Marijuana Business Magazine April 2020

April 2020 | mjbizdaily.com 31 Arkansas A medical marijuana dispensary applicant in Arkansas lost a legal challenge to obtain an MMJ license, which means the state can restart the permitting process. A Pulaski County Circuit Court judge issued a temporary restraining order on Feb. 25 preventing Arkansas from issuing new licenses in response to Pine Bluffs-based Medicanna’s lawsuit contending regulators had broken state rules by awarding an MMJ license to a company that scored lower on its applica- tion. On March 3, Judge Wendell Griffen ruled that Medicanna had no grounds to challenge the licensing procedure, saying the company disqualified itself when it requested and received a refund of its application fees last April. California The U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of California issued a grand jury subpoena for records related to 30 marijuana companies, including the parent of Weedmaps. The subpoena “covers documents related to cannabis businesses listed on Weedmaps” as well as information related to its staff, investors, accounting, communications and payments to government employees, elected officials and candidates for public offices. Meanwhile, prosecutors also requested records regarding California cannabis companies CannaCraft and Terra Tech. Colorado Denver’s marijuana regulator set a new cap for marijuana locations in the city for the first time since 2016. According to the Office of Marijuana Policy (OMP), the number of allowed locations (not actual licenses) in Denver has been set at 220 retail storefronts and 299 cultivation sites. By comparison, Denver currently has 212 marijuana retail storefronts and 247 cultivation sites, according to OMP spokesman Eric Escudero. Applications for the additional locations will be availa- ble through a lottery. Florida The state Senate killed a provision that would have limited THC in medical cannabis to 10% for patients younger than 21, a move that could have been costly to businesses. Initially, Florida’s speaker of the state House wanted to cap THC in all medical marijuana at 10%. The Florida House voted to include the cap for patients younger than 21 in a broader health-care package, but the Senate stripped out the provision before acting on the bill last month. A number of states recently moved to restrict THC, but so far the measures all have failed.