• 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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  • Economist magazine hails Uruguay for legalising cannabis and gay marriage

    Economist magazine hails Uruguay for legalising cannabis and gay marriage

    British magazine The Economist has chosen Uruguay as its country of the year. The title, explaining its decision (registration maybe required), praised the country’s “path-breaking reforms” that “might benefit the world”. Uruguay has passed a law to legalise and regulate the production, sale and consumption of cannabis. It also legalised gay marriage – a policy The Economist said had “increased 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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  • 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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  • Uruguay: Does a Nobel Peace Prize await?

    Uruguay: Does a Nobel Peace Prize await?

    Uruguay has perhaps the most beautiful tennis courts in the world, and they are made of red clay and not grass. That’s important to note about the second smallest country in South America that has emerged among the most talked about in the modern world when it became the first nation to fully legalize marijuana. But
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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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  • Fewer US teens see harm in marijuana

    Fewer US teens see harm in marijuana

    Fewer American teenagers consider marijuana to be dangerous, an influential survey has found, a fresh sign of growing public acceptance of a substance that US federal law considers on a par with ecstasy. Some 39.5 per cent of high-school seniors view marijuana as harmful – down from 44.1 per cent just a year ago –
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  • The rehabilitation of marijuana

    The rehabilitation of marijuana

    (USA TODAY) — In 1979, U.S. taxpayers were helping to fund the eradication of marijuana fields in Mexico. Municipalities around the country were passing anti-paraphernalia laws prohibiting the sale of bongs and rolling papers. Only 27% of the nation favored legalizing marijuana, according to a CBS News/New York Times poll taken that year. Flash forward to
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  • Study Shows Youth Marijuana Use Has Gone Down – to the 8th Grade

    Study Shows Youth Marijuana Use Has Gone Down – to the 8th Grade

    A new survey conducted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse shows changing attitudes and perceptions about marijuana risks are responsible for the increasing number of 8th-graders who smoke pot, according to MSN News. The Obama administration expressed its concern last Wednesday, December 18, over the rising use of marijuana among teens. The new study
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  • Washington Residents Smoke Way More Weed Than Officials Thought

    Washington Residents Smoke Way More Weed Than Officials Thought

    Knowing how much marijuana people consume is now a very important statistic for officials in Washington and Colorado. That number can help them make sound decisions about how to regulate the supply side of the country’s first recreational marijuana markets. And on Wednesday a non-profit think tank released a report showing that Washington residents consume far more weed
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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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  • 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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  • 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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  • More students think marijuana is OK, study says

    More students think marijuana is OK, study says

    Most teens may be “Above the Influence” when it comes to cocaine and cigarettes, but marijuana use is growing among students. Sixty percent of U.S. high school seniors do not see regular marijuana use as harmful to their health, according to this year’s Monitoring the Future survey from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. More
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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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  • 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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  • Pot plays big on TV in ‘Glee,’ ‘Parenthood,’ and ‘Mad Men’

    Pot plays big on TV in ‘Glee,’ ‘Parenthood,’ and ‘Mad Men’

    The abundance of marijuana on television suggests that a long-subterranean appreciation for the plant is growing, even thriving, above ground. Whereas 2005′s “Weeds” famously featured Mary-Louise Parker as a suburban mom dealing pot to maintain her upscale lifestyle, and Dave Chappelle’s “Half-Baked” celebrated the subculture with comedy, pot is steadily making its way into more
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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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