Illinois cannabis companies in legal battle over chemist, non-compete agreements

Via the Chicago Sun-Times: 

Cresco Labs and Green Thumb Industries have been fierce rivals since Illinois issued its first licenses to grow and sell medical marijuana in 2014.

Now, as the two River North-based firms battle for market share in states across the country, Cresco has filed a lawsuit accusing GTI of poaching a high-level employee who allegedly violated a non-compete clause in his contract when he switched sides this year.

...The lawsuit states that Christopher Tonge, a chemist who served as Cresco’s director of technical services, notified the company in May that he was resigning. He then took what’s believed to be a similar job at GTI. Tonge had signed an employee agreement with Cresco that “barred him from working for a substantially similar company” for a year.

Tonge was integral to developing “a unique process” to extract cannabis oil from pot plants that “helps drive revenue while enabling significant cost savings,” according to the suit. “The process provides such value to Cresco that it has applied for two patents on it, on which Mr. Tonge is a co-inventor,” the suit notes.

Tonge was allegedly recruited to GTI by Matt Ingram, its senior vice president of operations. Ingram previously worked at Cresco and has knowledge of the firm’s manufacturing operations and its contractual non-compete provisions, the suit states. 

Meanwhile, Ingram has been reaching out to other Cresco workers “and urging them to resign to work for GTI, despite knowing that these employees are subject to covenants not to compete,” the suit holds. Cresco CEO Charlie Bachtell even confronted his GTI counterpart, Ben Kovler, in April and warned him that Ingram was attempting to hire “multiple senior-level employees” from Cresco.

It'll be interesting to see how this lawsuit plays out - I imagine that someone thinks they've got a pretty solid case here. 

(I'm broadly against non-compete agreements in that it seems like they're good for the employer, bad for the employee (and I think) the economic understanding is that it's bad for sectors for there to be lack of labor mobility. In this case, it seems like it's reasonable for an employer to attempt to lock an employee in - I guess doing with incentives ('we'll pay you more') is better than 'we're chaining you to us.') 

C&EN: "Cannabis research bill clears US Congress"

In this week's Chemical and Engineering News, this update (article by Britt Erickson): 

A bill that would make it easier for scientists in the US to study the potential benefits and harms of medical cannabis cleared the Senate on Nov. 16. The House of Representatives had passed the legislation (H.R. 8454) in July, and President Joe Biden is expected to sign the bill into law.

The bill directs the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to identify policies that inhibit cannabis research and to recommend how to overcome those barriers. It also paves the way for research institutions to grow their own cannabis or import cannabis for medical research purposes, but it does not allow scientists to purchase cannabis from state-run dispensaries.

Cannabis is classified as a Schedule I drug, meaning that it has no accepted medical benefits and has a high likelihood of addiction. Because of that classification, researchers need approval from several government agencies to conduct clinical studies using cannabis.

H.R. 8454 aims to streamline and speed up that approval process. It gives the US attorney general a 60-day deadline to approve cannabis research applications or request additional information from the applicant.

I used to say "it is guaranteed there will be more cannabis chemists in (next year) than there are (this year)" simply because we were growing from a time where there were zero regularly-employed full time chemists working in this field, and then people were moving into the field regularly. It will be interesting to see when this will plateau, but it doesn't seem to be stopping yet. The seemingly-inexorable move towards descheduling/full legalization seems like that would only accelerate the move of more people into the industry...

We now have a Cannabis Chemistry Subdivision within the Division of Chemical Health and Safety

From the inbox, a press release:

The Cannabis Chemistry Committee and the Division of Chemical Health and Safety (CHAS) of the American Chemical Society (ACS) are pleased to announce the creation of the Cannabis Chemistry Subdivision (CANN) within CHAS. The Division and CANN are excited about this new relationship and are looking forward to expanded collaboration and education efforts. Growing faster than ever, CANN is eager to offer membership and showcase the benefits of getting involved...

There are subdivisions within divisions in ACS? I did not know that.

Here's the accompanying video and here's the full press release. 

"I bet your life", cannabis chemistry edition

From the inbox, a Guardian article from a cannabis conference in Portland, Oregon: 

Paul Loney, with offices in Portland and Ashland, in the state’s far south, has a practice in transition. “I used to do a lot of criminal defence,” he says, but since legalisation a lot of enforcement has simply stopped. “Now I help people with compliance.” 

They also need to carry out lab testing – some because the state demands it (laws forbid the use of certain pesticides), some because of consumer demand for guaranteed purity and potency. Cannabis labs already provide employment for biologists and chemists; what’s now a cottage industry will soon grow along with the industry. 

If you want to make guaranteed money from pot, go to law school or get your masters in industrial chemistry. 

Color me skeptical. I think the likeliest way to earn guaranteed money from pot is at your local college campus doing door-to-door distribution.

(Where does one get a master's degree in "industrial chemistry", anyway? Is there a single program in the United States that offers such a degree?* 

(*Google tells me I am wrong: there are two such programs, one at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and the University of North Texas, both "professional science master's" programs. An interesting idea, but probably not really all that different than any other state university master's program, for those who find this post via Google.) 

Interview: Joseph Payack, former process chemist and current cannabis chemistry consultant

I recently spoke with Joseph Payack. Readers may know him from his articles in Organic Process Research and Development when he was working at Merck. He is now the secretary of the nascent Cannabis Chemistry Committee, part of the Division of Chemical Health and Safety of the ACS. He graciously spoke with me over the phone while he was at the fall ACS conference in Boston last month.

He has recently been working in the medical cannabis field, mostly as an independent consultant. His assessment is that the industry is "desperate for analytical talent."

He strongly believes that experienced chemists would find themselves employed quickly as consultants in almost all areas where the medicinal cannabis industry and chemistry intersect: extractions, analytical chemistry, formulations and safety/EH&S. Synthetic chemists who had experience at the liter scale and above would be able to find themselves work as consultants relatively quickly, he believes. He also feels that there is room for new graduates in chemistry in the cannabis industry, especially for those who have proven themselves to have GC/HPLC skills (and the ability to maintain and fix them.)

He acknowledges that working in the cannabis chemical industry is indeed "taking a risk" with one's career. It is towards that end that he has joined the Cannabis Chemistry Committee, in order to help make the field a little more legitimate and lay the groundwork for the future of this nascent field. 

Letter to the editor: look where some of the kidz are going

From last week's C&EN (because they're doing a double issue next week, so they're taking this week off...), an interesting letter to the editor: 

“Making Legal Marijuana Safe” outlined many issues with the current extraction solvent known as butane hash oil (BHO) (C&EN, April 20, page 27). This method requires a large up-front investment in closed-loop, high-pressure systems to contain and recover solvents. Safety concerns include explosion and fire risks for workers. 

The article then proposes a new extraction system using the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. Although this CO2 extraction process seems to be a viable alternative, it only modestly shifts the safety risk from explosion to asphyxiation while doing nothing to eliminate the hazards of keeping gases under high pressure. Extraction by CO2 will still require closed-loop systems and large up-front capital investment to produce the desired extracts. 

A new Seattle-based company called BT Ingenuity has tackled the extraction process using a green chemistry approach. The company, founded by ACS member and ACS Medicinal Chemistry Fellow Tyrell Towle, uses a solvent that is ­biodegradable, does not bioaccumulate, and is nontoxic. The patented process does not require a closed-loop system and requires only minimal postextraction processing using Food & Drug Administration-approved ingredients. This new process eliminates the risk of both fire and asphyxiation for workers. It is highly versatile and provides control over the finished product. Finally, the solvent is recovered and can be reused in multiple extractions. 

The legal marijuana market will only continue to increase, and improved safety as well as green production processes will continue to be important for both producers and consumers. Innovative thinking will allow the industry to dramatically improve safety. 

Duncan I. Mackie
Carrboro, N.C.

Couple of things here. First, I agree that if there is one single thing that chemists getting into the cannabis industry should do, it would be to run the home butane hash oil business out of business. It's apparent to me that BHO is unsafe and causes tremendous amounts of injuries and property damage.

Secondly, I think it's interesting that Dr. Towle is quite young. I wonder how many young people are getting into the cannabis industry because of the relative lack of employment opportunities in more traditional arenas of chemistry? Also, undoubtedly, there is money to be made there. Developing... 

Shimadzu's in for cannabis chemistry!

credit: anonymous
Chemjobber source

An informed source shows me a picture of an interesting freebie handed out to cannabis testing laboratories by Shimadzu. In for a penny, in for a pound, apparently. 

Cannabis Chemistry Committee was established as an official committee

Also from this week's C&EN, this interesting news in the form of a letter to the editor: 

An effort to establish a cannabis chemistry division at the American Chemical Society has been under way since September 2014 (C&EN, Nov. 10, 2014, page 4). Great strides were made at the ACS national meeting in Denver. The Cannabis Chemistry Committee was established as an official committee of the Small Chemical Businesses Division (SCHB). I was elected chair; additional members will be found among many of the individuals who expressed strong interest in active membership. 

The greatest student interest (undergraduate and graduate) comes from schools in the Northwest and Southeast. These will likely be the first locations for networking events that will bring students face-to-face with industry leaders, academic researchers, and like-minded peers. The petition for division formation received more than 300 signatures—50 signatures are needed.

The committee will plan programming at upcoming meetings and will hold networking events. At the 2016 spring ACS national meeting in San Diego, a full-day symposium cohosted by SCHB and the Agricultural & Food Chemistry Division will be organized. The first networking events will take place in June. 

For those who were not able to meet us in Denver but would like to participate, please contact us at acscannabischemistry@gmail.com. Member activities could include mentoring, participating in regional events, or contributing to educational programs. If you would like to see the petition and support us with a signature, please go to tinyurl.com/naonap7. 

Ezra M. Pryor
Chair, Cannabis Chemistry Committee
Ontario, Calif.

I will continue to track these developments...  

Interesting headline from Chemistry World

I didn't see this earlier, but Rebecca Trager's in Chemistry World article sounds interesting: 

Chemists in demand as cannabis industry experiences explosive growth 

The US’s rapidly growing cannabis industry – medical and recreational – desperately needs chemists. That was the conclusion of a session at the American Chemical Society’s spring conference in Denver, Colorado, on 23 March. ‘We need chemists to tell us what we have,’ said Chloe Villano, founder of the Colorado-based cannabis business consulting company Clover Leaf. 

She said a better understanding of the science behind cannabis is essential to providing safer and better products, which include oils, extracts and edibles. Chemists can help by, among other things, analysing samples to examine microbiologicals and providing residual solvent testing to ensure cannabis concentrates are free of impurities, Villano suggested...

It would be great if there was some sort of data about the increase in chemistry jobs in the cannabis field - somehow I doubt we're going to see that any time soon. That said, if this is your thing, now might be the time...

(You know what would be the best measurement? Used analytical equipment sales in Colorado and Washington, I'll bet. Also, I wonder if the big instrumental companies have decided if they're going to sell to these labs...?)

The nose of the camel...

Also in this week's C&EN, Bibiana Campos-Seijo notes analysts at Pittcon talking cannabis chemistry:

...Another topic that came up in conversation a number of times was cannabis. A couple of representatives of exhibiting companies mentioned that they had had an increasing number of inquiries from clients in relation to cannabis testing, and this was influencing some of their most recent work. From their point of view, cannabis is an agricultural product and should be subject to appropriate regulation, but beyond the political controversy, there is added complexity in that it can be available both as a commercial and as a medicinal product. This is clearly an industry in its infancy and one where instrument makers see growth: Adequate quality-control and standardization processes will need to be established as these products enter the marketplace....

Developing...