Author: Chris Roberts

[ad_1] Green Thumb Industries’ plans to be the first multistate operator to sell marijuana at convenience stores is still in the works, company officials said while reporting annual revenue of $1.05 billion. The Chicago-headquartered company remains profitable “regardless of federal reform,” such as marijuana being moved from Schedule 1 to Schedule 3 of the Controlled Substances Act, President Anthony Georgiadis said during a Wednesday earnings call. Green Thumb shares (GTBIF) reached a peak of $13.50 on over-the-counter markets on Thursday morning, up slightly from $12.74 at the end of trading Wednesday. That’s a significant gain from most of 2023 but…

[ad_1] A proposal to limit the amount of THC in a potential adult-use cannabis market in Florida failed in the state Legislature. A Florida Senate committee voted earlier this month to advance Senate Bill 7050, which would have imposed THC limits of 30% on flower and 60% on extracts. However, the bill failed to be heard in a Senate Fiscal Policy meeting ahead of a Tuesday deadline, Florida Politics reported. There’s a similar bill in the state House, but without that key Senate hearing, the measure is dead, its sponsor, Republican state Rep. Ralph Massullo, told Politico. Massullo’s House Bill…

[ad_1] New York marijuana retailers recorded roughly $150 million in sales last year, nearly $300 million less than estimates and far shy of the promised multibillion-dollar state market. At least part of the reason for the state’s slow rollout of adult-use cannabis was a 2022 lawsuit that challenged the Marihuana Regulation and Taxation Act’s social justice initiatives, which were intended to help diversify the marijuana industry and undo harms created by the war on drugs. That suit, which has prompted a nationwide reevaluation of social equity programs, is one of a series of constitutional challenges that claim prioritizing state residents…

[ad_1] American commitments in international treaties do not forbid the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration from rescheduling marijuana as recommended, a California congresswoman told the agency. The DEA has yet to respond to an Aug. 29 recommendation from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to move cannabis from Schedule 1 to Schedule 3 of the Controlled Substances Act, part of a rescheduling review ordered in October 2022 by President Joe Biden. Some experts have questioned whether U.S. obligations under compacts such as the United Nations’ Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961 might prove to be a rescheduling roadblock.…

[ad_1] Major California marijuana producer Glass House Brands imposed “systemic quota and production demands” on workers that violated labor law, including unpaid overtime and unrealistic workloads, a lawsuit filed by an ex-worker in Los Angeles County Superior Court alleges. According to Law360, the suit names as defendants Glass House Brands and subsidiaries Glass House Camarillo Cultivation, Mission Health Associates and GH Camarillo as well as Houweling’s Camarillo and Labor Force Management. The suit mentions Glass House CEO Kyle Kazan but does not name him as a defendant. Glass House declined an MJBizDaily request for comment. The lawsuit, filed Feb. 20, charges…

[ad_1] Adult-use cannabis sales in Virginia would finally begin in May 2025 under a compromise proposal that advanced in the state’s Democratic-controlled General Assembly. However, without a supermajority to overcome a “potential veto” from Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, final passage remains uncertain, Richmond TV station WRIC reported. Virginia legalized recreational marijuana in 2021, with sales originally scheduled to launch Jan. 1, 2024. But that bill required lawmakers to reenact certain portions of law to allow for taxed and regulated sales. And so far, that has not happened. A bipartisan sales bill failed last year after Youngkin signaled his opposition, sources…

[ad_1] A group of reform-minded police chiefs and prosecutors urged the Biden administration in a letter sent Thursday to reclassify marijuana as a less harmful drug under federal law. The Law Enforcement Leaders to Reduce Crime & Incarceration’s membership includes U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration chief Anne Milgram. Milgram’s DEA is currently on notice to respond to an August recommendation from federal health regulators to downgrade marijuana from a Schedule 1 to a Schedule 3 drug under the federal Controlled Substances Act (CSA). Rescheduling, which would grant cannabis retailers significant tax relief, would be the most significant federal marijuana reform since…

[ad_1] Leading cannabis brand Cookies is in a widening legal dispute with its partner in dozens of adult-use marijuana stores. Cookies Retail LLC alleged in a lawsuit filed in California Superior Court in Orange County last month that Cookies breached California franchise law, made misrepresentations and caused “not less than one hundred million dollars” in damages, court records show. The cannabis industry entity that the public knows as Cookies is a network of legally distinct companies. Some of those operations – including San Francisco Bay Area-based Cookies SF – are associated with Gilbert Milam Jr., the brand’s co-founder and social…

[ad_1] New York regulators on Friday awarded 110 new adult-use marijuana business licenses. However, the yearslong struggle to launch what was promised to be a multibillion-dollar market is poised to continue. The state Cannabis Control Board on Friday voted to award: 24 cultivation licenses. 9 distribution licenses. 26 microbusiness licenses. 12 processor licenses. 25 retail licenses. 14 provisional retail licenses. It’s unclear how quickly the licensed businesses will be able to start operations. The 110 new licensees represent only a fraction of the entrepreneurs attempting to enter the market. During a six-week window in the fall, the Office of Cannabis…

[ad_1] The South Carolina Senate narrowly approved what its sponsor says is the “most conservative” medical marijuana legalization bill in the United States However, even that might not pass a “skeptical” state House, where lawmakers used a parliamentarian trick to kill a similar bill two years ago, The Post and Courier reported Wednesday. Sponsored by Beaufort-based Republican Sen. Tom Davis, Senate Bill 423 would: Limit medical marijuana access to people suffering from a specific list of “debilitating or terminal conditions.” Require a licensed pharmacist to dispense the drug. Ban smokable flower outright and limit cannabis products to “unflavored” edibles, tinctures…

[ad_1] Oklahoma medical marijuana companies whose licenses are at risk over tardy fire-safety inspections are suing, alleging the state fire marshal failed to conduct required inspections in time for the operators to renew their permits. Three MMJ grows filed a lawsuit Jan. 29 asking a judge to order the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics & Dangerous Drugs Control (OBN), which is refusing to renew cultivation licenses, to not penalize grows that have not yet been inspected, The Oklahoman reported. The OBN sent 2,176 cannabis businesses letters informing them that their licenses were at risk unless they submitted proof that they’d passed…

[ad_1] Pennsylvania’s governor has formally called on lawmakers to follow other states’ leads and finally legalize adult-use marijuana. In his annual budget speech, Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, on Tuesday unveiled a $48.3 billion spending plan that banks on revenue from legal adult-use sales. Shapiro’s budget plan estimates that legal marijuana, taxed at 20%, could raise roughly $250 million, according to Pennsylvania Spotlight. State lawmakers have to date failed to advance long-gestating legalization proposals past partisan deadlocks. But drawing on Pennsylvania’s rivalry with Rust Belt neighbor Ohio – which legalized adult-use cannabis in November by a surprisingly large margin –…