2020 DEMS VIE TO BE 420-FRIENDLIEST

Top-tier Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) released his REC legalization plan: The self-proclaimed socialist said he would legalize via executive order within his first hundred days in office.

Sanders would urge state and federal authorities to expunge old cannabis convictions, and use REC taxes to support entrepreneurs from historically disadvantaged groups.
Vox

  • Sanders also wants to take steps to prevent the industry from becoming predatory: He would incentivize cannabis companies to structure themselves as non-profits, set market share caps and block certain industries, such as tobacco, from going into marijuana.

Surging candidate Pete Buttigieg toured a Las Vegas dispensary.
Las Vegas Sun

  • Currently the mayor of South Bend Indiana, Buttigieg said he wants REC to be legalized through Congress, rather than by executive action, to ensure the law has staying power.
  • He’s open to insurance covering MED in certain cases.
  • Buttigieg acknowledges having tried cannabis, but didn’t buy anything.

Canna Law Blog graded the candidates on pot policy. President Trump gets a D.

SOLDIERS SMOKE MORE IN LEGAL STATES

A non-public U.S. Army document notes between 2017 and 2018 there was an 18% jump in soldiers testing positive for THC at nine bases in or near legal states.
Task & Purpose

  • “Current data suggests that decriminalization and legalization of marijuana may be beginning to show signs of impacting Army readiness, but the effects are not localized to the states where legalization has occurred,” the report says.

MEXICAN SENATE LAUNCHES REC PUSH

Mexico’s Senate will reportedly vote to legalize REC in coming days, a major step towards full legalization in a country where violent drug cartels have long had outsized influence. Mexico’s leftist President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has indicated he supports legalization.
Reuters

  • If the bill passes the senate it would move to the lower chamber where Obrador’s MORENA party also holds a majority.
  • There have been calls in the party for a state-run monopoly on the REC market though others want more private sector involvement.

Quick Hit

  1. France appears ready to commit to a 3,000 person, two-year MED experiment.
    MJBiz

NORTHEAST GOVS HOLD REC SUMMIT

The Democratic governors of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania met to coordinate REC legalization. Together they represent a market of roughly 30M adults.
Philly Inquirer

  • “It is complicated, it is controversial, and it is consequential,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who hosted the event said. “If you don’t do it right you can do harm, and the whole purpose here is to do good.”
  • In a statement Cuomo said the states agreed to a series of principles for tax structure, safety and contamination and advertising restrictions.
  • Banking was also on the agenda.

Years into the legalization experiment, Politico says the conflicts between state and federal laws aren’t getting any more manageable.

CALIFORNIA BIZ ROUND-UP

This week in California business news:

????WeedWeek California has more!

Quick Hit

  1. Flowhub, a dispensary software platform, raised $23M from investors including Poseidon, e.ventures and Evolv Ventures.
    TechCrunch

CANADA REC AT ONE YEAR: “UTTER DISAPPOINTMENT”

National legalization in Canada turned one this week. So far the experiment has delivered mixed results for companies and consumers, but is also a source of pride for many Canadians.
AP

In a MacLean’s article called “How not to legalize weed,” Kate Robertson calls legalization an “utter disappointment,” with the illegal market outperforming the legal in virtually every aspect of customer satisfaction.

????Jesse has lots more at WeedWeek Canada.

VAPI: “THE VERGE OF DEATH”

The cannabis market seems to have absorbed the brunt of the vaping crisis. But the New York Times has a not for the squeamish report on the near-death of a 22-year old college student, a heavy user of illicit THC vapes. It begins:

Gregory Rodriguez thought he had the flu when he went to the emergency room on Sept. 18, feeling feverish, nauseated and short of breath.

He woke up four days later in a different hospital, with a tube down his throat connecting him to a ventilator, and two more tubes in his neck and groin, running his blood through a device that pumped in oxygen and took out carbon dioxide. The machines were doing the job of his lungs, which had stopped working.

“I was basically on the verge of death,” he said.

Also in the Gray Lady:

  • CBD is mostly not a scam, but Mt. Sinai addiction researcher Yasmin Hurd adds, “It has a potential medicinal value, but when we are putting it into mascara and putting it into tampons, for God’s sake, to me, that’s a scam.”
  • A common testing method can’t determine the difference between CBD and THC, with serious consequences for some.

THE BIG BANKS WANT IN

Business Insider reports the biggest banks on Wall Street, including Credit Suisse, Citigroup, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs are dipping their toes in the water by assisting on cannabis related deals and IPOs. The fees thus far are relatively modest, but the banks want to build relationships in the industry before federal legalization.

Meanwhile in Washington D.C.: Senate Banking Committee Chair Mike Crapo (R-Id.), whose support is essential for a cannabis banking bill to pass the upper chamber, outlined his priorities: 1) Health and safety; 2) Money laundering prevention; and 3)”The interstate banking application.” (Whatever that is.)
Marijuana Moment

GIULIANI/UKRAINE/DISPENSARY STORY GOES NATIONAL

UPDATE 2/4/21: All of the Garib Karapetyan’s licenses are currently in good standing and have been approved by the City of Sacramento and the California Bureau of Cannabis Control. Andrey Kukushkin is no longer listed on any business or cannabis licenses held by Karapetyan, who has never been suspected of any involvement in any alleged crimes committed by Kukushkin.

The four men indicted for campaign finance violations in Nevada include two associates of Rudy Giuliani and Ukraine-born Andrey Kukushkin, an officer in a Sacramento dispensary owned by the city’s “de facto pot king,” Garib Karapetyan. Karapetyan controls eight Sacramento dispensaries, far more than anyone else in the city.

The Sacramento Bee also reports that months before the October indictment, the FBI had been investigating whether local cannabis business have bribed public officials for favorable treatment. No connection between the Sacramento investigation and the Nevada indictment has been established.

  • The indictment involves an alleged scheme to use dispensaries to funnel campaign donations to Republicans.
  • The two Giuliani associates also sought to invest in Florida cannabis licenses.
    Miami Herald
  • Sacramento’s mayor has called for an investigation into how Karapetyan accumulated so many licenses, perhaps against the spirit of city laws.

Following the indictment as well as concerns over testing standards and a departed regulator accused of getting too cozy with license applicants, Nevada is cracking down on the industry. A new task force performed surprise inspections at testing labs this week and the state announced an indefinite freeze on the sale and transfer of business licenses.
Las Vegas Review-Journal

The federal indictment says the four men “took steps to hide” the identity of an investor in their Nevada cannabis business. Last week, I had a scoop which raises questions about similar practices in Colorado. Colorado authorities have repeatedly refused to discuss the issue and are on track to loosen cannabis investing rules in November.
WeedWeek