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Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam has unveiled plans to introduce an adult-use cannabis legalization bill when the General Assembly reconvenes in January, following the release of a study on the potential impacts of legalization in the state, and the Virginia Medical Cannabis Coalition (VMCC) hopes that the state builds on its existing medical program when planning the launch of an adult-use market.

VMCC is a coalition of vertically integrated cannabis operators that had won conditional approval from the Virginia Board of Pharmacy with the goal of advancing the medical market through patient education and connecting the state’s industry stakeholders with legislators, according to Jack Page, VMCC member and the founder and CEO of medical cannabis operator Dharma Pharmaceuticals.

Dharma opened for business Oct. 17, marking the first day of medical cannabis sales in Virginia. From his experience in the medical market, Page says the state has a lot to consider when it comes to legalizing and regulating adult-use cannabis, as well as fine-tuning the medical program.

Photos courtesy of Dharma Pharmaceuticals

Virginia law requires medical cannabis operators to be vertically integrated, and Dharma currently operates one location that houses its cultivation, processing and retail operations. Page says patient response has been positive in the month or so since the market launched, and in January, Dharma will be able to open up to five additional retail locations within its health service area.

Page and the VMCC support adult-use legalization, but want to ensure that the medical program remains part of the overall cannabis industry in Virginia, and that changes are made to the medical program to make it more accessible to patients.

For example, although Dharma can deliver to its patients, the current medical regulations mandate that a patient’s first visit to the dispensary be on-site.

“We’ve been contacted by numerous hospice organizations and nursing homes across the state that have patients that could benefit from the medicine but are not physically able to travel,” Page says. “So, that’s one of the things that we need to look at fixing in the medical program.”

Another change the VMCC has been lobbying for is access to flower in Virginia’s medical market. Right now, it is an extract-only market, which increases costs for both patients and operators.

“That is a dose form that a lot of patients are asking for, and there are certain conditions that botanicals just treat better and the cost is lower to patients because there’s not all the processing with the expensive lab equipment that we have in the back to extract the oil, refine the oil and make the product,” Page says. “Right now, we’re vertically integrated, and that’s a barrier of entry to most people because the cost associated with a vertical organization is pretty high. We’d like to see some way for small business to be included in the adult-use market, as well.”

Virginia has an extract-only medical cannabis market, but Page says allowing patients to access flower would decrease costs for both operators and patients.

Although the medical program still has its pain points, Page would like the opportunity for Virginia’s medical cannabis operators to roll out the adult-use program to ensure a speedy market launch.

“Allowing the medical producers to jumpstart the adult-use market, you’re providing tax revenue pretty much immediately for the commonwealth, and that can pay for some social equity programs and pay for the infrastructure that will be required, and of course provide those jobs faster if we’re able to join the market as early as possible,” he says.

However, Page is still keeping his main focus on the state’s patient base.

“We definitely want to make sure that we also continue to serve our medical patients first and foremost,” Page says. “We want to make sure, too, that any kind of adult-use market has the same testing requirements so that we ensure that the product that’s being delivered is safe for Virginians to use.”

Virginia’s medical cannabis operators are required to submit their products for third-party testing for pesticides, heavy metals and mycotoxins.

“The thing, too, is with the medical cannabis market, there are more specialized dose forms that are used to treat specialized conditions, so that’s why it’s important to keep the medical market also viable in Virginia,” Page says. “For example, Dharma is producing a nasal spray and a suppository. You’re not probably going to find those kinds of products in an adult-use market, but we are seeing there’s a high demand for those products in the medical market.”

VMCC is advocating for one regulator that would oversee the medical and adult-use cannabis programs in Virginia, he adds, as well as the ability for medical operators to co-locate adult-use dispensaries with their medical storefronts.

“I just think in the discussions of bringing adult-use to Virginia, we need to realize that the medical program and the adult-use program are both necessary to serve patients across the commonwealth,” Page says. “We have to carefully think about how the adult-use market needs to be rolled out so that we don’t make all of the time and effort that’s been put into establishing the medical program be wasted.”

There is an ineffable logic to the pace of reform these days. Nowhere is that clearer in both the success of voter reform measures in the United States (along with timelines for implementation baked into the language of the same) and developments internationally. No matter that New Zealand decided to take a recent punt on the issue, there are other forces moving elsewhere that have the potential to be far more consequential – and in the short term.

Israel Announced Its Intent To Create A Recreational Market in 2021

There is little news anywhere as consequential as that of the oldest medical market finally succumbing to the inevitable. Namely, Israel has announced that it will allow an adult use market to begin operations probably by the third quarter of 2021. That said, don’t hold anyone to a deadline in the days of COVID-19, which will just as surely have not passed by then.

However, this development means that the entire conversation has moved up a notch – because the Israelis have so much research on the plant at this point.

For this reason, the tiny country is likely to have an outsized impact on the entire discussion – along with conveniently timed medical exports to the world.

Luxembourg Will Initiate Its Recreational Market Shortly Thereafter

It is likely not insignificant that the Israelis announced their intent to begin an adult use market just ahead of the long-announced Luxembourg flip – now on the agenda of the Green Party domestically for several years.

The strategic location of Luxembourg in both the European market as well as the much larger financial one now interested in the vertical cannot be understated. Indeed, the country has already played an outsized role in the development of the medical market here due to the contretemps over the clearing of stock trades in the German market as of 2018.

The double whammy of good news from both markets will also create a buzz internationally that is sure to drive other conversations forward – even if it is to study how both countries approach the issue. And, more to a point, how they differ from Canada, including regulation of their equity markets.

Combined with a more regulated market in Holland and presumably continued “experimentation” in Denmark, and by the end of next year, adult use reform will have hit the continent and in no small way.

Does This Mean The Sudden Potential of Adult Use Everywhere?

As 2020 has shown, in spades, just about anything can and frequently does happen. However, do not expect many more countries to move into the recreational column for the next several years.

Whatever the UN does or does not do about cannabis at the next meeting of the WHO, cannabis the plant remains a Schedule I drug internationally. This means that, for example, import and export of the same across borders, even in Europe, is likely to be problematic and for some time to come – let alone its international travel across say, the Atlantic.

Further from the law enforcement and financial security (namely money laundering) perspective, there are big issues that have to be dealt with finally, internationally, that so far have not – and under the guise of “medical reform.”

For that reason, in other words, do not expect Germany, much less France or even the UK to suddenly switch gears. And remember that both Luxembourg and Israel are small countries.

Bottom line? Adult use reform is here to stay, and will increasingly show up on the map. But the more “blanket” reform, still driving the entire discussion, is broadly, and globally, medical.

Earlier this month, the California Bureau of Cannabis Control (BCC) announced the recipients of public university grant funding that will allow universities across the state to research the legal cannabis system and its impacts, and researchers are eager to launch their wide-ranging studies.

More than 100 universities applied for grants of up to $2 million to fund research proposals that had to fall within one of several specified categories, including public health, criminal justice and public safety, and economic and environmental impacts of the legal cannabis industry.

The BCC ultimately awarded nearly $30 million in funding to UC San Francisco, UC Santa Barbara, CSU Dominguez Hills, UC Berkeley, UC Los Angeles, UC Irvine, UC San Diego, UC Davis and CSU Humboldt for their specified research proposals.

UCLA received seven grants totaling $6.4 million to fund studies that will be conducted through the Semel Institute/Department of Psychiatry, Integrative Substance Abuse Programs (ISAP), Center for Health Services and Society, Department of Family Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care, Division of Infectious Disease, Luskin School of Public Policy and the UCLA Labor Center.

Funded studies will focus on the impact of Prop. 64 on maladaptive cannabis use and treatment for cannabis use disorder, as well as the toxicity of inhaled and second-hand cannabis smoke, the neurobiological and behavioral impact of cannabis marketing, employment conditions in California’s cannabis industry, a demographic analysis of the licensed cannabis industry and cannabis consumers, and an assessment of the feasibility and consequences of implementing a cannabis potency tax.

“The funded grants exemplify the breadth of cannabis research at UCLA,” Ziva Cooper, Ph.D and director of the UCLA Cannabis Research Initiative, told Cannabis Business Times and Cannabis Dispensary in an emailed statement.

UC Davis received five grants totaling $3.1 million to fund studies on the impact of cannabis use in early psychosis, an assessment of the demographics of the licensed cannabis industry, the economic impacts of the industry on the private and public sectors in California, the environmental impacts of licensed and unlicensed cannabis cultivation in the state, and a study on California’s cannabis workers.

“We have a Cannabis and Hemp Research Center at UC Davis that fosters scientific research, as well as a dissemination of knowledge related to the many scientific disciplines associated with cannabis and hemp, and that includes agricultural science, environmental science, pharmacology and clinical medicine,” Cam Carter, co-director of the research center, told CBT and CD, adding that the grant funding will support research across all of these areas. “The area that our research is focused on is the effects of cannabis use on the brain, brain function and brain health in young people with serious mental illness. We want to understand the complexities, particularly adverse effects and clinical outcomes, as well as potential therapeutic effects associated with cannabis use in high-risk, young populations.”

One group of researchers will focus specifically on economic issues, Carter said, particularly economic development and equity in California’s legal cannabis industry. Much of that research will rely on information from public records, as well as interviews with various participants in the industry and an analysis of policy related to economic development and equity.

Other studies will focus on the occupational health for workers who participate in California’s legal cannabis industry, as well as health-related research involving cannabis consumers who are receiving mental care, Carter added.

“That research will involve clinical interviews and evaluations, metabolic and inflammatory markers, and brain imaging studies, looking at the function and structure of the brain in those young people,” he said.

The goal of the research funding program, which is supported by state tax dollars, is to provide a better understanding of the impact of cannabis legalization on California’s economy, environment and public health, Carter said. He expects the results of UC Davis’ research to be published in scientific journals and white papers, and hopes that the research will have many positive outcomes.

“We would like to see an industry that is contributing positively to the economy, doing that in a way that’s equitable, that’s not in any way harmful to the health of people who are actually participating in the industry,” Carter said. “And we’d definitely like to have a better understanding on the impact of the industry and cannabis use in general on high-risk populations, such as those who are young, whose brains are still developing, or who have mental health problems.”

Earlier this month, the California Bureau of Cannabis Control (BCC) announced the recipients of public university grant funding that will allow universities across the state to research the legal cannabis system and its impacts, and researchers are eager to launch their wide-ranging studies.

More than 100 universities applied for grants of up to $2 million to fund research proposals that had to fall within one of several specified categories, including public health, criminal justice and public safety, and economic and environmental impacts of the legal cannabis industry.

The BCC ultimately awarded nearly $30 million in funding to UC San Francisco, UC Santa Barbara, CSU Dominguez Hills, UC Berkeley, UC Los Angeles, UC Irvine, UC San Diego, UC Davis and CSU Humboldt for their specified research proposals.

UCLA received seven grants totaling $6.4 million to fund studies that will be conducted through the Semel Institute/Department of Psychiatry, Integrative Substance Abuse Programs (ISAP), Center for Health Services and Society, Department of Family Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care, Division of Infectious Disease, Luskin School of Public Policy and the UCLA Labor Center.

Funded studies will focus on the impact of Prop. 64 on maladaptive cannabis use and treatment for cannabis use disorder, as well as the toxicity of inhaled and second-hand cannabis smoke, the neurobiological and behavioral impact of cannabis marketing, employment conditions in California’s cannabis industry, a demographic analysis of the licensed cannabis industry and cannabis consumers, and an assessment of the feasibility and consequences of implementing a cannabis potency tax.

“The funded grants exemplify the breadth of cannabis research at UCLA,” Ziva Cooper, Ph.D and director of the UCLA Cannabis Research Initiative, told Cannabis Business Times and Cannabis Dispensary in an emailed statement.

UC Davis received five grants totaling $3.1 million to fund studies on the impact of cannabis use in early psychosis, an assessment of the demographics of the licensed cannabis industry, the economic impacts of the industry on the private and public sectors in California, the environmental impacts of licensed and unlicensed cannabis cultivation in the state, and a study on California’s cannabis workers.

“We have a Cannabis and Hemp Research Center at UC Davis that fosters scientific research, as well as a dissemination of knowledge related to the many scientific disciplines associated with cannabis and hemp, and that includes agricultural science, environmental science, pharmacology and clinical medicine,” Cam Carter, co-director of the research center, told CBT and CD, adding that the grant funding will support research across all of these areas. “The area that our research is focused on is the effects of cannabis use on the brain, brain function and brain health in young people with serious mental illness. We want to understand the complexities, particularly adverse effects and clinical outcomes, as well as potential therapeutic effects associated with cannabis use in high-risk, young populations.”

One group of researchers will focus specifically on economic issues, Carter said, particularly economic development and equity in California’s legal cannabis industry. Much of that research will rely on information from public records, as well as interviews with various participants in the industry and an analysis of policy related to economic development and equity.

Other studies will focus on the occupational health for workers who participate in California’s legal cannabis industry, as well as health-related research involving cannabis consumers who are receiving mental care, Carter added.

“That research will involve clinical interviews and evaluations, metabolic and inflammatory markers, and brain imaging studies, looking at the function and structure of the brain in those young people,” he said.

The goal of the research funding program, which is supported by state tax dollars, is to provide a better understanding of the impact of cannabis legalization on California’s economy, environment and public health, Carter said. He expects the results of UC Davis’ research to be published in scientific journals and white papers, and hopes that the research will have many positive outcomes.

“We would like to see an industry that is contributing positively to the economy, doing that in a way that’s equitable, that’s not in any way harmful to the health of people who are actually participating in the industry,” Carter said. “And we’d definitely like to have a better understanding on the impact of the industry and cannabis use in general on high-risk populations, such as those who are young, whose brains are still developing, or who have mental health problems.”