Month: March 2024

Mar 29, 2024, 9:43pmUpdated 27m ago

The first Jamaican-owned dispensary in the Bronx opened its doors on Friday.

The dispensary, called Two Buds, is owned by brothers Howell and Chris Miller. Howell is a former construction business owner who served time in the 2000s for possession and distribution of marijuana that impacted him and his family.

The time in jail led him and his brother to qualify for the New York state Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary Program that allowed the initial dispensary licenses to be granted to those with prior marijuana convictions.

The brothers say they are excited to start a new chapter where they can legally sell cannabis in the Williamsbridge neighborhood they grew up in.

“It’s like a dream come true,” said Howell Miller. “It was a real task. But nevertheless, we was able to overcome the tasks and get it done.”

Share this story

Read More Here...

CHEROKEE, N.C. (FOX Carolina) – Qualla Enterprises, LLC, announced Friday that Great Smoky Cannabis Company is set to open next month in Cherokee, North Carolina.

Officials said the company will open at 91 Bingo Loop Rd on April 20 and offer medicinal cannabis products to those who are over 21 and have a medical cannabis patient card issued by the EBCI Cannabis Control Board (CCB). Officials added that they will also serve customers with out-of-state medical cards and other tribal medical cannabis cards.

Great Smoky Cannabis Company’s opening comes after the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) voted last year to legalize the possession and use of cannabis on tribal land. Since then, EBCI and Qualla Enterprise LLC officials have worked to establish an operation to produce, cultivate and sell marijuana.

Earlier this month, North Carolina Senators Thom Tillis and Tedd Budd sent a letter to multiple federal officials raising concerns about the situation.

Copyright 2024 WHNS. All rights reserved.

Read More Here...

Phoenix Cannabis Co. has officially launched its new dispensary in Fountain Hills, providing a convenient option for local residents seeking premium cannabis products without the need for lengthy drives.

Situated at 16913 E. Enterprise Drive, the dispensary offers a diverse selection of locally-grown indoor flower alongside favorites like gummies and vapes. 

With limited nearby options for quality cannabis, the opening of Phoenix Cannabis Co. brings a welcome convenience to Fountain Hills residents who can now find quality products right here in town.

“Our aim is to provide top-notch cannabis products while offering personalized service to our customers,” said Jeffrey Kay, chief marketing officer of Phoenix Cannabis Co. “We’re excited to serve and be a proud member of the Fountain Hills community.” 

At Phoenix Cannabis Co. in Fountain Hills, they’re all about bringing consumers the highest-quality medical and recreational cannabis products, according to the company. 

Their expert cultivation team grows and perfects Phoenix Cannabis Co. products locally with the utmost care to provide customers with consistent quality and high THC. They also offer other carefully curated popular brands as well. 

Whether it’s cannabis flower, vapes, concentrates or edibles – they have you covered. Plus, they offer ongoing deals, discounts and affordable prices along with online ordering for

Read More Here...

A Silver Spring man was killed Wednesday during a robbery at a business where he worked in Northwest Washington, D.C., according to a statement released Thursday from the Metropolitan Police Department.

Philip Prendergast, 41, worked at HOTBOX Uptown at 5117 Georgia Ave. NW, a cannabis dispensary, an employee told MoCo360 Friday.

Around 3 p.m. Wednesday, two suspects with handguns entered the business, demanding property and money, and the victims complied, police said. The statement did not specify how many victims there were.

.wpnbha article .entry-title{font-size: 1.2em;}.wpnbha .entry-meta{display: flex;flex-wrap: wrap;align-items: center;margin-top: 0.5em;}.wpnbha article .entry-meta{font-size: 0.8em;}.wpnbha article .avatar{height: 25px;width: 25px;}.wpnbha .post-thumbnail{margin: 0;margin-bottom: 0.25em;}.wpnbha .post-thumbnail img{height: auto;width: 100%;}.wpnbha .post-thumbnail figcaption{margin-bottom: 0.5em;}.wpnbha p{margin: 0.5em 0;}

One of the suspects shot Prendergast and both suspects fled the scene with the property and money, according to the statement. Prendergast was transported to a nearby hospital where he was later pronounced dead, according to police.

Police released video footage and photos of the suspects, who were wearing black jackets with hoods covering their heads and masks covering their faces.

The police department said it is offering a reward of up to $25,000 for anyone who provides information leading to the arrest

Read More Here...

NEW MANAGEMENT: Body and Mind dispensary is under new management and will soon be getting a new name

Body and Mind Dispensary reopened for business this week after a management transition left the West Memphis medical marijuana outlet closed for several days in March.

Advertisement

Robert deBin, the CEO of White Hall cultivator Natural State Medicinals, is leading the new management group that reopened the store this week, a spokesman said.

The store will be open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, except holidays, including Easter, spokesman Bailey Moll said.

Advertisement

The dispensary was previously operated by a company, also called Body and Mind, that operates a chain of dispensaries in California, Ohio and Illinois. The company ceased its operations at the West Memphis store on March 15, deBin said. DeBin’s group took over the following day and reopened the store Wednesday for its first full day of operations since the shutdown.

A Facebook message this week from Comprehensive Care Group, the limited liability company that owns the store, suggested that the transition has not gone smoothly. 

Advertisement

Medical Marijuana Commission spokesman Scott Hardin confirmed a report that the previous management group had cut down all of the cannabis plants that were growing

Read More Here...

Washington state took a big step in making the cannabis industry a little greener when the legislature passed SB 5376 which will allow the sale of cannabis waste and cut down on landfill waste. The bill was signed into law by Gov. Jay Inslee, with the help of sisters McKenzie and Avery, on Monday, March 25, 2024.

SB 5376 allows a licensed producer or processor to sell cannabis waste to the public to be used in gardening applications such as composting or as insecticides, in industrial materials such as “hempcrete,” or many other uses that seem to be growing along with the industry.

The Need for a Greener Industry

Washington state currently has roughly 2,200 cannabis producer and processor licenses. While not all are the same and waste generated from each can be significantly different, Zero Waste Washington estimates cannabis producers can produce roughly 500-1,000 pounds of organic cannabis waste every week. Further records from Washington state show that cannabis operations as a whole can produce tens of thousands of pounds of organic cannabis waste each year.

Prior to the passage of SB 5376, Washington law required producers and processors to render all cannabis waste unusable before it was to

Read More Here...

Editor’s note: this article originally appeared in The Outlaw Report, and has been republished with permission.

Gov. Youngkin vetoed a democratically passed cannabis adult-use market bill maintaining his blockage to set up the Virginia legal market. Democrats legalized adult-use cannabis in 2021, but a shift to a republican controlled government stopped any implementation.

Democrats sent a bill to Gov. Youngkin’s desk a few weeks ago that would launch the market. He let it sit on his desk, but said people who thought he would sign it “must be smoking something.”

He vetoed the Bill yesterday citing the endangerment of Virginians’ health and safety. “States following this path have seen adverse effects on children’s and adolescent’s health and safety, increased gang activity and violent crime, significant deterioration in mental health, decreased road safety, and significant costs associated with retail marijuana that far exceed tax revenue,” he wrote in his veto statement.

However, research does not back up his claims. Much of the increase in illicit markets in California and New York is due to poor implementation. Legalizing cannabis doesn’t lead to a surge in teen use, and one study said there is no increase at all.

Chelsea Higgs Wise, the leader

Read More Here...

Kansas lawmakers have opted to table the state’s medical cannabis legalization proposal and the bill is unlikely to be considered again until January 2025, the Kansas Capital Bureau reports.

Lawmakers heard testimony about Senate Bill 555 on Thursday before tabling the bill. Kansas lawmakers have now rejected medical cannabis legalization three years in a row after last year’s proposal was similarly tabled in the Senate Committee on Federal and State Affairs — that event had followed yet another proposal from 2022.

This year’s bill, which was crafted by Wichita-based hemp producer Kansas Natural Remedies (KNR), was rejected despite being designed to create one of the country’s most restrictive medical cannabis programs.

“I’m sure this is going to be something that’s going to be attempted every session from here on out… and we just have to remain vigilant and say… wait a minute… let’s look at the facts,” the committee chair Sen. Mike Thompson (R) said in the report. “It will increase the amount of violence and drug cartels….”

Law enforcement representatives also voiced concerns about the effects of loosening the state’s cannabis laws.

KNR Chief Operating Officer Sam Jones said they were “angry” about the decision, arguing that opponents had

Read More Here...

Editor’s note: this article originally appeared in The Outlaw Report, and has been republished with permission.

The first medical dispensaries transitioning from unlicensed operators to the legal market were given licenses to open on Mar. 27, 2024.

The three stores (Green Theory, Wishing Wellness, Don Fuego) are the first to complete the transition process from I-71 gifting stores to legal medical dispensaries. One current medical license also received a license to open a new retail store in Chinatown.

D.C.’s efforts to establish an adult-use market have been stymied for almost a decade by the Harris Rider in the federal spending bill which prevents the District from using tax dollars to set up a legal market.

I-71 gifting stores proliferated across D.C. since the I-71 amendment went into effect in 2015. I-71 allowed the gifting of small amounts of cannabis between people without exchange of money. However, businesses used it as a loophole to sell weed by charging high prices for inexpensive items and gifting THC-products alongside.

Stores exploded around D.C. into the hundreds, sometimes dotting street corners right next to each other. The Medical Cannabis Amendment Act of 2022 established a process to fold these gray market stores into a

Read More Here...

Authorities are on the hunt for a man who robbed a cannabis dispensary at gunpoint in Beamsville.

Authorities say they were called out to the Cannabis Cupboard around 8:45 p.m. Thursday, after a panic alarm had notified them of some trouble.

According to their investigation, shortly before their arrival, a masked man entered the store with a black revolver and robbed the clerk for an undisclosed amount of money.

The man was last spotted fleeing north on Ontario Street.

The department’s K9 unit was called out to the scene in an attempt to track the man down, but ultimately was unsuccessful.

READ MORE: Cannabis dispensary in Beamsville robbed at gunpoint, suspect at large

Police have gun circulating surveillance images of the man in an attempt to track him down.

Authorities describe the man as:

White male Medium to thin build 5’10” Black winter jacket with a horizontal reflective thin line across chest Black pants Blue running shoes with white soles Black and red gloves Blue medical mask Black hood Dark sunglasses

Anyone with information relating to this incident is asked to contact authorities by calling 905-688-4111, option 3, ext. 10031376.

(Courtesy of the Niagara Regional Police Service).

Read More Here...