Comic Series Trim Season Set on Remote Cannabis Farm

Scout Comics, a publisher rising in popularity, announced on October 26 a new horror/thriller comic series Trim Season—following a group of young adults from Los Angeles, California who migrate to a remote cannabis farm where they encounter the supernatural.

Trim Season is based on an original concept from Megan Sutherland, Sean E. DeMott and Cullen Poythress, loosely inspired by true events such as the story of the  “The Humboldt Five”—five women who went missing in Humboldt County, California during harvest season; however, it’s unclear whether their cases were connected. 

Scout Comics recently debuted several other titles at the New York Comic Con, including Eternus, a new comics series by Venom 2 director Andy Serkis and Andrew Levitas. 

Hollywood Reporter Reveals Details On New Scout Comic Series TRIM SEASON – https://t.co/xhFb1j2wl0 pic.twitter.com/UIogx3ex9I

— Scout Comics (@ScoutComics) October 26, 2021

DeMott explained what can be expected in the new comic in an interview with Hollywood Reporter. 

“I immediately thought of old rustic imagery and instantly thought, ‘What if there was a witch in the woods up there running a tweaker cult or cartel type thing?’” DeMott told Hollywood Reporter.

As with any migrant job, “trimmigrants” should be cognizant of potential dangers of working in remote areas. Humboldt County is ground zero for a flux of migrant cannabis trimmers each harvest season, leading to some communities deeming them a public nuisance. Migrants who come unprepared can face dangerous circumstances.

However, in Trim Season, the trimmers’ enemies appear to be more supernatural in nature. While details are limited, the storyline involves a sinister family and human sacrifice.

The idea initially led to a screenplay, written by David Blair and Ariel Vida, which in turn evolved into the comic book, from writer Jake Hearns. The comic book cover art for Trim Season is by Rob Prior, with pencils and inks by Mara Mendez Garcia and colors by Lorenzo Palombo.

Actress Jane Badler, as seen on NBC’s V, was considered for the role of a witch. Badler is now currently behind the comic book project via her MeJane Productions banner along with Execution Posse, a publishing and IP holding company that calls itself a “punk rock Marvel.” Execution Posse previously released Hot Valley Days and Cocaine Nights, about a young woman who becomes involved in the coke trade in 1980s Los Angeles, and Night of the Cadillacs, a supernatural comic set in the dive bars of Los Angeles.

So happy to be part of this great project https://t.co/ICl6H940d7

— Jane Badler (@janebadler) October 27, 2021

“Execution Posse was trying to combine the two previous genres we had used together into something new. We had done an ’80s drug dealing book recently based on a true crime story, and we had done a supernatural book, but we hadn’t approached mixing true crime and supernatural together,” added DeMott. “We wanted people to see an evolution in our storytelling and this book shows that we can keep coming up with new ideas and finding spaces for them.”

An ashcan (proposed in-house version of an upcoming comic book title) of Trim Season is currently available. The full comic is due for release in Spring 2022.

Beyond Trim Season

Several other entrepreneurs are behind cannabis-related comic book projects lately. Cannabis and psychedelics have been portrayed in comics since the underground comics of the ‘60s.

On October 15, Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong announced a new comic book with Z2 Comics called Chronicles: A Brief History of Weed featuring a roster of talented artists.

Creator Ejiro Ederaine is behind the JroMan Comic Book  Universe, which is described as a mirror of America’s current reality—and that reflection is a stark reminder that there is so much work that still needs to be done.

In the comic book JroMan, the hero gains his powers from an unknown strain of cannabis. Ederaine remains a strong proponent of Black representation in the world of comics.

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New York’s Cannabis Control Board: 18 Months to Licensure

Since New York passed its adult-use cannabis legislation in March of 2021, we have all been waiting for one thing: a timeline for when adult-use licenses will be issued. We finally have an answer, which is… disappointing.

Cannabis Control Board (CCB) Chairwoman Tremaine Wright has now publicly stated that the CCB is “working on an 18-month timeline to build the requisite policies framing the new legal marijuana market.” Even that statement was hedged to clarify that dispensaries would not necessary be fully stocked by then either. As quoted by the Rochester City Newspaper:

“What we do control is getting (dispensaries) licensing and giving them all the tools so they can work within our systems. That’s what we are saying will be achieved in 18 months. Not that they’re open, not that they’ll be full-blown operations, because we don’t know that.”

Practically speaking, we get it. Creating an entire industry (one as highly regulated and, regrettably, controversial as cannabis no less) from whole cloth is no easy task. But we had hoped for a tighter timeline (say 18 months from passage of the MRTA), or at least a list of anticipated milestones (release of rules and regulations, public comment period, license applications being accepted, etc.).

The CCB has its third meeting this Wednesday, November 3, 2021, at 1pm (broadcast as usual). Hopefully, the CCB clarifies its timeline and/or provides context as to what and will be happening and when for the next 18 months.

With all of that said, the fact that Chairwoman Wright’s announcement resulted in such heated responses from New York’s cannabis industry’s insiders (we immediately started receiving text messages and emails) shows that the potential for the industry in New York is obvious. Stay tuned for a summary after the CCB’s third meeting.

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Growing cannabis re-roots Indigenous father and son

This is a story about a family DIY Covid project, healing intergenerational trauma, Indigenous Sovereignty, and growing some seriously dank cannabis.

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New Jersey voters face one more cannabis legalization vote on Tuesday

Gov. Phil Murphy helped legalize it. His opponent wants to re-criminalize it—and could delay the opening of retail stores for years.

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New Mexico Considers Changes to Limit Recreational Cannabis Tourism

Regulators in New Mexico held a public hearing this week to discuss rules for the state’s forthcoming recreational cannabis market. 

The state’s Regulation and Licensing Department, as well as its Cannabis Control Division, fielded questions and comments from the public during last Thursday’s hearing over the rules that will govern cannabis retailers and manufacturers.

According to the local website NM Political Report, the comments at the hearing “varied from proposed regulations for packaging requirements, general business practices to cannabis deliveries to both businesses and residences.”

The meeting was highlighted by the appearance of Katy Duhigg, a Democratic state Senator who also serves as a cannabis attorney in Albuquerque. Duhigg “brought up a series of issues she said she would like to see changed and offered specific suggestions,” according to the website. It was reported that she “took issue with a proposed requirement that cannabis manufactures prove they have access to water rights because manufacturing doesn’t necessarily use water the same way cultivation does.”

“Requiring all manufacturers to prove water rights for their application, I think, is unreasonably burdensome, because it’s just not going to be a factor for a number of them,” Duhigg said, as quoted by NM Political Report. 

Lawmakers in New Mexico passed a bill legalizing recreational pot use for adults during a special legislative session in the spring. The legislation was signed into law in April by Democratic Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham. This means big things for New Mexico, as for the first time ever, they will finally have a legal cannabis industry. 

Legislators had failed to pass a legalization bill during the regular 60-day session, prompting Grisham to call a special session to get the proposal over the finish line.

“The unique circumstances of the session, with public health safeguards in place, in my view, prevented the measures on my call from crossing the finish line,” Grisham said at the time. “While I applaud the Legislature and staff for their incredible perseverance and productivity during the 60-day in the face of these challenges, we must and we will forge ahead and finish the job on these initiatives together for the good of the people and future of our great state.”

Grisham’s office specifically cited the legalization bill as a reason for the special session.

“With general, across-the-aisle agreement on the importance of the legalization initiative, the governor intends to see through final passage of this potentially significant economic driver, which is estimated to create over 11,000 jobs and ensure New Mexico is not left behind as more and more states adopt adult-use cannabis legalization,” the governor’s office said at the time.

The extra time proved effective, as New Mexico legislators soon passed the Cannabis Regulation Act, which legalized recreational cannabis use for adults aged 21 and older. 

The new law officially went into effect on June 29, allowing such adults to have up to two ounces of pot outside their home (and even more inside their home).

Under the Cannabis Regulation Act, regulated marijuana sales must begin by April 1, 2022.

At the public hearing last Thursday, participants like Duhigg addressed some of the stipulations in the bill, including one requiring cannabis producers to “show that they have legal access to water after many members of the public raised concerns about New Mexico’s scarce water supply,” according to NM Political Report.

The website said that Duhigg with a “provision that would limit cannabis retail businesses from giving away free products to anyone but medical cannabis patients,” as well as one that “would limit cannabis deliveries to residential addresses.”

The latter, she said, will “reduce cannabis tourism in New Mexico.”

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Oregon Authorities Link Illicit Pot Farms to Mexican Cartels

Law enforcement officers and other authorities in southern Oregon say that a rash of illegal marijuana cultivation operations in the area are linked to Mexican drug cartels intent on overwhelming local resources as a strategy to maximize profits. 

In Jackson County, officials declared a state of emergency last month and said that the proliferation of illicit pot farms had strained local law enforcement and other resources. In a letter to Oregon Governor Kate Brown and state lawmakers, the Jackson County Board Commissioners called for more funding and personnel to support law enforcement and code compliance efforts in the area. 

Jackson County Commissioner Rick Dyer told reporters that other illegal activities including human trafficking, forced labor and unsafe living conditions for workers are tied to the unregulated marijuana cultivation in Oregon, where cannabis commerce is legal for licensed businesses. He added that illegal operators intimidate and abuse their workers, who are often minors or the parents of young children.

“This is cartel activity,” Dyer said. “A human rights crisis is what we are seeing going on at these grows.”

Oregon Officials Seek Regional Solution

Officials in Jackson County hope that their counterparts in neighboring Klamath and Josephine Counties will declare a similar state of emergency so that the region sends a unified message to state leaders.

“It’s harder to ignore when it’s a regional declaration of an emergency,” Dyer said. “And the more of a united front we present it will make it harder to ignore. It is a regional problem, and it could be a regional solution.”

Earlier this month, sheriff’s deputies in Klamath County discovered a 27,000-square-foot potato shed filled with illicit cannabis in various stages of processing. Klamath County Sheriff Chris Klaber told local media that “he had never seen anything like it in 30 years of police work.”

After serving a search warrant on the property and further investigation, the illicit cannabis activities in the potato shed were connected to two other unlicensed marijuana cultivation and processing sites in the area.

“I’ve had to completely readjust my sense of where we are in fighting illegal marijuana production in Klamath,” Klaber said, as quoted by the Herald and News. “I didn’t think we were this far behind.”

“This really is—and I’ve said it before—organized criminal activity,” Kaber added. “This definitely fits the definition in Oregon of what organized criminal activity is.”

Illicit Activity Overwhelms Local Resources

Sergeant Cliff Barden of the Oregon State Police Basin Interagency Narcotics Enforcement Team also says that the illicit cultivation operations are linked to drug cartels. He believes that the strategy of the criminal organizations is to produce so much illicit marijuana that local law enforcement agencies are unable to keep up with the volume of illegal activity.

“They are intentionally trying to overwhelm the system,” he said. “And that is why it is so difficult.”

Barden acknowledged that many of the smaller grows are independent unlicensed operators hoping to profit from the illicit market. But larger cultivation operations are often controlled by drug cartels in Mexico, sometimes through a go-between located in California.

“If they are smaller grows—one to two greenhouses or less—that could be anything, generally just some little crew trying to make some money,” Barden said. “Almost all of the large grows—with dozens and dozens of greenhouses or even more, especially this year—have all been the exact same type of operations that are all coordinated from out of state, run by some mid-level person connected to Mexico.”

Dyer noted that many of the operations growing illicit marijuana are masquerading as farms cultivating hemp, which is also legal in Oregon but less tightly regulated.

“We are finding that 75 to 80 percent of these registered hemp grows are growing illegal marijuana,” he said. “There are probably three or four times the amount of unregistered hemp grows than there are registered grows.”

With the state of emergency and increased law enforcement, officials hope to create a deterrent to unlicensed activity that helps stem the tide of illegal cannabis cultivation. But before that can happen, they will have to make up for years of lost ground.

“Our short-term goal here, locally, is basically to show the organized crime operations that Klamath County is not a place they will be left alone or be safe, and that we will work aggressively to enforce the laws we have so they have a harder time making a profit here,” Barden said.

“After this year, with just a little show of enforcement, we’ll hopefully, gradually get better and better. That’s what I’m hoping for. Before this year, there really wasn’t much marijuana enforcement at all for quite a few years, and it kind of exploded because of that.”

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Ketamine Clinics and the Stark Law – Part I

The Physician Self-Referral Law, commonly referred to as the Stark law (42 U.S.C. § 1395nn), is one of several federal fraud and abuse laws. We have previously written about the federal anti-kickback statute (“AKS”) (click here to review). While the two laws may seem similar at first, they have very different rules and penalties. The Stark law has civil penalties, while the AKS has civil and criminal penalties. Moreover, the Stark law is a “strict liability” statute, which means no intent is required for those who violate Stark.

While Stark can apply to a ketamine clinic, it is especially prominent in the states that have no, or very loose, corporate practice of medicine doctrines. In those instances, a layperson or entity can have a direct ownership interest in a ketamine clinic that is owned in whole or part by a physician. Moreover, when ketamine is just one of the treatments provided by a clinic in those states, Stark can play a very important role in structuring transactions, compensation for the physicians, etc.

The Law

Stark prohibits physicians from referring patients to receive “designated health services” payable by Medicare or Medicaid from entities with which the physician or an immediate family member has a direct or indirect financial relationship unless an exception (or safe harbor) applies. Financial relationships include both ownership and investment interests and compensation arrangements. For example, if a physician invests in an imaging center, the Stark law requires the resulting financial relationship to fit within an exception or the physician may not refer patients to the facility and the entity may not bill for the referred imaging services.

Designated Health Services

“Designated health services” are:

• clinical laboratory services;
• physical therapy, occupational therapy, and outpatient speech-language pathology services;
• radiology and certain other imaging services;
• radiation therapy services and supplies;
• DME and supplies;
• parenteral and enteral nutrients, equipment, and supplies;
• prosthetics, orthotics, and prosthetic devices and supplies;
• home health services;
• outpatient prescription drugs; and
• inpatient and outpatient hospital services.

For the purposes of a ketamine clinic, there are two designated health services that may apply; namely, clinical laboratory services and outpatient prescription drugs. For the clinical laboratory services, if a ketamine clinic holds a CLIA-waiver, then in all likelihood, the clinic is providing “clinical laboratory services”.

The Code of Federal Regulations defines “outpatient prescription drugs” as “all drugs covered by Medicare Part B or D”. 42 CFR § 411.351. Medicare Part B is generally those services provided by a physician in an outpatient setting. Medicare Part D is coverage for certain prescription drugs. Medicare Part A generally covers inpatient services. Whether a drug will be covered by Medicare is often determined by the Medicare Administrative Contractors (“MACs”). The MACs are private entities (e.g., Noridian Healthcare Solutions, LLC) that help administer the Medicare program. Since there are many MACs, there are not always consistent coverage decisions. However, Esketamine (the nasal version of ketamine that has been approved by the FDA for certain mental health disorders) is likely a covered drug under Part B and/or Part D.

Referral

The last important term to define is a “referral” under the Stark law. As the regulations state (42 CFR § 411.351), in relevant part:

Referral means either of the following:

(i) …the request by a physician for, or ordering of, or the certifying or recertifying of the need for, any designated health service for which payment may be made under Medicare Part B, including a request for a consultation with another physician and any test or procedure ordered by or to be performed by (or under the supervision of) that other physician, but not including any designated health service personally performed or provided by the referring physician. A designated health service is not personally performed or provided by the referring physician if it is performed or provided by any other person, including, but not limited to, the referring physician’s employees, independent contractors, or group practice members.

(ii) …a request by a physician that includes the provision of any designated health service for which payment may be made under Medicare, the establishment of a plan of care by a physician that includes the provision of such a designated health service, or the certifying or recertifying of the need for such a designated health service, but not including any designated health service personally performed or provided by the referring physician. A designated health service is not personally performed or provided by the referring physician if it is performed or provided by any other person including, but not limited to, the referring physician’s employees, independent contractors, or group practice members.

Your head is probably starting to spin now! Like all of the federal fraud and abuse laws, Stark is complex. There are other important defined terms, but the foregoing are some of the more important terms you need to understand to analyze possible Stark issues.

Penalties

As noted above, the Stark law has civil penalties. Those penalties can include: (1) refunding any prohibited payments, (2) potential False Claims Act liability, (3) civil monetary penalties and exclusion from Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal payor programs (primarily for “knowing violations”), (4) up to $15,000 in penalties for each prohibited service provided, and (5) civil assessment of up to three times the amount of the prohibited claim submitted. Thus, Stark violations can be very expensive to remedy.

Conclusion

In future posts, we will explore some of the safe harbors under the Stark law as well as other definitions that play a part in understanding this law. If you are entertaining an acquisition of a ketamine clinic or a clinic that provides ketamine treatments in addition to other healthcare services, you would be wise to explore potential Stark issues.

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