The legislation, which had been slated for a vote the week of Sept. 21, would federally decriminalize cannabis by removing it from the Controlled Substances Act.
The cannabis industry has been awaiting a U.S. House vote on the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act, legislation that would federally decriminalize cannabis by removing it from the Controlled Substances Act, but the floor vote, which had been slated for the week of Sept. 21, has been indefinitely postponed by House Democratic leaders.
“This delay by the House does not change the fact that the overwhelming majority of voters support ending the federal prohibition of cannabis, including majorities of Democrats, Independents and Republicans,” NORML Political Director Justin Strekal said in a public statement. “This delay does not change the fact that 33 states and the District of Columbia regulate the production and distribution of medical cannabis in a manner that is inconsistent with federal policy, and that one out of four Americans now reside in jurisdictions where adult-use is legal under state law. This delay does not change the fact that voters in several states, including key electoral battleground states for both control of the Presidency and the Senate, will be passing similar state-level marijuana measures on Election Day.”
The delay comes after some lawmakers indicated reluctance to take up the legislation before tackling a COVID-19 relief package, which they view as must-pass legislation, according to The Hill.
House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) did not include the MORE Act on the floor schedule for the week, and it is unclear when the vote may be rescheduled.
Hoyer told The Hill that Democratic leaders are “committed” to scheduling a vote on the bill before the end of the year, and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY), the primary sponsor of the MORE Act, said the vote may occur after the November elections.
“It’s sounding like the vote will definitely be delayed until the lame duck,” Patrick Martin, principal and director of the Midwest arm of Cozen O’Connor, told Cannabis Business Times and Cannabis Dispensary in an emailed statement. “While the industry, activist community and civil rights organizations will be disappointed that politics got in the way of this vote taking place next week, if the MORE Act passes before the end of the year, it will be an historic moment for the movement.”
Aside from federal decriminalization, the MORE Act also would also address the past harms of cannabis prohibition, particularly on communities of color and other marginalized groups. The legislation would require federal courts to expunge prior cannabis-related convictions and would impose a 5% excise tax on the legal cannabis industry to fund these efforts, as well as three grant programs to aid those most impacted by the War on Drugs.
While the legislation’s passage in the Senate is less likely, Martin told CBT and CD in an interview last month that passing the bill on the House floor would be a monumental moment for the industry, even if the legislation falters in the Senate.
“Passing a legalization bill on the House floor would be tremendous progress, and I think it would set a precedent moving forward that will ultimately help lead to legalization,” he said.
Atomazul | Adobe Stock
Ohio’s July Medical Cannabis Sales Set New Record
The state’s dispensaries sold roughly $21.4 million worth of cannabis products in July.
Ohio set a new medical cannabis sales record in July with the state’s dispensaries selling roughly $21.4 million worth of products, according to a Crain’s Cleveland Business report.
Sales grew to about $5 million per week at the end of July and through mid-August, the news outlet reported, compared to weekly sales of $2 million to $3 million from January through March.
The state has seen $120.1 million in total medical cannabis sales to date in 2020, according to Crain’s Cleveland Business, compared to $56 million in total sales in 2019.
Stakeholders React to Medical Marijuana Research Act Moving to House Floor
The bipartisan bill would allow dispensary-grade cannabis to be studied by researchers under the supervision of the FDA.
Industry stakeholders by and large support the House Committee on Energy and Commerce passing on a voice vote a modified version of the Medical Marijuana Research Act of 2019. While there is no scheduled vote on the bill in the full House as of press time, the fact that the bill made it out of committee on a bipartisan vote signals a political tide change for cannabis research.
“Whatever our views on marijuana legalization as legislators, we all ought to support the collection of scientific data to guide our decisions,” tweeted Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA), a cosponsor of the bill, following the Sept. 9 committee vote. “This bipartisan legislation would make long-overdue improvements to the Fed Govt’s policies on marijuana research. It would advance the work of scientists and provide more reliable information about any benefits and harmful consequences that result from medicinal marijuana use.”
The Medical Marijuana Research Act would amend the Controlled Substances Act to establish a new, separate registration process to facilitate research with cannabis for medical purposes; direct the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to issue guidelines on the production of cannabis from authorized researchers and manufacturers; ensure all medical cannabis researchers are in compliance with FDA drug development standards; and make available cannabis from state-authorized cannabis programs, under certain conditions.
According to the amended bill, the Secretary of Health and Human Services “shall offer to qualified marijuana researchers marijuana products available through State authorized marijuana programs that are consistent with the guidance issued under subsection (c).” That guidance shall be issued no later than 180 days after the enactment of the bill, according to the proposed law.
“There is a strong need to better understand the medicinal benefits of marijuana, but researchers don’t have the tools necessary to conduct proper, science-driven research,” said rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) in a statement. Dingell is another cosponsor of the bill. “That research [r]equires us to remove outdated barriers that prevent research. Doing so will improve our understanding of medical marijuana and provide additional treatment options for millions of patients.”
In a press release, NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano said that granting researchers access to cannabis products produced in state-sanctioned markets “will not only facilitate and expedite clinical cannabis research in the United States and provide important data regarding the safety and efficacy of real-world products, but it will also bring about a long overdue end to decades of DEA stonewalling and interference with respect to the advancement of our scientific understanding of the cannabis plant.”
The Scottsdale Research Institute (SRI) has been one of many organizations trying to get the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to speed up its research license process, going so far as to suing the DEA for slowing down the licensing process for federal cannabis research licenses. The institute, led by cannabis researcher Dr. Sue Sisley, “enthusiastically supports the bipartisan Marijuana Research Act of 2019,” it said in a Sept. 9 letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
“Unlike other bills, if enacted, H.R. 3797 promises to be a very significant step forward for improving marijuana research,” the letter continues. “It directly addresses the core obstacles that DEA says prevent it from moving forward in approving additional researchers, including issues relating to the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. SRI also applauds the Amendment … that would permit researchers to access marijuana from state-legal dispensaries.”
In January, the American Psychological Association (APA) offered testimony to the House Energy and Commerce Committee on “Cannabis Policies for the New Decade” in which the association called for the committee to “take immediate action to facilitate critically needed cannabis research.”
In a statement to CBT, Dr. Jaime Diaz-Granados, PhD, the APA’s deputy CEO and acting chief scientific officer, said the organization “is pleased to see the modified version of this bill moving forward. It is critically important for the scientific community to gain access to the cannabis products available from state dispensaries to better understand the effects of cannabis as it is consumed in the real world. APA hopes that the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice will find a way to make this work.”
The American Medical Association also has expressed support for increased access to cannabis for research purposes. In an issue brief from its 2020 Medical Student Advocacy and Region Conference, the AMA backed the Senate’s Cannabidiol and Marijuana Research Expansion Act, another bill whose goal it is to reduce regulatory barriers to conducting research on medical cannabis. (CBT reached out to the AMA for comment on the Medical Marijuana Research Act of 2019, which did not return comment as of press time.)
Currently, only the University of Mississippi is licensed to produce medical cannabis for the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Drug Supply Program. Critics of this system have denounced the quality of that product compared to material produced in state-sanctioned systems, adding that the chemical composition of products produced at Ole Miss resembles hemp more than what is available in states with medical and/or adult-use cannabis programs.
Photo courtesy of Canna Brand Solutions
Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Against Canna Brand Solutions in Vaping Case
Plaintiff Charles Wilcoxen brought the lawsuit against Canna Brand Solutions in September 2019, alleging that the custom packaging manufacturer and authorized CCELL distributor caused a vaping-related lung illness.
On Aug. 31, a judge dismissed all claims in a lawsuit brought by plaintiff Charles Wilcoxen against Canna Brand Solutions for allegedly causing a vaping-related lung illness in a case that shows the implications from last summer’s vape crisis are still plaguing the industry.
The lawsuit, brought in September 2019, centered on CCELL products.
Canna Brand Solutions was founded in 2015, and operates as a custom packaging supplier and an authorized distributor of CCELL vaporization technologies for licensed cannabis cultivators, extractors and retailers.
“What sets us apart is our expertise in the cannabis and manufacturing industry,” Canna Brand Solutions Founder and President Daniel Allen told Cannabis Business Times and Cannabis Dispensary. “The majority of our employees have had an extensive work history, working for extraction facilities, cannabis retailers [and] managing cannabis retailers, so we speak the language and really connect to our customers and understand their needs very well.”
Last year’s outbreak of vaping-related lung illness impacted the company’s sales, and those of its partners, heavily, Allen added, but Canna Brand Solutions stayed afloat due to CCELL’s reputation as a manufacturer of safe, high-performing products.
“They’re the only vape cart manufacturer in the world that has CGMP-certified facilities and multiple ISO certifications,” Allen said. “Their whole facility is medical-grade. … On the other hand, we always vet our customers, so almost since inception, we’ve exclusively been working with licensed cannabis businesses that are operating 100% legally.”
While Canna Brand Solutions was able to emerge from the vape crisis largely unscathed, Allen said the situation highlighted the negative impact of bad actors in the industry that were perhaps using poorly manufactured vape hardware or not testing their products.
“It’s really an argument to legalize and regulate the industry,” he said. “Vitamin E acetate—for a regulated, licensed cannabis company, there’s no reason to add that in, but the black market guys, they’re trying to cut their costs and make their oil look better, and that sucks. People’s lives were impacted, and the whole point of cannabis is to impact people’s lives positively, not send people to the hospital.”
When Canna Brand Solutions was pulled into the lawsuit, the plaintiff claimed that a CCELL vaporizer that was sold and distributed by the company caused him to suffer vaping-related lung injuries, but in the end, the product in question was not distributed by Canna Brand Solutions, resulting in the dismissal of the case.
“I think the broader implications are, if we don’t regulate the industry in the right way, these cases could keep coming up,” Allen said. “It’s sad. It’s supposed to be a medicine that helps people with ailments and instead, there are a couple bad players that are hurting people."
The view of the Slater Fire from East Fork Cultivars' property in Takilma, Ore., the week of Sept. 7.
Photo by Nathan Howard
West Coast Wildfires Threaten and Destroy Some Cannabis Businesses, Force Evacuations
In Oregon and Washington, growers work to save their businesses and homes as the ongoing crisis stymies the industry.
On a dire Labor Day in the Okanogan Valley of Washington state, Terry Taylor and four family members fought the Cold Springs Fire away from Okanogan Gold. Taylor, the cannabis farm’s CEO, and the group diverted the fire away from his fenced-in crops Sept. 7.
Taylor dug fire line—a path meant to slow or stop a fire—around his 38 acres of property. When the fire reached the fence and caught a section of it on fire, his daughter’s boyfriend kicked a section of the fence down.
As a previous firefighter and engine boss, Taylor knows about fires. He spent about three years working as a firefighter with the U.S. Forest Service, then after taking a different career path, worked as an engine boss, a supervisory role on a fire engine.
"Usually, the same thing would have been done with like two hand crews and six engines—and a hand crew’s like a 30-man crew,” Taylor said. “So, the amazing thing is that we did it with like four people.”
To reach the property, he said the fire hopped over two lanes of U.S. 97 and the Okanogan River, the latter of which is roughly 1,500 to 2,000 feet where it comes up against his property.
Screenshot from a video on Terry Taylor's Facebook page
At Okanogan Gold, Terry Taylor dug fire lines next to his farm's fence and farther from its perimeter.
Before the fire jumped the river, Taylor received a warning. “The sheriffs that came in and told us, 'This is your last chance. If you don't go, we're not sending any resources. You're on your own,’” he said. “So, that's when we knew that we were committed.
“They did watch from a distance. We could see the sheriffs; they were still watching us. Just to make sure, I'm sure they would have called in and done what they could have if they would have seen us really get burned over.”
With fires raging across the West Coast, destroying power lines and requiring heavy resources, there wasn’t any water nor professional help. More than 4 million acres have burned so far due to more than a dozen wildfires across California, Oregon and Washington.
It’s too soon to tell what the full impact will be for the cannabis industry, especially for the sun-grown cultivators along the West Coast. Julie Graham, spokeswoman for the Washington Liquor and Cannabis Board said the following:
“We have had reports of one grower in Whitman County who has reported an impact from the fires, but we've not yet had any of our staff report to headquarters about any other impacted growers or retailers. So, basically what we've done is just asked our staff that if they hear anything from growers, to document that, and we'll be keeping track of it.”
Taylor has watched as nearby houses have burned, one of which was an old structure he previously owned with a business partner; Taylor had sold his half. He said of his business partner: “He’s okay with that because that was one of the alternatives he was thinking about doing, was just tearing it down to build it on that frame.”
Another house burned in about 10 minutes early Sept. 8, he said. “At 4:30 in the morning, that one blew up, and it scared me and my wife—and it made this evil sound because it was propane tanks that blew up. And it looked just like a literal fireball.”
Photo by Terry Taylor
The view of the Cold Springs Fire from Taylor's property across the Okanogan River, before the fire arrived.
If Taylor didn’t have his tractor, he said he wouldn’t have been able to dig fire line, and his entire operation would have gone up in flames. Instead, one plant’s fan leaves got singed.
“And not only that, it would have went into the neighborhood up above us, and there would have been more houses taken out, too,” he said.
Eleven cannabis grows—each between one and two acres—and three processing centers comprise Okanogan Gold’s operation. Taylor either owns or rents all of them.
Not only were these businesses at risk of destruction, but so was Taylor’s house. He cleared brush with his tractor to stop the fire from engulfing it.
“I’ve been on a lot of fires, and I've been around a lot of extreme fires,” Taylor said. “But when it's coming at your own house and your own place—that's why those guys all have the heart because it was our whole livelihood and everything. It would have been just over. We have 30 employees, and they all are counting on us.”
Mounting a Defense in Oregon
Although wildfires are an unfortunate reality for Nathan Howard and the team at East Fork Cultivars, as well, they thought they had lost everything this time.
The Slater Fire that has been raging along the Northern California and Southern Oregon border has been consistently less than a mile away from East Fork Cultivars, Howard said. Howard and his brother, Aaron, co-founded the business, where they cultivate sun-grown cannabis and craft hemp on a 33-acre property.
Each day, they wonder if the drying and curing barns, the three family homes—including Aaron’s—and other structures around the property will still be standing, and their fields of cannabis will still be growing when they return.
They have fled Takilma, Ore., two times since the level III mandatory evacuation took effect. But Howard, his brother and CEO Mason Walker keep going back. Like Taylor in Washington, they believe it’s up to them to save their business and property.
The team at East Fork Cultivars and neighbors work to put out spot fires just a mile away from their property.
After first leaving the area Sept. 8, they returned a couple days later with gas masks, chainsaws and axes, to “mount a defense,” Nathan Howard told Cannabis Business Times and Hemp Grower, digging 8-foot-wide fire lines using a tractor they converted into a giant rototiller along the perimeter of their farm to expose the soil and remove the brush that fuels the blaze, he said.
“We essentially are covered on three sides, to the south, east and west. The fire is approaching on all sides, and the fire lines to the east is the latest work to be done,” Howard said.
They also transferred their industrial irrigation pods from their cover crop fields to the edge of their farm to create yet another moat-like water barrier, hoping the moisture would stymie the spread of the powerful flames that have engulfed more than a million acres in the state.
Several cannabis businesses in Oregon have been leveled by wildfires, said Mark Pettinger, spokesman for the Oregon Liquor Control Commission’s (OLCC) marijuana division. As of Sept. 11, 64 cannabis licensees had notified the OLCC that they either received evacuation orders or had initiated a product transfer to another licensee, Pettinger said. He noted that this is not a total count but is rather based on data that has come in.
“We’re toggling between wanting to defend the farm and possibly evacuating on a moment’s notice if the fires get too close or become unpredictable,” Howard wrote on the company’s Instagram page, which he has been updating regularly as they continue to watch the weather, hope for the best and do as much as possible to preserve their farm and the genetics they have carefully cultivated during the past five years.
Most of the images and videos Howard has posted are of the fields and greenhouses, where cannabis is now growing under a hazy, peach sky. Howard narrates the current situation in Takilma and the Illinois Valley region and how the farm has been impacted, likening the eerie, menacing conditions to the apocalypse. At one point, Howard and the team ventured a little closer, capturing a video of a spot fire just up the road from their farm.
“And here’s the state of affairs all across southwest Oregon, Oregon and the West Coast. Fires freely burning,” Howard says in the video before suggesting to Walker that they put the fire out. They did.
Nathan Howard has regularly updated the East Fork Cultivars Instagram page documenting the Slater Fire, which has consistently burned within a mile of their cannabis farm, threatening their property for the past week.
Neighbors have also been digging fire lines, which has likely helped slow the spread of the blaze and protected their property, Howard said. But they are taking all precautions – working through the night to dig fire lines, remove trees and brush around structures and flooding the gutters of their greenhouse, homes and other buildings to prevent one tiny ember from growing into a giant flame.
“We’ve had fires in the past,” Howard said, recalling a particularly bad season in 2018 and how his brother Aaron has volunteered to help fight the seasonal fires. Pettinger also noted that season, but said he recalls growers were more concerned about smoke's effect on their crops than total losses.
Either way, those wildfires were a harbinger of what was to come—a further increase in the number and severity of blazes.
“This is definitely the worst,” Howard said. “People have been [fighting fires] so long it’s ingrained in their DNA, by doing it and being around old timers who have been through this before.”
The timing and magnitude of the fires are particularly detrimental for outdoor cannabis cultivators, as the outbreak happens to coincide with the beginning of harvest and what has been a very dry season, combined with the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.
After securing their fields, which include type I, II and III cultivars, as best they could, transferring some of the flower that had already been harvested, gathering as much of their seeds, clones and as many of their most valuable cultivars as possible, the team fled again on Sunday. But on Monday, Howard was driving along I-5, where it was “raining ash,” creating a thick, smoky fog that made it difficult to navigate and see anything beyond 30 yards ahead as he headed back to East Fork.
For now, Howard said they will continue to collect clones, seed and as much flower inventory as possible to be sure if they do lose everything, they have the genetic library to rebuild. They’re also moving some of their most valuable equipment, and what they can’t move, they are storing in a shipping container that they believe, they hope, is fire-proof.
Their business is not the only aspect of their livelihood that is at risk. There are the three family homes on the property and more nearby, plus a handful of barns, some that include state-of-the-art climate control equipment for drying and curing.
There’s also a good possibility that, thanks either to their efforts, good fortune, or a little bit of both, the fire will not destroy everything they’ve built. And right now, there’s hope that the worst is behind them. They’ve been working to help their neighbors secure their properties, put fires out, and sometimes sleeping just an hour or two at a time. Everyone is working together and chipping in where they can, Howard said, noting that “colleagues, friends, and people we work with in the broader cannabis trade have made us a bunch of food. Chili, soup, corn bread, ziti, burritos, vegan sandwiches...”
Looking ahead, they must make up for lost time and meet an incredibly tough deadline due to a compressed harvest season.
“If we get there now and feel confident the fire lines will hold, there’s also part of us that thinks, if we do all of this work, and the fire doesn’t come, we still have harvest that’s supposed to begin next week … and varieties that need to be harvested on [Sept. 28,] that’s when we’re slated to go into full swing harvest,” Howard said. “So we’re battling against the emergency, which is competing against the very real work should it not burn down, with a mass harvest, possibly our largest harvest to date after five years. And we are behind.”
Photo by Nathan Howard
The East Fork Cultivars team and neighbors dig fire lines to help prevent the Slater Fire from spreading.
Howard said many people have asked him what effect the toxic air, smoke and falling ash will have on the cannabis plants.
“Ash and smoke shouldn’t harm the plant or flower,” he said, adding that mold, usually a threat for cultivators, can’t tolerate the conditions. “We have several cultivars that are beyond ready to harvest and, even with the protection ash provides, will soon begin to mold. So feeling anxious about the harvesting we need to be doing, anxious for the rains to come later this week, and anxious that the rains might exacerbate botrytis.”
But he said they will be ready and will return to harvesting plants when they can.
“Assuming this all goes well, we’re going to get an armada of electric-powered leaf blowers and will remove ash from the flowers and trichomes,” he said. “We may burn down. We also might not burn down. Either way, we are committed to moving forward.”
Preventative Measures, Relief
Taylor said there are other strategies growers can follow to protect their properties, other than the immediate efforts he and the East Fork Cultivars team took to stave off the flames.
“If they don't have the knowledge, they should get the simple knowledge of how to fight fires, which is remove all the fuel away from your grows, within 100 to 200 feet if you can,” Taylor said. “But if you can't, at least give yourself a 10, 20-foot buffer that there's no fuel, nothing that can be consumed.
“Those are simple things that anyone can do. ... If someone wouldn't have had the knowledge, they would have had no idea what to do. So, it might even be wise for them to hire a fire consultant to tell them what to do.”
Looking ahead, Taylor said he will take additional measures. These will include pouring gravel around diesel tanks and gas tanks and installing sprinklers around the fence to be able to water the land 30 feet from its perimeter.
“We know we're going to keep all our lawns mowed and try to keep them green all the way around,” he said. “We have too many areas to try to keep everything green everywhere. But we can keep it green on the edges, which would have given us the ability to protect our farms.”
Growers in at-risk areas should also consider buying trucks with a water tank, pump and hose attached, Taylor said.
He has another piece of advice for growers in fire-prone regions: “They may want to consider moving, because these fires seem to be coming. It's just a matter of when.”
Screenshot from a video on Terry Taylor's Facebook page
A glimpse of the aftermath from the Cold Springs Fire on Terry Taylor's property
For those who have already established businesses in the region, many wonder what relief will be available to them.
“We don't have the authority or the rule of offering any sort of relief package,” says Julie Graham, Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board spokeswoman. “That would have to come either through the state or through some sort of a designation, like a declared emergency, through their county and the state, in order for them to qualify for any sort of relief package.”
In Oregon, Pettinger said licensees in the state should check in with the OLCC when possible, adding: “They've got a lot to worry about. Their safety and lives are more important than them reporting to us the circumstances under which they had to flee. But we do want them to make contact with us.”
For now, Pettinger recommends that growers protect their product, if possible.
“Two years ago, we had something similar happen, certainly not to this magnitude, but there were some fires in Southern Oregon, and there was a need for folks to be able to transfer their product,” Pettinger said. “So, this is the advice that we gave them then, and this is the guidance that we [are giving] them now.”
While it’s not certain if any relief will be available to the cannabis industry from the federal government, Pettinger said the OLCC will provide operational assistance.
“We will work with them to get them back operational, as they're able to do other things,” he said. “For many of them, that might be relocating to a new property. We'll do everything we can to get them reestablished.”
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