Business

Millions go to child care, public safety and research, but growth stagnates as regulated industry struggles to compete.

California has raised $1 billion in cannabis tax revenue since the industry kicked into gear in January 2018, according to figures recently released by the state.

The bulk of that $1.03 billion in tax money, after covering regulatory costs, has been spent on programs such as child care for low income families, cannabis research, public safety grants and cleaning up public lands harmed by illegal marijuana grows.

The marijuana legalization process in US states is speeding up in 2020. Many new states are coming up with their own proposals to legalize marijuana. The demand for marijuana is high among Americans. However, the lack of legal stores forces consumers to approach the illegal market to obtain their favorite products, which causes a surge in illegal cannabis sales. Now, the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) agrees that state-level legalization could actually help lower the illegal market demand.

Members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe will vote this week on legalizing medical and recreational cannabis on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation in an initiative that many hope will bring economic development to one of the most impoverished areas in the country.

Neither South Dakota nor nearby Wyoming and Nebraska have legalized marijuana, and tribal leaders think marijuana could rake in millions of dollars. If the measure is approved, the Oglala Sioux Tribe would become the only Native American tribe to set up a cannabis market in a state where it’s otherwise illegal.

After a mediocre year in 2019, cannabis companies need something to give the industry a boost.

The cannabis industry in Canada isn't coming off a terribly strong year in 2019. It generated sales of 1.2 billion Canadian dollars during the year, well short of expectations. In 2018, Deloitte projected that the industry's sales for 2019 would be as much as CA$4.3 billion. It's nowhere near that number even though in the latter half of 2019, there was progress; December was a record month with CA$146.2 million in revenue.

Boston’s first pot shop opened Monday, marking the first recreational marijuana store to open in a major East Coast city.

Pure Oasis is also among the few retail stores in the country owned and operated by people of color, who experts say have struggled to break into the industry. Massachusetts’ ballot initiative was the first to insert specific language aimed at encouraging people of color and others harmed by the war on drugs to participate in the new industry.

Even though use of marijuana for recreational purposes remains illegal in New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment still gets pretty high – when ranked among other states for dispensary density and tax revenue generated from cannabis sales, that is.

Get ready for stronger regulation of marijuana licensing rules.

Recently, the state of Michigan started getting serious about where dispensaries source their product. On March 2, the state finally began a process that will phase individual caregivers out of the market.

Beginning June 1, the state will limit how much caregiver flower growers and processors can purchase. On Oct. 1, only patients with medical marijuana cards will be able to buy directly from their registered caregivers.

The chances that cannabis banking legislation will pass before the November election are dimming by the week, but the author of the Department of Justice’s 2014 guidance on pot banking says it may not matter anyway.

“For those banks that are on record as saying, ‘We will never bank this industry so long as it remains federally illegal,’ SAFE Banking doesn’t change a thing,” John Vardaman, former head of policy at the DoJ’s money laundering section, said in an interview. “At this point, there’s only so much more than can be done short of legalization.”

Maine has already carved out a niche in the craft beer industry with unique flavors and brands thanks in part to the use of locally grown hops and barley. Experts say there is no reason the same can’t be done with the steadily growing hemp production in the state. And that will be important if Maine growers want to compete with the larger and more established farms in the western states.