MJNA Moves Forward With Prosecuting Libel Claims Made Against the Company and Its Brands, Case Now in Discovery Phase

EDMONTON – Users of medical marijuana are upset over a drug bust in Edmonton last week in which police raided a dispensary and charged the family that operates it.

The owners claim, up until last week, police left them alone. On Wednesday morning, that changed. ALERT’s Green Team seized all marijuana products from the Mobile Access Compassionate Resources Organization Society (MACROS).

The non-profit group sold medical marijuana to people who have a prescription. It served more than 1,000 clients.

What makes a company in the cannabis sector investable? Given the rapid growth of the cannabis industry, many entrepreneurs and investors are asking that exact question, which is precisely why we tracked down Aubree Aries, CEO and Co-Founder of Greenleaf Joint Ventures. Aubree comes from a cannabis pedigree that few others can match in the industry and he offers a fresh take to investing in this emerging space.

This week’s best city stories from around the web talk about marijuana zones in California, a forgotten waterway under the streets of Auckland, a mushroom farm in Camden and mime-artist-assisted traffic control in Bogotá. We’d love to hear your responses to these stories, and any others you’ve read recently, both on Guardian Cities and elsewhere. Just share your thoughts in the comments below.

Pot city

PhytoTech Medical and MMJ Bioscience merger has created Australia's first vertically integrated medical marijuana company.

PhytoTech Medical and MMJ Bioscience have joined forces to become the first Australian-listed medical marijuana company to control pharmaceutical hemp from farm to pharmacy counter.

The re-branded MMJ PhytoTech will control the complete supply chain from cultivation to distribution after Phytotech raised $4.8 million to buy MMJ Bioscience.

MMJ PhytoTech chief executive Andreas Gedeon said the merger made the company one of the only serious players in the medical marijuana market.

George Hackney stands in the growing field of his business, Hackney Nursery. He is is trying to become northwest Florida's sole, state-approved provider of Charlotte's Web, a low THC strand of marijuana used to treat children who suffer from seizures.

Hackney Nursery, known for growing the famous hedges surrounding the Georgia Bulldogs’ Sanford Stadium in Athens, is now looking to add diversity to its growing selections.

This weed isn’t meant to get people high. In fact, you can’t even smoke the medicinal marijuana the Quincy-based grower will develop. On July 8, Hackney submitted an application to cultivate, process and distribute non-euphoric cannabis in the northwest region in Florida.

“We’ve done what we believe to be the best application, and we think that based upon what we know regarding our application, it should be well received by the state and let the chips fall where they may,” he said.

“So we are patiently, sometimes nervously, waiting for an answer from the state,” Daniel said. “Fingers crossed, toes crossed and legs crossed.”

Daniel and his team at Alternative Medicine Associates filed plans for a $25 million development project to convert the former Tyson plant in Buffalo into a medical marijuana production facility.

Conrad Daley, executive director of the Alaska Cannabis Grower’s Association, tried to get his organization a bank account for months, and has yet to keep one. Two months after finally securing an account with an Alaska KeyBank branch, he received an account closure notice from the bank’s Ohio headquarters with a check for the balance.

“It’s exactly what we’d feared,” said Daley.

Marijuana possession might be legal in Alaska, but state marijuana commerce will stay as black a market as bootlegged rum during Prohibition until banks find ways to operate under restrictive financial laws stemming from the Controlled Substances Act.

Shayne Lynn, founder of Champlain Valley Dispensary, Inc. gives the Free Press a first look at a grow pod at his facility in Milton. The pod will grow a stain of cannabis high in CBD, known for providing relief from seizures among other things. The strain is also low in THC, the better known substance that gets you high.

Since Shayne Lynn opened his first medical marijuana dispensary in June 2013, demand for products has eclipsed his five-year business plan.

The executive director of Champlain Valley Dispensary and Southern Vermont Wellness is opening a 28,000-square-foot cultivation and research center in Milton that will double capacity for the number of patients the two dispensaries can serve.