"Liquidation sale," it said. Attached was a spreadsheet of items up for grabs: LED grow lights for $500 apiece. Rotary evaporators for hash oil, $10,000. Across the Columbia River in Oregon, where the state's top marijuana regulator recently warned of an "existential crisis" in the industry, it's an open secret some licensed growers have funneled product to the out-of-state black market just to stay afloat. California's "Apple store of weed," MedMen, is teetering with millions in unpaid bills, while the Canadian cannabis company Curaleaf has shuttered most of its cultivation operations in California, Oregon and Colorado. [continues 1581 words]
SEATTLE -- Five years after Washington launched its pioneering legal marijuana market, officials are proposing an overhaul of the state's industry rules, with plans for boosting minority ownership of pot businesses, paving the way for home deliveries of medical cannabis and letting the smallest growers increase the size of their operations to become more competitive. Liquor and Cannabis Board Director Rick Garza detailed the proposals -- part of what the board calls "Cannabis 2.0" -- in an interview with The Associated Press. It's an effort to picture what the legal marijuana market will look like over the next five years, after spending the past five years largely regulating by reaction as the difficulties of building an industry from infancy absorbed the agency's attention. [continues 818 words]
SEATTLE (AP) - With a deadline looming for the merging of Washington's recreational and medical marijuana markets, cities around the state are warning unlicensed pot dispensaries to close up shop. July 1 marks the date when, after nearly two decades of confusion about the status of medical marijuana, the industry becomes regulated for the first time. Hundreds of pot shop workers are being certified as medical marijuana consultants, the Department of Health is preparing a voluntary registry of patients, and the Liquor and Cannabis Board has been granting endorsements enabling recreational marijuana stores to sell for medical use. [continues 612 words]
Two New Laws Aim to Give Some Relief to Farmers, Processors and Retailers SEATTLE (AP) - Washington launched its second-in-the-nation legal marijuana market with just a handful of stores selling high-priced pot to long lines of customers. A year later, the state has about 160 shops open, tax revenues have soared past expectations and sales top $1.4 million per day. And, who knows - the industry might even start making some money. Washington pot farmers, processors and retailers have complained all year that heavy state and federal tax burdens, along with competition from an unregulated medical marijuana market, have made it difficult for them to do business. [continues 410 words]
SEATTLE (AP) - The federal government is chipping in money for a three-year pilot study using sewage samples to determine levels of marijuana use in two Washington cities - research that could help answer some key questions about pot legalization, the University of Puget Sound announced Monday. The National Institutes of Health has agreed to pay $120,000 so that Dan Burgard, an associate chemistry professor, can conduct a study looking at how per capita pot use changed after Washington's first legal pot shops opened last July. [continues 135 words]
Representatives Attend Forum on Regulatory, Social Issues TULALIP, Wash. (AP) - The Justice Department's announcement in December that it would allow the nation's Indian tribes to legalize and regulate marijuana on their reservations brought notes of caution if not silence or opposition from many tribes. They were reluctant given the substance-abuse problems that already plague many reservations. But the attendance at a conference on the topic Friday gave an early indication of just how many might be weighing it, even if a thicket of potential legal issues remain. [continues 619 words]
The spike in numbers since marijuana was legalized includes a troubling jump in cases involving young kids. Marijuana-related calls to poison control centers in Colorado and Washington state have spiked since the states began allowing legal sales last year, with an especially troubling increase in calls concerning young children. But it's not clear how much of the increase might be related to more people using marijuana, as opposed to people feeling more comfortable to report their problems now that the drug is legal for adults over 21. [continues 376 words]
SEATTLE (AP) - Marijuana-related calls to poison control centers in Washington and Colorado have spiked since the states began allowing legal sales last year, with an especially troubling increase in calls concerning young children. But it's not clear how much of the increase might be related to more people using marijuana, as opposed to people feeling more comfortable to report their problems now that the drug is legal for adults over 21. New year-end data being presented to Colorado's Legislature next week show that the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center received 151 calls for marijuana exposure last year, the first year of retail recreational pot sales. That was up from 88 calls in 2013 and 61 in 2012, the year voters legalized pot. [continues 666 words]
(AP) - Marijuana-related calls to poison control centers in Washington and Colorado have spiked since the states began allowing legal sales last year, with an especially troubling increase in calls concerning young children. But it's not clear how much of the increase might be related to more people using marijuana, as opposed to people feeling more comfortable to report their problems now that the drug is legal for adults over 21. New year-end data being presented to Colorado's Legislature next week show that the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center received 151 calls for marijuana exposure last year, the first year of retail recreational pot sales. That was up from 88 calls in 2013 and 61 in 2012, the year voters legalized pot. Calls to the Washington Poison Center for marijuana exposures jumped by more than half, from 158 in 2013 to 246 last year. Public health experts say they are especially concerned about young children accidentally eating marijuana edibles. Calls involving children nearly doubled in both states: to 48 in Washington involving children 12 or under, and to 45 in Colorado involving children 8 or under. [continues 193 words]
High Taxes and Not Enough Stores Is Creating an "Economic Nightmare" for Farmers. SEATTLE (AP) - Washington's legal marijuana market opened last summer to a dearth of weed. Some stores periodically closed because they didn't have pot to sell. Prices were through the roof. Six months later, the equation has flipped, bringing serious growing pains to the new industry. A big harvest of sun-grown marijuana from Eastern Washington last fall flooded the market. Prices are starting to come down in the state's licensed pot shops, but due to the glut, growers are - surprisingly - struggling to sell their marijuana. Some are already worried about going belly-up, finding it tougher than expected to make a living in legal weed. [continues 672 words]
Too Few Retailers to Absorb Big Fall Harvest Wholesale Prices Have Plunged Since Summer Shortage; State Official Hopes for 100 New Stores in Coming Months (AP) - Washington's legal marijuana market opened last summer to a dearth of weed. Some stores periodically closed because they didn't have pot to sell. Prices were through the roof. Six months later, the equation has flipped, bringing serious growing pains to the new industry. A big harvest of sun-grown marijuana from Eastern Washington last fall flooded the market. Prices are starting to come down in the state's licensed pot shops, but due to the glut, growers are - surprisingly - struggling to sell their marijuana. [continues 802 words]
Medical Uses, Black Market Pose Challenges for Legal-Pot States SEATTLE (AP) - A year into the nation's experiment with legal, taxed marijuana sales, Washington and Colorado find themselves wrestling not with the federal interference many feared, but with competition from medical marijuana or even outright black market sales. In Washington, the black market has exploded since voters legalized marijuana in 2012, with scores of legally dubious medical dispensaries opening and some pot delivery services brazenly advertising that they sell outside the legal system. [continues 764 words]
SEATTLE (AP) - A year into the nation's experiment with legal, taxed marijuana sales, Washington and Colorado find themselves wrestling not with the federal interference many feared, but with competition from medical marijuana or even outright black market sales. In Washington, the black market has exploded since voters legalized marijuana in 2012, with scores of legally dubious medical dispensaries opening and some pot delivery services brazenly advertising that they sell outside the legal system. Licensed shops say taxes are so onerous that they can't compete. [continues 298 words]
The Legalization of Recreational Marijuana Has Brought Unexpected Problems: Competition, High Taxes and Black Market Sales. SEATTLE (AP) - A year into the nation's experiment with legal, taxed marijuana sales, Washington and Colorado find themselves wrestling not with the federal interference many feared, but with competition from medical marijuana or even outright black market sales. In Washington, the black market has exploded since voters legalized marijuana in 2012, with scores of legally dubious medical dispensaries opening and some pot delivery services brazenly advertising that they sell outside the legal system. [continues 560 words]
SEATTLE (AP) - A year into the nation's experiment with legal, taxed marijuana sales, Washington and Colorado find themselves wrestling not with the federal interference many feared, but with competition from medical marijuana or even outright black market sales. In Washington, the black market has exploded since voters legalized marijuana in 2012, with scores of legally dubious medical dispensaries opening and some pot delivery services brazenly advertising that they sell outside the legal system. Licensed shops say taxes are so onerous that they can't compete. [continues 667 words]
(AP) - Marijuana advocates, fresh off victories for legal recreational pot in Oregon and the nation's capital, are already preparing for their next target, and it's a big one: California. They are aiming to ask voters in the nation's largest state to legalize marijuana for recreational use in 2016, hoping to draw on a more liberal and larger electorate during a presidential election to help them avoid a repeat of their 2010 failed pot measure. The victories in Oregon and the District of Columbia on Tuesday came in a midterm election that saw a low turnout and a conservative electorate hand Republicans back control of the U.S. Senate for the first time since 2006. [continues 268 words]
17 Private Meetings 3 Board Members Met With Police, Others About Legal Marijuana (AP) - The Washington Liquor Control Board broke the state's open-meetings law 17 times as it began working on rules for the recreational-marijuana industry, a judge ruled. Thurston County Superior Court Judge Christine Schaller issued the ruling Friday in a case brought by Arthur West, a critic of the legal-pot law. The judge said that although the board broke the law, it didn't take any actions at the meetings that would warrant throwing out the marijuana rules it eventually adopted. [continues 303 words]
Need to Be Licensed or Shut Down But State Hasn't Set Up Licensing System Yet (AP) - The city of Seattle is warning more than 300 medical-marijuana businesses that their days could be numbered. Officials have sent letters to medical-marijuana growers, processors and dispensaries reminding them they need to either shut down or be licensed by the state by next summer. The problem is that the Legislature hasn't created a licensing system to allow sales of medical marijuana. [continues 285 words]
Banks Need Updates to Rate Client Risk 2 of State's Top-Selling Shops Are in Vancouver Banking remains a thorny issue for legal marijuana businesses, but regulators in Washington state are trying to make it easier for financial institutions to track their pot-related customers. In the last few days, the state's Liquor Control Board has started posting the sales activity of licensed marijuana growers, sellers and processors online - along with any warnings or fines issued to businesses caught out of compliance. The data show that two of state's top-selling pot shops are in Vancouver, just across the Columbia River from Portland. [continues 554 words]
Judge Says Small City Can Prohibit the State-Licensed Businesses Critics Say Local Bans Run Counter to Law Legalizing Pot TACOMA, Wash. (AP) - A state judge said Friday that a small city can continue to ban state-licensed marijuana businesses, in a case with big implications for Washington's experiment in legal pot. Pierce County Superior Court Judge Ronald Culpepper issued the ruling after extensive arguments over whether Initiative 502, the voter-approved state law that legalizes adults' recreational use of marijuana, left any room for such local bans. [continues 386 words]
