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With the old, with the new is the mantra of many marijuana retailers in California this weekend. In case you missed it in a mist of smoke, California dispensaries are struggling to get rid of their non-recurring buds – very low prices in fire sales in what is probably the biggest marijuana sale never seen by the State of Gold. said Jamie Warm, CEO of Henry & # 39; s Original, a cannabis grower and distributor of the shop, at Salon.
If clinics fail to get rid of their nonconforming flower medicines, they must record their destruction on video.
The sale of weeds is ongoing because on July 1, the new security and regulatory requirements of the state come into force. While legalization technically came into effect on January 1, industry players had six months to make the necessary changes to the legal exploitation of their activities. Starting Sunday, marijuana wrappers need to be child proof, in addition to now resembling traditional food packaging. All products must implement a process that tracks current and past locations. And, the amount of THC in any product must be clearly marked, in addition to all companies that acquire the appropriate licenses to operate.
Carlos Gutierrez, a business development officer for Prime Harvest, a San Diego-based cannabis company with growing, manufacturing and retailing plants throughout the state, including his Olive Tree dispensary Wellness Center in Ramona, told Salon that they needed to implement a proactive strategy to mitigate the possibility of ending up with a lot of nonconforming weeds. "We started preparing our inventory accordingly just after the 4/20 weekend," said Gutierrez. We identified the need for a strategic plan that would allow us to reduce our existing inventory while continuing to offer patients the We knew that reducing existing stocks that could no longer be legally sold as of July 1 "[19659002] The difficulties of Gutierrez only highlight the difficulties related to the legalization of the recreational grass. Indeed, it did not turn out to be all the sun and rainbows. In fact, preparing arrangements to legally sell, transport and grow weed has become a logistical mess, experts at Marijuana told Salon. The obligation to eliminate nonconforming weeds before Sunday is only one of the many prerequisites that have given a hard time to those who are in the industry. Shareef El-Sissi, founder of one of the first dispensaries in the California Bay Area, Garden of Eden, told Salon that California is probably heading for a marijuana drought this summer. One of the reasons is that state regulations have been so difficult to interpret for businesses.
"I think you will find out that there is a grass-compliant shortage," he said. "It was not very easy for the state to determine what the requirements were – we sort of had this big hustle and bustle for growers, manufacturers, and distributors to figure out what to do." is a compliant package, while trying to provide licensed products in the system. "
The debacle of the packaging of time and resources.According to state regulations, after July 1 , all packaging and labeling must be done "before cannabis products are transported to a retailer." This, in essence, introduced a new step in the process. Bulk and then packaged their own flower, which has long been one of the high-margin activities, "explained El-Sissi." Now the new regulations say that clinics are not able to treat "[19659008] "The distributor was pissed to help the & # 39; State and collect taxes, "he added. dispensaries from their existing supply chain. "
The packaging itself has been complicated, too." The new regulation stipulates that all cannabis products must be packaged in child-resistant packaging before being delivered to a retailer. Exit, which were previously considered to be childproof, no longer meet state standards.Unfortunately, some retailers have not discovered it before it does. Too late.
"On January 1, they said that everything that comes out of your clinic must be child proof or in a child-proof bag." and they buy these exit bags, which are super harmful to the environment, "says El-Sissi.
Another element that has been "neglected by the state", according to Warm, is the certificate of analysis – essentially a certificate confirming the weed has passed laboratory tests – which according to the regulations Distributors are not allowed to transfer. Since there are no distributors that cover the entire state of California, if the last mile of the test lab at the retailer is not completed in a day, it needs to be retested, which causes "incredible difficulties," he explains. 19659003] The tests have their own problems. Tim Blake, founder of the Emerald Cup cannabis competition, told Salon that many Mendocino farms have failed to pass all the testing requirements. This is partly because there are a lot of factors and techniques that contribute to the purity of the flower – exposure to the sun is one of them.
"The farmers of the Triangle [Emerald] were extremely demoralized … it was so hard for them" Blake said. "For legalization, the spinoff is that you have a lot of small farmers and producers of products that suffer."
On Friday, 150 marijuana companies in California joined forces in a latest call to the state to request an extension for the new
The most disturbing consequence of these changes may be the way in which small cannabis growers can be affected or even disappear as the industry consolidates and becomes more and more of a business. Legal cannabis first made its way into the state's legal books in 1996, when voters passed Proposition 215, which legalized medical marijuana. California was the first state in the United States to do so, paving the way for the use of marijuana for medical purposes in other states. In 2010, the California Senate passed Bill 1449, which made the possession of 28.5 grams of marijuana an offense punishable only by a fine of less than $ 100. Indeed, the state has blighted the legal movement of weeds, thanks in part to artisanal farmers in Humboldt and Mendocino counties – but these same farmers may be unable to move on to the next chapter of the weed saga. in California. 19659003] "For the most part, we see the death of the small farmer," said El-Sissi. "Be ready for Budweiser and Coors Light to fill the majority of the market."
And for those who stay on the market, there is no room for error.
"The Wild West" The days of the cannabis market in California officially die on July 1 and all remaining cowboys will be stranded without a horse, "said Gutierrez
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