SALT LAKE CITY — In a new statement issued Friday, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints clarified its stance on two competing pieces of medical marijuana legislation being considered by Utah lawmakers.

The head of one of Minnesota’s two medical marijuana companies has resigned.

LeafLine Labs announced Friday that CEO Manny Munson-Regala has stepped down less than a year after he took the job. Munson-Regala, a former assistant state health commissioner, helped set up the state’s medical cannabis program, then left last June to take a job running one of the newly created companies.

In a statement late Friday, LeafLine announced that Dr. Andrew Bachman, an emergency physician and one of the company’s founders, has been appointed as interim CEO by the company board.

A report from the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus revealed that Vermont’s police force has stopped training its police dogs to detect the odor of marijuana.

According to the Times Argus, this is the first year that marijuana detection has not been part of the regular training of the state’s police dogs. The paper reported that the decision was partially influenced by the likelihood that Vermont will legalize marijuana in the near future, which would lead to the possibility that re-training police dogs to cease detecting marijuana would exhaust additional time and resources.

A bill to impose a new 15% state excise tax on retail purchases of medical marijuana has been proposed in the California legislature (SB 987 by Sen. McGuire).  The tax would be in addition to the current 7.5+% sales tax plus various local business taxes assessed by some localities.

“At this time when providers already face burdensome new costs under the Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act (MMRSA), it is unwise and inappropriate to impose any new state tax on medical marijuana,” says California NORML director Dale Gieringer.  Many patient advocates regard any taxes on medicine as unjust in principle.

The Vermont Senate Committee on Finance approved a bill (6-1) on Friday that would end marijuana prohibition in the state and regulate marijuana for adult use. The bill was approved by the Senate Committee on Judiciary on January 29, and it will now be considered by the Senate Committee on Appropriations.

GLENDALE, Colorado (AP) — Colorado's newest marijuana shop has some wondering whether strippers and weed are too closely aligned.

The Smokin Gun Apothecary is opening next to the Denver area's best-known strip club, Shotgun Willie's, with just a parking lot between them. Both businesses have the same owner, who envisions pot shoppers getting discounted drinks at the strip club.

The development raises ethical and potentially legal issues about the state's growing legal recreational pot industry, one of the first in the United States.

Roseanne’s Joint will offer weed-laced macadamia nuts grown on comedian’s farm, among other goods

Roseanne Barr is going to pot with her latest business venture.

The former “Roseanne” star and presidential candidate has joined the cannabis industry, via a medical marijuana dispensary that will open in Santa Ana, California, the Orange County Register reports.

Barr is investing in the dispensary and will enter a licensing agreement with the business.

The name of the dispensary? Roseanne’s Joint, of course.

Even though legal sales of recreational marijuana have been happening in Oregon since October of last year, things still aren’t quite finished being settled as far as regulations go. Currently, recreational marijuana is being sold by medical dispensaries – but by the end of the year, the industry will be turned over to the Oregon Liquor Control Commission.

In the next 35 days, a number of different policies will be considered for approval by the Senate Committee. The first one to be addressed and passed was a law that previously required those entering the Oregon cannabis industry to have been a legal resident of the state for at least 2 years prior to application.

The effort to expand Georgia’s medical marijuana law continued Friday to receive pointed criticism, as supporters struggle to gain support from the state’s law enforcement community.

Chuck Spahos, executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia, testified during a brief hearing before the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee that he believes House Bill 722 would too broad and, in some spots, contradictory toward its goal of allowing Georgia manufacturers to grow and cultivate medical marijuana in-state under strict controls.