Curaleaf is proud to announce that the company’s processing facility in Florida has earned their Safe Quality Food (SQF) Level II certification with a score of “Excellent,” further proof that Curaleaf is delivering on its commitment to provide access to premium quality and reliable medical marijuana products for patients in Florida. Curaleaf is the first and only company in Florida to achieve this certification, which is a regulatory requirement in the state.

The SQF Level II certification is a food safety certification program recognized by Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI). GFSI is an industry-driven global collaboration to advance food safety and provide continuous improvement in food safety management systems. The goal is to ensure confidence in the delivery of safe foods and supplements that meet high quality standards to consumers worldwide.
 
“Every day patients express interest and assurance of wanting to know that the foods and medicines they consume are safe and of the best quality available,” shared Lindsay Jones, President of Curaleaf Florida. “This SQF Level II certification that Curaleaf has earned is particularly important for patients and demonstrates that our medical marijuana processing expertise delivers superior quality products for patients in need across Florida.”
 
Curaleaf offers Florida patients a full line of legal, low-THC and full strength medical marijuana products made using the industry’s cleanest, most medically precise extraction and purification methods. Curaleaf dispensaries are located in Miami, Lake Worth, Fort Myers and St. Petersburg. Same day and next day delivery is available from the Jacksonville area south to Key West.
 


Now that the state of Florida has legalized medical marijuana, many patients are using it to find relief from a number of conditions, including cancer, Crohn’s disease, PTSD and more. Despite this, there are still many people who could benefit from its use but who may not know how to get a physician’s recommendation or how to sign up on the state registry.

DocMJ is helping to streamline this process. The practice’s 15 physicians located in 14 cities throughout Florida provide risk-free evaluations, as well as walk patients through the sign-up process. In addition, they work closely with patients to determine the type of medical marijuana that will give them the best result.
 
“Most of the patients we see are looking for alternatives to traditional medicine, better treatment options or perhaps symptom relief for the first time in their lives,” explained Dr. Nicholas Bottaro. “They are often hesitant and nervous because they don’t know what to expect. While they are desperate for help, they are afraid of the stigma and worried about what the physician will think. We work to create a very relaxed, comfortable environment so that they don’t have any reason to be anxious.”
 
According to Dr. Bottaro, the majority of the patients that DocMJ sees qualify for medical marijuana. “Most of our patients already have a diagnosis from their own doctors, for example, they have been diagnosed with a disease like multiple sclerosis or cancer,” he explained, adding that during an appointment with a DocMJ physician, a patient’s medical records and symptoms are reviewed. “In a smaller number of cases, we diagnose the patients ourselves.”
 
Dr. Bottaro gives the example of a person with a severe anxiety disorder who may not have seen a doctor for years out of fear. “If we believe that the person could greatly benefit from medical marijuana and that it would provide relief in some way, we will recommend it,” he said. “We don’t want to turn away someone who needs it.”
 
All DocMJ physicians have taken the state-mandated course that is required to be able to recommend medical marijuana and to enter a patient into the state registry. “While some general practitioners have taken the course, most have not because it’s just too much work to add on to an already busy practice,” said Dr. Bottaro, adding that even physicians who have taken the course may not have the time to stay up-to-date on the different strains of marijuana and other changes in the industry.
 
DocMJ makes it a priority to educate each patient. “We spend a lot of time talking about the different types of marijuana and what will work best for them, depending on what we’re trying to treat,” explained Dr. Bottaro. “You wouldn’t recommend Sativa for a patient with an anxiety disorder, for example, because it has been known to induce or worsen anxiety. If you’re just signing them up without going through the different options for, say, PTSD or bipolar disease, you’re leaving them at the mercy of the dispensary selling the product. We want to steer them in the right direction.”
 
Once a patient is approved, their name is entered into the state registry along with information on the maximum daily dose and the appropriate route for its ingestion – for example, as pills, drops, creams or by inhalation. The patient then completes the state part of the application online, and pays $75 for a permanent ID card. Within roughly two weeks, they receive an email with their approval and can go to a dispensary to buy their medicine.
 
Florida law requires that patients see physicians every seven months to check how they are progressing before the recommendation can be renewed. In order to save patients time and money, DocMJ offers a package for $169 that covers the first visit, paperwork for monthly refills, and follow-up visits during that time as needed.
 
“Some places are taking advantage and saying that patients have to come in monthly for their refills, and charging them every time,” said Dr. Bottaro. “I think that hinders people from getting good care. We’re not in it for the money; we’re here to help as many people as possible.”


On January 4, 2018, Attorney General Jeff Sessions rolled back an Obama-era policy of refraining from prosecuting marijuana businesses and individual users in states that have legalized the drug for medicinal or recreational use. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced this, calling the move a “return to the rule of law.”

Marijuana Criminalization
Jeff Sessions announced the decision in a memo sent to all U.S. attorneys that highlighted marijuana’s continued criminalization under federal law. In the memo, he labeled previous DOJ guidance discouraging enforcement as “unnecessary” and “rescinded, effective immediately.”
 
“It is the mission of the Department of Justice to enforce the laws of the United States, and the previous issuance of guidance undermines the rule of law and the ability of our local, state, tribal and federal law enforcement partners to carry out this mission,” Sessions said in a statement.
 
This move creates a cloud of uncertainty for legal marijuana businesses and the legalization effort which most recently had seen the start of legal recreational marijuana sales in California on January 1, 2018. Currently, 29 states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana in some form.
 
However, marijuana remains a Schedule I drug under federal law, making it a criminal offense to deal or even possess it.


As corporate consultants, medical consultants, and more recently, as the founders of a company providing diagnostic testing services to physician offices in South Florida, Stephanie Curran and her fiancé saw several problems within the medical industry.

“It was disheartening to see that today’s physicians have to work twice as hard and see twice as many patients but make half as much money as they used to,” Curran says.
 
After Amendment 2 was approved by voters in November 2016, that opened up a brand new industry to serve tens of thousands of people throughout the state. Curran knew that several of her physician clients became interested in getting involved in the cannabis industry but didn’t necessarily know how to.
 
“We were invited to a cannabis conference and at that conference we were exposed to the hemp and cannabidiol (CBD) marketplace,” says Curran. “At that point, we saw a real unique opportunity to be able to provide another revenue stream to physicians.”
 
After speaking with several attorneys and understanding the legality of HEMP based upon the reprieve of the 2014 federal Farm Bill, which allows state agriculture departments to designate hemp projects for research and development, Curran and her fiancé started their new business, Biolief and created a software platform for their new, proprietary, high-grade, hemp-based products. According to the company, the products are some of the most efficacious in the market. Their grower’s proprietary solvent-free infusion process treats only all-natural ingredients with simple heat, water and pressure. They are also committed to whole-plant formulation, meaning that they do not use solvents, do not add distillates and do not add terpenes back in.
 
“In addition to being a revenue stream for physicians, these products now give patients a choice in their healthcare,” says Curran. “Many times doctors are dictated by pharmaceutical companies but patients should have a choice in what they are taking. In addition, physicians don’t have to necessarily stress seeing as many patients as they typically would, knowing that these products and this revenue stream can add so much value to what they are currently doing.”
 
Through Biolief, physician practices and clinics have access to Biolief’s software platform that allows their patients to purchase hemp-based products at the touch of a button. When a physician’s clinic, practice or office, becomes a collaborative partner with Biolief, that practice is created as a user in its system for a small fee.
 
What this does is give the practice or clinic a unique E-commerce site (which is a replica of Biolief’s site) that links all sales to them. Patients or consumers can place an order online at that clinic or from the comfort of their home through the E-commerce site, and in turn, the clinic or office makes a profit on the transaction. All payouts and consumer information is contained on Biolief’s secure server and managed by the executive team.
 
“All of our partners have access to the same products that we have access to and we can track those sales through the website,” says Curran.
 
Biolief provides:
•   Application of all required licenses
•   Business registrations for whole-sale certificates
•   Legal fees for their side
•   Project management/building of all website development within the software
•   Development and Strategic Implementation of all sales processes
•   Development and Strategic Implementation of all marketing processes and trainings
•   Management of all Sales Reps
•   Management of all payouts and commissions structures
•   Management/Oversight and implementation of call center/customer service support center
 
Biolief assigns a sales rep to each of their partner’s practices or clinics and gives them a 3-foot wide kiosk with 25 marketing materials and an iPad. Patients can order the hemp-based products right from the iPad and the products are drop shipped to their home.
 
“We also provide training and the resources to the doctors,” says Curran. “To help them further, we hold weekly sales training calls. We’re gaining a lot of traction with the new company. Not only are we in South Florida, but we have a presence in 24 states now.”


98 Percent of the U.S. Population Shielded from Department of Justice Interference

Medical cannabis patients and businesses are protected from federal intervention after President Trump signed the country’s new spending bill into law Friday. The more than 2,200 page Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018 included expanded language for medical cannabis and hemp production.
 
Specifically, Section 538 of the bill extends protections to 46 states – more states than ever before – as well as adding Guam and Puerto Rico. Also known as the Rohrabacher–Farr amendment, the section has been included in spending bills since it was first passed in 2014.
 
The amendment covers 98 percent of the United States’ population, while the original 2014 amendment covered about 61 percent of the country’s population at the time.
 
New Mexico was one of the original 36 states to be included in the 2014 section, and now all of its bordering states have been extended protections from federal interference. Only Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska and South Dakota were not mentioned in the bill.
 
“In a time of such great political discord and dissension on so many topics, it is refreshing to see near universal agreement on the commitment to protect and expand medical cannabis,” said Duke Rodriguez, CEO and President of Ultra Health®. “Ideally, New Mexico and other states will exercise the political boldness to make the needed next step by legalizing for adults the social use of cannabis.”
 
The full text reads:
“SEC. 538. None of the funds made available under this Act to the Department of Justice may be used, with respect to any of the States of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming, or with respect to the District of Columbia, Guam, or Puerto Rico, to prevent any of them from implementing their own laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical marijuana.”
 
Fifty-nine House Republicans and Democrats want to push even further and grant protections to states with legalized cannabis for social use.
 
“We are concerned about the Department of Justice enforcing federal marijuana law in a way that blocks implementation of marijuana reform laws in those states that have passed such reforms,” the bipartisan group wrote in a letter. “The issue at hand is whether the federal government’s marijuana policy violates the principles of federalism and the Tenth Amendment. Consistent with those principles, we believe that states ought to retain jurisdiction over most criminal justice matters within their borders. This is how the Founders intended our system to function.”