u/therustycarr

The Virginia Strategy Sessions

>it is a gathering of the state’s top operators, legal experts, policy advocates, and stakeholders to dissect the fallout, analyze the governor’s proposed amendments (from tax shifts to enforcement changes), and lay out a roadmap for what comes next.

>$40

Sounds like fun.

Virginia Gov. Spanberger vetoes proposal for legalized marijuana marketplace

Apparently no chance for a veto override. The gov is vowing "next year".

Here's the thing for those of you watching at home. The economic hit from delaying the start of tax collection makes this decision mind boggling stupid economically. It's not just delaying the year 1 tax revenue by 1 year. This delays the increases that would happen every year. And it is not just delaying when the tax is collected. The tax money that Virginia could be collecting starting next January 1, won't ever get collected and every increase never gets collected the next year. It all adds up until the market matures. For a state the size of Virginia this decision will amount to multiple hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue not collected. Why?

>, would have created a retail market without the “timeline, structure or resources to be successfully implemented.”

Does this pass the smell test? Compare to what is happening here in Maryland getting new vendors operating. Does the start date matter?

Here is what the governor wanted

• Delayed Launch Date: Pushing the official start of recreational retail sales back by six months, from January 1, 2027, to July 1, 2027.
• Fewer Storefronts: Drastically reducing the maximum number of initial retail stores allowed statewide from 350 down to 200.
• Eliminating Revenue Allocations: Removing dedicated statutory formulas that directed 40% of cannabis tax revenues to early childhood care and education, and 30% to the Cannabis Equity Reinvestment Fund.
• Shifting to Regulatory Control: Stripping out parts of the detailed licensing framework written by lawmakers, opting instead to shift those major structural decisions to regulatory agencies.
• Cutting Small Business Support: Eliminating funding and support for the Cannabis Impact Business Support Team, which was designed to help small, equitable businesses enter the market

A delayed launch date does not allow for more businesses to get open. What we saw in Maryland was that cultivators were permitted to expand capacity beginning 3 years before legalization. It's not clear if the existing medical licensees could benefit from additional get ready time. 6 more months won't make much difference.

We know how bad license caps are. We know more retail outlets = less unlicensed sales. We also know that you can't open that many licensed dispensaries that fast. Fewer storefronts allowed won't change the timeline, structure or resources. This is a red herring.

Eliminating revenue allocations doesn't change the timeline, structure or resources.

Shifting regulatory control gives regulators more flexibility to manage the industry. This would also deprive the people from having a say on major issues for how retail sales are implemented. As we saw here in Maryland with the events bill, it is good when the regulators have to get public approval for major changes to the plan. What's wrong with the plan that can't be debated in public?

Cutting small business support reduces resources and does not speed up the timeline.

So the governor was willing to sign the legislation this year if those demands were met. But those demands would not have addressed the issues she raised in her veto. Prohibitionists do not always have (R) next to their name. This is a fail on my smell test.

Maryland may earn a little extra tax money because of this, but we should not gloat. We did the same kind of stupidity when we killed HB32 and delayed for 2 more years for Question 4 and then HB556. By my estimate, that decision was like not accepting a $500M check. Virginians who consume Cannabis are encouraged to express their displeasure to the Governor's office.

TSA allows Medical Cannabis on flights!

It'd be nice if they stopped using the M word. Effective 4/27. It says there are special instructions, but those can not be found yet. They could look like:

• Keep your state-issued medical marijuana card easily accessible.
• Carry a written prescription or formal letter from your physician.
• Keep products in their original dispensary packaging with the prescription label attached.

I'm glad I still have some dispo containers left to put my home grow in.

Maryland Cannabis: 108 Stores, 49% Capture, and the Low-Tax Paradox

This is got some stuff I agree with and some not so good stuff. Now we have 117 dispos. That 49% number is hinky. I have a different answer for the paradox. Let's dive in....

• $10.7M revenue per store — highest in the dataset
• Medical patient base declined 38.5% since adult-use launch (140,891 → 86,704)

The dataset is 14 states. That supports the argument that we need more dispensaries. But MMCC's own studies indicated market need for 600 dispensaries. Nobody talks about how much of the medical market was people with increased allotments purchasing in bulk for resale. The average yearly patient spend now is 20% of what it was before (not exactly because of median vs average), and the difference is not accounted for by the less than 50% drop in number of patients). The math does not add up, unless the business of reselling medical on the street suddenly became obsolete.

Market	Pre-tax Price	Tax Burden	Final Price	Legal Capture
Michigan	$2.96/g	~17%	~$3.46	165%
Colorado	$3.18/g	15-20%	$3.66-3.82	104%
Oregon	$3.33/g	17-20%	$3.89-4.00	100%
Massachusetts	$4.01/g	17-20%	$4.69-4.81	100%
New Mexico	$4.04/g	~20-21%	~$4.80	138%
Nevada	$5.11/g	~27%	$6.49	100%
Rhode Island	$5.67/g	20%	$6.80	39%
Illinois	$6.25/g	25-35%	$8.13	30%
Maine	$6.38/g	18.7%	$7.57	100%
New Jersey	$8.09/g	8-10%	$8.80	20%
Maryland	$8.28/g	12%	$9.27	49%
Vermont	$9.59/g	~20%	~$11.50	68%
New York	$10.61/g	20-22%	$12.70	8%
Minnesota	$13.54/g	22-25%	$16.50-16.90	6%

Oooh - that pasted pretty good. Look at $7.47 we've passed New Jersey already! Okay so if legal capture is over 100% are they exporting or is the black market bigger than you thought? What do you do when total addressable market does not include tourist purchases. How do you count what they consume in state vs what they take home? Jeesh.

>With black market pricing running $5–7/g in the Mid-Atlantic, legal cannabis in Maryland costs 32–85% more than illegal alternatives.

Well, that would be a good reason for the sudden drop from $7.84 to $7.47/gram.

>The $8.28/g pre-tax floor is a market maturity problem, not a tax design problem.

I agree.

>Total Addressable Market

>Maryland's adult population is approximately 4.7 million. Applying the empirically validated consumption baseline of 18% participation at 1.0 gram per day:

>4.7 million adults 21+

>846,000 estimated regular consumers (18%)

>309 million grams annual demand

The MMCC study estimated demand at 824M grams

>
Medical registration in Maryland carries an annual cost of approximately $250 in physician certification and registration fees. Once adult-use retail opened, casual medical consumers abandoned the registry and simply pay the 12% excise tax instead — an economically rational trade. The patients who remain are higher-need users for whom the medical tax exemption (0% vs 12%) justifies the registration overhead.

Eh, no. It's $50 for most folks, $100 for recert at worst. Then, there was the reselling.

>Maryland is the clearest illustration in the dataset that tax rate alone does not determine legal market capture. At 12% excise — the lowest of any adult-use state — Maryland should have among the most competitive consumer pricing in the country. Instead it has among the most expensive, because 108 dispensaries serve a 4.7-million-adult state with insufficient competitive pressure to drive prices toward Oregon and Massachusetts levels.

The reason we don't have more dispensaries is the social equity program. Even if we had more dispensaries, we also need more cultivation and processing. Even with these high sales and higher prices in rural areas, we have dispensaries that are barely making it after taxes. We also have a wholesale cost factor of .6. The dispos get less of the pie than the cultivators do. They price based more on what their costs are than competing against each other. We can't take advantage of the low taxes when cultivation is limited.

White Ash vs Black Ash Weed — Does Ash Color Actually Indicate Quality?

My ash is always gray.

Virginia: Governor Signs Bills Into Law Providing for Marijuana Resentencing Relief

EDIT: This isn't the law allowing sales, but it's a good sign

Here's what we're waiting on ....

Tax rate =11.3 -14.8% (depending on local add on

2.5 oz purchase limit - equivalence formula tbd

delivery allowed

edibles capped at 10/100

Sales start January 1, 2027

Here's the details of the law that was passed.

Grove Bags told to qualify TerpLoc® humidity claims after NAD review

Grove bags are an underreported technology breakthrough.

>NAD found that Grove Bags' internal testing and independent third-party studies provided a reasonable basis for claims that TerpLoc® packaging functions as an effective passive modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) system that maintains moisture stability and preserves cannabinoids and terpenes better than conventional storage methods when following product use instructions.

As an IT guy who spent 17 years with a phone company, I love acronyms. MAP is a cool way to say 2 way humidity control. Grove Bags save time for homegrowers because, unlike Mason jars used for curing, the bags don't need to be burped. The tech is only 10 years old. Many growers have not switched from Mason jars yet. Last year was my first year not using Mason jars to cure. A Mason jar holds about 40 grams of buds. I had a total of 976 grams of buds harvested. If I had cured it all in jars that would have been burping 24 jars for 28 days. That totals about a half day of work. The burping process is subjective, imprecise and inconsistent. Sometimes I'd burp for 5 minutes, sometimes an hour. I use my nose and cheap hygrometers to judge progress and how much burping is needed. I often burp more or less than I should by mistake. The buds at the top dry out a little quicker. With the Grove Bags I just pop fresh trimmed bud into the bag and store the bag at 60/60. 30 days later it is ready to smoke or stay cozy until it is needed. The cure is more consistent, but it takes a few more days to get to the same level as jars. A plus is the bags take less space than jars in storage. A minus is they are not meant to be sealed and unsealed repeatedly. You need a strategy for using up your stash.

Calyx (the folks Grassroots used to use for their "square top" 8th containers) now has a competing product called Calyx Cure. They complained. We learn a little bit. This stuff is more than a mylar bag. As I understand the tech, making a film that only allows moisture to pass at certain humidities isn't that hard. Getting it to bond with a packaging layer and stay bonded through use is the hard part. I bought some to test and gift but have not used them yet.

>NAD determined that the moisture stability and terpene preservation claims are expressly dependent on specific conditions of use and found that the evidence does not directly establish that TerpLoc® packaging consistently maintains a precise relative humidity range of 58–62% under all conditions.

Do you have a BS to plain English translator? Of course the shit won't work if you leave it in a hot car. What does "when following product use instructions" mean? There aren't many. I found "dry it to 10-12% moisture" and "leave 25% head space in the bag". That's about it. This sounds like much ado about nothing, but at least Calyx gets in the news as a player and I got a new acronym.

I predict we will see more of these MAP type bags show up in dispensaries for top shelf product as the price premium to mylar drops. This is going to be huge. In the meantime, I've found a better, but much more expensive solution for curing home grow: the CurePuck. I'm still using Mason jars for working storage when I need to get a little bit out for personal use or gifting.

For you non-growers, if you're buying in bulk (1/4s, 1/2s or ozs), you might want to try using one of these bags to store your weed in instead of the bag it came in.

Michigan Marijuana Tours launches behind-the-scenes cannabis cultivation experiences in Michigan

Someone could do that here. No license required.

New ATF Gun Form Recognizes Medical Marijuana’s Federally Legal Status Under Trump’s Rescheduling Move

Long ago when I said gun rights could change because of rescheduling, I was belittled for spreading disinformation. This is happening faster than I thought. The form used to have print that said you had to answer yes even if you were a state legal patient. Now the question is being changed.

>“I am not an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance. (Warning: You can be an unlawful user under federal law, even if your possession is legal under state law. Federal law does not permit the use or possession of marijuana for recreational purposes.)”

instead of

>"Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance? Warning: The use or possession of marijuana remains unlawful under Federal law regardless of whether it has been legalized or decriminalized for medicinal or recreational purposes in the state where you reside.”

Slick. There's also a Maryland Form MD 77R that asks a similar question. No news on if this will change, but presumably it also will.

ATF is accepting comments about the proposed through August 6.

Employee charged after undercover agent buys guns, drugs from Baltimore County smoke shop

I'm always searching for Cannabis busts to see what kind of enforcement is going on. I had my hopes up when I saw drugs and smoke shop mentioned together, but no....

• Ten firearms, including three machine guns
• 2,600 suspected fentanyl pills
• One pound suspected methamphetamine
• Three ounces of suspected cocaine

Stupid question: What kind of smoke shop isn't selling Cannabis?

>Back in March, Baltimore City State’s Attorney Ivan Bates sat down with FOX45 News to discuss the growing concern surrounding smoke shops in the city after two smoke shops were the focus of federal raids and a third business was the site of a double shooting.

>Bates said his office was working more closely with federal partners, as well as the Maryland Alcohol Tobacco and Cannabis Commission.

There you go. They had to get mentioned sooner or later.

What we know—and what we don’t—about marijuana’s health effects

Scientific American falls for prohibitionist clap trap.

>But despite cannabis’s popularity, experts say that the scientific evidence as to whether it can actually treat many of these health issues is often thin—though promising.

The scientific evidence of the therapeutic effects of Cannabis is well documented.

>“People say, ‘Talk to your doctor.’ Well, your doctors don’t know anything because they don't have the data.”

The doctors don't know anything because they have not been taught anything about the ECS.

>While far from conclusive, there is “increasing evidence” that CBD may help treat anxiety in some, Grant says. “If it turns out to be true, it’s important,” he adds. CBD has a “pretty good safety profile,” which could mean that people who use it to treat anxiety may be able to rely less on drugs such as antidepressants and benzodiazepines, which can carry negative side effects or be habit-forming. But more research is needed.

No. More research is not needed. If you have anxiety, try CBD. Now let's talk about dosing instead because how you use Cannabis makes a difference.

>“Right now we have the notion of medical cannabis really being driven by the industry,” Haney says. “They’re running the narrative here because science cannot keep up with what needs to be done.”

Oh, the irony of this being printed in a science publication. The problem is more the media not being able to keep up with the science.

CT lawmakers reinstate cap on THC in cannabis flower after pushback

>“I still think it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to have a cap. But if people felt strongly about it, we agreed to it,” Rojas said. 

So Connecticut was updating their Cannabis laws...

>Aside from the THC flower cap, the original bill eliminated caps on THC concentrates and increased the amount of THC allowed in infused drinks from 3 mg to 5 mg. Drinks sold in dispensaries or retailers may now have up to 10 mg of THC. The bill also expanded the cannabis marketplace to include topicals, tablets and capsules and allows patients who come from out-of-state to purchase cannabis for medical reasons. 

The original bill also eliminated a cap on flower potency set to 35%. They passed that bill but promised to reinstate the cap via a separate bill. That's what this news is.

>During a Senate debate on the bill removing the caps, several senators — Republican and Democrat — expressed concern about how increased THC potency could affect public health, particularly for children. 

>“This is not fun and games. This is life and death. This is life changing, family changing, family destroying when we eliminate these caps,” said Sen. Jason Perillo, R-Shelton.

>Sen. Christine Cohen, D-Guilford, also expressed “strong reservations” with the THC potency levels and their impact on mental health. 

This is the kind of Reefer Madness we need constant vigilance against. Legal Cannabis is the best protection for children. No one has ever died from consuming Cannabis. The issue with Cannabis is dosing, not potency, there is a difference. "Strong reservations" is a red flag for "I don't have any proof". Cannabis has a huge net positive impact on mental health. Ironically, use of the term "marijuana" has more negative impact on mental health, especially if you can't tell the difference between correlation and causation.

How do you fight this? Where do you draw the line? This seems to be patently stupid, but it is a great example of how the spaghetti gets made. Sometimes you have to agree to stupid things in the name of compromise when reason should rule instead. When opinion replaces reason, these things happen. It becomes about limiting the damage.

A 35% cap on flower might have some unintended positive side effects. How many people here would like to see the industry move away from THC% as the #1 criteria of quality? Then again, what's the benefit of a cap at 35 versus a natural limit of around 40. A limit only ends the race 5 points sooner. Besides, what's a grower going to do with a batch that tests 35.2? I'd add trim back to get it down to 35. Then I'd add a screen to separate the trim from the bud in the container and tell people to just roll with it (or offer to buy it back). So as stupid as a cap is, it's not a big deal. If it's a big deal to the prohibitionists, then it is easier to take the deal than to change their minds.

People forget that while unlicensed sales remain a multiple of licensed sales, these kinds of arguments are just a fantasy that the state is in control. The best way to protect public health is to bring the entire market above the table. We have a long way to go. This is why it will take a long time to get rid of the last remnants of prohibition. So we play these silly games taking 3 steps sideways for every step forward.

Primaries for legislature seats are coming up. Elections are in November. The more Cannabis friendly legislators we have, the less of this kind of BS we have to deal with. The reason we are where we are is that stoners don't participate in the process. Let your reps know that you care about Cannabis. We still have lots of work to do.

The Ganjier program is expensive, but they do know their stuff. See some of what they teach for free.