A New Study Says Medical Marijuana Reduces Suicide | New Republic

While lawmakers and politicians have been coming out in droves to endorse the legalization of medical and even recreational marijuana, the medical establishment hasn’t been as supportive. But the tide could be turning: The American Journal of Public Health has just published a study suggesting that states that legalize medical marijuana can expect a reduction in suicide rates.

A team of economists looked at state-by-state statistics on suicide rates over a 17-year period, from 1990 to 2007, comparing data from states that voted to legalize medical marijuana with those that kept it criminalized. According to their calculations, in the three years following legalization, the suicide rate dropped, on average, 10.8 percent among men in their 20s and 9.8 percent for men in their 30s.

“The negative relationship between legalization and suicides among young men is consistent with the hypothesis that marijuana can be used to cope with stressful life events,” wrote the authors.

Alaska moves another step closer to August marijuana-legalization vote | Anchorage Daily News

Alaska moved one big step closer Tuesday to a public vote on legalizing marijuana.

On Tuesday, a ballot initiative campaign to decriminalize and regulate pot reached the signature threshold necessary under state election law to put the issue on the Aug. 19 primary ballot.

If the measure passes, Alaska would become the third state in the nation, after Colorado and Washington, to allow cannabis for recreational use.

Backers modeled the proposed initiative after Colorado’s new law, which regulates and taxes marijuana similarly to alcohol.

The food in Colorado is going to pot | USA Today

DENVER — Would you like those pot brownies in regular or gluten-free?

Retailers across Colorado are baking, injecting, spraying and infusing marijuana into just about every conceivable food as they race to meet demand for what are known as edibles.

While pot brownies are perhaps the best-known form, you can now buy marijuana-infused foods ranging from hard candies to cookies, olive oil, granola bars, chocolate truffles and spaghetti sauce.

Retailers even sell marijuana extracts known as tincture so people can dose their own cooking. Prices vary, depending on the strength and number of doses in each item.

The Obama administration’s pot politics problem | CNN

Washington (CNN) — The state-led push to legalize pot is a “chronic” problem for the Obama administration.

Marijuana is not only legal in Colorado and Washington, but cannabis has become a cottage industry complete with 420 sampler tours and shops where customers can buy pot brownies or candy in those two states.

And New York and Florida could soon join the 20 states and the District of Columbia where medical marijuana is legal, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The administration has taken a fuzzy stance on the matter: in states where it’s legal to puff, the government will pass on punishment.

Marijuana Decriminalization Advances in Washington, D.C. | Bloomberg

The city council in Washington, D.C., took a first step toward decriminalizing marijuana in the nation’s capital amid a widening U.S. push to loosen sanctions against users of the drug.

The District of Columbia council, on an 11-1 vote, gave initial approval yesterday to lowering the punishment for possession of as much as an ounce of marijuana to a fine, instead of potential jail time. The bill faces a second vote before it goes to Mayor Vincent Gray for approval. The Democrat is in favor of the change.

Pot buyers add more than $1M to Colorado tax coffers | NBC News

DENVER — In the first month of legal recreational marijuana sales in Colorado, retailers who shared their proprietary data with NBC News say they have collected $1.24 million in tax revenue.

Half of the state’s 35 licensed recreational retailers participated in the NBC News survey. The 18 retailers shared the first 27 days of their tax data because they say they believe it will help their image.

In the first month of operation, sellers of recreational marijuana are doing brisk business in Colorado. One seller said she averages about $20,000 a day in sales.

In several cases, some of those sharing data had only sold recreational pot for four days due to complications with obtaining their state and local licenses.

In a back-of-the-napkin calculation, those who shared the data say they figure February’s tax collections in Colorado likely will exceed a quarter of a million dollars a day, putting it on pace to near $100 million annually.

Entrepreneurs Seek Profits From Pot | Wall Street Journal

In 2010, Jake George saw a market waiting to be served and staked everything on a startup: He and his wife, Lydia, sold most of their assets, downsized to a smaller apartment in Issaquah, Wash., and came up with $10,000 to fund GreenLink Collective.

The gamble paid off. Sales have doubled each year, Mr. George says, and the couple has opened a second branch.

A classic story, except for what Mr. George sells: marijuana.

It’s legal in less than half the country and still illegal under federal law. It comes with cultural baggage and controversial associations. But a growing number of entrepreneurs like Mr. George are trying to turn cannabis into big business.

New NCIA Bylaws Allow Board Election Voting by All Members

The National Cannabis Industry Association’s board of directors conducted its quarterly meeting in mid-January in Las Vegas. The board approved an annual budget and provided input on the overall strategy of the association. Additionally, the board approved one exciting change to NCIA’s bylaws — granting an additional benefit to many of our members by opening the annual board election to all membership levels rather than providing voting rights only to Sponsoring and Sustaining members.

Our new voting system is a weighted system that allows basic members (i.e. those paying $100 monthly or $1,000 annually) one vote in the annual board election conducted in April. Sponsoring members will receive two votes and Sustaining members are granted five votes, ensuring that members are represented commensurate to their financial investment in the industry’s advocacy efforts.

This year’s board election will be conducted online starting the last week of April and several candidates are expected to contend for nine open board seats. If you are interested in running for a seat on the NCIA board, please contact us at info@thecannabisindustry.org for more information.

Some Weed Shops Face 93 Percent Tax Rates | The Wire

As more states legalize recreational and medical marijuana (with President Obama’s tacit approval), the tension between federal and state law is getting worse. Legal pot businesses have been forced to deal almost entirely in cash because banks are afraid to take their money. And now dispensaries aren’t even sure how to file their taxes. Normally, business get federal tax breaks on expenses, but that’s not the case here. Pot shops have estimated tax rates anywhere from 60 to 93 percent.

A few members of Congress have tried to get together to fix the problem, but it’s a contentious issue that doesn’t have widespread support on either side of the aisle. Most Republicans are all for tax breaks, but many oppose marijuana legalization. A lot of Democrats support legalization, but some aren’t as sympathetic to business owners. Republican Rep. Tim Griffin, who sits on the House Ways and Means Committee, tells Politico, “Why would we allow companies operating in violation of federal law to take federal tax breaks? It makes no sense.” Democratic Rep. Earl Blumenauer has sponsored a bill to change the tax code so that weed shops can write off expenses, but only 12 members have co-sponsored it. Grover Norquist, at least, is sympathetic to pot shop owners.

Puff, puff: Pass the tax break | Politico

Dude, where’s my tax deduction?

That’s the question the burgeoning marijuana industry has for the federal government. Tax law bars the businesses from deducting expenses related to the distribution of their product — even if they’re operating legally under state law.

Pot shops are banned from writing off labor, rent, health insurance, advertising costs or other expenses that most companies deduct to lower their tax bills. The result is a tax rate as high as 80 percent, according to the industry, for those in the 20 states with legal medical marijuana and the two states with recreational pot.

The situation has become a buzz kill for businesses where the marijuana industry is booming.

Colorado Supreme Court to review marijuana workplace law | Associated Press

DENVER — Pot may be legal in Colorado, but you can still be fired for using it. Now Colorado’s Supreme Court has agreed to review a marijuana-related firing in a case that could have big implications for the state’s pot smokers.

The Court agreed Monday to review the case of Brandon Coats, a quadriplegic medical-marijuana patient who was fired from his job at Dish Network in 2010 after failing a drug test. The company did not allege Coats was ever impaired on the job.

Statewide vote puts Florida at forefront of marijuana debate | Tampa Tribune

TALLAHASSEE — The decision by the Florida Supreme Court approving a statewide vote on a medical marijuana amendment opens the possibility of a hard-fought campaign and moves the state to the front lines of the national effort to liberalize marijuana laws.

The court’s 4-3 decision means the proposed amendment to the state constitution will go on the state’s Nov. 4 general election ballot. Last week, the initiative crossed its other hurdle — getting more than 683,000 validated signatures on petitions.

Attorney General Promises Action on Marijuana Banking Reform

On Thursday, Jan. 23, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder made headlines when he said that the Departments of Justice and Treasury are working on guidance to allow banks to provide services to state-legal cannabis-related businesses. Though Holder set no deadline for the new guidelines to be released, his comment that they would come “very soon” inspired optimism that a fix for the current banking crisis could be imminent.

NCIA applauded the Attorney General’s comments with a statement from executive director Aaron Smith:

“For the legal, regulated cannabis industry, this is very welcome news. We have been anxiously awaiting clarity on the banking issue from the Justice and Treasury Departments for many months. To hear that guidance will be issued ‘very soon’ is encouraging. It’s critical that we fix this issue before February 20, when our Colorado members must pay their first round of state taxes, or the Colorado Department of Revenue may be forced to accept more than $1 million in cash payments.

We’re grateful to Attorney General Holder and other federal officials who have been working to resolve this crisis. The safety of our members is threatened by the current lack of banking access and this resolution cannot come soon enough.”

Despite the encouraging words from the A.G., we know it’s far too early to declare victory on the banking issue. NCIA will continue to put pressure on both regulators and members of Congress to produce a sustainable solution for the industry’s banking needs.

It is also important to note that Representatives Ed Perlmutter (D-CO) and Denny Heck (D-WA), along with 23 bipartisan co-sponsors, have introduced the Marijuana Businesses Access to Banking Act (H.R. 2652). This piece of congressional legislation, if passed, would provide statutory protection to banks that provide services to marijuana businesses.

More stories on A.G. Holder’s comments:

Family’s business ambitions: Become Costco of marijuana | Denver Post

By Eric Gorski for the Denver Post

In a warehouse district of northeast Denver, right next to a post office, the Williams family is building the Costco of weed.

Nine relatives from three generations work behind the bulletproof glass at Medicine Man, which opened in 2010, grew into one of the state’s largest medical marijuana dispensaries and has aspirations of becoming a national brand if pot legalization continues its march.

As marijuana attitudes shift, this may be a year of legalization | Los Angeles Times

The new year is shaping up to be one of the marijuana movement’s strongest ever.

The first legal pot storefronts in America opened to long lines in Colorado 20 days ago. Washington state is poised to issue licenses for producing, processing and selling the Schedule I drug — once officials sift through about 7,000 applications.

Signature gatherers have been at work in at least five states, including California, to put marijuana measures on the ballot in 2014. On Wednesday, organizers announced they had gathered more than 1 million signatures in favor of putting a medical marijuana measure before voters in Florida, a high-population bellwether that could become the first Southern state to embrace pot.

Obama: Pot is not more dangerous than alcohol | Associated Press

President Barack Obama said he doesn’t think marijuana is more dangerous than alcohol, ‘‘in terms of its impact on the individual consumer.’’

‘‘As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life. I don’t think it is more dangerous than alcohol,’’ the president said an interview with ‘‘The New Yorker’’ magazine.

Smoking marijuana is ‘‘not something I encourage, and I’ve told my daughters I think it’s a bad idea, a waste of time, not very healthy,’’ Obama said.

Obama’s administration has given states permission to experiment with marijuana regulation, and laws recently passed in Colorado and Washington legalizing marijuana recently went into effect. The president said it was important for the legalization of marijuana to go forward in those states to avoid a situation in which only a few are punished while a large portion of people have broken the law at one time or another.

Cannabis industry poised to become Capitol power player | The Sacramento Bee

Nearly all the power players showed up at the Citizen Hotel a few months ago, seizing the opportunity to give legislative candidates an early indoctrination into the ways of the Capitol.

Bankers, Realtors, doctors, casino operators, labor, alcohol and the insurance industry sponsored the daylong Leadership California Institute session.

Oh, and the California Cannabis Industry Association was there, too.

“We are happy to report that CCIA was received with open arms,” the organization said in an email to its supporters after the event. “Almost every attendee made an attempt to come speak with us during the day, including the 30+ legislative candidates.”

Legalized medicinal pot has new supporter: Harry Reid | Las Vegas Sun

Several Nevada municipalities are issuing moratoriums on medical marijuana dispensaries, but Harry Reid really thinks they should be moving in the opposite direction – toward making medicinal pot legal.

“If you’d asked me this question a dozen years ago, it would have been easy to answer – I would have said no, because marijuana leads to other stuff,” the Senate majority leader told the Sun today. “But I can’t say that anymore.”

“I think we need to take a real close look at this,” Reid went on. “I think that there’s some medical reasons for marijuana.”

States take the lead on pot | Politico

Americans are growing more hip to legalizing marijuana. In fact, a House bill to do just that is one of the most viewed proposals on Congress’s official legislative tracking site.

But the overwhelming feeling on Capitol Hill is to leave the issue to the states. Both Democrats open to the pot experiment and libertarian-leaning Republicans are flying the states’ rights banner as Colorado and Washington state implement their groundbreaking new marijuana legalization laws.

…

On the lobbying and advocacy side of the equation, medical marijuana industries in 20 states and the District of Columbia have created a growing semi-legitimate industry — represented by the National Cannabis Industry Association. The trade group has nearly quadrupled in size in the past year, to about 400 members, and now has five full-time employees.

Sen. Michael Bennet pushes Departments of Justice, Treasury to allow marijuana businesses access to banking | Denver Post

WASHINGTON — Sen. Michael Bennet on Friday urged the Departments of Justice and Treasury to issue guidance so Colorado marijuana retail stores can legally and confidently access the commercial banking system.

Because marijuana is still considered illegal under the federal Controlled Substances Act, many large commercial banks are wary about dealing with the licensed businesses. As a result, many of the retail shops operate in cash only — something that poses considerable danger to the stores and their employees, the letter said.

Colorado lawmakers to feds: Let marijuana businesses bank | Washington Post

Advocates for the legalization of marijuana celebrated a hard-won fight Jan. 1, when sales for recreational use began in Colorado, but one question remained: What will those who make and sell pot do with all their money? Now, some of Colorado’s congressional delegation want the Treasury and Justice departments to accelerate their review of the issue.

In a Friday letter to top officials at both departments, both the state’s senators and four of its seven representatives asked the federal government to give advice to Colorado’s marijuana businesses on how to access the banking system.

“In crafting such guidance, your respective agencies should work with the various banking regulators to ensure that these retail stores and dispensaries have some degree of access to the banking system,” they write. “At the same time, this guidance should include sufficient safeguards to ensure that access to the banking system will not facilitate any form of money laundering or other illegal activities.”

Recreational pot sales: Where the grass is much greener | CNN.com

For all the talk about how weed is recreational, the reality is it’s financial. In fact, the expected boon is Colorado’s “green rush” — new taxes for government and untold millions to be made by growers and merchants. And if opening week is any indication, there’s clearly gold in them thar buds.

Colorado’s Weed Workers, They’re Just Like Us! | Huffington Post

Managing a marijuana store isn’t that different from running a Subway sandwich shop. It basically comes down to keeping track of the green.

“You have to really keep an inventory of all the lettuce that comes into your store when you’re a manager of Subway,” David Martinez, the general manager at 3D Cannabis Center in Denver and a former Subway manager, told The Huffington Post. “It’s the same thing here, you have to keep the inventory of all the marijuana that comes through the store.”

A job at a pot shop hardly fulfills some stoner fantasy out of a Cheech & Chong flick, but that hasnt stopped dozens of eager job candidates in Colorado, which legalized recreational marijuana on Jan. 1, from trying to get one. The newly launched industry is expected to add $359 million to the states economy by the end of the year, according to a report from Arcview Market Research. Some black- and grey-market jobs are turning legitimate as the underground industry legalizes, noted Jeffrey Miron, a Harvard economist who has studied the economic impacts of legalization. And employers are desperate to fill positions.

Alaska group takes next step to legalize marijuana | Associated Press

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A citizens’ group hoping to make Alaska the third state in the nation to legalize recreational use of marijuana took a step closer Wednesday, submitting more than 46,000 signatures to the state election office.

If enough signatures are verified — they need about 30,000 qualified signatures — the question of whether to make pot legal in the nation’s northernmost state will go before voters in the Aug. 19 primary. Signatures must come from at least 7 percent of voters in at least 30 House districts.

“It’s clear that Alaskans are eager to have an opportunity to express their displeasure with the current system and make a change,” said one of sponsors, Tim Hinterberger, a professor in the School of Medical Education at the University of Alaska Anchorage.

Colorado marijuana stores see steady business, dwindling inventory | Denver Post

Only one week into Colorado’s history-making recreational marijuana industry, one shop has already sold out of pot, others fear they may soon join it and perhaps as many as 100,000 people have legally purchased marijuana at Colorado stores.

Industry advocates estimate Colorado stores have already done more than $5 million in sales — including $1 million on New Year’s Day — though National Cannabis Industry Association executive director Aaron Smith acknowledges those are “back-of-the-envelope” figures. The owner of one store said she expects to make as much in sales in the first 10 days of January as she did all of last year selling medical marijuana.

Pot prohibitionists’ pathetic points [Opinion] | New York Post

On Monday, less than a week after Colorado’s state-licensed marijuana shops began serving recreational consumers, the anti-pot group Project SAM thanked three public figures who “have galvanized our movement.”

One of them was Tina Brown, former editor of Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and The Daily Beast, whose contribution consisted of this insight, offered to her 75,000 Twitter followers last Friday: “Legal weed contributes to us being a fatter, dumber, sleepier nation even less able to compete with the Chinese.”

This is what passes for smart commentary among pot prohibitionists.

More than fifty recreational pot shops now open in Colorado, says industry rep | Westword

Today marks one week since the launch of recreational marijuana sales in Colorado, and despite the concerns voiced by pot-legalization critics, the state appears to be surviving just fine.

Meanwhile, the expansion of the recreational cannabis biz continues apace. According to one industry representative, more than fifty are now open statewide, with more expected to start operating in the coming days.

“Everybody’s just done a really good job of doing their job,” says Betty Aldworth, deputy director of the National Cannabis Industry Association. “When it comes to consumers, regulators, officials, businesses, its hard to imagine this roll out going better.”

Pot sales of $5 million in five days and no place to put the money? Denver City Council reacts | Westword

The inability of marijuana businesses to straight-forwardly stash their cash in standard financial institutions due to federal banking regulations aimed at stopping drug trafficking has been an issue in Colorado for years. But despite Obama administration statements about possible fixes and a request from Governor John Hickenlooper more than three months ago, nothing has been done. Now, however, with the recreational pot biz reportedly taking in more than $5 million in the first five days of sales, the Denver City Council is raising its voice.

Denver asks that pot businesses have access to federal banking system | Denver Post

The Denver City Council asked that Colorado’s hundreds of marijuana businesses be granted access to federal banking institutions now that the substance is legal for commerce.

In its first meeting of the new year, council voted unanimously on the proclamation Monday night.

The request comes five days after marijuana became legal for recreational use in the state.

Though states like Colorado — and shortly Washington — have allowed legal marijuana use for adults, the substance remains illegal under federal law, meaning banks are reluctant to offer services.

For the most part, marijuana shops in Colorado deal in cash only, which raises multiple safety and legal concerns, council members agreed.

Legal marijuana in Colorado: Was rollout a success? | Christian Science Monitor

Nearly a week into Colorado’s unprecedented foray into marijuana legalization, it’s all going smoothly.

Possessing and using recreational marijuana has actually been legal for a full year in both Washington and Colorado. But Jan. 1 marked the first time that the drug could be sold commercially to nonmedical customers. At least a couple dozen stores are already operating around the state, legally selling marijuana for recreational use to adults.

The biggest concerns of critics – whether the new policy will increase teen use or lead to marijuana trickling out of the state, for instance – may take months or years to assess. But so far, the biggest snarls have revolved around shortage of supply and long lines at the handful of dispensaries. Since Colorado, for now, requires marijuana businesses to grow most of the cannabis they sell, supply and demand could be tricky, especially in these early months.