In 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:
#psychedelics – “As evidence on the efficacy and safety of psychedelic drugs grows, more people are seeking out psilocybin mushrooms, ayahuasca, MDMA, and ketamine to address physical and mental health issues that other methods have not been able to fully shift at work. And they’re shouting from the rooftops—it works!
While most of these drugs aren’t yet legal in the US, they’re gaining increasing attention. Now there are psychedelic providers working to bring their treatments to patients, and even companies are jumping onboard. Dr. Bronner’s, the organic soap company, is spending money to loosen legislation around the use of psychedelics; MUD/WTR, a company producing a mushroom-based coffee alternative, is supporting employees microdosing at work.
And there’s no shortage of founders and CEOs—including Steve Jobs and Elon Musk—touting the impact these options have had on their well-being, lives, and performance at work. Some, too, have suffered the consequences for acknowledging that they’ve used them.”
#cannabisindustry – “Tucked away deep into the 1,600-plus page omnibus appropriations bill signed by President Joe Biden at the end of December 2022 is the “Modernization of Cosmetics Regulation Act of 2022,” otherwise known as “MOCRA.” The MOCRA legislation is significant for a number of reasons—including its potential implications for the expanding cannabis cosmetics market.
This is the first time Congress has updated the cosmetic regulations included in the Federal Food, Drug, & Cosmetics Act (“FDCA”) since 1938 when the FDCA was first enacted. To compare, over the course of the last eight decades, other provisions of the FDCA have been updated and amended dozens of times—and in significant ways—to account for advances in science, technology, product development and, as relevant to this discussion, the discovery of ingredients that could cause harm if placed in food, drugs or dietary supplements. None of those amendments touched on cosmetic regulation until now.”
#psilocybin – “In fact, the gummies contained no natural psilocybin or psilocin. Rather, they contained a synthetic compound called acetylpsilocin, Fritzsche says. It was first synthesized in the 1960s by Albert Hofmann, the Swiss chemist who discovered LSD, to use for research.
“It’s nothing bad,” Fritzsche says, “but it’s not mushroom derived.”
The Magic Kingdom gummies wouldn’t have passed muster with Oregon regulators. But, then again, nothing about Shroom House did, and that’s why it’s gone.”
https://www.wweek.com/news/2023/02/01/we-tested-the-shroom-house-shrooms/
#cannabisindustry – “The first store in Illinois to combine marijuana and alcohol sales opened Wednesday in Wheeling, with its owners hoping to make it a place for customers to hang out and relax….
The massive 12,000-square-foot space, on the site of a former Twin Peaks in Wheeling’s restaurant row on Milwaukee Avenue, is far larger than most dispensaries.
The cafe with its bar is separate from the cannabis sales area. The owners hope someday to add a cannabis consumption area…
The Fifty/50 Restaurant Group, founded by Scott Weiner and Greg Mohr, operates the bakery, and with their social equity partners plan to open two more Okay Cannabis locations, in West Town and Evanston, in the coming months. West Town Bakery already has four locations in Chicago.”
#cannabislaw – “The U.S. International Trade Commission’s chief administrative law judge has found that a variety of companies importing vaping cartridges don’t infringe a trio of patents.
Judge Clark S. Cheney said Wednesday that he had issued a final initial determination in the Section 337 investigation, holding that there was no infringement of Shenzhen Smoore Technology’s patents. The reasoning for the decision is not yet available to the public and is subject to review by the agency’s commissioners.”
#cannabisindustry – “Cannabis dispensary workers at Curaleaf Holdings asked an Illinois federal judge to certify a class in their suit claiming managers at locations around the country stole the contents of tip jars, saying the company’s unified management structure supported the class allegations.
Named plaintiffs Morgan Heller, Joshua Flavin, Grace Baffoe and Nick Fredrickson in a Wednesday motion for conditional certification in their Fair Labor Standards Act and Illinois, Arizona and Massachusetts wage law class action said Curaleaf employees nationwide were subject to the same tipping policies.
Curaleaf’s dispensaries nationwide are not franchised, but rather directly owned and operated by Curaleaf and are all subject to the same policies and procedures, the workers said.”
#cannabisindustry – “A New York-based real estate company and cannabis company MedMen Enterprises Inc. dropped their suit Wednesday that claimed the cannabis company owed the landlord more than $1 million in unpaid rent.
Thor 942 Fulton Street LLC, an entity of Thor Equities Group, and MM Enterprises USA LLC, which does business as MedMen, agreed to voluntarily dismiss the suit, without comment, according to the notice filed in New York federal court.”
#cannabisindustry – “Recreational marijuana sales in Missouri could start as early as Friday, with medical dispensaries awaiting the green light from state regulators to expand into adult-use retail.
The newly minted Midwestern market is expected to generate more than half-a-billion dollars in sales in its first year.
The Missouri recreational market’s rollout comes a year after Montana began adult-use sales.
Missouri, like Montana and Oklahoma, has a Republican trifecta where the GOP controls the governorship and both chambers of the legislature.”