• Colorado Recreational Marijuana Sales Exceed $5 Million In First Week

    Colorado Recreational Marijuana Sales Exceed $5 Million In First Week

    Colorado marijuana dispensaries made huge sales in the first week of legal recreational marijuana. Owners of the 37 new dispensaries around the state reported first week retail sales to The Huffington Post that, when added together, were roughly $5 million. That’s a lot of green for Colorado’s legal weed. Colorado, the first state to allow retail recreational
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  • Colorado pot shops open Increase in price worries some

    Colorado pot shops open Increase in price worries some

    Long lines and blustery winter weather greeted Colorado marijuana shoppers testing the nation’s first legal recreational pot shops yesterday. It was hard to tell from talking to the shoppers, however, that they had waited hours in snow and frigid wind. “It’s a huge deal for me,” said Andre Barr, a 34-year-old deliveryman who drove from
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  • Colorado opens Marijuana shops to kick off 2014

    Colorado opens Marijuana shops to kick off 2014

    For more than 70 years, the sale of marijuana for recreational use has been criminally prohibited in the United States. But that ban, as it has existed for decades, ended Wednesday in Colorado. The historic first, legal sales of recreational marijuana to those 21-and-older began in the morning at select dispensaries in Colorado — the
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  • US offers world’s first legal recreational marijuana

    US offers world’s first legal recreational marijuana

    No wonder they look pleased. Darren Austin and his son Tyler from Decatur, Georgia, are queuing to buy the first legally available recreational marijuana in the US, from the Denver Discreet Dispensary in Colorado. From 1 January, residents of Colorado aged 21 or older became the beneficiaries of the first law anywhere in the world
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  • Washington cities slow to implement legal marijuana

    Washington cities slow to implement legal marijuana

    Though Washington voters approved growing and selling recreational marijuana, few cities have taken steps to implement the law. SEATTLE — Sales of recreational marijuana are due to start in Washington around late spring, but there’s no welcome mat — at least not yet — for pot businesses in dozens of cities around the state. A
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  • Marijuana application numbers growing

    Marijuana application numbers growing

    The final list of applicants for a recreational marijuana license wasn’t available at press time, but the most recent compilation released by the Washington Liquor Control Board shows a marked jump in the number of marijuana license applications that have been filed.   One board employee, who asked not to be identified, said the list
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  • Colorado’s legal recreational marijuana industry opens

    Colorado’s legal recreational marijuana industry opens

    DENVER – Crowds were serenaded by live music as they waited for the nation’s first legal recreational pot shops to open. They ate doughnuts and funnel cakes as a glass-blower made smoking pipes. Some tourists even rode around in a limo, eager to try weed but not so eager to be seen buying it. And when
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  • Wyoming Highway Patrol issues warning about Colorado-purchased marijuana

    Wyoming Highway Patrol issues warning about Colorado-purchased marijuana

    The Wyoming Highway Patrol issued a warning Thursday not to bring Colorado purchased marijuana into the state. The patrol issued a news release with the words in the email’s subject in all caps: Do not bring your Colorado purchased marijuana into Wyoming. Wednesday was the first day Colorado allowed the purchase of recreational marijuana. The
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  • Palm Springs council sets marijuana dispensary tax at 10 percent

    Palm Springs council sets marijuana dispensary tax at 10 percent

    PALM SPRINGS — The three legal medical marijuana dispensaries will now be required to pay the city 10 percent of their proceeds starting Jan. 1 while the illegal operations will be required to pay 15 percent. The Palm Springs City Council on Wednesday approved 4-1 the pot tax rates and a series of other changes including
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  • Study: Demand for marijuana higher than state officials estimated

    Study: Demand for marijuana higher than state officials estimated

    Legalizing marijuana may not change the habits of people like Tyler Whitmire, a student at Western Washington University in Bellingham. But figuring out how many people smoke pot has been one of the trickiest questions facing the bureaucrats setting up Washington’s new legal marijuana system. Underestimate demand, and marijuana fans might stick with their black
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  • Vt.’s 4th medical marijuana dispensary approved

    Vt.’s 4th medical marijuana dispensary approved

    BRATTLEBORO, VT. — Vermont’s fourth medical marijuana dispensary is a go for Brattleboro. The Development Review Board has approved a permit to operate the dispensary, which will be able to sell marijuana to patients on the state’s Medical Marijuana Registry. The Brattleboro Reformer reports (http://bit.ly/1bI41RH) owner Shayne Lynn hopes to open Southern Vermont Wellness on Putney
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  • Edmonton grower sees ‘huge opportunity’ in supplying medical marijuana

    Edmonton grower sees ‘huge opportunity’ in supplying medical marijuana

    One Edmonton company is a step closer to being a licensed grower for the federal government’s new medical marijuana program. Vernon Devam, president of GrenEx Pharms, said Health Canada has approved his company’s proposal to be one of the producers that will supply nearly 40,000 medical marijuana users across the country. “I see a huge
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  • Seed-To-Sale Tracking Alone Won’t Stop Marijuana ‘Leakage’

    Seed-To-Sale Tracking Alone Won’t Stop Marijuana ‘Leakage’

    As Washington moves to legalize recreational pot, preventing “leakage” to other states like Oregon and Idaho is a top priority of the U.S. Justice Department   Barcodes will help the state track marijuana from “seed-to-sale,” but technology alone won’t keep Washington pot in Washington. Last August Governor Jay Inslee pledged to enact a “disciplined” and “regulated”
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  • Calif. Man Hopes to Build ‘Anheuser-Busch of Marijuana’

    Calif. Man Hopes to Build ‘Anheuser-Busch of Marijuana’

    A business school drop-out from Los Angeles wants to build what he calls the “Anheuser-Busch of marijuana,” readying for the day when pot’s “prohibition” fully ends in the U.S. Justin Hartfield, 29, dropped out of University of California, Irvine’s part-time business school program to launch Emerald Ocean Capital with a business partner. Though smoking marijuana is not
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  • Marijuana investors commit more than $1 million after Denver meeting

    Marijuana investors commit more than $1 million after Denver meeting

    A Denver meeting of a marijuana industry investment group resulted in more than $1 million in new money being pumped into cannabis businesses, the group announced Wednesday. Troy Dayton, the CEO of The ArcView Group, said members of the group’s investor network are still sealing deals after Tuesday’s meeting at the Denver Athletic Club, but he
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  • For Marijuana Entrepreneurs, Sticky Red Tape Remains in Colorado

    For Marijuana Entrepreneurs, Sticky Red Tape Remains in Colorado

    Photograph by Matthew Staver/The New York Times via Redux A 60-acre field of hemp in Springfield, Colo., which draws no distinction between hemp and marijuana Once a quarter for the past two years, the ArcView Angel Investor Network plays matchmaker between individuals curious about investing in the newly legal marijuana market and pot entrepreneurs who
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  • Marijuana Legalization: NYC’s Next Mayor Will Try to Legalize Weed

    Marijuana Legalization: NYC’s Next Mayor Will Try to Legalize Weed

    Marijuana Legalization: NYC’s Next Mayor Will Try to Legalize Weed © Flickr (North Cascades National Park) The next mayor of New York City will help usher in the decriminalization of marijuana, regardless of which candidate wins the seat. Mayoral aspirants Bill de Blasio and Joseph Lhota, who were selected as nominees to represent their respective
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  • 22 medical marijuana applicants weeded out by Massachusetts Department of Public Health

    22 medical marijuana applicants weeded out by Massachusetts Department of Public Health

    BOSTON — A total of 22 applicants formedical marijuana dispensaries were eliminated on Monday from competition by the state Department of Public Health. The process now leaves 158 applicants for dispensary licenses for medical marijuana, down from 181 initial applicants. In addition to the 22 eliminated by the state, one company withdrew. A total of 22 applicants failed
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  • Maine medical marijuana users fear loss of subsidized housing

    Maine medical marijuana users fear loss of subsidized housing

    ED ANDRIESKI Marijuana plants flourish under the lights at a grow house. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski) PORTLAND — Some medical marijuana patients may have to choose between their cannabis and their federally subsidized housing if a state moratorium is not renewed before its Oct. 1 deadline. While state housing officials say it’s unlikely the deadline will
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  • Feds seek to legalize marijuana industry banking

    Feds seek to legalize marijuana industry banking

    WASHINGTON (AP) – The Justice Department and federal banking regulators will help clear the way for financial institutions to transact business with the legitimate marijuana industry without fear of prosecution, Deputy Attorney General James Cole told Congress on Tuesday. The issue has taken on greater urgency now that Colorado and Washington have become the first
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  • Marijuana: OK to sell. But no banking for the businesses?

    Marijuana: OK to sell. But no banking for the businesses?

    It might be OK with the feds for Washington and Colorado to grow and sell marijuana within their borders. But borrowing and saving money to grow and sell pot amount to something else. The feds still have laws against money laundering and racketeering — meaning drug money cannot legally go into, come out of or stay within banks.
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  • Feds in Talks With Banks Over Dealing With Marijuana Business

    Feds in Talks With Banks Over Dealing With Marijuana Business

    The government is in talks with bank regulators to see whether financial institutions in states that have approved recreational marijuana use can do business with drug dispensaries there, a top Justice Department official said Tuesday. The announcement came nearly two weeks after the Justice Department decided it won’t take legal action against Colorado and Washington,
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  • Another Latin American country mulls letting its people grow pot

    Another Latin American country mulls letting its people grow pot

    Not what the army trained him for. Reuters/Stringer Mexico It’s been barely a month since Uruguay moved closer to legalizing marijuana, and now another Latin American country appears to be following suit. Mexico City’s council is mulling legislation (Spanish link) that would allow citizens to cultivate up to three cannabis plants each, and permit a system of marijuana growing co-operatives,
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