[PRESS RELEASE] – SANTA BARBARA, Calif., Oct. 21, 2025 – Raw Garden, California’s leader in clean cannabis for more than a decade, announced the acquisition of the California Love cannabis brand in a move focused on increasing access to clean and safe cannabis across the state. The deal comes as part of Raw Garden’s highly selective approach to growth and partnerships, rooted in the ethos of supporting small, values-aligned farms that are connected to their communities and meet their highest standards.

Founded in 2015, Raw Garden has been a part of the Clean Green Certification Program since the beginning. The company remains committed to testing for hundreds of pesticides and potential contaminants, far more than the 66 currently required by the state, and offers 100% transparency by publishing all results on its website. Earlier this year, Raw Garden also helped launch ECCO (Environmentally Conscious Consumer Organization), because the cannabis industry needed a higher standard – one built on safety, purity and sustainability.

For Raw Garden, clean isn’t just a buzzword; it’s an obsession. Every farm and facility undergoes rigorous compliance checks to ensure that when you choose Raw Garden, you’re choosing clean, contaminant-free cannabis every time.

“The purchase of California Love will expand the clean cannabis movement as well as serve as inspiration for others who want to make the switch to clean farming practices,” Raw Garden CEO Thomas Martin said. “We are excited about the growth we have seen with California Love, and the goal with this purchase is to provide easier access for people who want clean, pure cannabis flower.”

Based in Grover Beach, California Love is currently available in more than 130 retailers throughout the state. Going forward, the brand will be subject to the same rigorous standards as Raw Garden and undergo the same third-party testing to ensure consumers of both brands enjoy the same clean quality and attention to detail.

“For us, the certifications aren’t just a badge; they’re a reflection of our obsession with clean cannabis,” Raw Garden Vice President of Manufacturing Mickey Esdale said. “From our oil-based vapes to our flower, every product is held to the highest standard, because purity should never be optional. We don’t just meet industry standards; we push them forward. Our customers deserve full transparency and the confidence that what they’re smoking is as clean and sustainable as it gets.”

“We reserve the right to delay this process depending on several external factors outside our control. For example, if we receive thousands of applications, it will be hard for us to do that.”

By Christopher Shea, Rhode Island Currant

Rhode Island’s cannabis regulators could begin awarding new retail licenses to prospective business owners eager to join the state’s budding market as early as May 2026.

That’s according to a timeline the Cannabis Control Commission voted 2-1 to adopt on Monday. The timeline sets the pace for officials to review applications for the state’s 24 available retail licenses after the application deadline on December 29, 2025.

“It’s clear to me that we need to do a better job forecasting what the next months look like after the application portal closes at the end of this calendar year,” Commission Chairperson Kimberly Ahern said. “We have never shared what 2026 held.”

Starting January 1, 2026, the state’s Cannabis Office will have 90 days to review applications and verify that each meets eligibility qualifications before being placed in a lottery. The timeline builds in at least 60 days to allow applicants to secure approvals at the local level in order to qualify for random selection, Ahern said.

Ahern said the intention is to begin the lottery selection process in the second quarter of 2026, likely in May.

“I want to add that we reserve the right to delay this process depending on several external factors outside our control,” Ahern said. “For example, if we receive thousands of applications, it will be hard for us to do that.”

As of Monday, no retail applications have been submitted to the state’s cannabis office, spokesperson Charon Rose told Rhode Island Current after the meeting.

Objections on getting ducks in a row

Commissioner Robert Jacquard, the lone vote against regulators’ review timeline, argued that allowing businesses to secure local zoning approvals after the application deadline is unfair to those who met the requirements on time.

“If an applicant is better prepared, better financed, got an earlier start, I think that’s important,” he said. “We have had our regulations out for a good amount of time, people were well-warned that there would not be any extensions beyond the deadlines that were set.”

Those same feelings were shared by many of the members of Rhode Island’s cannabis industry who attended the meeting within the Public Utilities Commission’s office building in Warwick.

“Many of us have invested significant time and money securing compliant locations, paying for rent, purchasing properties, and obtaining special use and zoning permits,” Karen Ballou, owner of CultivatingRI, told commissioners. “I recognize some municipalities have made it difficult for applications to meet certain requirements, but that should not penalize those who have successfully navigated the process.”

Business owners awarded medical cannabis licenses have faced setbacks opening in Woonsocket and Foster amid disputes with local officials and property owners, causing them to miss the state’s initial nine-month deadline to begin operations.

And not every town is willing to have a cannabis retailer. In 2022, voters in six communities—Barrington, East Greenwich, Jamestown, Little Compton, Scituate and Smithfield—rejected allowing retail pot shops within their borders.

Ballou said if regulators really need to give some applicants more time to get all their needed material together, those businesses should be subject to a second lottery.

Sasha Gorski, co-owner of the cultivation company Talaria, agreed, saying the 60-day window to secure local zoning permits after the application deadline shouldn’t apply to general retail applicants.

“It hurts to be punished for being ahead,” she said.

But others in the room argued the commission’s review timeline helps to create a sense of fairness as the retail industry starts to grow in Rhode Island.

“Applicants need breathing room to go through the proper channels,” Emma Karnes, an organizer for United Food and Commercial Workers Local 238, told the commission. “I think we all want a healthy pool of applicants. We all want a reasonably accessible application process.”

Karnes said many applicants seeking social equity and worker cooperative licenses may not have the same resources and capital as other prospective business owners. Such is the case for Alexa Goodrich-Houska, who is seeking to open the Living Room Cannabis Cooperative somewhere in Zone 1, which includes the communities of Burrillville, Cumberland, Glocester, North Smithfield, Smithfield and Woonsocket.

“We don’t have trust funds, we don’t have big corporate backers,” Goodrich-Houska said. “Documentation alone can take four to 12 months and around $50,000 to know if we can even get a license.”

That’s on top of the $7,500 application fee, a yearly $30,000 licensing fee that all cannabis retailers face—though that application fee will be waived for the first year for approved social equity applicants.

Ahern acknowledged industry members’ concerns and continued frustration over new licenses not yet being issued, but reminded them it was never going to be a rubber stamp process.

“We expect a very robust, thorough process,” she said. “That was never going to be done overnight, that was never going to be done in a few weeks.”

Under the 2022 act that legalized recreational cannabis, the commission can offer 24 new licenses to retailers, with six reserved for social equity applicants and another six reserved for worker-owned cooperatives. All recreational licenses will be spread throughout six geographic zones, with a maximum of four stores per zone.

Applicants have up to 60 days to demonstrate they have final zoning approval from the municipality where they intend to operate their business—a provision Ahern said was included partly because of the commission’s slow rollout in getting potential social equity applicants certified.

The commission in late August opened the initial screening process for social equity applicants, defined as prospective retailers owned or mostly staffed by those adversely affected by the war on drugs. After the certification deadline closed on September 29, the commission reported 94 potential applicants for the state’s six social equity licenses.

Beginning Monday, screened applicants were expected to receive letters informing them if they meet the state’s social equity criteria. Prospective applicants who don’t initially meet the commission’s requirements will have 10 additional days to prove they qualify as social equity applicants.

​​Regulations approved by the commission earlier in the year require that social equity applicants have at least 51 percent ownership and control by individuals directly impacted by past cannabis laws or economic disparities, or a minimum of 10 full-time employees that meet the same criteria.

Qualifying factors include convictions for nonviolent cannabis offenses or residency in disproportionately impacted areas—which can be determined by federal poverty level, unemployment rate, the number of students in a free school lunch program and historic arrest rates by census tract.

Final certification is expected to be approved by the commission some time in November.

This story was first published by Rhode Island Currant.

New York cannabis regulators are attempting to oust a licensed operator from the adult-use marketplace whom they’re accusing of “aiding and abetting” in unlicensed processing activity through a reverse licensing scheme.

The state’s Office of Cannabis Management (OCM) filed multiple charges Oct. 20 against Omnium Health Inc. (d/b/a Omnium Canna), a licensed adult-use processor and distributor in Long Island.

The OCM claims that a February 2025 investigation uncovered contracts between Omnium and unlicensed operators whom Omnium charged rent, allowing them to use its facilities and resources to manufacture and package cannabis products that landed on licensed dispensary shelves as part of a “rent-a-license” scheme.

“Omnium’s alleged conduct is a blatant breach of the licensing rules designed to ensure transparency and fairness in the legal market,” OCM Executive Deputy Director Felicia A. B. Reid said in an Oct. 20 press release. “Our state’s cannabis laws are clear: Licenses are not transferable and only licensed operators may produce and distribute cannabis. OCM’s move today ensures that regulated businesses do not exploit loopholes or take advantage to undermine legal operators who play by the rules.”

In filing a notice of pleading, OCM is attempting to revoke Omnium’s licenses and prevent the company from applying for future licensure.

The state’s regulators are also seeking civil penalties related to the projected revenue from the sale or possession of any unregulated cannabis products, as well as the recall and destruction of those unregulated products.

“Omnium’s actions violated core principles of our regulatory framework and placed unvetted operators into the heart of New York’s legal market,” said Stephen Geskey, OCM deputy executive director of labs, compliance and licensing. “This is a textbook example of reverse licensure, and OCM will not tolerate it.”

The possibilities of “reverse licensure” in New York’s adult-use cannabis market are exacerbated by the state’s delay in implementing a third-party seed-to-sale tracking system nearly three years after adult-use dispensary sales launched in December 2022.

The OCM plans to integrate track-and-trace provider Metrc’s software and technology into the state’s adult-use program by Dec. 17 for all licensees. Access to Metrc’s application programming interference (API) and testing endpoints will be available on Oct. 12 for operators to begin the transition.

The majority of state cannabis programs have a third-party provider, like Metrc or BioTrack, to help prevent product diversion or inversion. Without a system in place, former New York Cannabis Control Board Member Jennifer Gilbert-Jenkins called product inversion the state’s “dirty secret” during a December 2024 board meeting.

“How are we validating that the products in stores are actually coming from New York State?” she questioned. “Because the rate of inversion in this market is the dirty secret that everybody is talking about … that the amount of product that’s coming into our legal, authorized dispensaries from out of state is displacing New York product.”

In February 2025, the OCM launched a Trade Practices Bureau dedicated to safeguarding the integrity of the state’s cannabis program through investigating violations, abuse and noncompliance to hold “bad actors” accountable.

In seeking revocation, debarment and monetary penalties against Omnium in this week’s announcement, the OCM also ordered a statewide retail recall of Omnium-linked products. In Monday’s release, the OCM included a photo of a product’s packaging labeled “Omnium d/b/a MFused.” OCM investigators concluded that MFused rented Omnium’s premises and license.

In covering the OCM’s investigation, The New York Times reported that not only is Mfused connected to Omnium, but so too are popular brands Stiiizy and Grön. The article states that Grön continues to rent space in Omnium facilities and draws attention to another article that details Grön’s business partnerships with licensees in other states.

Grön, which has a Type 2 processing license in New York, called the NYT’s article “inaccurate” in a company statement provided to Cannabis Business Times:

“We are disheartened and disappointed with the inaccurate reporting done by the New York Times today in an article that misrepresents our relationships, business practices and general code of conduct in New York. The article, about challenges facing a former partner of ours in New York State, suggests that Grön – a company with an unparalleled reputation in the cannabis industry for transparency and compliance, which are core values of our business – participated in improper licensing and manufacturing in New York State. These claims are entirely false, and we implore the New York Times to review this matter and issue a correction at once.”

An edibles brand from Oregon, Grön contests that it operates in a building completely independent of Omnium under full compliance with the OCM.

“Our relationship with Omnium was short, and during that time, Grön operated in total compliance with OCM’s regulations, which expressly permit out-of-state brands to partner with existing New York processing licensees, proving there is zero merit to any story of questionable material being used,” according to the company statement.

In February, the OCM’s newly launched Trade Practices Bureau (TPB) examined Omnium’s audit and inspection records, reviewed contracts between the company and other businesses, and interviewed several witnesses, according to the OCM.

In Monday’s notice of pleading, the OCM also accused Omnium of material misrepresentation and failing to disclose substantial changes to its business operations.

“Reverse licensing has no place in New York’s market,” TPB Director James Rogers said. “This kind of cheating robs compliant businesses of their right to compete in a fair market. Acting Executive Director Reid set up the bureau to address these kinds of threats to market integrity. The TPB team is grateful to all the individuals who came forward with crucial information and encourage others to do the same. If we work together, we can keep New York’s cannabis market above board.”