Cannabis Briefs for July 2, 2019
July 2, 2019•Matthew Ippolito has joined Vertical Companies as vice president of sales. He joins from E.&J. Gallo, where he has held a variety of roles over his 15-year tenure, including director of customer development and vice president and general sales manager at Gallo’s Northern California wholesaler, Gallo Sales Company. At Vertical he will be in charge of developing Vertical’s brand portfolio, sales team, and market share.
•Recreational cannabis sales will begin next March in Maine. Governor Janet Mills signed a rules bill last week that established the market framework necessary to implement sales. Mills opened the Office of Marijuana Policy in February, which drafted rules that establish five cultivator size tiers, ban any edibles shaped like animals, people, or characters to reduce appeal to children, and impose a 4-year residency requirement to receive licenses to grow, sell, or manufacture cannabis products or to hold a majority interest in a cannabis business. Only Washington State enforces a similar requirement of six months residency.
•The New York State legislature has sent a bill to the governor’s desk instituting regulations around hemp farming. Among the many considerations were noteworthy provisions requiring New York-based processors to source New York-grown hemp, banning pesticide use in cultivation and unsanctioned health claims on labels, setting license limits at two years, and a directive that the department legalize beverages containing up to 20-mg. of CBD within 30 days of the bill going into effect. Upstate New York has become an attractive area to Canadian cannabis companies, many of whom operate just across the border in Ontario.
•Green Growth Brands will expand distribution its Seventh Sense line of CBD beauty and body products to 160 Abercrombie & Fitch locations. Green Growth tested the initiative back in May in 10 stores in Massachusetts, California, Colorado, and Nevada. The Seventh Sense portfolio consists of CBD-infused body lotions, muscle balms, lip balms, and sugar scrubs, among others. In addition to placing its products in retailers like A&F and DSW, Green Growth has opened more than 50 Seventh Sense shops in the last four months.
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