Marijuana Business Magazine January 2020

Marijuana Business Magazine | January 2020 24 application narrative, creating a dispensary business plan, security and floor plan considerations as well as financial planning. Participants also receive one- on-one mentoring sessions between group meetings. Once the state awards successful applications, Cresco Labs will select participants to incubate in every stage of the business process—from site selection to regulation and compliance as well as operational support for their new cannabis businesses. Lender Offers No- or Low-Interest Loans for Illinois Social Equity Applicants Seke Ballard, CEO of Good Tree Capital , a firm that provides loans to cannabis startups, pledged $250,000 in loans with either a zero or low inter- est rate to 100 social equity applicants for Illinois marijuana business licenses in hopes of getting more minorities into the industry. Good Tree is based in Seattle, but Ballard relocated to the Chicago neigh- borhood of Bronzeville to focus almost entirely on the Illinois licensing process. Partnership Enables Dixie to Enter Oklahoma Dixie Brands of Colorado entered the Oklahoma med- ical marijuana market through a manufacturing and licensing agreement with an unidentified partner and anticipates having product in the market this month. Dixie originally had a licensing agreement with Globus Holdings but chose the new partner because it had broader distribution, Dixie said. Initial products will include Dixie gummies, mints, topicals and elixirs. The company now operates in six states. Company News | U.S., Canada & International Merger With International Impact Northern Swan Holdings , a multinational operator in Canada’s federally legal cannabis industry, and Eagle Canada Holdings , which does business as Clever Leaves , a vertically integrated Colombian licensed producer of medical cannabis and hemp extracts, agreed to merge. The combined company will operate as Clever Leaves and will own 100% of Clever Leaves as well as Northern Swan’s assets in Canada, Germany, Portugal and the United States, subject to the completion of certain events. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Northern Swan CEO Kyle Detwiler will serve as CEO of the combined company, while Clever Leaves CEO Andrés Fajardo will be president and serve on the board of directors. Aphria Expanding Licensed producer Aphria received a cultivation license from Health Canada for Aphria Diamond, the company’s second cannabis greenhouse facility in Leamington, Ontario. Aphria Diamond has 1.3 million square feet of production space with an annual growing capacity of more than 140,000 kilograms (308,647 pounds). Aleafia Subsidiary Expands Aleafia Health ’s wholly owned subsidiary Emblem Cannabis won two Health Canada license amend- ments that expand processing capacity, allowing for the sale of new product formats at its facility in Paris, Ontario. The amendments apply to the licensed and operational Paris location, which processes all the company’s extraction, packaging and order fulfilment for Canadian and international sales. Also, after the issuance of the amended license, Aleafia submitted its final site evidence package to Health Canada for a 30,000-square-foot expansion of the Paris processing facility, which meets European Union Good Manufacturing Practice (EU-GMP) certification requirements. Aleafia intends to export MMJ to the European Union. TGOD Building Orders The Green Organic Dutchman Holdings (TGOD), a producer of certified organic cannabis, received orders from Alberta, Manitoba and Nova Scotia, significantly expanding its Canadian distribution foot- print. The company also is launching two new strains in Ontario as well as an organic cannabis certification program for budtenders. CANADA DEVELOPMENTS