Marijuana Business Daily

Virginia Republicans move to defund state marijuana regulator

Published

2 years ago

February 17, 2023

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Republican lawmakers in Virginia want to cut nearly 70% of the Cannabis Control Authority’s budget, a move that creates further uncertainty for the state’s nascent legal marijuana industry.

Under a state spending plan proposed by Virginia’s House Republicans, the budget for the Cannabis Control Authority (CCA) would be slashed by $13.4 million over two years, Richmond TV station WRIC reported Wednesday.

The budget proposal comes after a Republican-controlled state General Assembly committee killed a bill intended to regulate the state’s impending adult-use marijuana industry.

Virginia has had a limited medical marijuana market since 2020, and adult-use sales were to begin Jan. 1, 2024, under a legalization bill signed into law in 2021 by the state’s former governor, a Democrat.

But new Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, appears more focused on regulating products containing intoxicating hemp-derived cannabinoids such as delta-8 THC than implementing a recreational market.

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New York City marijuana social equity operators sue over proximity exemptions

Published

2 days ago

January 10, 2025

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Four New York City marijuana retailers with social equity licenses are suing state regulators, claiming that recently issued exceptions to a law imposing a 1,000-foot barrier between stores is “undermining” their businesses.

It’s the latest legal challenge against the state Office of Cannabis Management (OCM), which is overseeing a $1 billion industry that’s still recovering from a botched start marred by long bureaucratic delays, a rampaging illicit market and multiple lawsuits.

The latest lawsuit, filed Thursday in state court in Manhattan, accuses the OCM and the New York Cannabis Control Board (CCB) of “secretly” offering new license applicants exceptions to the state law requiring stores to be 1,000 feet from one another in cities with a population of 20,000 or more.

The four

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Cannabis industry relief efforts underway as wildfires rage across Los Angeles area

Published

3 days ago

January 10, 2025

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Los Angeles-area cannabis operators are prioritizing the safety and security of their employees and relief efforts amid historic wildfires raging across the region that have killed at least ten people, displaced countless others and decimated thousands of homes and businesses.

While it’s far too early to assess potential damages in one of the world’s largest regulated marijuana markets, a handful of retailers in Malibu and around Altadena are in or near evacuation areas, according to maps published by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and cross-referenced with store locations.

A Rise outlet in Pasadena operated by Green Thumb Industries is among the closures, according to an automated message at the business.

The Chicago-based multistate operator did not immediately respond to an

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Colorado shut out of marijuana rescheduling hearings by ‘biased’ DEA, filing alleges

Published

5 days ago

January 8, 2025

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The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration rejected a September request from Colorado officials to participate in the United States’ historic marijuana rescheduling process.

That’s one example of the “bias” that should disqualify the agency from overseeing the hearings, according to claims made in a filing submitted Monday to the DEA’s chief administrative law judge, John Mulrooney II.

The decision to exclude Colorado, where sales of adult-use marijuana began more than a decade ago, but include authorities from states without regulated cannabis such as Nebraska and Tennessee demonstrates why the agency should be removed from the proceedings, the filing claims.

Monday’s filing is the latest effort by designated participants Village Farms International and Hemp for Victory to disqualify the DEA, which has “obstructed the rulemaking process

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