I hope all of you had a great 4th of July! This is Richard Lowe, the managing editor for The National Marijuana News with your top 5 cannabis stories of the week.
Clickable Table of Contents
- Get #weedwise
- Bruce Linton Firing
- Michigan Creates Rules for Commercial Sale of Cannabis
- The Texas House Bill 3707
- Study Shows Adults Giving up Opioids for Cannabis
Get #weedwise
California is working hard to spread more awareness about its legal cannabis industry in an attempt to drive consumers to licensed dispensaries and drive the stores illegally selling cannabis out. The California Bureau of Cannabis Control launched the “Get #weedwise” campaign which sends California cannabis consumers to their site to learn about the dangers of buying illegal weed and the importance of only purchasing lab tested marijauana. They have also established http://www.capotcheck.com/ so that consumers can search for legal dispensaries or find out if the one they are going to is illegal. The reality is that unless the federal government reschedules or fully deschedules cannabis from the Controlled Substance Act, California will have a tough time weeding out the illicit market. The West Coast produces tons of marijuana and states like Washington, Oregon and California cannot legally sell cannabis to anyone outside the state, but the illicit market can because they don’t mind breaking the law. As long as the legal market cannot meet the consumer demand for cannabis outside the state of California, the illicit market is likely to persist.
Bruce Linton Firing
So I wrote about the firing of Bruce Linton as the CEO of Canopy Growth Corporation this week. It is such a dramatic thing to have happened considering he has become the face of the legal cannabis market. He called CNBC to tell them that Canopy’s public statement that he was stepping down wasn’t accurate, but that in fact he was terminated. He also told CNBC, “I really think at the end of the day, sometimes entrepreneurs are entrepreneurs because they’re not super employable.” I thought that was an interesting comment. Having started Tweed, which eventually turned into Canopy, way before Canada legalized adult-use cannabis and turning it into an over $10 billion dollar giant, he is a veteran of building businesses in challenging environments. The cannabis space is full of different versions of Bruce Linton. Just like the industry is out of step with mainstream business, so are the people that are running it. Following rules and standard operating procedures just isn’t the way of a lot of the people in the cannabis space are, which is understandable. It will be interesting to see what he does next.
Michigan Creates Rules for Commercial Sale of Cannabis
Michigan is moving forward well with its new adult-use market. They legalized recreational marijuana and its sale during the November midterm election and recently put out rules for obtaining licenses and running a cannabis business. They think they will be able to start accepting applications and issuing licenses by November. With the huge April 2020 month long weed holiday coming up next year, it could represent a massive economic bump for Michigan if it has stores open and fully stocked by then. The rules are very permissive relative to other states that have legalized adult-use cannabis as well. They are not forcing applicants to have capital requirements to obtain licenses which opens the door to entrepreneurship in the cannabis space for many people in Michigan. They are also allowing for social consumption lounges so that people have a legal place to consume cannabis publicly. So far, it looks like Michigan is doing a better job with its adult-use market than it ever did with its medical marijuana market.
The Texas House Bill 3707
The Texas House Bill 3707 was enacted about a month ago slightly expanding the state’s medical marijuana program. Medical marijuana is all low-THC, containing no more than .5% THC, in Texas. Before the bill passed, medical cannabis was accessible only to people with intractable epilepsy. With the passage of 3707, people with terminal cancer, neurodegenerative disease, autism and few other severe conditions will now be able to access medical cannabis. Unfortunately they did not include military veterans struggling with PTSD which is causing a bit of an uproar.
Study Shows Adults Giving up Opioids for Cannabis
Researchers from the Albert Einstein School of Medicine in New York and the University of Miami recently published a study called, “Use of Cannabis to Relieve Pain and Promote Sleep by Customers at an Adult Use Dispensary.” For about 3 months researchers stood outside adult-use marijuana dispensaries in Colorado asking people what they used cannabis for. The majority of people told the researchers that they used cannabis for pain management and help them sleep at night. Of the people that said they used it for pain, over 80% of them reported that they stopped using other analgesics including opioid prescriptions.
That is it for this week everyone, so I hope you all enjoy your weekend! Remember to follow our Youtube channel, The National Marijuana News, along with our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages @NationalMJNews. Check out Christine Sclafani’s culture page too, @Culture.TNMNews, she’s great!
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