Utah’s medical cannabis patients are now allowed by the state to spend their money inside marijuana pharmacies, but that doesn’t mean the nation’s major financial institutions want their fingerprints on transactions involving the federally illegal substance.

Credit card companies generally avoid cannabis transactions, for fear of federal repercussions. PayPal and Venmo are also leery of wading into the industry, state health officials say.

That leaves many patients carrying wads of cash into Utah’s medical cannabis pharmacies — a less-than-ideal situation when many are turning to contactless payments to avoid spreading COVID-19.

– Read the entire article at The Salt Lake Tribune.

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Bud Digest

Allegations of marijuana cultivation performed by immigrant labor have gripped members of the Navajo Nation in recent weeks.

Navajo leaders are now taking on an entrepreneur who is said to be growing 400 acres of hemp and marijuana on the tribe’s land in the southwestern United States. The entrepreneur and Navajo member, Dineh Benally, has reportedly “formed a partnership with a Las Vegas company that says it develops hemp and cannabis businesses on Native American lands,” according to the Arizona Republic.

The newspaper reported that tribal leaders have taken Benally to court to stop the cultivation, landing a victory last week when a district judge imposed a temporary restraining order on the hemp farming.

“Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez said the order grants tribal law enforcement officers authority to stop hemp production. Navajo Nation police have begun asking some workers on the hemp farms — people law enforcement officials claim are immigrant workers from Asia — to leave tribal land,” the Arizona Republic reported. “The ruling appears to provide a brief break in the dispute that came to a head this summer over the legality of Benally’s operation, which he claims has also provided employment for more than 200 members

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Utah medical cannabis patients have gotten used to a cash-only system, as many banks and credit card companies still refuse to work with cannabis businesses. Now, in light of the hassle and potential theft risk that causes, as well as sanitation risks due to COVID, a new app that allows for cashless transactions is being rolled out. 

“People want a very similar experience to what they have with CVS or REI or anywhere else, where you do curbside pickup,” said Chris Jeffrey, managing partner and CEO of WholesomeCo Cannabis, the company that runs West Bountiful pharmacy. “Avoiding the whole need for cash is something that consumers want.”

This new system will be helpful, as it will allow patients to keep from touching cash or paying hefty ATM fees. It also makes transactions feel more legitimate and eliminates constant cash drops or high security surrounding the business carrying so much cash. Hopefully, it will also get rid of the feeling that both buyers and sellers of cannabis are still doing something wrong.

Of Course There’s An App For That

The app that is saving the day when it comes to digital transactions is called Hypur. Use of Hypur is aesthetically similar

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Telehealth is about to get psychedelic.

That is the idea behind Mindleap, which bills itself as the first psychedelics-focused digital telehealth platform, as well as “the only digital health platform that combines telehealth with mood, emotion and habit tracking.”

Users of the platform will have the ability to “browse vetted and experienced specialists and easily schedule appointments and purchase mental health services,” while specialists who use the platform “benefit from the platform’s full freedom to manage their virtual practice on their terms setting their own prices, choosing the hours they work each week,” a press release boasted.

Trust Is Key

The company says that it “will never sell or license user data, including electronic Personal Health Information (ePHI) to anyone,” while asserting that it maintains “strict policies around how data is handled and stored; all data is encrypted in-transit and at-rest, and specialists are not permitted to save their clients’ data – they can only view it temporarily while the user chooses to share it during a video call.”

The platform is said to “meet all HIPAA guidelines by implementing secure electronic access to health data and remains in compliance with privacy regulations and best practices.”

“Mindleap was designed with

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Resolutions on cannabis, election financing, transit, mental health and addiction were endorsed at the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention.

Municipal governments are once again appealing to the B.C. government for a share of the cannabis excise tax revenue to help deal with the extra costs and responsibilities they’ve taken on since marijuana legalization.

It’s the fifth year in a row that delegates at the Union of B.C. Municipalities (UBCM) convention have voted on a resolution about receiving some of the federal tax that is applied to medical and non-medical cannabis.

– Read the entire article at Vancouver Sun.

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Bud Digest

A new healthcare technology company, Cannalogue, is launching a petition in their native land of Canada to get the Ministries of Health on board with providing national healthcare coverage for medical cannabis. 

The petition, entitled United for Access, was started because of the financial burden the COVID-19 pandemic has had on many Canadians, especially those who are already marginalized or disadvantaged, according to a press release the company sent out. Cannalogue believes Canadian citizens should have access to cannabis health care as well as general healthcare. 

“More than 50 percent of Canadians are not able to afford treatment with medical cannabis including CBD for conditions such as chronic pain,” their website states. “Due to COVID-19, Cannalogue anticipates these figures will worsen given the economic challenges facing Canadians. The doctors at Cannalogue believe this will cause a spike in opioid prescriptions, resulting in more opioid related addictions and deaths. When safer medications like medical cannabis and CBD are available, all Canadians should have fair and equal access as part of universal healthcare. Sign the United Program for National Medical Cannabis Coverage petition today and join us as we fight to remove the barriers that prevent access to safer medicines for Canadians.”

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Bud Digest

The U.S. cannabis industry attracts all kinds of entrepreneurs and investors. That has been true since Colorado and Washington legalized cannabis for adults 21 and up back in 2012, and since other states began creating comprehensive licensing regimes. The ever-emerging nature of the industry and its state-by-state quilt of regulations creates all kinds of business development and investment opportunities that most cannabis businesses hope culminate in either a very nice exit once our federal government (hopefully) legalizes/deschedules cannabis altogether, or that results in the ability to really compete long-term as interstate commerce opens up and serious, large-scale competition moves into the space when federal prohibition falls.

Foreign investors are not immune to the charms and allure of cannabis. And where only 11 states have legalized cannabis for adult use–some with extremely competitive licensing regimes– the appeal of cannabis increases exponentially for investors still looking to be early movers in the space. Additionally, there’s been a pivot in the investor scene of late where a lot of the fast, reckless money has left the space after significant bouts of mismanagement at larger cannabis companies and with some multi-state operators (generating certain vulture investment opportunities), so investors are really getting wise to

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Bud Digest

The owner of an Oregon cannabis shop destroyed by the wildfires ravaging the West Coast is vowing to rebuild, despite being ineligible for the aid provided to most businesses. Thorin Thacker, the co-owner of Canyon Cannabis in Gates, Oregon, was told that it took only 15 minutes for the store to burn to the ground, according to a report in local media.

Thacker, who once served as the mayor of nearby Mill City, said that he and his business partner had created a laid-back, vintage atmosphere for the shop in the forest south of Portland.

“This place was full of color,” he said. “And there was always an album playing. The only way we got to listen to music was on vinyl. A buddy of mine’s wife says, ‘Oh, so you sell grass out of your record store because it felt like a dispensary you might find in the ‘70s.’”

But after fire swept through both Gates and Mill City nearly three weeks ago, Canyon Cannabis is a total loss, the building burnt to the point of collapsing in on itself. Residents and business owners in the two towns were not able to return to the area to see the

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Bud Digest

Queen of all things home décor, sometimes notorious felon, and friend to Snoop Dogg, Martha Stewart is finally joining the cannabis industry … well, sort of. She just launched her very own line of CBD products. Stewart claims CBD is a part of her wellness routine, and the next logical step was starting her own brand. 

Launching last Thursday, her product line offers gummies, gels, and oils, and will be under the umbrella of Canopy Growth, a company based in Canada. The CBD products will be available via Canopy’s site, and sit in the $30 and $40 price range. 

“I was surprised to learn that while most people have heard of CBD, less than 20 percent of us have actually tried it,” Stewart said in a statement emailed to CNN Business regarding her new product line and its implications. “For me, that signals a lot of opportunity to create beautiful, elevated products that help people live well.”

Stewart’s line features gummies that look like French fruit candies, also known as pâte de fruits, and she claims that the fruity inspiration behind the gummies was based on her two favorite spots, her garden and her kitchen, and feature natural flavors including lemon,

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Bud Digest

Illinois has been making major headlines in the cannabis sector, as some groups cry out that the plans for granting new business licenses are not inclusive enough of minorities, and that the lottery system for choosing new businesses license holders is unfair. 

Now, after analyzing the current systems that are in place, the state has announced they will be taking even more steps to insure equity.

The new proposed steps, approved by Governor JB Pritzker and the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, will make sure that applicants who were initially left out will receive extra deficiency notice and a score sheet to explain exactly why they got low scores when they applied for licenses. They can then reach out with a response amending their application and asking for a rescore if they believe there was some kind of error. They will also be able to submit extra information to clarify anything that was unclear, or keep their initial score. 

All these responses will then be reviewed again, and it will be determined whether or not any new licenses will be granted via a new lottery for conditional licenses. There will be detailed instructions that let applicants know about

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