Great news for any dispensaries in Maine, you can deduct your marketing expenses starting this year! Other states don’t allow this kind of deduction for any kind of controlled substance, including cannabis. The cannabis industry is one of the few with these restrictions on marketing, and it’s great to see Maine extend a hand to cannabis businesses. If any dispensaries in Maine would like to increase their budgets with this news in mind, you know who to call 👀
Congratulations to Germany for making huge steps towards legalizing recreational cannabis! Per Reuters, German parliament passed a bill legalizing recreational use and legalization. This is part of a broader trend across Europe of various countries legalizing cannabis.
Congratulations to Minnesota for becoming the 23rd state to legalize recreational cannabis use!
Mastercard recently issued a warning to banks to not process legal purchases of cannabis from dispensaries and online stores. This means the only way to purchase cannabis from many dispensaries is cash-only purchases, making it harder for dispensaries and consumers to get what they need. Mastercard claims that it cannot process these kinds of purchases because cannabis is not federally legal, this shows how important federal legalization or the passing of something like the SAFE banking Act is integral to legal cannabis businesses.Â
Minnesota’s house and senate recently voted to pass recreational cannabis laws making it legal to purchase and consume recreational cannabis in the state of Minnesota. There are some slight differences between the house and senate bills that need to be resolved before the bill goes to Governor Tim Walz’s desk. Both bills include timelines for opening dispensaries and also for pardoning people currently incarcerated for selling and smoking cannabis, and expunging their records.
A few years back, lawmakers introduced the SAFE banking act and failed to come to an agreement on what cannabis legislation would look like. This year, they’re trying again and are already seeing more promise of the bill being passed. The bill has passed the house and is to be discussed in the Senate. The SAFE banking act creates a pathway to federal legalization of cannabis and would allow dispensaries to own bank accounts, meaning they are less prone to robberies, payment processing is simplified, and they have access to business loans and other programs. The possibility of legalization also opens up the possibility of interstate commerce which would greatly accelerate the development of newer cannabis markets and give some of the older markets a place to sell some of their extra green.
A bill proposing funding for the study of cannabis’s medicinal properties within veterans was recently voted against by Republican members of the Senate. Bummer.
It’s likely that we’ll be seeing recreational legalization on the ballot in Florida in 2024. This is a major step for Florida as one of the largest dispensary chains, Trulieve, started operations as a medical-only facility in Florida.
In February 2023, Twitter announced that dispensaries and agencies could advertise on twitter but were not allowed to mention or link directly to products. As of April 2023, Twitter has begun easing restrictions on products and allowing advertisement of closed products. Twitter is currently the only social media platform allowing advertisements that show cannabis. Twitter has a verification process and mandates that advertisements can only be shown to people above the age of 21.
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