Free Republic

A leader of California’s marijuana industry warned Wednesday that the state’s cannabis growers produce eight times the pot that is consumed in the state so some will face “painful” pressure to reduce crops under new state regulations that will ban exports after Jan. 1.

<p>CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - A Nevada judge has denied a request from a group of alcohol distributors to stop the recently approved emergency regulations that allow the state to license some retailers to transport pot from growers to storefronts.</p>

The Trump administration is readying for a crackdown on marijuana users under Attorney General Jeff Sessions. President Trump’s Task Force on Crime Reduction and Public Safety, led by Sessions, is expected to release a report next week that criminal justice reform advocates fear will link marijuana to violent crime and recommend tougher sentences for those caught growing, selling and smoking the plant. Sessions sent a memo in April updating the U.S. Attorney’s Offices and Department of Justice Department (DOJ) component heads on the work of the task force, which he said would be accomplished through various subcommittees. In the memo,...

Pharmacies in Uruguay started selling marijuana Wednesday under a four-year-old law that has made the small South American country the first in the world to legalize pot from production to sale. At a pharmacy in Montevideo's old town, five customers were waiting to buy when the store shutters went up at the start of the day. "I've been smoking since I was 14. Let's give it a try," said a 37-year-old man who would not give his name or allow his picture to be taken. The pharmacist who sold the marijuana would not give her name either. She said it...

A former Pepsi factory that sat vacant for a decade is being reincarnated as an indoor marijuana grow — one of the largest in the pot-friendly state of Colorado. Doyen Elements, a holding company that leases real estate properties out to legal cannabis companies, bought an old bottling plant in Pueblo County. Upon completion in 2019, the facility could potentially produce up to 70,000 pounds of marijuana flower a year. According to a recent report in Forbes, the company is one of a growing number of real estate investment firms that are making money in legal weed without actually touching...

The head of the Youngstown Federal Drug Enforcement Administration says a recent marijuana-smuggling operation with ties to Warren is the first of its kind he has seen in this area. In fact, said Bob Balzano, who runs the local DEA office, the only time he has heard of the method being deployed was in April, when a similar discovery was made in Minnesota. The marijuana was found last week inside the wheel well for a spare tire in a new Ford Fusion which was manufactured in Sonora, Mexico, at a Ford dealership in Kent, after one of the vehicles was...

Sales of recreational marijuana have blown past expectations in Nevada, threatening to leave some dispensaries with empty shelves. After Gov. Brian Sandoval endorsed a statement of emergency in the first week of legal sales, regulators are looking to bolster the supply chain. The Nevada Tax Commission is meeting Thursday to determine whether the state has enough wholesale marijuana distributors; it could also adopt emergency regulations. "Right now, only companies that are also licensed to distribute liquor in Nevada are able to bring marijuana to dispensaries," Nevada Public Radio's Casey Morell reports for NPR's Newscast unit. "The dispensaries say that's why...

Last month I gave the keynote address at the Cannabis World Congress Business Expo in New York City. CWCBExpo is the trade show for the cannabis industry. I had the pleasure of meeting thousands of like-minded cannabis activists, and the experience was truly refreshing and inspiring on many levels. I learned firsthand that those in the legal cannabis industry — whether they're growing hemp, medical marijuana or recreational marijuana in Colorado or California or Oregon or wherever — have formed a united front. Everyone at the convention was looking to work together to come up with solutions on how to...

As canna-business strategist Elise McRoberts walked across an animal skin rug and into the living room of a Pacific Heights home for the recent San Francisco launch of Beboe, an upscale cannabis brand from Los Angeles, she assumed she would see the usual faces on the marijuana circuit — growers, dispensary owners and cannabis chefs. Instead, the party was a cross-pollination of the worlds of high society, Silicon Valley, politics, fashion and design: industrial designer Yves Béhar, former Mayor Willie Brown, who carried decriminalization bills in the state assembly in the 1970s, philanthropists Katie and Todd Traina, boutique owner Emily...

The first four days of legal recreational marijuana sales generated $3 million in sales revenue and about $500,000 in tax revenue, putting Nevada on pace to achieve an estimated $30 million in sales revenue over the next six months of recreational sales, according to the Nevada Dispensary Association. The sales figure was generated from Saturday’s first day of recreational marijuana sales to Tuesday. The tax rate for recreational pot is 33 to 38 percent, depending on local regulations, with all state and local taxes included. “We had a higher demand than everybody initially thought,” dispensary association director Riana Durrett said....

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Two additional medical marijuana dispensaries -- one on Oahu, the other on Kauai – were recently given the green light by the state Health Department to begin cultivating cannabis, even though the labs needed to test marijuana products still have not been certified to begin doing so. The announcement brings what's expected to be an even bigger workload for employees from the three independent testing facilities, who have not even begun to approve any of the cannabis that's already been harvested. The continued delays have one pain specialist concerned for a very specific reason: He says one...

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The Latest on Nevada becoming the fifth state in the U.S. with stores selling marijuana for recreational purposes (all times local): Minnesota resident Edgar Rosas Lorenzo on Saturday flew with his family to Sin City for a wedding. But even before he checked in to his hotel, he stopped at a pot dispensary on the Las Vegas Strip. The 21-year-old says he learned of the legalization of recreational marijuana in Nevada while he was at the airport waiting for his flight to depart. He waited in line about 40 minutes before he could buy one-eighth of...

LAREDO, Texas – Custom and Border Protection agents have located and seized nearly two tons of marijuana hidden in a shipment of lettuce. CBP said in a release that the seizure happened at the Colombia-Solidarity International Bridge on June 26, when an officer referred a tractor-trailer hauling lettuce for secondary inspection. After “a canine, non-intrusive and physical inspection” of the trailer, CBP said agents found and seized 5,754 packages containing a total of 3,707 pounds of marijuana. The marijuana had an estimated street value around $741,000. “This is truly an example of our CBP officers’ hard work, experience and dedication...

Fueled by one of the world’s largest tourism industries, Nevada is preparing to do the same on July 1. A May report published by Gov. Brian Sandoval’s task force on marijuana estimates that up to 63 percent of recreational buyers will be tourists. “Everything we know shows that millennials are very pro-marijuana, and that’s the new marketing push,” said Nevada state Sen. Tick Segerblom, a longtime marijuana advocate. “This is a game-changer for Las Vegas and tourism here as far as I’m concerned.” “Amsterdam on steroids,” he added.

Cannabis is joining the ranks of the financial, advertising, real estate and alcohol industries with the formation of its first self-regulatory organization. The National Association of Cannabis Businesses (NACB) launched Thursday with a powerhouse leadership team and an ambitious plan: Develop and enforce national standards that will increase compliance and transparency, spur growth, and shape future federal regulations. The NACB’s slogan is “Be ready,” in anticipation of federal legalization of cannabis. The cannabis industry is on a historic growth trajectory even as its businesses operate in a fractured regulatory environment and in the face of uncertain federal policy, NACB president...

Miley Cyrus stopped smoking weed to speak more coherently — and because she was convinced the habit would eventually end her life. “I kept having this nightmare — I had a dream that I would die during my monologue on ‘SNL’ for some reason, that I would just get so stoned that I just died,” she admitted to Jimmy Fallon on “The Tonight Show” on Wednesday. “I Googled and that’s never happened … no one’s ever died from weed, but no one’s ever smoked as much as I did.” In early May, the 24-year-old boasted, “I haven’t smoked weed in...

Hodgkinson had a history of violence that did not rise to the level to prohibit him from legally owning a firearm. He was the foster father of at least two girls. The first, Wanda Ashley Stock, 17, committed suicide in 1996 by pouring gasoline on herself and setting herself on fire after a few months of living with the Hodgkinsons, the Belleville News-Democrat reports. The Hodgkinsons gave an interview to the paper after her suicide, calling her a “very practical, level-headed girl.”

CARSON CITY — A Carson City district court judge on Tuesday refused to dismiss a lawsuit brought by liquor distributors against the Department of Taxation over the distribution of recreational marijuana to pot dispensaries. Judge James Wilson said in rejecting the motion that factual disputes need to be heard in an all-day hearing set for Monday. One of those disputes involves the Tax Department’s intervention in a licensing process by liquor distributors in Clark County who were seeking to participate in the distribution process. The decision could delay the start of recreational marijuana sales originally set for July 1 via...

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is asking congressional leaders to undo federal medical marijuana protections that have been in place since 2014, according to a May letter that became public Monday. The protections, known as the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment, prohibit the Justice Department from using federal funds to prevent certain states "from implementing their own State laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession or cultivation of medical marijuana." In his letter, first obtained by Tom Angell of Massroots.com and verified independently by The Washington Post, Sessions argued that the amendment would "inhibit [the Justice Department's] authority to enforce the Controlled Substances Act."...

Recently, a crafting friend took a trip to Oregon to attend a show selling her products. She hadn’t been to the Beaver State in several years and was looking forward to the show. Afterward, she came back shaking her head. “They’ve all become lotus-eaters,” she remarked in wonder. Oregon, in case you didn’t know, recently legalized recreational marijuana. It seems a tremendous number of people at the craft show – both visitors and vendors – were stoned. Mellow. Still capable of rational thought, but not inclined to make it a priority. Laid back, man. I wonder if the ancient Greeks...