WASHINGTON - U.S. Supreme Court justices are expected to decide in their closed door meeting on Jan. 22 whether to allow Oklahoma and Nebraska to sue Colorado over its marijuana laws. The two states claim their neighbor's licensing of growers and sellers has led their own residents to travel to Colorado to buy marijuana. That in turn has strained their own law enforcement and other resources, they claim. In a brief filed last week, Oklahoma and Nebraska compared Colorado to a drug cartel that is now exporting pot to 36 states. [continues 396 words]
As the federal government begins the process of moving towards legalizing marijuana, East Kootenay Addiction Services Society will be presenting a number of articles to generate discussion about marijuana and what changes to marijuana laws could mean. This article will look at some of the common beliefs about marijuana and separate the myths from the facts. Marijuana is the most popular illicit drug used worldwide. Because of its popularity, and in part because of the push to change the legal status of marijuana in Western countries, there are many statements made about marijuana in the media and on the internet that sound factual but may not be accurate. [continues 772 words]
Gov. Jerry Brown laid out his proposed $170.7 billion budget this week for the 2016-17 fiscal year, and for the first time, detailed funding for the newly enacted Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act, which was designed by lawmakers as a complete regulatory process over the medical marijuana industry. The new regulations were initially financed with a loaned amount of $5.4 million in general funding from the current fiscal year's budget that is due to close at the beginning of July. [continues 748 words]
The Fortuna City Council voted unanimously Jan. 4 (with Councilmember Linda Gardner absent) to approve the first reading of an ordinance banning almost any medical marijuana activity, including cultivation for personal use, within city limits. The city already has a ban on medical marijuana dispensaries on its books, but the expansion of the prohibitions, City Clerk Linda McGill told the Journal, was to maintain the city's local control when state regulations go into effect. The deadline for local ordinances to be in place is March 1, prompting a statewide scramble for city and county laws. [continues 554 words]
DENVER - The $3.5 billion U.S. marijuana market is emerging as one of the nation's most power-hungry industries, with the 24-hour demands of thousands of indoor growing sites taxing electricity grids and unraveling hard-earned gains in energy conservation. Without design standards or efficient equipment, the growing facilities in the 23 states where marijuana is legal are responsible for greenhouse-gas emissions almost equal to those of every car, home and business in New Hampshire. While reams of regulations cover such things as tracking individual plants, package labeling and advertising, they lack requirements to reduce energy waste. [continues 724 words]
DENVER -- Pot's not green. The $3.5 billion U.S. cannabis market is emerging as one of the nation's most power-hungry industries, with the 24-hour demands of thousands of indoor growing sites taxing aging electricity grids and unraveling hard-earned gains in energy conservation. Without design standards or efficient equipment, the facilities in the 23 states where marijuana is legal are responsible for greenhouse-gas emissions almost equal to those of every car, home and business in New Hampshire. While reams of regulations cover everything from tracking individual plants to package labeling to advertising, they lack requirements to reduce energy waste. [continues 1060 words]
Indoor Growing Sites Tax Electric Grids, Unravel Conservation Efforts DENVER - The $3.5 billion U.S. marijuana market is emerging as one of the nation's most power-hungry industries, with the 24-hour demands of thousands of indoor growing sites taxing electricity grids and unraveling hard-earned gains in energy conservation. Without design standards or efficient equipment, the growing facilities in the 23 states where marijuana is legal are responsible for greenhouse-gas emissions almost equal to those of every car, home and business in New Hampshire. [continues 225 words]
Growing Market Cannabis Industry Canceling Out Efforts for Low-Carbon Footprint Pot's not green. The $3.5 billion U.S. cannabis market is emerging as one of the nation's most power-hungry industries, with the 24-hour demands of thousands of indoor growing sites taxing aging electricity grids and unraveling hard-earned gains in energy conservation. Without design standards or efficient equipment, the facilities in the 23 states where marijuana is legal are responsible for greenhouse-gas emissions almost equal to those of every car, home and business in New Hampshire. While reams of regulations cover everything from tracking individual plants to package labeling to advertising, they lack requirements to reduce energy waste. [continues 1078 words]
Colorado Pot Facilities Used As Much Energy As 35,000 Homes in 2014. Pot's not green. The $3.5 billion U.S. cannabis market is emerging as one of the nation's most powerhungry industries, with the 24-hour demands of thousands of indoor growing sites taxing aging electricity grids and unraveling hard-earned gains in energy conservation. Without design standards or efficient equipment, the facilities in the 23 states where marijuana is legal are responsible for greenhouse-gas emissions almost equal to those of every car, home and business in New Hampshire. While reams of regulations cover issues from tracking individual plants to package labeling to advertising, they lack requirements to reduce energy waste. [continues 1053 words]
Pot's not green. The $3.5 billion U.S. cannabis market is emerging as one of the nation's most power-hungry industries, with the 24-hour demands of thousands of indoor growing sites taxing aging electricity grids and unraveling hard-earned gains in energy conservation. Without design standards or efficient equipment, the facilities in the 23 states where marijuana is legal are responsible for greenhouse gas emissions almost equal to those of every car, home and business in New Hampshire. While reams of regulations cover everything from tracking individual plants to package labeling to advertising, they lack requirements to reduce energy waste. [continues 948 words]
In the first months of marijuana legalization in Oregon, a flood of medical marijuana shops has spread the customer base thin in parts of the state. According to a Guardian article, an oversaturation of medical marijuana dispensaries in Portland has some business owners hurting, with hundreds of business license applications still being processed. Recreational pot shops won't open until late next year. One marijuana business advocate described it as a survival-of-the-fittest situation, saying, "Those with sound business practices will survive, those without are going to fail." [continues 490 words]
County supervisors approved a voluntary registration program this week that could give local growers seeking state permits a leg up. New state medical marijuana laws, expected to go into effect in 2018, will create 17 different types of licenses for cannabis businesses. As an apparent stimulus to get applications rolling in, the legislation says that any medical marijuana business in operation and good standing in local jurisdictions by Jan. 1, 2016 will get "priority" status when applying for state licenses down the road. It's unclear what that status will provide, but the clause has left counties scrambling to determine how to recognize what "good standing" means, considering there's no county laws to date dictating how large outdoor grows can operate. (The title of this column is a quote from Senior Planner Steve Lazar describing the rush to develop regulations in the wake of new state laws.) [continues 618 words]
The hunt is on for California's marijuana czar (or czarina), with a whole new branch of state government waiting to be shaped by his or her hands. Medical marijuana legislation recently signed by Gov. Jerry Brown will establish a new Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulations under the Department of Consumer Affairs. (Depending on how you feel about the long-overdue package of laws, you might refer to it as a BuMMR or the BoMM.) Heading this bureau will be a yet-to-be-named chief bureaucrat; the SF Chronicle's Joe Garofoli reports that the state is narrowing in on job qualifications. A representative of the Department of Consumer Affairs, which will hire for the position, said the job will be relatively straightforward, as state regulatory jobs go. The director will hire 40 to 50 people to staff the new bureau, write state policy and administer the new licensing scheme's rules. The post will pay up to $128,000 a year - which seems a relatively meager wage compared to other state and county salaries. [continues 352 words]
New 'Seed-To-Sale' Regulatory System Seen As a Boon, but Challenges Remain. SACRAMENTO - An unmistakable scent, rotten-sweet and earthy, greets visitors to Basil McMahon's pine- and oak-sheltered Nevada County farm. It wafts from cannabis plants growing in a murky legal terrain between acceptance and prohibition. Over the next few years that will change, as a sweeping new package of laws will reverse years of state silence by regulating and licensing every stage of the medical marijuana industry. [continues 1419 words]
Marijuana Should Not Be Easier for a Minor to Access Than Alcohol Ballot Measure Includes Strictest Child Safeguards Proposed in Pot Legislation Measure Would Help Restore Natural Resources, Prevent Unauthorized Water Diversion As the former division chief for preventive medicine at the California Department of Public Health, I know that, like alcohol, marijuana has potential health consequences for California youths. Unfortunately, our current legal approach to non-medical marijuana use is failing to protect our kids. It is unregulated yet widely available without any child protections. [continues 566 words]
As California prepares to bring in the $1 billion medical marijuana industry from the legal shadows, growers and marketers on the pot-rich North Coast are waiting to see how much the massive regulatory structure will cost them and whether to stick instead with the prosperous but risky outlaw status they have lived with for nearly two decades. The regulatory scheme, which will cost up to $50 million, must be funded entirely by license fees paid by the industry, while new taxes on the cannabis trade - which some advocates say is one of Sonoma County's major industries - offer the prospect of millions of dollars to help pay for paving roads, hiring police and other public services. [continues 1622 words]
Entrepreneurs are pitching marijuana as a cash crop that would keep college graduates in Vermont and create thousands of jobs. The Vermont Cannabis Collaborative says in a new report that if Vermont lawmakers bring "oeorder to the chaos" of the underground illegal marijuana market, business opportunities would abound. "oeThis provides a whole new industry for our young millennials coming out of college and trying to find what to do in Vermont to jump in and become the next Steve Jobs, to become the next Ben and Jerry's, to become the next Seventh Generation," Alan Newman, a founder of Seventh Generation and Magic Hat Brewing Company, said Wednesday. [continues 641 words]
Online Alerts About Pesticide-Tainted Products Are Required. Denver health officials are requiring marijuana companies that recall products tainted with unapproved pesticides to use websites and social media accounts to alert consumers. The move comes amid concerns that few customers are learning about nine recalls the city has announced affecting tens of thousands of items across dozens of product names. Just three of the companies involved told their customers directly, a Denver Post check of their social media accounts showed. The others appear to have relied only on news releases issued by the city's Department of Environmental Health. [continues 1087 words]
The Humboldt County Planning Commission has been in the throes of a series of meetings over the last few weeks to address a proposed outdoor medical marijuana cultivation ordinance. In the course of five meetings in the last two weeks, commissioners have heard hours of public comment and talked in depth with county counsel and planning staff in the commission's mission to come up with recommendations for the ordinance. County supervisors have asked for recommendations by the commission's Dec. 3 meeting with the hope that supervisors can approve rules by March 1, the deadline to have local ordinances on the books or cede the permitting process to the state. [continues 456 words]
The Governor This Week Ordered the Quarantine and Destruction of Pot Having Unapproved Pesticides. Thousands of marijuana-infused products, recently recalled in Denver over concerns they contain unapproved pesticides, will likely be destroyed in light of the governor's order to label them a public safety hazard. Gov. John Hickenlooper on Thursday issued an executive order to quarantine and destroy any marijuana or its derivative products that contain pesticides not approved for use on cannabis. It could have a profound- and expensive-impact on the billion-dollar industry. [continues 1024 words]
