a baby that night and ever since then it was like something that I’ve just learned more progressively from myself. I’m kind of picky on what I’m smoking or what I’m consuming, so I ended up … People noticed I had better stuff and from time to time I would just link up, and meet vets, and just give them a little of what I got, and they’d give me something what they got maybe, and we’d just make it work out.

Once it became legal in Mass. for medical, we all ended up getting our medical cards together, and we went to this one doctor, and it turned out where he was very helpful. He was actually a vet and we started bringing vets in there about five at a time or something just to talk to him about stuff and get them comfortable with it, because there was that stigma still associated with it around here that if you’re using cannabis you smell like cannabis, somebody’s gonna harass you, somebody’s gonna speak negatively about it.

We just kind of brought them to the doctor ourselves and just the doctor went through the ringer of telling them what was going on, and basically how it can help them, the different types there are, and different strains available, and just even the different ways of using it. Topicals, and either vaporizing, or combusting, or whatever it was. They just got so much more comfortable with it that they started coming out, they started not isolating themselves in their houses, and I ended up making this logo of ours, and started talking to other doctors, dispensary owners, therapists. Just people to see if they would support veterans and cannabis in general.

It was overwhelmingly suggested that we should start it. At the time, I had another friend and he was just egging it on, “We should do it. We should do it.” We actually sat on it for almost a year before rolling it out and trying to do our first event. About two years ago, yeah about two years ago, we had our first monthly meeting/get together, New England Veteran’s Alliance. We had vets from from all over New England. Up to three, four hours away from Maine, Vermont, everywhere, because it was the only thing that they could really come to.

Now, two years later we’re now progressing and having events every month in the same spot. We have people coming from as far as upstate New York, down in New Jersey, we have people coming … It’s just awesome. It was just something that there wasn’t really much advocacy for it and there wasn’t really many people talking out about it or anything, so we ended up started going to state Houses speaking about PTSD, for instance. In Rhode Island, we testified down there. We testified in Maine. We testified in New Hampshire. We testified in Vermont.

We’ve been all over the state just trying to be a voice for our veterans and just explaining to people that we can be productive members of society, and we can medicate, and still function. That stigma isn’t there that we’re just lazy, sitting around, and don’t wanna do anything. That was the main reasoning for starting it and getting it going was just to get guys out of their houses and link them to a better option that pharmaceuticals, or opiates, or anything like that. Then it just snowballed from there and we’ve had so much support. It’s been really amazing.

It’s basically through word of mouth. Veterans talking to other veterans. Now it’s a community organization that veterans help each other. You have guys throughout New England that are growing now and we just basically advocate and talk to them, consult them about how they can possibly grow for themselves, be self sustainable. They end up growing this product that’s amazing. We get help from people like Roots Organics that support us with nutrients and soil for these guys.

Once they get it going, they’re so proud of it and the result at the end they wanna share it. They wanna give it to somebody else and the best way that they’re able to do that is share it with another veteran and or consult with another vet. Be like, “Hey, this is what’s working for me, it might work for you. This is a great strain that I started out with.” It’s just been an evolution and a building process.

I was never a business person. I was an infantry guy in the Marine Corps, so it was something that I never really thought that I’d be doing, running an organization or anything like that. I think that I keep it fairly simple in a lot of aspects and I feel like being an entrepreneur, or ganjapreneur, or coming out into starting something new and where it’s evolving, now we’re looking into possible licenses for Massachusetts for co-ops to get some veteran programs going and some self-sustainable farming programs possibly. Looking for property, looking for investors, and sponsors and just going about it strategically in the way we wanna go and how we can best help veterans from now.

TG Branfalt: Sometimes, it sounds like what you do chooses you and it’s an incredible story. Congratulations on your success thus far. I wanna ask you something, I’ve heard a lot that it’s not just the consuming of the cannabis that’s helpful and you had mentioned growing. How much of the therapy do you and the people that you talk to derive from the act of actually growing the plant?

Derek Cloutier: The growing part is what, pretty much, centers us and just keeps us focused on one thing, keeping it alive. Then having an end result product that you can consume. Then it’s a full circle effect where you’re healing yourself by something that you grew and kept alive versus being a veteran, you kind of are told the opposite of that, being in war you’re around destruction, death, and all this other crazy stuff. It’s just, now, being able to, we call it, cultivation therapy. I believe in it 100%.

The veterans that we have growing as well, it keeps them busy. It gives you a reason to get up in the morning, go look at your plants, and make sure they’re doing good, check their differences. You’ve gotta feed them, you’ve gotta keep them alive, what’s working, what’s not working for them, and then just the learning process of it. It keeps the mind going, it keeps you busy. A lot of these guys, it’s a full benefit for them. It’s very therapeutic.

TG Branfalt: You said that you started, you’re in Massachusetts now, and you started in Massachusetts. Now your reach is all the way into upstate New York, which is obviously not New England. What types of events do you do and how many active chapters do you have right now?

Derek Cloutier: Right now we basically have point of contacts in all six states in New England. We’ve been as far as the west coast. We’ve been out to High Times Cannabis Cup. We spoke on the Veteran’s Panel out there in Vegas last year. We’ve done other speaking opportunities throughout New England. Our membership-wise, we started out doing a member type organization and we were going for … This is part of the learning process that we are learning as we go. We were going for a veteran’s organization specifically.

The VFWs, American Legions, they’re non-profit that are post driven organizations that have memberships and we were kind of going about it that way, but now as we’re evolving, part of the problem was that we don’t get paid for what we do and everything we do, we do on our time, and when we can. It makes it kind of hard for us, in general, to do things being a disabled vet. I felt the obligation that was a little overwhelming at times where I had to be everywhere. My financial situation with the VA and them going after benefits, had a problem.

It’s been something that we did away with the membership side where we were charging for a membership and it was a very minimal fee. That was to get your certain deals, perks, genetics. Most grow stores and places offered you significant deals and discounts. It’s something that we just got away from and stopped taking members on until we re-develop our programs. The chapter side of things, we want it to be more of a community based organization.

We haven’t really gone in the chapter direction yet, per se, but it’s evolving each state maybe possibly could have the potential to have its own farm or facility that holds events, and gatherings and get togethers. Basically, we wanna be kind of like the X games of alternative therapies, but funded by cannabis in a way that we’ve grown. We have veterans learning, getting certified, and then possibly getting them into a career down the road.

We’ve been building slowly from there and right now we’re up on Vermont. We have some folks up there looking to get going and they’re putting more events on. Some of the events that we do are comedy shows, fishing trips, boating. We’ve gone out on boats on Newport Harbor in Rhode Island. We’ve done camp outs, we’ve done beach days, we’ve done yoga, we’ve done a lot of different alternative therapies that not a lot of people would maybe think that helpful, but it’s been pretty amazing, and it’s getting veterans out of their houses, and giving them something to look forward to.

TG Branfalt: Yoga’s admittedly probably healthier for you than pub crawls.

Derek Cloutier: It definitely is. I was actually just looking up more information on yoga. We have one of our guys is a yoga instructor actually.

TG Branfalt: That’s cool. There’s a lot going on with cannabis and yoga. I don’t wanna get off topic, I wanna talk to you more about the cannabis culture for veterans, talk about some of these VA issues that you alluded to earlier, but before we do that, we’ve gotta take a break. This is Ganjapreneur.com podcast. I’m TG Branfalt.

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TG Branfalt: Hey, welcome back to the Ganjapreneur.com podcast. I’m your host TG Branfalt, here with Derek Cloutier. He’s the President and Co-Founder of NEVA, the New England Veteran’s Alliance.

Before the break, we were talking about the culture. What I wanna ask you is, anecdotally, what conditions has your organization found to be helpful for medical cannabis use? We know the PTSD, you’ve mentioned that a couple of times, but what other conditions might a non-vet consider could be used?

Derek Cloutier: PTSD is one of the primary reasons for a lot of us to be using it, but anything from chronic pain to you have people with epileptic seizures. You have people with TBI issues, traumatic brain injury, that can be helpful with that, but mostly pain, PTSD. Also, addiction issues. It’s a pretty good tool to use getting off of opiates and we’ve had a lot of success using RSO, which is Rick Simpson Oil, to get veterans off of opiates and give them either access to caregivers that have it or help them grow it so that they can produce it for themselves.

TG Branfalt: How much of a problem has that become? Opiate use among vets?

Derek Cloutier: It’s a huge problem nowadays. That’s a pill for everything. It creates issues and it creates other problems where it stems off of that and leads to other suicidal tendencies. Addiction in itself is a problem. I think veterans nowadays, like I said earlier, you come home from the military or you get out, and you go to the VA, you assume that they’re gonna give you the best possible advice that they can give you, they don’t technically really treat it per symptom. They treat it more like, “Here, try this and let’s see if this works out for you.”

I feel like that’s part of the bigger problem. If they had other therapeutic options in letting people realize who they are, get them more comfortable with themselves, and get them linked with other veterans that understand what they’re going through, they probably wouldn’t have to take these pills, they probably wouldn’t have to … You know what I mean? They would reach out to other options like, obviously, medical cannabis.

Opiates and cannabis, cannabis is proven, in my life, just from what I’ve seen from other veterans that have come off of opiates and the stories that I have heard from them, I haven’t personally had any issues with that or have any experience with it, but I only focused mostly on PTSD stuff. We have guys that they use oil every single day and it helps them every single day. They’re not using opiates, they’re not in bed wanting to die, they’re just living now versus before they couldn’t do much.

TG Branfalt: When you first start talking to older vets, maybe especially, or maybe some more conservative veterans, do you get a lot of pushback about your position and your programs?

Derek Cloutier: Push back, not really. They’re more interested and curious on how we do it and the legalities of it. A lot of people are worried about the legality of a lot of things. That’s another problem with us being an organization that’s spread out throughout New England in a way. We don’t transact over state lines, that’s illegal, and you have so many different laws in each state that are different and catered differently for each state that it makes it harder.

The older generations, the easiest way to go about it with them has been get them comfortable with topicals, get them comfortable with maybe like a capsule form. They are still stigmatized by the smell and just smoking it or anything like that. We wanna get them more on a regiment that they can be consistent with.

TG Branfalt: You had mentioned earlier that you actually got a medical cannabis card and other vets have gotten a medical cannabis card. Does getting that card automatically create any issues for you with the VA?

Derek Cloutier: With the VA? No, it has nothing to do with the VA. The VA really doesn’t … In legal states, they’re allowed to speak about it and talk about it. My doctor actually is willing to work with me in a sense that he’ll collaborate medication if I needed it that’ll work with cannabis because it’ll obviously affect me one way versus the other medication could affect you the other way. They’re very open to it.

Most of my doctors are fairly curious about it and they wanna know more and more about it. They just are very interested in learning the facts about it and how it’s helping us. People in other non-legal states have had pushback from cannabis or using cannabis, but the biggest thing right now that the VA can do, or affect, or have an effect on, is the effect that you’re taking pharmaceuticals such as pain meds like opiates, Percocets, benzos, things like that, they can actually, if you test positive for cannabinoids, then they’ll give you an ultimatum.

Well, actually, if you test positive, they don’t give you an ultimatum. You either use cannabis or you don’t, and that’s a horrible thing because a lot of guys just don’t have access to cannabis like some of us do. Sometimes they use it when they can and sometimes they don’t have it, so they do have to fall back on those other pain meds, which really sucks sometimes. We just try to link guys and get them associated with people that can get them further on finding what they need or either get them to grow for themselves.

TG Branfalt: Cannabis, medical cannabis specifically, has gained a lot of support from veteran’s associations such as the American Legion. They released a resolution, it issued a resolution, supporting medical cannabis. Has this changed the conversation in your experience now that you have these national groups, entrenched groups, supporting medical cannabis for vets?

Derek Cloutier: Makes it a little bit easier to point people in the direction of cannabis because then you can say, use for reference, “Look at, the American Legion has over 3 million veterans that they represent and they’re pro-cannabis.” It does make it a lot easier to segue into the conversation. I just wonder what they’re actually doing to educate their members, you know what I mean? Like if they’re providing them with any material or anything to suggest that they could potentially get off any pharmaceuticals and live a healthier life with cannabis? I wonder if they have a department for anything like that.

TG Branfalt: Is that a partnership you would be interested in getting?

Derek Cloutier: I would be interested in collaborating and doing anything with anybody that furthers the care of a veteran or makes their life more enriched. I put our cards at the VA and they allow us to put them there. Even my doctors, they suggest people, if they can’t talk to the doctor because the doctor doesn’t understand what they’re really going through or talking about, they suggest, “Maybe you should reach out to these guys.” My doctors do that. Other members of ours have their doctors doing that, but I don’t think it’s a consistent basis throughout the country either.

TG Branfalt: Well, you’re fortunate to be in Massachusetts. New England in general, every state’s at least decriminalized.

Derek Cloutier: Yeah, true.

TG Branfalt: I wanna talk to you a bit more about legalization and how what you’re seeing in Massachusetts has affected vets. Before we do that, we’ve gotta take a break. This is ganjapreneur.com podcast. I’m TG Branfalt.

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TG Branfalt: Hey, welcome back to the ganjapreneur.com podcast. I’m your host TG Branfalt here with Derek Cloutier. He’s the President and Co-Founder of the New England Veteran’s Alliance. As I said before the break, you and I, we’re fortunate. We live in states, legal cannabis. You’re a little more fortunate than I do. You guys are actually gonna get an industry in the coming months. How does broad legalization affect vets? When most people think about legalization, one of the first things comes to mind is, “Oh, how much money are we gonna get in taxes?”

But they don’t think about some of these social justice issues, which I think that this is. Honestly, if we’re talking about people who should be held in some pretty high regard, at the very least, can’t access medical cannabis because the VA, because of access issues. What does legalization do for veterans?

Derek Cloutier: I think the biggest thing that it’s done so far in this area is that it’s allowed people that comfortability to come out the closet, per se, and say, “Hey, I use cannabis.” Then, first of all, they feel more comfortable talking about it and everybody doesn’t feel like they’re gonna get arrested just for mentioning the word. You can go into a smoke shop now and talk about it. It’s just normalizing it and being able to understand that you’re normal too because you smoke cannabis. You’re not crazy, and lazy, you know what I mean? That’s been the best part.

Then, obviously, the second best part would be the ease of access. Access is still an issue from time to time for some guys, but you can go right to a dispensary and grab what you need. It might be a little pricey, but it is there and that is the option that you get versus other people in their states. Then you have all these other veterans that are starting their own businesses and coming up. Normally, they’d be either isolating themselves and playing video games. I don’t know what they would do, but they are starting businesses. They see hope. They see the future. They’re moving towards these new goals in life and it’s given them purpose.

Legalization, obviously, the financial side of it where people will see money. To us, we don’t really focus on the financial side of it, but the benefit is that the money will be coming into the state, it will be providing for other programs and if somebody thinks there’s a potential for a new program that they could design that could benefit their community, maybe they could bring it up to their local legislation and easily go about it where they can say, “Hey, this money is coming in,” and they have money allotted for certain things. Maybe they can start new programs.

TG Branfalt: Maybe lots of money to the local VA.

Derek Cloutier: Yeah, I don’t know. That would be great. Or they could just give it to me and I’ll put it into veterans programs the right way.

TG Branfalt: What do you got coming up, man? You were telling me that you’ve got something coming up in May?

Derek Cloutier: Yeah. There’s a big DC rally going on Memorial Day weekend. We’re shooting for May 26th, looking at shooting for a permit. I’m filling out the applications for Lafayette Park. It’s right in front of the White House, right in between the White House and the VA. Veterans for Safe Access. It’s labeled on Facebook Veterans RALLY 2018 – Washington DC. There’s a planning group on there. You can get on there and get involved.

It’s basically we’re shooting to get some speakers and either do a march or a stand-in; however it is, a demonstration to bring attention to the fact that we have veterans killing themselves every day that are on pharmaceuticals that are taking their lives or becoming addicts and the ease of access for it would be a hell of a lot better if they legalized it or descheduled it in general. That we want to more access to it. We know the benefits of it and we say it every day, “How you gonna tell a guy with no legs that he should be on opiates versus using cannabis when he’s telling you to your face that this is happening?”

We’re looking to hopefully jump behind a bill or one of the bills that are up right now. I’m not sure what they specifically are, because I’m still learning about the federal side of it, but we’re planning a huge rally, a demonstration, in DC. We just wanna gain more support from the veterans that are in the area that wanna come out and show their support for it. I think if you can’t stand behind your veterans, who can you stand behind?

TG Branfalt: Well said. What’s your advice for veterans, or even family members of veterans, who are interested in looking into medical cannabis for PTSD or even just the cultivation therapy side of it?

Derek Cloutier: Reach out to your local organizations. There are tons of organizations out there that are focused towards cannabis education and learning more about it. You could reach out to us, we’ll try and point you in the right direction. You can go on our website, NEVAUSA.org. We’re actually redesigning that and I’ll have some educational information up there.

There are so many options out there. YouTube in general is huge for a lot of these guys, just to learn how to grow or even learning about your natural endocannabinoid system. The information is out there. People just need to take the initiative, step outside their comfort zone, and just make it work for them.

TG Branfalt: You have been very helpful to me when we first met, I had mentioned that I have a family member who’s dealing with some PTSD issues and you guys gave me the number to somebody close enough to him. It was right there. That’s just one instance of the remarkable work that you guys do, man. I really appreciate you telling your story.

Derek Cloutier: The outreach side of thing is huge. We will go to any veteran’s house. If somebody calls, we’ll pretty much get up, and make it a point to try and get there, and just talk to them, be one-on-one, and figure out something that works for them. We’re not saying that it’s gonna heal them, we’re not gonna say that it’s gonna help them 100%, but it’s what’s helped some of us and it’s how we know how to go about it. We’re subject matter experts because it’s helped us.

We’ll go to the veteran. We kind of run them through the process of how they can help themselves. We have guys with terminal brain cancer that we can help with medicine, that we have been helping. We have people that had 28 seizures a day and now they’re down to none. There’s huge medical benefits to it and it’s just really reaching out to the people in your community, talking about and I’m getting a little off subject.

TG Branfalt: Again, man, I wanna thank you so much. NEVAUSA.org is how you can find the New England Veteran’s Alliance and May 26th, Memorial Day, they’ll be doing the DC rally. Thank you so much, again, Derek for your time today.

Derek Cloutier: I really appreciate you having me.

TG Branfalt: You can find more episodes of the ganjapreneur.com podcast in the podcasts section of the ganjapreneur.com and in the Apple iTunes store. On the ganjapreneur.com website you will find the latest cannabis news and cannabis jobs updated daily along with transcripts of this podcast. You can also download the ganjapreneur.com app in iTunes and Google Play. This episode was engineered by Trim Media House. I’ve been your host, TG Branfalt.

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The New Hampshire Capitol Building located in Concord, New Hampshire.

New Hampshire House Punts Cannabis Legalization Bill; Likely Dead for the Year

3/23/2018

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New Hampshire’s House approved a motion to refer its recreational cannabis legalization bill for interim study after a roll call vote to keep the bill alive was defeated 135-153. The vote effectively kills the bill for further consideration this year but leaves the door open for the House Ways and Means Committee to study the measure further.

The chamber had voted the measure “ought to pass as amended” in January. The bill would have legalized possession of three-quarters of an ounce of cannabis, 5 grams of “hashish” and home cultivation of six plants but would not have created a taxed-and-regulated market and it would have remained illegal to sell any amount of cannabis.

“House leaders should be ashamed of themselves for subverting the will of Granite Staters and failing to send this bill to the Senate. As election season approaches, voters will surely study today’s roll call vote with great interest.” – Matt Simon, New England political director for the Marijuana Policy Project, in a press release

The vote to punt the measure was influenced by Republican Rep. Patrick Abrami, who chairs the commission tasked with studying legalization and the Ways and Means Committee. The Marijuana Policy Project has called for Abrami to be replaced as head of the legalization study commission arguing that he has “misrepresented the testimony heard by the study commission to lawmakers” in the House. The advocacy organization launched a petition on Change.org calling on House Speaker Gene Chandler to remove Abrami as chair.

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Skyline view of downtown San Francisco.

Social Cannabis Use Lounge Opens in San Francisco

3/16/2018

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A cannabis smoking lounge has opened in San Francisco, California, the Associated Press reports, and the Barbary Coast lounge is the first of its kind in the state. Nicole Elliot, the city’s cannabis “czar” indicated that more shops will be licensed once city health officials finalize the regulations.

Other California cities are also considering allowing these lounges: According to the report, West Hollywood has plans to approve eight, Alameda will permit two, Oakland and South Lake Tahoe will allow one. Sacramento and Los Angeles are still considering regulations but have not announced any plans.

Social use provisions are still not popular among cannabis regulators. Colorado does not allow social-use; however, Denver voters passed a ballot initiative to allow on-site cannabis consumption and last month the first license of its kind in the city was awarded to the Coffee Joint.

Alaskan regulators, in theory, support social use; however, there hasn’t been much movement on the issue since last August. Those draft rules would allow licensed cannabis retailers to obtain an on-site consumption endorsement and allow use in a designated area.

Massachusetts regulators voted 4-1 last month against allowing social-use; while lawmakers in Maine tasked with implementing the voter-approved law voted 10-4 to remove all references to social-use licensing from the proposed regulations.

Neither Oregon, Washington, nor Nevada allow social cannabis use.     

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Tim Fair: Launching Vermont’s First Cannabis Law Firm

3/14/2018

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Tim Fair is a Vermont-based cannabis consultant and the owner/founder of Vermont Cannabis Solutions, the state’s first cannabis law practice.

In this episode of the Ganjapreneur.com podcast, Tim joins our podcast host TG Branfalt in his Vermont studio for a conversation about the landmark cannabis reform law passed earlier this year by Vermont’s legislature, the differences between legalization and decriminalization, the state’s vibrant hemp and CBD industry, and what the industry might look like when a tax-and-regulate system is eventually put in place.

Listen to the interview through the player below, or scroll further down to read a full transcript of this week’s Ganjapreneur.com podcast episode!

Listen to the interview:

Read the transcript:

TG Branfalt: Hey there. I’m your host, TG Branfalt, and you’re listening to The Ganjapreneur.com Podcast where we try to bring you actionable information, and normalize cannabis through the stories of ganjapreneurs, activists, and industry stakeholders. Today I’m actually joined in studio by Tim Fair. He’s the owner of Vermont’s first cannabis law practice, Vermont Cannabis Solutions.

Just before we get started, we’ve got to know that nothing that Mr. Fair says should be considered legal advice. Don’t say “Well, Tim Fair said on The Ganjapreneur Podcast that this was totally cool,” because that’s not going to hold up in court. How are you doing this afternoon, man?

Tim Fair: Thank you, TG.

TG Branfalt: Tell me about yourself, man. How’d you end up in the cannabis space?

Tim Fair: At a very early age, I realized that I liked cannabis. As a teenager growing up, seeing all the messages, all of the propaganda, the DARE, all of the anti-drug propaganda we were fed, I started seeing a disconnect. What I was experiencing and what I was hearing were two different stories.

As I got older, I started realizing that everything that we were taught wasn’t necessarily true, and in that line of reasoning, I went ahead and tried to start a chapter of NORML in my very first community college, Long Island Nassau Community College, when I was 17.

Didn’t work out so well, but ever since that point, I’ve always been focused on drug policy reform. Specifically cannabis reform.

TG Branfalt: How long have you been working with cannabis cases from a criminal level?

Tim Fair: I graduated law school in 2012. Lucky enough to pass my bar on the first attempt. Got my first legal job as an attorney in 2013, but didn’t really start learning cannabis law until the last two years. I would say around 2016 I started pretty indepthly studying the subject, and I’ve taken my first cannabis clients about six months ago.

TG Branfalt: So what’s been your experience as an attorney defending cannabis cases in Vermont? I guess what I want to ask you is, did you know racial disparities in these arrests, and how did prosecutors approach such cases?

Tim Fair: A little bit of background before I can fully answer that. We have a unique system here in Vermont. We have 14 counties and each county has its own elected state’s attorney. So, when we’re talking about racial disparities, you have to talk about it in terms of county, as opposed to state, because some counties much better with the issue. Other counties, horrible with it.

Another exacerbating factor has been the surge in opiates, cocaine, crack cocaine, that come in from out of state. That has created a sense of, I don’t want to say racism amongst law enforcement, but definitely focuses their attention on brown and black people.

TG Branfalt: How do prosecutors approach these cases? There’s decriminalization, we just passed legalization, which hasn’t taken effect yet, but are prosecutors still aggressive, even with decriminalization?

Tim Fair: You have to talk about individual prosecutors, individual state’s attorneys. For example, in Chittenden County, where Burlington is located, the state’s attorney’s office does not pursue cannabis cases. They’ve got bigger, better things to do. There is an understanding that in the spectrum of illegal activities, cannabis use is pretty low as you get.

However, I’ve had a client in Essex County, Vermont, who was charged with a felony offense for 2.1 ounces. In Bennington County, for example, the state’s attorney has come out publicly with her opinion that cannabis is a dangerous drug, it’s a gateway drug, and the only way to deal with it is strict law enforcement.

TG Branfalt: Law enforcement, when legalization happened, one of the things that we saw was the police chief’s association, or whatever it actually is, they were talking about what they wanted to see in the legalization law, and one of the things that they’ve really been pushing for, and I think this goes back even a little before legalization was rolling out this oral swab test to test for cannabis impairment, or intoxication.

So first, what are the baseline problems, if there are any, which we’re going to assume that there are, with this oral swab test?

Tim Fair: A baseline problems, the entire thing is a problem. The entire concept of having to worry about drugged driving and accurate tests is ridiculous. It’s just an issue that is used by prohibitionists to stoke fear, to get the average citizen against legalization.

I’ll try to keep this short, but when I talk about drugged driving, I need to talk about DUI. DUI is an example of a pre-crime. What I mean by that is you’re taking two legal activities, drinking alcohol, and driving a car, putting them together, and making it a crime. Not because anyone has been injured or anyone’s been hurt, but because we as a society have accepted the fact that the risk, the risk that is created by operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol is so high that we are going to make it a crime because of what might happen, because you might be involved in an accident, because you might cause injury to yourself or others.

That risk is so greatly elevated, we have made it a crime. Now, let’s look at cannabis use. Because we have become so used to the idea of DUI and testing for alcohol, and legal limits, humans like patterns. They like things to make sense. So, therefore, there is this inherent belief that cannabis use will result in the exact same thing as alcohol use, when behind the wheel of the car. It’s not true. It’s simply not true.

The most recent National Highway Safety Administration study that I’ve seen has shown I believe a 5% increase in the likelihood of a serious auto accident with moderate cannabis use. That’s very subjective, what’s moderate cannabis use? But the point being that the human functions that cannabis impairs are very different from the functions that alcohol impairs.

Number one being the understanding of self. When somebody’s intoxicated on alcohol, they think they can drive real well. “I can drive, I can make it there. I’m the best driver in the world.” When somebody’s consuming cannabis, they don’t think they can drive well. They don’t think they can walk well. They say, “You know what? I’m going to sit right here on this couch for a little bit.”

The functioning that is affected by cannabis use is not the same as alcohol. We don’t need to make a new pre-crime. we don’t need to be able to test people to see if they’re impaired. If they’re impaired, they will drive outside of the law, they will commit violations, they will swerve, they will drive under the speed limit, they will run a stop sign. Law enforcement can observe that, pull them over, and arrest them.

Put them through the DRE, or Drug Recognition Expert protocol, and prosecute them. End of story. We don’t have such a high level of risk to warrant or necessitate some sort of test to establish impairment when there are no signs of impairment.

TG Branfalt: One of the things that they talk about in the literature that we saw when we were out at capital during the debate, are these per se intoxication standards. Can you explain what those per se intoxication standards mean and do they differ from the current alcohol laws?

Tim Fair: So they’re designed to mimic the current alcohol laws. We like legal limits. Above this, guilty. Below this, innocent. That’s not actually how it works, but that’s how most people accept it to work, and they like that consistency. It’s a very comforting idea to have, if you have over five nanograms of THC metabolized in your system, you’re above a per se limit. Doesn’t work. It doesn’t work, because cannabis is not alcohol.

People metabolize drugs differently, they metabolize cannabis differently, metabolites can stay in the human body in different levels for different amounts of time. It’s a fat soluble compound, therefore it can stay in the fat cells much longer than alcohol, and the presence of metabolites, the presence of whatever they’re testing for, does not correlate to impairment on any level.

One person with five nanograms could be at a very, very different functional state than somebody else with the exact same amount.

TG Branfalt: I want to talk to you more about Vermont policy, specifically this idea that we talked about when we first met, this decriminalization versus legalization premise. Before we do that, we’ve got to take a break. This is the Ganjapreneur.com Podcast, I’m TG Branfalt.

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TG Branfalt: Hey welcome back. This is the Ganjapreneur.com Podcast. I’m your host, TG Branfalt, here with Tim Fair. He’s the owner of Vermont’s first cannabis law practice, Vermont Cannabis Solutions, and a guy I really like talking to since I’ve got to Vermont. When we first met, we were in the capital, it was during legalization law and we got talking about decriminalization versus legalization.

Vermont’s legalization law has been criticized by some as being a more broad decriminalization rather than legalization because there is no tax and regulate provisions under the laws passed, and signed by Governor Scott. They make this argument, despite Vermont actually decriminalizing cannabis possession five years ago.

For those people who make that argument, who criticize this law as not being full legalization, which I mean, we could talk about the nuances of full legalization, but let’s not do that. How does this legalization differ from decriminalization?

Tim Fair: You’re certainly right about it not being full legalization. Any sort of regulation is not full legalization. This is a step. Honestly, it’s more of a psychological step. As far as practicality, how this is going to impact your average citizen’s life, not much. Those who choose to consume cannabis do so now. Those who choose not to consume cannabis don’t.

What this is going to do is act as a psychological milestone for the industry as a whole. It’s going to serve to help kill the stigma. Normalization, getting the people who still believe the propaganda that this is a dangerous drug an opportunity to see that no, in fact, it’s not.

How it’s actually going to play out as far as legality, that’s a great question. After legalization, will the smell of cannabis still be sufficient for law enforcement to apply for a warrant to search your vehicle, to search your home? With the reasoning being, “Well, maybe it’s over the legal amount, and therefore might be a crime.”

With decriminalization, the legislature specifically stated that decriminalization did not change the fact that cannabis was contraband. Even though it was no longer a criminal offense, it was a civil violation, and still provided probable cause for law enforcement to then apply for a warrant to search your vehicle, to search your person, to search your home.

That I’m hoping will change. We’ve seen a lot more positive signs from the judiciary in Massachusetts. They’ve taken a much more liberal approach to it than the Vermont Supreme Court, but as far as actually practical changes, not a lot. It’s a step, though, and it’s an important step, because we wouldn’t be getting to tax and reg without it, and that’s where we’re eventually heading.

TG Branfalt: In Vermont, now we’re entering a whole new era, come July 1st. But we already have a small hemp industry, very CBD focused. In your role as a cannabis consultant, this is a smaller industry than other states, and we’re not talking about tax and reg right now. What does a cannabis consultant in Vermont do? What do you do working within this industry, and looking forward, are you already looking forward to tax and reg?

Tim Fair: A couple of questions rolled in there. No doubt. I’ll say that for the last year, majority of what I’ve been doing is learning and lobbying. Learning about much about the industry as I possibly can, learning about the areas of law in cannabis law that I have not practiced for the last five years, getting myself up to speed, and spending a lot of time in Montpelier, working with a lot of really, really good people and advocates, moving this agenda forward.

Trying to talk to legislators, trying to dissuade some of the apprehensions, to maybe dispel some of the myths. That’s what I’ve been doing for the last year. Right now, we are an interesting place. Vermont is unbelievably supportive of the hemp industry. The legislature went as far as to put a signing statement into the statute, reaffirming their support for the hemp industry.

I’m trying to think of the exact number. I don’t know if it’s 14 or 17 states that allow hemp growing at this point, and Vermont by far is the least regulated. $25 a year, you fill out a one page form, you get your card, and you can grow hemp, which is fantastic. We’re an agricultural economy here in Vermont, and this is the beginning of what I believe to be the rejuvenation of that economy.

TG Branfalt: When you’re talking to people right now who are in the hemp industry, are there a lot of questions right now, even several months before legalization takes effect, and possibly years before tax and reg, are people already trying to figure out what that industry could look like?

And the other thing is this. Do you think that it’s going to be more representative, it’s going to be similar to the hemp industry that we have here, which is primarily small farmers?

Tim Fair: That’s a great question. I think we have to wait and see. Regulations for Vermont’s taxed and regulated system are going to be coming out this year. There’s definitely a very, very strong desire to keep this as local as possible, to keep things on the Vermont scale, and one of the things about the cannabis industry right now is that it is extremely state specific.

So, it would be very difficult for somebody from out of state to come into Vermont, let’s say a large scale operation out of Colorado. They may know the Colorado regulations very well, they may know how to function and run their business under the Colorado regulations, they won’t know anything about Vermont. They won’t know anything about the Vermont regulations, so that factor helps keep it local.

I’m hoping that we are going to maintain accessibility for the average Vermonter. That’s what Vermont Cannabis Solutions is about. We’re not taking out of state clients, we’re working with Vermont small business and entrepreneurs who want to get involved in this industry. Whether the legislature will help that or hinder it, we have yet to see.

TG Branfalt: Speaking of the legislature, I mean, it’s the first in the nation to pass legalization via the legislature. It was cool to be here when that happened, but how long … You’ve spent a lot more time in Montpelier than I have. How long do you think the legislature’s going to let this gray market exist? I mean, we both hear things about donations and these things that are already happening in Massachusetts, and Massachusetts, to their credit, is allowing it to go on pretty much in the open. How long do you think that’s going to jive with the legislature, just watching the money fall out of their pockets?

Tim Fair: There’s two ways they can go. The gifting cannabis economy, we see it in D.C., we see it in Maine, we’re seeing it develop in Massachusetts. This is a function of going halfway. Legalization without a taxed and regulated system. I was having an email exchange with a former professor of mine at Vermont Law School the other day, and when you look at the statutes in Vermont, gifting is allowed. Gifting is allowed.

The statutes specifically state that it is illegal to sell quantities of cannabis under one ounce, but when you talk about distribution, it’s only addressed in quantities above one ounce. There’s noticeably lack of any mention of prohibition of distribution under an ounce. Meaning, you can give away up to an ounce perfectly legally. What does that lead to? That leads to the $100 Snickers bar that comes with a free quarter ounce, or in D.C., the juice bars that serve $50 glasses of orange juice with a free eighth.

It’s runarounds, it’s loopholes. It’s entrepreneurs looking at the system and figuring out how they can move forward with the framework as it is. I believe this is not going to last long. The two options the legislature has is A, they can go back and try to reconvene and pass a bill to close the loophole, which will take a whole session, or they can establish tax and regulation.

This year we will most likely be seeing Canada come online with it’s recreational program. We’ll be seeing Massachusetts come online, Maine hopefully after LePage gets out. People will be actually seeing functioning, well-functioning cannabis systems and once they’re seeing it with their own eyes, once they’re seeing all the gloom and doom predictions of the prohibitionists are not coming true, the sky is not falling, six year olds aren’t running around with joints, what they will see is a good functioning systems that are generating significant tax revenue. I think when people see that, tax and reg is inevitable.

TG Branfalt: I mean, it’s coming. I mean, briefly, I just want to talk to you very briefly, just before we started recording, we were looking at that lawsuit that’s happening on a federal level. I mean, at some point, right, the crest has got to come? I mean, New England is basically decriminalized throughout. All of Vermont’s borders, save for New Hampshire, right? No, New York, sorry, my bad. But I mean, New York, you look at New York, what have they got? Pennsylvania, that’s it. Jersey’s on its way. I just want to, just point out what we’re looking at from our perspective in Vermont, you know?

Tim Fair: Jersey is the East Coast key. Once Jersey goes, New York will go, and once New York goes, then we’ve got the East Coast. For me, it was California legalizing recreational. That was the point for me where I fully believed that the toothpaste can’t be put back in the tube. The genie ain’t getting back in the bottle, no matter what we see from the federal government. Once California estimated 6-7 billion dollar a year industry-

TG Branfalt: Which the whole industry did nine billion last year I think is the number.

Tim Fair: Yeah, with a B. That to me was the point of no return. But the federal government goes kicking and screaming. It’s very difficult to get anything done under the best of circumstances in Washington, and where we find ourselves now, I’ll just say are not the best of circumstances. That’s why another kind of benefit of the state specific nature of this industry that has allowed the states to really take it and run with it on their own.

Yes, inevitability. That’s a great word. The industry is inevitable. How long it’s going to take, how long we have the prohibitionists kicking and screaming. That’s impossible to tell right now.

TG Branfalt: So I want to get your advice for current operators and other people within Vermont’s market. Before we do that, we’ve got to take a last break. This is Ganjapreneur.com Podcast with TG Branfalt.

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TG Branfalt: Hey welcome back to the Ganjapreneur.com Podcast. I’m your host, TG Branfalt, here with Tim Fair, owner of Vermont’s first cannabis law practice, Vermont Cannabis Solutions, and kindred spirit, especially when it comes to the sole federal government issue. So, I wanted to ask you, your advice for current operators in Vermont. That’s what you focus on, that’s where we are. Do you think that those who are focused on hemp right now have a slight headstart as we inch towards tax and reg?

Tim Fair: Absolutely. I mean, there’s no question about it. They’re getting the experience in the industry, they’re getting the experience, whether it’s growing the crop, whether it’s extracting whether it’s selling. Whatever people are doing, they’re getting that experience now. As far as non-hemp cannabis, higher THC level cannabis, that’s limited really right now to our medical dispensaries.

The average entrepreneur’s not having that opportunity, so the people right now who are in the hemp and CBD, yeah, they’re getting a headstart. The question is are they all going to want to transition into cannabis? Some yes, some no. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t steps that can be taken right now for those who want to get into the legal cannabis market. Whether it’s recreational or medicinal.

TG Branfalt: Earlier you said that you think it’s going to be harder for out of state people to enter the Vermont market. If people wanted to start looking at that market now, what would advice be for those who are or might be interested in entering Vermont’s market when it starts to become established?

Tim Fair: You mean people from out of state who might want to come in?

TG Branfalt: Yeah, yeah.

Tim Fair: Learn the Vermont way. Learn Vermont.

TG Branfalt: It’s tough. I mean, neither one of us are from Vermont.

Tim Fair: No, no, absolutely. Growing up in New York City, it blew my mind here. But Vermont is a lot more about who you are. It’s about face to face connections. It’s about knowing people. In order to succeed in the Vermont market, especially at this point in time, who you know, the impression you’ve made on people, the reputation that you have within the cannabis community here in the state, that is going to carry a lot more weight than what you’ve done somewhere else, or how much money you may have.

It really comes down to knowing each other, and if somebody from out of state had a real serious interest in coming into Vermont, come to Vermont. Come to some events. Come to some lobbying events. Meet people in the community. We’re a small state, we’re a relatively small community, and it’s very accepting.

The thing people don’t want to do is just simply come in and try to buy their way into the industry. That’s just not really going to work here in Vermont.

TG Branfalt: You’ve had your own interesting path to sit in this chair, talking about cannabis, lawyer. What’s your advice for other entrepreneurs who are seeking to enter the cannabis space? Just people who may not be in this industry now.

Tim Fair: Know why you want to get into the industry. If the answer is, “Because I think I’m going to make a bunch of money,” pick another industry. Know why you want to get into it. Once you’ve figured out why you want to get into it, my next piece of advice is learn the industry. It’s not simply about hanging around and getting stoned all day, and growing some pot.

This is a growing industry. When you factor in the CBD, industrial hemp, all of the uses, the sitting around, getting stoned, a piece of the pie. But there’s a lot more to the industry than that. The nuances of the industry, what has happened over the last five years in Colorado and California, in Oregon, in Washington, in Alaska. These are lessons that can be learned. These are real lessons. Some of them will be applicable to Vermont, some of them will not.

But by studying the industry, by seeing the problems and how they’ve been dealt with, it’s going to be the best way to have a realistic expectation of one’s experience here in Vermont in the industry.

TG Branfalt: I mean, this has been really cool, man. Like, I’m stoked to have you on the show. I mean, when we met in Montpelier, we both looked at each other like, “All right, I got you. I got you.” Where can people find out more about what you’re doing with the Vermont Cannabis Solutions, find out more about you? Plug it up, man.

Tim Fair: I’m not real good at self-promotion or plugs. I’ll say the website, www.VermontCannabisSolutions.com, is my first attempt at a website, so take it easy on me. But it’s got a lot of contact information, talks a lot about what we’re trying to do here in Vermont. Other than that, tfair@bwvlaw.com. Shoot me an email, happy to chat with anyone, anytime.

TG Branfalt: Dude, I really, again, I appreciate it, and I’m sure we’ll be sitting in these chairs chatting in a few months when legalization’s getting close, man. I appreciate it again.

Tim Fair: I certainly hope so, TG. I appreciate it, my man.

TG Branfalt: You can find more episodes of the Ganjapreneur.com Podcast in the podcast section of Ganjapreneur.com, and in the Apple iTunes Store. On the Ganjapreneur.com website, you will find the latest cannabis news and cannabis jobs updated daily, along with transcripts of this podcast. You can also download the Ganjapreneur.com app in iTunes and Google Play. This episode was engineered by Trim Media House. I’ve been your host, TG Branfalt.

End

Indoor cannabis plants under the pink-hued glow of LED grow lights.

Study: Cannabis Legalization ‘Not the Cause’ for Pueblo County, Colorado Crime and Homeless Challenges

3/14/2018

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According to researchers at Colorado State University-Pueblo’s Institute of Cannabis Research, legalization is not the cause of many of Pueblo County’s recent challenges, Colorado Public Radio reports in an outline of the study. In fact, cannabis sales led to $35 million for the region in 2016, after factoring in costs for enforcement.

Legalization is often cited as a factor in the increased number of homeless people in Pueblo. However, ICR sociologist Timothy McGettigan said that the increase in the number of homeless people in the city is more likely due to increased housing and utility costs.

“The idea that people have been coming to Colorado from out of state in droves, spending their last dime on cannabis and then lining up at soup kitchen queues and at social service agencies is not really accurate. The picture is much different than that.” – McGettigan to CPR

ICR Director Rick Kreminski suggested that the increase in crime in Pueblo since legalization is more likely attributable to the population increase, the decrease in law enforcement officers and the “lack of clarity on some on the marijuana laws.”

The study was split into three sections: social impact (demographics, poverty and homelessness, student use and prevention, crime, health); economic impact and prediction; and water and energy impact.

Social Impact

  • “The population characteristics have remained unchanged … population has increased … but the rate of population increase has remained roughly unchaged.”
  • “No direct quantifiable evidence” to support the notion that the city has been “inundated by migrants.”
  • “Out-of-state migrants to Colorado generally bring college degrees, experience and affluence that enriches Colorado.”
  • “Legal cannabis has not yet had an observable impact on Pueblo’s household incomes. It is possible that the enduring federal prohibition shrouds the true impact of legal cannabis on Pueblo’s household incomes. This is a phenomenon that requires more investigation.”
  • “Poverty rates have neither increased nor decreased. … Pueblo has experienced substantial increases to homelessness” but there is “no clear evidence to unambiguously determine the extent” to which cannabis legalization has attributed to that increase.
  • “It is possible that the largest source of homelessness in Pueblo may be attributable to utility costs. In 2016 alone, a local energy provider was reported to have disconnected utilities to more than 7,000 Pueblo homes.”
  • Cannabis legalization “has not greatly affected high school student use and perceptions towards cannabis in south central Colorado.”
  • Nearly half of the region’s middle and high schools do not provide cannabis prevention education.
  • Crime has increased but cannabis seizures in the city itself are down; although they are up in the county “likely due to the larger volume of illegal marijuana grown present in the county.”
  • The largest crime increase has been property crimes – particularly motor vehicle theft – and danger drug seizures – particularly heroin.
  • Violent crime in the city is up “marginally” but down throughout the county.

Health

  • No “statistically significant change” among women who use cannabis in the county post-legalization.
  • Individuals testing positive for cannabis at hospitals has increased 3 percent.
  • Legal cannabis is complicating the Pueblo County Department of Social Services work with families but “it’s impossible to draw any conclusion about the influence of legal cannabis. … One one hand caregivers appear to be more open and honest about their use of cannabis, but also less likely to comply with court orders to stop using due to the legal status of cannabis in Colorado. This leads to stress in the relationship between caseworkers and caregivers, which could reduce the effectiveness of services provided.”

Economic Impact

  • Real estate values, per capital income, and construction spending in Pueblo is higher post legalization but that could be attributed to the positive national economy.
  • Prices will drop over the next five years and that drop will “have some effect on tax revenue.”

Water and Energy Usage

  • The industry is “very far” from utilizing best practices but “water and energy use is likely to fall” as “growers learn what works.”

The study is the first of its kind. It was paid for largely by local and state cannabis taxes.

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Emma Chasen: Educating the World About Cannabis Science

3/08/2018

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Emma Chasen is the Director of Education for Sativa Science Club, an organization that encourages industry-wide quality standards. She also, in 2016, received the Willamette Week‘s Portland, Oregon Best Budtender award.

In this Ganjapreneur.com podcast episode, Emma joined our host TG Branfalt for a conversation about the creation process behind her educational courses for individuals seeking careers in the cannabis space and why she thinks the cannabis industry should move away from the indica/sativa binary of categorizing cannabis cultivars. The interview also covers how she became a budtender for Farma (a Portland, Oregon-based dispensary that emphasizes a scientific definition and understanding of cannabis), her rise through the ranks of the cannabis space to eventually become the dispensary’s general manager, and what advice she would offer to somebody who is working in — or interested in — the retail side of the cannabis industry.

Tune in to the interview via the player below, or scroll down to read a full transcript of this week’s Ganjapreneur.com podcast episode!

Listen to the podcast:

Read the transcript:

TG Branfalt: Hey there. I’m your host TG Branfalt. You’re listening to the Ganjapreneur.com podcast, where we try to bring you actionable information and normalize cannabis through stories of ganjapreneurs, activists and industry stakeholders. Today I’m delighted to be joined by Emma Chasen. She is a cannabis science educator and consultant for the Sativa Science Club. She’s had a really interesting path to the cannabis space. She began it sort of at Brown University and in 2016, in her role at Farma she was named Portland, Oregon’s Best Budtender, but I’m going to let her tell that story myself — how are you doing this afternoon Emma?

Emma Chasen: I’m doing great TG. Thanks so much for having me.

TG Branfalt: Absolutely thrilled. I briefly sort of gave away a little bit about your background, but why don’t you tell us the story, how did you end up Portland, Oregon’s Best Budtender?

Emma Chasen: Sure. It was definitely a bit of a windy road. I did graduate from Brown University in 2014 with a specialized degree, biology degree. Part of what makes Brown so cool and wonderful is that they really let you do whatever you want. I was able to devise my own track within the biology program to really study medicinal plant research and ethnobotany. So, the way in which indigenous peoples have used medicinal plants over centuries and centuries. I came out of Brown not really sure about what I wanted to do. I was considering going the naturopathic route. So, becoming a naturopathic doctor, but I definitely did not want to jump into another five years of schooling. So, I took a job at Brown University Oncology Research Group where I was helping to coordinate Clinical Oncology trials nationwide and I naively thought that that was going to be my point of impact.

Because this was 2014, 2015. So, the cannabis movement was just starting to gain traction. Of course, it had been growing out here for a while, but out on the East Coast it’s a different story, different culture. I was excited that there was a little bit of momentum, especially in Rhode Island medical marijuana had passed. So, I thought, “Okay, maybe we can do some cannabis trials. That would be awesome and super cool.” Lo and behold, there was actually a brilliant professor from Brown who did propose a cannabis trial to my supervisor at the time and she did not even give him the time of day. She just laughed him out of the office and that was kind of the straw that broke the camel’s back for me in terms of just being done with that job.

I saw how much the cancer industry … how much money the cancer industry makes for one and just how much it profits off of people being sick. I was really disillusioned with that and came out of that job, moved back home to New York for the summer, because I’m from New York and just like, you know what, I need a new adventure in my life and so I packed up my car and drove across the country to Portland, Oregon, not even knowing if I wanted to get into the cannabis space, just knowing that there was more opportunity out here for the holistic medicine industry and jobs, but it was perfect timing, really synchronistic in that cannabis was just becoming legal for adult use. So anybody 21+ could start buying cannabis in October of 2015 and I got to Portland September of 2015.

So, everybody in the cannabis industry was hiring to prepare for this and I also, very luckily, found my way to Farma, which is a very popular dispensary in Portland that takes a more scientific to cannabis and at first I was like, “You know what, I don’t want to work in retail weed. I want to work in research or science or something else.” But I took the job because I needed the job, I needed money, and I ended up falling in love with it. I fell in love with the plant. I fell in love with learning about the plant and learning about all the different science of cannabis, behind cannabis, and I also loved connecting with consumers and really helping them reframe their relationship with cannabis as medicine, and helping them to kind of take control of their own health and wellness journey and regain some agency with this awesome medicinal plant. And so I stayed there, I stayed in Farma in total for about two years, but I budtended for about four to five months and then I was named, of course, Portland’s Best Budtender by the Willamette Week readers poll in 2016, which was awesome, and then quickly after that became Farma’s general manager.

TG Branfalt: What about Sativa Science Club? Explain to the listeners what that is.

Emma Chasen: Yeah, sure. Sativa Science Club is a really collaborative effort to support the cannabis industry at large and a lot of the way in which we believe that we can support the industry is through education. I linked up with Sativa Science Club founder, Mary J. Poppins, in June 2017 and we just found that we had a lot of similarities in terms of our goals and hopes and visions for supporting the cannabis industry. I had stepped down from my position as GM at Farma in April of 2017 to really start to cultivate and develop a comprehensive training curriculum for industry professionals, because there just was not any kind of training on cannabis science or empathetic client care, patient care as I call it. So, the ability to really take this science, this foundational information on cannabis and distill it in a way that is accessible and meaningful to consumers in a high-traffic retail environment, it takes a little bit of finesse.

I got to work as Farma’s director of education in April of 2017, after I stepped down as their GM, to really develop a training program and then linked up with Mary of Sativa Science Club in June. Found out we had a lot of similarities and we started working together to kind of workshop classes throughout the summer and then in September of 2017 I ended up officially transitioning out of Farma and working with Sativa Science Club to develop what we call now the Core Science Certification Program. So, it is a comprehensive training program that takes you through cannabis botany, cannabis compounds, the endocannabinoid receptor system, consumption methods, as well as empathetic or compassionate client care. This curriculum was reviewed by a board of scientists so that we can make sure that all the information is good and airtight.

I mean, we don’t know a lot about cannabis right now. We have a little bit of information, but even that little bit of information has been enough to create this training program and I do believe that it’s enough to elevate the industry from the conversations that are so commonly being had now.

TG Branfalt: That’s really cool stuff. At Farma, correct me if I’m wrong about this, but you guys rejected the indica/sativa binary, instead focusing on chemotypes to determine effect. Would you please explain what that means?

Emma Chasen: Absolutely. At Farma, that was really the place where I got my foundational understanding of cannabis and what Farma does, which is really pretty radical when you look at the way in which other dispensaries talk about cannabis flowers. They reject this indica/sativa binary. In cannabis, we commonly associate cannabis indica with being super sleepy and “in-da-couch” and cannabis sativa as really energizing and kind of hyperactive. However, that dichotomy is incorrect for a couple of reasons. One, cannabis indica and cannabis sativa only describe the way in which plants will grow.

So, when these species were first classified by philosophers and scientists in the 1700s, they never smoked these plants, they never consumed these plants and then wrote down in their notes like, “Oh, cannabis indica, super sedative.” All they did was outline like, “Oh, cannabis indica grows short and bushy, has dense compact flowers, whereas canvas sativa grows tall and skinny, has loose flowers.” Even at the creation of these terms there is no account that they were ever associated with effect to begin with. However, if they were at some point associated with consistent experience, it still would not matter now because everything on the current cannabis market is genetically a hybrid. Everything has been crossed and prolifically bred so many times that all current cannabis cultivars are a combination of indica and sativa genetics.

It doesn’t make sense to look up online or look up on Leafly and go, “Oh, Grape Ape. They say that that’s cannabis indica. You’ll definitely get a super sedative effect from that strain every single time.” We don’t have that consistency in the supply chain yet and also, if you think about it, it just makes more sense to look at the actual chemical compounds found inside of a plant’s matrix to determine what effect or what experience it will induce and that’s because we are actually physically consuming those compounds. We’re not consuming indica or sativa, that’s kind of like amorphous term that doesn’t really tell us much about the way in which it’s going to affect us. We’re consuming the compounds that will then alter our physiology and create a specific experience.

So, when we say we reject the indica/sativa binary and instead look at the cannabis chemotype to determine effect, the cannabis chemotype is those chemical compounds found inside the plant’s matrix that actually alter our physiology to determine or create a certain experience. At Farma we never classified our cannabis and they still don’t base on the indica/sativa binary. Instead, we looked at every single cultivars lab results, cannabinoid potency as well as terpene potency to better project an experience or effect.

TG Branfalt: In a lot of my conversations I’ve been having, especially recently and this I’ve sort of noticed in the last year with business owners and growers, is there seems to be this movement towards terpene content versus strain names when it comes to marketing, when it comes to how they discuss that with their clients. Would you like to see an industry wide shift toward marketing cannabis flowers differently?

Emma Chasen: I would. I would definitely like to see this removal of the indica/sativa binary as this thing that we hold onto so tightly to tell us an experience. I think that, especially moving forward and as the legal cannabis industry evolves, consumers are going to demand predictability and consistency in their medicine. If we continue to just look at the indica/sativa binary or strain names to help us determine effect, then we will not be delivering that consistency to our consumers. To me, that’s inexcusable because then you’re potentially losing consumers and there is still a lot of negative stigma out there about cannabis and we can’t really afford to lose consumers at this point.

We need to create a different kind of approach. I do think that strain names, they’re a great marketing tool. I think that they’re an easy way to entice consumers to try something out. However, we need to be expanding the conversation and looking at the terpene content as well as the cannabinoid content, as well as the genetics, to better determine or predict an experience for the consumers, so that they can have that greater or higher level of consistency and predictability in their medicine.

TG Branfalt: I want to dig a bit deeper into sort of this education process that you do and sort of your experience with that, but before we do that we’ve got to take a break. This is Ganjapreneur.com podcast. I’m TG Branfalt.

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TG Branfalt: Hey, welcome back to the Ganjapreneur.com podcast. I’m your host TG Branfalt, here with Emma Chasen, cannabis science educator and consultant for the Sativa Science Club. In your opinion, somebody who educates people on the cannabis plant, what do you think is the biggest gap in the cannabis knowledge base of consumers?

Emma Chasen: I think that it is this indica/sativa question. A lot of novice consumers who are looking to try out cannabis or explore cannabis look to popular blogs on the internet, look to sites like Leafly to help them kind of uncover the language needed to speak about cannabis. So, they find a lot of indica and sativa, cannabis indica makes you sleepy, cannabis sativa makes you energized. So, that’s still one of the biggest gaps in education that I see and dispensaries in the legal industry proliferate this idea and that definitely doesn’t help either. There’s also, as the CBD market continues to rise a huge gap in understanding the difference between hemp derived CBD and cannabis derived CBD. I can explain a little bit about that quick rundown.

TG Branfalt: Absolutely.

Emma Chasen: Hemp derived CBD and cannabis derived CBD, they are the same molecules. If you pulled out CBD from hemp and you pulled out CBD from cannabis they would look exactly the same. They are exactly the same. However, hemp took a very different breeding pathway than the cannabis plant or the “drug cultivar cannabis”. Hemp is actually a subspecies of cannabis sativa. However, it was never bred prolifically like the drug cultivar cannabis for its secondary compounds. Secondary compounds are the compounds like cannabinoids and terpenes that actually have or hold the medicinal qualities of cannabis.

Instead, hemp was bred for its primary compounds or its fibers and proteins. It was bred to clean up soil. It was bred to eventually be made into a textile or paper, food, and these are all breeding techniques specifically for primary compounds. So, you don’t really get this high level of secondary compounds. Whereas cannabis, or the drug cultivar cannabis, was bred only for its secondary compounds and it was bred illegally for a very long time for its cannabinoid potency, for its terpene potency, and this created quite a diverse range of secondary compounds. Cannabis’ real medicinal efficacy lies in this diverse range of secondary compounds and this is a theory called the entourage effect, that all of these secondary compounds are working together to create the most medicinal experience possible.

When we talk about hemp derived CBD tinctures or products, it can still be medically efficacious, it can still work because again, that CBD molecule is the same whether it’s in hemp or this cannabis drug cultivar. However, it does not have that full range of secondary compounds behind it to support the way in which CBD interacts with our physiology. You may find that your hemp derived CBD tincture doesn’t work as well as something that’s a cannabis derived CBD tincture. Also, you need to watch out for companies who are just looking to capitalize on the CBD movement. There are a lot of the elixirs that are sold online, that are sold on Amazon that really highlight, oh, CBD tincture, but then you read the fine print and it’s just hemp seed oil.

There are a lot of companies who are, unfortunately and really awfully, trying to pull one over on the consumer market and profitize on the CBD movement. So, just be careful. If you are looking to source hemp CBD, you can find reputable companies, you can find companies who are testing for both pesticides and potency and you can find something that is really clean and effective, you just have to do your research. Don’t just click on any CBD tincture that you find. Make sure that you read the fine print. The wonderful thing about hemp CBD is that it is legal. It is federally legal. So, it is accessible in all 50 states. It is accessible nationwide. So, if you do find that maybe you could benefit from CBD medicine. If you’re looking to try it out, but you’re not currently in a legal cannabis state, then you can source hemp CBD product, just make sure you do your research.

TG Branfalt: The other question I have for you is the … you said earlier that we don’t know much about the cannabis plant, we really only had 50 years of research on this plant. I mean, this might be a loaded question here, but what do you think is the biggest gap in sort of this knowledge base? What are we missing, do you think, that would help us maybe connect some dots or paint the picture a little clearer?

Emma Chasen: Sure. We’re missing a large portion of those secondary compounds in cannabis’ plant matrix. So, in my previous answer, when I described how cannabis’ real efficacy lies in that full range of secondary compounds, we only know a very small fraction of what those compounds actually are and what they do. Right now we really only know that there are cannabinoids, terpenes and flavonoids, but we don’t even really know how the flavonoids interacts with the cannabinoids and terpenes and there have been predicted or hypothesized to be hundreds and hundreds of compounds in the cannabis matrix and we only know three classes of them, the cannabinoids, terpenes and flavonoids. Again, we only really know what two of those, the cannabinoids and terpenes, actually do and how they work, and still, with those two classes, we don’t quite fully understand how they’re interacting with our physiology. We need a lot more research to uncover the rest of the secondary compounds in the cannabis matrix so that we can better understand how cannabis can be used as medicine.

TG Branfalt: Who do you think should be leading the way in this research? Right now a lot of private entities and legal states are working to map the genome or do other research like that. There’s a higher education programs that are working primarily with hemp. There’s a good one in New York. There’s a great one in Vermont. State governments are issuing reports, but not really doing research. The federal government has no interest, but who do you think should be leading the research efforts?

Emma Chasen: I think that higher education is always a great way to conduct and fund research. However, higher education gets tricky. If it’s federally funded, then they don’t really want to touch cannabis. The state doesn’t really give much money to support research efforts on cannabis, so that leaves you with private entities, which can gain funding from a variety of different investors to do this kind of research and with that I’m slightly conflicted on whether I like the fact that private entities are leading research. I do think that there are many private entities such as Phylos Bioscience here in Portland, that is a cannabis genomics company that is trying to synthesize the entire cannabis genome, but they also have this nonprofit that’s part of their organization called the Open Cannabis Project that looks to publish this information in open source so that nobody can patent the cannabis genome.

I think that that is really important, this discussion of patents that’s coming out of private entities doing research will definitely impact the way that the industry can move forward and I am not a big fan of patents or patenting cannabis. I think that that is an awful road to go down. The federal government already has a couple of patents out on cannabis and that will just make sure that only a very few number of really rich people are allowed to grow certain cultivars or certain cannabis genetics and that is not the way that I want to see this industry move forward. I want to make sure that everybody has access and the ability to grow this plant and that not a couple of rich people own it. Private entities, I think that they’re good for now. I think that moving forward, as the legalization movement gains more traction and it spreads, I think that higher education would also be the be a great place to conduct much of the research.

TG Branfalt: I’ve got to, I really have got to agree with you that, especially … as the conversation on a federal level here, do we deschedule it, do we reschedule it and I warn people quite frequently if it’s rescheduled, it’s going to put cannabis in the hands of pharmaceutical companies and people who can get FDA approval. I just think it’s worth noting that the deschedule versus reschedule conversation and I want to talk about some more Oregon-centric issues and topics and about your work at Farma. Before we do that we got to take a break. This is Ganjapreneur.com podcast. I’m TG Branfalt.

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TG Branfalt: Hey, welcome back to Ganjaprenuer.com podcast. I’m your host TG Branfalt here with Emma Chasen, cannabis science educator and consultant for Sativa Science Club, super smart. How do you think, if at all, your approach to cannabis led to your Best Budtender win in 2016?

Emma Chasen: I think that one, having a foundational understanding of how the cannabis plant interacts with human physiology really does help budtenders and it definitely helped me make better predictions for how that cannabis cultivar will make somebody feel and that is really important. When you’re working with a customer, if you give them a prediction and that prediction turns out right, then they’re more likely to come back to you and get medicine from you. There are also, of course, are other things that I would always include in the conversation such as dosing guidelines. So, telling people how to specifically use this product, maybe start at night if you’re a novice just in case you experience some drowsy effects you could sleep it off. Start with a very, very low dose or a micro dose and then wait a few minutes, wait 10 minutes to see how that product makes you feel before consuming more so that way you can ensure that you won’t have such an uncomfortable experience if it doesn’t work for you.

I also definitely prize myself, I guess, on my ability to take really scientific jargon-heavy concepts and distill them down in a way that a lay person can understand. So, being able to explain these kinds of scientific concepts in a way that is accessible and not alienating, because I think that a lot of times when people do try to educate, it creates this like distancing or othering of the other person on the other side of the conversation because they don’t know it or they feel like you’re patronizing them or whatever it may be. So, I always tried and I always did meet people where they were at and if they weren’t looking for the education, then I wasn’t about to give it to them.

A lot of people ask me all the time like, “Well, what happens if you do get a customer who comes in and is like, ‘I want your heaviest cannabis indica.’ What do you say to that?” My response is there are ways to very slyly insert some education in that conversation and so if somebody comes in and says, “I want a heavy cannabis indica.” I’m not going to correct them, that is like customer service 101, the customer’s always right. I then follow up with what a question, “Okay, what kind of experience are you looking for? Do you want something that’s more sedative?” Usually they’ll say, “Yeah, I want something to just put me out, again, heavy indica.” And maybe then I’d pull out a cultivar for them to smell and talk about how it has a high concentration of THC and a high concentration of a terpene called myrcene and myrcene is found abundantly in hops.

So, think when you drink a few beers and you get drowsy. Well, that’s what this call cultivar is going to do to you. Never in that conversation did I say, “You’re wrong. Indica is wrong.” You can’t say that. Never did I also say, “Oh yeah, I’m going to get you a cannabis indica, a heavy indica.” I kind of did my own sly insertion of education and they took home something that hopefully will give them the experience that they want and maybe that planted a tiny seed so that the next time they come into the dispensary they’ll ask for something that’s high in myrcene instead of an indica. I think that that approach made me really successful as a budtender. It’s this combination of being able to explain cannabis science to people or introduce them to cannabis science in a way that is not othering or alienating and then also combining that with a really high level of customer service, which includes active listening, which includes eye contact, open body language, like a high degree of excitement.

A lot of people who come into a dispensary are really, really excited to be there and so the budtender has to match that excitement, otherwise it’s going to be a little bit of a disappointment for the customer. So, really all those things combined. That high level customer service casual professionalism, plus this foundational understanding of cannabis science and being able to articulate it in a way that makes sense to people.

TG Branfalt: In my sort of daily news writing and conversations with industry owners, a lot of people say that Oregon’s program is one of the more interesting in terms of the employment there, you have to get a permit as an employee, and the program was recently criticized by the US Oregon District Attorney Billy J. Williams, saying that it has a massive overproduction problem among other things. Talking a lot about diversion. As somebody who’s been in the industry, what changes, if any, would you like to see in Oregon’s adult-use regime and is William’s criticisms worthwhile?

Emma Chasen: Well, I think that Oregon, out of the legal recreational states thus far, actually does have one of the better programs. The legislature is, I think, a lot better than the approach that Colorado and Washington took in that the craft industry really thrives in Oregon, specifically Portland, and we’ve seen that with craft coffee, craft wine, craft food and so why not craft cannabis? It is true that there is a strong foothold of this craft movement here. I’m part something called the Craft Cannabis Alliance here in Oregon, that really seeks to make sure that small, home-grown Oregon owned companies really make it in this industry, because it is tough.

To comment on this massive overproduction problem that we’re seeing in Oregon, it’s true. We are seeing a massive overproduction problem. This past fall market and flooded with products, specifically cannabis flour and nobody was buying it. That drove the prices down in an insane amount. I mean, I heard of pounds being sold for $200, which is awful. I mean, you cannot make money off of that. However, this is not a problem specific to Oregon. We’ve seen this problem happen in Colorado. We’ve seen it happen in Washington. I’m sure it will happen in California, where the state does not put a moratorium or a cap on licenses. It’s free market. It’s capitalism. Anybody can go out for a license. However, at this point there are only about 14% of the population in Oregon that consume cannabis and that number is not growing.

You bring on more licenses, you bring on more businesses that have more product and yet your consumer base isn’t growing. So, it’s inevitable that some of those companies are going to drop out or turn to black market, which a lot of them are. There are two solutions, a few solutions I see to this problem. One, the state could put a cap on licenses and say, “You know what? There are only allowed this many licenses in the state.” However, a lot of people do not jive with that idea because capitalism, free market, we want to let everybody have a chance, which I totally get. The next thing would be, okay, as the East Coast starts to legalize, as Vermont, as New Jersey, as Maine, Massachusetts legalize, you can’t really grow great cannabis naturally out there. You have to grow it in a warehouse, which, of course, is not very sustainable and costs a lot more money and is not good for the environment.

Then the solution becomes, “Well, if we have all this product out in Oregon, that is arguably the best cannabis product that you are going to get. This is the place that has been growing cannabis forever. It’s the place that has been supplying the East Coast black market forever, so why not regulate that? Why not allow Oregon companies to ship product out to East Coast legal States and have that flower be sold in their dispensary instead of popping up all these warehouses that are just generating “botox weed”, as I call it. So, that would be a larger solution. However, of course, then you need to get the feds involved because you’re crossing state lines. It’s not something that’s going to happen right away, but it’s something that long term could potentially really help the Oregon market, but I think that for right now it’s really making sure that these craft companies do survive because they are the heart of the Oregon market and that in this shakeout not having just like a few highly capitalized companies kind of win out.

TG Branfalt: Are you, with the recent changes in federal policy, the revocation of the Cole Memo, are there any fears of crackdown among operators in Oregon?

Emma Chasen: I think it was a big scare when Sessions rescinded the Cole Memo. People definitely freaked out a little bit. However, as long as the state’s attorney general is cool with it, as long as they are not going to come after the program, then it’s going to be okay, and they’re not going to come after the program unless people are not remaining in compliance. So, unless people are selling to black market prolifically and the whole kind of market and industry just bottoms out, which again, it is definitely a risk right now with this kind of market shakeout that’s happening. However, I don’t think that the state’s attorney generals are going to go after companies and just shut the industry down.

I mean, it’s making a ton of money for the state, millions of dollars in tax revenue are coming in. There are now a ton of jobs that are being created due to this industry. There are people who are not dying of opioid overdoses. I mean, we’ve seen in every single sector how this industry can benefit the states and so, unless we have an industry wide problem of everybody turning to black market activity, then I don’t think that there is really going to be a major shutdown.

TG Branfalt: Usually I end these interviews by asking what advice would you have for entrepreneurs, but really, I think what I want to know from you is, what advice do you have for people interested in working on the retail side, working in the customer service aspect of the cannabis space?

Emma Chasen: I’d say, “Do your research. Learn.” You can now take our program at SativaScienceClub.com. You could take the core science certification program from anywhere in the world because we do have it set up for online students as well. So, make sure that you learn about cannabis, make sure that you learn how to talk about it and then do your research and really target the dispensaries that you align with, and then take whatever position you can get there. This is the main thing I say to everybody looking to get into the cannabis industry, just get your foot in the door.

I mean, when I got to Portland I didn’t want to be a budtender working for $12 an hour. That was not something that I wanted to do, but I did it and then I worked my ass off to find my niche and made connections and networked until I eventually got where I wanted to be. So, do your research, learn as much as you can about cannabis and about how to talk to people about it and then go out and just take a position that you can, meet people, connect and continue climbing your way.

TG Branfalt: I really want to thank you for being on the show. This has been really, really cool. You have a fountain of knowledge. You know a lot more than I do, that is for sure. Where can people find out more about you more and more about the Sativa Science Club, other projects that you might have going on.

Emma Chasen: Sure. You can find Sativa Science Club at SativaScienceClub.com and you can find out all about the training and workshops that you can take through there. You can also find me and the work that I do at EmmaChasen.com. You can also find me on Instagram and Facebook. So, my socials. On Instagram I’m echasen. Facebook, Emma Chasen. Same with Sativa Science Club. You can find them all over social media, Instagram, Facebook and the like.

TG Branfalt: Again, thank you so much for taking the time to come on the show. It’s really been delightful and I definitely look forward to talking to you again for sure.

Emma Chasen: Yes, thank you so much for having me on. It’s been my pleasure. So fun.

TG Branfalt: You can find more episodes of the Ganjapreneur.com podcast in the podcast section of Ganjapreneur.com and in the Apple iTunes store. On the Ganjapreneur.com website you’ll find the latest cannabis news and cannabis jobs updated daily, along with transcripts of this podcast. You can also download the Ganjaprenuer.com App in iTunes and Google Play. This episode was engineered by Trip Media House. I’ve been your host, TG Branfalt.

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A woman uses a vape pen to consume CBD-rich cannabis oil in conjunction with hot cup of tea.

Massachusetts Cannabis Regulators Reject Social-Use Proposal

2/27/2018

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Massachusetts will not be the first state to allow social cannabis use as the Cannabis Control Commission voted 4-1 against the proposals, according to a MassLive.com report. The board also voted against allowing home delivery services. Medical cannabis home delivery is still permitted.

The panel did indicate they would re-start the social-use conversation in October, possibly allowing exclusive licenses, and issue draft rules in February 2019. Those exclusive licenses would be available to individuals with convictions for past drug convictions, the Boston Globe reports.

Jim Borghesani, a spokesman for the legalization campaign, said that the “pressure campaign” against social use conducted by Gov. Charlie Baker and Attorney General Maura Healey “proved difficult to overcome.”

“The larger issue is getting the application process up and running for the July sales start date. Additional delays would be an embarrassment for the state and a gift to black market dealers.” – Borghesani to MassLive

In a statement to the Globe, Baker said he was “pleased” with the decision.

In August, Alaska regulators unveiled a proposal to allow retail cannabis dispensaries to obtain on-site consumption endorsement to their licenses; however, that measure has not become law. Last week, Maine’s cannabis implementation committee voted 10-4 to remove all references from social-use licensing from the regulations for the forthcoming program.

On Monday, regulators in Denver, Colorado approved a social-use license to the Coffee Joint, which will allow patrons 21-and-older to vape of consumer edibles on-site. The establishment is the first-in-the-nation to receive such a license; although Colorado’s state law does not permit social use, Denver voters approved such a measure in 2016.

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Several cows graze in a Vermont pasture on an Autumn afternoon.

Vermont’s Cannabis Market Will Be Gray and We’re OK With That

2/26/2018

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We’re not expecting the Wild West in Vermont – think pre-legalization California with its semi-legal dispensaries and quasi-legal delivery services – but, as you might expect, we are expecting the law’s “loopholes” to be exploited by savvy industry enthusiasts.

Coming from a New York native (more or less), Vermont has been a green beacon for a decade – and not just for its lush Green Mountains. Growing up, we puffed on a lot of Vermont-grown cannabis; it wasn’t a secret that the state’s growers cultivated some of the best product you could get your hands on. The tiny state was our California – it had decriminalized cannabis possession before anyone in New England — yet, somehow, Vermont managed to fall behind Massachusetts and Maine with legalization and the new law does not create a taxed-and-regulated industry.

Come July 1, however, it will set in motion a thriving gray market.

What is a gray market?

On July 1, Vermonters can grow two mature and four immature plants-per-household – but we can’t sell it and we can’t publicly consume. The state’s licensed dispensaries will still only be allowed to sell cannabis to registered patients but a “gifting” culture is certain to emerge, as we’re seeing in Massachusetts and Maine as they move toward their own legalization dates. Gifting is nothing new. In California, shortly after the legalization vote, I gave a “donation” for a vape pen and cartridges after finding an ad on Craigslist. In Michigan, I acquired a “temporary” medical cannabis card to attend – and make purchases at – the 2016 Michigan cannabis cup.

An amateur cannabis grower’s seedling, bathed in the purple light of an LED-based grow closet. Photo credit: Cannabis Pictures

Kris Smith*, a Vermont native who owns an industrial hemp-related business in Vermont, temporarily moved to Maine following the legalization vote, hoping to cash in on the Green Rush. (*His name has been changed so he could speak openly about his experiences without fear of reprisal in either Maine or Vermont).

In Maine, Smith explained, a Craigslist culture emerged quickly where, for a donation, you could purchase flower, concentrates, vape pens, and infused-edibles.

“But another thing that immediately happened is people were growing more,” he explained. “People were like, ‘Well now I can grow my six rec and six medical and boom I have a fat basement grow with 12 plants in it growing at any time.’ That’s a money-maker.”

When voters passed the recreational cannabis initiative, Smith explained, there was nothing in the law that prevented people from doubling up on their plant counts and people started growing plants for people who didn’t even live with them or even smoke, such as relatives.

“Gifting was instantly a thing,” he said. “I’ve seen stuff as blatant as a delivery service with ‘donations.’ We’d find people through social media and you’d say ‘I’m a medical patient’ and you’d never show a card or anything. That’s not even allowed under the medical program but once rec was voted on it started happening all the time.”

While there were no “blatant” social-use clubs in Maine that Smith knew about, he said that, after hours, some bars would allow people to come in and consume cannabis on-site on an outdoor patio. However, he explained that because Maine is such a small market compared to other states such as California and Colorado – and the state’s “wide-open” medical cannabis program – that people didn’t necessarily need these gimmicks to operate in the state’s gray market. He said he was unaware of anyone who was arrested for gifting.

What does this mean, legally, come July 1 in Vermont?

Tim Fair, president of Vermont Cannabis Solutions and a lawyer specializing in cannabis law, explained that “as the law is written right now, it is not gray – it is black and white, clear letter law – it is legal to gift anything under 1 ounce to another adult 21-and-older.”

“The best example is the $100 Snickers bar,” he said. “You call up the delivery service, they deliver you a $100 Snickers bar and you get a free quarter-ounce of cannabis. As the law is written, that would be legal because the purchase you are making is for another object.”

The only way to close this loophole, Fair said, is by a legislative act. And if the Legislature is going to try and reign in the gray market, they would likely just pass tax-and-regulate legislation.

The personal stash harvested from a medical cannabis patient’s homegrown marijuana plant. Photo credit: Cannabis Pictures

Fair said that while the law allows for two mature and four immature plants, the policy makes it ripe for individuals to skirt the law and grow six mature plants at a time because there is no enforcement mechanism for law enforcement to ensure the plants meet those standards. Police would need probable cause to enter a citizen’s home and the only real way they could get such permission is if they were invited in, they were called to the residence for an unrelated crime, or someone were to tell them more than two mature plants were being cultivated at the residence – and even if law enforcement were to discover a six-plant grow, it would be hard for them to determine, in some cases, whether a plant is mature or immature.

Fair said that the new law has the potential to create a lot more legal questions that would need to be addressed, most likely, by the state Supreme Court; such as, whether the smell of cannabis emitting from someone’s home is probable cause.

“It’s legal – but, if you have quantities higher than the law allows, it could be a felony, right? As far as telling people what they can or can’t do is going to be a nightmare because we just don’t know yet,” he said. “We just don’t know what the courts are going to do.

At least one organization is planning a July 1 legalization party, which could raise the social-use question on the day the law takes effect. However, the party is being held on private property, which makes it near impossible that law enforcement could crack down on the event, so long as there are no cannabis sales or consumption by minors.

However, in a hypothetical, Fair said the proprietors of the property could be held liable if someone driving from that party gets into an accident – because they were allowing cannabis consumption at the party; but legally, Fair said, he believes the courts would have to hold cannabis to the same standard as alcohol in cases like this.

Neither Fair nor Smith expects local businesses to operate as “cannabis speakeasies,” as their livelihoods would most certainly be at risk.

The more things change, the more they stay the same

Look, as a New York transplant to Vermont, I can tell you that Vermont has always been viewed as the Northeast’s most liberal state when it comes to cannabis. I can tell you that I see people consuming cannabis in public parks. I can tell you that I puff on my vape pen while walking down Burlington’s Church Street and have consumed cannabis on statehouse property in Montpelier.

There is currently a bill to create a taxed-and-regulated industry in the Legislature, but lawmakers simply have no appetite to take up any more cannabis-related legislation this session – which was enough of a fight.

The legalization measure allows a gray market to exist and most advocates and stakeholders are happy with being able to operate without expensive and onerous licensing – it’s sorta the Vermont way.

At the end of the day, this might be the best form of legalization as other emerging state-sponsored markets, such as Maine and Massachusetts, are in limbo due to pushback from lawmakers and fear of federal interference. To some, this might seem like broad decriminalization rather than legalization, but now Vermonters can grow their own – or, if they can’t, they can buy an overpriced candy bar and possess up to an ounce without fear of penalty.

End