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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
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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DOJ: States won’t get pass on pot laws
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration’s decision not to challenge marijuana laws passed by 21 states and the District of Columbia doesn’t mean those jurisdictions have escaped federal scrutiny entirely, a Justice Department official said Tuesday. Deputy Attorney General James Cole told the Senate Judiciary Committee the administration is monitoring the states, including California and Oregon, and
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Denver police defend stand down at pot giveaway
DENVER — Denver police are defending their decision to stand down while dozens of people lit up marijuana cigarettes at a free pot giveaway in Civic Center park. Deputy Chief David Quinones tells the Denver Post (http://tinyurl.com/nhfmoc7) the department didn’t want to incite a riot Monday over a petty offense. Hundreds of people lined up to
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Congress Holding Hearing On Justice Department’s Marijuana Decision
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is facing criticism over its attempt to straddle the federal law that makes marijuana illegal and state laws that permit recreational use of the drug. In the first congressional hearing since the administration announced a new, permissive enforcement policy, law enforcement and drug-prevention groups and their congressional allies see an
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Inslee to meet with US attorneys about legal pot
OLYMPIA, Wash. — Gov. Jay Inslee is set to meet Tuesday with the two top federal prosecutors in Washington to discuss the Justice Department’s concerns about the state’s legal marijuana law. U.S. Attorneys Jenny Durkan of Seattle and Mike Ormsby of Spokane are traveling to Olympia to speak with Inslee and Attorney General Bob Ferguson.
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Marijuana Activist May Run for Political Office
Small acts of defiance have sometimes sparked political infernos. December 1955: seamstress Rosa Parks refuses to sit in the back of the bus and touches off the Montgomery bus boycott. August 1980: electrician Lech Walesa hops a fence at the Gdansk shipyards and goes on to lead a strike that opens a crack that spreads
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Puerto Rico to Debate Medical Marijuana Legalization
SAN JUAN, PR — Legislators in Puerto Rico are preparing to debate a bill that would allow people to use marijuana for medicinal purposes in this conservative U.S. territory, officials said Thursday. The measure would create a system to legally produce the substance and allow state health officials to regulate it, said Rep. Jose Baez,
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Washington State issues how-to regs on growing, selling marijuana
With the eyes of other states – and the US Justice Department – upon them, officials in Washington State have issued draft regulations for growing, distributing, and selling marijuana meant for recreational use. The details announced this week include the number of shops that will be able to sell pot around the state (334, with locations based
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Jamaica Marijuana Tours Lead Visitors Through Island’s Hidden Pot Plantations
NINE MILE, Jamaica — Napa and Sonoma have their wine tours, and travelers flock to Scotland to sample the fine single malt whiskies. But in Jamaica, farmers are offering a different kind of trip for a different type of connoisseur. Call them ganja tours: smoky, mystical – and technically illegal – journeys to some of
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SF’s Civic Center Plaza to be awash in cannabis Saturday
The movement is coming home. San Francisco is widely seen as the cradle of America’s medical cannabis industry, which has grown far and wide since the days when Dennis Peron opened the first cannabis club (illegally) in the late 1980s in the Castro district to help gay men dying of AIDS. On Saturday, homage
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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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What should federal role be in regulating pot? #tellusatoday
We asked our followers on Twitter what role the federal government should have in regulating marijuana. Comments are edited for clarity and grammar: The U.S. government should turn the marijuana issue over to the states. They have the most to gain or lose from it. — @RadioEPTL Federal government should tax legal marijuana sales to fund
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Smoke it if you got it
The Obama administration has acquiesced to movements across the country seeking legalized marijuana. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s announcement last week that he’ll ignore federal law and not step in the way of states that have legalized marijuana, for medical purposes or otherwise, is another unmistakable sign of the strength of the pro-marijuana movement. Although
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Puerto Rico to debate medical use of marijuana
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Legislators in Puerto Rico are preparing to debate a bill that would allow people to use marijuana for medicinal purposes in this conservative US territory, officials said Thursday. The measure would create a system to legally produce the substance and allow state health officials to regulate it, said Rep.
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Is Monsanto Ready to Enter The Medical Marijuana War?
As legally allowed medical marijuana becomes more widespread, it is no surprise that many are realizing there is legal money to be made off of this traditionally illegal cash crop. Even Illinois has adapted medical marijuana laws, and soon it will be legal to buy weed in Chicago as long as you have a prescription. With
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Gulf Cartel Boss Arrested in Southeast Mexico
CANCUN, Mexico – The suspected leader of the Gulf cartel in the resort cities of Cancun and Playa del Carmen was arrested by police and Mexican army troops, the Quintana Roo state Attorney General’s Office said Thursday. Jose Roberto Diaz Cornelio was captured Wednesday in Merida and taken to Cancun, Quintana Roo Attorney General Gaspar
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Mexico City Mulls Legal Marijuana Clubs
The Mexico City council is considering the legalization of cannabis plants and the creation of private marijuana smoking “clubs” as it mulls controversial legislation to liberalize consumption, lawmakers said. The capital hosted a three-day forum on drug policy amid a growing debate in Latin America over the course of the region’s deadly struggle against narcotrafficking,
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Drug Use Drops for America’s Youth, Rises in the Over 50 Crowd
Drug use among America’s youth is dropping, but it’s booming among people over 50, a U.S. government survey released Wednesday shows. Last year, the rate of illicit drug use among children and teenagers 12 to 17 years old dropped to 9.5 percent, down from 11.6 percent a decade earlier, according to the Substance Abuse and
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Legal marijuana likely available next June
OLYMPIA — Anyone waiting to legally buy recreational marijuana in Washington will have to wait about nine months longer. Revised regulations given tentative approval Wednesday for a system to license, inspect and track the drug would probably get the first lawfully grown and processed marijuana into state-licensed stores by June 1, some 20 months after voters
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