President Joe Biden’s executive order on equity goes live.
President Joe Biden last week announced an executive order titled “Further Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government,” which is a follow up to an EO he signed when he took office in 2021.
In reflecting on his administration’s work on equity since the first EO, he includes that it “has taken action to … correct our country’s failed approach to marijuana.”
This is in reference to his announcement in October that he would pardon low-level federal cannabis possession convictions and call on Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra to explore rescheduling.
Today, the executive order was published in the Federal Register.
Michigan: After months-long investigation, a rare license suspension.
The Cannabis Regulatory Agency this week suspended the processing licenses of TAS Asset Holdings, LLC for “23 regulatory violations,” and issued a “consumer advisory” for their “FwaygoExtracts” branded products, specifically “Space Rocks.”
In late 2022, after vape cartridges were found to have a banned chemical, Bifenthrin, regulators began to investigate. “Video surveillance footage showed that the product used to make the vape cartridges was not the same product recorded in Metrc (the statewide monitoring system) that had passed compliance testing,” regulators wrote.
Further, they found that “the business had many areas that were dirty and cluttered and had leaking containers of various process stages of marijuana and waste” as well as “an unapproved, unlicensed warehouse being utilized as a part of the licensed business.”
Among the untagged products were “three barrels of an unknown substance that were wrapped in plastic, two black totes of an unknown substance, and several mason jars of oil.”
“The conduct alleged in the formal complaints is a significant risk to the public health and safety of marijuana consumers in Michigan,” said CRA executive director Brian Hanna in the announcement. “While we work through the process to seek revocation of these licenses, it is vital that all licensees throughout the state realize that the CRA will continue to do what it takes to protect the public from bad actors in the regulated market.”
Seed-to-sale shakeup continues.
Alleaves has announced this week that it will partner with Leafly as it further expands in tracking cannabis from seed to sale.
In case you missed it, last week we reported in this newsletter that Forian sold BioTrack to Alleaves in a $30 million deal. BioTrack is one of the biggest seed-to-sale companies, with government contracts in several states, including New York.
Last month, another seed-to-sale company, Akerna, sold its software to POSaBIT and then merged with a bitcoin mining company. Just one week prior to that, POS company Dutchie announced a lawsuit against Akerna to “ensure a fair playing field for technology platforms that support the cannabis industry” in Pennsylvania because Akerna wouldn’t “open up” its point seed-to-sale tracking data.
