Invest In MJ Blog Reposts

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

Medical marijuana is legal in 23 states including New Jersey, but the ubiquitous social media giant Facebook apparently doesn't "like" it. Home pages run by three Garden State dispensaries and at least handful of others across the country have been deleted. 

The surprise move stunned dispensary owners and angered patients, who said Wednesday they rely on the up-to-the-minute information these sites provide about the latest strains that help alleviate debilitating symptoms.

"It seems high-handed to simply shut down important resources for sick patients without even saying why or giving organizations a way to ask for reconsideration," said Peter Rosenfeld, one of the 5,668 registered patients in the state program. "What better use of a social media than having sites where parents of sick children can ask questions about medication and treatments?"

In an email, the Facebook media relations office declined to answer questions, and referred NJ Advance Media to the community standards section on its homepage.

Officials from Breakwater Wellness and Treatment Center in Cranbury and Compassionate Sciences Alternative Treatment Center in Bellmawr said their home pages were shut down Tuesday. When they tried to use their home page, they found an electronic message that said: "We remove any promotion or encouragement of drug use."

"Your page is currently not visible on Facebook. It looks like content on your page does not follow the Facebook Community Terms and Standards."

"The site does not allow ads that promote the sale or use of . . .illegal, prescription, or recreational drugs," according to the advertising policies' page.

Marijuana possession and production violates federal law, although the Obama administration has publicly announced that it would not devote law enforcement resources to investigating lawful use permitted by state statutes.

Breakwater founder Alex Zaleski called Facebook's actions "a great disservice to our patients who rely on us to keep them updated on what is going on. We are looking into the matter and hope to resolve it in the patients' favor as soon as possible."

Although each of the five dispensaries in the state have their own web page, the Facebook presence is important because the state rules prohibit advertising, Compassionate Sciences General Manager Michael Nelson said.

Facebook is "incredibly important because the state limits what we can do on our website," Nelson said. "It allows us to post strain names which allows people to do research. It allows the communication between the patients about what is working."

The Facebook presence for Garden State Dispensary in Woodbridge is also missing, but a dispensary representative could not immediately be reached. But the pages for Greenleaf Compassion Center in Montclair and Compassionate Care Foundation in Egg Harbor Township remained active as of 3 p.m.

News about Facebook's actions made for passionate fodder on the Facebook home page of the Friends of the Medical Marijuana Coalition of New Jersey Wednesday.

"It makes me question whether any of us should continue to use FaceBook. Maybe it is time for people to migrate to new ways of communicating," Rosenfeld said.

It's unclear how many legal medical marijuana and recreational marijuana operations have been affected. Dispensaries in Maine and Washington have taken to Facebook's community forum in the last three months to complain about the unilateral decision to disconnect their social media presence.

"I am a dentist and I also own a legal marijuana business in Washington State. I run tasteful ads. Right now, my page has been deleted by facebook, but my competitor...is advertising tons of marijuana on facebook, with no problems from you. Why are you focusing on me, but no one else?"

"I expect an answer soon or at least let me know the next step or should I just start legal action? I feel you are not dealing with this in a fair manner."

The original article written by Susan K. Livio at NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, can be found at :
http://www.nj.com/healthfit/index.ssf/2016/02/facebook_cancels_pages_for_medical_marijuana_dispe.html

Boulder, Colorado-based Tradiv is raising a $1 million round as it gears up to launch its B2B marketplace for cannabis cultivators, marijuana infused product companies, and dispensaries.

That’s right: The B2B pot ecosystem is unfolding right before our eyes.

Backed by Cannabis accelerator CanopyBoulder and accelerator partner Micah Tapman, Tradiv revealed the raise in a public filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The weed startup has so far raised $650,000, according to the filing — at least $20,000 of which likely came from CanopyBoulder, in exchange for a whopping 9.5 percent equity stake. The filing also lists Emily Paxhia, partner of Cannabis-only fund Poseidon Asset Management; and former Microsoft Surface manager, Nick Hofmeister.

See Original Blog Post

August 5, 2015 

Pennsylvania drugmaker Zynerba Pharmaceuticals ($ZYNE) is making its way to Wall Street with some cannabis-derived treatments for central nervous system disorders, raising $42 million in an IPO.

The company priced 3 million shares at $14 each, the middle of its range, and set aside another 450,000 shares for its underwriters to line up for as much as $51.8 million in total.

With the proceeds, Zynerba will press forward with a pair of early-stage transdermal patches that mete out cannabinoid chemicals to treat a host of CNS ailments. ZYN002, slated to enter clinical trials in the second half, has shown promise in refractory epilepsy, Fragile X syndrome and osteoarthritis pain, the company said. And ZYN001, in line for Phase I next year, targets fibromyalgia and peripheral neuropathic pain.

The promise of cannabis-derived pharmaceuticals has drawn a slew of companies to the field over the past few years, including GW Pharmaceuticals ($GWPH) and Insys Therapeutics ($INSY). But unlike its further-along competitors, Zynerba's treatments are synthetically manufactured and don't require growing and maintaining cannabis plants, which the company bills as a practical and financial advantage. Furthermore, Zynerba's transdermal therapies get their active ingredients straight into the circulatory system, avoiding the bioavailability issues that can plague oral treatments that must first navigate the stomach and liver.

Zynerba is led by CEO Armando Anido, appointed in 2014 after stints at the helm of Auxilium Pharmaceuticals, acquired by Endo Pharmaceutical ($ENDP) for about $2.6 billion, and NuPathe, which went to Teva ($TEVA) for $144 million last year.

Meanwhile, biotech's ongoing IPO boom has continued unabated into the second half of 2015, marked by a record debut for Patrick Soon-Shiong's NantKwest ($NK). And the queue of drug developers angling to go public remains full, as Zynerba joins a group including gene therapy outfit Gensight Biologics and food allergy biotech Aimmune Therapeutics.

The original post can be seen here.

Economy of Scale - The cost advantage that arises with increased output of a product. Economies of scale arise because of the inverse relationship between the quantity produced and per-unit fixed costs; i.e. the greater the quantity of a good produced, the lower the per-unit fixed cost because these costs are shared over a larger number of goods. Economies of scale may also reduce variable costs per unit because of operational efficiencies and synergies. Economies of scale can be classified into two main types: Internal – arising from within the company; and External – arising from extraneous factors such as industry size. – “Investopedia”

I am constantly asked “how can I expand my cannabis business across state borders?”  I am then forced to explain how the U.S. system of federalism works.  Even though medical and/or recreational use of cannabis may be legal in your state, it is not legal on a federal level.  Why?  This boils down to the same issue concerning banking for the cannabis industry – the Schedule I Classification of cannabis makes its possession, use, cultivation and/or sale a federally illegal activity.  Then logically following, from a federal perspective, the proceeds of activities involving Schedule I “drugs” are the proceeds of illegal activities. 

Constitutional law then forces us to examine two important issues – (i) Preemption and (ii) Interstate Commerce.  The “Supremacy Clause” states that state laws which conflict or contradict federal law, are null and void.  Federal law is therefore the “law of the land”.  So in essence, all state legalization of cannabis, in any category, will not be “legally” recognized by the federal government with respect to law enforcement.  These real battles are being fought every day in states that have legalized cannabis use.  For the moment, the federal government seems to content to allow the great cannabis experimentation to continue, while occasionally issuing “safe-harbor” guidance that is quickly disregarded.