Anyone involved in the cannabis industry knows that the lack of access to banking services is one of the major issues plaguing the burgeoning industry. Actually, it is a real testament to the quality of the industry that businesses have been able to survive at all with such few banking options. Add on the 280e federal IRS tax provision that denies normal deductions for even state-legal-and-regulated businesses and it is amazing that cannabis businesses have been able to stay afloat at all.

Portland’s licensing bureaucracy, often a challenge for the sternest of businesses, is taking a heavy toll on cannabis entrepreneurs in the city, a new report argues.

The report's authors maintain the system potentially costs nascent businesses more than $22 million in lost revenue each month.

The City Council is set to consider changes, but it’s unclear how far they might go in ending the industry’s frustration.

Medical marijuana patients in Portland can have pot delivered to their doors, so should recreational users be given the same privilege? 

Portland's City Council will hear a proposal Wednesday, Dec. 14, that would legalize the delivery of recreational marijuana through licensed dealers. A vote on the plan could happen next week. 

Adrian Wayman, co-founder of Green Box, a start-up online marijuana delivery service, thinks there's a market for delivery of recreational pot products. He says there are plenty of potential customers who don't want to risk being seen going into pot shops. 

Medford officials are considering whether the city’s ban on outdoor marijuana cultivation also applies to greenhouses.

The Mail Tribune reports that the City Council on Thursday will hold a study session to discuss what constitutes a legitimate structure in the city and where marijuana can be grown.

Voters in November ruled that cannabis should only be grown indoors in the city, but a resident contacted Councilor Kevin Stine asking what inside really means.

Deputy City Attorney Kevin McConnel says the ordinance was not intended to go after grows in structures or accessory dwellings. He says the council will likely consider the questions “what is a greenhouse?” and “what makes a structure?”

Legal weed in the U.S. is impacting beer sales, according to a report.

Marijuana legalization is proving to be a downer for breweries in Colorado, Oregon and Washington.

A new report is revealing that markets in the three western U.S. states have moved away from tippling to toking.

Sales volumes have fallen by more than 2%, Cowan and Company said in the report, adding that even craft breweries’ sales have gone skunky.

Economy beer volumes for mainstream producers have fallen 2.4%. Premium brands like Coors Light and Bud Light are down 4.4%.

The report, quoted by the Daily Mail, says in Denver, the battle of the buzz is shifting faster to the bong from the beer bottle, with sales falling 6.4%.

Electricity-intensive cannabis production has a big carbon footprint, but with legalization, some eco-conscious growers want to make pot a shining model of sustainability.

After a flood of pro-pot ballot measures in November, recreational marijuana use will soon be legal in eight U.S. states plus the District of Columbia, and medical marijuana will be legal in 29 states. Barring a federal clampdown from the incoming Trump administration, analysts expect legal cannabis to be a boom industry, particularly in California, the world's sixth largest economy.

State regulators on Friday tried to calm the troubled Oregon marijuana industry, revising testing rules that had stifled the market and thrown businesses into jeopardy, but the move was met with doubt by industry players.

The Oregon Health Authority called the revisions, which took effect immediately, “temporary rules aimed at lowering the testing burden on producers and processors based on concerns and input from the marijuana industry.”

A consultant to marijuana businesses, however, said the revisions fell far short of what the troubled industry was hoping to see.

The Oregon Health Authority is temporarily relaxing its standards for testing marijuana products after reports that strict regulations were hurting the industry.

The new rules, which went into effect on December 2, will balance the cost of testing and public health protections, the OHA said.

Reports said the cost of testing under the rules that have been in effect since October 1 were putting strain on businesses because prices went up and supply went down.

The state has collected more than $40 million so far in taxes on marijuana products and 40% of that revenue goes to Oregon schools.

Legalized marijuana is harshing the buzz of three longtime craft beer meccas, according to a new report from Cowen and Company.

In Colorado, Oregon and Washington, where recreational cannabis use has been legalized, the beer business is underperforming, according to Vivien Azer, Cowen and Company’s managing director and senior research analyst specializing in the beverage, tobacco and cannabis sectors.

Azer unpacked the latest Nielsen data in those three states — beer markets that have “collectively underperformed” in the last two years — and found that “the magnitude of the underperformance has increased notably,” with beer volumes falling more than two percent year-to-date and trailing the overall U.S. beer market.

California growers may want to take a page from their neighbors to the north when it comes to upholding cannabis quality standards.  

A new study from Steep Hill Labs suggests that much of California’s cannabis supply wouldn’t meet the stringent testing standards recently introduced by the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC).