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ECONOMICS
Cannabusinesses, prohibition economics, legalization revenues, industrial hemp
The Oregonian: Medical Marijuana is Big Business
Yet whether you grow two plants hydroponically under a single 600W lamp in Portland, or you grow 24 plants under massive indoor soil grows with thousands of watts of lights in Eugene, or you grow 96 plants outdoors in the ideal weather of Medford, somehow everybody’s expense reimbursements with no labor costs always tally up to $10 / gram and $200 / ounce. And nobody bothers to check any grower’s power or water bills or garden supply receipts. Weird, huh?
Berkeley Patients Group closes its doors for good
Medical marijuana industry leader Berkeley Patients Group of Berkeley will close its doors at the end of its business day today — and not re-open them. A receptionist there just confirmed the contents of an email sent to collective members this morning, stating: “Today is our last day.”
Federal crackdown hitting the marijuana education business hard
Oaksterdam’s enrollment began falling as some California cities seemed oversaturated with cannabis businesses. The number of students dropped sharply last fall when U.S. attorneys began sending seizure notices to dispensary landlords and threatening cultivators. The prosecutors claimed California’s marijuana industry – supposedly nonprofit – had been “hijacked by profiteers” operating in violation of both state and federal law.
Berkeley Patients Group shuts down, Haag blames danger to kids that she created
“Marijuana dispensaries are full of cash and they’re full of marijuana, and everybody knows that,” Haag said in an interview. “They are at risk of being robbed, and many of them are robbed.”
Not the Berkeley Patients Group, however. Not one robbery or incident of violence in all its years of operation.
What Haag is neglecting to tell the public is that the dispensaries being “full of cash” is a danger she helped create by pressuring banks not to do business with dispensaries.
Chicago going nowhere on pot ticket reform while spending millions
From November 2 to January 29, Chicago police made at least 4,480 arrests for misdemeanor marijuana possession. It was by far the largest category of arrest during that time. Each arrest took two officers off the street for at least an hour and a half and led to $2,500 or more in court costs. This leads to an annual tab of at least $78 million for low-level pot busts, though nine of every ten cases are thrown out of court.
Rolling Stone examines Obama’s War on Marijuana
The White House’s war on law-abiding providers of medical marijuana will only drum up business for real criminals. “The administration is going after legal dispensaries and state and local authorities in ways that are going to push this stuff back underground again,” says Ethan Nadelmann, director of the Drug Policy Alliance.
San Francisco Resumes Licensing of Collectives
San Francisco’s medical cannabis dispensary program has resumed their licensing and inspecting of marijuana collectives. Department of Public Health officials announced on Monday that the application process is now back on after weeks of being suspended. New applications had stopped being processed in December when a ruling in a state appeals court said that California [...]
Is pharmaceutical lobbying power squashing liberalization of marijuana laws?
So when when you know that two-thirds of patients at one clinic report substitution of marijuana for prescription drugs, when you know that medical marijuana states have the lowest prices for marijuana, you can’t help but think patients growing medicine in their yard or closet can’t be good for Big Pharma’s profits.
Colorado Banking Bill Would Ease Banking Difficulties for Dispensaries
In Colorado, the last bank that worked openly with medical marijuana businesses was the Colorado Springs Bank, and they closed the last remaining dispensary and clinic business accounts they had in September of last year. At the time they said it was due to concerns about legal issues. Jon Whiten, President of Colorado Springs State Bank that [...]
Proposed Vermont dispensary regs would cap patient registry at 1,000
Now in Vermont, the proponents of a dispensary system there want to ensure that Vermont remains under federal radar by arbitrarily capping the total number of qualifying patients – by law – to only 1,000. So if you get cancer in Vermont, make sure you’re not patient #1,001!