Some $13 billion in additional agricultural aid for pandemic-impacted farmers should start going out by end of month. Agriculture Undersecretary Bill Northey says the funds could go out even before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden on Jan. 20. “We certainly have some things we would like to be able to get out very quickly,”
Briefs
This story first appeared at Marijuana Business Daily International. United Kingdom-based GW Pharmaceuticals expects to report annual sales of approximately $526 million for the year ended Dec. 31, 2020, it said in a preview of its fourth quarter and full-year results. Fourth-quarter net sales will be approximately $148 million, based on preliminary unaudited financial information,
Molson Coors Beverage Co. says it has launched CBD drinks in Colorado through TRUSS CBD USA, its joint venture with HEXO Corp. The beverage line will be available in three flavors – Grapefruit Tarragon, Strawberry Hibiscus and Blueberry Lavender under the name, “Verywell,” Molson Coors and HEXO said Wednesday. The companies first partnered in 2018
A federal judge in California has tapped the brakes on a lawsuit from a hemp grower who saw the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife bulldoze 500 acres of his plants. Apothio LLC is suing the state and also Kern County authorities for $1 billion after the plants were razed in 2019. Apothio argues that
Federal food and drug officials said Friday that they plan to fill in current CBD research gaps with “real world data” — but industry advocates are frustrated that regulators haven’t done enough to clear up the rules, which has caused supply-chain bottlenecks while leaving consumers to navigate an increasing field of unregulated products. An update
RAMM Pharma, a cannabis-based pharmaceutical company with products in several Latin American countries, has bought a 49% stake in the Sicilian CBD processing company Canapar. Based in Toronto, RAMM purchased the shares from the cannabis venture-capital firm Canopy Rivers. Under the agreement, RAMM paid $7 million cash to Canopy Rivers to buy a little more
Vermont will be conducting contactless inspections of hemp operators to limit person-to-person contact during the pandemic. The Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets says the inspections will begin with a phone call, followed by an email and an online form to gather information about number of harvested lots, yields, and results of contaminant testing,
Puerto Rico’s agriculture secretary says private investment is needed to build the infrastructure for the hemp industry to thrive in the U.S. territory. Secretary Ramon González told a local news outlet, Noticel, that without hemp processing plants, “the business of investing in the fields is for nothing,” “I believe that a lot of expectations were
A longer version of this story appears at Marijuana Business Daily International. Sales of medical marijuana in Denmark posted healthy gains in the third quarter of 2020, coinciding with the launch of GW Pharmaceuticals’ CBD drug Epidiolex. Overall sales of all medial cannabis products grew from about 13 million Danish Krones ($2 million) in the
Read more about Garland’s nomination at Marijuana Business Daily. President-elect Joe Biden has settled on Merrick Garland as his nominee for U.S. attorney general, multiple news organizations reported Wednesday, tapping a federal judge to oversee the Department of Justice, which includes the Drug Enforcement Administration. Garland, chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals in
A looming legal challenge to Texas’ ban on smokable hemp sales has been delayed until March. Travis County District Court Judge Livingston rescheduled the smokable hemp ban hearing back to March 22, 2021. The hearing had been scheduled for Feb. 1. The delay was first reported by the Texas Cannabis Collective. It comes at the
GenCanna, a Kentucky hemp and CBD company that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February, has dropped a suit against CBD company Medterra for unpaid invoices worth $4.5 million. GenCanna, now known as OGGUSA Inc., had sued Medterra last month, alleging that the latter failed to pay for shipments of CBD extracts and other products
This story first appeared at Marijuana Business Daily. A data breach at Aurora Cannabis has exposed the personal information of an unknown number of the Canadian company’s current and former employees, Marijuana Business Daily has learned. An email sent to a victim of the data breach cites a Dec. 25 “cybersecurity incident during which unauthorized
This story originally appeared at Marijuana Business Daily. Canadian cannabis producer Canopy Growth Corp. is suing UK-based GW Pharmaceuticals in U.S. federal court, alleging that GW is knowingly infringing upon Canopy’s intellectual property. GW used a Canopy-patented method to extract the CBD that’s the active ingredient in its Epidiolex medication, according to a complaint filed
BastCore, an Alabama-based hemp fiber company, has turned a former steam plant outside the capital of Montgomery into a processing facility, one of the first in the United States to offer a key link in the supply chain between Alabama’s farmers and hemp-derived product makers. Final electrical work was underway inside the processing facility last
Michigan’s governor has signed legislation to allow veterinarians to talk with pet owner about giving cannabis to their animals for therapeutic use. Michigan lawmakers approved the proposal in December and lets veterinarians “consult” with pet owners about the use of either marijuana or hemp products for their pets, the Oakland Press reported Friday. Sales for
Charlotte’s Web Holdings says that labeling lawsuits against CBD makers must wait while federal regulators consider how to regulate the hemp extract. The company made the argument last week in a federal court in California, where it is asking a judge to follow the direction of other federal judges and dismiss CBD labeling suits as
A Dutch biocontrols giant that has flexed into the cannabis space, Koppert Biological Systems, has acquired a Brazilian drone company in a bid to use drones to apply its sustainable biocontrols in Brazil. Koppert said its acquisition of Geocom will help it “accelerate precision agrifarming, which is crucial for bringing biologicals to the fields,” according
The European Union’s drug agency has signaled that it is mulling the legal and commercial status of CBD and cannabis-based products in Europe in a new report. The Lisbon-based European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction published the report on Monday, detailing the results of a study that kicked off in 2018 and aimed