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A top Rhode Island senator says lawmakers are “very close” to reaching a deal on a marijuana legalization bill that could be taken up during a special session this fall. Senate President Dominick Ruggerio (D) was asked for a status update on negotiations that have been taking place on the reform proposal since lawmakers adjourned for the session. He told WPRI-TV that while there are still outstanding issues to be resolved, he believes legalization will be taken up before the end of the year. “We’ve had people working on that issue since we’ve left the session this year,” he said….

A Seattle City Council committee considered a resolution on Friday that would decriminalize a wide range of activities around psychedelic drugs, including cultivation and sharing with others, by declaring those activities among the city’s lowest law enforcement priorities. The council’s Public Safety and Human Services Committee heard comments from the proposal’s supporters, including Councilmember Andrew Lewis and the advocacy group Decrim Nature Seattle. While the panel did not vote on the draft resolution, Councilmember Lisa Herbold, who chairs the committee, said the full City Council will likely take up the measure in coming weeks. “Hopefully the city—as tends to be…

As state officials formulate a licensing and regulatory regime for the newly-legal recreational cannabis industry, Nicholas Morizio said he is already seeing marijuana companies put properties under contract for prospective business locations. Morizio, president of real estate brokerage Colliers International’s Hartford and New Haven offices, who has worked on medical marijuana grower and dispensary deals in recent years, said cannabis companies are paying property owners to take real estate off the market while they apply for licensure in Connecticut. “They’re trying to tie up properties as much as they can,” said Morizio, who declined to name companies making deals. “A…

Bob Lickwar sees recreational cannabis legalization as an opportunity to significantly expand his firm’s business in Connecticut, even though UHY Advisors doesn’t manufacture or sell the plant. UHY, an accounting and consulting firm that serves a wide range of sectors, is aggressively seeking clients in the state’s nascent cannabis industry, Lickwar said. The move makes sense, he added, because starting a legal marijuana business involves scaling a number of regulatory hurdles while figuring out complicated state and federal tax questions, in addition to dealing with capital raising, municipal land use and myriad other issues. Bob Lickwar “I see [cannabis] becoming…

Dressed in medical scrubs and a hairnet, Curaleaf Senior Cultivation Manager Adam Raleigh surveyed a sterile, brightly-lit “flower room” filled with rows of maturing cannabis plants, as the overwhelming smell of marijuana created a thickness to the air. Equipped with millions of dollars worth of lighting, temperature control and other infrastructure, the Massachusetts-based company’s Simsbury grow operation is a well-honed modern manufacturing facility. Raleigh said all the high-end equipment Curaleaf uses allows the company to specify and automate the grow process in order to ensure quality while producing at scale. “[The equipment] affords us the luxury to make sure we’re…