Canadian homegrown is out… Nevada is 18th state with medical rules… Banks don’t want dispensary cash… and more!
LEGISLATION
Health Canada // Canada plans to end its two-year-old policy of allowing homegrown cannabis for medical use. The new guidelines call for it to be “produced under secure and sanitary conditions.”
MMJ Business Daily // Nevada’s governor signed SB 374 Wednesday. It’s going to cost a couple million dollars to create and operate the regulatory structure, but that would be quickly offset if the $8 – 10 million annual sales predicted here is accurate.
NYT // Colorado lawmakers are considering standards for “driving under the influence” when the “influence” in question is legal, recreational cannabis.
OregonLive // Oregon’s governor has signed SB 281, adding PTSD to the list of conditions authorize for treatment with medical cannabis.
BUSINESS
MMJ Business Daily // Cannabis companies have joined technology start-ups in attracting angelinvestors. On Monday ArcView group committed $1,000,000 to five businesses that they see as having significant growth potential…
MMJ Business Daily // …But where will these businesses put their earnings if banks refuse to take it? That’s a developing problem, since banks don’t like having to deal with large deposits in small denominations on a regular basis. So some are closing the accounts of cannabis dispensaries.
IT’S A CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE; KEEP IT UNDER CONTROL
NYT // You are probably aware of the situation in Philadelphia, where a construction worker has been charge with six counts of involuntary manslaughter, 13 counts of reckless endangerment, and causing and risking a catastrophe after a job he was working on caused the collapse of an adjoining building. Tests showed that the excavator operator had marijuana and painkillers in his blood. A grand jury is investigating.
Court of Appeals // You can’t just go around selling cannabis and claiming you are part of a cannabis collective. There are rules and regulations to be followed, as these three entrepreneurs now know.
Phoenix New Times // This Phoenix weekly warns dealers not to list sales on Craigslist.
Mercury News // Three interior grow operations were discovered this week in San Jose, CA. Authorities estimate the street value at more than $640,000.
KPIX & SFGate // Firefighters were hampered when called to an early Monday morning fire in San Francisco’s Richmond district because a space behind a false wall in the garage was filled with cannabis plants.
IN OTHER NEWS…
Houston Chronicle // Here’s a recent argument titled, “Civil liberties erode when drug use widens,” from the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy.
NORML // Civil liberties also erode when someone is arrested for cannabis use. The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws lists facts and figures here, saying the war on medical cannabis continues unabated, despite changing public attitudes. Other advocacy groups estimate the Obama Administration has spent between $300- 500 million on marijuana enforcement.
EVENTS
Play // You’ve watched the movie, now see the musical. “Reefer Madness: the Musical” plays in San Jose through the end of June. I have it from a reliable source that “it’s pretty funny.”
Sports // More competition is expected on the National Mall next Wednesday when White House staffers take on the Marijuana Policy Project in a game of softball. The White House team will try to amend their crushing 2012 defeat, when they only scored 3 runs against MPP’s 25.
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