Ohio State Representative Jamie Callender (R-Concord) testified before the House Judiciary Committee on House Bill 611 (Callender/Stewart), marking the first General Assembly hearing on a bill targeting the adult use industry since Senate Bill 56 was passed (S. Huffman, 136th General Assembly). House Bill 611 would grant cultivation licenses and dispensary licenses to independent cannabis processors in Ohio, often referred to as orphan processors, joining the majority of cannabis processors in the state.

Originally created by House Bill 523 (per S. Huffman, 131st General Assembly), Ohio’s medical marijuana program divided licenses into three categories: dispensaries responsible for operating as the retail part of the program, growers responsible for growing cannabis, and processors responsible for turning raw cannabis into products sold at dispensaries. Since the bill’s passage in 2016, state law now allows for the sale of products without the involvement of processors, and all Ohio cannabis growers have become vertically integrated, meaning they own a grower, processor and at least one dispensary, leaving 14 processors without a corresponding grower.

To address orphan processors’ concerns about product access and increase market supply, House Bill 611 grants an orphan processor a cultivation license after a successful application to the Division of Cannabis Control. This allows orphan processors to build up to 5,000 square feet of cultivation space. Additionally, House Bill 611 grants dispensary licensing to orphan processors.

“We want to thank the bill’s sponsors for their support in introducing this long-overdue legislation,” said Jason Kabbes, founder and CEO of Diamon Science LLC. “Ohio’s orphan processors have long been left out of Ohio’s cannabis supply chain, without fair or reliable access to supply or demand, while paying higher annual license fees. This corrective action will allow a small number of Ohio-based small businesses that have participated in the program since its inception to finally participate and compete in the legislature’s original arena.”

“Ohio’s first-day small business independent processors urgently need cultivation and retail licenses, as this critical vertical integration is the only path to sustainability and independence while ensuring a diverse and consistent product for patients and consumers,” said Emilie Kelleher (Ramach), Vice President of Business and Government Affairs at Beneleaves. “This self-sufficiency will allow Ohio-owned small businesses like ours to reduce their entire supply chain and operating costs, resulting in more affordable products and greatly improved patient access across Ohio.”

House Bill 611 follows the passage of Senate Bill 56 and marks the beginning of the next wave of cannabis legislation building on the foundations laid for Ohio’s cannabis industry by House Bill 523, Senate Bill 56 and Issue 2.

“House Bill 611 comes after much discussion and debate among members of the cannabis industry, advocates and lawmakers,” Callender said. “This bill marks the continuation of the efforts begun by House No. 2 to create a strong, mature and legal cannabis market in Ohio. By supporting orphan processors, we will maintain good-paying jobs across the state by increasing market supply, reducing costs for consumers and undermining illegal sellers.”

Source: Ohio House of Representatives

Not all cannabis farms are visited by a Columbia University professor. Fewer still are singled out as the best place on earth to grow the plant. That’s what happened when Colin Nuckolls, a professor of organic chemistry at Columbia and one of the most cited independent researchers on the chemistry of cannabis, visited Puro’s Kēkerengū farm on the Kaikōura Coast earlier this year.

Puro has been cultivating medicinal cannabis in Marlborough since 2018, building its model around outdoor, organically certified production at two sites in the region. Kēkerengū Farm is located on the coast with mountain protection to the west, and the company has long pointed to its environment, long hours of sunshine, ocean air flow, warm days, cool nights and vibrant soil as the foundation of the quality of its product. Nuckolls, whose research focuses on the chemical differences between indoor and sun-grown cannabis, came up with the tools to evaluate that claim. “If I had to pick one place in the world to grow sun-grown cannabis, this would be it,” he said.

© Cigar

The endorsement carries scientific weight, as Nuckolls’ work addresses a gap that standard cannabis testing can hardly cover. Certificates of analysis measure a defined set of cannabinoids and terpenes, meaning two products grown under completely different conditions can appear identical on paper. His research shows that the picture is more complicated than that. “Sunlight creates complexity in the plant,” he said. “Sun grown cannabis represents a wider spectrum of compounds, more terpenes, more nuances, more chemistry that people value.”

The mechanism is evolutionary. Natural sunlight provides a full and dynamic light spectrum, including UV exposure, that plants have adapted to over millennia. Controlled indoor environments, however sophisticated, replicate only part of that equation.

The Kēkerengū site drew a close comparison with Northern California’s Humboldt County, one of the world’s most respected cannabis-growing regions. The two locations are located at roughly mirror-image latitudes on opposite sides of the equator and share a mountainous coastal profile. “This place is where you’d want to grow cannabis, like Humboldt County,” he said. “It’s the coast, the air is fresh and it’s mountainous. Nature does a lot of work in these areas, the growing conditions are ideal.”

For Puro, the visit was an independent validation of the company’s production philosophy since its inception. Marlborough’s sunshine hours are among the highest in New Zealand, and combined with the microclimate factors of the site where the farm is located, factors Nuckolls described as conditions “that technology cannot reproduce”.

For more information:
clean
www.puro.co.nz

“The lawsuit is a diversionary tactic from Indy Vapes and Abilene Vape and CBD making a business decision to ignore state law.”

By Maya Smith, Kansas Reflector

Three smoke and vapor stores are suing the state of Kansas, alleging Fourth Amendment violations in some of the raids in October.

The plaintiffs have filed against KBI Director Tony Mattivi, Attorney General Kris Kobach (R), KBI agents, local law enforcement and county attorneys. They allege illegal search and seizure and defective warrants.

The KBI and local law enforcement raided smoke and vapor shops in Concordia, Independence, Abilene, McPherson, Pratt, Salina, Topeka and Wichita late last year.

They were organized with the intention of making networks end lax enforcement of Kansas’ anti-marijuana and anti-THC lawsKobach stated in the press conference during the attacks.

The lawsuit alleges that officials confiscated the hemp-derived products under Kansas law on warrants between legal and illegal hemp products.

Smoke and vape shops say the warrants were flawed by failing to recognize that the types of hemp-derived products are legal in Kansas, with Indy Vapes’ orders from Independence stating that all THC derivatives are contraband.

The Kansas Controlled Substances Act states that industrial hemp and hemp-derived products are legal and not controlled substances if they contain less than 0.3 percent THC. Plaintiffs allege that they sell legal hemp products and purchase those products from established wholesalers.

Kobach’s office did not respond to repeated requests for comment for this story.

The stores said they lost thousands of dollars in inventory and that the seized inventory was probably destroyed. Mattivi said in a press conference during the raids that the KBI had sent the products to the seized laboratories for private testing.

According to the lawsuit, agents told employees not to film, boarded up the windows from the inside, and disconnected the store’s internet and store security cameras.

“The lawsuit is a diversionary tactic since Indy Vapes and Abilene Vape and CBD made a business decision to ignore state law, and now they want to blame law enforcement for what they knew was the likely outcome,” according to a KBI statement. “We will uphold our responsibility to enforce the laws of Kansas.”

The KBI said the warrants executed by agents gave them the authority to seize illegal products and contraband. The statement did not address the officers interfering with the recording.

This story was first published by the Kansas Reflector.

Photo elements courtesy of the user rawpixel and Philip Steffan.