Page 1 - Cannabis News Florida Sept 2021

CANNABIS SPOTLIGHT: ACOG District XII
Joshua Hoffman Meeting Offers a
Breakout Session
Chief Education Officer,
on Cannabis and
PūrWell OB/GYN
page 30 page 32

September 2021

2019 Cannabis Business Award’s Publication of the Year

Compliance Is Crucial

BY SUMMER WESTERBUR

On March 11, 2021, The Biden Administration passed
the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to address the
economic impacts of COVID-19. ARPA provides a 100%
subsidy if the employee’s work reduction or termination
was involuntary. Those subsidies end September 30,
2021. This is an important time for business owners to
consider compliance.
Business owners should consider working with their
COBRA administrator to ensure employees pay their
Bob Pietrangelo
insurance premium October 1st. There are notification
deadlines business owners are responsible for sending Cannabis
Sanuvox out. Employees who do not want to pay the premiums
will need to be terminated from the plan. This is the Summer Westerbur
Products Kill employer’s responsibility. Most carriers will not allow Healthcare and
you to remove them at a future date. This is the year businesses should really consider
Airborne a third-party administrator. It is the employer’s responsibility to sign up and pay for Medicine
these services. These companies typically offer compliance for ACA reporting, ERISA,
COBRA, HIPAA, and SPD. Certificate
Pathogens, Businesses that do not remain in compliance risk facing penalties. For each of the
seven years of ACA employer reporting, the IRS granted an automatic extension and
Protect People provided a "Good Faith" understanding. This means that as long as employers could Provides
show they were acting in the best interest of their employees, the IRS would acknowl-
and Plants edge that any errors represented in reporting were made in good faith, reducing penal- Advanced
ties and fines. We are anxiously waiting for an announcement from the IRS. It is still
possible that we will have another automatic extension, but "Good Faith" is in jeop- Knowledge
BY VANESSA ORR ardy. As reporting continues in 2021 and 2022, we must all make an effort to remain
in compliance and be 100% accurate with IRS filing and reporting.
As we’ve all become aware over the past This is also a good time to focus on other compliance services. Are you sending out BY CAROL NEWMAN
couple of years, airborne contaminants Continued on page 33
can cause irreparable harm. This is some- Cannabis medicine is a rapidly grow-
thing that medical cannabis growers have ing sector of the healthcare industry, yet
long known, as one of the most difficult trusted and credible information is hard
parts of keeping plants healthy is prevent- Trulieve Appoints New to come by. For healthcare professionals
ing the spread of powdery mildew, botry- seeking a career in cannabis medicine,
tis, penicillium and other fungi that can Chief Technology Officer or looking to add cannabis expertise to
be spread though the air as well as venti- their existing practice, Florida Atlantic
lation systems. University’s Center for Online and
While some growers have attempted to Trulieve Cannabis Corp. announced it has named Continuing Education offers advanced
use ozone to deal with these contami- Nilyum Jhala to serve as its Chief Technology Officer cannabis knowledge and skills training
nants, it unfortunately depletes terpene (CTO). Jhala, who previously served as Vice President of in partnership with Green Flower, the
strength. The secret, according to Bob Global and Digital Technology at Hallmark Cards, Inc., world's leading education provider for
Pietrangelo, vice president, Southeast brings more than two decades of experience in technology cannabis. This program offers expert, in-
United States, Sanuvox, is to use UVC leadership and digital transformation results in multina- depth instruction on the medical proper-
radiation instead. tional retail and wholesale environments. ties of cannabis.
“Using UV radiation in the C band pro- Prior to joining Hallmark, Nilyum served as Division The Cannabis Healthcare and
duces zero ozone, and at the proper inten- Vice President for Family Dollar, a subsidiary of Dollar Medicine certificate is fully online, six-
sity, can destroy any biological contami- Tree, Inc. Previously, he has also led IT transformation and months long and goes deep into topics
nant,” he explained. “It can eliminate roadmap initiatives for both Lowe's and Office Depot. such as: the endocannabinoid system
powdery mildew, botrytis and more, while Jhala, who will be based in Tallahassee and report to the and fundamentals of cannabis botany,
at the same time allowing terpenes to CEO, holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics and autoimmune diseases, pain, and inflam-
maintain maximum strength.” Communications with Honors from Barkatullah mation, standard care in cannabis medi-
By utilizing Sanuvox’s GrowSaver™ University, India and a Master of Science in Computer and cine, strain selection, dosing, and titra-
products in their ventilation systems, Information Systems from the University of South Nilyum Jhala tion, advanced ECS and phytocannabi-
growers can eliminate the need for fungi- Alabama, where he was named graduate student of the noids, as well as geriatrics, addiction,
cides as well. Freestanding units are also year. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Asian and cancer care.
available, and all of the units are custom- American Professionals and has shared his expertise as a Faculty Member at Strayer In addition to healthcare and medi-
designed to fit the space involved. University since 2009, teaching software engineering and data warehousing. cine, programs are also available in
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