All posts in Connecticut News

BECKET — A large-scale Becket cannabis farm proposed more than a year ago — then vigorously tracked and opposed by neighbors — won a long-sought special permit Thursday. After hours of earlier hearings attended online by scores of residents, the town’s Planning Board voted 4-1 to allow a Connecticut company, TetraHydra AgTek LLC, to create an indoor marijuana growing facility on Quarry Road, subject to conditions the panel debated at length. The project needs other approvals, including from the Cannabis Control Commission and from the town Conservation Commission and Board of Health. “While people may not all agree with a…

Federal officials said, citing court documents and statements made in court, that the FBI, ATF, DEA, U.S. Marshals Service and Bridgeport Police have been “investigating multiple Bridgeport-based gangs whose members are involved in narcotics trafficking, murder and other acts of violence” and “Blackwell has been a member of the ‘Greene Homes Boyz’ (“GHB/Hotz”), a gang based in the Charles F. Greene Homes Housing Complex in Bridgeport’s North End, whose members and associates distributed heroin, crack cocaine, marijuana and Percocet pills; committed numerous acts of violence against rival gang members and other individuals, and celebrated their criminal conduct on social media…

DIOMIE BLACKWELL, also known as “Yamo,” 25, of Bridgeport, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton in New Haven to 180 months of imprisonment, followed by three years of supervised release, for participating in gang-related shootings, including a shooting in front of a state courthouse in Bridgeport in January 2020. Today’s announcement was made by Leonard C Boyle, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut; Joseph T. Corradino, State’s Attorney for the Fairfield Judicial District; Bridgeport Acting Police Chief Rebeca Garcia; James Ferguson, Special Agent in Charge, ATF Boston Field Division; David Sundberg, Special Agent in…

Following a spate of deadly robberies targeting marijuana retailers in Washington State, officials are stepping up their push for federal cannabis banking reform—a topic that will be addressed at a roundtable next week involving regulators, lawmakers, advocates and stakeholders. The state’s Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB) said that at least three people were killed within the span of four recent days at three different Washington cannabis retailers. But the issue isn’t unique to the state; crime and even some murders have occurred at legal marijuana shops in markets across the U.S., prompting advocates and lawmakers to demand federal reform to…

CHICAGO, March 23, 2022 – PRESS RELEASE – Cresco Labs Inc., a vertically integrated multistate operator and the No. 1 U.S. wholesaler of branded cannabis products, released its financial results for the three months and year ended Dec. 31, 2021. All financial information presented in this release is reported in accordance with U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (“U.S. GAAP”) and in U.S. dollars, unless otherwise noted, and all comparisons to prior quarters and the prior year are made on an as-converted basis under U.S. GAAP. The Company announced today it has entered into a definitive arrangement agreement pursuant to which…

A bill in the state legislature that would eliminate caps on the number of cannabis companies a municipality can host is getting some pushback, not just from concerned residents but also, somewhat surprisingly, at least one marijuana business. Current law allows cities and towns to host one dispensary and micro-cultivator for every 25,000 residents. In March, the Social Equity Council outlined a series of changes it wanted to the recreational cannabis law, including eliminating that cap. The suggestion was included in a larger bill introduced to the General Law Committee in early March. That committee voted in favor of the…

Hawaii senators on Wednesday approved two identical resolutions to request the formation of a psilocybin working group that would explore the therapeutic potential of the psychedelic, though the measures were amended to make provisions on developing a plan for patient access contingent on federal approval of the substance. The Senate Health Committee took up the non-binding Senate resolution and Senate concurrent resolution, both sponsored by Sen. Chris Lee (D), who serves as chair of the Judiciary Committee. The identical proposals advanced unanimously, but with two senators expressing reservations. Meanwhile, the full Hawaii Senate approved a similar proposal earlier this month…

NOTE: A version of this story first appeared in New York Cannabis Insider, a new publication covering the state’s marijuana marketplace. NYCI is hosting a half-day virtual event on March 31 about financing your cannabusiness, sourcing and securing capital, changing your community’s perception to marijuana, and working with and respecting Native American cannabis operations. Tickets are available here. As New York works to get its legal adult-use cannabis industry off the ground, advocates and businesspeople in the space are concerned with two controversial tax issues. The first is a potency tax on businesses based on THC content, the second is…