August 15, 2022

This Week in Cannabis News: August 12, 2022

By
Jay Rosenthal
August 15, 2022

Welcome to This Week in Cannabis News, Episode 4: Friday, August 12, 2022.

Here’s what you need to know this week

Moving cannabis forward in Florida

Trulieve has funded and is supporting a constitutional amendment ballot measure pushing for legalization in Florida. Trulieve currently operates over 100 dispensaries in that state. The measure needs 900k signatures to qualify for the 2024 ballot.

But Cookies is not waiting for Florida's legalization to open their first dispensary. The grand opening of Cookies hits Miami tomorrow, Saturday, August 13, 2022.

A growing market in New Mexico

New Mexico's adult-use cannabis market continues to grow month over month. In July, that state saw sales of $40 million.New Mexico's Governor had this to say about the industry in the Las Cruces Sun News:

"We've established a new industry that is already generating millions of dollars in local and state revenue and will continue to generate millions more in economic activity across the state, creating thousands of jobs for New Mexicans in communities both small and large.”

...and in Illinois, too!

In Illinois, the latest sales numbers have the cannabis market continuing to grow as well. In July 2022, sales were up 7% and totaled $135.7 million. This all according to New Cannabis Ventures.

Cannabis cultivation takes shape in Connecticut

Connecticut has issued their first provisional cultivation license to kick things off on the cultivation side of their legalization efforts. INSAβ€”along with their social equity partner in Connecticutβ€”received the provisional license and will move forward with building out their business model, processes and facility; all this according to the Hartford Business Journal.

Market updates from Canada

The Ontario Cannabis Store, which is both the Provincial wholesaler and an e-commerce/delivery operator, had a tough week. One of their vendors suffered a cyber attack, which left the OCS unable to make deliveries to either consumers OR retailers.

And in the Province of Alberta, the regulator there changed rules to now allow retailers to have shop windows that you can actually see through. This was after a strong push from industry that non-see-through windows put cannabis retail staff at risk.

Checking IDs in Colorado

And finally, to Colorado, where a new report from the Marijuana Enforcement Division in that state found that dispensaries were 98% compliant with checking IDs at their shops. This is similar to research in California previously that found 100 percent compliance.Β 

Featured guest: Sally Kent Peebles, Attorney at Vicente Sederberg LLP

Next week, on August 18th, Dutchie, along with our partners at the Mississippi Medical Marijuana Association (3MA), Cure8, and cannabis law firm Vicente Sederberg LLP, will be hosting an in-person education and networking event in Jackson, Mississippi. You can still register here!

In advance of that event, we connected with Sally Kent Peebles, an attorney at Vicente Sederberg LLP about the latest from Mississippiβ€”and other southern states, too.

About the author
Jay Rosenthal
Lead Content Producer @ Dutchie