In the days of the Armada, a fleet of warships, the scuttlebutt was the rumor or gossip that would spread throughout the ship. Today, Armada Law Corp presents The Scuttlebutt, a daily summery of news articles that people within the cannabis, hemp and plant medicine industries are chatting about along with links to the full articles.
In today’s news:
#californiacannabis – “The California Cannabis Authority (CCA) announced today that its public-facing dashboard of cannabis track and trace data, dubbed the Transparency Project, will now be updated weekly—increasing the level of transparency into cannabis sales, cultivation and transactions in participating jurisdictions….
The Transparency Project, operated by CCA’s technology partner NCS Analytics, provides one of the most comprehensive views into California’s legal cannabis market. It incorporates track and trace data from nearly 3,000 licensed operators in CCA’s participating member jurisdictions. The dashboard provides data on the number of licenses issued, amount of sales, number of harvests, most popular categories of products sold, and other market information—which is anonymized to protect operators’ privacy.”
https://www.yahoo.com/now/ca-cannabis-authority-announces-publically-190100307.html
#californiacannabis – “In addition to ensuring accurate timekeeping, employers should be mindful of various state-level meal and rest break laws, if any, that are applicable to their nonexempt employees. For example, California state law generally requires employers to provide nonexempt employees with a paid rest period of 10 consecutive minutes for every four hours of work, or major fraction thereof, and a 30-minute unpaid meal period for every work period of five or more hours in a day. Other states have similar requirements.
Employers in the cannabis industry should make sure that all employees eligible for meal and rest breaks receive those breaks in compliance with applicable law. Failure to provide uninterrupted rest and meal periods may entitle an employee to additional pay and/or penalties under applicable state law and can expose employers to class and collective action.”
https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/wage-and-hour-compliance-meal-and-rest-4188084/
#californiacannabis – “As the cannabis industry continues to evolve, recent market challenges have created an environment that is more difficult for industry leaders to navigate. To find success in today’s marketplace, company leaders need to adopt a robust, data-driven approach to combat the influx of rising brands, emerging markets and pricing challenges, among other obstacles. By leveraging data, cannabis brands and companies can better make well-informed decisions to refine their business strategies and drive growth.”
#psilocybin – “The medical use of “magic mushrooms” is up for debate in the Virginia General Assembly, but the bill is unlikely to pass after a key panel of lawmakers rejected it on Wednesday.
A Republican-led House Courts of Justice subcommittee voted 5-2 to “lay the bill on the table,” a gentle way of killing legislation while leaving open the possibility of revisiting it later.”
#californiacannabis – “According to the complaint, then-Deputy City Attorney Anthony Willoughby II obtained a development agreement and cannabis license with the city in July 2018, and then agreed to sell the license to Ju in October of that year, in a deal brokered by then-mayor of Compton Isaac Galvan.
However, at the time, the city’s cannabis ordinance did not allow for the sale of a cannabis license. Nonetheless, Baldwin Park’s then-Mayor Manual Lozano amended the agreement without any action from the City Council, according to the complaint.
The agreement was then notarized with a statement saying Ju had signed the agreement on April 3, 2019, though Ju wasn’t in the area that day and only received the development agreement a month later, according to the complaint.
In addition, after Ju had been locked into escrow on the development agreement, he was told that he needed to make a $50,000 mitigation payment, otherwise the cannabis license would be canceled. But in reality, Willoughby was only out of pocket less than $4,000 and used the sale to “pawn off his debt” to Ju.”
#cannabisresearch – “States that permit recreational use of cannabis see a reduction in demand for prescription codeine, an opioid with a high potential for misuse.
Published Jan. 19 in Health Economics, a new study finds a significant reduction in pharmacy-based codeine distribution in states that have legalized recreational cannabis use. The finding is promising from a public health policy perspective because misuse of prescription opioids annually contributes to more than 10,000 overdose deaths.”
https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2023/01/when-recreational-cannabis-legal-codeine-demand-drops
#cannabisproducts – “The Nevada Cannabis Compliance Board (CCB) said some products recently produced in the Las Vegas area were treated with an unapproved pesticide.
The CCB said Clark Natural Medicinal Solutions, LLC based out of Henderson treated some cannabis with Ethephon.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, Ethephon is a plant growth regulator used to promote ripening. The EPA said Ethephon is “moderately acutely toxic” when inhaled, when exposed dermally or when ingested.
The CCB said all usable cannabis products harvested by Clark Natural Medicinal Solutions between July 23, 2021 and Jan. 5, 2023 were impacted, including cannabis flowers, shake/trim and uninfused pre-rolls. All products should have labels on the packaging showing where the product was harvested.”
#californiacannabis – “A California Democratic party leader who was central to a wide-reaching corruption investigation in Anaheim involving the proposed sale of Angel Stadium has agreed to plead guilty to attempted wire fraud, the U.S. Department of Justice said Thursday.
Melahat Rafiei, 45, previously secretary for the California Democratic Party and a member of the Democratic National Committee, was a well-known political consultant in Orange County.
In late 2019, according to a plea agreement filed in federal court Thursday, Rafiei told a commercial cannabis company owner that she would work to pass a marijuana related ordinance in Anaheim that would benefit the business, in exchange for a payment of at least $300,000.
What she didn’t tell the client was that she was already working on an ordinance on behalf of other people.”
#psychedelics – “On Tuesday, the Eureka City Council unanimously voted to sign a letter of support for a state bill that would decriminalize the use of certain hallucinogenic drugs in California.
The council directed Mayor Kim Bergel to sign a letter supporting Senate Bill 58, authored by State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), which would decriminalize psilocybin, psilocyn, dimethyltryptamine, mescaline and ibogaine, though it excludes peyote.”