February 8 – Alberta Gaming Liquor and Cannabis (AGLC) made significant updates to their Retail Cannabis Store Handbook and the Cannabis Representative Handbook this past week.
Effective January 31, 2024, cannabis retailers will notice amendments to rules governing cannabis sampling, sales between retail stores, and authorizsations for selling cannabis at events. Additionally, storage protocols for cannabis products have been revised.
These changes mark a notable shift in Alberta’s cannabis landscape, impacting how retailers operate and interact with customers. These changes signal a new era for cannabis regulation in Alberta.
One of the most significant changes introduced by the AGLC is the expansion of cannabis sampling allowances.
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Previously limited to products weighing 3.5 grams or less, retailers can now provide samples of larger package sizes, enhancing customers’ ability to explore a broader range of products.
However, this newfound freedom comes with caveats, as retailers are restricted to offering each product sample at most twice per calendar year. This adjustment aims to balance promoting product exploration and ensuring responsible consumption practices within the community.
Furthermore, the amendments allow retailers to apply for a licence extension to sell cannabis at adult-only events, such as trade shows and festivals. This change could significantly expand the market reach and consumer access for cannabis retailers, providing new opportunities for sales and marketing in environments tailored to adult consumers.
Cannabis lawyer and legal expert Harrison Jordan from Substance Law explains, ” These regulatory changes represent new challenges and opportunities within this seismic shift in Alberta’s cannabis landscape, prompting retailers to adapt their strategies and operations to navigate the evolving regulatory framework effectively.”
Lastly, the AGLC’s reforms address the complexities of cannabis sales between licensed retailers. “By eliminating the 120-day waiting period for cannabis transfers and permitting unlimited product transfers between licensees under the same legal entity, the regulatory framework seeks to streamline inter-store transactions.”
This change facilitates smoother inventory management and fosters collaboration and innovation within the retail cannabis sector.
In a recent letter to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), 12 Senate Democrat legislators have urged President Joseph Biden’s administration to reconsider federal cannabis restrictions as the agency contemplates cannabis rescheduling. The letter, signed by the Senate Majority Leader and spearheaded by Senators Elizabeth Warren and John Fetterman, highlights the strong argument in favor of taking cannabis out of Schedule I. The senators suggest removing it completely from the CSA in addition to downgrading its classification.
Schedule I, which formally classifies marijuana as a substance with high abuse potential and no recognized medical uses, puts it in the same category as drugs such as LSD and heroin. Despite this, different marijuana laws have been passed by 40 states as well as Washington, D.C., leaving users and businesses in a confusing legal environment.
Last month, the DEA stated that it maintained the authority to deschedule, schedule or reschedule substances under the CSA based on medical and scientific assessments despite the HHS’s recommendation.
The White House hoped for a rescheduling announcement approximately one year following President Biden’s October 2022 order for the DEA to review the HHS’s recommendation report. Though no statement has been made, it was anticipated that the matter would come up frequently during the elections in November.
In their letter, the senators noted that Biden’s administration needs to first take cannabis out of Schedule I before eventually descheduling it. The government officials highlighted the administration’s unique opportunity to conform to public health and scientific rationales while mitigating the negative effects of existing federal cannabis regulations on small enterprises and individuals.
Meanwhile, Senators Ron Wyden and Cory Booker, who are also signatories to the letter, proposed comprehensive cannabis reform aimed at decriminalizing and abolishing the federal prohibition of marijuana. However, the legislation hasn’t received the required bipartisan support.
Another measure, the SAFE Banking Bill, attempts to make it easier for banks to offer financial services to marijuana enterprises in places where the drug is legal. The measure passed through committee but is still awaiting a senate vote. Schumer has previously emphasized the importance of the bipartisan-backed bill as a top legislative priority.
Cannabis companies such as Cresco Labs Inc. (CSE: CL) (OTCQX: CRLBF) will be following the developments on Capitol Hill to see whether the legislative front can finally bring reforms beyond what the DEA is expected to announce once its scheduling review is completed.
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In The Midst of Times of Material Darkness; the greatest feat God ever performed was to convince you that he exists. Hmm… that sounds like something else I heard once. Doesn’t that remind you of something? Heh heh… oh well, it was worth a shot, Kobayashi.
I’ll tell you what puzzles me; how it is that people can be so utterly convinced of the existence of The Devil but have such a hard time believing in God, and… when they do… God’s always at a distance. The point of Life… the way I get it… is to close the space between, and… that is what life does… sort of. It brings you closer to one or the other… sometimes without you being the wiser… until you are well along.
Here is something I have learned from the direct experience of it. The more you read The Divine into every aspect of your existence, the more The Divine presents through every aspect of your existence. You go from wondering if he… she… or it is even a thing. Then you find yourself talking to your version of that which you will never comprehend.
Then… some kind of pressure… that is always present in The Cosmos… causes you to get answers through a variety of mediums… until… you’re having a back-and-forth conversation. You become one of the actors in that song, “In The Garden.”
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It’s a process of stages. It’s a matter of degrees. It’s a game of Marco! Polo! Only… you have to keep playing. Therein lies the best example of the greatest heartbreak we shall ever know; we stopped playing. We stopped calling out. We stopped coming.
When we were children we were in The Garden. You kind of have to be a child to be there. Puberty leads you out of The Garden, and… closes the door behind you. You fall in love with someone and that magic extends itself in every direction so that The Garden appears again, briefly… and then you fall out of love, and The Garden disappears once more.
The trick is to fall in love forever, and… this you can only accomplish by falling in love with What Is forever.
It was all arranged a long time ago; the presence… the eviction… the long return. The truly important things only gain their real value in your heart… once you have lost them You start out in a state of unity… then you are divided… then you search, and you search… and you search for that unity again. That last part can go on for countless lifetimes, as long as you are looking for that union in anything external to yourself.
All through the long exile, it does not occur to you… until much later… that you were being guided all along. People recapture some part of it… vicariously… when they have children of their own. They live through them. This is what The Divine is doing all along the way. The Divine is living through you… whether you are aware of it or not. Once you do become aware of it… oh, happy day!!!
It’s a trick of The Mind. The Mind has so many tricks. The Mind is fighting for its survival. It is what The Mind does, but those who lose their lives… for the sake of that which is greater… come to live in eternity’s sunrise. Once again… I believe the operative phrase is… oh, happy day!!!
You’re right on the verge of it the whole time… even across the span of lifetimes… it is right there. It is closer to you than you are to yourself. It is yourself. It is that part of yourself that you are separated from. That sense of separation is what drives you, and drives you, and there is no peace. There is peace ONLY in the return of that union.
Once you have accomplished this union, once the union begins to speak to you… you no longer want anything else ever again, and it is so full of itself that it overflows… forever and ever. There is enough to share with the entire universe and the well… never… runs… dry.
Eventually you get that magic wand and… ♫ that magic touch ♫ and… “whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” You get the magic-anointer ring. However flippant the presentation might be in that statement, it’s as real as real can be.
Everything The Dark Side has down here… is a cheap and badly drawn copy of the original… that exists in Heaven. If there is a Ring of Power down here, it is based on the true Ring of Power in Heaven. This is why… when you finally know that everything on Earth is a poor imitation of the original… you no longer fear ANYTHING down here… because you know where the real power lies, and you can call upon it whenever there is need.
There is a great deal of deep meaning in The Works of Shakespeare;
Glendower: “I can call spirits from the vasty deep.”
Hotspur: “Why, so can I, or so can any man; but will they come when you do call for them?”
Glendower: “Why, I can teach you, cousin, to command The devil.”
Hotspur: “And I can teach thee, coz, to shame the devil— By telling the truth. Tell the truth and shame the devil.”
There certainly are more things in Heaven and Earth, but the real question is; why is it so hard? Why is it so dreadfully and excruciatingly hard? Well, the truth is that it is not. It is not hard. It is only hard when YOU are trying to do it… because YOU cannot do it. You cannot ever do it. That is not in your job description. You can ONLY allow it to be done. You can ONLY hold still… while it is performed without your interference.
Everyone who has had it accomplished in them will tell you the same thing. It is The Angel who completes The Great Work in you, and… all your own efforts are futile and will prove so.
There is no free will… except that which comes from your separation from The Whole, which puts you in whatever degree of resistance you muster to maintain your state of separation. Oh well… have it your way!
Time exists only apart from The Unity. There is no time within The Unity, and Time is corrosive and Time wears you away. It bends you over. It sucks the life and vitality from you… through all the activities you engage in… to maintain your separation. Good luck with that!!! Eat… Drink… and be Stupid! AH HAHAHAHAHAH!!! (Glorp.) That is the sound that dissolution makes.
All over The World at this time, people… situations… conditions, and the archetypal infrastructure that holds them together are… breaking down. We are approaching… actually presently undergoing… a Great Reset, BUT… it is not the one that the stand-in for The Empire Strikes Back is talking about. You see… everything the self-deceived are intent on bringing about for the rest of us, is already in play. They just want it to look like they are the ones doing it.
They… of course… would not be doing this… if they knew how it was going to come out. When you operate under false pretenses… you are taken to your doom under false appearances. It is only fitting that it should be so, that… that which you intended to inflict upon others should happen to you. It is ALWAYS too late to do something about The Apocalypse!
The biggest problem for The Movers and Shakers… is the constrictions of their own ignorance. They are not capable of saying, I… don’t… know. They are absolutely certain that they do know, which… provides one more opportunity… among endlessly replicating opportunities… for history to record the evidence that they did not know, and… do not know.
Down here… there are always… the never-ending arguments… concerning whether we are all screwed… or not. Tinhorn dictators and porcine despots are always on hand… to lend an atmosphere of uncertainty. A bunch of strong-arming shitheels get together, and plot the end of The World for everybody else. They have the money and the big guns, and they always have an army of Stupids… that they can convince of their mission, and… call to arms… for the completion and defense of their cause.
However… something always goes wrong… especially in an apocalypse, where all of your efforts bring you more and more to the attention of everyone else. There has never been, and there will never be a time when some pack of scoundrels can take over The World. The Earth is a sacred vessel and at the mere approach of The Profane… it recedes.
No one can succeed for long… who relies entirely on appearances… for the information they operate according to. It’s what you don’t see, and… can’t see… that gets you. Oh well… you can’t tell anyone anything. They have to find out for themselves. I did find out. I don’t know. That should keep me in good stead until God sorts them out.
End Transmission…….
We now come to the heaviest statements yet by Jacob Boehme. (pronounced Burma) I don’t know what to say about any of this. Some of it is deep and mysterious indeed.
The Chatham-Kent Police Service executed a search warrant of an illicit cannabis store operating in the Blenheim area known as “Blenheim Carts”.
In a media release on February 8, police say they began an investigation into the business in January. The raid of the business on February 7 resulted in one arrest and the seizure of cannabis and cannabis products, psilocybin mushrooms, and LSD.
A Facebook page connected to the business displayed products like extracts and an array of edibles commonly found in the black market.
In total, police reported seizing:
– 1.5 kilogram of illicit cannabis; – 500 grams of psilocybin; – 51 hits of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD); – Other cannabis products such as oils, resins, hash, etc; – Packaging material and packaging products; – Cellular telephone; – Digital scales; and – Canadian currency;
A 28 year old Blenheim man has been charged with the following offences:– Sell cannabis, s. 10(1)(a) of the Cannabis Act (3 COUNTS); – Possession of cannabis for the purpose of selling, s. 10(2) of the Cannabis Act; – Possession of a schedule III substance (Lysergic Acid Diethylamide) for the purpose of trafficking, s. 5(2) of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act; and, – Possession of a schedule III substance (Psilocybin) for the purpose of trafficking, s. 5(2) of the Controlled – Drugs and Substances Act
Green Thumb’s second annual Social Impact Report documents and highlights the meaningful progress of its “Growing for Good” program across four key pillars: Community Engagement, Inclusion & Belonging, Restorative Justice and Environmental Stewardship. The full report can be viewed at www.gtigrows.com/social-impact-report.
“Our Growing for Good social impact program is deeply embedded in Green Thumb’s DNA and brought to life by our team members every day,” said Green Thumb founder, chairman and chief executive officer Ben Kovler. “Our company was built on promoting well-being through cannabis while giving back to the communities we serve, and I am proud of our team’s commitment to strengthening our collective impact each year.”
In 2023, Green Thumb’s team of approximately 4,600 passionate individuals supported their communities by promoting a more inclusive and equitable industry, advocating for social justice and delivering positive change toward local and national initiatives. Highlights from Green Thumb’s latest Social Impact Report include:
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Community Engagement: Through its Round Up campaign and First Day Profits program, Green Thumb and its customers supported local nonprofit partners across the country, contributing over $800,000 to causes including housing support, cannabis reform advocacy and restorative justice.
Inclusion & Belonging: The company fostered a more inclusive cannabis culture by hosting unconscious bias training sessions for leaders and elevating platforms of Employee Resource Groups (ERGs), reaching a digital audience of more than 300,000.
Restorative Justice: Green Thumb continued to advocate for cannabis policy reform, with an emphasis on expungement and employment efforts. In addition, the company provided direct support to entrepreneurs impacted by the War on Drugs through equity joint venture partnerships.
Environmental Stewardship: Construction completed on four new production facilities focused on maximizing energy efficiency, which resulted in 17.9 kWh of energy saved and 12,500 tons of CO2 reduced.
To continue the momentum of the company’s social impact initiatives, Green Thumb is introducing a matching component to its Round Up program in 2024. Round Up presents patients and customers at RISE Dispensaries with the opportunity to round their purchases up to the nearest dollar in support of a partner nonprofit organization.
To expand the generous contributions of its customers, Good Green, the company’s cannabis brand that aims to reverse the harms caused by the War on Drugs, will match 2024 donations up to $500,000. Green Thumb will donate the proceeds from Round Up to three organizations throughout the year, beginning with Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) in the first trimester.
SSDP is a grassroots network of students and young people advocating for sensible drug policies in their communities, on their campuses, and at the state and national levels. With nearly 100 chapters across the United States, SSDP is the largest national youth-led network dedicated to ending the War on Drugs. Through the contributions from Green Thumb’s Round Up program, SSDP will further advance its cannabis clemency and expungement efforts with a focus on policy change at the federal level.
The city of Beaumont, Alberta, located near Edmonton International Airport, recently passed new rules to restrict the production of medical cannabis to agricultural land or light industrial areas.
The move comes in response to some community concerns over personal or designated medical cannabis production licences in residential neighbourhoods, says the city.
City council approved an amendment in January to its Land Use Bylaw that restricts medical cannabis production to Agricultural Holdings and Business Light-Industrial Districts and requires a development permit for production.
The Council first approved a motion to draft amendments to Beaumont’s Land Use Bylaw that would prohibit individuals with a federally-issued licence from growing medical cannabis in residential land use districts in mid 2023. The mayor placed blame on the federal medical cannabis regulations.
“When the federal government legalized cannabis and began issuing licences for people to grow it in their home for medical use, they created a situation where a single house could have upwards of 100 or more plants,” said Mayor Bill Daneluik at the time. “Unfortunately, they didn’t include any requirements to address potential issues, like overwhelming odors, from growing large amounts of cannabis and have left municipalities to deal with the problem.”
“Beaumont’s Land Use Bylaw now has clear rules for where medical cannabis production can take place, closing the gap created by federal legislation and making sure our neighbourhoods remain vibrant and livable,” the mayor said in a press release following the passage by the new amendments.
Zoning restrictions like odour and noise are generally managed at the municipal, not federal level. Federal rules for such personal or designated cannabis production licences for medical purposes have been repeatedly upheld by a series of court cases that have affirmed people’s right to produce their own cannabis, if authorized by a medical professional.
According to Health Canada’s most recent figures as of March 2023, the number of individuals registered for personal and designated cultivation of cannabis for their own medical purposes decreased 6 percent from 20,448 in December 2022 to 19,076 in March 2023.
In 2018, there were just under 26,000 active personal/designated production registrations. That number grew to more than 47,000 by September 2021 before rapidly dropping to just over 19,000 as of March 2023.
Health Canada has been increasing the number of personal and designated production licences for cannabis for medical purposes, with 170 inspections in the most recent report through 2023.
Most of the licence holders inspected in the past year were in Ontario or BC (115, 29), but a handful were also in Alberta (5), Manitoba (10), and Quebec (11). In the previous year, Quebec saw the majority of these kinds of inspections.
The amount of these inspections conducted by Health Canada has been growing annually. While there were 170 inspections in the most recent year and 89 the year prior between April 1, 2019, and March 31, 2020, Health Canada conducted 82 inspections associated with 82 personal or designated registrations. In 2019, there were only nine inspections related to such registrations.
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