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In the Heart of D.C., Pot Industry Pleads its Case
March 31, 2011 – The government should recognize the cannabis industry as a legitimate American industry and stop putting roadblocks in the way of a legal medical cannabis market projected at a total $1.7 billion in 2011, leaders of the National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA) told a Washington briefing Wednesday. “It is time for the…
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Politics Ignoring Science: Federal Agency Recognizes Therapeutic Benefit of Medical Marijuana While 9-Year-Old Petition to Reclassify the Plant Gathers Dust
March 30, 2011 – The federal government has maintained for decades, even over the objections of its own Administrative Law Judges, that marijuana (cannabis) is a dangerous drug with no medical value. However, something happened in March to draw attention not only to evidence of marijuana’s beneficial effect on people living with cancer, but also…
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Where are All the Marijuana Millionaires?
March 29, 2011 – FORT COLLINS, Colo. — When Drew Brown first opened Abundant Healing, a medical marijuana dispensary that serves nearly 300 patients, he dreamed of early retirement to Costa Rica, where he would spend his days as a beach bum renting surfboards to tourists. Then came a regulatory crackdown. Fifteen months later, Brown’s…
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Report: Medical Marijuana Market Growing Quickly
March 24th, 2011 – CHICAGO — It has been called a lot of things over the years: grass, Mary Jane, wacky weed. Now, researchers are suggesting a new moniker for marijuana: alternative investment. A report out this week on the U.S. medical marijuana market estimates the unconventional business already generates $1.7 billion in economic activity…
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Privacy Breach: Health Canada Mails Details of Medical Marijuana Users
March 13, 2011 – A privacy breach on the part of Health Canada has landed personal information in the hands of a medical marijuana patient in Toronto. Kyle Andrews, who relies on medical marijuana to ease symptoms brought on by HIV and Hepatitis C, received a package from Health Canada Wednesday that included the rules…
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California Tax Officials put the Squeeze on Medical Marijuana Industry
SACRAMENTO, Calif SACRAMENTO, Calif. – As one of California’s pioneering marijuana dispensaries, the Berkeley Patients Group served thousands of medical marijuana users and handled tens of millions of dollars in pot transactions a year. But until 2007, the dispensary didn’t charge customers sales taxes nor did it pay them to the state, contending that marijuana…
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Colorado: About Time Marijuana Truth is Told
March 8th, 2011 – Fort Collins Colorado – Dawn Nannini, a researcher with TEAM Fort Collins, is concerned that medical marijuana centers in Fort Collins are causing kids to lose their “perception of harm” about pot. (Coloradoan Soapbox, March 3.) Considering that the “perception” for decades has inaccurately been that marijuana is as dangerous and…
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‘Wal-Mart of Weed’ Gardening Store Opens to High-Fives
February 28, 2011 – This wasn’t going to be a typical grand opening, just another staid ribbon cutting where fellow business people welcome the newest merchant to town. The turnout was a bit more eclectic – and decidedly more fragrant – Saturday as a giant hydroponics store – which embraces its moniker as “the Wal-Mart…
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Cannabis Battle is Winnable, Barney Frank says
PORTLAND – U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass. told the state’s first Maine Medical Marijuana Expo on Saturday that current laws against marijuana use are expensive, applied unevenly and ought to be repealed. “People who make a personal decision to smoke marijuana should not be subject to prosecution,” said Frank, noting that the movement has allies…
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The Economics of Marijuana
February 18, 2011 – An advertisement for Oaksterdam University reads “Cannabis Industry Now Hiring,” along with claims to a salary between $50,000 and $100,000 dollars. To the average American, such an ad would surely be deemed a joke — but in Oaksterdam, a district in downtown Oakland lined with medical marijuana dispensaries, training centers, head…