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Jane Technologies Releases Jane Roots Headless E-Commerce Solution

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Three years after their product launch and over 15 years since the idea came about, Amy and Dave Nudelman have secured a patent for their tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) infused chewing gum, Joygum.

Amy is the owner of Joygum, and her husband, Dave, works as a consultant for her.

The product is currently sold in about 225 stores in Colorado and is available in two of the largest dispensary chains in the state: The Green Solution and LivWell, Amy says.

© Courtesy of Joygum

Joygum product packaging

Joygum comes in seven flavors, with three sugar-free options and varying CBD and THC ratios. 

Each flavor comes in a 10-piece package or ten servings. Lemon Mint, Watermelon Spearmint, Bubba Gum and Strawberry Kiwi (sugar-free) are infused with 10 mg of THC per serving. Blue Raspberry Lime is infused with 5 mg of THC and 5 mg of CBD per serving. Mango (sugar-free) is infused with 5 mg of THC per serving and Peppermint, also sugar-free, is infused with 10 mg of CBD and 1 mg of THC per serving. 

“The active ingredient is released within the first five minutes of chewing it and lasts about [two hours],” she says. “You can keep chewing it like a normal piece of gum. I’d say the flavor profile lasts about 15 minutes.”

How It Started

Dave has worked in confections, dietary supplements and chewing gum for nearly 25 years, Amy says. In 2006, she joined Dave on a business trip to Antwerp, Belgium, where she thought of creating cannabis-infused chewing gum.

“Every day [on the trip], I took the train somewhere, and this one day I went to Amsterdam, and I brought back some cannabis,” she says. “It was about 1 a.m., and my husband was working in the factory. He was grouchy, and I said, ‘Hey, let’s go smoke something.’”

“I was high at a gum factory,” she adds. “And I said, ‘We should make THC chewing gum.’”

In 2014, Dave split off from the company he was working for and began doing consulting work. Shortly after, the couple teamed up and began to crack down on formulating the product, she says.

“It probably took us about 350 tries and nearly three years to get [the product] running,” she says. “We were actually on the market, and we were still tweaking it–it was really tough to do, and we had a lot of obstacles.” 

When the couple first began to formulate, they lived in Baltimore, Md., where one of the biggest challenges they faced was limited access to resources. 

© Courtesy of Joygum

Joygum

“Formulating out there was a problem,” she says. “We didn’t have access to the concentrate we needed or the testing we needed on the East coast. It was just still so early.….You couldn’t get the product you needed, and the only way to do it was to have access.”

The lack of resources led the couple to temporarily head to Denver, where they could successfully create a product, but it wasn’t perfect. 

“We got the THC in the gum, and honestly, it didn’t work at first,” she says. “When we started, we did not use water-soluble. I think the first time we made it, we just put direct concentrate right into the gum, mixed it up and began cooking it.”

“We didn’t realize the science behind it, but chewing gum is a resin, and cannabis is a resin,” she adds. “When you combine the two, it gets bound up in the chewing gum. So, when we finally figured out what was going on, we figured out we needed to make it water-soluble, and that’s where our patent lies.”

The Patent

In March 2017, the couple filed for a patent and trademark on Joygum but ran into problems with their attorney. They then filed again in March 2018, after they officially moved to Colorado.

“We were finally living in Colorado and got hooked up with an excellent law firm that handles cannabis,” she says. “And again, that comes down to living in Denver where you can talk to people [in the cannabis industry] who use an accountant or an attorney. When you’re in a non-regulated state, it’s just [difficult].”

After nearly six years, the couple was granted a patent on March 31 covering “encapsulated cannabinoids and chewing gum.”

One of the biggest challenges in securing the patent was ensuring that the product is different, unique and doesn’t collide with any other products out there. 

“When I decided to patent the product, what I started doing was just researching,” she says. “The attorney did this too. They read what you want to do and start researching to see if it infringes upon any other patent that’s out there.” 

There are many other cannabis gum patents out there; however, Amy and Dave were one of the only people to formulate the product and get the THC to work correctly, she says.

“To make [the gum] water-soluble, you need to encapsulate it–you need almost to put it in a bubble, so it doesn’t bind,” Amy says. “And in doing that, we’re making it water-soluble. It’s actually a super broad patent–it covers it if it’s in the coding, if it’s in the gum, if we put a liquid center, etc.”

Before the couple secured the patent, they were skeptical of teaching others how to create the product and expanding it to additional states, Amy says. The patent provides extra protection, and under it, the owner must permit other parties to create and sell the product.

“Before, if we taught somebody else and went into another state and said, ‘Here, we want a licensing deal. You can make this for us, and we’re going to get X amount for each package you sell.’ What’s to stop them?” she says. “It happens all the time with licensing. It’s new and hard to control. So with the gum, I was just afraid to teach somebody how to do it and let it out without any protection on it.”

“One of the first things they ask you in this industry is ‘Who owns the IP?'”, she says. “So now, I own the IP for my product. It’s not somebody else’s. I’m not licensing it; it’s mine. And I would think in the long run, any cannabis product that has that kind of protection is definitely going to be more valuable in the future.”

Looking ahead, the couple wants to expand the product to other states, cities, and countries and hopes to secure a deal with another state by the end of this year, she says.

They are also launching a new product sometime in July called Joy-Bombs, a fruit chew product infused with THC.

“My goal is to build my brand at this point,” she says. “And eventually, you know, if I choose to sell the company, it’s definitely got more value with that kind of intellectual property attached to it.”

 

Nugg Club Launches Affordable Cannabis Subscription Box Option

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When Ben Telford showed up for work June 23 at the Greenleaf Compassionate Care Center in Portsmouth, R.I., he was shocked to learn that his employment was terminated.

In April, Greenleaf Portsmouth employees became the first cannabis dispensary workers in the state to unionize after a 21-1 vote to join the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) Local 328. The organized Greenleaf team includes budtenders, keyholders, online team members and delivery associates.

Employed by Greenleaf since May 2020, Telford was a keyholder at the Portsmouth medical cannabis retail facility in Portsmouth, where his responsibilities included opening and closing the store, cash management and day-to-day operations, as well as performing other duties in the absence of management. He was also a member of Greenleaf’s union bargaining committee, a role he retains.

Courtesy of UFCW Local 328

Ben Telford, second from right, had his employment as a keyholder at the Greenleaf Compassionate Care Center in Portsmouth, R.I., terminated on June 23. 

“I was definitely shocked,” Telford said of his termination. “I’m a hard worker, both on the job, at the site, and then off the job as far as the effort to unionize and get our team together and get a contract negotiated.”

While his termination came as a surprise, Telford said he had thought about the possibility.

“I’ve been a very loud voice for myself and for others on the team that worked there,” he said. “But the reason I was given the day I was terminated … was that my services were no longer required. And when I asked for further explanation, I was told that there was none needed to be given at the time, so I gathered my belongings and left for the afternoon and said goodbye to everybody.”

Telford was informed of his termination by Greenleaf’s chief of staff and director of retail operations, but he said it’s his understanding that the decision came from Greenleaf CEO Seth Bock. Cannabis Business Times and Cannabis Dispensary reached out to Bock for comment but as of June 30 have not yet received a response.

According to a UFCW Local 328 press release, Telford’s termination is only the latest in a string of firings by Bock. “In the last six months, the Greenleaf CEO has fired the director of retail operations, the head of delivery, the human resources manager and the chief operating officer.”

In addition, Telford said the director of inventory at a Greenleaf cultivation facility was also terminated recently.

“It depends on the person, but, overall, it’s been very retaliatory,” Telford said. “The owner, Seth Bock, has been allowed to move as he pleases. And, overall, when people get the skills that require higher pay and have had a long tenure, he’s been known to just kind of clear house and get some fresh faces that are happy to be there, because getting in the cannabis industry is something that a lot of people want to do.”

The UFCW Local 328, which represents more than 11,000 workers in a range of industries throughout Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts, is now filing unfair labor practices charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) over what the Local 328 called the illegal retaliatory firing of a Greenleaf employee.

The Local 328 release also claims Bock has exhibited a history of retaliation against employees.

Jeffery Dieffenbach, former finance director and general counsel for Greenleaf, was fired in January 2020. In September, Dieffenbach filed a lawsuit against Greenleaf to remedy and seek relief for unlawful employment practices arising under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and other U.S. labor laws.

Dieffenbach, a 71-year-old Newport resident at the time he filed the lawsuit, worked for Greenleaf for six years. When he was first hired by Greenleaf as a part-time independent contractor, he was paid $30 per hour for 10 hours a week. By October 2018, Dieffenbach was being paid $90,000 per year as the finance director and general counsel, according to the lawsuit.

In a subsequent interview with WJAR-TV, a local NBC affiliate, Dieffenbach said, “I was never reprimanded. I was never given any negative comments or reviews of my work.”

While Greenleaf’s workers unionized in a 21-1 ballot count on April 5, 2021, they had filed for their union election in early March, citing concerns about job security and lack of workplace protections.

More specifically, contributing factors leading workers to organize included Greenleaf’s elimination of an employee sales incentive program that included weekly and monthly cash bonuses offered to sales associates, budtenders and delivery employees, Telford said. In addition, the company also reduced worker benefits such as a discount program for employee patients who also purchased medical cannabis from the center, he said.

“That came during the time of them kind of clearing house at the top end and getting rid of a few employees,” he said. “But it followed the history of abusive behavior and discriminatory practices from management.”

Amidst Telford’s termination, Greenleaf attempted to reinstate a new employee incentive program last week but then had to rescind that effort because it was not part of a union-negotiated contract, UFCW Local 328 Director of Organizing Sam Marvin said.

Theoretically, if such an incentive program is not in a contract, then the CEO can take it away at any time, he said.

“I don’t know what Greenleaf’s intent was, if it was a tactic,” Marvin said. “But they are required, and they have to come to the table and negotiate good faith over it, and they have to provide additional details like how it’s going to impact the workforce, who’s going to be eligible, who is not—really, they need to explain their proposal and why they’re proposing it, and they have to give their workers the chance to respond.”

Local 328 currently represents workers from four cannabis businesses, also including the Ocean State Cultivation Center (OSCC) in Warwick, R.I.; the Curaleaf medical dispensary in Hanover, Mass.; and the Cresco Labs cultivation and processing facility in Fall River, Mass.

RELATED: Unionization Efforts Are Under Way in the Cannabis Space

After Greenleaf workers filed for their union election in March, the company hired Government Resources Consultants of America Inc., a counter-union organization based out of Illinois, according to an LM-20 Agreement and Activities Report filed with the U.S. Department of Labor.

The consultants’ objective? “To persuade employees to exercise or not to exercise, or persuade employees as to the manner of exercising, the right to organize and bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing,” according to the report.

The out-of-state, union-prevention consultants held mandatory meetings and distributed flyers to employees at the Greenleaf dispensary, according to UFCW Local 328.

“Doing what we do, we encounter union-busters all the time,” Marvin said. “It doesn’t really matter what company or what industry you’re trying to organize. And they all say the same thing. They’re all going to try to use the same kind of tactics.”

Anti-union consultants often change their tactics based on what they think will work, but the underlying intention remains the same, Marvin said.

“They’ll talk about dues, they’ll talk about strikes, they’ll talk about, ‘Give us another chance,’” Marvin said. “They’ll talk about how long the process might take. So, they kind of throw everything against the wall and they hope that it sticks.”

The Greenleaf workers remained united with their nearly unanimous vote. Telford said his voice in favor of organizing remained active throughout the process.

After he was terminated last week, union representation reached out to Greenleaf’s lawyers for further explanation. They responded that his sales performance was subpar during the month of May, according to Telford.

“And I am not a sales associate,” he said. “Now we’re working with the National Labor Relations Board to file unfair labor practice charges and seek justice for wrongful termination.”

On Saturday, June 26, the UFCW Local 328 held a one-day strike near Greenleaf’s Portsmouth care center to protest Telford’s termination. The union employees at Greenleaf voted unanimously to authorize the strike.

“I don’t even have the words to describe the gratitude I feel and the appreciation I have for everyone, and the patients that came by while we were picketing [to] express their support too— that’s something I’ll never forget,” Telford said. “It was the most humbling experience I ever had.”

The unionized Greenleaf cannabis workers released the following joint statement in the Local 328 release:

“We want to first recognize our patients and thank them for the support we have received throughout this process of unionizing. We understand that this action may have disrupted some people’s ability to purchase their medicine, which is something we take very seriously. As workers, we strive to provide the highest quality services and products that we can, because we believe in cannabis and its medicinal benefits.

“Over these past few weeks, ownership at Greenleaf has continued to make decisions that impede us from providing that quality of work. After the wrongful termination of one of our best team members, we collectively decided that we had no choice but to take this action.

“We’re proud to work in this industry and will continue to stand together in solidarity as we progress towards our goal of negotiating a contract that helps in establishing a standard within our dispensary that supports our growth as professionals and helps bring the focus of our work back to the people that matter the most, our patients.

Couple Earns Patent for THC- and CBD-Infused Chewing Gum: Here's How

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Three years after their product launch and over 15 years since the idea came about, Amy and Dave Nudelman have secured a patent for their tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) infused chewing gum, Joygum.

Amy is the owner of Joygum, and her husband, Dave, works as a consultant for her.

The product is currently sold in about 225 stores in Colorado and is available in two of the largest dispensary chains in the state: The Green Solution and LivWell, Amy says.

© Courtesy of Joygum
Joygum product packaging

Joygum comes in seven flavors, with three sugar-free options and varying CBD and THC ratios. 

Each flavor comes in a 10-piece package or ten servings. Lemon Mint, Watermelon Spearmint, Bubba Gum and Strawberry Kiwi (sugar-free) are infused with 10 mg of THC per serving. Blue Raspberry Lime is infused with 5 mg of THC and 5 mg of CBD per serving. Mango (sugar-free) is infused with 5 mg of THC per serving and Peppermint, also sugar-free, is infused with 10 mg of CBD and 1 mg of THC per serving. 

"The active ingredient is released within the first five minutes of chewing it and lasts about [two hours]," she says. "You can keep chewing it like a normal piece of gum. I’d say the flavor profile lasts about 15 minutes."

How It Started

Dave has worked in confections, dietary supplements and chewing gum for nearly 25 years, Amy says. In 2006, she joined Dave on a business trip to Antwerp, Belgium, where she thought of creating cannabis-infused chewing gum.

"Every day [on the trip], I took the train somewhere, and this one day I went to Amsterdam, and I brought back some cannabis," she says. "It was about 1 a.m., and my husband was working in the factory. He was grouchy, and I said, ‘Hey, let’s go smoke something.’"

"I was high at a gum factory," she adds. "And I said, ‘We should make THC chewing gum.’"

In 2014, Dave split off from the company he was working for and began doing consulting work. Shortly after, the couple teamed up and began to crack down on formulating the product, she says.

"It probably took us about 350 tries and nearly three years to get [the product] running," she says. "We were actually on the market, and we were still tweaking it–it was really tough to do, and we had a lot of obstacles." 

When the couple first began to formulate, they lived in Baltimore, Md., where one of the biggest challenges they faced was limited access to resources. 

© Courtesy of Joygum
Joygum

"Formulating out there was a problem," she says. "We didn’t have access to the concentrate we needed or the testing we needed on the East coast. It was just still so early.….You couldn’t get the product you needed, and the only way to do it was to have access."

The lack of resources led the couple to temporarily head to Denver, where they could successfully create a product, but it wasn’t perfect. 

"We got the THC in the gum, and honestly, it didn’t work at first," she says. "When we started, we did not use water-soluble. I think the first time we made it, we just put direct concentrate right into the gum, mixed it up and began cooking it."

"We didn’t realize the science behind it, but chewing gum is a resin, and cannabis is a resin," she adds. "When you combine the two, it gets bound up in the chewing gum. So, when we finally figured out what was going on, we figured out we needed to make it water-soluble, and that’s where our patent lies."

The Patent

In March 2017, the couple filed for a patent and trademark on Joygum but ran into problems with their attorney. They then filed again in March 2018, after they officially moved to Colorado.

"We were finally living in Colorado and got hooked up with an excellent law firm that handles cannabis," she says. "And again, that comes down to living in Denver where you can talk to people [in the cannabis industry] who use an accountant or an attorney. When you’re in a non-regulated state, it’s just [difficult]."

After nearly six years, the couple was granted a patent on March 31 covering "encapsulated cannabinoids and chewing gum."

One of the biggest challenges in securing the patent was ensuring that the product is different, unique and doesn’t collide with any other products out there. 

"When I decided to patent the product, what I started doing was just researching," she says. "The attorney did this too. They read what you want to do and start researching to see if it infringes upon any other patent that’s out there." 

There are many other cannabis gum patents out there; however, Amy and Dave were one of the only people to formulate the product and get the THC to work correctly, she says.

"To make [the gum] water-soluble, you need to encapsulate it–you need almost to put it in a bubble, so it doesn’t bind," Amy says. "And in doing that, we’re making it water-soluble. It’s actually a super broad patent–it covers it if it’s in the coding, if it’s in the gum, if we put a liquid center, etc."

Before the couple secured the patent, they were skeptical of teaching others how to create the product and expanding it to additional states, Amy says. The patent provides extra protection, and under it, the owner must permit other parties to create and sell the product.

"Before, if we taught somebody else and went into another state and said, ‘Here, we want a licensing deal. You can make this for us, and we’re going to get X amount for each package you sell.’ What’s to stop them?" she says. "It happens all the time with licensing. It’s new and hard to control. So with the gum, I was just afraid to teach somebody how to do it and let it out without any protection on it."

"One of the first things they ask you in this industry is ‘Who owns the IP?’", she says. "So now, I own the IP for my product. It’s not somebody else’s. I’m not licensing it; it’s mine. And I would think in the long run, any cannabis product that has that kind of protection is definitely going to be more valuable in the future."

Looking ahead, the couple wants to expand the product to other states, cities, and countries and hopes to secure a deal with another state by the end of this year, she says.

They are also launching a new product sometime in July called Joy-Bombs, a fruit chew product infused with THC.

"My goal is to build my brand at this point," she says. "And eventually, you know, if I choose to sell the company, it’s definitely got more value with that kind of intellectual property attached to it."

 

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Ask the Experts: Microbiological Contamination in Cannabis & What You Should Look for

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Testing cannabis and cannabis derived products for microbiological contamination should be a straightforward conversation for testing labs and producers. However, a patchwork of regulations and a wide variety of perspectives on what we should, or should not, be looking for has left much of the cannabis industry searching for reliable answers.

Organizations like the AOAC are taking the first crack at creating standardization in the field but there is still a long way to go. In this conversation, we would like to discuss the general requirements that almost all states share and where we see the industry headed as jurisdictions start to conform to the recommendations of national organizations like AOAC.

We sat down with Anna Klavins and Jessa Youngblood, two cannabis testing experts at Hardy Diagnostics, to get their thoughts on microbiology testing in the current state of the cannabis industry.

Q: What are the biggest challenges facing cannabis testing labs when it comes to microbiology?

The CompactDry Yeast and Mold Rapid plate provides fast results.

Anna Klavins & Jessa Youngblood: For microbiology testing, it comes down to a lack of standardization and approved methods for cannabis. In the US, cannabis regulation is written on a state-by-state level. As a result, the rules that govern every aspect of bringing these materials to market is as unique and varied as the jurisdiction writing them. When we are speaking specifically about microbiology, the question always comes back to yeast and mold testing. For some, the challenge will often be centered on the four main Aspergillus species of concern – A. terreus, A. niger, A. fumigatus, and A. flavus. For others, it will be the challenges of total count testing with yeast, mold, and bacteria. These issues become even more troublesome by the lack of recognized standard methodology. Typically, we expect the FDA, USP, or some other agency to provide the guidelines for industry – the rules that define what is safe for consumption. Without federal guidance, however, we are often in a situation where labs are required to figure out how to perform these tests on their own. This becomes a very real hurdle for many programs.

Q: Why is it important to use two different technologies to achieve confirmation?

Dichloran Rose Bengal Chloramphenicol (DRBC) Agar is recommended for the enumeration of yeasts and molds.

Klavins & Youngblood: The push for this approach was borne out of the discussions happening within the industry. Scientists and specialists from across disciplines started getting together and creating groups to start to hash out problems which had arisen due to a lack of standardization. In regards to cannabis testing, implementing a single method for obtaining microbiology results could be unreliable. When clients compared results across labs, the inconsistencies became even more problematic and began to erode trust in the industry. As groups discussed the best way to prove the efficacy of their testing protocol, it quickly became apparent that relying on a single testing method was going to be inadequate. When labs use two different technologies for microbiology testing, they are able to eliminate the likelihood of false positives or false negatives, whichever the case may be. In essence, the cannabis testing laboratories would be best off looking into algorithms of detecting organisms of interest. This is the type of laboratory testing modeled in other industries and these models are starting make their way into the cannabis testing space. This approach is common in many food and pharma applications and makes sense for the fledgling cannabis market as well.

About Anna Klavins

Anna Klavins earned a Molecular and Cellular Biology B.S. degree from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo while playing for the Cal Poly Division I NCAA women’s tennis team. Since joining Hardy Diagnostics in mid-2016, she has gained experience in FDA submissions [510(k)] for class II microbiology in vitro devices. She has worked on 15 projects which led to a microbiology device becoming FDA cleared. She has recently begun participating in the AOAC Performance Tested Methods program.

 

About Jessa Youngblood

Jessa Youngblood is the Food, Beverage and Cannabis Market Coordinator for Hardy Diagnostics. A specialist in the field of cannabis microbiology for regulatory compliance, she is seated with the AOAC CASP committee working on standard methods for microbiological testing in cannabis and hemp. She also sits on the NCIA Scientific Advisory Council as well as the ASTM Cannabis Council.

Content sponsored by Hardy Diagnostics.

Navigating the Complexities of Out-of-Home Cannabis Advertising Nationwide

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Cannabis hit major milestones in the first half of 2021. Adult use cannabis is legal in five more states, bringing the total to 16 plus Washington D.C. In addition, two pieces of federal cannabis legislation were recently revived by Congress. Even with these developments, the cannabis industry faces an uphill climb to navigate state and local regulations levied on its sales, operations, taxes and advertising.

Advertising regulations present big hurdles for cannabis businesses to overcome. With cannabis illegal at the federal level, traditional advertising avenues like broadcast and radio are limited to the states where it is legal. Still, many networks won’t touch cannabis ads. Major tech companies like Google, YouTube and Facebook largely bar cannabis businesses from online marketing. With cannabis advertising laws that vary state to state, companies face a hodgepodge of regulations with little consistency.

So, how are brands working within this messy regulatory framework? They’re turning to out-of-home (OOH) advertising. Here’s what to know about legally advertising cannabis products and brands through outdoor media.

A state-by-state patchwork of regulations

Medicinal cannabis has been legal in California for more than two decades, and adult use cannabis is going on five years. Yet, debate rages on over how visible cannabis advertisements should be in daily life. This isn’t just happening in The Golden State. Other states like Colorado and Oregon with established legal cannabis industries continue to grapple with how to regulate cannabis advertising in print and outdoor formats. Not to mention that states just getting into the legalization arena are playing catch up to get rules and regulations in place.

With the right partner, cannabis companies can navigate the nation’s mélange of advertising regulations to share their products, services and marketplaces. The best online OOH buying platforms are even equipped with cannabis filters that seamlessly identify cannabis-compliant OOH ad inventory.

Growing and innovating with out-of-home advertising

This dispensary ad appeared on Variety.com

While it’s the oldest form of advertising, OOH is a far cry from an old-fashioned advertising avenue. It’s a hot, dynamic form of communication that is poised for big growth alongside the cannabis industry. Sure, OOH includes more traditional highway-side billboards. But it also spans eye-catching digital billboards, taxi-top advertisements, building wallscapes, and digital vehicle charging stations – all of which are accessible through OOH buying platforms.

Such platforms make it easy for cannabis brands to effectively target consumers compliantly. Brands like Cookies, Eaze, MedMen and MONOGRAM have launched laugh-inducing, Instagrammable, and thought-provoking campaigns to build brand awareness. The Northern-California brand Cookies has mastered the art of cross-product branding, building an entire clothing line around its brand. Real California Milk even got in on the fun with a dispensary-inspired pop up and an OOH media buy. With OOH, cannabis businesses have effectively connected adult consumers with their latest products, promotional offers and physical storefronts, but also sparked conversations about cannabis legalization and decriminalization.

What to consider when leveraging OOH for cannabis advertising

If you work in the cannabis industry, are an agency partner or a small-business owner managing the advertising process, here are some things to keep in mind when planning your OOH ads.

  • Know the rules of where you plan to advertise. This is a fast-moving space. New markets are coming online. Regulations are being established and challenged. It’s crucial to find industry partners who provide reliable, up-to-date information on the status of advertising rules in the markets you’re in so you stay compliant and don’t jeopardize your business license.
  • Both Ivyside and Weedmaps are featured on this page

    Get into the practicalities. What do local cannabis advertising rules mean for your brand? Are there regulations that impact more than the location of an OOH campaign? Rules on creative artwork or words that are banned? A guide to regulations is likely laid out at the state level (see the states of Illinois and Massachusetts), but will ultimately be governed by local municipalities (see the City of San Diego). There are workarounds here. Just because you can’t show people engaging in cannabis consumption, cannabis leaves or products, it doesn’t mean your creativity is limited. Look no further than Weedmaps. The company launched its Weed Facts campaign across hundreds of billboards in half a dozen or more markets to highlight the many benefits of cannabis. One read: “States that legalized marijuana had 25% fewer opioid deaths.”

  • Determine specific goals for your campaign. What do you want to achieve with an OOH campaign? Are you looking to build brand awareness? Share a new product? Drive foot traffic to a physical location or prompt customers to visit your website? Are you advocating for change? Laying out your goals will drive your creative and the locations in which you launch your campaign. Speaking of launching, with OOH – especially digital outdoor ads – your creative can be up and running in 48 hours. Outdoor ads are customizable and with location tools, verbiage and design, can be directed to a specific cross-section of the market.
  • Measure Success. Barring state and local regulations, the OOH possibilities for furthering and promoting your brand are almost endless. Once your campaign is launched, the right OOH buying platform will enable you to track goals and success. With the ability to track and isolate OOH, you’ll be able to attribute conversions, measure your return on investment, compare performance by unit and optimize your campaign.

As regulations at the local, state and federal levels change and evolve, OOH advertising will remain the tried-and-true standard for cannabis companies to get word out about their brand, market their products and drive traffic to their websites and storefronts.

Greenleaf Terminates Employee Involved With Union Negotiations in Rhode Island; Worker Strike Ensues

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When Ben Telford showed up for work June 23 at the Greenleaf Compassionate Care Center in Portsmouth, R.I., he was shocked to learn that his employment was terminated.

In April, Greenleaf Portsmouth employees became the first cannabis dispensary workers in the state to unionize after a 21-1 vote to join the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) Local 328. The organized Greenleaf team includes budtenders, keyholders, online team members and delivery associates.

Employed by Greenleaf since May 2020, Telford was a keyholder at the Portsmouth medical cannabis retail facility in Portsmouth, where his responsibilities included opening and closing the store, cash management and day-to-day operations, as well as performing other duties in the absence of management. He was also a member of Greenleaf’s union bargaining committee, a role he retains.

Courtesy of UFCW Local 328

Ben Telford, second from right, had his employment as a keyholder at the Greenleaf Compassionate Care Center in Portsmouth, R.I., terminated on June 23. 

“I was definitely shocked,” Telford said of his termination. “I’m a hard worker, both on the job, at the site, and then off the job as far as the effort to unionize and get our team together and get a contract negotiated.”

While his termination came as a surprise, Telford said he had thought about the possibility.

“I’ve been a very loud voice for myself and for others on the team that worked there,” he said. “But the reason I was given the day I was terminated … was that my services were no longer required. And when I asked for further explanation, I was told that there was none needed to be given at the time, so I gathered my belongings and left for the afternoon and said goodbye to everybody.”

Telford was informed of his termination by Greenleaf’s chief of staff and director of retail operations, but he said it’s his understanding that the decision came from Greenleaf CEO Seth Bock. Cannabis Business Times and Cannabis Dispensary reached out to Bock for comment but as of June 30 have not yet received a response.

According to a UFCW Local 328 press release, Telford’s termination is only the latest in a string of firings by Bock. “In the last six months, the Greenleaf CEO has fired the director of retail operations, the head of delivery, the human resources manager and the chief operating officer.”

In addition, Telford said the director of inventory at a Greenleaf cultivation facility was also terminated recently.

“It depends on the person, but, overall, it’s been very retaliatory,” Telford said. “The owner, Seth Bock, has been allowed to move as he pleases. And, overall, when people get the skills that require higher pay and have had a long tenure, he’s been known to just kind of clear house and get some fresh faces that are happy to be there, because getting in the cannabis industry is something that a lot of people want to do.”

The UFCW Local 328, which represents more than 11,000 workers in a range of industries throughout Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts, is now filing unfair labor practices charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) over what the Local 328 called the illegal retaliatory firing of a Greenleaf employee.

The Local 328 release also claims Bock has exhibited a history of retaliation against employees.

Jeffery Dieffenbach, former finance director and general counsel for Greenleaf, was fired in January 2020. In September, Dieffenbach filed a lawsuit against Greenleaf to remedy and seek relief for unlawful employment practices arising under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and other U.S. labor laws.

Dieffenbach, a 71-year-old Newport resident at the time he filed the lawsuit, worked for Greenleaf for six years. When he was first hired by Greenleaf as a part-time independent contractor, he was paid $30 per hour for 10 hours a week. By October 2018, Dieffenbach was being paid $90,000 per year as the finance director and general counsel, according to the lawsuit.

In a subsequent interview with WJAR-TV, a local NBC affiliate, Dieffenbach said, “I was never reprimanded. I was never given any negative comments or reviews of my work.”

While Greenleaf’s workers unionized in a 21-1 ballot count on April 5, 2021, they had filed for their union election in early March, citing concerns about job security and lack of workplace protections.

More specifically, contributing factors leading workers to organize included Greenleaf’s elimination of an employee sales incentive program that included weekly and monthly cash bonuses offered to sales associates, budtenders and delivery employees, Telford said. In addition, the company also reduced worker benefits such as a discount program for employee patients who also purchased medical cannabis from the center, he said.

“That came during the time of them kind of clearing house at the top end and getting rid of a few employees,” he said. “But it followed the history of abusive behavior and discriminatory practices from management.”

Amidst Telford’s termination, Greenleaf attempted to reinstate a new employee incentive program last week but then had to rescind that effort because it was not part of a union-negotiated contract, UFCW Local 328 Director of Organizing Sam Marvin said.

Theoretically, if such an incentive program is not in a contract, then the CEO can take it away at any time, he said.

“I don’t know what Greenleaf’s intent was, if it was a tactic,” Marvin said. “But they are required, and they have to come to the table and negotiate good faith over it, and they have to provide additional details like how it’s going to impact the workforce, who’s going to be eligible, who is not—really, they need to explain their proposal and why they’re proposing it, and they have to give their workers the chance to respond.”

Local 328 currently represents workers from four cannabis businesses, also including the Ocean State Cultivation Center (OSCC) in Warwick, R.I.; the Curaleaf medical dispensary in Hanover, Mass.; and the Cresco Labs cultivation and processing facility in Fall River, Mass.

RELATED: Unionization Efforts Are Under Way in the Cannabis Space

After Greenleaf workers filed for their union election in March, the company hired Government Resources Consultants of America Inc., a counter-union organization based out of Illinois, according to an LM-20 Agreement and Activities Report filed with the U.S. Department of Labor.

The consultants’ objective? “To persuade employees to exercise or not to exercise, or persuade employees as to the manner of exercising, the right to organize and bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing,” according to the report.

The out-of-state, union-prevention consultants held mandatory meetings and distributed flyers to employees at the Greenleaf dispensary, according to UFCW Local 328.

“Doing what we do, we encounter union-busters all the time,” Marvin said. “It doesn’t really matter what company or what industry you’re trying to organize. And they all say the same thing. They’re all going to try to use the same kind of tactics.”

Anti-union consultants often change their tactics based on what they think will work, but the underlying intention remains the same, Marvin said.

“They’ll talk about dues, they’ll talk about strikes, they’ll talk about, ‘Give us another chance,’” Marvin said. “They’ll talk about how long the process might take. So, they kind of throw everything against the wall and they hope that it sticks.”

The Greenleaf workers remained united with their nearly unanimous vote. Telford said his voice in favor of organizing remained active throughout the process.

After he was terminated last week, union representation reached out to Greenleaf’s lawyers for further explanation. They responded that his sales performance was subpar during the month of May, according to Telford.

“And I am not a sales associate,” he said. “Now we’re working with the National Labor Relations Board to file unfair labor practice charges and seek justice for wrongful termination.”

On Saturday, June 26, the UFCW Local 328 held a one-day strike near Greenleaf’s Portsmouth care center to protest Telford’s termination. The union employees at Greenleaf voted unanimously to authorize the strike.

“I don’t even have the words to describe the gratitude I feel and the appreciation I have for everyone, and the patients that came by while we were picketing [to] express their support too— that’s something I’ll never forget,” Telford said. “It was the most humbling experience I ever had.”

The unionized Greenleaf cannabis workers released the following joint statement in the Local 328 release:

“We want to first recognize our patients and thank them for the support we have received throughout this process of unionizing. We understand that this action may have disrupted some people’s ability to purchase their medicine, which is something we take very seriously. As workers, we strive to provide the highest quality services and products that we can, because we believe in cannabis and its medicinal benefits.

“Over these past few weeks, ownership at Greenleaf has continued to make decisions that impede us from providing that quality of work. After the wrongful termination of one of our best team members, we collectively decided that we had no choice but to take this action.

“We’re proud to work in this industry and will continue to stand together in solidarity as we progress towards our goal of negotiating a contract that helps in establishing a standard within our dispensary that supports our growth as professionals and helps bring the focus of our work back to the people that matter the most, our patients.

Cultivators Dial Back Operations Amid Historic PNW Heat

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Cannabis was meant to burn—but not like this. 

A heat dome trapped over the Pacific Northwest has broiled much of the region, with record-setting triple-digit temperatures being felt from Whistler, British Columbia, all the way to Northern California. Cannabis cultivators in the area are hard-pressed to keep operations going as they try to protect both their crops and their teams from the potentially deadly heat.

“We are roasting both in Ellensburg and Seattle,” Jade Stefano, co-founder and CEO of Washington-based Puffin Farm, told Cannabis Business Times in a June 28 email. Stefano reported temperatures of 105 degrees Fahrenheit, with a weekly high of 112 degrees expected in the coming days.

Per The Washington Post, a heat dome is a pocket “of slow-moving hot air under higher pressure that blocks new weather systems from moving in.”

Stefano, who operates both an indoor extraction facility in Seattle and greenhouse operation in Ellensburg, added that conditions weren’t much improved in the greenhouse—even with shade cloths and swamp coolers, the structures remain above 80 degrees. While that is an improvement on the outdoor temperature, it remains elevated for ideal cannabis cultivation (which typically is set in the mid-to-high-70s).

Alex Cooley, co-founder of Solstice, which cultivates indoors, outdoors and in greenhouses in Seattle, Ephrata and Trinidad, Washington, said the company has moved shifts up earlier in the day, with some starting at 4 a.m. In addition, he noted they have increased irrigation frequency but decreased volume, and water right before the lights go out.

And, like Stefano, one of the primary tools Solstice using to beat the heat is “shade cloth, shade cloth, shade cloth,” Cooley said in an email sent June 29.

In British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley, Cannasol Farms owner Jeremy Moberg said that the most shocking aspect about the heat is how early it arrived this year. While he has experienced triple-digit temperatures in past years, “it was like one day in August. … It wasn’t prolonged,” he said in a phone interview with CBT.

Moberg said he has yet to see any outsized negative impacts from the heat on the crops but remains vigilant for the health and safety of his team, especially when working under light-deprivation structures where he estimates the air to be approximately 130 F (or roughly 55 degrees Celsius). He has stocked up on popsicles for staff to keep cool, as well as shifted work schedules to 5-10 a.m. so his team would not be working under the direct sun or during the peak heat.

As temperatures rocketed to 104 degrees in the Emerald City over the weekend, Stefano is allowing staff at the Seattle extraction lab to start and finish work earlier, or simply not come in. That’s because the warehouse is not equipped with air conditioning (the farmhouse in Ellensburg does have A/C for the team members to cool off).

In Southern Oregon, Takilma-based East Fork Cultivars saw temperatures peak at 115 this past weekend. Aaron Howard, co-founder of East Fork Cultivars, said in an email to CBT on June 29 that the company was able to plant its crop a bit earlier this year (thanks to warm and dry temperatures), allowing the plants to acclimate to the outdoor conditions over a longer period before the heatwave hit, minimizing heat-related plant stress. “I imagine if we had only just planted, the plants would have struggled,” he said.

To keep his recently planted crops alive through the heat, Moberg has been using roughly twice the amount of water he would normally be using at this time. “I have two of my own wells, and I’m a little bit worried about them going dry,” he said. “We are lucky enough to have a big, massive aquifer that dates back to the ice ages. But we’re essentially mining [water]. It’s not being replaced at the same rate.” Stefano also increased irrigation frequency in addition to running sprinklers through the crop.

Moberg said farmers who typically plant later in the season might want to consider waiting a few extra days to ensure clones and smaller plants don’t get overwhelmed by both the transplant shock and heat stress, the combination of which could lead to total crop loss.

One benefit of the heat, according to Moberg, is that he has not experienced the same pest pressures as in years past—although that is likely to be short-lived. Once the temperatures drop to optimal conditions for pest development, he expects insects such as russet mites to make their presence felt as they return to their normal lifecycles. “Be on top of the pest pressure,” he advised, “’cause it’s going to follow the heatwave.”

Cannabis Business Times editor Michelle Simakis contributed to this story.

Jesce Horton Talks Small-Batch Production in Cannabis Conference’s ‘Beyond the Show’ Podcast

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Cannabis is more potent but fewer young people view it as harmful. Those two points of interests are underlined in a 2021 World Drug Report released June 24 by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which suggested a worldwide ban on cannabis advertising.

From UNODC World Drug Report

The percentage of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive component in cannabis, rose from about 4% to 16% in the U.S. between 1995-2019, and from about 6% to 11% in Europe between 2002–2019, according to UNODC findings outlined in the five-booklet report.

According to the report, delta-9 is responsible for the development of mental health disorders in long-term, heavy users of cannabis, yet the percentage of adolescents perceiving cannabis as harmful has decreased by as much as 40% during the same period—the latter finding is supported by surveys of schoolchildren and young adults in the U.S. and Europe, according to the UNODC.

“Lower perception of drug use risks has been linked to higher rates of drug use, and the findings of UNODC’s 2021 World Drug Report highlight the need to close the gap between perception and reality to educate young people and safeguard public health,” UNODC Executive Director Ghada Waly said in a statement.

From UNODC World Drug Report

The UNODC did not cite where it derived its conclusion regarding mental health disorders being linked to cannabis use in the section of the report it was mentioned. Cannabis Business Times reached out to UNODC for a comment, seeking clarity of a study or scientific entity supporting that claim, but has not yet received a response.

A team of researchers writing in the July 28, 2007, edition of the British peer-reviewed general medical journal The Lancet stated that consuming cannabis could boost one’s risk of a psychotic illness later in life by 40% or more.

As the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) revealed the week after that edition was published, the authors of the study affirmed that the association “does not necessarily reflect a causal relation” between consuming cannabis and triggering psychotic behavior. In other words, there could be a spurious, or third-party, relationship responsible for the correlation.

Paul Armentano, who was a senior policy analyst for NORML in 2007, said there were several explanations for the observed correlation.

“Individuals suffering from mental illness such as schizophrenia tend to use all intoxicants— particularly alcohol and tobacco—at greater rates than the general population,” he said in 2007. “Not surprisingly, many of these individuals also use cannabis.”

Also in the 2021 World Drug Report’s findings and conclusions, UNODC stated that aggressive marketing of cannabis products with high THC content by private firms as well as promotion through social-media channels can worsen what the UN’s office calls a perception-versus-reality problem among young people.

As a result, the UNODC is calling for a comprehensive ban on cannabis advertising, promoting and sponsoring, which “would ensure that public health interests prevail over business interests,” as stated in the report. Such a ban would need to apply across all jurisdictions, and the measure could work in a way similar to the provisions of the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, according to the report.

That 2003 WHO treaty collected 168 signatures, including the U.S., although the U.S. is one of six signees that has yet to ratify it. In 2019, the largest cigarette and smokeless tobacco companies spent $8.2 billion on advertising and promotional expenses in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, the U.S. does have certain restrictions and regulations in place for advertising and promoting tobacco, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

An advertising ban for the cannabis industry would work opposite of public health interests, Rosie Mattio said in a June 24 tweet, following the release of the UNODC report. Mattio is the founder and CEO of New York-based Mattio Communications, a public relations firm serving more than 50 cannabis clients.

“Advertising is one of the most effective ways regulated companies can educate consumers and patients,” Mattio said. “This will ultimately hamper the industry’s efforts to bring safe and accessible cannabis to adults around the world.”

According to the World Drug Report, more investment is needed for research into the harm that the non-medical use of cannabis poses to health and to better define the range of health conditions for which cannabis products may be an effective treatment.

Global monitoring of the impact of laws that allow for the medical and non-medical use of cannabis is key, the UNODC report stated.

“This will need to go beyond the trends in cannabis use in a single country to assessing the frequency and patterns of cannabis consumption, health and socioeconomic consequences and market developments in both the licit and the illicit sectors around the world,” it said. “One important aspect to evaluate is the impact of cannabis legalization on the perception of risks associated with cannabis use, particularly among young people, beyond the countries where this legalization is taking place; it would also be critical to assess the risk perceived by young people in low-income countries.”

Underlying findings outlined in UNODC’s 2021 World Drug Report, as it relates to cannabis, include:

  • Roughly 200 million people used cannabis in 2019, representing 4 percent of the global population. The figure is highest in North America (14.5 percent) and lowest in Asia (2 percent).
  • The number of cannabis users has increased by nearly 18 percent over the past decade
  • Between 2009–2019, quantities seized fell by 35 percent, largely because of dramatic declines in North America partly linked to legalization of non-medical cannabis in some jurisdictions.
  • Excluding North American data, global seizures were 36 percent higher in 2019 than in 2009.
  • Diverse cannabis products have become more potent yet the number of adolescents regarding the drug as harmful is declining rapidly, a trend that risks increasing the negative impact of cannabis on younger generations.
  • An increase in cannabis use has been observed in many countries during the pandemic.

The full report is available here: https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/wdr2021.html

New Leaf Ventures to Acquire Willies Reserve License Rights in Washington State

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VANCOUVER, British Columbia, June 29, 2021 – PRESS RELEASE – New Leaf Ventures Inc., a management and investment organization dedicated to evaluating, investing and accelerating advanced stage operations in the North American cannabis sector, wishes to advise that its wholly owned subsidiary, New Leaf USA Inc., is pleased to announce it has entered into a letter of intent to obtain exclusive licensing rights within Washington State with Denver-based GCH Inc., developers of renowned cannabis brand “WILLIE’S RESERVE.”

The announcement encompasses exclusive rights to source, manufacture, distribute and market the entire lineup of Willie’s Reserve and Harvest products in Washington State.

Co-founded by renowned singer-songwriter and cannabis pioneer Willie Nelson in 2015, GCH USA created the iconic Willies Reserve brand which has become widely recognized for its commitment to the celebration of what is possible when enthusiasts and experts join forces to collaborate. WILLIE’S RESERVE embraces the natural diversity of the plant, the range of cultivation methods, and the spectrum of effects cannabis creates.

"Exclusive distribution rights for Willies Reserve in our region is truly momentous for us," said Robert Colwell, CEO of New Leaf USA and director of New Leaf Ventures. "We know there are many consumers who are already dedicated fans of these products, and we are committed to introducing it to the rest of Washington as quickly as possible. The whole story: the founder, the principles behind the sourcing and manufacture, as well as the dedication and commitment to a superior product makes for a wonderful sales and marketing opportunity. Having a quality nationally recognized brand join our existing product mix will undoubtedly interest other brand distributors looking for partnership opportunities. We are a growing team that understands consumer interest in our marketplace and look forward to embracing other creative and strategic growth initiatives in Washington and beyond."

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Former Super Bowl Champ Charlie Batch Joins Hemp Synergistics Advisory Board

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Former NFL quarterback and Super Bowl champion Charlie Batch has joined the advisory board of Hemp Synergistics, providing the perspective of a professional athlete to a Pennsylvania-based company working with cannabinoid formulations for a variety of commercial products.

Batch spent the bulk of his NFL career with the Pittsburgh Steelers, so he chose to keep his search close to home.

charlie batch

 
Batch

“When I transitioned [out of the NFL], I didn’t necessarily have all the resources that you have as an active player,” Batch said. He was left with more basic pain medication like Tylenol, and quickly came to realize that his physical career had left him with specific and nuanced health needs. He wasn’t training as a football player anymore, but he was working to maintain a healthy lifestyle amid pain and inflammation incurred from years on the field.

In an effort to better understand that sort of pain management, Batch looked to CBD products. It was a trial-and-error process to figure out what would work for him.

“Quite frankly, it probably was about three months before I really got the balance that I felt,” he said. “At one point it may have been too little because I was nervous and not really understanding how my body was going to react, and then maybe it may have been too much to where I possibly was sluggish in the morning. The four areas that I [was interested in treating were] pain, inflammation, anxiety and sleep. That was it. I needed something with that combination.”

He dialed in his understanding of cannabinoid formulations and found the chemical ensemble helpful. He learned ratios, and he learned about the endocannabinoid system—how individual reactions to these compounds tend to vary from person to person. He learned, too, that it would be important to know the source of these formulations. What sort of companies were making these products?

That led Batch to an interest in the broadening and burgeoning industry around the cannabis plant.

He got to know some people working in the space, particularly around Pittsburgh, and his conversations led him to Hemp Synergistics. The product manufacturer helped Batch further hone his understanding of how cannabinoid formulations could help him and others. Before too long, a more formal relationship was proposed.

“We’re thrilled in our ability to keep attracting top national talent. Charlie’s expertise will help us develop global partnerships with consumer brands eager to meet the growing consumer demand for high quality, specialized cannabinoid-based products,” said Daniel Kohler, CEO of Hemp Synergistics, in a public statement.

The move also provides a more visible platform for the science behind Hemp Synergistics’ work. Batch is a household name in western Pennsylvania and plenty of other areas, and his voice is one that can help bridge a knowledge gap between the manufacturers of cannabinoid products and the consumer who may be curious about their effects.

“As more states are legalizing cannabis, people want to be informed,” Batch said. “For me, having the opportunity to talk about my experiences—especially going from an active to a former player, and then trying to alleviate some of these pain issues and trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle—will help let people know and understand the inner workings of what’s going on within the plant and learn more about the endocannabinoid system.”

 

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