Author: buddigest

JONESBORO, Ark. (KAIT) – It’s been five years since the first medical marijuana dispensary opened in Arkansas, and sales have already topped $1 billion.

The state was approved in November 2016 to begin selling medical marijuana and the first dispensary opened in May of 2019.

“Marijuana is big business all over, we all know that,” Jerry Cox with Arkansas Family Council told our content partner KARK. “The question is, here in Arkansas, how many of the people that have medical marijuana cards have legitimate medical condition? And how many are using it just as a way to do recreational marijuana already?”

According to the DFA, 2019 had $31 million in medical marijuana sales, $276 million in 2022, and $283 million in 2023, totaling 203,000 pounds since May 2019.

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Medical marijuana sales top $1 billion in Arkansas 5 years after state’s first dispensary opened | KARK Skip to content

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CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) – Duel-use cannabis licenses were approved by the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review (JCARR), paving the way for medical marijuana dispensaries in the State of Ohio to be able to file for a recreational marijuana sale license.

This was the second to last step in the licensing process. Now, the Division of Cannabis Control sends the rules to the Secretary of State. The rules will take effect when the application process begins for these medical dispensaries. Currently, an official date is not set but can be as early as May 27th, with a June 7th deadline.

According to Ohio Representative Jamie Callender, they anticipate the Division of Cannabis Control to move quickly on the applications, as many of the requirements will already have been met. “It will be a fairly simple application because the application to be a medical (dispensary) is so stringent, that the additional requirements to add the adult use non-medical is fairly minor,” Rep. Callender (R-Concord), said.

Once all the applications have been submitted by June 7th, the acceptance could be incredibly fast. According to Rep. Callender, who is also a member of JCARR, “We anticipate that we will have legal marijuana sales without a medical

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Adult-use sales have been up in the air since Issue 2 passed and took effect in December.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Monday’s decision to allow dual licensing to medical marijuana dispensaries to sell recreational marijuana may mean sooner sales of the product.

Adult-use sales have been up in the air since Issue 2 passed and took effect in December. Ohioans over the age of 21 have been able to possess and grow marijuana legally since then, but there haven’t been legal places to purchase it.

Governor Mike DeWine and some other state leaders have expressed concerns about illegal black market sales during this period of limbo.

The Division of Cannabis Control said applications for recreational dispensaries will be available no later than June 7.

Dispensaries like Chicago-based Cresco Labs are preparing for those applications to open whenever that may be. Cresco Labs currently operates five medical marijuana facilities in Ohio.

“It’s been kind of a moving target. I think the law said September or August and now we’re in June maybe July,” said Jason Erkes, a Cresco Labs spokesperson. “We know there will be a lot of questions as people

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Sheriff’s office officials from El Paso and Pueblo counties seized cash from multiple locations of a Colorado Springs dispensary Monday after a civil process order ruling by an El Paso County judge. 

According to El Paso County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Kurt Smith, deputies assisted in the civil process order at three locations of Maggie’s Farm dispensary in Colorado Springs and Pueblo, seizing cash from all stores. 

Smith said the cash seizure is part of a civil case involving Maggie’s Farm — not an investigation by either the Sheriff’s Office in Pueblo or El Paso County. 

“With civil rulings, sometimes we have to help,” Smith said. 

Tim Cheasebro, a locksmith with Mason’s Mobile Locksmith in Colorado Springs, told The Gazette he along with his boss and another co-worker assisted in the cash seizure Monday morning. While his two co-workers were assigned to the Maggie’s Farm locations in the Colorado Springs area, Cheasebro worked for over an hour and a half at the dispensary’s location in Pueblo.

Cheasebro said his company has assisted the Sheriff’s Office in the past, but that he hadn’t been relayed any details from officials of what they were looking for

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COLUMBUS, Ohio – Forty-seven Ohio cities and townships — and counting — have at least temporarily banned recreational marijuana businesses, after Ohio voters passed in November the initiated statute allowing adults aged 21 and older to purchase and consume cannabis.

Among the communities that have banned marijuana businesses in their boundaries are several communities in Northeast Ohio, such as Avon Lake, North Olmsted, North Royalton, Brunswick, Medina Township, Westlake and Beachwood, according to new research from Ohio State University’s Drug Enforcement and Policy Center, which looked at ordinances in Ohio cities up to March 31.

Lakewood also passed a temporary prohibition on adult-use business, even though two medical dispensaries operate in the city. City officials last November said that they were prohibiting the businesses while the legislature made changes to the initiated statute, which would give the city time to tailor its ordinances around that. However, the General Assembly is at an impasse over any potential changes and state regulators are proceeding with writing agency rules based on the law Ohio voters passed.

Other cities may have passed ordinances since March 31, and more could pass in the coming weeks. For instance, the Columbus suburb of Bexley was expected to have a final

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As legal marijuana dispensaries hope Floridians vote in November to allow recreational weed, they face a troubling trend: Right now, their flow of new customers is drying up.

The state’s medical marijuana industry is stagnating, data shows.

Experts say a slowdown in new patients means the success of the largest marijuana companies in the state could depend on the proposed amendment.

“This is really their only opportunity for growth,” said former Republican state Sen. Jeff Brandes of St. Petersburg, who supports the legalization effort.

Amendment 3 would allow Floridians 21 and older to buy and possess up to 3 ounces of marijuana. At least 60% of voters need to support the measure for it to pass.

So far, the largest donor to the effort has been cannabis behemoth Trulieve, which has provided nearly $50 million of the $55 million raised by the amendment’s sponsor.

Today, cannabis companies are limited to selling to the almost 900,000 Florida residents who have been referred by a doctor for a medical marijuana card. Allowing recreational use would mean the same firms could sell to anyone of age.

That growth would be explosive. In an April filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Trulieve CEO Kim Rivers wrote that recreational marijuana

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (WJW) — Recreational cannabis could be up for sale in Ohio sooner than anticipated, after new dispensary licensing rules were approved by a state review committee.

The Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review on Monday finished its review of rules allowing existing medical marijuana dispensaries to obtain a dual-use license allowing them to also sell non-medical cannabis as early as mid-June.

How are future ‘dual-use’ dispensaries preparing for recreational sales?

There’s just one more step: The Ohio Division of Cannabis Control may file the rules as early as May 27. The division can then begin accepting license applications ahead of a June 7 deadline set out in the state’s new legal cannabis statute, according to a news release from the office of House Rep. Jamie Callender of Concord, R-57th.

“Thank you to the members of the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review for their thoughtful consideration of the rule package proposed by the Ohio Division of Cannabis Control,” Tom Haren, spokesperson for the Ohio Cannabis Coalition, is quoted in a news release. “OHCANN and our members look forward to continuing to work with Rep. Callender, the Committee, and the Division to develop a safe

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UNION CITY — Authorities have arrested four suspects on charges of burglarizing a cannabis dispensary in Union City last January, but say there are still nine other suspects who have yet to face the music.

Last month, Alameda County prosecutors charged three men and a woman with breaking into the Lemonnade Dispensary in Union City last January and stealing $54,000 worth of cannabis products. The charges include commercial burglary and organized retail theft in concert, court records show.

The four were identified because one suspect — the son of a local tow truck company owner — dropped his cellphone at the scene, which police later used to identify the Instagram accounts of other involved parties. Shortly after the burglary, one of the other suspects posted packaged cannabis that appeared similar to some of the stolen items, police said.

The 13 suspects used a crowbar to pry open a door to the dispensary and ran inside, clearing out whatever they could within a few minutes, before running to getaway cars. There were six other dispensary burglaries in Union City around the same time, and some of the suspects are also under investigation for similar burglaries in Contra Costa County, authorities said.

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As legal marijuana dispensaries hope Floridians vote in November to allow recreational weed, they face a troubling trend: Right now, their flow of new customers is drying up.

The state’s medical marijuana industry is stagnating, data shows. Experts say a slowdown in new patients means the success of the largest marijuana companies in the state could depend on the proposed amendment.

“This is really their only opportunity for growth,” said former Republican state Sen. Jeff Brandes of St. Petersburg, who supports the legalization effort.

Amendment 3 would allow Floridians 21 and older to buy and possess up to three ounces of marijuana. At least 60% of voters need to support the measure for it to pass.

So far, the largest donor to the effort has been cannabis behemoth Trulieve, which has provided nearly $50 million of the $55 million raised by the amendment’s sponsor.

Today, cannabis companies are limited to selling to the almost 900,000 Florida residents who have been referred by a doctor for a medical marijuana card. Allowing recreational use would mean the same firms could sell to anyone of age.

That growth would be explosive. In an April filing to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Trulieve CEO Kim Rivers wrote that recreational

Read More Here...