Staff
This is the Daily Hit – your recap of the top business news in the cannabis industry for February 24, 2022.
On The Site
Illinois
The Illinois marijuana industry managed to add more than 12,000 jobs last year, even though a long-awaited retail expansion remained in limbo. Cannabis employment grew 72% to 28,992 jobs, in line with sales, which rose 73% to $1.78 billion for medical and recreational products, according to Leafly, a cannabis information website, and Whitney Economics. The continued delay in issuing licenses for 185 new dispensaries, caused by lawsuits challenging the state’s licensing process, is likely to slow growth this year. There’s no telling when the licenses will be issued, and it could take six months to a year for licensees to get new stores open. Read more here.
DMT
The psychedelic world was caught by surprise when boxer Mike Tyson admitted using DMT (5-MeO-DMT) on a dare for the first time in 2017—a powerful psychedelic derived from the venom of the Sonoran Desert toad (and other plant species). Tyson was looking for help with problems in his life at the time. He claims DMT changed everything for the better. He has now tripped on this strong version of DMT over 53 times, and reportedly has a nursery of Sonoran Desert toads at his ranch in Desert Hot Springs, California. Read more here.
Dogma
The Green Market Report recently interviewed Geoff Doran, Founder and CEO of Dogma Cannabis. This interview was condensed and edited for publication.
Green Market Report Executive Editor Debra Borchardt:
We recently were lucky enough to try the new Kief product from Dogma Cannabis and it was fairly impressive. I think a lot of people don’t quite get the whole Kief thing. So maybe you can walk me through the thought process on why you guys chose to include that product as a part of Dogma, and then do you see any kind of learning curve on that?
Dogma Founder/CEO Geoff Doran:
Yeah, a great question, because it’s one of those byproducts that was popular in the black market days. You would see just actual people selling just straight-up Kief. It’s kind of like leaves and trim back in the day, people used to just kind of throw that stuff away and it’s like, well, you’re throwing away dollars of products that can actually be still used. So in the early days, we would see these products flying off the shelf, and then when things became legal, you didn’t see it out there anymore. Read more here.
In Other News
NY Hemp
New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed S8084A into law this week. The legislation is intended to speed up the cultivation, processing, and distribution of cannabis in New York. This new law provides Empire State hemp farmers and processors with the opportunity to become licensed to grow and manufacture cannabis starting in the 2022 growing season.
Hemp farmers and licensed hemp processors have the opportunity to apply for and obtain the following license types:
- Conditional Adult-use Cannabis Cultivator License
- Conditional Adult-use Cannabis Processor License
Read more here.
