Florida

There’s a lot going on in Tallahassee as Sunshine State legislators forge the regulatory framework for Florida’s medical marijuana program.

Senators appear poised to advance legislation (SB 406) to welcome five new cannabis dispensaries to Florida by October. At least one would be minority-owned. Friday’s measure also requires four additional dispensaries within “six months after each instance of the registration of 75,000 qualifying patients with the compassionate use registry.”

That 75,000 figure is dramatically less than the previous threshold of 250,000.

Will Kleidon, a loquacious 27-year-old, and I were sitting in a restaurant called Food Harmonics here on Ojai’s main drag the other day, sipping $5 mushroom coffee with shots of CBD elixir.

It was delicious, if slightly expensive.

If you have been paying attention to what’s going on in the cannabis “space” (a perfect word for this industry, really), you have probably heard of CBD — cannabidiol — or wondered what it is.

CBD is one of two important compounds in cannabis.

In the race to meet California's demand for newly legalized recreational marijuana, the Coachella Valley is blooming fast as the industry's new farming hub. Trouble is, the region also suffers severe groundwater depletion, a problem that could be worsened by the popular crop.

California voters approved Proposition 64 in November 2016, allowing the retail sale of marijuana to adults for recreational purposes from Jan. 1, 2018. Since then, several cities in the Coachella Valley have moved to embrace industrial-scale marijuana growing.

Ted Dobson and other small farmers like him are hoping to be growers for Massachusetts’ recreational marijuana program. Do they stand a chance?

The results make a compelling case for legalization.

As opioid abuse continues to be a national discussion, a new study has revealed less people are hospitalized for opioid abuse in states where medical marijuana is legalized.

In a win for supporters of commercial medical marijuana in Calaveras County, a judge has ordered county officials to yank a May ballot measure that, if passed, would have banned the industry altogether.

Judge Richard D. Meyer, a visiting judge from Alpine County, found that the language of the initiative was illegal.

Rather than stating clearly that it was a citizen’s initiative, Measure B invoked the county’s Board of Supervisors, implying that voters were being asked to approve an action that already had been taken by local elected officials.

This “undermines the integrity of the initiative process,” the judge found.

South Dakota voters could boost funding to teachers and reduce the state's sales tax burden by supporting a ballot measure aimed at legalizing marijuana for recreational use.

And the measure's sponsors are hoping to emphasize that point as they ask voters to sign petitions that could put the question on the 2018 ballot.

Under the proposal, South Dakota residents 21 and older would be able to legally possess and use one ounce of cannabis or grow five marijuana plants. Non-residents would be limited to a quarter ounce.

Neighborly disputes are nothing new. There’s the dog next door that poops on your lawn. The house that throws loud backyard parties. The guy down the block who always plows through the stop sign.

But in Colorado, the introduction of legal, home-grown marijuana has elevated tension among neighbors to a whole new level.

Because of gaps in the state constitutional amendments that legalized cultivation of the drug for recreational and medical purposes -- and in the ensuing rules that sought to regulate it further -- some rural pockets in Colorado are seeing large-scale cooperative marijuana grow operations sprout up with little oversight.

A recent survey suggests that one-in-five tourists are more interested in visiting an American state if it has legalized cannabis.

Alec Baldwin - who turned 59 on Monday - is one of the most talked about celebrities thanks to his notorious