N.Y. emergency rooms see spike in cannabis-related visits
BY Shalon Stevens Syracuse
PUBLISHED 4:07 PM ET Sep. 07, 2025

Since the legalization of marijuana in 2021 in New York, emergency rooms have seen a spike in cannabis-related visits.

“A lot of what’s available in legal dispensaries or even what’s available in the street is that the THC content is much higher than it used to be. So people are starting to experience some bad effects,” said Dr. Max Berube, an emergency room physician and the Department Vice Chair for Mohawk Valley Health System.

He says because cannabis is legal in the state, more people are experimenting. However, it has caused an increase in ER visits. 

“Some of it is intractable nausea and vomiting to the point where you actually need to come to the emergency department so that we can rehydrate you and replenish some of the electrolytes that you use,” said Berube. “Sometimes you’re altered. So alterations in mental status, it takes hours if not a day or two to clear, especially in younger children.”

“So the issue here is not just thinking about the product but the system around it, the lack of one,” said Dr. June Chin, the chief medical officer for New York State’s Office of Cannabis Management.

She says it’s important to think about education.

“I always tell my colleagues they have to be educated, physicians, nurse practitioners. We have to be educated in cannabis medicine,” said Chin. “The way you ask questions is not like, ‘do you use cannabis?’ It’s, ‘have you considered cannabis for your pain? How is your pain level?’”

In addition, Chin says consumers should go to regulated dispensaries.

“We call it our personal cannabis consultation program to just gauge if it’s a new user or if it’s an experienced user, and then we can take them down the road to get them what they actually need,” said Ryan Martin, owner of MJ Dispensary.

He says they get many customers who used to go to illegal markets.

“They’re asking for stuff with 15 milligrams in it because that’s what they think they are used to. When in actuality, what they were buying was not 15 milligrams, it was just false advertising on the illegal product that was being sold,” said Martin. 

He says in New York, dispensaries are required to have their products labeled and the maximum dosage is 10 milligrams for anything being ingested.

“We educate our customers as best as possible. These here, they just let you know what not to do if you’re having your cannabis. There’s limits to purchasing,” said Martin.

“We have a whole library of resources on our website that talks about starting low and going slow, making sure you’re using regulated cannabis, making sure you’re reading the label,” said Chin.

The man behind California's brand-new $15M weed ranch
A new Santa Barbara cannabis farm could be the answer to California's pesticide crisis

Aug 15, 2025
By Lester Black, Cannabis editor

Micah Anderson was driving around the corner of a dusty dirt road in the high desert of Southern California when he stopped his car to say, “This is where I knew we needed this ranch.” A few heads of cattle laze in the shade of some juniper trees, a mountain range blocks the view to the south. Absolutely nothing of this scene looks like a place you’d want to grow cannabis, or really any other crop. But that is exactly the point.

Anderson is the CEO of Leef Brands, one of California’s biggest marijuana processing companies, and this ranch in northern Santa Barbara County is the company’s massive entry into the cannabis farming business. While thousands of cannabis farms go out of business in a bleak market, Leef has invested over $15 million into this ranch, buying 1,900 acres of land and securing the largest single cannabis permit in Santa Barbara County. The farm is a major bet on the future of California’s legal market and has single-handedly made the company one of the largest cannabis growing operations in the state and the world.

The new mega cannabis farm is also a sign of the lengths cannabis companies are willing to go to grow pesticide-free pot. A marijuana pesticide crisis has scared consumers across California, and forced the state into issuing hundreds of recalls for potentially contaminated cannabis. That’s left companies scrambling to find clean cannabis, and simply not using pesticides isn’t enough. Cannabis farms frequently lose an entire crop because a neighboring vineyard sprayed an insecticide that hit their cannabis, or historical farming operations left behind heavy metals that are sucked up from the soil by the cannabis plants.

That’s why this new farm in an overlooked corner of California could be the future of legal weed. And it’s why Anderson was on pins and needles in early July, as he was just days before the first harvest and waiting for the pesticide test results from his first crop.

“If this thing has anything in it,” Anderson said, looking out across his massive cannabis crop, “just someone f—king bury me on this ranch.”

First, a failed bet
Leef Brands launched its new cannabis farm this spring with 800,000 cannabis plants spaced out in orderly rows spreading across the Salisbury Canyon floor. Up close, they’re short and squat and topped with engorged flowers, but from far away, they turn into wide brushstrokes of green set against the khaki dirt of California’s high desert.

It’s a far cry from where it all started for Anderson. His first foray into cannabis cultivation was a single plant he grew in a disused San Diego field near his house. He was 14, and the plant ended up being a male, meaning it didn’t even produce the sticky flowers used to get you high. It did, however, cultivate a passion that sent him on a lifelong path in the cannabis business.

Anderson started selling cannabis as a teenager in San Diego, and then moved up to Mendocino County in the late 1990s after he had graduated high school. It was the beginning of California’s medical marijuana boom. Cannabis was still illegal under state law, and almost as soon as he got to Northern California, he was arrested for cannabis possession and spent weeks in jail. He wasn’t deterred, spending the following decades growing cannabis across the Emerald Triangle counties of Mendocino and Humboldt and supplying California’s booming medical dispensary market.

By 2015, legalization in California appeared imminent, so Anderson along with his business partners set about trying to figure out how to get involved. They landed on extraction, predicting that the process of concentrating cannabis into extracts and oils used for products like edibles and vape pens would be a lucrative business in the legal era. They knew they needed to build their processing facility as close to cannabis farms as possible; extraction companies need large amounts of cannabis to produce high-quality concentrates, just like running an olive oil business requires access to lots of high-quality olive trees. At that time, Mendocino County was in the middle of the country’s biggest cannabis growing region, so Anderson and his partners decided to launch Leef Brands there, investing $15 million into a state-of-the-art facility in what they believed would be “ground zero for cannabis in America.”

“We put millions of dollars into this extraction facility thinking that like, ‘Oh, we’re going to be in the hub, this is perfect,’ and that the county’s going to accept it and this is going to be the Napa of cannabis. And it honestly — quite honestly, it was just the exact opposite,” Anderson told SFGATE.

The same things that made the famed Emerald Triangle so good for growing cannabis prior to legalization made it terrible in the legal era. The long, winding roads and extreme topography went from an asset to avoid law enforcement to an expensive headache for transporting legal products and building larger farms.

The local government made it even harder. Mendocino’s county government struggled to license any of its farms because of delays at the local government level. The county also outlawed farms larger than 10,000 square feet, constraining the industry and making it impossible for extraction companies like Leef to get enough cannabis locally. Meanwhile, Southern California counties like Santa Barbara and Monterey County opened their doors to massive farms 100 times larger than anything in Mendocino County.

Almost as soon as Leef opened its giant facility in Mendocino County, Anderson was driving down to Santa Barbara and buying cannabis there, from the exponentially larger farms that could supply him much more product at once. Then he was loading that product into semitrucks and shipping it back to Mendocino. Before long, Anderson was renting an apartment in Santa Barbara because he was spending so much time in the county.

It was hardly a practical arrangement: The costs of shipping were enormous, not to mention the logistical hurdles and timeline delays. There was another issue too: Even when he looked to farms farther south, it was still hard to find cannabis that was actually clean enough to actually use for extraction.

‘No-go zones’
Legal cannabis in California faces some of the strictest product safety rules in the world, with strict thresholds for levels of pesticides and heavy metals. The rules are significantly tighter than, say, the requirements around pesticide contamination in organic foods. Cannabis is also very good at pulling historic contamination out of soil — scientists planted hemp plants around the Chernobyl nuclear fallout zone to absorb radiation.

This combination has created a major problem for cannabis companies.

California’s farmland is so contaminated from historical pesticide use that there are wide swaths of the state that are “no-go zones” for cannabis farms because it would be impossible to grow clean cannabis. That includes most of the Central Valley, according to Josh Wurzer, an analytical chemist and co-founder of SC Labs who has been testing cannabis since 2008.

“Cannabis is a fast-growing plant that sucks things from the soil really quickly and stores it. It’s really good at doing that,” Wurzer said. “It’s another reason why it’s a bellwether for the general contamination that we don’t always see in our food supply.”

California’s cannabis regulator, the Department of Cannabis Control, has been heavily criticized, including by this outlet, for not fully enforcing the state’s ban on contamination. The agency recently increased its enforcement efforts, so the best way for a cannabis company to avoid a crackdown from the DCC is to be dedicated to producing clean products.

Yet even if a farmer finds pristine land to grow cannabis on, where there’s no risk of contamination from the soil, banned chemicals could still end up on the cannabis flowers if they waft over from a neighboring vineyard that was spraying pesticides. Wurzer said he’s seen cannabis cultivators lose an entire crop because a neighboring farmer sprayed pesticides.

This is an even bigger problem for extraction companies like Leef Brands. Processing companies take cannabis flower and turn it into an oil by removing things like the plant material, which increases the potency of active compounds like THC but also increases the relative concentration of undesirable things like pesticides and heavy metals.

Extraction companies like Leef Brands will frequently send samples out for testing before they commit to buying a farm’s crop, and Anderson said he has declined to buy millions of dollars worth of cannabis that failed for pesticide contamination.

“Everyone always talks about how there’s an oversupply of product, but there’s an undersupply of clean, pesticide-free material,” Anderson said. “When you’re in the extraction lane of the business, 50-60% of what we test when we go to a farm fails.”

Leef Brands kept struggling to find a clean supply of cannabis for its extraction machines. So, four years ago, Anderson set out on a new mission: transform his company from an extraction business to a full-scale farming operation.

‘It’s not even a blip’
Anderson spent years looking for a place to set up a new cultivation site, but it wasn’t until a fateful lunch in 2019 at the Cuyama Buckhorn, a restaurant in the tiny town of New Cuyama, that he had a true lead. He was describing his predicament to a friend, saying he needed a big swath of land that was pristine and not surrounded by farming neighbors, when someone leaned over and said they knew a family Anderson should probably talk to.

That tip led Anderson and his partners to a 3,000-acre ranch at the other end of town that has been owned by the same family since it was homesteaded in the 1890s. The family said they’d never used pesticides on the property, only running cattle and growing organic hay. Their property had an incredible physical buffer — with mountainous Los Padres National Forest on one side, and 1,000 acres and two hills on the other — between it and any other farm.

Anderson was sold as soon as he saw the sheer size of the thing. Leef Brands, which is a publicly traded company, bought a major slice of the ranch in 2023 for $5.5 million, then spent even more getting it ready to grow cannabis. The company has invested $7 million in the past two years in improvements to the property, $2 million on local permitting and $750,000 a year on state licensing. Leef Brands has a 179-acre permit from the county to grow cannabis, but is planting only 65 acres this year. If things go well, it has water rights and the ability to apply for far larger cannabis permits in the future, according to Anderson. Leef Brands also has a 100-acre hemp permit, although that only cost them $900 in licensing fees, showing the extreme disparity between hemp and cannabis regulations.

This spring, Leef Brands planted its first crop, those 800,000 plants that Anderson was anxiously waiting test results for on that cloudless day back in June. A few weeks later, Anderson breathed a sigh of relief: The plants were indeed pesticide-free, he confirmed in an email to SFGATE, writing, “This is great news.”

Anderson said he expects to harvest 162,000 pounds of dry flower from that first harvest alone, which will then be sent back to Leef Brands’ extraction facility in Mendocino County to be made into oil for millions of consumer products.

Anderson’s new ranch represents cannabis grown on a scale rarely seen in the cannabis industry; it’s already the third largest cultivator in California, according to the state. Now, he’s anticipating the next big cultivation challenge facing legal cannabis operators: the prospect of big agriculture companies getting involved in the cannabis trade.

“I will say that even just standing here and looking at everything, I still feel like this is a freckle in the sense of size when it comes to ag,” Anderson said, referencing big agriculture. “Like, we think it’s big because it’s cannabis — and it is big for cannabis — but in the grand scheme of things like other crops, it’s nothing, it’s tiny. It’s not even a blip.”

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Cannabis Shops Sue New York Over Rule Change That Could Shut Them Down
By Taylor Robinson
Aug. 15, 2025

A group of cannabis dispensary owners sued New York State regulators on Friday claiming they could be forced out of business because their storefronts were too close to schools after state officials admitted recently that they had been incorrectly measuring the required distance.

Investors poured millions of dollars into dozens of cannabis shops that could now be forced to relocate or be barred from opening their doors because of the mistake by state regulators, the lawsuit claimed.

The suit, filed by about a dozen organizations and companies that have received licenses to open dispensaries in New York, petitioned the State Supreme Court in Albany to block the proposed correction to the proximity rule and find the businesses in compliance under the previous interpretation of the regulation.

“This lawsuit seeks to prevent the state from rewriting the rules midstream, stripping licensees of their rights and investments and derailing New York’s promise of an equitable cannabis industry,” according to the suit.

Last month, the state’s Office of Cannabis Management said that because of its own measuring error, more than 152 licensed dispensaries were too close to schools. State officials said that the businesses might have to relocate unless lawmakers carved out an exception allowing them to stay in place.

State law dictates that dispensaries cannot be located within 500 feet of a school, a distance that should have been calculated from the entrance of the storefront to the school’s property line, state officials have said.

But following a review of the cannabis agency’s practices, ordered by the interim executive director, Felicia Reid, officials discovered that previous regulators had been measuring the 500 feet to the school’s entrance, not its property line.

Ms. Reid apologized to the affected businesses, but cannabis regulators now say they will need legislative intervention in order to allow the dispensaries to stay in place.


Nubia Ashley, who has spent three years trying to launch her Hell’s Kitchen dispensary, Rezidue, was recently notified by state regulators that she might need to move her business.Credit...Elias Williams for The New York Times

The lawsuit was filed against Ms. Reid, the Office of Cannabis Management and the state’s Cannabis Control Board, among others. Conbud, Rezidue and the Housing Works Cannabis Company are among the dispensaries serving as plaintiffs in the suit. Seven of the 12 plaintiffs are fully licensed businesses, while the remaining five have provisional licenses and have already invested in their storefronts’ construction, the suit said.

Gov. Kathy Hochul called the revision to the proximity rule “a major screw-up” at a news conference following the announcement by cannabis regulators. The cannabis agency declined to comment on the suit, citing the pending litigation. A spokeswoman for Ms. Hochul’s office said on Friday that the governor would work with lawmakers “to ensure these hardworking businesses are able to continue to operate without interruption.”

The website of the Office of Cannabis Management said that it hoped to pass a legislative amendment with the governor’s support in 2026 that would rescue the businesses.

The suit said that dispensary owners, operating under the assumption that their approvals by cannabis regulators were sound, “poured their life savings into launching their businesses.” They signed leases, hired employees and opened to the public “under the state’s very detailed framework.”

Jorge Luis Vasquez Jr., a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said that two state agencies had provided dispensary owners with guidelines that they followed.

For the state to crack down on dispensaries by retroactively rendering them in violation of the law would be “a fatal blow to legal cannabis,” said Matthew Bernardo, the president of Housing Works, the first organization to open a recreational cannabis dispensary in New York State after legalization in 2021.

“We want more clarity, and that’s why we brought this lawsuit,” Mr. Bernardo said.

The altering of the distance rule is the latest setback for the state’s recreational marijuana industry, which has endured delays, lawsuits and a proliferation of illegal dispensaries. New York City’s saturated cannabis industry would take the biggest hit from the measurement error, since most of the affected businesses in the state are concentrated within the five boroughs.

Despite the rocky rollout of legal cannabis in New York, the industry is poised to make $1 billion in sales this year as of August.

Mr. Bernardo said that he and the other petitioners hoped for relief from the governor’s office in the form of a ruling that would allow the businesses that were already open to keep operating, and allow those whose applications the cannabis agency had previously approved to retain that status.

Mr. Vasquez said that 89 percent of the 152 dispensaries were owned by women, people of color, veterans or people who were affected by state marijuana laws before the drug was decriminalized.

“You promised social equity, a leg up to have profits in the future,” Mr. Bernardo said, referring to state policy that granted priority to certain New Yorkers applying for dispensary licenses.

“You’re going to turn that opportunity into a lifetime of debt,” he added. “Talk about bringing the community backwards.”

Trump Signals Push to Finish Biden’s Marijuana Reform
by Joseph Choi - 08/15/25 6:00 AM ET

President Trump says he’s open to following through on former President Biden’s push to reschedule marijuana, a move that comes up short of legalization but would still provide a major boost for the cannabis industry.

Trump reportedly told donors this month he was considering rescheduling marijuana, and in a press conference this week he said a decision would come in the “next few weeks.” 

The Biden administration had sought to reschedule cannabis from Schedule I to the lesser Schedule III but ultimately left the process unfinished. The move would bring negligible changes in criminal justice reform.

Right before the Trump administration assumed office, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrative Law Judge John Mulrooney canceled a hearing on the rescheduling proposal after supporters filed an appeal alleging the DEA had colluded with opponents to the effort.

According to Adam Smith, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project, the rescheduling effort by the Biden administration stalled due to a resistant DEA.

“The DEA, culturally and historically, has been against reforming cannabis laws. And I think to some extent that is their natural response is to dig in their heels,” Smith said. 

Marijuana use normalization has typically been viewed as a left-wing issue, but Trump has previously expressed support for its regulation and decriminalization.

“I believe it is time to end needless arrests and incarcerations of adults for small amounts of marijuana for personal use. We must also implement smart regulations, while providing access for adults, to safe, tested product,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in September 2024.

Trump said he would be voting “YES” on Florida Amendment 3 last year, which would have legalized recreational cannabis in the state. Despite receiving 55 percent of the vote, the measure failed due to not garnering the required 60 percent supermajority.

Some MAGA influencers are seeking to steer Trump away from marijuana reform. However, Smith sees several ways in which the move aligns with a Republican White House.

“I would point out that majorities of Americans from all parties support cannabis law reform and support legalization,” Smith said. “[A] large, large, overwhelming majority support medical access, and so I don’t think it’s as unpopular as it on the right as it is often portrayed.”

“Also, there’s an issue of personal freedom that should speak to conservatives,” Smith noted.

Pew Research polling conducted at the start of 2025 found that only 1 in 10 Americans said marijuana should not be legal at all, with 87 percent supporting its legalization for medical use, recreation or both.

Still, rescheduling is vastly different from a complete descheduling of marijuana. There would still be federal penalties for marijuana use and possession. Smith called the rescheduling a “compromise solution.”

The primary change for stakeholders would be that cannabis businesses are no longer subject to a tax law disallowing businesses that deal in Schedule I or II substances from deducting business costs or credits from their taxes.

If Trump were to pursue rescheduling, his administration would first need to resolve the appeal that delayed the hearing on the proposal. Recently confirmed DEA Administrator Terry Cole told senators in April that assessing where in the process marijuana rescheduling stood would be one of his “first priorities.”

Upon being sworn in, Cole omitted cannabis rescheduling from his list of priorities.

“However, with sufficient pressure from the administration and the DEA on board, the appeal could be resolved, and a hearing to consider arguments for and against rescheduling could be rescheduled in a matter of months,” Jonathan Robbins, chair of Akerman LLP’s Cannabis Practice, told The Hill.

“While this sounds onerous, and indeed it is, outright support from President Trump will absolutely facilitate the process, particularly given that the vast majority of congressional opposition has historically come from the right side,” he added.

The White House declined to comment beyond Trump’s public comments on rescheduling.

Robbins said rescheduling could also encourage more states to allow medical or recreational use of cannabis, as well as give related businesses access to traditional banking and financial services.

With sellers poised to be the main beneficiaries of marijuana rescheduling, opponents to this possible action by Trump view it as a financial favor to businesses.

“I don’t think it’s consistent with his agenda at all. The other thing is, you know, it would give huge tax breaks to the marijuana industry. That’s all that this is about. It’s about money. It’s about a small number of people making a lot of money off of many users,” said Kevin Sabet, president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana and drug policy adviser for three presidential administrations.

Sabet warned the new tax advantages would supercharge the cannabis industry.

“It is modest legally, but on the other hand, I worry about the real world effect would be twofold,” Sabet said. “Number one, huge commercialization in terms of the advertising that they can now deduct as expenses. And then number two, the issue of the message that it sends. Because we know the headlines will be, ‘listen, marijuana is being reclassified. It’s being downgraded.’”

There are many illegal marijuana farms, but federal agents targeted California’s biggest legal one

By  MICHAEL R. BLOOD and AMY TAXIN
Updated 10:53 AM PDT, July 22, 2025

LOS ANGELES (AP) — There are thousands of illegal marijuana farms around the country.

But when the federal government decided to stage one of its largest raids since President Donald Trump took office in January, it picked the biggest legal grower in California.

Nearly two weeks later, the reason for the federal raid at two Glass House farm sites northwest of Los Angeles remains unclear and has prompted speculation. Some say the raid was intended to send a chilling message to immigrants in the U.S. illegally — but also to rattle the state’s legal cannabis industry.

Meanwhile, the Republican Trump administration has been feuding with heavily Democratic California over funding for everything from high-speed rail construction to wildfire relief, so it’s also possible Glass House was pulled into a broader conflict between the White House and Sacramento.

“There are plenty of other places they can go to find illegal workers,” said political consultant Adam Spiker, who advises cannabis companies. “A lot of people believe there is a hint of politics in this. It’s federal enforcement coming into California to go after cannabis.”

What happened during the raids?
On July 10, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol agents executed a search warrant for Glass House’s farms in Carpinteria and Camarillo, court filings show.

At the Camarillo site, armored vehicles blocked the road, which is lined with fields and greenhouses, as masked agents deployed onto the property. One farmworker who fell from a greenhouse roof while running to hide later died from his injuries.

Outside the farm, officers faced off with demonstrators and fired tear gas to disperse them, a federal agent wrote in court filings. One demonstrator threw a gas canister back at Border Patrol officers, according to the agent. Another demonstrator, who is sought by the FBI, appeared to fire a gun.

More than 360 people were arrested, most suspected of being in the country without legal status. Those arrested included four U.S. citizens, including U.S. Army veteran George Retes, 25, who works as a security guard and was held for three days.

The operation came more than a month into an extended crackdown across Southern California that was originally centered in Los Angeles, where local officials say the federal actions are spreading fear in immigrant communities.

Why Glass House?
o cannabis was seized and the criminal search warrants used to enter the farm sites are under court seal. Authorities refused to share them with The Associated Press.

The government said the business was being investigated for potential child labor, human trafficking and other abuses. Agents found 14 children at one site. No information has been released about the minors.

The company has not been charged.

Federal and state laws allow children as young as 12 to work in agriculture under certain conditions, though no one under age 21 is allowed to work in the cannabis industry.

Company officials did not respond to calls or emails. In a brief statement on the social platform X, Glass House said it complied with immigration and naturalization warrants and “has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors.”

Some believe the raid was aimed at the legal marijuana market
After the raid, United Farm Workers — the country’s biggest farm worker union — posted an urgent message to its social media accounts warning that because marijuana is illegal under federal law, workers who are not U.S. citizens should avoid jobs in the cannabis industry, including state-licensed facilities.

“We know this is unfair,” it said, “but we encourage you to protect yourself and your family.”

Industry experts point to unwelcome publicity the company received after rival Catalyst Cannabis Co. filed a 2023 lawsuit alleging that Glass House “has become one of the largest, if not the largest, black marketers of cannabis in the state of California.” The lawsuit, formally filed by Catalyst parent 562 Discount Med Inc., was dismissed last year but the headlines might have drawn the interest of federal investigators.

Who runs the Glass House farm sites?
The company was co-founded by Kyle Kazan, a former Southern California police officer and special education teacher turned cannabis investor, and Graham Farrar, a Santa Barbara tech entrepreneur.

lass House started growing cannabis in a greenhouse in Carpinteria in Santa Barbara County when once-thriving cut flower operations were being reduced. It later bought property in Camarillo in neighboring Ventura County for $93 million that had six greenhouses and was being used to grow tomatoes and cucumbers.

To date, two of the greenhouses have been converted to grow cannabis. Workers’ relatives said tomatoes are still being grown in other greenhouses at the location.

How did Glass House do it?
The raids have put the spotlight on a company that is alternately admired and reviled because of its meteoric rise in the nation’s largest legal market.

Glass House is the state’s biggest legal cultivator, dwarfing its nearest rivals. Glass House Farms is part of the broader company Glass House Brands, which has other businesses that make cannabis products.

“There is no farmer in California that can compete with them at scale,” Sacramento-based cannabis consultant Sam Rodriguez said.

Many legal operators have struggled despite the passage of Proposition 64 in 2016 — which was seen as a watershed moment in the push to legitimize and tax California’s multibillion-dollar marijuana industry. In 2018, when retail outlets could open, California became the world’s largest legal marketplace.

But operators faced heavy taxes, seven-figure start-up costs and for many consumers, the tax-free illegal market remained a better deal.

But as other companies folded, Glass House took off, fueling envy and suspicion by rivals over its boom at a time when much of the state’s legal market was in crisis, in large part because of competition from the robust underground market.

In a recent call with investors, Kazan said company revenue in the first quarter hit $45 million — up 49% over the same period last year. He said he remained hopeful for a federal shift that would end marijuana’s classification as a Schedule I drug, alongside heroin and LSD.

But “we are a company that does not require federal legalization for survival,” Kazan said.

Glass House’s sales grew as many others around the state declined.

“I remain steadfast in the belief that it is not if but when the cannabis industry becomes America’s next massive normalized industry, and I’m excited to participate along with investors in the corresponding reward that that change will bring,” he said.




Juan Duran cries outside of Glass House Farms, where a relative was injured during a previous day immigration raid, on Friday, July 11, 2025, in Camarillo, Calif. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

California Bill Would Let ‘Small’ Cannabis Producers Ship Directly to Consumers
TG Branfalt 7/24/25

Legislation proposed in California would allow small cannabis producers to ship and sell their products directly to consumers. The bill, the Small and Homestead Independent Producers (SHIP) Act, introduced by state Rep. Jared Huffman (D), would allow the state’s smallest cannabis farmers to mail cannabis products within the state or into other states where cannabis is legal, were the federal government to remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act.   
“Larger, commercialized cannabis operators are infiltrating the market and squeezing out our local farmers in the process. So when the antiquated federal prohibition on cannabis finally gets repealed, we need to have substantial legislation ready to help these small businesses survive. My legislation would ensure that folks can ship their products straight to consumers, which would both help expand small businesses and ensure farmers stay afloat. When full legalization is guaranteed, we must commit to not leaving our smallest family-farmers behind.” — Huffman in a press release 

According to the bill text, a “small cultivator of cannabis” would include farms that cultivate “one acre or less of mature flowering cannabis plant canopy” outdoors, “22,000 square feet or less of cannabis plant canopy” in a greenhouse, or “5,000 square feet or fewer of mature flowering cannabis plant canopy” indoors. Small manufacturers are defined under the proposal as “a person who produces a manufactured cannabis product,” including salves, tinctures, edibles, or concentrates, with a gross annual revenue of less than $5 million.

In a statement, Ross Gordon, co-founder at National Craft Cannabis Coalition and Policy Analyst at Origins Council, said that “Nearly 15 years into the experiment of state-level cannabis legalization … small and craft producers are being pushed to the margins, safe access for consumers and patients is shrinking, and the industry is consolidating into the hands of a few.”

“Without direct-to-consumer shipping, federal cannabis legalization risks reinforcing these failures instead of correcting them,” Gordon said. “The SHIP Act is a make-or-break policy for the future of small cannabis businesses in California and across the country.”

The California bill has received endorsements from the National Craft Cannabis Coalition, Minority Cannabis Business Association, National Cannabis Industry Association, Drug Policy Alliance, Parabola Center, Marijuana Justice, Veterans Cannabis Coalition, Origins Council, Washington Sun & Craft Growers Association, Vermont Growers Association, Maine Craft Cannabis Association, Humboldt County Growers Alliance, Mendocino Cannabis Alliance, Trinity County Agricultural Alliance, and the Central California Cannabis Club.

Poseidon Portfolio Company, Distru, Secures $6 Million in Series A Funding to Accelerate Growth and Product Innovation in Cannabis ERP
Poseidon
Nov 20, 2024, 09:00 ET
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 20, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Poseidon Investment Management ("Poseidon" or the "Company"), a leading investment firm in the cannabis industry, today announced the close of a successful $6 million Series A funding round for Distru, the cannabis industry's premier ERP platform. The latest funding round was made possible with the support of Global Founders Capital and marks a pivotal step forward for Distru as it strengthens its status as the premier system-of-record for cannabis operators.

Since its previous funding round led by Felicis with contributions from world class investors Elad Gil and Avichal Garg, Distru has seen significant growth and momentum. They are serving an increasing number of cannabis operators across 25 states and processing over $2 billion in GMV annually. The platform has become indispensable for cannabis businesses by simplifying compliance and inventory management, automating order workflows, and delivering actionable insights through advanced analytics.

"2024 has been a remarkable year for Distru, marked by efficient growth, achieving strong profitability, and significant product expansion through integrations with Metrc Connect, Dutchie, Treez, Blaze, and Leaflink. We are advancing our mission of consolidating cannabis operations under one platform, providing manufacturers, distributors, brands, and vertically integrated operators with a comprehensive toolset that enhances compliance, operational efficiency, and data-driven decision-making." said Blaine Hatab, co-founder and CEO of Distru, adding, "We closed this strategic funding round to pull in Poseidon  with their deep understanding of the cannabis tech sector to support in navigating the next decade of our growth as the most trusted ERP platform in the industry."

The latest round of funding will be directed towards expanding Distru's suite of products, further enhancing compliance, inventory, integration, and order management capabilities. While already profitably growing, the capital will help drive their expansion into 11 additional states, including New York with their Biotrack integration. By consolidating key operational tools into a unified ERP platform, Distru aims to become the backbone of cannabis businesses, empowering the platform to streamline operations, maintain regulatory compliance, and achieve sustainable growth in a complex and evolving market.

Poseidon Investment Management, known for its pioneering investments in the cannabis industry, has long supported technology companies that drive critical infrastructure for this industry. "Distru's clear focus on supporting cannabis operators' success and compliance, coupled with a robust and scalable platform, aligns with our commitment to backing transformative solutions in the sector. They have built the best in class Cannabis ERP and we see that advantage compounding over time," said Morgan Paxhia, Poseidon Investment Management.

Distru is well-positioned to further its vision of becoming an end-to-end platform for the cannabis supply chain, driving digital transformation across cultivation, distribution, and retail. Distru's commitment to operational excellence and industry-specific innovation makes it the ERP of choice for the cannabis industry's most forward-thinking businesses.

About Distru
Distru is a leading seed-to-sale ERP platform for the cannabis industry, offering comprehensive solutions for managing inventory, orders, and customer relations. Trusted by hundreds of licensees across the United States, Distru.com provides best-in-class Metrc integration and exceptional customer support, revolutionizing the way cannabis operators manage their businesses.

SOURCE Poseidon

Distru Launches "DistruCommerce," Empowering Cannabis Brands to Take Back Control of Wholesale--Flat Fee, No Surprise Costs

Distru
May 14, 2025, 14:07 ET

OAKLAND, Calif., May 14, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Distru, the trusted cannabis ERP platform for operators, today announced the launch of DistruCommerce, a standalone wholesale platform empowering brands to sell directly to retailers through one transparent monthly subscription—no percentage-based fees. Available across legal cannabis states, this new offering enables brands and distributors to fully own their wholesale channels with an embeddable, white-label storefront, seamlessly integrated with the industry-leading accounting and track-and-trace integrations hundreds of cannabis operators already rely on.

"After processing more than $2.8 billion in transactions through our ERP, we heard a consistent plea from operators: 'Help us keep our margins and our relationships,'" said Blaine Hatab, Founder and CEO of Distru. "DistruCommerce gives brands the power to run wholesale their way—no surprise charges—just one flat price and a seamless link to the compliance data they already trust while putting brands firmly in control of their menus."

For sellers, DistruCommerce offers unparalleled flexibility, giving precise control over menu configurations, custom pricing tiers, and live inventory syncing in Metrc states. Retailers enjoy an effortless buying experience—easily browsing products, placing orders, tracking deliveries, and accessing COAs and invoices on-demand.

This launch comes as cannabis operators reconsider their marketplace options following unexpected percentage-based fees that have surged by 400% or more. DistruCommerce provides a clear alternative, combining transparent, predictable pricing with intuitive software and a customer-focused experience.

About Distru
Distru is the cannabis industry's most trusted seed-to-sale ERP and wholesale commerce platform, powering compliant operations for hundreds of licensees across more than 25 U.S. states and enabling over $2.8 billion in annual GMV. Discover more at www.distru.com/commerce.

Contact: Jared Angell

Jared@distru.com

SOURCE Distru

200 arrested in chaotic immigration raid at cannabis farm, one worker critically hurt in fall.


By Ruben Vives, Jeanette Marantos, Jessica Garrison, Melissa Gomez, Clara Harter and Grace Toohey
Published July 10, 2025 Updated July 11, 2025 6:19 PM PT

Federal immigration agents carried out immigration sweeps at two Southern California cannabis farms on Thursday, arresting about 200 suspected undocumented immigrants and prompting a heated standoff between authorities and hundreds of protesters at a Ventura County site and reports of a farmworker being critically injured.

Videos shared on social media showed nearly a dozen agents using so-called less-lethal ammunition on a crowd that had gathered near Glass House Farms, a large, licensed cannabis greenhouse in Camarillo. Meanwhile, 35 miles up the coast in Carpinteria, federal agents entered another Glass House Farms growing site, where a smaller crowd gathered around the perimeter.

The United Farm Workers union said it was told one worker fell several stories from a greenhouse at the Camarillo location. On Friday morning, UFW official Elizabeth Strater said the person was taken from the Ventura County farm by ambulance.

The UFW later said the worker died. But on Friday afternoon, a local hospital said he was critically injured.

The worker’s name was not released, and local law enforcement officials could not immediately provide any details.

Andrew Dowd, a spokesperson for the Ventura County Fire Department, confirmed that eight people were transported from in and around the Camarillo facility Thursday afternoon to local hospitals for injuries. He said he did not have information on the extent of those injuries or their current status. Dowd said an additional four people were treated at the scene for minor injuries. He said he did not know how many were injured in the facility or outside at the related protest.

U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli confirmed in a statement on X that federal agents had executed a search warrant at a marijuana farm. He said they arrested several individuals on suspicion of impeding the operation and warned that people who continued to interfere would be arrested and charged with a federal offense.

A spokesperson for the FBI said the agency was investigating a shooting that occurred during the operation in Camarillo. Video captured by ABC7 News appeared to show a protester opening fire at federal immigration agents after smoke canisters were thrown to disperse the crowd.

Ten minors without documentation were found at the farm during the raid, eight of whom were unaccompanied, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott said in a statement on X. The facility is now under investigation for child labor violations, he said.

r Ortiz, 24, told a Times photographer in Spanish that his brother works at the farm and was detained and being held in a hot container without air conditioning.

“They are taking everyone and the truth is it’s not right because these people come to work, struggle every day, to earn for bread every day,” he said. “It feels like they are against us but there are no narcos here, no one is armed here and they come fully armed, full of military personnel.”

The Ventura County Fire Department was dispatched around 12:15 p.m. to provide medical aid as a result of federal enforcement activity along Laguna Road in Camarillo, according to agency spokesperson Andrew Dowd. Five patients were taken to hospitals for treatment and four were treated on the scene.

Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to the area to assist with traffic control but were not involved in any way with the federal operation, he said. Dowd also noted that the Fire Department has no connection with any federal immigration enforcement actions and will never ask for a patient’s immigration status.

“There’s so many family and friends who work here at the Glass House Factory, it’s a huge factory. ... We were notified that the people working inside were all being detained, whether they were U.S. citizens or not,” said Angelmarie Taylor, who is with the 805 Immigration Coalition, a volunteer organization that tracks immigration activity by federal agents.

About 500 people gathered near the farm to protest during the day, according to Taylor. As of around 6:30 p.m. Thursday, about 200 protesters remained at the site where around 40 troops, some holding shields, and agents made a stand.

Marc Cohodes, an investor and famed short-seller who has invested in Glass House, called the raid “beyond outrageous.”

“The government is aware of cartels, illicit crime, the whole thing and yet, and yet, they decide to spend their resources going after a total legal company that pays the state of California hundreds of millions of dollars excise tax,” he said.

He added that Glass House is “the largest cannabis cultivator in the world” and “a highly regulated business fully licensed by the state of California,” with a site in Ventura County and another in Santa Barbara County. “It’s run by a guy named Kyle Kazan, who is an ex-cop who plays by the rules and does things by the book.” Kazan, he added, is also a supporter of President Trump.

Ortiz, whose brother was detained Thursday, said he had a message for Trump: “We all have a right to come here and work. Here, we all have a dream, we have to give it our all.”

Farther north in Carpinteria, U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) attempted to enter the marijuana farm after hearing reports of an immigration operation but was not let past the masked federal agents agents who formed a perimeter along the road about 75 yards from the raid.

“It was disproportionate, overkill,” Carbajal said. “These tactics are creating an incendiary, hostile environment the way they are being deployed, which could lead to, regrettably, violence in the future.”

He identified himself as a Congress member conducting oversight but said he was told to contact U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and was turned away. A crowd had gathered around the perimeter, but he said they dispersed after agents wrapped up and boarded a military-style vehicle.

Aerial views of the scene in Camarillo taken by news helicopters showed dozens of workers sitting in the shade alongside a warehouse, with federal agents standing guard.

Protesters blocked the roads in and out, and at one point federal agents drove their vehicles through the fields. Multiple ambulances had gone in and out of the facility, Taylor said.

Sarah Armstrong, outreach chair with Americans for Safe Access, said it appeared that Homeland Security and the U.S. National Guard were at the location firing tear gas and rubber bullets at the Camarillo protesters.

Lucas Zucker, co-executive director of Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy, or CAUSE, said Thursday that the organization had staffers on the ground after reports of a raid at Glass House, but he asked them to leave once federal agents started deploying tear gas.

The vast area is largely remote farmland, Zucker said, and the use of rubber bullets and tear gas on a small crowd was “pretty unusual.”

“I don’t think there’s any credible case that they were under threat,” he said, describing the scene as “a small crowd of community members … in pretty remote agricultural areas.”

He added that Glass House had been targeted by immigration authorities in the past couple of months, including when federal agents began conducting workplace raids in the region in June. Numerous videos on social media showed agents chasing after farmworkers and making mass arrests at farms.

Glass House Farms said in a post on X that the company was “visited today by ICE officials” and “fully complied with agent search warrants.” The statement said nothing else, except to add that the company would “provide further updates if necessary.”

Zucker said Ventura County saw a drop in worksite raids after an intense week in June, when community members mobilized to the fields and began patrolling farmlands. For the last few weeks, he said, they’ve received reports of raids in more suburban areas, including Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks. This raid represented the first major workplace raid in the region since then.

In a social media post, Oxnard Mayor Luis McArthur said he was “in communication with emergency services to ensure that safety personnel are on standby and ready to provide immediate assistance if necessary.”

“While this matter is taking place outside the jurisdiction of Oxnard, I am increasingly mindful that many of the facility’s employees are likely from Oxnard and are seeking refuge in their vehicles amid the high temperatures, raising concerns about the safety and well-being of those individuals,” he said.

He then commented on the broader strategy apparent from the raids across the Southland.

“It is becoming increasingly apparent that the actions taken by ICE are bold and aggressive, demonstrating insensitivity toward the direct impact on our community. These actions are causing unnecessary distress and harm. I remain committed to working alongside our Attorney General and the Governor’s office to explore potential legal avenues to address these activities.”

Tom Homan, Trump’s border advisor, criticized the protests.

“What happened in California is just another example of protesters becoming criminals, and they’ve been emboldened by even members of Congress who compare ICE to Nazis and racists and terrorists,” Homan told Fox News.

Freelance photographer Julie Leopo and staff writer Grace Toohey contributed to this report.

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