USA Wrap: Politics, Federal, Cannabis Market, IP, Ohio, Pennsylvania

POLITICS

Title: Bernie Sanders joins Cory Booker’s push to legalize marijuana

Author: NJ.com

Date: 19 April 2018

Url: http://www.nj.com/marijuana/2018/04/bernie_joins_bookers_effort_to_legalize_marijuana.html

Extract: 

Sanders joined U.S. Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. (another potential 2020 hopeful) and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., as co-sponsors of Booker’s Marijuana Justice Act, which would rescind federal marijuana laws and leave it to the states to decide whether to legalize the drug.

“Prohibition didn’t work in the 1920s. It’s not going to work now,” said Sanders, adding that “very few people think that makes sense” to classify marijuana along with heroin under federal law.

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FEDERAL

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer Announces Bill to De-Schedule Cannabis

CANNABIS MARKET

Title: “A watershed 4/20.” U.S. cannabis market poised to hit $25B by 2025″

Author: The Cannabist

Date: 20 April 2018

URL: https://www.thecannabist.co/2018/04/20/cannabis-market-25-billion/103953/?mc_cid=28f46e3fb8&mc_eid=%5BUNIQID%5D

Extract:

The U.S. legal cannabis industry is on track to hit $25 billion by 2025, according to the latest forecast from cannabis analytics firm New Frontier Data.

The research and data firm on Friday released revised industry sales projections, predicting that the $8.3 billion U.S. medical and recreational marijuana industry will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 14.7 percent, to an estimated $25 billion by 2025.

That $25 billion should be split equally between medical and recreational cannabis, New Frontier officials said.

 

IP

Steep Hill wins IP court battle with New Mexico, competing medical cannabis lab

 

OHIO

Title: Recreational marijuana petition rejected by Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine

Author: Cleveland.com

Date: 20 April 2018

Url: http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2018/04/recreational_marijuana_petitio.html

Extract:  COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine rejected a recreational marijuana legalization measure backed by a group of Ohio marijuana advocates, his office announced Thursday afternoon.

The “Marijuana Rights and Regulations Amendment” to the Ohio Constitution would allow people age 21 and older to possess, produce, transport, use, sell and share cannabis.

The legislature would have to create laws treating marijuana impairment similar to those of alcohol, and Ohio residents would have first dibs on marijuana business licenses. The amendment would leave in place Ohio’s nascent medical marijuana program.

Unlike Ohio’s failed 2015 legalization measure, the new amendment is not backed by wealthy investors, nor does it promise business licenses to campaign backers.

PENNSYLVANIA

Title: Marijuana growers seek to extinguish Pa.’s cannabis research program

Author: Philly.com

Date: 20 April 2018

Url: http://www.philly.com/philly/business/marijuana-research-pennsylvania-growers-cr-acrc-jefferson-drexel-lecom-penn-20180419.html

Extract: 

Calling it “disruptive” and “unlawful,” a group of Pennsylvania marijuana growers and retailers wants to snuff out the state’s pioneering research program before it is launched.

The first of its kind in the nation, the research program would allow eight of the state’s teaching hospitals to contract with a cannabis producer. Each contract is estimated to be worth tens of millions of dollars. The agreements grant the producers a “super-permit” to operate an indoor grow facility and to open six retail dispensaries that can sell medical marijuana to any approved patient.

But the group of commercial growers and retailers filed a petition last week in Commonwealth Court, saying the research program would give the hospital-affiliated producers an unfair advantage, “flood the market with medical marijuana,” and kill their businesses.

The complaint asks a judge to review the regulations and declare them invalid. A hearing is scheduled for May 2 in Harrisburg.

If the court agrees, it would effectively shut down the state’s institutional research ambitions.

“We are in no way trying to bring down the Department of Health or the entire medical marijuana program,” said Judith Cassel, a lawyer with Harrisburg law firm Hawke McKeon & Sniscak, which is representing the group of six growers and nine dispensary owners.

 

Title: Israeli marijuana giant partners with Pa. medical grower

Author: Philly.com

Date: 18 April 208

Url: http://www.philly.com/philly/business/cannabis/tikun-olam-marijuana-medical-ilera-pennsylvania-20180418.html

Extract: 

A Pennsylvania marijuana producer is partnering with an Israeli cannabis pioneer to cultivate and sell proprietary strains of the plant in the Keystone State.

Ilera Healthcare operates a medical marijuana cultivation facility in Waterfall, Fulton County. Ilera plans to open its first state-permitted dispensary in Plymouth Meeting on May 4.

Tikun Olam — the name means “Repair the World” in Hebrew — is a powerhouse in cannabis research. And in Israel, it dominates the medical marijuana market. The Tel Aviv-based company has developed dozens of proprietary genetic strains, some of which are designed to alleviate anxiety, depression, nausea, pain associated with cancer, and other ailments, a spokesman said.

The partnership allows Ilera to cultivate and sell strains developed by Tikun.

“We wanted to bring together the real science with real premium medicine,” said Oludare Odumosu, chief operating officer for Ilera. “That’s why we sought them out.”

Tikun has conducted clinical studies with Israeli hospitals, universities and nursing homes and collected data from 20,000 Israeli patients, said Stephen Gardner,  the chief marketing officer for Tikun Olam USA.

 

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