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ARMADAIn the days of the Armada, a fleet of warships, the scuttlebutt was the rumor or gossip that would spread throughout the ship. Today, Armada Law Corp presents The Scuttlebutt, a daily summery of news articles that people within the cannabis, hemp and plant medicine industries are chatting about along with links to the full articles.
In today’s news:
#californiacannabis – “A group of California landowners are urging a federal court not to throw out their claims that Humboldt County imposed unconstitutional fines and penalties against them for suspected cannabis growing, saying they have standing to sue even if the fines haven’t been collected yet.
In a response brief filed Monday, named plaintiffs Corrine Thomas, Doug Thomas, Blu Graham and Rhonda Olson pushed back against the county’s motion to dismiss, saying the threat of “millions” in fines as well as the county’s policy of blocking permits to properties with abatement orders are concrete injuries that need to be redressed.
According to the motion, in addition to the fines, the landowners have had to pay administrative fees to contest the abatement orders, raising their costs even further. They further argued the county has been delaying giving them hearings even as they rack up daily fines for continued alleged violations.”
#cannabisindustry – “Pot stores across New York City are filled with cannabis grown in California, according to SFGATE interviews and other press reports. There’s just one problem — it’s illegal to sell California pot in New York….
Industry experts told SFGATE that New York is getting weed from two different types of California sources: some pot grown on legal California pot farms is being sent to New York, while other weed
grown at illegal farms is being labeled with forged packaging to make it appear to be a regulated California product.”
https://www.sfgate.com/cannabis/article/california-cannabis-in-new-york-17878097.php
#cannabisindustry – “For a couple of years now, an open secret in California (and a cautionary tale for other states) is the concept of “burner licenses“. These are licenses issued to a company by the Department of Cannabis Control (“DCC”) that are used to conduct illegal, interstate trafficking of cannabis.
This burner license issue has gotten so bad that The Green Market Report recently detailed how a California cannabis entrepreneur found his own, branded cannabis products on the shelves of a New York dispensary. The dispensary let him know that it came from a “burner distro” in California. The Green Market Report also quoted New York cannabis regulator, Axel Bernabe, saying “[b]urner distros are the bane of our existence.””
https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=16e7cdbc-157e-4a06-86f6-e88467c5d466
#cannabisindustry – “The start of a game of Monopoly is often a land grab. There are limited chances to buy territory, so whatever you land on you generally pounce on the opportunity to buy. Even if it does not fit your other territories later, you have a reasonable chance of being able to attain at least some value for it through trade or through blocking other players from achieving a monopoly. There is very little downside in land grabs in Monopoly. And, Monopoly by design limits how deep you can go – three properties with hotels and you’re done.
Risk, on the other hand, is a game of all-out conquest to control the entire world map. A critical thing in any game of Risk is not necessarily how much you control at the start, but where you position your limited forces to be most effective in your campaign to assemble more territory. Where Monopoly the incentive is to go wide before you go deep, in Risk it is exactly the opposite – you want to go deep before you go wide and failing to do so usually means a fast end to board game night. Risk’s limits on how deep you can go in any territory are much higher than Monopoly, but the limited army you have prevents you from going deep and wide at the same time.”
#californiacannabis – “This year, according to multiple interviews, the crimes have become more sophisticated, with break-in crews armed with sophisticated tools appearing at distribution warehouses that don’t have a publicly listed address.
That’s led business owners to suspect an “inside job”: someone currently or formerly employed in the industry, who would know where to go and what to look for, and whose identity would be in the state-mandated database of qualified cannabis employees.
But since the break-ins have continued and law enforcement has made few arrests, frustrated and exhausted business owners say they’ve been forced to take matters into their own hands.”
https://mjbizdaily.com/california-cannabis-operators-take-action-as-break-ins-skyrocket/
#psychedelics – “Bipartisan congressional lawmakers are asking leadership to instruct federal health agencies to include active duty military service members in psychedelic studies.
In a letter led by Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) to House Appropriations subcommittee leaders, the lawmakers said that language should be added to upcoming spending legislation for the 2024 Fiscal Year directing the National Institutes on Health (NIH) to be inclusive of military members in ongoing research into the therapeutic benefits of substances like MDMA.”
#cannabislaw – “Federal prosecutors on Thursday charged former Michigan House Speaker Rick V. Johnson with pocketing bribes from the state’s marijuana industry in exchange for licenses from the medical marijuana agency he chaired — part of a scheme that prosecutors said allowed corrupt companies to unfairly get ahead during the early years of Michigan’s marijuana gold rush.
Johnson and three others charged in the scheme — Detroit-area businessman John Dalaly and lobbyists Brian Dennis Pierce and Vincent Tyler Brown — agreed to plead guilty to the charges and cooperate with prosecutors’ ongoing investigation. In the plea agreement, Johnson admitted to accepting more than $110,000 in bribes from people seeking licenses to open medical marijuana businesses in Michigan while he was chair of the Michigan Medical Marihuana Licensing Board during the agency’s short lifespan from 2017 to 2019.”
#californiacannabis – “In particular, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass’ plan to build and retrofit thousands of single-family homes and multifamily units for the homeless is creating new obstacles for marijuana retailers and entrepreneurs searching for property in one of the nation’s priciest real estate markets.
Such dwellings – known as Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) properties – are considered one of several “sensitive uses” under L.A. zoning laws.
Cannabis stores are barred from operating within a 700-foot radius of such properties.”
