BudDigest

The city of Brighton is about to get a little greener.

This week, the Brighton City Council voted 7-2 to allow recreational marijuana shops for the first time. The council-approved ordinance allows for the establishment of four stores, with two of the licenses reserved for social equity applicants. Applications open March 1.

This will be the first time Brighton, which is located primarily in Adams County, has ever allowed cannabis businesses within city limits, despite the fact that recreational weed has been legal in Colorado for a decade and medical marijuana has been legal since 2000. The city still prohibits cultivation and manufacturing businesses.

According to spokesperson Kristen Chernosky, Brighton’s leaders have considered allowing cannabis for several years, but a recent change in city council personnel made it a more timely topic.

“We have a new council that did have an interest in exploring what this would mean to this city,” she said.

Potential tax revenue was also an important factor in the decision, Chernosky said. Colorado has collected more than $2.6 billion in state tax and fee revenue since legal sales began in 2014. That’s in addition to municipal taxes, which have helped fund projects such as a government complex

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Candygrams on Valentine’s Day are great and all, but have you ever received a canna-gram?

Green Sativa, a Denver area dispensary chain and growing operation, is now selling Valentine’s Day cards with one-gram joints. The cards are made for lovers, friends “and even your mother,” according to Green Sativa operational manager Frances Comeau. The idea for the cards, dubbed Love Notes, was first hatched last year and became an immediate success, she says.

“We sold out that weekend and had to make more cards last year. That Monday before Valentine’s Day, we were scrambling to make more,” she recalls. “It’s just a nice little way to recognize those people in your life. Sometimes the whole jewelry and flowers thing isn’t for anyone.”

Well, maybe not that kind of flowers.

“All of our joints are 100 percent flower, so it’s not full of shake or trim or anything like that,” Comeau notes. “Each card comes with a full gram joint, and the card and joint together are $7, so it’s reasonably priced. And it’s something cute and nostalgic.”

The cards, made in-house by Green Sativa’s Ethan Sanchez, come with V-Day graphics and sayings like “Cannabe Your Valentine?” and “For My Best Bud,” while each

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Officials with the European Commission this week partially approved the launch of the ‘European Cannabis Initiative,’ which is a multi-national ballot initiative seeking to improve medical cannabis access in the European Union (EU) and boost cannabis research opportunities.

The commission approved the initiative to cover two out of the three requests made by advocates:

That the initiative would “foster access to medical cannabis and allow the transportation of cannabis and its derivatives prescribed for therapeutic purposes to ensure the full enjoyment of the right to health; and That the initiative serves to “allocate the necessary resources for researching cannabis for its therapeutic purposes.”

Advocates had also called for the initiative to “convene a trans-European citizens’ assembly on cannabis policies” that would have included sanctions and established consistency among member nations’ cannabis policies, but the commission ultimately rejected this request.

“The Commission had to refuse the registration of the first objective of the initiative, as it falls outside the Commission’s powers to submit a proposal for a legal act on this matter,” officials wrote.

Following Tuesday’s approval, advocates now have six months to launch their signature collection efforts. If the petition can garner at least one million supporting signatures

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Massachusetts cannabis dispensaries set a new annual sales record in 2023 at $1.56 billion, according to data from the Cannabis Control Commission (CCC) outlined by Boston 25 News.

The year was capped off with the industry’s most lucrative month yet after licensed retailers sold $140.1 million worth of adult-use cannabis products in December, breaking the previous monthly sales record from August 2023. Regulators said the state is tracking 338 dispensaries and 21 cannabis delivery companies. Ultimately, annual cannabis sales increased last year by $78 million, or about 5%.

Despite the gains last year, the Massachusetts cannabis industry experienced a tumultuous 2023 following the sudden removal of CCC Chair Shannon O’Brien in September — who in turn sued the state treasurer over the decision. Then two more top CCC officials were suspended in December, which sent the agency into further disarray and prompted lawmakers to call for an investigation into the agency.

CCC Acting Chair Ava Concepcion said in the report that the state’s cannabis industry is “still a maturing market.”

“This continued growth confirms that Massachusetts’ regulated marijuana industry is still a maturing market,” said the acting CCC Chair Ava Concepcion.

“As more retailers and delivery licensees come online, flower

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Lawmakers on a Senate subcommittee have agreed to advance a bill that would double the number of medical cannabis dispensaries in Iowa, but they’re expressing reservations about the plan.

About 18,000 Iowans are currently registered to buy cannabidiol or C-B-D products from the five state licensed businesses. Senator Mike Bousselot of Ankeny said a proliferation of products that produce a high are being sold elsewhere.

“I think we ought to take a broader look at the program in light sort of all of the different facets of weed and hemp and THC and lack of action at the federal level,” Bousselot said.

Senator Janet Weiner of Iowa City said Iowa’s medical marijuana program is really little — for a reason.

“We’re just dancing around the issue of the fact that neighboring states have recreational marijuana and we’re losing out on a lot of revenue,” Weiner says.

Marijuana is legal for recreational use in Minnesota, Illinois and Missouri. The five medical marijuana dispensaries licensed by the State of Iowa are in Coralville, Council Bluffs, Sioux City, Waterloo and Windsor Heights. The Iowa Cannabis Company operates three of those and a lobbyist for the company raised concerns about a section in the

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FILE: Cannabis flower products for sale at the Green Goddess Collective legal cannabis dispensary on Feb. 15, 2023, in the Venice neighborhood of Los Angeles.

PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images

In the 30-second clip, Norman Yousif, founder and CEO of the dispensary chain Off the Charts, is shown apparently bragging that he has saved money by “not paying the vendors.” To add insult to injury, Yousif seemed to specifically say that it was the “f—cking mom and pops” that his company wasn’t paying.

“We’ve saved hundreds and hundreds of thousands. I mean, if you don’t have to pay, you don’t have to pay,” Yousif said in the video.

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With that comment, Yousif touched on a problem that has been rampant for years: California’s cannabis farmers keep getting stiffed. They send their pot to cannabis stores, yet their invoices never get paid. They lose sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time, and those losses put these smaller enterprises, including third-generation family farms, out of business.

The video quickly ricocheted across social media where hundreds of people posted angry comments, calling Yousif’s comments “disgusting” and an example of “everything that is wrong” inside California’s pot industry.

Yousif apologized for the statement

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Community Board 11 was packed on Monday night — but not to discuss a matter on the agenda.

More than 100 people attended the meeting, the vast majority doing so to voice their opposition to four cannabis dispensary licenses set to go before the board’s Public Safety and Licensing Committee on Wednesday night, after the Chronicle’s press time.

While the committee will discuss licenses for four different dispensaries in the area, on Monday, much of the focus was on Canna Budda Corp., which would be located at 215-46 39 Ave. Under state law, dispensaries cannot open within 500 feet of a school or within 200 feet of a house of worship. And though the proposed shop is 520 feet from Sacred Heart Catholic Academy in Bayside, residents were not impressed by the 20 feet of leeway.

“If we invite this business into our residential community, 520 feet from our schools, we’re inviting a lightning rod for burglaries and activity near our children,” said Bayside resident Daniel Socci.

His fellow Baysider, Felix Lamb, shared similar concerns about the location.

“This address is right next to and across the street from a variety of private homes,” he said. “This is not a commercial area. This

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MEYERS, Calif. – Several weeks into the new year, local dispensary Embarc is blazing the trail for South Tahoe’s local business landscape; cutting the ribbon on their new storefront and celebrating the grand opening of the dispensary’s second location outside of South Lake Tahoe city limits in the beloved local community of Meyers.  

Lauren Carpenter, owner and founder of Embarc, reflects on the last four years of being a business owner in South Lake Tahoe, and is eager to bring a new dispensary to Meyers.  

“Embarc started in South Lake Tahoe with a small team of 20 people and we believe that Embarc is really a Tahoe success story,” Carpenter said. “In the time since we’ve opened our first store, we now officially have 12 stores across California, including the grand opening of our newest store in Meyers. Embarc is testament to what a small mountain community can cultivate, it’s been an incredible journey ever since we have opened our doors.”  

While Carpenter has been the frontrunner for Embarc, she has been deeply involved in the politics of cannabis for much longer. 

“I had been working in policy in Sacramento, but moved down to

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Welcome to Thursday, and would you look at this! It’s none other than the crew at KGAY, gracing the New York Times. Author Erik Piepenburg and photojournalist Michelle Groskopf expertly captured the spirit of what station owner Brad Fuhr has created along with Chris Shebel and John Taylor (at the microphone during afternoons and mornings) and DJ Eric Ornelas, DJ Galaxy, and DJ Modgirl, whose magical mixes help entertain the party people young and old. Even if you’re not a listener, you need to read all about this one-of-a-kind operation keeping the beat alive here while broadcasting around the world.

🎶 Setting the mood: “Walk on By” by Dionne Warwick

LEADING OFF The owner of this building along North Palm Canyon Drive plans to open a cannabis dispensary after completing an addition of more than 600 square feet. New dispensary moving forward amidst industry struggles

While members of the Palm Springs City Council continue to discuss ways to help struggling cannabis business owners, the next possible new dispensary and lounge in the city is moving forward.

Zoom in: The project — dubbed “Off the Charts Cannabis Dispensary” — was submitted by longtime resident and local business owner Wayne Gottlieb. It calls for a 628-square-foot addition

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The crackdown on unlicensed cannabis dispensaries in New York continues, with the I’m Stuck chain facing significant fines following a court order. Owner David Tulley must provide sales and bank records by March 16 for his now-closed Cayuga County locations, according to The Citizen.

With fines reaching up to $20,000 per day post-cease order, Tulley’s penalties could exceed $2 million for violations tied to his establishments in Auburn and Aurelius, highlighting the state’s intensified enforcement efforts against illegal cannabis sales.

The state’s Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) is leveraging a comprehensive enforcement strategy, incorporating labor, tax, and cannabis laws to impose hefty fines on non-compliant businesses.

As the legal cannabis market in New York expands, the state has shut down I’m Stuck and similar “gray market” dispensaries, marking a significant step in establishing a regulated industry. Tulley also had an operation in Ontario, Wayne County, which was shut down after raids.

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