The number of jobs related to hemp, cannabis, and marijuana could increase more than sevenfold in Florida by 2025 — that is, if recreational marijuana gains approval in the November 2020 election.
The prediction comes from a new study on the cannabis industry conducted by New Frontier Data.
Along with planting bulbs and clearing out dying annuals, some Ontario gardeners now have a new fall tradition: harvesting their cannabis plants.
"Now is the most exciting time of growing at home," said Katy Perry, who owns a hydroponic supply store in Toronto.
"Your plant is finally ready to be chopped down, dried, cured and consumed."
Last week, Canada marked one year since legalization, making this the first time that Ontarians have been able to legally cultivate cannabis over the summer growing season.
The governors from several Northeastern states said Thursday they want to work together to regulate marijuana and vaping, including possible regional restrictions on flavored vaping products.
Democratic governors from New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania met in New York City with health and legislative officials. Representatives from Massachusetts and Colorado were also on hand for the meeting.
“What we want to do is coordinate this on a regional basis,” said Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, noting how the “patchwork quilt of marijuana regulations makes no sense at all.” He said the group came up with “very preliminary” principles concerning how to regulate legalized, recreational marijuana, such as agreeing to have similar policies for THC content, edibles, advertising and taxation in order to dissuade people from turning to the illicit market.
Lamont said “different states are going to have different timeframes” to pass marijuana legislation and he didn’t foresee everyone enacting the exact same law at the same time. He said more work needs to be done and staff from the participating states will continue working together on the issue. Several of the governors unsuccessfully pushed for their states to allow recreational pot sales in the last year.
“We just want to make sure we go in with our eyes open and we’re consistent,” Lamont said.
On vaping, Lamont said there appeared to be “the most unity” among the officials on possibly outlawing flavored e-cigarettes next year, given their appeal to young people and the growing number of vaping-related lung illnesses and deaths across the country.
“I think you’ll see some unanimity on that at the start,” he said.
Earlier this month, a state appeals court temporarily blocked New York from enforcing Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s 90-day emergency ban on such products after the vaping industry sued to block the regulations. In Massachusetts, Republican Gov. Charlie Baker last month announced a statewide ban on the sale of vaping products, a measure that has been challenged in court.
Meanwhile, a new law just took effect in Connecticut that increased the age to 21 for someone to purchase vaping products.
Cuomo said a lack of federal action on pot and vaping regulations means it’s up to states to act. He noted that marijuana is often vaped and states should also consider that when considering marijuana legalization.
The ‘Germany Cannabis Report’ from Prohibition Partners also states that within a few years that number will have risen to one million patients. And, it estimates the total German cannabis market will be worth €16.2 billion by 2028, with the medicinal cannabis market estimated to be worth €7.7 billion by the same time.
This comes as Canadian firm Aphria, one of the few from that country to be currently showing a profit, says that by next year Germany will be contributing almost half its revenues.
In a first quarter results announcement Aphria said with 2020 revenue projections estimated at $700 million, its ‘German distribution business will represent slightly more than half of the total net revenue’.
Daragh Anglim, Managing Director Prohibition Partners, says in the introduction to the report, released in mid-October, that the rapid growth of the German market ‘is unprecedented in Europe’.
Adding: “Major change has followed across the continent but Germany remains one of the most open, promising and exciting markets in the region.”
The report highlights the supply problems facing the German market which is currently reliant on imports from Canada, Holland, Portugal and Australia. In an effort to combat this production licences were granted earlier this year, and of the 13 lots, Aphria and Aurora secured five, and Demecan received the remaining three lots.
Each lot allows the holder to grow 200 kilograms per year for a four-year period. And the report adds: “The reality is that the German tendered facilities are not going to meet the domestic medical cannabis quantity demand.”
It says patients requesting medicinal cannabis are being supported by a robust public health insurance regime, which covers 90% of the population. The monthly allowance 100 gramme is generous and the ‘insurance companies cover all cannabis treatments and do not specify which conditions are covered’.
Medicinal cannabis in Germany is very expensive, however, with an average price to patients of between €20 and €25 per gram for flower. In the Netherlands, medical cannabis is sold to patients for approximately €7 per gram, says the report.
