Report: Massachusetts Cannabis Social Equity Fund At $0 Year After Launch

A fund created by Massachusetts state lawmakers last year to subsidize equity-owned cannabis businesses there remains empty, according to a report. 

Boston Business Journal reports that a “bill passed by the Massachusetts legislature last August created a new fund that promised millions of dollars to equity-owned cannabis businesses,” but that “nearly a year later, not a single dollar has been handed out because the fund remains empty.”

“Chapter 180, passed last summer, created a Cannabis Social Equity Trust Fund, intended to take 15% of the revenue collected from the sale of cannabis and give it to social equity and economic empowerment businesses, two licenses that are given to entrepreneurs who come from marginalized groups or who were harmed by the war on drugs,” according to the report. 

According to Green Market Report, the “issue appears to be a technical one; the law that created the fund was written so that none of the revenues would be transferred from the Marijuana Regulation Fund – where the 15% collections are currently sitting – to the Cannabis Social Equity Trust Fund until it’s first all put into ‘something called the Consolidated Net Surplus account.’”

Adult-use cannabis sales began in Massachusetts in 2018 –– and business has been booming. 

Earlier this month, the state’s Cannabis Control Commission reported that the state collected $132.8 million in recreational cannabis sales in the month of June, the highest tally of the year thus far. Since sales began in 2018, the state has collected $4.74 billion worth of adult-use cannabis sales.

Sales of adult-use marijuana in the state are taxed at “6.25% for a state sales tax, 10.75% for the state excise tax and three percent for a local option tax for cities and towns in Massachusetts. 

As in other states that have ended the prohibition on pot, Massachusetts has tried to include social equity provisions within the new cannabis laws. 

The bill that created the cannabis social equity trust fund was passed last August and subsequently signed into law by Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker. 

Baker said at the time that “many of the provisions that this bill adopts … improve regulation of the cannabis industry.”

“This law will rebalance the playing field, where so far wealthy corporations have been able [to] buy their way through the licensing process and too many local, small business owners and Black and brown entrepreneurs have been locked out,” state Sen. Sonia Chang-Díaz said at the time. “The reforms and funding we fought so hard for will be game changers, putting Massachusetts back among the leading states for racial justice in our economic policy on cannabis. I’m so grateful to the many community members and grassroots leaders who came together and held the state’s feet to the fire to make this happen.”

The measure also included a provision that would have assessed a proposal to allow students to use marijuana therapies at school, but Baker vetoed that, saying the provision was “highly prescriptive — making it clear that the agencies charged with producing the study must identify ways to make medical marijuana widely available within schools, rather than considering whether such an allowance is advisable.”

”The voter initiatives that legalized medical marijuana in 2012 and 2016 included strong measures to keep marijuana away from K-12 schools and school children. Both laws explicitly stated that marijuana would in no circumstance be permitted on school grounds,” Baker said. “Because the study proposed in section 26 clearly works against these important and well-established protections and disregards the clear intentions of the voters in legalizing marijuana use, I cannot approve this part of the bill.”

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source https://hightimes.com/news/report-massachusetts-cannabis-social-equity-fund-at-0-year-after-launch/

NASA Employee Used COVID Small Business Relief to Fund Illegal Pot Operation

An employee of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) pleaded guilty to using COVID relief designed for small businesses to fund an illegal cannabis operation.

A NASA-Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) employee agreed to plead guilty to defrauding a government loan program developed during the COVID-19 pandemic. He admitted that he used part of the proceeds to fund an illegal cannabis grow operation, the Justice Department announced on July 24.

“Armen Hovanesian, 32, of Glendale, a cost-control and budget-planning resource analyst for the JPL, a federally funded research and development center operated by the California Institute of Technology for NASA, agreed to plead guilty to a single-count information charging him with wire fraud,” the Justice department wrote. “Both the information and a plea agreement were filed Thursday in United States District Court. Hovanesian is expected to make his initial court appearance on August 11.” 

Per the plea agreement, between June 2020 to October 2020, Hovanesian applied for three loans, using the names of business entities under his control to the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program (EIDL), a program administered by the Small Business Administration (SBA) that provided low-interest financing to small businesses, renters, and homeowners, in this case, for businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“Hovanesian admitted to making false and fraudulent statements in the loan applications concerning the gross revenues each of the businesses had generated in the preceding year as well as false and fraudulent statements concerning his intended use of loan proceeds.” 

The SBA requires—under penalty of perjury—that grantees “use all the proceeds” of the loans for which he applied and caused others to apply for “solely as working capital to alleviate economic injury caused by disaster” consistent with the terms and limitations of the EIDL program. 

But instead of using it for COVID relief, Hovanesian used the proceeds for his own benefit, repaying a personal real-estate debt and funding his illegal cannabis cultivation operation. 

The Justice Department says Hovanesian fraudulently used the SBA to transfer via interstate wire EIDL proceeds amounting to $151,900.

The punishment is serious: After Hovanesian pleads guilty, he will face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.

Fraudsters Take Advantage of COVID Relief

Abusing COVID relief funding is commonplace. To combat this, the United States Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force in May 2021, and hundreds of alleged criminals have been charged as part of the task force’s work.

COVID relief programs including SBA funding and Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, were commonly abused. COVID relief loan schemes dominated the years following the pandemic.

NBC News reported how COVID relief funds were abused to buy Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Teslas, and Bentleys.

​​Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz, who oversees COVID relief spending, told NBC anchor Lester Holt that COVID relief programs were structured in ways that made them especially easy to take advantage of, and businesspeople were caught buying expensive sports cars and other luxuries using the money.

“The Small Business Administration, in sending that money out, basically said to people, ‘Apply and sign and tell us that you’re really entitled to the money,’” said Horowitz, the chair of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee. “And, of course, for fraudsters, that’s an invitation. … What didn’t happen was even minimal checks to make sure that the money was getting to the right people at the right time.”

“Nothing like this has ever happened before,” said Matthew Schneider, a former U.S. attorney. “It is the biggest fraud in a generation.”

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source https://hightimes.com/news/nasa-employee-used-covid-small-business-relief-to-fund-illegal-pot-operation/

Study Finds 14% Use Cannabis For Work-Related Injuries

Slightly more than 14% of workers recovering from an on-the-job injury used cannabis to help them recover, according to the results of a recent study conducted in Canada, where marijuana has been legalized for both medical and recreational purposes.

To complete the study, which was published this month by BMJ Open Journals, researchers affiliated with the University of Toronto surveyed almost 1,200 Canadians who had received workers’ compensation for an employment-related injury or sickness. 

The researchers interviewed the study participants 18 months and 36 months after their injury or illness. Participants were asked about their use of cannabis over the past year, including questions about whether their use was for the treatment of their work-related condition.

Participants were sorted into three groups including those with no past-year cannabis use, those who used cannabis for their work-related injury and respondents who use cannabis unrelated to the workplace injury. Researchers then compared sociodemographic, work and health characteristics across the groups, and reported on the participants’ reasons and patterns for cannabis use, its perceived impacts and patients’ engagement with their healthcare providers.

One In Seven Injured Workers Used Medical Cannabis

Among all respondents, 14.1% (about one in seven) said that they used cannabis medicinally specifically to treat their job-related injuries. In general, the respondents who used medical cannabis to treat their work-related injuries reported experiencing higher levels of pain and more disruption to their sleep than the workers who did not use medical cannabis. About 13% reported cannabis use not related to their workplace injury.

Additionally, most workers who used medical marijuana for their workplace injuries did not discuss their use with their healthcare provider. Other research in both Canada and the United States has shown that many healthcare professionals believe that they have not been adequately prepared to discuss medical cannabis with their patients.

In their conclusion, the researchers wrote that the study gives new insight into the medicinal use of cannabis by workers who are injured on the job.

“Our study provides novel information on workers’ use of cannabis for their work-related conditions, a population for which little data exist,” the authors of the study wrote, adding, “Findings of this study demonstrate workers are turning to cannabis many months following the onset of their original work-related condition.”

The authors of the study recommended that healthcare providers treating patients for work-related injuries talk to them about medical cannabis.

“Although these workers report a beneficial impact of cannabis on their health, they are often using cannabis without medical guidance,” the authors noted. “It is important that healthcare providers caring for injured workers engage in conversations about the potential benefits and risks associated with the therapeutic use of cannabis.”

Workers’ Comp For MMJ

In an analysis of the research, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) noted that U.S. courts have been inconsistent in decisions about whether workers’ compensation should cover medical cannabis in states that have legalized its use. While most states have not explicitly weighed in on the issue, six states including Connecticut, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York and Pennsylvania currently allow worker’s compensation insurance reimbursements for medical cannabis use for a work-related injury. However, seven states—Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Florida, North Dakota, Ohio and Washington—have policies that specifically prohibit such reimbursements.

“Most patients, most physicians, and most state laws view cannabis as a legitimate therapeutic option,” NORML deputy director Paul Armentano wrote in an op-ed from the cannabis reform policy group. “Therefore, the millions of Americans who rely upon medical cannabis products ought to be afforded the same entitlements as those who use other conventional medications and therapies. Those privileges should include insurance-provided reimbursement for medical cannabis treatment.”

The post Study Finds 14% Use Cannabis For Work-Related Injuries appeared first on High Times.

source https://hightimes.com/study/study-finds-14-use-cannabis-for-work-related-injuries/

The Winners of the High Times Cannabis Cup SoCal: People’s Choice Edition 2023

We’re happy to announce that we’ve just concluded our third High Times Cannabis Cup SoCal: People’s Choice Edition, and the competition was hot! This year featured 12 categories for a total of 36 products narrowed down as first, second, or third place winners for 2023. Among these top winners you’ll find famous brands like Fig Farms, Team Elite Genetics, Papa’s Select, Top Shelf Cultivation, Maven Genetics, but also a few you may not be as familiar with. But whether it’s a famous or up-and-coming brand, the people of Southern California judged a wide variety of products that led to these winners today.

Each of these winners will receive an exclusive High Times trophy, which is made from 24K gold plated zinc, and designed by Alex and Allyson Grey. It’s decorated with molecular symbols of cannabinoids at the base, double twin serpents spiraling around the neck of the chalice, a cannabis leaf design, and an inscription that reads: “Hail cannabis, ancient sacramental healing ally of humanity.” It’s a fitting phrase to honor all of the products that have come before judges in past People’s Choice and live High Times Cannabis Cup events.

As the sun sets on People’s Choice Edition for Southern California, it certainly isn’t the end for the competition, because great cannabis products can be found across the country. Check out the upcoming winners for our People’s Choice Edition competitions coming up in New Mexico in September (with a live awards show and concert by Method Man and Redman), Illinois awards in November, and Oregon awards in December too!

Indica Flower

First Place: Fig Farms – Blue Face

Courtesy Fig Farms

Second Place: TopShelf Cultivation – Whoa Si Whoa

Courtesy TopShelf Cultivation

Third Place: Team Elite Genetics – Styrofoam Cup

Courtesy Team Elite Genetics

Sativa Flower

First Place: Maven Genetics – Orange Bellini

Courtesy Maven Genetics

Second Place: A Golden State – Lava Flower

Courtesy A Golden State

Third Place: Seed Junky – Gello Shotz

Courtesy Seed Junky

Hybrid Flower

First Place: Fig Farms – Animal Face

Courtesy Fig Farms

Second Place: Maven Genetics – French Laundry

Courtesy Maven Genetics

Third Place: TopShelf Cultivation – Peanut Butter Breath

Non-Infused Pre-Rolls

First Place: Waferz – Rainbow Sherbet Pre-Roll

Courtesy Waferz

Second Place: Lumpy’s Flowers – Capital Haze Pre-Roll

Courtesy Lumpy’s Flowers

Third Place: Green Dragon – Becky Pre-Roll

Courtesy Green Dragon

Infused Pre-Rolls

First Place: Waferz – Neapolitan x Runtz Infused Pre-Roll

Courtesy Waferz

Second Place: Packwoods – Take Off Yoda OG x Skywalker Hash Rosin Infused Pre-Roll

Courtesy Packwoods

Third Place: Stoney – Watermelon Infused Pre-Roll

Courtesy Stoney

Solvent Concentrates

First Place: URSA – Ice Cream Cake Live Resin

Courtesy URSA

Second Place: Bear Labs – Jelly Rancher Diamonds

Courtesy Bear Labs

Third Place: Jetty – Tropicana Cherry Live Sugar & Sauce

Courtesy Jetty

Non-Solvent Concentrates

First Place: Papa’s Select – Satsuma Sherb Premium Live Rosin

Courtesy Papa’s Select

Second Place: Team Elite Genetics – Styrofoam Cup Cold Cure Live Rosin Badder

Courtesy Team Elite Genetics

Third Place: Bear Labs – Donny Burger Live Rosin

Courtesy Bear Labs

Vape Pens & Cartridges

First Place: Stoney – Watermelon Live Resin Disposable Vape Pen

Courtesy Stoney

Second Place: Jetty – Orange Sherbert Live Rosin Vape

Courtesy Jetty

Third Place: Rove – Watermelon Zkittlez Live Resin Diamond Vape

Courtesy Rove

Edibles: Gummies & Fruit Chews

First Place: Paradise Club – Strawberry Sunshine Gummies

Courtesy Paradise Club

Second Place: Happy Fruit – Moon Berry Rosin Gummies

Courtesy Happy Fruit

Third Place: Marmas – Georgia Peach Indica Fruit Bites

Courtesy Marmas

Edibles: Chocolates & Non-Gummies

First Place: P&B Kitchen – Caramel Filled Milk Chocolates

Courtesy P&B Kitchen

Second Place: Bhang – Milk Chocolate Bar

Courtesy Bhang

Third Place: Infused Edibles – Mac & Cheese Take & Make Kit

Courtesy Infused Edibles

Edibles: Beverages

First Place: Mari y Juana Beverages Co. – iGuava! 50mg THC Soft Drink

Courtesy Mari y Juana Beverages Co.

Second Place: Bodega – Pineapple Cooler Beverage

Courtesy Bodega

Third Place: Uncle Arnie’s – Iced tea Lemonade Beverage

Courtesy Uncle Arnie’s

Topicals, Tinctures, Capsules & Sublinguals

First Place: Mary’s Medicinals – 1:1 CBD:THC Transdermal Patch

Courtesy Mary’s Medicinals

Second Place: Tripp Therapeutics – Groovy Greens Calming Body Butter

Courtesy Tripp Therapeutics

Third Place: Papa & Barkley – CBD:THC:CBN Sleep Releaf Capsules

Courtesy Papa & Barkley

A very special thank you to our partners and sponsors!

Traditional – Presenting Sponsor

HONEY – Gold Sponsor

Top Shelf Cultivation – Silver Sponsor

HEIGHTS – General Sponsor

Moxie – Official Intake Partner

Have a Heart – Official Retailer Partner

High Times Dispensaries – Official Retailer Partner

Kush Alley – Official Retailer Partner

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source https://hightimes.com/events/the-winners-of-the-high-times-cannabis-cup-socal-peoples-choice-edition-2023/