• Bethenny Frankel to Introduce Skinnygirl Marijuana

    Bethenny Frankel to Introduce Skinnygirl Marijuana

    Bethenny Frankel first got famous as a cast member of The Real Housewives of New York City, but she’s probably better-known for her Skinnygirl margaritas (and nutrition bars, and popcorn, and other cocktails). Now it looks like Bethenny Frankel may be cashing in on the growing marijuana industry. Although it’s unconfirmed, Frankel will likely soon
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  • California Tribe Building $10 Million Indoor Pot-Growing Facility

    California Tribe Building $10 Million Indoor Pot-Growing Facility

    A month after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said it did not have an objection, in principle, to Indian tribes growing marijuana on their trust-held land, Mendocino, California’s Pinoleville Pomo Nation (pdf) announced it was building a $10-million greenhouse facility on its 99-acre rancheria in Ukiah. The Santa Rosa Press Democrat said county officials
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  • Bills would legalize medical marijuana in Indiana

    Bills would legalize medical marijuana in Indiana

    INDIANAPOLIS — Two Democrats — one in the Senate and one in the House — have introduced bills that would allow the use of medical marijuana in Indiana. Senate Bill 284, by Sen. Karen Tallian, D-Portage, and House Bill 1487, by Rep. Sue Errington, D-Muncie, would allow people with a doctor’s recommendation to use marijuana
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  • Marijuana news: New report says legal pot could mean millions in revenue for Vermont

    Marijuana news: New report says legal pot could mean millions in revenue for Vermont

    Vermont could bring in millions in tax revenue if it legalizes marijuana but only if if the drug remained illegal in nearby states, a new study commissioned by the state concluded. The Rand Corporation’s 218-page report on what legalization might mean for the New England state was released Friday. The report, which does not make
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  • Investors Put More Than $100 Million Into the Marijuana Industry Over the Past Two Years

    Investors Put More Than $100 Million Into the Marijuana Industry Over the Past Two Years

    It looks like investors have gotten a serious case of the munchies. During the past two fiscal years, investors spent $104.5 million to gobble up stakes in cannabis and cannabis-related companies, according to research firm CB Insights. In 2014, funding in the industry grew a whopping 941.5 percent. The biggest news in the space hit last week, when Peter Thiel’s
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  • Pot Sellers Lobby Against Medical Marijuana in Washington State

    Pot Sellers Lobby Against Medical Marijuana in Washington State

    Washington state’s first recreational marijuana stores opened last July, the culmination of a broad-based and long effort to legalize the drug. In 1998 voters passed a ballot initiative offering pot smokers legal protection against prosecution if they had a doctor’s note saying they needed the drug for medical reasons. A legal loophole let marijuana dispensaries
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  • Colorado sets standard for marijuana regulation

    Colorado sets standard for marijuana regulation

    As Oregon and Alaska gear up to implement the will of their voters to legalize recreational cannabis use, they would be well served to look to Colorado for guidance. After years of hearings and task force meetings, Colorado has created a sound template for regulating the retail cannabis industry. It simultaneously balances the need to
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  • Elevating cannabis cuisine

    Elevating cannabis cuisine

    There was once a time, not so long ago, when the extent of the intersection between marijuana and the culinary arts depended on how adept a bleary-eyed home cook was at whipping up a box of Kraft Dinner in an elevated state. Not that I’m speaking from experience or anything. But with pot legislation relaxing
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  • The cannabis queens of Beverly Hills: Mother and daughter who have built business empire from medicinal marijuana

    The cannabis queens of Beverly Hills: Mother and daughter who have built business empire from medicinal marijuana

    No you’re not high. These Ferrari-driving, diamond-wearing businesswomen are the so-called Queens of Cannabis. Cheryl Shuman, 54, entered the world of marijuana in a desperate attempt to treat ovarian, colon and bladder cancer. Seven years later, now in remission, she and her daughter Aimee have become the poster girls for spreading the drug’s acceptance across
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  • Two dead from synthetic cannabis: What new drugs are doing to our bodies

    Two dead from synthetic cannabis: What new drugs are doing to our bodies

    BLUEBERRY Haze, Hawaiian Hybrid, Nitro, Magma, Panama Red Ball — it sounds like a list of cocktails. They are in fact the colourful street names for synthetic cannabis and they mask a truly deadly drug. Two Queenslanders died this week, a 33-year-old man and a 41-year-old man, after taking drugs marketed as a “natural high”.
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  • Synthetic cannabis deaths sound alarms in Australia

    Synthetic cannabis deaths sound alarms in Australia

    The deaths of two men—one yesterday and one today—and a rash of recent hospitalizations in Australia, all suspected to result from the use of synthetic cannabis, are focusing attention on a growing worldwide problem. Drug users have been embracing products touted as producing a natural marijuanalike high. The effect is produced by synthetic compounds designed
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  • 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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  • Marijuana CEOs Face Invalidation of Contracts Until Congress Acts

    Marijuana CEOs Face Invalidation of Contracts Until Congress Acts

    NEW YORK (MainStreet) — When Rent Rite Super Kegs West Limited filed for bankruptcy in Denver in 2012, the supplier of production materials and nutrients was denied protection by Federal Judge Howard Tallman because it was a marijuana-related business. “Federal law trumps state law,” said Bob Hoban, a cannabis attorney in Denver. “In any federal court,
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  • Feds Propose Taxing Marijuana, True Cash Crop

    Feds Propose Taxing Marijuana, True Cash Crop

    With all the upheaval in Washington, it isn’t likely that federal proposals to tax marijuana will pass anytime soon. Yet as Professor Paul Caron catalogs, economists are looking anew at the proposed Marijuana Tax Equity Act (H.R. 501). It would end the federal prohibition on marijuana and allow it to be taxed. Growers, sellers and users would not to fear violating federal
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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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  • Happy 710 Meaning: Twitter Trends ‘Dab Day’ On ‘New Stoner Holiday’

    Happy 710 Meaning: Twitter Trends ‘Dab Day’ On ‘New Stoner Holiday’

    On July 10 — aka 7/10, 7:10, or 710 — “Happy 710” trended on Twitter when users began discussing the new, informal annual marijuana-related holiday en masse. The holiday was created to recognize the popularity of “dabs,” the slang term for high-THC concentrates and oils, according to High Times. So where does the name 710 come from?
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  • Berkeley Dispensaries Must Give Free Weed to Low-Income Patients

    Berkeley Dispensaries Must Give Free Weed to Low-Income Patients

    In a landmark decision to serve the underprivileged of the East Bay, the Berkeley City Council UNANIMOUSLY voted last week to provide small amounts of free medical marijuana to low-income and homeless patients. Whoa. According to the new ordinance, dispensaries in the area must give away weed equal to at least 2 percent of their
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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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  • No industrial hemp in Nebraska this year

    No industrial hemp in Nebraska this year

    Legislators earlier this year passed a bill allowing the cultivation of industrial hemp for research, but Nebraska’s nickname as the Cornhusker State is safe for the time being, as state officials work on regulations that will allow the fibrous plant to make the leap from weed to crop. The Nebraska Department of Agriculture — which
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