EDITOR NOTE

THE ENLIGHTENED VOICE

CONTRIBUTORS Steve Elliott, national

Heather Dagler, features

Amanda Day, features

Ariana Foote, writing

Young Kwak, photography

Aniyah Lee, photography

Taylor Martin, writing

Matthew Newton, writing

Baxsen Paine, features

Brandon Palma, illustration

Bria Price, features

Mike Ricker, writing

Mike Rothman, writing

Pacer Stacktrain, writing

Bruce & Laurie Wolf, recipes ABOUT THE COVER Concentrates have come a long way and we wanted to showcase just how big of an impact the extract market has, with our 2nd annual Concentrates Issue cover. We tapped longtime Leaf contributor and frequent cover artist Brandon Palma for this beautiful and inspiring cover piece that makes us want to get right into it and heat up our torch.

ILLUSTRATION by BRANDON PALMA for Leaf Nation | @8thDayCreate

FOUNDER & EDITOR WES ABNEY wes@nwleaf.com 206-235-6721

PUBLISHER EARLY early@LeafNationMD.com

CREATIVE DIRECTOR Daniel bermaN | photography & design daniel@bermanphotos.com

AD SALES / PRODUCER/PROCESSOR/RETAILERS wyatt early wyatt@LeafNationMD.com 410-961-8779

We do not sell stories or coverage. We are happy to offer design services and guidance on promoting your company’s recreational, commercial or industrial Cannabis product or upcoming event. We are targeted and independent Cannabis journalism. Email or call to discuss advertising.

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WES ABNEY Editor ’ s Note

Thanks for picking up this special issue of Maryland Leaf!

Our Concentrates Issue is my favorite of the year for one simple reason: I love dabs! 7

My first dab was around 2011 - in the century old boiler room below the now closed Northern Cross Collective Gardens in Bellingham, Washington. I remember feeling the oil touch the red hot nail as the vapor burst into my lungs with the force of a thousand bong hits. The world closed in around me and I felt the reverberation of raw THC as it pulsed through my LOOK CLOSELY AND YOU’LL SEE THAT CONCENTRATES blood and into my mind, sending me away for the next few hours - humming with a high that was unlike anything else. COVER EVERY ASPECT OF CANNABIS

Over the last decade of publishing and working in Cannabis, I have personally seen the concentrate world evolve from homemade Rick Simpson Oil and open-blasted butane hash oil, to highly medicinal mono-cannabinoid extracts and vaporizable concentrates of all kinds, to being the precursor to a new world of edibles, topicals, capsules and more. For our Concentrates Issue we sought out the best examples of the different types of extractions, to share how they affect the body and the science behind the scenes.

Concentrating Cannabis means exactly what it sounds like: taking a full plant and using a process or solvent to extract the purest essence of it. This makes it incredibly important to only consume high quality, pesticide tested concentrates. Quality concentrates have the ability to impart healing values that Cannabis flower alone cannot replicate, delivering a pure flavor and experience that captures the taste and effect of fresh Cannabis in a perfect dab. Look closely and you’ll see that concentrates cover every aspect of Cannabis - every product beyond flower - from medical to recreational uses and benefits.

Our comprehensive Concentrates Issue covers the different extraction methods, terminology, ways to consume and much more. So take a dab, flip through this beautiful and informational issue, and learn something new that you can share with someone in need of Cannabis - as a plant and a medicine. And as always, thanks for reading and sharing the Leaf! -Wes Abney JUly 2020

NEVADA PARDONS THOUSANDS CONVICTED OF MARIJUANA POSSESSION

Nevada in June became the latest state with legal Cannabis sales to pardon folks convicted of possessing small amounts of weed, reports the AP. The State Board of Pardons Commissioners voted unanimously on June 17 to unconditionally pardon anyone convicted in the past two decades of possessing an ounce or less. That was the amount allowed when Nevada began allowing adult marijuana sales in 2017.

NORTHWEST PORTLAND WILL STOP USING TAX REVENUE TO FUND POLICE

Portland, Ore. Mayor Ted Wheeler in June announced the city will redirect $12 million of Cannabis taxes away from the police department, and pledged the funds toward supporting communities of color. The move came just one day after the Oregon Cannabis Association called upon Wheeler to stop sending Portland cops budget funding derived from Cannabis tax revenue, reports The Morning Call. According to the OCA, police budgets received more than $2 million from Cannabis tax proceeds in 2019.

FEDERAL LEVEL CALLS FOR ENDING FEDERAL MARIJUANA PROHIBITION R eforming police departments should be coupled with ending Cannabis prohibition in order to better foster racial justice, said Rep. Lou Correa (D-Calif.) during a Congressional hearing on June 17. At the House Judiciary Committee markup on legislation focused on policing, the congressman linked prohibition to some of the problems the bill seeks to address, reports Marijuana Moment. “One of the issues I’d like to take note of is our national drug policy right now - federal Cannabis policy, essentially outlawing Cannabis,” Correa said. “As you know, when we talk about arrest disparities, over 650,000 Americans are arrested every year for violating Cannabis laws.” The Congressman added that black people are significantly more likely to be arrested for marijuana compared to white people, despite comparable rates of consumption. “In the midst of the many crises we face as a country, it is absurd that, under the federal Controlled Substances Act, marijuana is at Schedule I, along with killer drugs like heroin.”

-Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders calling for legalized marijuana and police reform.

ECONOMY CANNABIS SALES CONTINUE TO BOOM DURING PANDEMIC

People across the U.S. continue to buy record amounts of Cannabis during the coronavirus pandemic. Almost all legal states declared both medical marijuana and adult-use dispensaries “essential “THE MARIJUANA TAX FUND IS businesses,” allowing them to stay open as lockdowns began, reports Dispensaries.com. Massachusetts, the lone exception, REALLY THE ONLY has since changed course. BRIGHT SPOT IN THE STATE BUDGET RIGHT NOW,” Oregonians bought a record-setting amount of Cannabis in May, according to the Oregon Liquor Control Commission. Sales increased 60 percent compared to the same time last year. For the first time ever, sales exceeded $100 million in one month, according to TJ Sheehy of the OLCC.

“The marijuana tax fund is really the only bright spot in the state budget right now,” Sheehy said, reports Oregon Public Broadcasting. “In terms of taxable sales it was about $15 million that’s going to go to the school fund, city and county governments.”

Oklahoma had records sales for the fourth month in a row. Consumers spent $73.8 million in medical marijuana in April. In May, state lawmakers passed a bill allowing dispensaries to deliver Cannabis, and also allowing out-of-state people to buy marijuana with a 90-day temporary card. Alas, Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt vetoed that legislation.

West coast REPORTS CALL FOR CALIFORNIA TO SHIFT FROM LAW ENFORCEMENT FOCUS ON MARIJUANA

Public Health Advocates is citing two new studies to argue that marijuana tax revenue in California should go to community-led public health initiatives and investing in communities of color, rather than going to more law enforcement. “Unfortunately, three years after (California voters legalized marijuana), elected officials have made LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES HAVE AN UNHAPPY HISTORY OF decisions that are failing to meet these expectations and to reverse the course of the War on Drugs,” cites one of the two reports released by the coalition, reports The Sacramento Bee. DISPROPORTIONATELY TARGETING COMMUNITIES OF COLOR

The reports come as California lawmakers are considering a Bureau of Cannabis Control budget request to fund an 87-member police force dedicated to cracking down on the state’s billion-dollar unlicensed marijuana industry.

Advocates, citing the two new research papers, say that law enforcement agencies have an unhappy history of disproportionately targeting communities of color when it comes to marijuana enforcement.

The UC Davis study, examining Cannabis arrests from 1996 to 2016, found that black people were nearly four times more likely to be arrested and charged for marijuana-related crimes than were white people.

5

San Francisco Cannabis dispensaries were robbed on the night of Friday, May 29.

75

coveted Illinois dispensary licenses will soon be awarded to minority entrepreneurs.

80

million dollars ($110 million Canadian) was lost by Aurora Cannabis before ending its partnership with Alcanna in June 2020.

95

percent of its former value was lost by beleaguered multi-state Cannabis company Med Men.

4k

medical marijuana patient authorizations have now been approved in Australia

$50m

dollars was the price paid by generic drug maker Perrigo for a 20 percent stake in Kazmira, a Colorado-based CBD manufacturer.

Concentrates and extracts have emerged over the last couple years as the fastest growing category of the legal market.

Extracts vs. Concentrates THE BIG DIFFERENCE

Crumble. Budder. Batter. Dabs. Oils. Rosin. Shatter. Wax. Hash. You may recognize these forms of Cannabis extracts and concentrates from your local dispensary products list - and with so many different products available - confusion is inevitable. Here, one of the greatest misunderstandings regards the distinction between concentrates and extracts.

Extracts are made using solvents to chemically extract the THC, CBD or terpenes. Some of the solvents commonly used to create Cannabis extracts are butane, propane, carbon dioxide and ethanol. Concentrates, on the other hand, are made through mechanical processes that isolate the resin heads - where processors create products such as hash using fine screens, bubble hash using water, or rosin using heat and pressure.

Distinctions aside, concentrates and extracts have emerged over the last couple years as the fastest growing category of the legal market. Point-of-sale tracking service data shows that, particularly in adult-use markets, people are gravitating toward this stronger, discrete, portable product category. Once fairly rare and considered a specialty item, now concentrates and extracts make up over 27% of all Cannabis products sold.

Waxes and shatters are an extract commonly known as butane hash oil (BHO) - a term that refers to the butane solvent poured over the Cannabis buds. Once the solvent has extracted the cannabinoids and terpenes, the resulting slurry is ‘purged’ in an oven or vacuum at room temperature to remove the hydrocarbons.

Live resin is also an extract and a type of BHO. The difference between shatter and live resin is how the Cannabis flowers are handled pre-extraction. Shatter is made from Cannabis flowers that have gone through the typical drying and curing process.

Live resin is made from fresh flowers that have been flash frozen after being harvested. The result is a sticky extract that preserves more of the natural terpene flavor profile.

Other extracts use CO2 as the solvent to strip out the desired cannabinoids and terpenes. The CO2 is then used to chemically strip the THC, CBD and terpenes from the trichomes of the original plant matter. The resulting liquid oil is commonly used to create vaporizer cartridges.

Rosin is considered a concentrate, made by applying heat and pressure to the Cannabis buds, kief or trim to remove the plant resin. The resulting resin pressed from the plant has a consistency ranging from a butter to a viscous sap. A solventless extraction, rosin contains many of the original aromas present in the plant.

Regardless of whether a product is considered an extract or concentrate, the resulting Cannabis byproduct created by such a chemical or mechanical process is still considered to be illegal to possess or sell both under Maryland law (if you are not a registered medical Cannabis patient), as well as under federal law. But does the law treat a concentrate or extract the same as the whole Cannabis plant? Strangely, the answer is no.

Under Maryland law, Cannabis is still known as “Marijuana,” which is defined as “all parts of any plant of the genus Cannabis, whether or not the plant is growing . . . and each compound, manufactured product, salt, derivative, mixture, or preparation of the plant.”

Under federal law, the Controlled Substances Act defines “Marihuana” as “all parts of the plant Cannabis sativa L., whether growing or not; the seeds thereof; the resin extracted from any part of such plant; and every compound, manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture, or preparation of such plant, its seeds or resin.”

But THC is also prohibited under both Maryland law as a controlled and dangerous substance, and under federal law under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. As a result, police often charge defendants with possession of extracts or concentrates under the prohibition against possession of THC, rather than the prohibition against the possession of marijuana. This alternate THC charge deprives Maryland medical Cannabis patients of their rights under Maryland law.

This legal peculiarity means that a card-carrying Maryland patient stopped while in possession of a legally purchased concentrate or extract, could result in the crime of possession of THC, rather than possession of marijuana. Even worse, by definition the legal safe harbor granted by Maryland’s medical Cannabis laws for possession of marijuana by a registered medical Cannabis patient would not apply to the patient charged with possession of THC.

At the very least, Maryland needs to harmonize its laws to permit medical Cannabis patients to possess extracts and concentrates without the fear of incurring a criminal charge. This legal impediment represents yet another hurdle in the normalization and regulation of the Cannabis plant.

Since 2008, Mike Rothman has counseled clients regarding Cannabis laws and regulations as the founder and principal of the Medical Cannabis Law Group and the Law Office of Mike Rothman in Rockville, Maryland. Mr. Rothman has testified on Cannabis laws and regulations before the Maryland House of Delegates, taught classes, and lobbied the federal government on behalf of patients and businesses. Mr. Rothman’s Law Office focuses on criminal defense, including use of the medical Cannabis defense.

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