Half Baked News – October 2019
Cannabis News and Trending Topics
by Brittney Graham
Cannabis Café the New Best Part of Waking Up
America’s first cannabis café opened its doors October 1st and business has been booming! The café opened in West Hollywood and on the first day customers waited over an hour to get into the new green spot. Lowell Café has a restaurant and lounge area and while visitors can enjoy cannabis consumption in the restaurant, they can have food delivered to the lounge area where it is allowed.
Lowell Café allows vaping, smoking, and even offers prepackaged edibles. No one under the age of 21 is allowed inside and heavy-duty ventilation and filtration systems are in place to contain smells and odors within the premises. The city expects 3 three more cannabis consumption lounges to open within the next 6 months and more than triple that within the next year. Who is up for a road trip?
Oklahoma Credit Union Bows Out of Cannabis Banking
Tulsa-based Encentus Federal Credit Union told the Tulsa World,” Serving the MMJ industry was too costly and the regulatory burden too great” at the beginning of this month. The Credit Union Stated that the guidelines required by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) are too burdensome and essentially make bank staff auditors. This decision will effect nine accounts and deals a setback for Oklahoma’s Medical Marijuana Industry.
Here at Half Baked News we like to look on the bright side however and want to take the time to remind everyone that in September the U.S. House passed the SAFE Banking Act. Which would essentially ease the path for financial institution and remove burdens so they can help cannabis related businesses.
Grow Baby Grow
Here in Oklahoma we pride ourselves on a lot of things such as Thunder Basketball, Bedlam, and making a sport out of tornado season. Well, now we can add another reason to be Oklahoma Proud and that is because we have ranked as the fastest growing Marijuana market in the country! With more and more patients and Cannabis Businesses being approved daily, it is not hard to see that fact to be true down here in the Sooner State. Remembering we started this journey a little over a year ago in way of passing SQ788, we can’t help but be proud! Don’t believe it? Just look at these numbers.
As of October 1st, OMMA has approved: 194,604 patient, 1,434 caregiver, 4,063 grower, 1,651 dispensary, 1,168 processors. Total = 203,920.
