Marijuana News Roundup: Cheap Illegal Pot Biggest Threat to Cannabis Industry?
Paul Ausick
Every week we publish a story on the spot and future prices of marijuana at the wholesale level. One of the things you notice from any of these weekly reports is the big difference between the spot price for a pound of cannabis and the price consumers pay at legal dispensaries and retail shops.
Last week, for example, the spot price for a pound of cannabis was $1,640. There are slightly more than 450 grams in a pound and the average price of a gram in states where marijuana is legal -- either for recreational or medicinal use -- was $11.14. That works out to more than $5,000 for that original pound of pot.
Some of that gross revenue goes for state and local taxes, some for testing the cannabis, some for processing, and some for overhead costs. All in all, legal pot is expensive.
What about illegal marijuana? The Albuquerque Journal has an interesting piece on the farm-to-table price of a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of marijuana grown in Mexico and smuggled into the United States. A drug cartel pays about $20 for a kilo of marijuana at the farm gate. After some processing and packaging and transportation, the illegal marijuana sells for more than $700 a kilo in Albuquerque or Phoenix and as much as $1,600 a kilo in New York City.
That's less than $800 a pound, half the wholesale price for a pound of legal pot in the United States and around 15% of the $5,000 price in the U.S. retail market. It could be that the marijuana industry faces a bigger challenge than an unfriendly U.S. Attorney General.
What Will Be AG Jeff Sessions' First Move on Marijuana? A new lawman has come to town, and the marijuana industry could be in for major upheaval.
But just how much change Attorney General Jeff Sessions might impart — and how quickly he'll address federal marijuana enforcement — remain the multibillion-dollar question.
"It's not like you could see agents come into every storefront in the United States tomorrow and deal with this. That's not a reality,' drug policy expert John Hudak said Wednesday.
But if Sessions rescinds the 2013 Cole Memo that established federal guidelines for marijuana enforcement, 'It's difficult for policy makers. It's difficult for elected officials."
Because the industry sits uncomfortably in a legal-illegal limbo and has been publicly chastised by Sessions, the future strategy for the Department of Justice under the Trump administration could present itself in stark contrast to the fairly laissez-faire enforcement approach by the Obama administration.
Read more at The Cannabist.
California Seeks Advisers on Marijuana Rules The Bureau of Medical Cannabis Regulation is now accepting applications for a marijuana advisory committee to help inform the agency as the state sets up rules governing the new industry.
Medical cannabis laws passed by the Legislature in 2015 and the recreational legalization measure voters approved in November established similar overarching regulatory frameworks related to cultivation, manufacturing, transportation, sales and other aspects of the marijuana market. State agencies are tasked with developing specific rules to best implement the new laws.
Meanwhile, lawmakers are crafting legislation to reconcile differences between the two laws on distribution, licensing and other key issues.
The state intends to create a singular regulatory system for both medical and recreational marijuana by the end of the year. Some question the feasibility of establishing a model for a multi-billion dollar industry in such a short time frame.
Read more at The Sacramento Bee.
The Next Big Brain Cancer Drug Could Come from Marijuana GW Pharmaceuticals (GWPH) is already well on its way to winning the first-ever U.S. approval for a cannabis-derived therapy. But an early trial suggests that these treatments could also be an effective way to fight one of most devastating forms of brain cancers: glioblastoma multiforme.
The U.K.-based company unveiled preliminary data Tuesday from a mid-stage study on an experimental drug combining cannabidiol and THC, the "high" producing element of marijuana. Results so far show that the drug boosted brain cancer patients' median survival rates by about six months compared to a placebo. Typically, this type of cancer ravages the brain and (on average) leaves 70% of patients dead within two years of being diagnosed.
"We believe that the signals of efficacy demonstrated in this study further reinforce the potential role of cannabinoids in the field of oncology and provide GW with the prospect of a new and distinct cannabinoid product candidate in the treatment of glioma," GW CEO Justin Gover said in a statement.
Read more at Fortune.
Volunteers Needed for Clinical Trial of Marijuana for PTSD Symptoms Researchers started this week the first-ever clinical trial of marijuana for treating the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder in veterans.
The trial will test four potencies of smoked marijuana and their effects to manage PTSD symptoms in 76 veterans, according to the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies. Approved by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Food and Drug Administration, the study is intended to develop marijuana into a legal prescription drug.
"We are thrilled to see this study overcome the hurdles of approval so we can begin gathering the data," Amy Emerson said in a written statement issued by the association. The nonprofit drives clinical research on the medicinal use of marijuana, LSD and MDMA, known more broadly as Ecstasy.
"This study is a critical step in moving our botanical drug development program forward at the federal level to gather information on the dosing, risks and benefits of smoked marijuana for PTSD symptoms."
The $2.2 million trial is funded by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. The first participant received marijuana Monday.
