Welcome to Senior Cannabis Digest. This week we look at a change in cannabis policy for the NYPD, more news on using CBD to manage pain, a clarification from the VA on home loans for veterans who work in the cannabis industry and more. Enjoy.
Cannabis and Law Enforcement
“Holy Serpico.” The New York City Law Department has ordered the New York Police Department (NYPD)—the country’s largest police department— to stop testing police officers for marijuana use.
According to the New York Post, the NYPD has been directed “to cease all random, scheduled and pre-employment testing for marijuana,” a police spokesperson said in a statement.
The Post article notes that this decision is based on a citywide order that came out in April prohibiting agencies from testing employees for marijuana. Given that cannabis is legal for personal use in New York, that order was based on the premise that a test can’t determine whether the person used the drug on the job or on their personal time.
However, the memo does point out that police officers can still be tested for other drugs and indicates the NYPD will continue to administer marijuana screenings to personnel when there is indication of impairment.
Some say the decision was made with an eye toward hiring more applicants who would otherwise be excluded because of cannabis use alone.
To learn more, we suggest you read the article by Larry Celona, Joe Marino and Tina Moore that appeared in the July 13, 2022 issue of the New York Post.
nypost.com/2022/07/13/nypd-no-more-marijuana-testing-for-police-officers/
CBD Spotlight
Two more stories this week that focus on the potential benefits of adding CBD to a regular wellness, recovery and pain management routine.
The first is the announcement of a multi-year deal between the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) and Re+Play, a line of performance-based wellness and recovery products from Harrington Wellness, a company founded by former NBA player Al Harrington.
The line will offer topicals, kinesiology tape, and massage guns, as well as other naturally infused-pain products, that will be sold via Amazon and Walmart.
Said Mr. Harrington, “As we move into the next phase of the Re+Play brand with our strategic partners at Amazon, the NBPA, and Walmart, we are excited to once again reimagine how we help athletes of all levels recover from pain with CBD and other innovative technology.”
According to TG Branfalt, who reported on the story for Ganjapreneur, the first products the collaboration is bringing to market is a line of proprietarily formulated recovery creams, developed in partnership with Avicanna, a biopharmaceutical company that specializes in the development of plant-derived cannabinoid-based products.
Said Erin Hackney, president of Harrington Wellness, selling products at Amazon and Walmart allows the company “to bring high-quality recovery-promoting products to the everyday customer in places that they are looking for them.”
The second story involves a statement from former President Bill Clinton that promoted the results of a clinical trial into the efficacy of CBD in pain management. The clinical trials, which were conducted at NYU Langone, relied on products supplied by Orcosa that contained CBD provided by TR Processing (TRP).
Said Clinton,“The Clinton Foundation has worked for years to reduce opioid addiction and deaths. To succeed, we need non-addictive alternatives to pain management. The results of the trial conducted by NYU Langone, with TRP’s CBD ingredient, are very encouraging and I’m eager to see the results of the next round.”
It should be noted that various sources, including the Washington Free Beacon, have reported that members of the Sackler family—the Perdue Pharma dynasty often said to be at the center of the opioid epidemic—have been Clinton Foundation donors.
According to Kyle Jaeger, reporting for Marijuana Moment, the clinical trial, which involved 99 participants 18-75 years old who underwent rotator cuff surgery, found that Orcosa’s CBD tablet ORAVEXX significantly decreased postoperative pain compared to the placebo, without any serious side effects.
To learn more about the new agreement between Harrington Wellness, the NBPA and Amazon and Walmart, we suggest you read TG Branfalt’s article in the July 13, 2022 issue of Ganjapreneur.com.
www.ganjapreneur.com/nbpa-partners-with-al-harringtons-replay-on-cbd-wellness-products/?
To learn more about the efficacy of CBD in pain management during the clinical trials conducted at NYU Langone, we suggest you read Kyle Jaeger’s article in the July 12, 2022 issue of Marijuana Moment.net.
Cannabis Corner
While the march toward legal cannabis continues to move forward, it doesn’t exactly do so in a straight line. In fact, many of the state laws that govern the possession and consumption of cannabis may be described as less than logical—and some are downright strange.
That’s the word from Tom Gaffey, writing for The Fresh Toast. He’s collected eight of what he considers to be some of the stranger cannabis laws on the books. Here are a few examples.
• Maine charges a meal tax on edibles. According to Gaffey, in Maine, the rate of taxation on cannabis products varies depending on how someone consumes those products. Maine’s Office of Marijuana Policy states that while medical marijuana is subject to a 5.5 percent general sales tax rate at retail, edibles containing cannabis are taxed at a higher rate—8 percent. That’s because Maine subjects them to a meal tax. But there are no limits on the amount of THC in edibles sold there, so they do have that going for them.
• Nevada is particular about your fonts. Despite its wide open, anything-goes reputation, the State of Nevada is very particular when it comes to the fonts that are used on the labels of cannabis products. According to Nevada law, those selling cannabis products can only use serif and sans serif fonts on labels, and no italics. In addition, graphic or other “fun” fonts are strictly forbidden. Guess they wouldn’t want to give the impression the product may induce a case of too much fun.
• It’s easier to find Waldo than it is to find weed in Delaware. According to Gaffey, Delaware does not allow any advertising of medical marijuana “by normal print, broadcast, in-person solicitation or other means.” It seems Delaware marijuana codes outlaw all sorts of advertising methods when it comes to medical marijuana. However, dispensaries are explicitly allowed to advertise their services in their local phone book. You do remember phone books, don’t you?
To learn more, we suggest reading Tom Gaffey’s informative and entertaining article. It appears in the June 30, 2022 issue of The Fresh Toast.com.
The Cannabis Industry and Banking
While the federal government continues to dither and dawdle on cannabis policy, one state—Pennsylvania— is moving to protect banks, credit unions, and insurers against state prosecution for doing business with legitimate cannabis companies.
Pennsylvania House Bill 331 would protect financial businesses from prosecution under state laws designed to prevent them from dealing with marijuana companies. The Bill has passed the State House, with amendments by the State Senate. However, Governor Tom Wolf has yet to sign it and, it should be noted that the bill does not prevent prosecution of these financial institutions under federal statutes.
The federal Secure and Fair Enforcement Banking Act, commonly known as the SAFE Banking Act, is designed to address these issues at the federal level but remains stalled in Congress.
According to an article by Kris B. Mamula that appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer, federal laws have made the cannabis industry— which is legal for recreational use in 19 states and for medical uses in 37 more states and the District of Columbia —an almost entirely a cash business.
Michael H. Sampson, co-leader of the Cannabis Industry Group at the Pittsburgh law offices of Leech Tishman Fuscaldo & Lampl told Mamula, “Legal cannabis companies do not have access to banks or the insurance market the way other businesses do. Many banks right now don’t want to do business with cannabis businesses because of federal anti-money laundering and other laws.”
Jordan Grant, Director of Government Relations at the Pennsylvania Association of Community Bankers, a Harrisburg-based trade group, told Mamula that the state legislation was expected to increase the number of businesses serving the cannabis industry and to move cash into the safety of the banking system while opening the doors for cannabis operators to seek out bank loans, lines of credit, and other financial services.
To learn more about the bill and its intended benefits, we suggest you read the article by Kris B. Mamula that appeared in the July 8, 2022 edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Thanks to the one and only Blurtsy Touriotte for sending the story our way.
News for Veterans
There is good news for veterans who are employed in the cannabis industry. The Department of Veterans Affairs—the VA—has stated that military veterans can still be certified as eligible to receive home loan benefits even if they derive income from a state-legal marijuana business.
More specifically, the VA stated in a memo that a veteran “who receives income from state-legalized marijuana activity is not prohibited from obtaining a Certificate of Eligibility (COE), which is a certificate that confirms the veteran is eligible to apply for a VA-guaranteed loan and shows the amount of home loan guaranty entitlement available, if any, to the veteran.”
However, according to Kyle Jaeger, who covered the story for Marijuana Moment, the VA did go on to acknowledge in the memo that veterans working in the industry may face other challenges when buying a home. Specifically, it said, “it may be difficult for lenders to establish the stability and reliability of Veterans’ income derived from marijuana-related industries. As such, lenders may find it problematic to rely on such income when underwriting VA-guaranteed loans.”
The VA memo did seem to suggest that veterans who work in the federally-legal hemp side of the cannabis industry may not face the same scrutiny from lenders as those who work in the marijuana side of the industry, which is not legal at the federal level.
Kyle Jaeger does an excellent job of unraveling the twists and turns of the VA’s many positions on the issues related to veterans and cannabis. To learn much more we urge you to read his article that appeared in the July 7, 2022 issue of Marijuana Moment.net.
Senior Cannabis Digest is compiled and edited by Joe Kohut and John Kohut. You can contact them at joe.kohut@gmail.com and at 347-528-8753.
