Author: Chris Roberts

[ad_1] New York issued what is believed to be its first cannabis product recall after the discovery that a single lot of gummies “did not undergo the required testing for consumer safety and product quality.” The product, “Jenny’s Zee Zee gummies, 2:1 THC/CBN,” were “sold through licensed cannabis dispensaries throughout New York State” between Sept. 4 and Nov. 1, the Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) said Tuesday in announcing the recall. The batch and lot number for the offending gummies is ZZ-23–07-13-0001, the OCM said. Retailers and distributors must remove the product from circulation immediately. Any consumers who have purchased…

[ad_1] Ohio state lawmakers are poised to finish 2023 without making promised changes to the adult-use marijuana legalization initiative voters passed in November. Instead, the Ohio General Assembly will enter 2024 with advocates, including existing industry operators, pushing for an accelerated opening date for what could be a $2 billion legal cannabis market within a year. For now, the lack of promised action is easing industry fears of a major rewrite of the new adult-use law, including a state Senate-proposed elimination of a social equity program and a de facto ban on concentrated cannabis. Ohio became the 24th state to legalize adult-use…

[ad_1] The Food and Drug Administration considered data regarding marijuana’s medical value submitted by U.S. states with legal cannabis programs when determining how the drug should be federally classified, newly released documents suggest. Until now, federal officials have revealed very little about the Drug Enforcement Administration’s review process in response to a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recommendation in August that marijuana be moved from Schedule 1 to Schedule 3 under the Controlled Substances Act. Not even the HHS’ exact recommendations to the DEA have been disclosed. The DEA currently is considering points of law and policy in…

[ad_1] Bipartisan legislation that would remove state-legal marijuana from the federal Controlled Substances Act and leave individual markets in charge of most other regulation was reintroduced in Congress on Thursday. Originally introduced in 2019 in both the House and the Senate, the latest Strengthening the Tenth Amendment Through Entrusting States (STATES) Act goes a step further than the ongoing federal rescheduling review. If the STATES Act were to pass in this Republican-controlled Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden: Marijuana that’s produced and sold “in compliance with State and Tribal law” would no longer be covered by the…

[ad_1] Initial changes to Ohio’s adult-use cannabis legalization law recently approved by voters advanced through the state Senate on Wednesday. If approved by the full General Assembly, the changes would mean legal adult-use cannabis could go on sale in Ohio as soon as the bill is signed into law rather than nine months from now. However, the tweaked measure also includes a statewide cap on adult-use shops, increased taxes for recreational marijuana operators, big cuts to commercial cultivation, a limit of 50% THC for extracts and the elimination of a requirement to issue more MJ business licenses. Possession of recreational…

[ad_1] Six Democratic governors have formally asked the Biden administration to move on rescheduling marijuana before the end of the calendar year. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommended in late August that marijuana be moved from Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act to Schedule 3. That recommendation is now at the Drug Enforcement Administration, which is supposed to review questions of law and policy – and then, at some point, present a suggested change to federal law. Observers expect the DEA to follow through, but it’s unclear when. The six governors of states where some form…

[ad_1] A group of Detroit marijuana operators are suing the city for revoking a business license years after it was granted and only after they’d invested $15 million in a cultivation operation. According to a complaint initially filed Nov. 9 in Wayne County, Michigan, but then moved to federal court, Detroit officials granted the would-be business operators a series of permits to run a marijuana cultivation and processing facility beginning in 2020. The operators – identified in court documents as Cannabis Professional Design, MB City Transportation, HZ Detroit Holdings 1 and HZ Detroit Holdings 2 – purchased an industrial property…

[ad_1] When Democrats officially retake full control of the Virginia General Assembly in January, newly sworn-in lawmakers will take with them to Richmond renewed hopes the first state in the South to legalize marijuana possession can finally launch an adult-use market that is projected to top $1 billion in sales within a few years. But one very difficult obstacle remains: Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who is said to have national political ambitions and zero interest in setting up a legal marketplace. In the state’s brief legislative session last winter and spring, Youngkin blocked legislation that could have launched legal adult-use…

[ad_1] Multistate cannabis operators with medical marijuana licenses in New York could begin adult-use sales as soon as this month. That development comes after the New York Supreme Court on Friday lifted an injunction that had paused most adult-use licensing in the state since Aug. 7. The injunction was in response to a legal challenge to the state’s social equity policy. That lawsuit, brought by four military veterans who said they were unlawfully shut out of the process, was officially settled last week. The settlement means several hundred hopefuls for Conditional Adult-Use Recreational Dispensary (CAURD) licenses can now resume their…

[ad_1] Sticker shock at medical marijuana dispensaries in Virginia is spurring patients in the state to seek cheaper alternatives, according to a recent study presented to the Cannabis Control Authority. That includes the illicit market in Virginia as well as nearby cannabis retailers in other states, Roanoke-based Cardinal News reported, citing the study. A measure legalizing recreational cannabis in Virginia was signed into law in 2021, but efforts to enact the adult-use statute have stalled in the state’s General Assembly. In the meantime, Virginia medical marijuana patients reported paying as much as $19 per gram for flower products in the…

[ad_1] Last-minute tinkering from New Hampshire’s Republican governor has disrupted lawmakers’ plans to legalize adult-use marijuana in the state. Though Gov. Chris Sununu instructed the Legislature earlier this year to craft a consensus plan for how to set up regulated and taxed marijuana sales, he issued some 11th-hour mandates before a state commission ended its work Monday with no consensus recommendation, according to Manchester TV station WMUR. Sununu’s office said the governor would veto any plan that did not: Limit retail sales to 15 franchised outlets statewide. Ban any lobbying or political contributions from state licensees. “The governor has been…

[ad_1] (This is the first installment in an occasional series that will examine questionable cannabis laboratory testing results.) The THC potency of marijuana flower sold in legal stores in four states is routinely and systematically inflated, sometimes by as much as 25% or more, according to an independent analysis of licensed cannabis testing-laboratory data obtained by MJBizDaily. But perhaps even more troublingly, the analysis – conducted by Yasha Kahn of MCR Labs, a state-licensed cannabis testing laboratory in Massachusetts – also found evidence of data manipulation in lab testing for yeast and mold. The analysis suggests tainted products that should…