Marijuana Business Magazine - February 2018

Ohio Regulators announced that 104 applicants had applied for 40 available medical marijuana processor licenses. At least 22 of those applicants are businesses that already secured cultivation licenses. Ohio’s medical marijuana program allows for companies to be vertically integrated and possess retail, cultivation and processing licenses. Processors will be allowed to produce canna- bis oil, tinctures, edibles, patches and flower for vaping. Ohio law prohibits smoking cannabis flower. The dead- line for the program to be fully functional is Sept. 8. hemp market, 2017, was a “learning experience.” Pennsyl- vania authorized hemp in 2016, with the first crop going in the ground last year. Pennsylvania will offer 50 hemp licenses in 2018, up from 30 last year. And hemp acreage on each application can go from 5 acres to 100 acres. Oregon The founder and executive director of a state-licensed cannabis testing lab in Eugene said she was stepping down amid allegations of being a neo-Nazi supporter. Bethany Sherman also planned to sell the OG Analyti- cal testing lab she founded in 2013. Her actions followed allegations by a local antifa group that she and Matthew L. Combs – who also was listed as an owner of OG Ana- lytical – have white nationalist ties. Sherman denied the allegations and said her “only crime is a thought crime.” Pennsylvania Hemp production is poised to jump after Gov. Tom Wolf announced plans to increase the number of available hemp licenses by 66% – and the total acreage by even more. Wolf said Pennsylvania’s first year in the modern Rhode Island Both the number of hopeful medical cannabis cultiva- tors and registered patients have shot up over the past year, yet another indication of the continuing growth for MMJ businesses in even some of the nation’s small- est markets. According to the Providence Journal, Rhode Island has 18 licensed MMJ growers, and an additional 93 are in various stages of obtaining a permit to culti- vate. The newspaper also reported that the state’s three dispensaries were serving 19,161 registered MMJ patients, which represented a 17% increase over the previous year. Washington state Marijuana businesses won’t have a government-run, seed-to-sale tracking program until at least February, causing industry insiders to worry that the prolonged delay could lead to diversion and other compliance issues. The state’s Liquor and Cannabis Board had planned to implement Denver-based MJ Freeway’s Leaf Data Systems on Jan. 1 but instead delayed the target rollout date to Feb. 1. Part of the problem is that only four of the software integrators are ready to work with Leaf Data Systems. ◆ – Roger Fillion Note: Entries sourced from Marijuana Business Daily and other international, national and local news outlets. These develop- ments occurred before this magazine’s January publication deadline, so some situations may have changed. 28 • Marijuana Business Magazine • February 2018