• Parents ask Kansas lawmakers to legalize cannabis oil

    Parents ask Kansas lawmakers to legalize cannabis oil

    TOPEKA, Kan. —Parents have appealed to Kansas lawmakers in an effort to legalize cannabis oil for certain types of medical conditions. Tracy Robles, a mother who lives near Wichita, said her daughter suffers from violent seizures every day. She said the family must decide whether to move to Colorado, where marijuana is legal, in an
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  • Lawmakers block D.C.’s marijuana legalization

    Lawmakers block D.C.’s marijuana legalization

    A plan to regulate and tax marijuana in the District fell victim on Tuesday to federal budget negotiators, who inserted an amendment into a massive $1.1 trillion spending bill that effectively overturns a voter-approved initiative legalizing recreational use of the drug in the District. But the measure appeared to go much further, also rolling back
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  • Colorado law sets up world’s first marijuana banks

    Colorado law sets up world’s first marijuana banks

    DENVER — Seeking to move marijuana businesses away from cash-only operations, Gov. John Hickenlooper signed legislation Friday that tries to establish the world’s first financial system for the newly legal industry in Colorado. + caption The legislation seeks to form a network of uninsured cooperatives designed to give pot businesses a way to access basic
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  • Legal Marijuana Triggers Unexpected Windfall

    Legal Marijuana Triggers Unexpected Windfall

    When marijuana was illegal across the entire United States, the pot business in Mexico was fantastically profitable. It brought a ton of American dollars into the country for nearly five decades. Now that growing cannabis is legal in parts of the United States, however – and consumers can now simply visit a local dispensary to
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  • Uruguay’s José Mujica: the ‘humble’ leader with grand ideas

    Uruguay’s José Mujica: the ‘humble’ leader with grand ideas

    For many years he would go to bed early listening to what ants whispered in his ear. Sometimes he would chat with a frog or two, maybe share a hunk of bread with some rats. José Mujica, aka Pépé, is a survivor from a world he himself wiped off the map. A former leader of the
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  • The President Forgets To Lie About Marijuana, And Prohibitionists Are Outraged

    The President Forgets To Lie About Marijuana, And Prohibitionists Are Outraged

    Prohibitionists were outraged by President Obama’s recent observation that marijuana is safer than alcohol—not because it is not true but because it contradicts the central myth underlying public support for the war on drugs. According to that myth, certain psychoactive substances are so dangerous that they cannot be tolerated, and the government has scientifically identified
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  • Eric Holder Just Announced A Major Shift On U.S. Marijuana Policy

    Eric Holder Just Announced A Major Shift On U.S. Marijuana Policy

    Jan 23 (Reuters) – U.S. treasury and law enforcement agencies will soon issue regulations opening banking services to state-sanctioned marijuana businesses even though cannabis remains classified an illegal narcotic under federal law, Attorney General Eric Holder said on Thursday. Holder said the new rules would address problems faced by newly licensed recreational pot retailers in
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  • Marijuana advocates lay groundwork for legalization in Mass.

    Marijuana advocates lay groundwork for legalization in Mass.

    Advocates of marijuana legalization, emboldened by successes with ballot questions in Colorado and Washington state, are laying the groundwork for such a battle in Massachusetts in the next presidential election year. “In 2016, Massachusetts will find itself in the crosshairs for cannabis reform,” said Allen St. Pierre, the executive director of NORML, a national group
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  • NFL might legalize medical marijuana for players

    NFL might legalize medical marijuana for players

    As more US states move to consider marijuana legalization, the country’s most popular sports league is indicating it may one day allow its players to light up. Speaking to ESPN, National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell suggested the sport’s ban on medical marijuana could be lifted in the future if the practice has already been
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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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  • 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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  • Liquor Control Board bans pot from Washington bars

    Liquor Control Board bans pot from Washington bars

    The state Liquor Control Board on Wednesday adopted a rule change that makes it illegal for any liquor-licensed establishment to allow marijuana consumption of any kind on its premises. The rule change likely goes into effect 30 days from Wednesday’s unanimous board vote, said Mikhail Carpenter, a spokesman for the Liquor Control Board. That means,
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  • Can Uruguay hash out a progressive model for cannabis reform?

    Can Uruguay hash out a progressive model for cannabis reform?

    If Uruguay’s cannabis policies succeed in curbing illegal drug trafficking and promoting responsible public use of the substance, other nations have no excuse not to experiment with alternative models of narcotics regulation. The small Latin American nation of Uruguay has taken the brave step of becoming the first country in the world to fully legalize
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  • Louisville OKs regulations for retail marijuana shops

    Louisville OKs regulations for retail marijuana shops

    Retail marijuana shops in Louisville won’t be allowed to give out free samples. That’s part of the new regulations the city council approved Tuesday, the Daily Camera reports. The city’s new ordinance allows the two existing medical marijuana dispensaries to seek permission for the retail sale of the drug. A moratorium already in place will prevent
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  • Study looks at marijuana demand in Washington

    Study looks at marijuana demand in Washington

    SEATTLE — Figuring out how much marijuana people use has been one of the trickiest, and most important, questions facing the bureaucrats who are setting up Washington state’s new legal pot system.   Underestimate demand, and marijuana fans might stick with their black market dealers. Overestimate it, and the surplus legal production could wind up being
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  • Madison Rep. Melissa Sargent supports full marijuana legalization

    Madison Rep. Melissa Sargent supports full marijuana legalization

    Mike Crute and Dominic Salvia, co-hosts of The Devil’s Advocates radio show (92.1 FM-The Mic), regularly invite politicians to their studio to discuss a wide range of policy issues. But there is one question that every guest is expected to answer, no matter the news of the day: Do you support legalizing the recreational use
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  • Why New York Is Considering Legalizing Marijuana

    Why New York Is Considering Legalizing Marijuana

    NEW YORK — Back in 1998, 14-year-old Alfredo Carrasquillo and his friends were heading to a Bronx apartment where they planned to smoke pot and listen to some Tupac when a cop car pulled up on the curb “as if it was a movie or something.” The cops ordered Carrasquillo and his friends to stand
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  • Hundreds expected at party to celebrate Washington’s legal pot anniversary

    Hundreds expected at party to celebrate Washington’s legal pot anniversary

    SEATTLE – Friday marks the first anniversary of the day Washington’s legal marijuana law took effect, and hundreds of people are expected to celebrate by lighting up beneath the Space Needle at a party permitted by the city of Seattle. Marijuana activist Ben Livingston says it took him three months to persuade city officials to
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