USA Roundup: General, Federal, California, Massachusetts, Nevada, Rhode Island, Vermont

GENERAL

Marijuana regulators face scrutiny after violations

http://www.columbian.com/news/2017/jun/23/marijuana-regulators-face-scrutiny-after-violations/

DENVER — Take a black-market business that relies on cash. Move the business out of the shadows by giving it government oversight. Hire new regulators to keep watch on the business, all without any experience regulating a brand-new industry.

The result can be a recipe for government corruption.

Recent cases in Colorado and Washington are the first known instances of current or former pot regulators being accused of having improper dealings with the industry. The two recreational marijuana states are the nation’s oldest, approving legal weed in defiance of federal law in 2012.

A pair of cases several years into the legal-weed experiment might not seem like much, but they give a black eye to all marijuana regulators and fuel old fears about the criminal element’s influence.

In a case that has caught the U.S. Justice Department’s attention, former Colorado marijuana enforcement officer Renee Rayton is accused of helping pot growers raise plants for illegal out-of-state sales.

MJ Freeway’s Source Code Stolen & Published Online

MJ Freeway’s Source Code Stolen & Published Online

FEDERAL

Medical Marijuana: How Six Senators Are Leading Fight for Federally Legal Weed

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/medical-marijuana-how-six-senators-are-leading-the-fight-w489062

Yet again Rolling Stone provide one of the better background articles on the news earlier this week…….”A group of ideologically diverse senators introduced legislation to oppose Jeff Sessions’ renewed war on pot – but that’s just the beginning”  Well worth reading

Eleven Ways the Trump Administration May Try to Kill Legal Marijuana

http://www.westword.com/news/will-trump-marijuana-crackdown-follow-heritage-foundation-list-9163188

Members of the Justice Department’s Task Force on Crime Reduction and Public Safety have been ordered to “undertake a review of existing policies” regarding federal marijuana law enforcement, among other things. Their report is due on or before July 27, and the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws believes the document may use as its template a list by a fellow at the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation of eleven ways the administration of President Donald Trump can shut down legal cannabis.

More at link above

CALIFORNIA

This, following, article is a great microcosm for thinking about the issues that CA is going to have to face with regard to planning requirements as the “Green Boom” takes off

SF’s ‘green rush’ for new cannabis stores — and a growing opposition

http://www.sfchronicle.com/politics/article/Rush-of-applicants-seek-cannabis-store-locations-11237796.php

The small Leland Avenue commercial corridor in San Francisco’s Visitacion Valley neighborhood has two nail salons, two dry cleaners, three convenience stores and a couple of Chinese bakeries.

Pretty soon it could have two medical marijuana dispensaries, as well.

In a trend that is fueling land-use fights in neighborhoods across the city, working-class Visitacion Valley has become the latest focus for cannabis entrepreneurs looking to take advantage of the so-called “green rush” that gained momentum after California voters last year approved Proposition 64, which legalized the recreational use of marijuana.

While the city has set a Sept. 1 deadline to determine how recreational cannabis will be regulated, many investors are betting those regulations will include a mechanism to convert medical pot shops into recreational outlets.

In January, the Planning Commission approved a dispensary in the commercial corridor at 2442 Bayshore Blvd., despite a large number of residents speaking out against it. On Thursday, the commission will decide the fate of a second cannabis outlet at 5 Leland Ave., just 259 feet away and around the corner from the first.

Monterey County Helps Former Flower Growers Switch To Marijuana

http://www.npr.org/2017/06/23/534056792/monterey-county-helps-former-flower-growers-switch-to-marijuana

Former flower growers in California have been devastated by cheap imported flowers from South America, so local officials in Monterey County passed an ordinance to help them grow marijuana instead.

MASSACHUSETTS

Massachusetts House & Senate Approve Conflicting Legalization Bills

 

NEVADA

MariMed Client Opens Nevada Medical Cannabis Cultivation Facility

https://globenewswire.com/news-release/2017/06/22/1027681/0/en/MariMed-Client-Opens-Nevada-Medical-Cannabis-Cultivation-Facility.html

BOSTON, June 22, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — MariMed Inc. (OTCQB:MRMD) an industry leader in the design, development, operation, funding, and optimization of medical cannabis cultivation, production, and dispensary facilities, announced today that their client, The Harvest Foundation, opened its medical cannabis cultivation facility in Clark County, Nevada.

MariMed’s experienced team drafted the application to win this cannabis cultivation license, developed the facility and has been retained to manage all its operations.  MariMed will  provide and manage security, cultivation, harvesting, packaging, merchandising , and sales. MariMed will train and manage the staff and provide HR, payroll, compliance, and reporting.

MariMed has selected a unique variety of cannabis genetics that will provide the highest quality of medicine for the qualified licensed patients in the Nevada program.  The growing systems implemented have been validated and tested at other MariMed managed facilities in other state-regulated compliant facilities. MariMed to date has developed five medical cannabis facilities in three states and has six facilities under development in two additional states.

More at link above

RHODE ISLAND

Rhode Island to form recreational cannabis study commission

VERMONT

Vermont House Blocks Renewed Legalization Efforts

 

Primary Sponsor

 


Karma Koala Podcast

Top Marijuana Blog