Money That Didn't Go to Drug Cartels.

Since legalizing cannabis across the entire state, Colorado has seen some amazing profits. In 2016, the first state to legalize marijuana for medical as well as recreational use has sold nearly $1.1 billion worth of cannabis and related products. Wow.

Think about all that money that didn’t go to drug cartels and other various illegal dealers. And what about the tax? That is a lot of tax on $1 billion!

 Bills have been introduced in both the House and Senate to legalized marijuana for medicinal use in West Virginia.

SB 386 and House Bill 2071 would authorize the use of pharmaceutical cannabis to treat certain medical conditions. In the Senate, Patricia Rucker, R-Jefferson, is one of 12 senators sponsoring the bill. In the House, three delegates have sponsored the bill.

The bill in the House states medicinal marijuana would be an appropriate medical treatment for a person diagnosed with cancer or a disease, disorder or condition in which use of the cannabis based pharmaceutical product alleviates symptoms such as seizures, severe and persistent muscle spasm, and no other satisfactory alternative treatment option exists for the patient.

Fake news is unfortunately rampant in our age of mass communication, and the marijuana industry is not immune. There are sites reporting that the Trump Administration is planning on raiding legal dispensaries in various states, and after investigating these reports, 420 Intel concludes that these claims are unfounded. We cannot find any evidence to support them, and we are warning cannabis busineses to be wary of speculative articles like this one (note the clickbaity title):

Trump's administration intend to raid legal marijuana dispensaries

Former Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura, no stranger to shocking the political establishment, has set his sights on cannabis legalization, recently penning the book, Jesse Ventura’s Marijuana Manifesto.

A Republican Minot senator raised concerns about the price of medical marijuana at a town hall meeting over the weekend -- making note that he asked for a fee of only $25 to get an authorization card instead of the $200 fee proposed so far in the Senate bill.

Medical marijuana would be expensive in North Dakota under a legislative bill that passed 40-6 in Senate and now is before the House, he said.

Sen. Oley Larsen, R-Minot, cited costs that could run from $300 to $700 a month for those who smoke medical marijuana to $1,200 to $1,700 a month for those who use the oil.

Not all medicinal marijuana is created equal. That's what some experts are saying as they warn about the health risks and curtailed effectiveness associated with smoking medicine.

As medical pot becomes increasingly mainstream and Canada moves toward legalizing the substance, health experts are emphasizing the need for doctors and patients to consider the sometimes serious side effects linked to the various ways of consuming the drug.

Paul Farnan, an addictions specialist at the University of British Columbia, likened a recommendation to smoke medicinal marijuana to a doctor handing out a prescription to light up an opium pipe.

‘Israel’s Cabinet has approved new measures on the path to decriminalize the use of marijuana in the country. Anyone caught using the drug for the first time will only be fined roughly $270 instead of facing criminal charges.

The new policy formulated by the Public Security and Justice ministries shifts focus from criminal prosecution of smokers to administrative fines and educational campaigns.

The policy abandons criminal proceedings against would be first-time offenders who are caught smoking weed in public. Instead, they will be fined 1,000 shekels ($271). The fine will double if the offender is caught the second time.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer says many peculiar things. Regarding marijuana, he recently said, “I do believe that you’ll see greater enforcement.” He also distinguished between recreational and medical marijuana before making a bullshit comparison with opioid addiction.

We’ll have to wait and see what this means, exactly, but a shift in the executive branch’s marijuana policy creates many complex issues. The most important one? Federal legislators could and should loosen marijuana laws soon.

Oregon lawmakers worried about a nationwide crackdown on legal marijuana under President Donald Trump’s administration are rushing to protect the personal information of pot customers in case federal agents try to seize it.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers is taking one of the first direct state actions in response to White House spokesman Sean Spicer last week suggesting a boost in enforcement of federal anti-marijuana laws.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said this week that the Justice Department is reviewing an Obama-era memo giving states flexibility in passing marijuana laws.