Happy Weed Wednesday. Thanks for checking out to the newsletter that makes you smarter about weed in 4 minutes and 20 seconds or less. Here’s what we got for you this week:

• Cannabis reform: Joe Biden continues to fall short

• Business highlights: Businesses are taking advantage of the new weed law in Minnesota, cannabis testing is big business, High Times purchased a consumption lounge in West Hollywood

• California tax bill: AB 195 eliminates cultivation tax

• Pot Politics: Britney Griner pleads guilty to cannabis charge, California looks to standardize cannabis testing, multiple states submit enough signatures to get cannabis legalization on the ballot this fall

Best of social media

Before we get to the news, here's the funniest thing we saw on social media this week. Dave Letterman's laugh at the end 😂

Joe Biden continues to fall short on cannabis promises

Bicycles aren't the only thing Joe Biden is falling from these days. When it comes to cannabis reform, he's falling well short of accomplishing everything he promised on the campaign trail. In some cases, his inability to keep those promises is costing people their freedom.

Promises made, promises not kept

Here's where we are on key cannabis promises that were made by President Biden:

• Promise: Expunging cannabis records. "No one should be in jail because of marijuana."

• Status: Failing. We are over a year into the Biden presidency and only 9 people have been granted clemency for federal marijuana offenses. Granting clemency to these 9 people is great, but there is still a lot of work that needs to be done in order to say Biden has followed though on this promise. To put this in perspective, there are approximately 10,000 people who still have federal marijuana charges on their criminal record.

• Promise: Cannabis decriminalization. "As President, I will decriminalize cannabis use..."

• Status: Failing. Biden is well into his presidency and weed is still a schedule 1 substance. Doesn't seem like things are going to be changing any time soon either. Vice President Kamala Harris said Biden doesn't have time for cannabis decriminalization.

Time to apply pressure

Many people are starting to take notice of the unkept promises and some are starting to take action. NORML, a nonprofit public-interest advocacy group, has started a petition urging Joe Biden to take action. They also sent him a letter making their position very clear: "Keep your promise. Do the right thing and begin to wind down our nation’s longest war, the drug war. Use the authority of your office to provide long-overdue relief to those suffering under the burden and stigma of a marijuana-related conviction and help move the nation just a little bit closer to the ideals of justice that we claim to uphold."

We understand there's a lot of crazy stuff going on in the world, but a promise made is a promise that needs to be kept. For his own good and the good of the country, we strongly encourage President Biden to spend less time on bicycles and more time on cannabis reform.

Business highlights

• Businesses are already starting to take advantage of the new weed law in Minnesota

• Tech companies are very interested in cannabis testing to detect THC

• High Times purchased a consumption lounge in West Hollywood

• Tilray expanded its portfolio of medicinal cannabis products in the U.K.

• Study shows that legalization has reshaped cannabis marketing on IG

California eliminates cultivation tax

As we wrote a few weeks ago, it's extremely difficult to make a profit in the legal cannabis industry. All of the taxes associated with a legal sale make it nearly impossible for most businesses to make a profit. Fortunately for some businesses in California, relief is on the way through a recently passed tax relief bill. Just like anything else related to politics, not everyone is happy about the bill.

The details

Governor Newsom signed Assembly Bill 195 into law on June 30, 2022. According to Lexology, the bill amends California Revenue and Taxation Code to eliminate the cultivation tax on harvested cannabis. Specifically, harvested cannabis that enters the commercial market on or after July 1, 2022 is not subject to the cultivation tax, even if the distributor or manufacturer received the cannabis from a cultivator prior to July 1, 2022. AB 195 also shifts the point of collection and remittance of the 15% state wide-excise tax from distributors to retailers effective January 1, 2023, and sales or transfers of harvested cannabis that has entered the commercial market by cultivators to distributors or manufacturers after July 1, 2022 are exempt from cultivation tax if the cannabis is ultimately subject to this 15% excise tax on retail sales.

Industry reaction

Since the cultivation tax is being eliminated, it's not surprising that cannabis farmers are super happy about the bill. With the flood of product that hit the market in 2021, wholesale weed prices have dropped sharply in California, making it extremely difficult for smaller businesses to make a profit. According to Mike Benziger of Glentucky Farms, he was getting $3,000 per pound in the past but is now only getting $500 per pound, so "every penny of relief counts."

On the other hand, Senator Scott Wiener doesn't think AB 195 does enough to help legal businesses against all of the illegal market competition. According to Wiener, "We’re going to continue to fuel the illicit market until we acknowledge that there’s over regulation, over taxation of something that we claim we want to see succeed, a legal cannabis market." To put this in perspective, although weed is recreationally legal across the state, over 60% of cities and counties still ban retail cannabis businesses. This is a significant sized market that is left to be served by businesses that are operating illegally.

Although AB 195 is a step in the right direction, many more steps are needed to weed out the illegal businesses and level the playing field for legal cannabis businesses.

Pot politics

• Britney Griner pleads guilty to cannabis charge in Russia

• California looking to standardize cannabis testing statewide

• Recreational marijuana might be on the ballot in Arkansas this fall

• Oklahoma submitted more than enough signatures to get cannabis on the ballot

• North Dakota collected more than 25k signatures to legalize weed

• Minnesota senator says new marijuana law was an intentional step toward legalization

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Quick hits

• Dogs are being trained to detect diseases in cannabis and hemp

• John McEnroe smokes a joint with Bill Maher during podcast

• Snoop Dogg is smoking some Sleepy Joe OG

• CBD can help if you are traveling with pets

• Thai farmers are feeding cannabis to chickens

• Even Snoop Dogg is interested in virtual weed

• Celebrity cannabis business success stories

Meme of the Week

Before we go, here's the best meme we saw this week. We're thinking this title must belong to Snoop Dogg.

How was today's newsletter?

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• 🌳🌳🌳 Mid grade

• 🌳 Bammer