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In Michigan, three dispensaries received licenses to deliver medical cannabis to homes – a move that signals the beginning of a new business opportunity for cannabis entrepreneurs in the state. Read the full update here.

This week’s regulatory compliance updates are from May 7th to May 13th. In Alabama, the state Senate passed a bill on May 9th that would legalize the use of medical cannabis. Alabama would become the thirty-fourth state to allow the use of medical cannabis. The bill would create a nine-person Alabama Medical Cannabis Commission to establish a registry system and properly implement the legislation. The legislation now moves to the state House. In Arkansas, after more than two years of litigation and delays, cannabis was sold legally on Friday, May 10th for the first time. Read more here.

The California Office of Administrative Law recently approved regulations pertaining to industrial hemp registration. The regulation takes effect immediately and will enable the California Department of Food and Agriculture to open registration with county agricultural commissioners for industrial hemp cultivation. The California Department of Food and Agriculture plans to propose additional regulations for industrial hemp cultivation later this year, including sampling and testing procedures, and the establishment of an agricultural pilot program. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker announced that the state is now accepting industrial hemp cultivation and processing applications. Officials with the West Virginia Department of Agriculture announced on April 30th that they will have greatly expanded the number of licenses distributed throughout the state to grow industrial hemp. In total, the number of licenses will increase from 46 last year to 158 licenses this year. Of the applicants, 71 selected the processing of hemp as part of their submission. For the full story, click here.

Welcome to dispensary compliance updates by Green Bits. This week’s regulatory compliance updates are from April 23rd to April 29th.  In federal news, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released a statement that clarified that the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill rendered the importation of hemp seeds legal. The USDA held that the DEA “no longer has authority to require hemp seed permits for import purposes.” Additionally, the USDA announced last Wednesday that hemp cultivators can officially apply for intellectual property protection for seed-propagated hemp, making the newly legal crop part of an existing program. This will allow farmers to prohibit others from marketing their variety of the plant. In payments news, PayPal Inc.’s Q1 2019 lobbying report, the company added the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act of 2019 to its list of lobbying efforts in Congress. The lobbying effort supports allowing cannabis businesses to have access to banking services and signals a change in the way the tech giant treats businesses in the cannabis industry. For more information, please listen to the entire episode and visit greenbits.com/blog.

This week’s regulatory compliance updates are from April 16th to April 22nd and contain information for Arkansas, California, Colorado, Georgia, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Oregon, and Washington dispensaries.       In Federal news, the​ ​U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services​ issued a memo saying that using marijuana or working in the cannabis industry, even if it is legal under state law, makes immigrants ineligible for citizenship because it means they don’t have “good moral character.” The memo says that “violation of federal controlled substance law, including for marijuana, established by a conviction or admission, is generally a bar to establishing good moral character for naturalization even where the conduct would not be a violation of state law.” Proposals such as the STATES act do not address these deeper issues related to federal prohibition. “Considering the devastating effects our war on drugs had on Latin America, immigration reform must be a necessary component of any comprehensive cannabis legalization policy,” stated Jason Ortiz, vice president of the ​Minority Cannabis Business Association​.       For more information, please visit greenbits.com/blog. 

This week’s regulatory compliance updates are from April 9th to April 15th and contain information for Arkansas, Maryland, Nevada, and Missouri dispensaries. In Arkansas, the State Department of Health has certified nearly 9,519 patients who have at least one of the eighteen medical conditions that qualify for treatment with medical marijuana. This is up 25% from a month ago and the department began sending out medical marijuana cards to certified patients in February. An MMC spokesman stated, “While we do not have a specific date to share, we anticipate the first dispensary inspection will take place in early April.” Stores will open and sales may commence upon completion of a successful inspection. Two dispensaries have already been slated to open soon. Maryland regulators told all licensed dispensaries that they need to open by September 30th. All of the 102 dispensaries were supposed to be open by December 2017 when sales began, but some haven’t opened their doors yet. Mackie Barch, chairman of the Maryland Wholesale Medical Cannabis Trade Association, said “If you can’t get open in that amount of time, these licenses need to be reallocated. The commission has gone out of its way to give people an ample amount of time to get open. If you can’t get open, you probably have some sort of issue that can’t be resolved." Nevada faces complaints about secrecy in awarding licenses to sell marijuana in the state's booming legal marketplace, boiling over into lawsuits and legislation that appear poised to pry open the process. Several companies have sued the state tax department, arguing that no one knows for sure the criteria officials use to award new licenses. A judge heard the case on Monday, April 15th concerning secrecy in the state’s licensing process. Missouri will begin accepting medical cannabis cultivation, processing, and dispensary applications on August 3rd, 2019. Licensing decisions are expected by December, and they anticipate medical marijuana products could be available for sale as soon as January 2020. As of March 28th, the state reported it had received 471 of those forms for: 256 dispensaries, 142 cultivators, and 73 processors. For more information, please visit greenbits.com/blog. 

This week’s regulatory compliance updates are from April 1 to April 8 and contain information for California, Colorado, Michigan, and Washington dispensaries, as well as federal and international news. California is being sued by 24 cities over a rule that allows marijuana deliveries in places that have banned cannabis retail stores. A Los Angeles Times article noted “Those that stand to benefit from the state rules allowing home deliveries include 311 state-licensed delivery firms.” The Colorado Sunset Bill “Proposes Changes for Pot Industry Rules and Regulations”, including (but not limited to) selling hemp and CBD in recreational dispensaries with testing, medical marijuana equivalency limits for patients, and merging medical and retail marijuana codes. In Michigan, Metrc released information within a recent bulletin on a new software update that will allow Provisioning Centers the ability to record sales deliveries to a qualifying patient. As of April 5, 2019, the Metrc Admin for each Provisioning Center will see a new selectable “Deliveries” option beneath the “Sales” tab. Michigan regulators also released an updated “Home Deliveries Procedures Checklist” for medical cannabis deliveries. This extensive 3-page checklist will help ensure all home deliveries are compliant with the regulations. In Washington state, the WSLCB shared that they will soon seek input from cannabis testing labs, as well as retailers, on upcoming Quality Assurance Testing and Product Requirements. Also, Leaf Data Systems’ newest version will include numeric standardization that will standardize decimal values pertaining to weights and the replacement of drop-down menus with “type-ahead” search fields for batches, inventories and inventory types.  Soon after, Qlik reports are scheduled to be available.  In federal and international news... On April 2nd, the FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb issued a press release on hemp and hemp-derived cannabidiol (also referred to as “Hemp CBD”). The FDA is creating a “working group” to “explore potential pathways for dietary supplements and/or conventional foods containing CBD to be lawfully marketed.”  Guam became the first U.S. jurisdiction to legalize marijuana in 2019 with the signature of Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero (D) on April 4th. When it goes into effect, the U.S. territory’s new law will permit adults 21 and older to possess and grow cannabis, and it will create a system of licensed and regulated businesses to produce and sell marijuana. That concludes this week’s regulatory compliance updates.  For more information, please visit greenbits.com/blog.