Archive for the ‘Legalize’ Category
Since Denver legalized pot sales, revenue is up and crime is down
If America’s first marijuana legalization experiment is any indication, the end of prohibition can start smoothly. Since retail sales of recreational marijuana began in Colorado, revenues from marijuana sales have continued trending up. At the same time, crime in Denver, home of most recreational marijuana shops in the state, has dropped nearly across the board. Colorado and Denver’s experiment with legalization is, in other words, going well. The state is seeing its coffers filled with some extra revenue, as expected. And crime, despite warnings from law enforcement officials, isn’t rising.
In the news…
Alaska Hemp has made the AlaskaDispatch with a great article by Laurel Andrews.
“I just think marijuana’s going to revolutionize things in Alaska as much as oil ever did. The prospect for jobs and new business start-ups is phenomenal. All Alaskans should be excited about it,” said Bill Fikes, a disabled veteran and owner of the website Alaska Hemp who is looking to start a cannabis grow operation should the initiative succeed.
With some “creative financing” — money from investors with relatively deep pockets — Fikes said he is already in negotiations with business partners about starting up a major grow operation and dispensary. He said they have a property owner lined up who is interested in housing the necessary infrastructure, and several growers who have specific strains they’d like to grow. He wants to start a dispensary in Wasilla, and maybe Anchorage too.
Fikes is starting to do this work now, way in front of the vote on the ballot measure, to “try and at least get a little head start on the carpetbaggers,” he said, referring to people and businesses he believes will come to Alaska to cash in on the new market. Big business that has already made millions in Colorado and Washington will not be far behind once the initiative passes, Fikes said. “I think they’re going to see Alaska as a major expansion marketplace.”
Read the entire article at: http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/20140304/alaska-entrepreneurs-look-ahead-marijuana-legalization-vote
Feds: Banks, marijuana sellers can do business
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration Friday gave banks a road map for conducting transactions with legal marijuana sellers, so these new businesses can stash away savings, make payroll and pay taxes like any other enterprise. It’s not clear banks will get on board.
Guidance issued by the Justice and Treasury departments is the latest step by the federal government toward enabling a legalized marijuana industry to operate in states that approve it. The intent is to make banks feel more comfortable working with marijuana businesses that are licensed and regulated.
Others have a keen interest, too, in a regulated financial pipeline for an industry that is just emerging from the underground. Marijuana businesses that can’t use banks may have too much cash they can’t safely put away, leaving them vulnerable to criminals. And governments that allow marijuana sales want a channel to receive taxes.
But a leading financial services trade group immediately expressed misgivings and others, too, said the guidelines don’t go far enough in protecting banks.
“After a series of red lights, we expected this guidance to be a yellow one,” said Don Childears, president and CEO of the Colorado Bankers Association. “This isn’t close to that. At best, this amounts to ‘serve these customers at your own risk’ and it emphasizes all of the risks. This light is red.”
Washington and Colorado in 2012 became the first states to approve recreational use of marijuana. A group is hoping to make Alaska the third state in the nation to do so.
Source http://www.dnj.com/viewart/20140216/NEWS/302160023/Feds-Banks-marijuana-sellers-can-do-business
Colorado lowers medical marijuana patient fee to $15
The change is mainly due to the fact the registry’s state fund has made more than enough money to cover administrative costs, said Mark Salley, spokesman for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
In fact, there is an excess of $13 million.
Read more at:http://www.strainreviews.com/medical-marijuana/colorado-lowers-medical-marijuana-patient-fee-to-15/
Marijuana : Latest News
The history of marijuana in the last century has been a slow process toward social acceptance.
In the 1936 movie “Reefer Madness,” marijuana smokers were portrayed morally-depraved pot fiends .
In the 1950s, marijuana was considered to be not just a dangerous drug, but a stepping stone to the use of heroin or even more dangerous controlled substances.
In 1979, 27 percent of Americans favored legalization, according to a CBS News/New York Times poll at the time.
Gradually, but consistently, social acceptance of marijuana continued to climb. By the 1980s, over 80 percent of high school students said they had easy access to marijuana. By 1988, no less an authority than the Drug Enforcement Administration’s administrative law judge, Francis Young, concluded that “marijuana may well be the safest psychoactive substance commonly used in human history.”
A 2009 CBS News poll found that more Americans now support legalization. Forty-one percent said they think marijuana should be made legal and 52 percent are opposed. That’s even more than in a CBS News poll in March when 31 percent said they were in favor of legalization in all cases with another seven percent saying they would favor legalization if marijuana were taxed and the money went to projects.
Today the potent smell of marijuana legalization is in the air.
Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/2741-204_162-664.html
D.C. Councilman Pushes Marijuana Legalization, Predicts Congress Would Allow It
The first medical marijuana stores opened in Washington, D.C., less than two months ago, but the D.C. Council is already considering legalizing the drug.
At-large Councilman David Grosso, an independent, introduced legislation Tuesday to legalize marijuana possession and consumption for adults over 21.
“Most people understand the role that marijuana has played in our community: Unlike what was touted for years during the ‘War on Drugs’ that it’s a gateway drug, really all marijuana’s been is a gateway to arrest and a lifetime of struggling with the justice system,” he says.
“New Beer” – Marijuana Policy Project NASCAR Ad
Jul 25, 2013
NASCAR fans attending the 2013 Brickyard 400 races are being greeted by this ad on a jumbotron at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The spoof beer ad produced by the Marijuana Policy Project — http://www.mpp.org — highlights the relative safety of marijuana compared to alcohol by characterizing marijuana as a “new ‘beer'” with “no calories,” “no hangovers,” and “no violence” associated with its use.
“New Beer” – Marijuana Policy Project NASCAR Ad