Colorado Lawmakers Approve Marijuana Bill To Attract Outside Investors

Colorado legislators passed a bill to open the state’s $1.5 billion-a-year cannabis industry to outside investors and capital such as publicly held companies and large venture funds.

The measure, which comes a year after former Gov. John Hickenlooper rejected similar legislation, was approved by the Senate after previously being passed by the House, and now goes to Gov. Jared Polis for his signature. Polis has expressed support for the bill.

Andy Williams, co-founder and newly appointed CEO of Denver-based cannabis consultancy Medicine Man Technologies, lauded the bill’s passage, saying it will help drive future growth.

“We now have the momentum behind us to accelerate the closing of our two acquisitions, (cannabis research firm) MedPharm Holdings and Medicine Man Denver,” he said in a statement.

The bill:

Repeals regulations that cap the number of out-of-state owners to 15 people, provisions that have blocked publicly traded companies and many venture capital funds from participating in the market.
Allows publicly traded companies to hold a Colorado marijuana license.
Creates two new kinds of ownership licenses. One license would be for individuals who own at least a 10% stake in a cannabis licensed firm; the other would be for passive investors who own less than a 10% interest.

The legislation also puts in place several safeguards, including a requirement that publicly traded businesses or controlling investors receive a finding of “suitability” from state regulators.

After Hickenlooper’s veto last year, local cannabis companies threatened to leave Colorado, saying their growth opportunities were too limited.

Some, however, fear the newly approved measure will make it more difficult for smaller enterprises to compete.

Original Article Source: https://mjbizdaily.com/colorado-approves-marijuana-bill-to-attract-outside-investors/

Comments

Feds Hire Hazmat Firm For Marijuana Eradication Training

An ambitious campaign to decriminalize psychedelics in Washington, D.C., is one step closer to placing their measure on the November ballot with the formal submission of tens of thousands of voter signatures. Organizers have been scrambling for weeks to collect enough signatures from D.C. voters by Monday’s deadline amid historically difficult circumstances: a global pandemic, months of stay-at-home orders and protests over racism and police violence that filled the streets of the nation’s capital. But with the help of innovative signature-gathering techniques and allies flown in from across the country, advocates said they had successfully submitted upwards of 35,000 signatures—more than enough to qualify the initiative. If approved by voters, Initiative 81 would make enforcement of laws against plant- and fungus-based psychedelics among the “lowest law enforcement priorities” for the Metropolitan Police Department. It would not, however, legalize or reduce penalties for the substa...

Could CBD Lead To The Development Of Safer Antipsychotic Medications?

Antipsychotic medications are important for managing a number of different psychiatric ailments, including bipolar disorders, schizophrenia, and even dementia. These drugs can greatly improve the manageability of symptoms that often distort one’s experience of reality. They can also create major mood disruptions and lead to a number of behavioral and emotional difficulties. Antipsychotic and anti-psychosis medications can be life-changing for people with such disorders, enabling them to live more normal and manageable lives without their symptoms taking over. These drugs work by regulating neurotransmitters in the brain so that naturally occurring imbalances and dysfunctions no longer disrupt mental and emotional processes. Often, reaching this outcome is much easier said than done; it can take a lot of time to find courses and combinations of treatments that work. It’s sometimes necessary to make adjustments to find the right balance for the individual and it’s not unusual for outc...

FDA Warns 15 Companies For Illegally Selling CBD Products

The agency also released a consumer update about CBD , the non-psychoactive ingredient in marijuana increasingly used to treat pain and anxiety. Until it learns more about the effectiveness and safety of CBD, the FDA said it cannot generally recognize the ingredient as safe or approve products that contain it. “We remain concerned that some people wrongly think that the myriad of CBD products on the market, many of which are illegal, have been evaluated by the FDA and determined to be safe, or that trying CBD ‘can’t hurt,‘” FDA Principal Deputy Commissioner Amy Abernethy said. The FDA sent letters to the following 15 companies for selling CBD products that violate the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, for marketing the products to treat illnesses or for therapeutic use, claiming it’s a dietary supplement or adding it to food for humans and animals. -Red Pill Medical Inc. of Phoenix, Arizona -Pink Collections Inc. of Beverly Hills, California -Healthy Hemp Strategies LLC (does ...

Norma Pence

Search This Blog