August 18, 2018
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In response to President Trump calling the media the enemy of the people the Boston Globe called on newspapers to explain why the press is actually an advocate for the people. The New York Times collected hundreds of editorials from around the country on the value of a free press.

The 2018 U.S. midterm elections are coming. And the primaries are already here. Register to vote and/or get the information you need to register here.
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Here's the news.
POLITICS
California may revise its REC market rules as licensed businesses confront supply chain and testing problems, and struggle to compete with the still vibrant illicit market. (AP) The illicit market is a likely culprit for California’s meager second quarter haul of $74M in pot taxes. (MJBizDaily)

California’s cannabis industry has become a significant lobby in Sacramento. (calmatters)
Weed has become an important issue in Nevada’s closely watched Senate race between Rep. Jacky Rosen (D) and Sen. Dean Heller (R). (Nevada Independent)

Cannabis activist and Massachusetts regulator Shaleen Title discussed why the equity program she has championed is struggling . (Forbes, Tom Angell)

Michigan lawmakers have called for the state to halt the anticipated shutdown of unlicensed MED businesses in September. (MLive) Meanwhile a pro-cannabis petition in Troy Michigan contained forged signatures of local officials . (Detroit Free Press) 

Florida congressional candidates have mixed views on MED . (Herald-Tribune)

In Louisiana, MED could arrive in pharmacies in November. (NOLA.com)

The organizer of one of Missouri’s three upcoming MED ballot initiatives has sued to get the other two removed from the ballot. (Joplin Globe) Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill (D), who’s facing a tough re-election fight, said she would support one of the initiatives. Her opponent, Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley (R), is still making up his mind. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

The Deseret News finds the Marijuana Policy Project was the largest donor and contributed staff to Utah’s upcoming MED vote. MPP named former NAACP executive Steve Hawkins executive director. The group’s founder Rob Kampia left the role amid revived sexual harassment concerns. (Marijuana Moment)

Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D), who’s running for Senate against Sen. Ted Cruz (R), asked, "Who's going to be the last black man to be behind bars in Texas for something that's legal in the rest of the United States?" (Dallas Morning News)

Cannabis Wire has a timeline of Oklahoma’s bumpy road to MED . North Dakota will vote on REC in November. (AP)

420-Friendly candidates did well in gubernatorial primaries in Connecticut, Minnesota, Vermont and Wisconsin. (Marijuana Moment) Newsweek looks at how the GOP learned to love marijuana .

Congress is on the verge of legalizing hemp . (WaPo)

Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, will allow privately owned dispensaries starting April 1, 2019. Until then the province’s legal REC market will be limited to a government-run online store.


For the first time, the UN is starting a review of whether cannabis is properly classified as illegal under international drug treaties.
BUSINESS
Constellation Brands , parent company of Corona beer, invested an additional $4 Billion in Canada’s Canopy Growth , by far the largest investment in the cannabis sector to date. Last October Constellation invested almost $200M in the company.

With the capital, Ontario-based Canopy plans to expand its footprint to perhaps 30 countries. “This [deal] marks the end of the warm-up in our sector...It’s fully go time,” Canopy CEO Bruce Linton said. (Reuters)

In coming months, Linton said he expects to see more ‘disintegration’ than consolidation in the Canadian industry as smaller players fall away. (Financial Post)

Goldman Sachs advised Constellation and Merrill Lynch helped finance the deal, a cannabis first for both Wall Street firms. (Globe and Mail -- paywall)
Canadian MED company Tilray said a number of top investors in its recent Nasdaq IPO were “blue-chip institutional investors” making their first cannabis play. (Bloomberg) Ahead of the IPO, the company toned down the pro-cannabis rhetoric of its filing at the SEC’s behest. (MarketWatch)


Almost a quarter of millenials regularly or occasionally smoke cannabis , more than the general population, a Gallup Poll found. (Marijuana Moment)

In California, a proposal to license private banks to work with cannabis companies fell short. (L.A.Times) With fires raging in northern California, regulators want cannabis companies to have access to insurance . (Cannabis Now)

Oakland mega-dispensary Harborside plans to go public in Canada in a roughly C$200M deal. (MJBizDaily)

The L.A. Times editorialized that cities shouldn’t be able to ban delivery services from delivering within a city's limits. “Marijuana is not really legal in California if residents don’t have a reasonable way to buy it,” the paper states.

And the state may also have an overproduction problem . (Inlander)

British Columbia’s C21 Investments cancelled a $8.3M deal with a Maine company linked to a trafficking and money laundering investigation.

Business Insider discusses major beer brewers’ newfound interest in cannabis . Bloomberg looks at why Big Booze went green before Big Tobacco .

Colorado has seen less consolidation than other markets. (MJBizDaily)

A New Jersey court ruled an employer does not have to waive mandatory drug testing for a MED patient. (NJ.com)

Ohio’s MED industry is hiring . (Cincinnati.com)

Cannabis brands like MedMen want to promote themselves through social media influencers , but the influencers are wary. (Digiday) MedMen also put actress Lake Bell on the cover of its magazine , Ember. Bell’s husband, tattoo artist Scott Campbell, started the stylish cannabis brand Beboe . (Hollywood Reporter)

Canna Law Blog says that with cannabis cybersecurity, “Hacking back is a bad idea.” It also looks at trademark issues surrounding celebrity licensing deals.

Security company Brinks says it’s ready for legalization in Canada. (CNBC)

Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper is betting big on the weed beat . (Nieman Lab)

The Guardian talks to some women changing the face of the industry .

Nuvolution , a new non-profit incubaror in Denver will foster cannabis NGOs . (Westword)
HEALTH & SCIENCE
Scores of people overdosed on synthetic cannabis in a New Haven, Conn. park. (CNN) Federal narcs continue to conflate cannabis and synthetic cannabis. (Marijuana Moment)
Some hackers think machine learning can help farmers determine when plants are sick . (Mashable)

Scientists may have discovered the mechanism by which cannabis can relieve chronic stomach disorders . (Popular Science)

A Montreal study looking at whether cannabis can substitute for opiates in MS patients shows promise. (Montreal Gazette)

In Washington, cannabis trash, like discarded packaging , is becoming a problem. (WaPo)

The Santa Rosa Press Democrat accompanies a MED patient to her first day of kindergarten.

A Canadian CBD company has partnered with a Dr. Sanjay Gupta who is not the CNN health journalist of the same name. (Hemp Industry Daily)

The DEA plans to triple the amount of cannabis which can be grown in the US for research purposes. (Forbes, Tom Angell)

In Georgia a man who rubs MED oil on his hands for arthritis faces criminal charges after touching his infant who was apparently sickened. (WSB-TV, Atlanta)

Scientists have finally decoded the very complex genome of the world’s most important crop: wheat. (The Atlantic)
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CRIMINAL JUSTICE
The US and Mexico announced a new strategy to target drug cartel finances .
Since December, Dallas has had a “cite and release” policy for minor pot offenses, but it’s only been used in a tiny fraction of the pertinent cases .

The US saw a record 72,000 drug overdose deaths in 2017. (N.Y.Times)

Cops say the gray market continues to thrive in Massachusetts.

The sheriff’s office in El Paso County Colorado wants to prove legalization causes increased crime .

Trump plans to nominate corporate lawyer and former federal prosecutor David Anderson as US Attorney for Northern California.

Vice dives into how the US taught the world to demonize drugs.
CULTURE
SFWeekly says Grass Lands, the cannabis section of music festival Outside Lands , was haunted by its potential .
Vulture fact-checks some classic stoner movies .

Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul , died at age 76. (New Yorker)


No, the Bible inspired cartoon VeggieTales did not introduce a cannabis character . (Snopes)

Rapper B-Real of Cypress Hill opened dispensary Dr. Greenthumb in SoCal. (Marijuana Moment)
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