Recreational weed is now legal in California. So what does that mean? In January 2018, state and local authorities will begin issuing licenses for the sale of legal recreational marijuana. But what do you need to know before you rush to the dispensary? Information courtesy of Ballotpedia.com. When recreational marijuana sales became legal in Nevada on July 1, customers were lined up around the block of a dispensary near downtown Reno, eager to buy buds. In Las Vegas, cannabis enthusiasts showed up in limos and tour buses, ready to participate in the opening-day pot festivities. [continues 1443 words]
A workshop to help employers get ready for coming changes in Canada's marijuana laws is being offered Nov. 21 in Sarnia. The half-day Cannabis and the Workplace session, set to begin at 7:30 a.m. at the Lambton College Residence and Event Centre, is being organized by the Sarnia Lambton Workplace Wellness steering committee. The cost is $49 per person, and participants must register in advance online at bit.do/ cannabis workplace. "We've heard from employers that they're concerned about the coming legalization of cannabis," said committee chairperson Martina Jackson, a health promoter for Lambton public health. [continues 358 words]
LOS ANGELES - California's legal marijuana marketplace is coming with a kaleidoscope of new taxes and fees that could influence where it's grown, how pot cookies and other munchies are produced and the price tag on just about everything. Be ready for sticker shock. On a retail level, it costs about $35 to buy a small bag of good quality medical marijuana in Los Angeles, enough to roll five or six joints. But in 2018, when legal sales take hold and additional taxes kick in, the cost of that same purchase in the new recreational market is expected to increase at the retail counter to $50 or $60. [continues 1063 words]
California's legal marijuana marketplace is coming with a kaleidoscope of new taxes and fees that could influence where it's grown, how pot cookies and other munchies are produced and the price tag on just about everything. Be ready for sticker shock. On a retail level, it costs about $35 to buy a small bag of good quality medical marijuana in Los Angeles, enough to roll five or six joints. But in 2018, when recreational sales take hold and additional taxes kick in, the cost of that same purchase in the new market is expected to increase at the retail counter to $50 or $60. [continues 586 words]
The solution lies in public education, not punishment, writes Terry Lake. Recently, I attended a meeting hosted by We the Parents, a Kanata organization trying to address the challenge of addictions and the very real tragedies that befall affected families. I saw grieving parents struggling to understand both the complexities of addiction and the way our health and criminal justice systems are responding to it. Understandably, many who attended were looking for straightforward, actionable solutions to this crisis. They were met with a response by one former senior police officer that those selling drugs should be given harsher sentences. While it may seem appealing to go after the dealers instead of the user, in fact, many dealers are themselves struggling with addiction and using whatever tools are at hand, including selling drugs, to cope with that addiction. [continues 590 words]
A plan to increase the availability of needle containers in the community is being welcomed by some city residents. "I think it's a good idea," said Tracey Bucci, of the Grand River Environmental Group. "It would help reduce the risk of innocent people and animals from becoming infected by discarded needles. However, addiction issues do still need to be addressed because that's the root of the problem." Bucci and her group of volunteers led clean-up efforts this year aimed at collecting used syringes in the area of Mohawk Lake. [continues 444 words]
If access isn't convenient, legalization won't work, writes Andrew Klukas. In July 2018, the federal government will legalize the production and distribution of cannabis. Between now and then, the provinces and territories will have to decide how to adapt to this legislation. Whether or not one agrees with the legalization, everyone can agree that when it happens, the systems that the provinces put in place should promote the goals of legalization that, if realized, will be positive. Through its legislation, the federal government aims to move cannabis from the illegal market into a regulated system in which products can be taxed and where quality standards and controls protect citizens. [continues 579 words]
First of its kind in Canada, program covers growing pot and its complex regulations It's got the greenhouse, the curriculum and the necessary approvals. Now all that's needed are up to 25 students keen on becoming the first crop of students to earn a post secondary certificate in growing pot. Niagara College, located in the heart of Ontario wine country, announced Tuesday it will establish a one-year, post-grad program in commercial cannabis production, which it says is the first of its kind in Canada. [continues 375 words]
College and university graduates will be able to earn a certificate in cannabis production starting next fall, when Niagara College will launch Canada's first accredited program in the field. The program will begin months after the deadline imposed by the federal government for legalizing production, distribution and sale of the weed that is eventually expected to generate $8-billion in annual sales. With regulations not yet in place for legalized marijuana, the program may have to shift with politics. "We heard that the licensed producers need highly skilled, well-trained individuals who know more than how to grow two or three plants in a room somewhere," said Al Unwin, the associate dean of Niagara College's School of Environmental and Horticultural Studies. "They need a graduate who knows how to create a healthy crop in a very large facility and a graduate who is aware of the regulatory reality," he said. [continues 517 words]
A southern Ontario college says it will be the first to offer a post-secondary credential in the production of commercial cannabis. Niagara College says the graduate certificate program will launch in the fall of 2018 and aims to prepare students to work in the licensed production of cannabis, which includes marijuana, hemp fibre and hemp seed. The school says the one-year postgraduate program was approved this summer by the Ontario Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development. It will be open to those with a diploma or degree in agribusiness, agricultural science, environmental science/resource studies, horticulture or natural sciences, or an acceptable combination of education and experience. [continues 213 words]
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- A federal anti-drug program has asked Rhode Island - -- and more than two dozen other states where medical marijuana is legal -- to turn over data about patients in the program. The move has alarmed some who question why the federal government, which has at times appeared to be antagonistic towards the drug, is interested in the information. The National Marijuana Initiative, an arm of the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program, which reports to the White House, contacted the Rhode Island Department of Health in August seeking data from 2012 to 2016 on the number of patients in the program, as well as patients' age, gender and a breakdown of the medical conditions under which they qualified. [continues 583 words]
Two initiatives that would amend Detroit's medical marijuana ordinance to allow dispensaries to open near liquor stores, and grow facilities to operate legally, will appear on the November ballot, after a Wayne County circuit judge's ruling earlier this week. If approved by voters in November, the changes could have a wide-reaching impact on the city's budding marijuana industry. Detroit corporation counsel Melvin Butch Hollowell told the Free Press that the city respects the right of voters to decide but concerns have been raised about the measures, particularly the one that would impact zoning regulations. [continues 940 words]
Initiative aims to keep industry jobs local Todd Veri dreams of fields of marijuana. The Kaslo farmer was reading a government report on cannabis legalization last year when he noted that there were plans to allow outdoor operations - which he's already perfectly set up for. "I looked out my window at my fields, and thought to myself, 'I would love to grow a hectare of marijuana, that sounds great.' My next question was: 'How do I do that?'" the president of the newly created Kootenay Outdoor Producer Co-op told the Star. [continues 946 words]
B.C.'s former health minister, Terry Lake, is moving to the Ottawa area this weekend to become a vice-president of a medical marijuana company that is poised for massive growth. Hydropothecary Corp. is a Health Canada-authorized producer of medical marijuana with a 26-hectare facility in Gatineau, Que., that is about to get six times larger. The firm was co-founded in 2013 by a stalwart Liberal, Adam Miron, who also helped start the news website ipolitics.ca. [continues 605 words]
Opening a medical marijuana dispensary in Florida naturally comes with a lot of red tape. Marijuana is still considered an illegal substance at the federal level, despite the 29 states that have legalized it for recreational or medicinal use in recent years. That makes it nearly impossible for banks to fund marijuana distributing companies, which in turn makes it hard for those companies to sign a lease for a store or warehouse or even get insurance. But one Orlando area community bank is willing to take on the risk. [continues 695 words]
After decades of dodging law enforcement and fighting for legalization, U.S. marijuana growers face a new challenge: low prices. From Washington to Colorado, wholesale cannabis prices have tumbled as dozens of states legalized the drug for recreational and medicinal uses, seeding a boom in marijuana production. The market is still tiny compared with the U.S. tobacco industry's $119 billion in annual retail sales, but the nascent cannabis business has grown to more than $6 billion a year at retail, according to data from Euromonitor International Ltd. and Cowen & Co.. [continues 851 words]
KASLO - A local group of workers, farmers and investors is pressing the federal government to keep the door open for co-operative outdoor cannabis production in the Central Kootenay region of B.C. There is a new market coming for legal recreational marijuana in Canada, and the Kootenay Outdoor Producer Co-operative is organizing a co-op that will keep the profits and high-paying industry jobs local. Organizers from across the region need your help now to let the government in Ottawa know that Canadians want to see other business models flourish besides the big corporate warehouse grow shows. Regulations being drawn up this summer will determine the future of the industry, and could shut the door on the potential for community-based outdoor organic marijuana co-operatives. [continues 193 words]
Investment Property Owners Association of Nova Scotia (IPOANS) is not in favour of the proposed Federal Government's cannabis legalization legislation. "Nova Scotia's Cannabis Legalization Working Group must take into consideration multi-family unit dwellings' high-density living environment when writing cannabis regulations," says IPOANS president Jeremy Jackson. Adding "The current legislation, as is, fails to protect tenants' right to peaceful enjoyment of their homes, a right guaranteed under the Nova Scotia Residential Tenancy Act." According to Statistics Canada's 2011 National Household Survey, there are 111,000 renter households in Nova Scotia. Taking into account an average 1.5 occupancy factor per renter household, marijuana use and cultivation places 166,000 Nova Scotians' health and safety in jeopardy. [continues 279 words]
City man alleges bank discriminated against his family because his son and daughter-in-law were growing medicinal marijuana A federal judge has granted a Greater Sudbury man's application for judicial review of a Canadian Human Rights Commission decision last year to dismiss his 2010 complaint, which alleged the Bank of Nova Scotia discriminated against his family by demanding repayment of a mortgage because his son and daughter-in-law were growing medicinal marijuana. Robert McIlvenna filed the complaint on Aug. 23, 2010, but the commission dismissed it in a letter in March 2012, deciding that the facts as alleged did not constitute a discriminatory practice. That decision was quashed through the Federal Court of Appeal, which sent it back to the commission for further investigation, but the commission dismissed it again, after further investigation, on June 16, 2016. [continues 1430 words]
An initiative to amend Detroit's medical marijuana ordinance to allow dispensaries to operate near liquor stores, child-care centers and parks could appear on the November ballot, after a group behind the effort submitted thousands of signatures backing the measure. Citizens for Sensible Cannabis spokesman Jonathan Barlow confirmed his group submitted petitions late last month seeking to amend Chapter 24 of the city's code. Elections Director Daniel Baxter said the group met the threshold of required signatures and his department has since turned the initiative over to the Detroit City Council, which is expected to consider it Tuesday. [continues 935 words]
