The legal status of marijuana in a growing number of states poses new challenges for meeting planners.

When Illinois became the 11th state to legalize the recreational use and sale of cannabis this past June, the move was seen by many as a tipping point.

“It’s a major milestone,” said one supporter, predicting that, with the Prairie State on board, this once taboo activity could go mainstream. By January 2020, when the Illinois law goes into effect, 30 percent of the U.S. population will live in a place where it’s legal for adults to possess and consume marijuana for recreational use. It’s also legal in the District of Columbia, and another 22 states permit it for medical purposes only.

Meeting planners were also watching closely. In July, just weeks after Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed the Illinois law, 400 attendees flocked to the Fairmont Chicago Millennium Park for the Arcview Investor Forum, a conference designed to bring together aspiring cannabis entrepreneurs and potential investors. Exhibitors displayed everything from CBD “topicals” to cannabis-infused drinks, but no one was there to get high — unless you count the high that comes with nailing a million-dollar deal.

“It’s definitely getting legitimized,” said one attendee from the National Cannabis Industry Association. And when that happens, capital flows in: This nascent industry is already said to be worth more than $10 billion.

Read More at Northstar Meetings Group

Growing industry shows no signs of slowing

The marijuana industry could soon be worth more than the GDP of 9 U.S. states

Cannabis employs five times as many Americans as coal

The median marijuana salary is 10% higher than the U.S. median salary

Investors poured $10 billion into the North American marijuana industry in 2018

A Colorado county made $35 million off the marijuana industry in 2016

Marijuana policing cost Americans $3.6 billion in the first decade of the 2000s

The U.S.marijuana market is worth $52 billion — but 87% of sales were on the black market

But legal-marijuana sales alone topped sales of Oreos and organic produce

Starting with early adopter Colorado, 37 states have passed legislation allowing adult consumption for medical and, in some cases, recreational purposes.

So how high can revenues go for this budding industry?

For 2018, revenue from both legal recreational and medical cannabis in the US was pegged at between $8.6 billion and $10 billion.

That tops spending on e-cigarettes, the Fortnite video game and Goldfish crackers combined, according to a new report of the Marijuana Business Factbook from MJBizDaily.

In a bit of irony, sales now rival Taco Bell’s annual US revenue and, by 2020, will likely surpass the projected $15 billion in yearly revenue generated by the National Football League, according to the report.

For more visit New York Post

Ever since Olivia Newton-John’s first breast cancer diagnosis in 1992, the pop icon’s family, friends, and fans have been there cheering her on. But even as she’s publicly battled the disease, she’s never let it define her: In fact, since her cancer came back in 2013 (and again in 2017), she’s used it as inspiration to help others by opening her own public hospital: the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness & Research Centre, in Australia.

Now, on Thursday, Olivia is speaking at a cannabis conference in Portland — which is probably the last piece of news you ever expected to hear about the Grease star. But since publicly announcing her third cancer diagnosis (this time, stage four breast cancer that has metastasized to her bones) in September 2018, Olivia has been open about how she’s been using the plant to treat her pain and other symptoms. She admits to being hesitant to try it at first (considering the stigma that still exists around marijuana) but her husband of 11 years, John Easterling, convinced her to take the leap.

For more visit msn.com

WASHINGTON — Unlike most recent congressional recesses, this past summer’s break has seen some key financial policy news as bank regulators finalized a pivotal rule rolling back the Volcker Rule.

But when lawmakers return from their late-summer break on Sept. 9, there are a host of other unresolved financial services issues facing them, including efforts to let bankers serve the marijuana industry to reforms of anti-money-laundering requirements.

Late last week, House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters, D-Calif., outlined her panel’s priorities for the fall, including oversight of Trump-appointed banking regulators and reviewing Facebook’s proposed cryptocurrency. The committee will also consider solutions to increase access to homeownership, explore data privacy and the use of artificial intelligence in financial services and examine the state of minority depository institutions, among other things, Waters said in a press release.

It is unclear if Congress will be able advance any of these initiatives, with the 2020 presidential primaries fast approaching and the nation focused on more polarizing cultural issues. But the end of the August recess gives the industry a chance to continue engaging with lawmakers on legislative priorities.

After Democrats took control of the House, banks got their first hearing on a bill aimed at enabling the industry to serve marijuana businesses in the states where the substance is legal, without fear of repercussion from regulators.

The House Financial Services Committee passed the SAFE Banking Act, which would prohibit federal regulators to penalize firms that accepts insured deposits from state-approved cannabis businesses, in a 45-15 vote, with all of the committee’s Democrats joined by 11 Republicans in support of the legislation.

The Republican-controlled Senate has been viewed as an obstacle for cannabis banking, but the industry got a hearing in the Senate Banking Committee in July over the challenges for banks posed by the conflict between the federal ban on marijuana and state legalization efforts.

Though Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, was the only Republican to attend the hearing, the industry is optimistic that Congress will provide them clarity on whether they can serve state-approved cannabis businesses.

“We are very much focused on trying to get the bipartisan cannabis bill through the House,” said James Ballentine, executive vice president for political affairs and congressional relations at the American Bankers Association. “We were very supportive and interested in the Senate hearing that took place in July and certainly the questions that members asked demonstrated a lot of interest in this issue.” 

However, it will likely still be a challenge to get a Senate committee vote on any cannabis-related legislation as some Republicans are sitting out the debate until their primaries are over.

For more visit American Banker

If you tuned into this year’s second-round Masters telecast, you may have seen something curious: Phil Mickelson pulling a small vial from his golf bag, using a pipette to squirt liquid into his mouth, then tucking the vial back into his bag. Or you might have seen the viral YouTube video, which sparked speculation that Mickelson had become the latest Tour pro to try a hemp extract known as cannabidiol, or CBD.

Several pros, including Bubba Watson, Scott McCarron, Brandt Jobe, Charley Hoffman and Morgan Hoffmann, have endorsement deals with CBD manufacturers. Watson may be flighty, but it’s not the CBD, a fast-growing category distinct from medical marijuana; CBD products, whether oils, capsules or topical creams, don’t contain THC, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis.

CBD proponents attach an array of benefits — better sleep, reduced inflammation and less anxiety, for starters — to this natural supplement. Manufacturers, however, can’t advertise specific claims because they haven’t been verified by the U.S. FDA. This hasn’t deterred dozens of Tour players looking for an edge from giving CBD a try.

Read More at Golf

Rob Gronkowski revealed what life after football will look like for him on Tuesday, as the former Patriots tight end announced that he has partnered with Abacus Health to launch a line of cannabidiol (CBD) products.

CBD is a nonintoxicating cannabinoid found in cannabis and hemp. Gronkowski, speaking at a press conference in New York City, said that such products have been essential to his recovery from a nine-year NFL Hall of Fame career that ended prematurely this past offseason thanks to a myriad of injuries. Now, he wants to get sports leagues, including the NFL, to lighten up when it comes to penalizing athletes for using CBD products.

“For the first time in more than a decade, I am pain-free,” Gronkowski said, noting that CBD products became a part of his life after he retired following the 2018 season. “And that is a big deal.”

Read More at Forbes

Michelle Fox@MFOXCNBC –

Super-wealthy investors are making some changes to their portfolios for 2019.

They are increasing their cash holdings and reducing their equity exposure. They are also cutting back on some of their real estate investments and finding a “short-term solution” in fixed income, according to Michael Sonnenfeldt, founder of investment club Tiger 21.

“There’s a lot of caution and some of it is [market] volatility,” he said Thursday on CNBC’s “Power Lunch. ” Then there is also the “uncertainty of government policy,” he added. The members of Tiger 21 are more than 700 strong and have a total of $71 billion in assets.

However, there is one growing trend they are hopping aboard — cannabis.

Canopy Growth • Tom Franck | CNBC

Read More

By Paul R. La Monica • CNN Business –

April 20 has become the unofficial holiday for marijuana users. So now’s a good time to look at the red hot sector. Cannabis stocks are soaring as the business goes legit.

For decades, though nobody was really sure why, April 20 has been the unofficial holiday for marijuana users and a joke by and about them. Now, though, it’s also a reminder of how quickly marijuana is moving from illegal and a joke to a multi-billion dollar legal business — and a good time for us to take another look at how well cannabis stocks have been doing.

Publicly traded cannabis companies have reported strong sales since Canada legalized pot last October and several U.S. states voted to approve recreational and medical marijuana use.

Read More

U.S. News & World Report –

March 30, 2019 –

COLUMBUS, OHIO (AP) — The Ohio Senate has passed a bill to legalize hemp and hemp-derived cannabidiol oil, a move that could create an industrial hemp industry in the state.

The bill, which was unanimously approved on March 28, would allow for cultivation of hemp as long as it contains less than 0.3 percent THC, the psychoactive active ingredient in marijuana that makes users high. The legislation comes after a 2018 federal farm law reclassified hemp as a commodity rather than a drug.

“It is important to understand that hemp is not marijuana, it is much more versatile and lacks an appreciable amount of THC to cause any psychotropic effects,” Republican Sen. Steve Huffman, a co-sponsor of the bill, said in a statement Thursday. “This is an incredible opportunity for our farmers to help diversify their crops by allowing them to grow legal hemp.”

Read more