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The federal government is getting ready to drastically speed up its licensing process to increase the numbers of companies that are authorized to produce marijuana for the recreational market that will open up in the first half of 2018, sources said.

A senior federal official said that in addition to tabling legislation to legalize marijuana on Thursday, the federal government will announce a push to authorize new producers of marijuana. At this point, there are 42 companies that have the necessary authorizations from Health Canada to produce marijuana for medical purposes across the country.

The official said the current holders of licences will have a head start once the market is opened up to recreational users, but added that the federal government will add staff and resources at Health Canada to speed up the approval process for new producers

A key concern is ensuring that the supply of marijuana will meet the demand for the drug once it is legalized by the unofficial deadline of July 1, 2018. As Ottawa works toward squeezing out illegal producers of marijuana, federal officials are worried that a shortage of cannabis would hurt their plans in the initial stages of legalization.

Another priority for the government will be to ensure that there is a broad variety of producers of marijuana serving the recreational market, and not just the existing network that includes many large-scale facilities.

“It’s obvious that the producers who are already licensed have an advantage going in. But there is also a clear desire on the government’s part to have a mix of big and small producers,” said the federal official who spoke on the condition of anonymity ahead of the tabling of the legislation.

“There is a great deal of awareness to the needs of smaller producers in the government,” the official added.

Federal officials said the government will table its legislation on Thursday, but that a number of key issues will only be addressed in the rules and regulations that will be unveiled at a later date.

Ottawa will give itself broad powers to oversee the production of marijuana and to design rules on the marketing of the product, which are expected to be similar to the ones that govern Canada’s tobacco industry.

The federal government will leave the provinces and territories entirely in charge of overseeing the distribution and sale of marijuana, in line with Canada’s alcohol regime.

“We are going to let them make their own choices on the sales side,” the federal official said. “It’s going to be similar to the situation with alcohol. In Alberta, it’s in the hands of the private sector, whereas in Quebec and Ontario, it’s run by the state.”

After it is tabled in the House, the legislation to legalize marijuana will be studied in committee. At the same time, the provinces will be expected to develop their own plans to distribute and sell the product.

The federal government will also be working to develop an “interim system” by which marijuana would be available across Canada even if some provinces do not develop their own distribution mechanisms quickly enough. Sources said the project remains in development, although Canada Post could deliver recreational marijuana by mail, as it currently does with medical marijuana.

The federal legislation will be inspired in large part by a task force led by former Liberal cabinet minister Anne McLellan, which proposed a complete legalization model in a well-received report last year.

The task force urged the government to allow Canadians to buy or carry 30 grams of marijuana for personal use, and to grow up to four plants at home. The task force also recommended a system that would feature storefront sales and mail-order distribution, and allow a wide range of producers to operate legally, including “craft” growers and the current producers of medical marijuana.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has already endorsed one of its key recommendations: that marijuana should be legal for people who are of legal drinking age – 18 or 19 years old, depending on the province they live in.

Original Article: DANIEL LEBLANC, Ottawa — The Globe and Mail, Published Tuesday, Apr. 11, 2017 12:31PM EDT

The Liberal government will announce legislation next month that will legalize marijuana in Canada by July 1, 2018.

CBC News has learned that the legislation will be announced during the week of April 10 and will broadly follow the recommendation of a federally appointed task force that was chaired by former liberal Justice Minister Anne McLellan.

Bill Blair, the former Toronto police chief who has been stickhandling the marijuana file for the government, briefed the Liberal caucus on the roll-out plan and the legislation during caucus meetings this weekend, according to a senior government official who spoke to CBC News on condition of anonymity.

Bill Blair, parliamentary secretary to the minister of justice, briefed the Liberal caucus on new marijuana legislation, which leaves the provinces to decide how marijuana is distributed and sold, according to a senior government official. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

Provinces to control sales

The federal government will be in charge of making sure the country's marijuana supply is safe and secure and Ottawa will license producers.

But the provinces will have the right to decide how the marijuana is distributed and sold. Provincial governments will also have the right to set price.

While Ottawa will set a minimum age of 18 to buy marijuana, the provinces will have the option of setting a higher age limit if they wish.

4 plants per household

As for Canadians who want to grow their own marijuana, they will be limited to four plants per household.

Legalizing marijuana was one of the more controversial promises Justin Trudeau made as he campaigned to become prime minister.

But in their platform the Liberals said it was necessary to "legalize, regulate and restrict access to marijuana" in order to keep drugs "out of the hands of children, and the profits out of the hands of criminals."

The Liberals had promised to introduce legislation by the Spring of 2017. Announcing the legislation the week of April 10 will allow the party to hit that deadline.

Raids raise questions

Trudeau referred again to that rough timetable a few weeks ago when he said the legislation would be introduced before the summer. But at the same time he also warned that it wasn't yet open season for the legal sale of marijuana.

"Until we have a framework to control and regulate marijuana, the current laws apply," Trudeau said in Esquimalt, B.C. on March 1.

That warning became more concrete a week later, when police in Toronto, Vancouver and other cities carried out raids on marijuana dispensaries and charged several people with possession and trafficking, including noted pot advocates Marc and Jodie Emery.

Trudeau's promise to legalize marijuana was seen as one of the reasons for the Liberals' strong showing among youth voters in the 2015 election. 

But at the NDP's leadership debate in Montreal Sunday, which was focused on youth issues, several of the candidates pointed to marijuana legislation as an example of a broken Liberal promise.

"I do not believe Justin Trudeau is going to bring in the legalization of marijuana and as proof that ... we are still seeing, particularly young, Canadians being criminalized by simple possession of marijuana," said B.C. MP Peter Julian.

Federal marijuana legislation to be introduced in spring 2017, Philpott says

Original Article By David Cochrane, CBC News Posted: Mar 26, 2017 9:00 PM ET

A former Liberal cabinet minister who recently chaired a panel guiding Ottawa’s push to legalize cannabis says police everywhere should enforce the existing prohibition of marijuana, despite several communities in British Columbia choosing to regulate – not raid – illegal pot shops.

Anne McLellan, head of an official task force that submitted recommendations to Ottawa on how best to legalize cannabis, said Thursday that Vancouver crafted Canada’s first municipal marijuana bylaw in response to what was a “growing difficult situation for them.”

But the former minister of public safety, health and justice in the Liberal governments of Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin said other cities should not follow suit before the current laws change, echoing what the federal government has repeatedly said when asked about the rise of illegal dispensaries.

“Nobody would deny that there are some practical problems at street level, absolutely, nobody denies that,” said Ms. McLellan, who was in Vancouver speaking at Simon Fraser University’s downtown campus on the work the task force did last year.

“Cities should wait until the law changes instead of making their own rules now and hoping to adapt them to a federal framework later on,” she said. “I cannot advocate that anybody break existing laws. We are a nation of law-abiding citizens.”

Ottawa is expected to table legislation this spring that will legalize and regulate recreational marijuana over the next two years. While the stores are still illegal under federal law, they have proliferated in cities such as Vancouver and Victoria, where local politicians argue their rules can eventually be adapted to any national framework regulating the storefront sale of the drug.

All dispensaries and compassion clubs across Canada still operate outside the federal government’s medical-marijuana program, which permits about 30 industrial-scale growers to sell dried flowers and bottles of cannabis oil directly to patients through the mail.

The federal government has said its two core priorities behind legalizing the recreational sale of marijuana are: to keep the drug out of the hands of young people and to stop the flow of money to organized criminals involved in the production and sale of the drug on the black market.

Vancouver’s approach to regulating its dispensaries stands in stark contrast to Toronto’s, where police and politicians say a continuing crackdown has become more urgent as these pot shops have become a magnet for violent thieves because some owners are reluctant to report robberies.

Civic and provincial politicians across the country are waiting on the coming legalization bill to give some guidance as to where the drug may be sold once it is legalized.

Vancouver councillor Kerry Jang, architect of the local dispensary bylaw, said he was disappointed in Ms. McLellan and Ottawa’s rhetoric, noting they both appear to be eschewing the public-health approach of his city, and that of other communities in B.C. also licensing these illegal stores.

“It’s sort of like we’re in purgatory,” he said Thursday. “And when you’re in purgatory, it’s not about allocating our resources, it’s about advocating what’s right for our citizens – that’s what Vancouver has done.”

He said he wants Ms. McLellan to push federal ministers to implement the new legislation faster because local governments across the country are wasting millions of dollars containing the grey cannabis market.

“When it comes to resources, the federal government better provide good resources for us to help enforce and help manage what they want us to do,” said Mr. Jang, a clinical psychiatrist. “Otherwise, we’re going to be back to square one.”

The Union of B.C. Municipalities has long advocated that cities deserve to receive some of the eventual tax revenue from recreational cannabis sales if they are expected to enforce federal cannabis laws.

The federal Liberals have said any pot proceeds would be directed to addiction treatment, mental-health support and education programs, and that provinces and territories will also have a significant say in how cannabis revenues are spent. A recent study from the parliamentary budget watchdog predicted that about 60 per cent of marijuana taxation will flow to the provinces.

Ms. McLellan, now in the public-policy division of Bennett Jones, one of the Canada’s leading law firms operating in the cannabis sector, said different communities have different concerns about the drug, as evidenced by Toronto and Vancouver’s contrasting approach to dealing with illegal dispensaries.

Original article by: MIKE HAGER, VANCOUVER — The Globe and Mail. Published Thursday, Mar. 23, 2017 10:04PM EDT

COSTA MESA, CA--(Marketwired - Mar 22, 2017) - NEMUS Bioscience, Inc. (OTCQB : NMUS ) and the company's discovery and research partner, the University of Mississippi (UM), today announced that bactericidal synergy was achieved against multiple species of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) utilizing a proprietary cannabinoid-based therapeutic platform. MRSA species tested included community acquired- (CA-MRSA), healthcare-acquired- (HA-MRSA), and mupirocin-resistant (MR-MRSA) strains of MRSA. 

In vitro studies demonstrated that when using unique strategic cannabinoid-based cocktails, fractional-inhibitory concentration (FIC) levels demonstrating synergy between mixtures of individual cannabinoid-based components ranged from 0.06 to 0.28. FIC findings below 0.5 indicate significant killing potential of the mixture.

"This work highlights the importance of Nemus' relationship with the University which has significant experience and intellectual capital related to cannabinoid chemistry and physiology, dating back to 1968," stated Brian Murphy, M.D., C.E.O. and Chief Medical Officer of Nemus. "These unique botanically derived components establish an anti-infective platform which could potentially be expanded into other types of bacteria, as well as viruses, and fungi."

Dr. Mahmoud ElSohly, professor at the National Center for Natural Products Research (NCNPR) at the University of Mississippi commented: "The University, in conjunction with Nemus, is looking to expand the anti-infective capabilities of this series of compounds. Historically, many types of anti-infective compounds are derived from plants so to have a series of cannabinoid-related compounds exhibit activity against this dangerous pathogen is in keeping with prior efforts of drug development. I believe that these compounds, in addition to the bacterial killing capability, could also offer benefits associated with anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic properties that could enhance healing, especially against an organism associated with skin and soft tissue infections."

"This anti-infective platform will constitute the NB3000 series of Nemus molecules and formulations. Recently, the World Health Organization (WHO) placed MRSA on their list as one of the top six organisms that pose a global public health threat. While there are a number of compounds in the development pipeline against MRSA, we believe that this family of drug candidates could possess an excellent safety profile in addition to efficacy in neutralizing this bacterium," stated Dr. Murphy. "Nemus will work with Dr. Elsohly, the University lead researcher on this project, to have this data submitted to a future scientific meeting and anticipates performing further testing against a variety of other bacterial species. Commercially, the company looks to actively pursue partnering opportunities for these candidate molecules."

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENT

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements about the studies relating to and the potential benefits of the NB3000 series of drug candidates as well as the timing of our near term, intermediate term and long term goals. Such statements and other statements in this press release that are not descriptions of historical facts are forward-looking statements that are based on management's current expectations and assumptions and are subject to risks and uncertainties. If such risks or uncertainties materialize or such assumptions prove incorrect, our business, operating results, financial condition and stock price could be materially negatively affected. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology including "goal," "focus," "aims," "expects," "plans," "believes," "can," "could," "challenge," "predictable," "will," or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. We operate in a rapidly changing environment and new risks emerge from time to time. As a result, it is not possible for our management to predict all risks, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements the Company may make. Risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially include, among others, our capital resources, uncertainty regarding the results of future testing and development efforts and other risks that are described in the Risk Factors section of NEMUS's most recent annual or quarterly report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as expressly required by law, NEMUS disclaims any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

With more cannabis retailers and dispensaries entering the market, marijuana entrepreneurs are having an increasingly difficult time distinguishing their brands and product lines. The need to stand out is not only necessary to secure to new customers (once the company is up and running) but more importantly, to initially entice investors and convince them that the business model is sufficiently unique to succeed.  Indeed, raising capital from investors is absolutely critical for many marijuana entrepreneurs and as a corollary, an exciting proposition for investors looking to capitalize on this popular and growing industry. 

Cannabis Investors or Cannabis Lenders?

Cannabis investors may provide capital to cannabis entrepreneurs in (generally speaking) one of two ways; equity or debt.  A simple capital-for-equity model is fairly straightforward - investors buy into the company at a given valuation and in return, own a part of the company.  The second option, debt, is often a much more complex transaction and involves the "investor", who may not be an investor in any pure sense of the word, loaning the company money at a high rate of interest. Unfortunately, many smaller investors (or lenders, depending on your perspective) are not sufficiently equipped to protect their interests in the event that the marijuana business goes under.   

What happens when the invested in cannabis defaults on the loan? Here are your two options:

(1) Renegotiate the Marijuana Startup's Debt

Promissory notes that are well drafted typically contain a statement regarding an uncured event of default, which causes the debt to accelerate. Thus, if the cannabis business you have invested in misses a payment and does not make a late payment by a cure date, that company’s entire debt is due. When this happens, partners tend to negotiate an extension, and you as the financer can extract concessions from your borrower (i.e. security interests, personal guarantees, or pledges of ownership in the company). This generally happens so that your borrower can avoid you obtaining a judgment against them.

(2) Get A Judgment Against Your Cannabis Borrower

If you have the money to obtain a judgment against your borrower, you can use that judgment to levy on the borrower’s business assets.  The idea here of course is to seize assets of your borrower that are sufficiently valuable to cover your losses.  In many states, if you are indeed awarded a judgment against your marijuana borrower, you may also be eligible to be reimbursed for attorney fees and other associated costs.

A Note of Caution: Fraudulent Transfers

Unfortunately, it is not too uncommon for companies in debt to do everything in their power to avoid paying it.  Once such method used to this end is the employment of a fraudulent transfer. A fraudulent transfer occurs when a borrower transfers the company’s property to a third party, without receiving something back of equal value, in order to deplete the company of the funds required to repay the financer. This is undoubtedly a dirtier tactic and if intent can be established may rise to the level of criminal liability.

Be Proactive in Protecting Your Assets

Ultimately, if you are planning to finance or lend to a cannabis company, it is important to develop a contingency plan that accounts for the possibility of a failed business. Is your agreement with the marijuana company tight and drafted in such a way as to maximize your protections?  If the business goes under, can you sustain the loss of your entire investment? Do you have funds to litigate in court?  Unfortunately, the legalization of cannabis does not guarantee businesses financial success.

Blog Provided By: Abe Cohn is COO of THC Legal Group, a Marijuana Law Firm specializing legal protection for the cannabis industry.  For more information, please visit their website at http://www.THCLegalGroup.com

For more information on THC Legal Group, view the company directory listing on Invest In MJ