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:
Dale Schafer discusses this case on high@9news this morning….
#californiacannabis – “The judge said in an order that “no triable issues to any material facts” remain in the case, and that the court agrees with the total fine as proposed by the Department of Cannabis Control.
The court granted the state’s request of $128,061,000 in penalties — calculated as a trebled $81,000 license fee further multiplied by 527, once for each day of violation, as is outlined in California’s Business and Professions Code Section 26038 subdivision (a).”
#delta8 – “A 16-member task force in Virginia has recommended stricter rules on hemp-derived delta-8 THC products, suggesting that businesses selling the products should be required to apply for a license to do so.
With convenience stores and smoke shops selling delta-8 in the absence of regulated adult-use cannabis sales, the General Assembly created a task force earlier this year to study the issue, according to a Virginia Mercury report.
The task force has now issued a report to lawmakers to recommend policy changes to better regulate delta-8 THC products in the state.”
#psychedelic – “Music Care Inc has announced the launch of a weekly press conference beginning December 6, 2022, to discuss the latest developments, studies, results, cautions, and research in psychedelic treatment and therapy. Alternative medicines have become more prevalent in recent years, and people are more open to natural and historical modalities than ever before…..
The events are set to take place every Tuesday beginning December 6, 2022, at 12:00 pm Pacific Time. These press-conference-style online meetings will allow subject-matter experts to share experiences and answer questions in a professional, respectful environment. Each week, a different presenter, ranging from military Veterans, advocates, physicians, indigenous healers, researchers, psychedelic guides with years of experience having facilitated thousands of journeys, clinicians and others in the healing professions with credentialed expertise, and social entrepreneurs in the psychedelic space will give an authentic and original insight into a new way of thinking on the subject of whole plant medicines.”
#californiacannabis – “Los Angeles cannabis regulators have urged a California federal judge to reject a Michigan man’s effort to halt the city’s upcoming lottery for marijuana retail licenses, saying the challenger and his company met none of the criteria to justify such an order.
Specifically, Los Angeles said that Michigander Kenneth Gay and his company Variscite Inc. were unlikely to succeed on the merits, couldn’t show how letting the lottery proceed would irreparably harm them, and sought an order that would hinder the public interest.
The plaintiffs “are unlikely to suffer irreparable harm because they are pursuing a commercial cannabis license for the purpose of earning a profit, which can be addressed through monetary damages,” the city wrote in a Friday opposition filing.”
#cannabisindustry – “Cashless ATMs, also called “point of banking” systems, allowed cannabis buyers to use a bank card instead of cash. The method had evolved to get around the fact that credit-card companies and banks don’t want to be involved in marijuana transactions because the drug is federally illegal.
But such technology made pot purchases look like ATM withdrawals coming from different addresses, such as a neighboring McDonald’s, as Bloomberg reported in April. At that time, such transactions looked likely to move about $7 billion past the usual money-laundering controls of the banking system this year — or about a quarter of all US cannabis sales.
Now the system is faltering because some of the largest processors of ATM transactions, such as NCR Corp.’s Columbus Data Services, have turned off the ability of processors to use their service, according to three people familiar with the issue, who asked not to be named discussing private information. NCR declined to comment.
Small dispensaries in Arizona, California and Massachusetts have all experienced outages, according to employees who were recommending that customers use cash. Large dispensary chains of multistate operators were also said to be affected….
The crackdown on cashless ATMs comes exactly a year after Visa Inc. had said it was “aware of a scheme” involving cashless ATMs and that such transactions are prohibited on its network. While there are alternative payment technologies that are more compliant, some dispensaries see them as clunky for customers and burdensome. Visa didn’t return a message seeking comment.”
Armada Law Corp offers licensing and compliance in all 50 states….
#cannabisindustry – “Officials with Colorado’s Marijuana Enforcement Division (MED) have approved new rules for the state cannabis industry, including new “use-by” labeling requirements for cannabis products, according to a Cannabis Business Times report.
The regulations package, approved on December 1, also carries rules allowing for medical cannabis to be redesignated for circulation in the adult-use marketplace. The redesignation rule will take effect next month on January 1, 2023, while the new “use-by” package labeling requirements — which also includes new demands for cannabis product storage conditions — will take effect one year later, on January 1, 2024.”
https://www.ganjapreneur.com/colorado-cannabis-industry-adopts-use-by-labeling-requirements/
#cannabisindustry – “Weedmaps is cutting up to 175 employees, or 25% of its workforce, amid a tough stretch for the cannabis-reviews site.
The company told Insider that the majority of the cuts were made last week. Weedmaps previously laid off 10% of its staff in August, as Insider reported. Weedmaps CEO Chris Beals stepped down on November 7 and Doug Francis, a Weedmaps cofounder, is running the company on an interim basis.
“The decision to eliminate these positions was a very difficult one, but it is necessary in order to drive line of sight to profitability and positive cash flow in 2023,” Francis told Insider in an emailed statement. “I very much realize the difficulty this creates for the impacted employees.”
Weedmaps’ stock is down over 80% this year, and the company has a market value of just $200 million — down from a high of over $1.5 billion in December 2020. Its customers, cannabis companies, have pulled back on spending as they face regulatory uncertainty, slumping cannabis sales, and a difficult economic environment.”
https://www.businessinsider.com/weedmaps-cannabis-company-layoffs-cutting-workforce-2022-12
#california – “State officials on Tuesday announced they will begin the process of closing Chuckwalla Valley State Prison in Riverside County and are planning cutbacks at six more prisons, including a women’s facility in Sacramento County.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has set March 2025 as the anticipated closure date of Chuckawalla Valley State Prison in Blythe….
The closures are possible because of California’s shrinking state prison inmate population. State prisons last week held about 94,000 incarcerated people, down from about 120,000 in 2019 and about 160,000 in 2011.”
https://www.mercedsunstar.com/news/california/article269691341.html