A Portland pot dispensary has earned the distinction of becoming the first marijuana business to become part of a fraud investigation since Oregon voted for legalization. Cannacea has closed down shop amid the fraud scandal after it was learned that Oregon never issued a medical dispensary license to the business in the first place.

Tisha Siler, the founder of Cannacea, brought her medical marijuana-based business to Oregon in 2014 after she received what she thought was a letter welcoming her to open up shop in Oregon. Medical marijuana dispensary licenses can be hard to acquire, and Siler, a grower from California, believed she was one of the few to make the cut.

Add Medicare Savings to the List …

This website has been unflinching over the years in its support of legalizing marijuana – both medically and recreationally (here in South Carolina and beyond).

Our main argument?  Legalizing marijuana (and other drugs) is a liberty issue.  As long as you aren’t imposing on the liberties of others, government has no businesses telling you what you can or cannot do in the privacy of your own home.

Let alone busting down the door and shooting you …

A new study suggests that individuals are actually using Medical Marijuana not simply as an excuse to get high, but as a treatment for health problems.

The study senior researcher W. David Bradford stated that states in America that pass medical marijuana laws were inclined to experience a significant drop down in prescriptions for ailments that could be treated with cannabis. Bradford is also the chairman of public policy with the University of Georgia's Department of Public Administration and Policy.

In 2009, a handful of CBD-rich cannabis strains were discovered serendipitously in Northern California, America’s cannabis breadbasket, where certified patients could access medical marijuana legally. Thus began a great laboratory experiment in democracy involving CBD-rich cannabis therapeutics. The advent of whole plant CBD-rich oil as a grassroots therapeutic option has changed the national conversation about cannabis. It’s no longer a question of whether medical marijuana works—today the key question is how to use cannabis for maximum therapeutic benefit. But most health professionals have little experience in this area. So Project CBD has created a "CBD User’s Manual" for patients that addresses key questions about cannabidiol and cannabis therapeutics.

The recent killing of a marijuana store security guard in Colorado and the wounding of another guard in San Bernardino are the latest examples of the crime lure posed by cash-only pot dispensaries, industry observers say.

But while those armed robbery attempts and a pot store shootout in Walnut Park in Los Angeles County were unfolding last month, Democratic-sponsored legislation that could have led to more dispensaries offering plastic and electronic payments in lieu of cash was blocked by House Republicans.

As a primary care and addiction medicine physician, I never thought I’d be suggesting marijuana use to my patients, given its unknown potential for physical, emotional, social and developmental harm. However, the opiate overdose epidemic has radically shifted my thinking.

The June 26 Sun-News editorial about legalizing cannabis for tax revenue missed a critical benefit: the possibility of fewer overdose deaths.

Since prescription pain pill overdoses exceed those of both heroin and cocaine combined, at about 40 daily (and over 14,000 yearly), this is no small point. Gun homicides and car crashes kill fewer. The crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s killed 800 to 2,400 yearly, according to the Government Accountability Office.

This is going to be a transformative year for the United States. Not only are we set to vote in a new president for the first time in eight years this November, but we could also see the most rapid expansion of marijuana ever, with eight states now set to vote on recreational or medical cannabis initiatives or amendments this fall.

What's at stake

The expansion of the cannabis industry was initially put in motion 20 years ago when California approved a compassionate use law for medical marijuana. Today, half of all U.S. states have approved a medical marijuana law. The two most recent approvals came from Pennsylvania and Ohio, which used the legislative process to pass medical cannabis laws.

The budding Marijuana industry has attracted a legion of “ganjapreneurs” seeking the chance to cash in on the US movement to legalize and legitimize Cannabis. ArcView Group, a “hub for investment, data and progress” estimates the industry will drive around $7 billion in revenue during 2016. This number is predicted to jump to over $22 billion by 2020. As more and more states join the movement to legalize, control and tax, a new generation of startups are seeing an opportunity to be part of the first wave to establish profitable marijuana based services.

County has permitted about 800 growers.

The destruction left by the Butte Fire was still evident Thursday morning in remnants of charred, leafless trees and gaping holes on hillsides, but vegetation does grow from the ruins: marijuana. 

In an area hit hardest last year, not far from Baker Riley Way in Mokelumne Hill, lies a pocket of cannabis cultivators. 

Among them is Max Cirello, 19. He said Calaveras County officials told him he was among the youngest in the area to obtain a commercial license last week. 

After a six-week window to obtain a permit to cultivate within the county, registration for cannabis cultivators ended June 30. 

For the past two decades, there were two things you could count on in Washington, D.C.: Congress would never vote to legalize cannabis, and Allen St. Pierre would always return your call. 

St. Pierre, America’s most upbeat, quick-witted, and loquacious cannabis advocate, has served as the executive director of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, for 24 years. He will not serve a 25th. Earlier this week he informed the group’s board of directors that he would resign his post effective July 15. St. Pierre and his wife, Sara, had their first child earlier this year, and the family life the couple desires “is not possible while working for NORML,” he told Leafly Thursday afternoon.