Oregon’s recreational marijuana industry is officially off to the races

PORTLAND, Ore. (PORTLAND TRIBUNE) — Oregon’s recreational marijuana industry is officially off to the races.

Just days into the license application process, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission has received 282 applications as of Monday morning from producers, processors, retailers, wholesalers and even research facilities.

About half are for applications from growers, who will see their licenses processed soonest because they’re at the top of the supply chain, says Mark Pettinger, OLCC spokesman.

SALT LAKE CITY — District Attorney Sim Gill appeared alongside dozens of people who have admitted to using medical marijuana in a show of support for legislation that would legalize it in Utah.

“We need to start thinking about our public policy,” Gill said Wednesday.

A pair of bills are being introduced in the upcoming legislative session that would allow medical cannabis in Utah — but with different impacts. One bill by Sen. Mark Madsen, R-Saratoga Springs, was unveiled Wednesday ahead of a news conference by the Libertas Institute, a Libertarian-leaning think tank that is backing his bill. It would allow for medical cannabis with THC to be distributed through the Utah Department of Agriculture and the Utah Department of Health.

One of the biggest medical cannabis cases in the country is starting up in the heart of Kansas. Shona Banda is facing, what could be, the rest of her life in prison. Last year Banda was the target of a raid by law enforcement in Garden City, Kansas.

Officers conducted the raid after Banda’s 11-year-old son apparently knew “too much information” in relation to cannabis during a drug education class at his school. Remind you, Banda’s son lived in Colorado, where his mother is a medicinal marijuana patient and advocate.

A marijuana legalization campaign is nearing its goal of gathering 150,000 valid signatures to get on the November ballot.

The  initiative would ask Arizona voters to legalize marijuana for recreational use and establish a network of licensed cannabis shops where sales of the drug would be taxed.

The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol is a few thousand signatures short of gathering the 150,642 signatures needed to qualify for the ballot, spokesman Barrett Marson said Wednesday. However, some of those signatures are likely invalid — gathered from people who cannot vote — and the group aims to collect 225,000 signatures, he said.

"Arizonans are clearly excited about this initiative," Marson added.

Once upon a time I wrote an article describing why I don’t invest in marijuana stock. Keep in mind, I’m in now way a financial expert (my 20 year old car is proof of that!). However, I do know a thing or two about marijuana, and I have this crazy ability to ‘see the obvious’ as I always say. That last comment of course is sarcasm, as anyone with a brain and decent eyesight should be able to see the obvious.

CARLSBAD, Calif., Jan. 13, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Hemp Health Inc., maker of hemp cannabidiol (CBD) products, today introduced CannaPleasure, a stimulating salve for the bedroom. The company also released Pharma CBD Peanut Butter and Honey, new kid-friendly edibles that deliver the medicinal benefits of CBD without the psychoactive effects of THC. Both products are legal in all 50 states and 42 countries.

CannaPleasure blends 50 mg of CBD with hemp seed oil, peppermint oil, ginger root and other herbs to provide a cool, tingling sensation on the skin. It offers lovers an all-natural alternative to the synthetic lubricants found on drugstore shelves. CannaPleasure's base is made with almond oil and beeswax.

LONGMONT, Colo., Jan. 12, 2016 /Weed Wire/ — Today sees the official launch of the I Don’t USE Campaign – a comprehensive multimedia effort to help change stigmatizing language which prevents the full integration of marijuana into our culture.

Since the criminalization of cannabis products in the early twentieth century, lawmakers, media figures, and ordinary citizens have referred to consumers as “users”.

This term specifically marginalizes legal marijuana consumers by grouping them with hardcore drug users – thus reinforcing to society that marijuana is a dangerous, addictive substance which should be avoided, and whose consumers should be shunned.

In what he's calling a "civic protest against absurd state policies", Mike Buffington of Jackson County, is going against the grain and growing marijuana, right here in Georgia. His plan is to get that plant growing on his porch this spring.

Buffington is a co-publisher of Mainstreet Newspapers, Inc. and has written his own story about bucking the law. He says what's currently in place prevents children from getting the help they need. So he's taking this bold move for his son and others who suffer from seizure disorders.

About half of the dispensaries in Oregon have not registered with the Dept of Revenue.

The tax is applied to the retail price of the recreational products. Dispensaries must list the retail price and total tax separately on customer receipts.(SALEM, Ore.) - A temporary 25-percent tax is now in effect for all recreational marijuana products sold at medical marijuana dispensaries through December 31, 2016.

"Dispensaries can set whatever price they choose for their products, but the price must be set up front and the law requires consumers be issued a receipt showing the price and tax they're paying," said John Galvin, manager of the Marijuana Tax Program.

If you think about growing medical marijuana, you probably picture pot growing in a field or maybe a green house. Instead, think prison, with a hint of laboratory.

At the end of a residential road in Lake Wales, you’ll pass a set of railroad tracks and then a 10-foot barbed wire fence. There’s a guard shack with cameras, and another barbed wire fence.

This is McCrory’s Sunny Hill nursery, between Tampa and Orlando, and just down the road from the plant that makes the Florida’s Natural orange juice.

Here I meet Darrin Potter, the chief horticultural officer for McCrory’s Nursery. He’s wearing jeans, a Grow Healthy polo shirt and a camouflage hat.