Staying Up to Date on the Cannabis Space

The Maryland medical cannabis market is heating up

183:709283632 (Jamie Campbell) — Thu, 19 Jul 2018 19:32:29 GMT

New dispensaries get final approval and some pesticide woes

The Maryland cannabis space is heating up in a few different ways thanks to some unfortunate controversy as well as the latest fistful of new dispensaries being officially approved.

The good news is that the Maryland Medical Cannabis Commission is closer than ever to awarding final licensing to all 102 dispensaries that were initially approved in November 2016.

Just this summer they've gone from about 50 to 70), so hopefully by the end of 2018, close to 75% of the preapproved retail licenses will be up and running to serve the nearly 50,000 Maryland MMJ patients registered. At an issuance rate of about six licenses per month, all 102 could theoretically be open for business by early 2019.

In additional to dispensary license preapproval, cultivators and processors have each received about 25 green lights each, more than half of which are in operation supplying the retail outlets. A delicate balance certainly, but at least Maryland is moving forward with some momentum again to lead the mid-Atlantic region.

In not-so-nice news, a major producer has been accused of using illegal pesticides on cannabis that was harvested, sold and consumed by patients as recently as early 2018. Cannabis is highly susceptible to powdery mildew, spider mites and other pests, but the highly-toxic residual effects of pesticides and the ban of their use is a hotly contested issue amongst cultivators nationwide.

Finishing strong

183:709283632 (Jamie Campbell) — Thu, 23 Nov 2017 11:46:15 GMT

The cannabis marketing landscape exploded in 2017

It will be interesting as well to see what happens with certain synonyms for cannabis that will not be used anywhere on this website. In particular, a potentially banned synonym that would be listed only as MMJ will be tracked as a keyword despite it's inclusion in any greenco.website or greenblog content.

Cannabis Marketing in 2018

183:709283632 (Jamie Campbell) — Sat, 11 Nov 2017 06:30:00 GMT

The cannabis space is changing at an unprecedented rate and the opportunities, as well as the regulations, are staggering.

With the election of two pro-cannabis Governors ( Phil Murphy, D-NJ , and Ralph Northam, D-VA ), it's starting to look like the momentum has shifted towards federal rescheduling sooner than later . Farms, labs, dispensaries and other cannabis-friendly businesses need marketing to thrive just like any other industries and the stigma is very quickly dissipating. Add in all the inevitably convoluted regulations and compliance requirements and you’ll soon have seemingly endless options for banking, security, track-and-trace and retail integration clouding the mix. California is at the forefront as usual, set to combine its 21-year old Prop 215 MMJ industry with an adult-use recreational one (Prop 64) on January 1, 2018 in what is projected to become a $7 billion juggernaut.