Earlier this year, Florida legislators debated a bill that would expand the state's medical marijuana program, providing a wider range of cannabis treatments to a larger number of patients. Although most lawmakers supported the bill in some form, the two chambers of the Florida legislature were unable to agree on the details of the bill before the legislative session ran out.

DEA Administrator Chuck Rosenberg has made it abundantly clear that he believes medical marijuana is “a joke.”

Arkansas officials are anticipating that between 20,000 and 40,000 people will ask for permission to obtain medical marijuana.

The state Health Department’s chief lawyer, Robert Brech, told a joint meeting of the Senate and House Public Health Committee on Monday that running Arkansas’ medical marijuana program will cost about $1.5 million over the next year.

Medical marijuana registration cards will cost about $50. Under the proposed rules, an Arkansas driver’s license or state ID will be required to obtain one.

Arkansas’ population is about 3 million people. According to Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection spokeswoman Lora Rae Anderson, there are 18,232 medical marijuana patients in that state. Connecticut has a population of about 3.6 million.

Marijuana dispensaries still have yet to make a single sale more than a year after Hawaii awarded its first eight medical marijuana dispensary licenses.

The dispensaries cannot sell the drug until the state Health Department certifies laboratories to test the quality of the marijuana, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported (http://bit.ly/2rsUXgG) on Monday.

Helen Cho, director of integrated strategy for Aloha Green Holdings Inc., says her Oahu dispensary has marijuana stored and ready to sell. Maui Grown Therapies and Pono Life Sciences Maui LLC also have marijuana ready to sell. A fourth company, Manoa Botanicals LLC, is growing pot but hasn't harvested it yet.

"We're ready to go," Cho said.

As Nevada nears the expected July 1 start date for its emergent recreational marijuana program, Republicans and Democrats put the finishing touches on the laws that will shape the state's marijuana future for the next two years. 

Tourists still have nowhere to smoke since the public consumption bill died, medical users still can't buy guns and opioid addiction cannot be treated with cannabis despite Democrats' best efforts.

All in all, though, marijuana advocates walked away from this year's session with a lot of wins. Here is how marijuana will be taxed, labeled, regulated and how it's going to affect you. 

Pot tax

The Colorado Department of Agriculture, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the Occupational Safety and Health Association are teaming up to host a health-and-safety course for marijuana employees this summer, as the industry continues to grow and add more workers.

The Buffalo Institute for Genomics and Data Analytics (BIG) — a University of Buffalo program —has announced a strategic partnership with MMJ International Holdings. (MMJIH.com)

The University of Buffalo Bio Informatics and Genomics Center (BIG), part of the Governor Andrew M. Cuomo’s Buffalo Billion investment to grow jobs through the innovation economy, will invest $800,000 in support of MMJ International Holding’s medical cannabis research project in Buffalo.

State revenue officials are working on the roll-out of the latest medical marijuana program with a tax on the drug — the first of its kind in the state — which could increase the agency's capacity for handling cash.

Legislators passed SB333 this spring, adding a number of regulations to the program. That includes a gross sales tax that providers will start putting on the books on July 1.

The tax will be 4 percent of gross sales from July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2018. After that the tax will be 2 percent.

CannabisBenchmarks.comMore

For the week ended Friday, June 2, 2017, the spot price index for a pound of cannabis fell 4.3% to $1,553. According to the analysts at Cannabis Benchmarks, the simple average price for a gram fell 28 cents to $3.86.

The futures price for the near-month (July) fell to $1,525. For the month of August, the forward price fell to $1,510. The six-month forward price (December) was initiated at $1,465.

About two-thirds of the past week's transactions occurred in a range of $1,072 to $2,426 per pound.

The Cannabis Benchmark analysts commented on the falling prices: