Taxes are too high, competition from medical marijuana too great and the bureaucracy is overwhelmed by the volume of applications -- the perfect recipe for a robust black market

The highs, and lows, of legal marijuana

Amber McGowan surveys the clutch of customers milling around the three counters in her tiny marijuana retail outlet and nods approvingly – pot is hot.

Men and women who appear to be mostly over 50 consider products with names such as Headband, Skunk, Banana Kush and THC Bomb. A five-pack of oatmeal cookies that are nothing like the ones your mother used to make go for $42 (U.S.). Behind a glass enclosure there are bongs of every colour and description. Psychedelic renderings grace the store’s wood-panelled walls.

MY son Haiden is 6 years old. For him, access to medical cannabis is a matter of life-and-death.

Haiden has Dravet syndrome, a severe form of epilepsy. Haiden used to suffer from frequent seizures of all varieties — sometimes more than 100 a day, despite taking five prescription medications, all at the maximum dose our neurologist would allow.

Privateer Holdings is well on its way to becoming one of the country’s top marijuana investment firms.

The Seattle-based holding company today announced the closure of a $75 million Series B round, money that Privateer will use to grow its three marijuana-related startups and expand the firm’s portfolio further.

“This positions us to build a family of global brands over the coming years,” Privateer CEO Brendan Kennedy said of the fresh cash.

The UpTake: Casey Craig isn't much different from any other startup founder, except that he's out on the frontier of legalized marijuana.

C asey Craig works 85 hours a week at his new business, a pace that's familiar to nearly every startup founder. He has his life savings, at least $300,000, tied up in the venture. He quit his stable job and struck out on his own. He spent months searching for the best team to give his business a chance of success.

But there's one big difference between Craig and the thousands of other startup founders in the state.

No attention has been given to public-health education about marijuana.

A growing gap exists between how the early marijuana-legalization laws are rolling out in Washington state and what ought to be concurrent education campaigns to give marijuana consumers science-based information to make wise choices.

Initiative 502 earmarked new excise-tax revenues to the state Department of Health to pay for “medically and scientifically accurate information about the health and safety risks posed by marijuana use.”

The initiative also called for a marijuana public-health hotline. To be available statewide, the hotline is intended to provide treatment referrals, brief counseling and educational information about marijuana.

In Spring 2014, the Securities and Exchange Commission suspended trading in several publicly traded marijuana companies, including FusionPharm, Inc., Cannabusiness Group, Inc., GrowLife, Inc., Advanced Cannabis Solutions, Inc., and Petrotech Oil and Gas, Inc. In addition to those suspensions, the SEC issued a warning regarding investments in publicly traded marijuana-related stocks. Though we have no opinions about these specific marijuana companies, we do have an opinion regarding publicly traded pot stocks in general: BE CAREFUL.

Washington and Oregon on Friday joined Colorado in defending its recreational marijuana law against a suit brought by two of its neighboring states.

In a filing, Colorado asked the Supreme Court to dismiss the lawsuit — filed by Nebraska and Oklahoma — arguing that it makes a “dangerous use” of legal argument that would leave marijuana legalization in place but largely strip the state of its power to regulate the new industry.

Recreational marijuana has been legalized in four states, but that doesn't mean it's a tested consumer product. Some of those potent buds are covered in fungus while others contain traces of butane, according to an analysis of marijuana in Colorado.

Last May, after people began getting sick from edible marijuana products, the state of Colorado began requiring all products to be tested. Washington has mandated testing too, with a detailed checklist of items to analyze, including potency, contaminants, moisture and microbiology.

Lawmaker: Misinformation about issue creating 'frenzy'

Washington’s unregulated medical marijuana market has repeatedly been described as the wild, wild West.

Well, the gunslinging has started.

One activist Photoshopped a portrait of Sen. Ann Rivers, R-La Center, a key lawmaker pushing the Cannabis Patient Protection Act, adding fangs and devilish red eyes to the photo.

A medical marijuana user said Rivers’ measure, which has gained momentum in the state Legislature, would be so detrimental to patients, he has a hard time picturing her as anything other than an “evil person.”

Rivers, for her part, said she’s been miscast, and is empathetic to those who, as her dying father once did, rely on medical marijuana to ease the pain.

Legislation to bring together Washington’s two dueling marijuana systems is moving forward. As KUOW’s Amy Radil reports, the challenge may come in deciding which medical dispensaries get to stay open.

TRANSCRIPT:

Since Initiative 502 legalized marijuana in Washington in 2012, a number of issues have emerged that legislators are hoping to address this year. One is the competition licensed marijuana stores are facing from unlicensed medical marijuana businesses. Another is the difficulty finding legal locations for marijuana stores, which can’t be too close to parks and schools.

Philip Dawdy is a consultant to marijuana businesses. He says two bills moving forward this year seem poised to address those problems.