In Nevada, Delta-8 THC is illegal. During the cannabis culture and accessories trade show, CHAMPS, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) allegedly raided the show because a vendor participating in the event unwittingly gave the Las Vegas district attorney an unauthorized Delta-8 THC product sample. Several social media posts by vendors at the show said they were detained and products were confiscated.
Credit: CHAMPS
Providing samples to the show’s attendees is against the rules. As a result, some vendors were asked to vacate the premises. CHAMPS vendors received notice last week that samples of Delta-8, Delta-10 THC and similar products were illegal in Nevada and vendors should refrain from offering samples.
Several social media posts began to report of the feds raiding the venue started cropping up late Wednesday evening. By Thursday, various vendors began posting that the officers ordered the attendees to wait outside while they inspected the scene, according to CannaTech Today. As a result of yesterday’s occurrence, plainclothes police officers are walking the show floor today while its vendor booths are currently being searched for any Delta-8 THC and similarly prohibited products.
Through the last year, several states, including states where Delta-9 THC is legal, such as Oregon, California and Arizona, passed laws specifically banning Delta-8 THC. Nevada went a step further in early July to specifically include Delta-8 in its definition of cannabis. The Nevada Cannabis Compliance Board recently stated, “products exceeding 0.3 percent THC, including Delta-8 and Delta-9 THC, would be considered cannabis. As such, a license from the Cannabis Compliance Board would be required to make it or sell it.”
The Champs trade show is one of the largest cannabis industry trade shows in the U.S. The 2021 sow is being held from Jul 27 to Sat, July 31 at the Las Vegas Convection Center. Smoke shops, vape shops, dispensaries, 420 counter-culture, adult novelty shops, C-Stores, online marketers and branders, entrepreneurs, glassblowers, and counter-culture industry professionals who are seeking to grow in their market sectors and gain current knowledge and product opportunities to better leverage their business in a thriving marketplace attend CHAMPS, according to the show’s website.
A difficult debate is brewing in the U.S. Senate. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer released draft legislation Wednesday to legalize marijuana across the country. The lawmaker was joined by fellow senators Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) in proposing to withdraw laws and federal penalties on marijuana. If passed, the legislation would also expunge nonviolent federal cannabis-related criminal records and let states make their own marijuana laws.
Credit: J Doms
The Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act (CAOA) would also help put an end to the unfair targeting and treatment of communities of color by removing cannabis from the federal list of controlled substances, according to a press release. “Ending the federal prohibition on cannabis is becoming increasingly urgent as more and more states continue to legalize adult and medical use of cannabis,” the release states. “Despite the fact that cannabis is illegal under federal law, the majority of Americans live in a state where cannabis is legal in one form or another and more than 90 percent of Americans believe it should be legalized for either adult or medical use.”
To date, the adult use of cannabis is legal in 18 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, and Guam; and 37 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands have advanced laws to allow medical cannabis. Schumer said that this legislative proposal goes a step beyond legalizing cannabis by expunging federal non-violent marijuana crimes and allowing individuals currently serving time in federal prison for non-violent marijuana crimes to petition a court for resentencing. It will also establish a fund to reinvest in the “communities that were hurt by the War on Drugs and provide restorative justice” to communities of color.
“I am proud to introduce our discussion draft of the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act, a legislative proposal aimed at finally putting an end to the federal prohibition of cannabis and addressing the over-criminalization of cannabis in a comprehensive and meaningful way,” said Schumer. “The War on Drugs has too often been a war on people, and particularly people of color. Not only will this legislation remove cannabis from the federal list of controlled substances, but it will also help fix our criminal justice system, ensure restorative justice, protect public health, and implement responsible taxes and regulations.”
The cannabis industry, which employs over 320,000 workers and generated over $17.5 billion in sales in 2020, also presents a significant opportunity for economic empowerment, according to the release. The industry saw 32 percent growth in 2020; and by 2025, it is estimated that the cannabis industry could have nearly $45.9 billion in annual sales.
These proposals build upon the recent Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act by the U.S. House of Representatives. The CAOA expands beyond the MORE Act by proposing a “moon-shot effort to address drugged driving and multi-substance impairment, establishing strong cannabis health and safety standards” under the Food and Drug Administration, and leveraging the expertise of the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) within the Department of Treasury to regulate industry practices.
22nd Century Group has added strategic partnerships with expert commercial-scale plant breeders Sawatch Agriculture and Folium Botanical. The partnerships with these two northern hemisphere breeders add to the breeding capabilities that 22nd Century already has through its close partnership with Aurora Cannabis and another southern hemisphere-based breeder that will be announced shortly, providing 22nd Century year-round growing capabilities.
With decades of combined specialized alkaloid plant breeding and plant biotechnology experience, these expert breeders have proven next-generation technologies and innovations on breeding, commercial scale-up and cultivation, many of which are far beyond those of independent competitive breeders or in-house breeding in consumer product companies, according to 22nd Century Group. Under 22nd Century’s direction, proprietary plants will be developed with optimum levels of cannabinoids that meet high-quality standards when grown at commercial scale.
“We are thrilled to announce the addition of these world-class alkaloid-based plant breeding specialists to complement 22nd Century’s capabilities in our upstream value chain,” said James A. Mish, chief executive officer of 22nd Century Group, in a statement.
“Our four breeding partnerships complete our portfolio of comprehensive plant science capabilities, enabling the rapid creation and scale-up of stable, tailored, highly disruptive plant lines with predictable yields critical to the mass cultivation of hemp/cannabis, which will be absolutely necessary to meet the rapidly growing market demand for improved, stable genetics.
“We are giving growers a competitive advantage by substantially improving crop yield and optimizing the time that it takes to develop new lines to a two-year cycle, a reduction from the 7 to 10 years that would typically be necessary to create new lines using our proprietary capabilities.”
With today’s announcement of these expert breeding partnerships, 22nd Century says it has secured all key partnerships needed to maximize and support each of the segments of its cannabinoid value chain: plant profiling (CannaMetrix), plant biotechnology (KeyGene), plant breeding, commercial-scale plant cultivation and ingredient extraction/purification (Sawatch Agriculture, Folium Botanical, Aurora Cannabis, Needle Rock Farms and Panacea).
The new bill in Connecticut that legalizes cannabis comes with a surprise. The legislation also bans vaping in many public places. In addition to being banned in health care settings, restaurants, state buildings and more, vaping and smoking tobacco or marijuana will now be prohibited in hotels, motels and other places of lodging, as well as in correctional facilities and halfway houses.
Credit: Andy Dean
Additionally, in all places where vaping is prohibited it will be restricted not only indoors but also outside within 25 feet of a doorway, window or intake vent, according to the Hartford Courant. That means, for example, a restaurant worker who takes a smoke break outdoors will have to do so at a 25-foot distance from the building itself.
The full list of places where smoking is banned in Connecticut now includes:
Any building, rail platform or bus shelter operated by the state (with the exception of public housing)
Any health care institution
Any retail food establishment accessed by the general public
Any restaurant
Anywhere alcohol is sold
In or on the grounds of any school
In or on the grounds of any child care facility
In any elevator
In any hotel room
In any correctional facility or halfway house
In any college dormitory
Landlords and building managers will not be allowed to prohibit the possession or consumption of cannabis but will be allowed to ban residents from smoking it. Connecticut recently joined 18 other states in legalizing recreation cannabis, after a multi-year effort in the state legislature.
Marijuana possession will be legal in Connecticut as of July 1, while retail sales are likely to begin next year. The bill lets people from cities that have borne the brunt of the war on drugs qualify for expedited licenses, in an attempt to reverse disproportionate impacts of marijuana prohibition.
“We had a chance to learn from others and I think we got it right here in the state of Connecticut,” Gov. Ned Lamont said before signing the legislation. “We weren’t the first but we were the first to show we can get it right.”
The governor of Connecticut on Tuesday signed a bill to legalize marijuana—making it the 19th state to enact the reform. Last week, Gov. Ned Lamont threatened a veto over language on equity licensing that had been added, prompting legislators to revise it.
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“For decades, the war on cannabis caused injustices and created disparities while doing little to protect public health and safety,” Lamont said in a press release. “The law that I signed today begins to right some of those wrongs by creating a comprehensive framework for a regulated market that prioritizes public health, public safety, criminal justice and equity. It will help eliminate the dangerous, unregulated market and support a new and equitable sector of our economy that will create jobs.”
Connecticut is the fourth state to legalize cannabis for adult use this year alone, following New York, Virginia and New Mexico. Possession of cannabis among adults age 21 and over will be legal in Connecticut beginning July 1, 2021. Adults cannot have more than 1.5 ounces of cannabis on their person, and no more than 5 ounces in their homes or locked in their car truck or glove box.
Retail sales of cannabis aim to begin in Connecticut by the end of 2022. The sale, manufacture, and cultivation of cannabis (aside from home grow) requires a license from the state. Products that contain delta-8-THC, delta-9-THC, or delta-10-THC are considered cannabis and may only be sold by licensed retailers. Individuals who are not licensed by the state may gift cannabis to others but may not sell it. Individuals may not gift cannabis to another individual who has “paid” or “donated” for another product.
Certain cannabis-related convictions that occurred between January 1, 2000 and October 1, 2015 will be automatically erased. Those seeking to erase cannabis-related convictions outside of that period will require petitioning. The law enacts a tax rate structure on the retail sale of cannabis that includes a new source of revenue for municipalities.
This includes (1) a 3% municipal sales tax, which will be directed to the town or city where the retail sale occurred; (2) the 6.35% state sales tax; and (3) a tax based on the THC content of the product, which will be 2.75 cents per milligram of THC for cannabis edibles; 0.625 cents per milligram of THC for cannabis flower; and 0.9 cents per milligram of THC for all other product types. This means that Connecticut generally will have about a 4% lower tax rate than New York and about the same as Massachusetts.
“The states surrounding us already, or soon will, have legal adult-use markets. By allowing adults to possess cannabis, regulating its sale and content, training police officers in the latest techniques of detecting and preventing impaired driving, and expunging the criminal records of people with certain cannabis crimes, we’re not only effectively modernizing our laws and addressing inequities, we’re keeping Connecticut economically competitive,” Lamont said. “This legislation directs significant new funding to prevention and recovery services, which will be used to help prevent cannabis use by minors and to promote safe, healthy use of cannabis by those of legal age.”
Cannabis use is prohibited in state parks, state beaches, and on state waters.
22nd Century Group has announced new initiatives to strengthen and maximize revenue opportunities in its hemp/cannabis franchise. Included in these developments are strategic partnerships with two plant breeders in the northern and southern hemispheres, providing the company with year-round growing capabilities, close partnership activities with Aurora Cannabis, and the establishment of a newly created Canadian subsidiary.
“The addition of breeders who specialize in alkaloid-based plant cultivation to our network of strategic partnerships provides us with the competitive edge to commercialize our second-generation IP and technologies,” said James A. Mish, CEO of 22nd Century Group, in a statement. “As cannabis regulation evolves, we believe that companies able to control the traits and consistency of the plants will command a premium price and margin in the marketplace. 22nd Century is well positioned to capitalize on the tremendous potential in the global legal cannabis space by creating hemp/cannabis plants that have stable, specific cannabinoid levels at commercial scale for various end-use markets.
“As a matter of preparedness, earlier we announced a $40 million registered direct offering through Cowen and Company,” Mish continued. “Cowen is well-known as a pioneer in the cannabis institutional markets, and with this registered direct placement, 22nd Century is now squarely positioned in the mainstream of the cannabis equity space. Proceeds from this offering will be used as needed for future strategic growth opportunities as our hemp/cannabis market activity continues to increase. With the Special Equities Group as our financial advisor on this transaction to the company, we now have ample financial flexibility for this franchise as we advance our revenue-generating initiatives later this year.”
Incorporated in April 2021, 22nd Century’s Canadian subsidiary will serve as a base for the company’s expanded activities in tobacco, hemp/cannabis and its yet-to-be announced third franchise.
22nd Century Canada will also serve as a hub for expanded reduced nicotine tobacco activities in Canada, to include a possible future launch of VLN and the potential expansion of its reduced nicotine tobacco-growing programs.
New York state has joined a growing number of U.S. states that have expressly prohibited delta-8 THC and other THC isomers derived from hemp. However, lawmakers in the Empire State did make several small concessions to hemp producers, including a modification to limits on smokable hemp and removing a requirement that all cannabinoids over 0.05 percent THC be listed on product labels.
The delta-8 THC ban is part of the state’s revised regulations for hemp products. The new rules state that hemp cannabinoid products may “not contain synthetic cannabinoids, or cannabinoids created through isomerization, including [delta] 8-tetrahydrocannabinol and [delta] 10-tetrahydrocannabinol.”
New York has also placed a ban on hemp prerolls, cigarettes and any “flower product labeled or advertised for the purpose of smoking.” But the state health department says it will allow the sale of hemp flower, so long as the flower is not branded as an item for smoking, according to Hemp Industry Daily.
Hemp vapes are legal for customers over 21 and must carry “a warning stating that smoking or vaporizing is hazardous to your health.”
At least six states have considered or are currently updating their laws to specifically govern delta-8 THC, joining at least 11 that already have laws on the books addressing the minor cannabinoid, which can produce psychoactive effects in some people, although they are considered to be less potent than the delta 9-THC common in marijuana.
The labeling requirement remains in place for CBD and THC amounts in a product, just not for all cannabinoids in a product. The New York updates come six weeks after Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed a law making a first-in-the-nation attempt to regulate hemp operators working with flower and cannabinoid products the same way the state oversees marijuana operators, designating a new category for “cannabinoid hemp” that will be governed by a new Office of Cannabis Management.
New York’s health department told hemp and marijuana operators that it won’t require track-and-trace systems for hemp products, as some marijuana operators have requested. “Unlike medical marijuana and adult–use cannabis markets, cannabinoid hemp products can enter interstate commerce and it would be impractical to impose a state level seed–to–sale requirement on an industry not limited to intrastate,” regulators wrote. The state legalized recreational marijuana earlier this year.
Michelle Bodian, a cannabis attorney with the Vicente Sederberg firm in New York City, said that the state has the “potential to set a model for the rest of the country in regulating consumable hemp products.” But she added that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration needs to implement a single set of health-and-safety regulations. “Until there are national standards from FDA concerning cannabinoid hemp products, it continues to be very difficult and impractical for businesses to comply with these very specific state testing and labeling requirements, let alone all the other unique requirements.”
The U.S. House of Representatives on April 19 passed legislation that would allow banks to serve cannabis companies in states where it is legal, reports Reuters.
The bill clarifies that proceeds from legitimate cannabis businesses would not be considered illegal and directs federal regulators to craft rules for how they would supervise such banking activity.
Banks have generally been unwilling to do business with companies that sell marijuana or related products, fearing they could run afoul of federal laws.
That has left companies in the marijuana industry with few options, including relying on just a handful of small financial institutions or doing business in cash.
Thirty-six states have legalized medical cannabis while 17 states now allow adult use, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Lawmakers voted 321-101 to approve the bill and send it to the Senate.
Misinformation continues to be a challenge for the vaping industry. After the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that vitamin E acetate in black market marijuana vaping products was the cause e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury (EVALI) more than a year ago, many media outlets continue to falsely blame nicotine vaping products for the lung illness that was first identified in 2019.
Credit: drphil.com
On his Friday episode of the show Dr. Phil, American TV personality Phillip Calvin McGraw, also known as Dr. Phil, wrongly blamed the EVALI lung illness outbreak on vaping nicotine products. Speaking to a guest who stated she only used nicotine vaping products, McGraw said he “was puzzled” by the guest’s understanding that vaping, while not entirely safe, is safer than smoking combustible cigarettes.
“Ventilators, hospitals, deaths … there is lots of news out there on this,” McGraw said. “This isn’t a matter of opinion, it’s a matter of science.” The host then went on to use several news reports wrongly blaming nicotine for EVALI to support his statements. According to Nielsen data, the average daily audience of the Dr. Phil Show is 2.9 million viewers.
Reports of serious illnesses and deaths related to vaping began mounting in summer 2019. By mid-February 2020, the CDC reported more than 2,800 cases of lung injuries requiring hospitalization across all 50 states, and 68 deaths. After nearly six months of falsely claiming nicotine vaping products were the cause of the outbreak, the CDC finally admitted that the cause was illicit THC vaping products and not nicotine vaping products.
By July of 2020, the CDC said that states no longer needed to track lung-related injuries caused by marijuana-based vapor products, partly because cases have dropped. The CDC said it stopped requiring states to report the numbers in February of 2020 after it pinpointed vitamin E acetate as the culprit in THC vaping products that were making people sick, but didn’t make the public announcement until nearly five months later.
McGraw holds a doctorate in clinical psychology, though he ceased renewing his license to practice psychology in 2006, according to Wikipedia. The CDC and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) now strongly recommend that people avoid use of “e-cigarettes or vaping products containing THC, especially from the illicit market.”
The UK and EU have a different view on e-cigarettes and whether or not combustible tobacco smokers should make the switch. More and more smokers began transitioning over to vapor products after the Public Health England stated that vaping is 95 percent safer than smoking cigarettes. Experts have pointed out that EVALI cases are almost exclusive to the United States and haven’t made a blip on the radar globally. In the UK, there are approx. 3.6 million e-cigarette users with virtually no EVALI cases reported during the media coverage period in 2019 and early 2020.
There were also little to no cases of EVALI in Canada and Mexico, the closest foreign neighbors to the US. “EVALI was largely the result of an unregulated illicit THC vape market in the United States which didn’t follow safe production standards” says Allan Rewak, executive director of Canada-based Vaping Industry Trade Association (VITA) in Nov. of 2020. “Canada’s nicotine vape market was on the final path toward federal regulation at the time, which prevented EVALI from occurring in any significant way north of the border.”
The use of EVALI to spread fear on nicotine vaping in Mexico and in Latin America was particularly crude, dishonest and more intense than in other places, according to Roberto Sussman, senior researcher and lecturer at the National University of Mexico and founder and director of Pro-Vapeo. .
“Up to this day, all officials of the health ministry in Mexico are still blam[ing] nicotine vaping,” says Sussman. “And when you try to engage them, they say, ‘No, no, no. That’s it. Full stop. End of discussion.’ That’s it.” Since EVALI has now been found to be caused by illegal THC vape pens, not nicotine-based e-cigarettes, Sussman says “no one has told Latin America.”
In late 2020, Mexico’s president signed legislation prohibiting the importation, manufacture and distribution of all noncombustible products tobacco (vaping) products, including heat-not-burn products. “Their justification was that we need to protect Mexican youth from EVALI. Given the proximity of the U.S., this epidemic can come to Mexico any time,” says Sussman. “Pure fear-mongering and they’ve refused all debate.”
Brad Jemmett, a former long-time smoker and now general manager for SnowPlus – an innovation based vape company – suggests that the core of what drove the negative media was a localized, US issue.
“Globally, we don’t really see EVALI cases like there were in the US, because EVALI was linked to illicit marijuana vapes, and most specifically the addition of Vitamin E acetate as a thickening agent. Our products on the other hand, are developed and tested to the highest degree, and designed specifically for adult smokers looking to transition out of smoking,” he said. “At SnowPlus, we never have and never will use Vitamin E acetate in any of our products. Through innovation, we’ve aimed to simulate the smoking ritual with vape technology, to provide a less harmful alternative compared to smoking cigarettes.”
Big Tobacco must be prevented from utilizing “its profit-driven product engineering of addictive and deadly products, predatory marketing practices and anti-regulatory expertise” to dominate the legal cannabis industry, according to Andy Tan and Shaleen Title.
Writing in Tobacco Control, the academics say the tobacco industry has a demonstrated history of resisting government regulation, co-opting scientific experts, engineering tobacco products to be more addictive and using substantial marketing budgets to maximize sales and profits of its products. “If tobacco companies are permitted to dominate the legal cannabis industry, this will risk exacerbating public health harms on groups that are disproportionately harmed by tobacco use,” they write.
Driven by declining sales of tobacco products and spreading legalization of cannabis, the tobacco industry has been diversifying into cannabis in recent years.
In January 2016, Philip Morris International invested $20 million in Syqe Medical, which developed a medical cannabis inhaler. In June 2018, Imperial Brands invested in Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies.
In December 2018, Altria Group invested $1.8 billion in Cronos, a Canada-based multinational cannabis company. Imperial Brands in July 2019 acquired a stake in Auxly Cannabis.
If tobacco companies are permitted to dominate the legal cannabis industry, this will risk exacerbating public health harms.
And just last month, BAT signed a strategic collaboration agreement with Organigram, a wholly owned subsidiary of publicly traded Organigram Holdings.
In their piece, Tan and Title urge authorities to restrict Big Tobacco’s participation in the cannabis industry, for example by placing limits on the seizes of cannabis businesses by enforcing regulations on how many stores or plants one individual can own.
Tan is associate professor of communication at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania.
Title is a distinguished cannabis policy practitioner in residence at the Drug Enforcement and Policy Center of the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law.
