Pubdate: Fri, 30 Oct 2015
Source: Honolulu Star-Advertiser (HI)
Copyright: 2015 Associated Press
Contact: 
http://www.staradvertiser.com/info/Star-Advertiser_Letter_to_the_Editor.html
Website: http://www.staradvertiser.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5154

POT BUSINESSES SOW SEEDS OF CHARITY

DENVER (AP) - One marijuana business hosts an annual golf tournament 
in Denver to raise money for multiple sclerosis research. Another 
Colorado pot company donates to a gay-rights advocacy group and is a 
sponsor of an AIDS walk.

As marijuana legalization matures, businesses are becoming more 
ingrained in their communities by donating cash and time to charities 
- - a sign that the stigma of selling a drug that remains illegal under 
federal law may be fading.

"It's not all about making money and about profiting," said Ean Seeb, 
co-owner of Denver Relief, a dispensary whose monetary and 
volunteering donations include Ekar Farm and Garden, which grows 
vegetables for food banks.

It's unknown how much money marijuana businesses have donated to 
nonprofits nationally and in Colorado.

"It is a brand-new public conversation," said Tom Downey, a 
regulatory attorney who specializes in marijuana.

He is a director at the firm Ireland Stapleton, which hosted a 
meeting in July at the state Capitol regarding donations with about 
150 people from charitable organizations, lawyers and pot companies.

The Department of Justice, which has been watching the growing legal 
pot industries, declined to comment. The IRS declined to comment, 
except to say that pot businesses can't write off donations on tax filings.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom