Marijuana Moment reported that earlier this year, a new law went into effect in New Mexico which requires health insurance to cover mental health treatments. Specifically, they must cover 100% of the cost for services and medications used to treat behavioral or mental health disorders.

After the law went into effect, one of the largest cannabis companies in the state, called Ultra Health, sent letters to insurers and state agencies, requesting medical marijuana coverage for people suffering from mental and behavioral health conditions.

Because those recipients didn’t respond, the company is taking legal action.

Ultra Health, along with a coalition of medical marijuana patients, have filed first of it’s kind class-action lawsuit against seven health insurance companies in the state. Some of those named in the suit include some of the biggest health insurance companies in the country, including Blue Cross, Blue Shield, True Health, and Cigna.

The lawsuit requests that they begin to cover cannabis costs for qualifying patients, provide compensation for prior expenses made since January 1 when the behavioral health law took effect, and punitive damages for what they say is an intentional, “reckless, and willful disregard of the rights of Plaintiffs.”

That lawsuit is currently awaiting action in New Mexico’s Second Judicial District Court.

New York state recently passed legislation which specifically requires their state sponsored health insurance companies to cover medical marijuana costs.

Source:
​New Mexico Marijuana Company And Patients Sue For Insurance Coverage For Medical Cannabis - Marijuana Moment

Maine has had legalized recreational adult use cannabis since voters approved it in 2016.

And while other state’s legal markets are having a hard time keeping Black Market sales down, Maine seems to be succeeding.

A recent analysis of sales in the state has been conducted by Maine’s Office of Cannabis Policy, in partnership with Advocates for Human Potential.

The results found that the majority of cannabis sold in Maine, 64%, came from a regulated legal source, like a recreational or medical dispensary, caregiver or home grow.

The report also found a strong correlation between years since adult-use stores opened and the continued downtrend of black market sales.  When compared to other legal states, Maine has been curbing these illicit cannabis sales much quicker.

​More studies will need to be done to learn how they’re able to achieve this.

Leafly’s 6th annual Jobs Report said that last year there were 428,00 legal cannabis employees contributing to the economy.

That number has certainly gone up this year, with more states legalizing and constantly expanding industry growth.

But how do you get one of those jobs, especially if you have no experience?

One option is getting a college degree, specializing in Cannabis.

LIM College in New York recently became the first university to offer a bachelor’s degree, called the Business Administration of Cannabis.

Also recently announced, was a masters degree program available in Cannabis. Rowan University in New Jersey offers an MBA in cannabis commercialization.

For a lot less time, though, you can also try certification.

There are a LOT of cannabis certification courses available online, but sometimes their prices can stop people from doing it. Normally, you’d be able to get a student loan for education, but since it’s in the cannabis field, that can be unlikely when going through traditional methods.

But now, there is a financing company who has agreed to work with a cannabis education company to finance cannabis education, called Climb Credit. Climb Credit is now working with Green Flower , who are a cannabis education company. Green Flower partners with higher education institutions to create cannabis certification programs. They currently offer online cannabis education certificates at 18 university partners in subjects such as cannabis healthcare, law, agriculture, and enterprise.

Green Flower’s Vice President of Higher Education said, "The cannabis industry is creating tens of thousands of exciting and lucrative career opportunities across the country, yet a significant shortage of qualified professionals exists."
"This partnership between Climb and Green Flower opens up cannabis education to so many more prospective students, with the cannabis industry as the ultimate beneficiary of having a significantly larger pool of qualified and credentialed workers to hire."
​
For more information:
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cannabis-education-financing-now-available-301561898.html
https://greenfloweredu.com/higher-education-home/
​https://greenfloweredu.com/educational-institution-partners/

​Roughly two thirds of Americans polled say they support legalization.

But at the same time, we have legislatures in Washington who seem unwilling to work with the opposing political side. So how will cannabis legalization get passed?

There are currently two major cannabis reform proposals which would remove it from the Controlled Substances Act, thereby legalizing it.

One is a bill promoted by Democratic Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer along with Senators Cory Booker and Ron Wyden. It’s called the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act (or CAOA), which they’ve promised will be  introduced sometime in August.

The second bill for decriminalization is proposed by Republican Representative from South Carolina, Nancy Mace, called the States Reform Act (or SRA).

While both bills would remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act, and thus federally legalizing it, there are of course some differences between them.

The Democrats “CAOA” bill leans a bit more towards social equity, and is supported by the Marijuana Justice Coalition, which includes members like the ACLU and Human Rights Watch groups.

The Republican “SRA” bill could be considered by some to lean more towards big business. It’s backed by the Cannabis Freedom Alliance, which includes the group Americans for Prosperity .

​A group called Cannabis Wire took a very interesting look into the campaign contributions made by executives from the top ten multi-state cannabis companies. They found that executives from five of those cannabis companies had donated money directly to the Republican Representative Nancy Mace who presented the SRA Act. So if money does talk, perhaps we will start seeing a shift towards more support of the Republican backed SRA Act.

For more information, see:
https://www.benzinga.com/markets/cannabis/22/06/27661659/nancy-mace-or-chuck-schumer-whose-cannabis-reform-bill-which-congressional-candidates-are-big-we

The capitol city of California, Sacramento, recently commissioned a report on the impact of cannabis. The report showed that the affect has been positive.

First, the report found that cannabis brings jobs, lots and lots of jobs! There are literally tens of thousands of new cannabis jobs that have been created by the cannabis industry. And those employees are all contributing to the overall economic health of the state, too, by injecting more money into the system.

Second, the report found that generally, home values have not been negatively affected by cannabis.

And third, and perhaps most importantly, the legal cannabis market has not caused significant changes in crime. There have been some robberies of cannabis businesses. They’re attractive targets for some thieves due to the fact that the federal government forces these businesses to only use cash. Sacramento’s police department noted that these burglaries resulted in less than 1% of all robberies in the city.

The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML, commented on the report. Their Deputy Director Paul Armentano said: “These findings ought to mitigate the concerns of local officials who have been reluctant to embrace regulating the cannabis marketplace. Licensed cannabis retailers are good neighbors, drive economic growth, and redirect tax dollars back into the local community. It makes no sense from either an economic perspective or from a public health perspective to prohibit these businesses or to relegate cannabis commerce solely to those operating in the unregulated marketplace.”

​Read more at: https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article262150152.html#storylink=cpy

Cannabis legalization is making moves across more than just the United States.

As we’ve seen this month, Thailand has decriminalized the plant, and Switzerland has begun a pilot program for recreational cannabis.

Now, the German Health Ministry says their government will begin holding hearings to move toward recreational cannabis legalization.

They will bring in hundreds of field experts, government officials, and many more relevant representatives.

The German government’s Drug Czar, Burkhard Bleinert, said they will hold five hearings this month. Their plans are to address what measures are needed to ensure the best protection for young people and of health and consumers, and ensure quality control.

​The German government hopes to have legislation for recreational cannabis ready later this year. 

​https://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2022-06-13/germany-moves-ahead-with-plan-to-legalize-cannabis-sales