After a year of decline, Colorado cannabis prices are surging upward again. The average price of a pound of dried, wholesale marijuana hit $999, according to the Colorado Department of Revenue. Is it a “phase?” Will there be supply shortages?
New Colorado marijuana business licenses reserved for low-income demographics will launch next year. However, questions remain about who exactly qualifies for the licenses and how those licenses should be regulated.
Colorado medical licenses decline as recreational sales increase. Last year, 66 percent of the total pounds of marijuana flowers and 86 percent of the total units of edibles were for recreational use.
More and more employers are dropping cannabis from pre-employment testing. And not just because it’s legal in many states. As The New York Times reports:
“Some employers have already changed their policies on pre-employment drug screening, and not just to address the dissonance in punishing someone for using a legal substance. With unemployment so low, companies are finding that testing for marijuana adds an unnecessary barrier in hiring top talent.”
The Louisville City Council approved two ordinances to send two November ballot questions to voters: one, to allow marijuana cultivation facilities in the city and two, authorization to impose an excise tax on those facilities.
Denver-area schools will split more than $14 million raised through marijuana taxes and lottery revenue for projects ranging from replacing roofs to expanding their buildings.
Last week, in a standing room only, boiling hot room, Gov. Jared Polis signed six pro-cannabis bills into law.
Up first, a new law that opens up Colorado’s cannabis industry to outside investors for the first time. The measure was vetoed last year by then-Gov. John Hickenlooper.
Two stories below, that coincidentally quote Chuck Smith and Colorado Leads, shed some light on the new law.
“If everything goes as expected, Colorado legal cannabis industry is about to get a major windfall,” wrote Forbes.
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“The law is expected to bring new cash flow into Colorado as well as marijuana products from companies that previously were unable to do business in the state,: wrote Marijuana Business Daily.
Article Here »
Polis also signed social consumption legislation that creates a new license for cannabis retailers to sell marijuana products that could be consumed in a designated hospitality zone. Authorized medical cannabis shops will be able to deliver marijuana to patients starting in January 2020 under another bill. Recreational cannabis dispensaries will be able to make deliveries to adults 21 and older starting in January 2021. The social use and delivery proposals require that local communities opt in before businesses will be allowed to offer those services.
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The federal banking bill could have implications beyond cannabis businesses, specifically in the trading game. Analysts see significant opportunities in the U.S. cannabis market if federal regulators here legalize the drug. That could be huge for exchange traded funds (ETFs).
A pair of Republican senators told Marijuana Moment that they believe cannabis banking legislation has a shot of getting a hearing in that chamber after House passage.
“He didn’t say ‘hell no,’” Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-ND) said of a key Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-ID), whom he pressed on the bill. “I thought he was quite open-minded to it.”
Banks that serve lawful marijuana businesses would be protected from a crackdown by financial regulators such as the U.S. Department of Treasury under a provision in a draft congressional spending bill.
“None of the funds made available in this Act may be used to penalize a financial institution solely because the institution provides financial services to an entity that is a manufacturer, a producer, or a person that participates in any business or organized activity that involves handling marijuana, marijuana products, or marijuana proceeds, and engages in such activity pursuant to a law established by a State, political subdivision of a State, or Indian Tribe ….”
U.S. state bankers’ associations jointly sent a letter to leaders of a key Senate panel saying they support cannabis banking reform and urging the committee to hold a hearing on the overall merits of such legislation.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, sent a formal letter to Congressional leaders last week demanding that lawmakers pass the SAFE Banking Act or similar legislation that would provide a safe harbor for banks to provide financial services to the marijuana industry.
A bill to allow financial institutions to assist the cannabis industry without penalization has backing on both sides of the aisle and from the White House.
A survey found that 82% of banking executives want the federal government to allow financial services providers to do business with the marijuana industry.
This will be a big year for the industry, with marijuana regulations sunsetting and bills vetoed by former Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper resurfacing. And the cannabis lobby at the Capitol is growing, in numbers, spending and stature. Cannabis lobby gains new clout in Colorado as its spending tripled in the past five years.
For a review of the cannabis bills introduced in the 2019 Colorado legislature, please go here
The fastest-growing industry in the U.S. right now is cannabis. The marijuana industry added 64,389 jobs in 2018, an increase of 44% from the year before, according to a new report from the cannabis website Leafly and Whitney Economics.
Marijuana is the fastest-growing sector in the US job market
The House marijuana banking bill got 13 new cosponsors, for a total of 126.
The Hill: Time to bank the unbanked legal marijuana industry in this nation