CONCERN FOR GRINER
WNBA star Brittney Griner held in Russia for allegedly traveling with vape cartridges
Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner has been detained by Russian authorities after customs officials claimed they found vape cartridges containing cannabis products in her luggage, reports the New York Times. Griner was stopped at Sheremetyevo airport near Moscow, where she had been playing in the off-season for an international league.
Griner is now facing charges and, if convicted, faces up to 10 years in jail. On Twitter, Texas Congressman Joaquin Castro accused authorities of using Griner and other US citizens who have been detained in the past as “political pawns.”
“Cannabis possession, alleged or real, is routinely used as a pretext by law enforcement around the world to target disfavored individuals and groups,” said US Cannabis Council CEO Steven Hawkins in a statement. “In this case, Russian authorities appear to be using alleged cannabis possession as a pretext for holding a prominent American as leverage.”
Adding to the worry, the Kremlin and Russian state media’s poor record with LGBTQ activists and communtities puts Griner, who is gay, in an even more vulnerable position. At the Tokyo Olympics, for example, state media spent considerable time disparaging LGBTQ athletes who competed, referring to them with words like “abomination” and “perversion,” reported BBC.
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PROS AND CONS
The pros and cons of going legal in New York
New York’s existing cannabis operators expressed trepidation about joining the newly legal adult-use framework, reports a new New York-focused cannabis industry newsletter, New York Cannabis Insider by NYUp.
- The pros: Transitioning from “stigmatized salesman” to running a legitimate business
- The cons: Paying taxes, the costs and headaches of compliance and risking being denied a license without a safety net
And while regulators have expressed the need to bring illicit operators into the legal industry for it to be successful, they’re simultaneously working to shut down existing operators.
Cannabis veteran Steve DeAngelo warned that New York should work to avoid becoming like California. “It’s kind of this perfect storm where demand was reduced in the legal marketplace by the high taxation, and then a very, very robust legacy market was preserved by the failure of the state to license legacy operators,” he said.
Interested in what’s happening in New York? Join us for Business of Cannabis: New York Sessions on Thursday evening this week. More.
LINTON VS. EVERYONE
Former Canopy CEO takes on the alt-right on LinkedIn
Bruce Linton had strong words for a New York marketing executive who took to LinkedIn to question why representatives of the Canadian and Toronto governments were protesting Russia’s attacks on Ukraine after shutting down the so-called “Freedom Convoy” in Ottawa.
“And just like that, protesting is allowed again in Canada!” posted Laura Faye Bonanno, the
president of LauraFaye Marketing. “I wonder if those flags were swaped [sic] for Canadian ones what would happen…. oh wait …. we saw…. I get it now.”
In response, Linton wrote: “Award for the most ignorant, uninformed, selfish and just plain horrible post has a loser that posted the winner!”
Linton may be out at Canopy, but he’s all in on LinkedIn.
RUSSIAN INVASION AND CANNABIS
The potential long-term impacts Ukraine will have on European cannabis
Mere weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine, the Verkhovna Rada was considering allowing the use of medical cannabis for more than two million consumers, reports BusinessCann.
Covid has already delayed cannabis reform in Europe, and “the immediate threat of war across the continent will again see the cannabis agenda be pushed down the list of priorities.”
Another concern: oil and gas fueling the industry. Approximately 40% the EU’s natural gas and 25% of its oil comes from Russian sources. Costs will rise, putting a strain on cultivators and consumers.
