Detroit has a new set of medical marijuana laws that officially went into effect on Thursday that requires owners of dispensaries to have a license to do business.
Source: New medical marijuana laws in place in Detroit – Story | WJBK
Citizen petition for Maine marijuana legalization and fail. There were nearly 48,000 invalid signatures on petitions for An Act to Legalize Marijuana, according to the secretary of state’s office.
AUGUSTA, Maine — An attempt to ask Maine voters in a November 2016 referendum whether they want to legalize recreational marijuana has failed, the secretary of state’s office said Wednesday.
David Boyer, Maine political director for the Marijuana Policy Project, said Wednesday afternoon that his group intends to challenge the ruling.
“Based on documents they have provided, it appears that more than 17,000 valid signatures from registered Maine voters were excluded from the count because the signature of a single notary — whose notary commission has not expired — did not exactly match the signature the state has on file for that notary,” said Boyer in a written statement. “We are exploring all legal means available to appeal this determination, and we sincerely hope that 17,000-plus Maine citizens will not be disenfranchised due to a handwriting technicality.”
The group has 10 business days to file an appeal, which would be decided in Superior Court, said Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap.
“We’re not saying any malfeasance was or wasn’t done,” said Dunlap. “That’s not up to us to determine. … Our goal isn’t to invalidate signatures. The goal is to make sure they are valid.”
Petitioners for An Act to Legalize Marijuana turned in 99,229 signatures, but Dunlap’s office could validate only 51,543 of them — far short of the statutory threshold of 61,123 valid signatures. There were nearly 48,000 invalid signatures, Dunlap said in a news release.
Proponents of the measure received their petitions on April 28, 2015. Ballot initiative petitions are valid for a year, meaning that the proponents can gather more signatures between now and April 28, 2016, in an effort to reach the threshold of 61,123 valid signatures. However, the deadline to qualify for this year’s ballot passed on Feb. 1, meaning the question would go on a ballot next year.
The citizens initiative sought to legalize the possession, purchase, growth and sale of marijuana for Mainers 21 years old or older. Initially two groups started collecting signatures for competing marijuana legalization ballot questions, but they joined forces during the signature-gathering process.
Dunlap provided the following reasons for the petition’s failure:
— 31,338 were invalid because the circulators’ signatures did not match the circulators’ signatures or the signature of the notary listed as having administered the oath.
— 13,525 signatures were invalidated because they were not certified as belonging to registered voters in Maine.
— The remaining signatures were invalidated for reasons ranging from paperwork errors to signatures that could not be verified.
Scott Gagnon, director of a group called Smart Approaches to Marijuana, has long been a leading opponent in Maine to marijuana legalization of any kind. He said Wednesday that he was shocked that the petition failed but pleased that he and his supporters will now have more time and resources to fight the abuse of other drugs.
“It’s good news, from our perspective,” said Gagnon, who also is co-chairman of the Maine Opiate Collaborative. “We’re glad it’s off the radar, especially in light of this addiction problem we’re in the middle of in Maine.”
Source: Citizen petition for Maine marijuana legalization fails — Politics — Bangor Daily News — BDN Maine
Supporters of medical marijuana in Florida have gathered enough signatures to get Amendment 2 back on the ballot come November.
ORLANDO, Fla. — Supporters of medical marijuana in Florida have gathered enough signatures to get Amendment 2 back on the ballot come November.
In 2014, the medical marijuana movement missed 2 percent of the vote it needed to pass.
Orlando attorney John Morgan, who’s bankrolling the movement, said at a press conference Thursday he’s confident enough voters will support the updated amendment.
This time around, supporters said they’ve closed loopholes and they believe after November, medical marijuana will be legal in Florida.
“We only lost a battle and not the war. (We’re) coming back to finish the battle and win the war,” said Morgan.
The 58 percent of voters across Florida who supported medical marijuana in 2014 will have their say again this presidential election.
Supporters gathered the support of more than 683,149 voters needed to get the item on the ballot. It took less time to get on the ballot than it did in 2014.
Next, it has to pass on the November ballot by 60 percent.
And with the addition of a few words that Morgan said will close any loopholes in the law, he’s confident it will pass.
“What we did was clarify the list of debilitating diseases, or other debilitating diseases,” he said.
This time, it’s not just the wording that will help push the momentum forward, but also strategy he’s learned along the way.
Morgan said his group worked too hard to reach the young voters and get them to the polls and that didn’t quite work.
“I really should have been educating older people like me,” he said.
For 2016, his group will target voters who are 60 or older.
Because this is a presidential election year, he said there will be more voters to reach and he’s predicting success.
“If we can pass this 400K, really sick people will benefit on day one,” he said.
The amendment would include smokable marijuana, if it passes.
Morgan said if the amendment fails this time around he would support someone else taking over the movement.
Source: John Morgan confident medical marijuana will pass second time around | WFTV
Those for and against marijuana say they plan to carry on with their campaigns and continue to collect signatures.
BILLINGS –Just one day after the Montana Supreme Court upheld nearly all of the Montana Medical Marijuana Act, those for and against marijuana say they plan to carry on with their campaigns and continue to collect signatures.
Both sides say they look at Thursday’s ruling by the high courtas a positive. Three separate Initiative campaigns are in the process of collecting signatures to qualify their measures for Montana’s ballot this fall.
Initiative 176 would make drugs that are illegal federally, including marijuana, also illegal in the Montana. Meanwhile, I-178 and Constitutional Initiative 115 would both make marijuana legal in the state.
The leader of the I-176 group says this week’s ruling is big and will help its campaign to make marijuana illegal.
That group was at MetraPark Friday collecting signatures near the Rimrock Auto Arena, the site of this weekend’s Super Class A divisional basketball tournament.
At the same time, the head of I-178 and CI 115 says those concerned about the constitutionality of the Montana Medical Marijuana Act can now focus their attention on the ballot initiatives and the signature gathering campaign.
“If anything it strengthened (our campaign),” said Doug May, a member of Cycling for Sensible Drug Policy. “It’s made a lot of people really mad and I know there’s been several hundred hits on the site today. People trying to find out what to do and make things happen.”
“I will say I believe it helps because it shows the the people in Montana are clearly not OK with illegal drugs,” said Matt Rich, campaign manager for SafeMontana. “They do want happy healthy and motivated families to live in Montana.”
I-176 and I-178 require more than 24,000 signatures to get on the ballot. CI 115 needs about double that amount, more than 48,000.
To qualify for the November election, the required signatures need to be turned in to the Secretary of State’s office by June 17.
With less than five months to go before medical marijuana dispensaries can open in Hawaii, business owners could be facing unique obstacles in a state of islands separated by federal waters.
Dispensaries can open as soon as July 15, but industry experts say they could be confronted with challenges unlike those in other states, such as navigating rules that ban inter-island transport and limit the number of growers — all of which could cause marijuana shortages. A lack of labs to test the crop presents another challenge for state lawmakers.
“Hawaii is going to be a really interesting market in general, basically because of the geography,” said Chris Walsh, managing editor of Marijuana Business Daily. “First, it’s a chain of islands separated by bodies of water, and second, it’s remote.”
The Hawaii Department of Health is currently reviewing dispensary applications, and plans to award licenses in April. Actor and marijuana advocate Woody Harrelson and video game designer Henk Rogers are among 59 Hawaii residents who have applied for licenses.
Under a law passed in 2015, Hawaii will grant eight licenses for marijuana businesses, each of which can have two production centers and two dispensaries. Three licenses will be awarded for Oahu, two for Hawaii Island, two for Maui and one for Kauai.
However, the law banned inter-island transport. Marijuana advocates say that will separate the industry into distinct economies on each island, unlike other states. It could also lead to marijuana shortages, and go as far as preventing some dispensaries from even selling marijuana until laboratories are approved.
All medical marijuana must be tested in a state-approved laboratory before it’s sold, but currently, there are none in Hawaii. Some worry that high startup costs and low patient numbers will prevent laboratories from opening on rural islands.
“Clearly, not every island can support a full-on laboratory,” said Pam Lichty, president of the Drug Policy Action Group.
In response, Hawaii lawmakers are considering whether to allow marijuana to be transported to another island if a laboratory isn’t available. Rep. Della Au Belatti, who introduced the bill, said lawmakers are trying to figure out how to get around federal laws that prevent marijuana from being transported by sea or air. She said she asked state agencies to look at other state policies for answers.
Some airports in Washington, Oregon and Alaska allow travelers to fly with marijuana, airport officials told The Associated Press. They said the Transportation Security Administration sends travelers with marijuana to local law enforcement officers, who allow people to board flights carrying legal amounts under state law.
However, the Federal Aviation Administration is required to revoke pilots’ licenses if they knowingly commit a federal crime involving a controlled substance on an aircraft — for instance, transporting marijuana.
The Department of Justice says it is less likely to interfere with state marijuana programs as long as they’re well-regulated, according to a 2013 memo.
Medical marijuana advocates in Hawaii say patients would benefit from relaxed laws on inter-island transport. For instance, a crop failure on Kauai, with only one license, could leave patients without medicine for months.
Marijuana shortages are not unheard of. States like Massachusetts and New Jersey have dealt with shortages due to low yields and mold contamination. Those in the industry say Hawaii dispensaries could face pot shortages if something goes wrong in the grow process, which could be a higher possibility as growers start out.
“Grows that are not set up properly will fail,” said Jeremy Nickle, who owns Hawaiian Holy Smokes and is applying for a dispensary.
Hawaii’s medical marijuana industry could also face other problems, such as the nation’s highest electricity costs and a thriving underground market. Hawaii was the first state to legalize medical marijuana through the legislative process 16 years ago, which means many patients already know where to find marijuana.
Source: As a State of Islands Marijuana Sales Tricky for Hawaii – ABC News
Applause and tears filled the Utah Senate chamber Thursday as a controversial medical marijuana bill passed with more yes votes than expected.
SALT LAKE CITY — Tears filled Enedina Stanger’s eyes as she watched the Utah Senate pass a controversial medical marijuana bill that she says won’t help her but would help thousands of Utahns.
“This is a win for Utah. This is a win for love and compassion,” the former West Weber woman said from her wheelchair after the 17-12 vote. “This is such a miracle.”
Stanger, who has a rare connective tissue disorder called Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, moved with her husband, Michael, and two young daughters to Colorado last December for access to medical cannabis.
She said her condition requires the whole plant, which Sen. Mark Madsen, R-Saratoga Springs, ultimately pulled from SB73 to help get it through the Senate. The legislation now goes to the House where advocates of the proposal believe it has a good chance to pass.
Source: Senate passes controversial medical marijuana bill | KSL.com
A law passed in the ’80s to prevent drug dealers from getting tax breaks is now taking a huge chomp out of legitimate outfits in Colorado and Washington.Legal marijuana sales in Colorado and Washington State have grossed billions, but legal dealers will see little of that thanks to a draconian federal law meant to punish street pushers.
In one of the first years of legal sales, 2015, Colorado moved nearly $1 billion worth of marijuana and is estimated to take in $135 million in taxes on it. Meanwhile, Washington is expected to pull in around $1 billion in revenue from sales taxes between 2015 and 2019. Despite technically being illegal on the federal level, these businesses must file taxes to the Internal Revenue Service—and they may pay as much as 70 percent in taxes to the feds.
That’s thanks to Section 280E of the tax code. Congress passed the measure in 1982 so that businesses who are “trafficking in controlled substances” that are prohibited by federal law may not utilize many tax deductions and credits available to other businesses, like deducting rent and employee-related expenses. That means a marijuana business owner can pay an effective tax rate as high as 70 percent, as opposed to the more typical 30 percent rate.
Read the full story from the Source: Feds Slap 70% Tax on Legal Marijuana Businesses – The Daily Beast
Indoor, Outdoor or Greenhouse for a Marijuana Grow?
This topic is especially important to Adilas420. It is important for the government,rule makers and business owners to consider the environmental and financial impact when decieding how and where marijuana growers can grow.
Supporting the use of greenhouses and secure outdoor grows, in favorable environments, is in our best interest, but of course presents some challenges.
Indoor grows may allow cultivators to control environmental conditions and exposure to pests, but it is the most costly way to grow both for the business and for our environment. We are, after all, supporting a comprehensive green movement.
Many in the industry have already completed tests indicating the success in the use of LED lights, in regards to quality, yield and energy efficiency and costs for when indoor growing is the only option.
The Washington Post reports on the impact of indoor grows.
Why the marijuana business needs clean energy:
As legal marijuana markets continue to expand in the United States, some experts are arguing that growers have both the need and the opportunity to make their operations, well, greener. A new report, published by data analysis firm New Frontier, highlights the huge energy footprint of marijuana cultivation and outlines strategies to make production more energy efficient — a transition that the authors claim is not only good for the environment, but good for business, too.
“We wanted to focus on this issue of energy use in the marijuana industry because we think it is one that is going to have very significant long-term implications,” said the new report’s lead author John Kagia, director of industry analytics for the firm, which specializes in data and analytics for the cannabis industry. “Marijuana is the most energy-intensive agricultural commodity that we produce, and that’s largely because of the very high energy costs associated with its cultivation and production indoors.”
The new report draws on data from a variety of sources, including businesses within the industry, government agencies and consumer studies, and paints an alarming portrait of the industry’s extreme energy use. Research cited in the report suggests that marijuana production in the U.S. accounts for one percent of the entire nation’s electrical output — the equivalent of the electricity used by 1.7 million homes with a staggering price tag of $6 billion every year.
Most of this electricity is used to facilitate indoor cultivation, which is the focus of the new report. Historically, this growing strategy has been a way for growers to cultivate their plants discreetly, the report notes, although it also allows for more precise control over the plants’ environment. The problem is that all the controls required to maintain an indoor growing space can require huge amounts of electricity. In addition to artificial lighting, indoor cultivation also requires dehumidification, ventilation and air conditioning — all energy-intensive processes.The report’s focus highlights a problem that deserves greater attention, according to Evan Mills, an energy efficiency consultant and staff scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Mills served as an adviser to the new report and his independent research on the carbon footprint of cannabis production (not associated with his work at the national laboratory) is extensively cited in the paper. “State governments in California and elsewhere have begun to address the destructive impacts of unregulated outdoor cultivation, but have yet to recognize what may be even greater environmental consequences from the prodigious amounts of energy used by indoor operations,” he said in an email to The Washington Post.While the issue may remain under-addressed in many places, though, it is starting to gain mainstream attention. Last year, for instance, a paper in the Columbia Journal of Environmental Law noted the industry’s high power use and proposed that states in which marijuana use is legalized should also write policies requiring the industry to power itself with clean energy.
As an example of indoor cultivation’s intensive energy requirements, the new paper points to a report from utility company Xcel Energy, which claimed that marijuana facilities in Colorado consumed 200 million kilowatt-hours in 2014. Overall, New Frontier’s report estimates that the industry in the state paid an electricity bill of approximately $19.6 million in 2014 — notable, as he pointed out, because there were fewer than 1,200 licensed growers in the state that year.
From a financial perspective, Kagia pointed out that the historically high prices growers have charged for their products have enabled them to easily recoup the costs of such high energy use. But he suggested that the industry’s expanding legal market may soon be changing that.
“In an increasingly competitive environment, there’s a lot of downward pressure on prices, and we expect that as the environment becomes much more competitive, the ability to maintain the cost structure driven by such high energy use will be unsustainable,” Kagia said. “Currently energy accounts for approximately half of the wholesale prices of marijuana, and as those prices fall, the share of energy and the total production cost will continue to increase.”
So there’s an economic imperative to use less energy as well as an environmental one. The question is how it can be done. New Frontier’s report outlines a number of strategies on this front.
First, and most obviously, growers could switch to outdoor or greenhouse cultivation when possible. But Kagia pointed out that this isn’t an option for everybody. “There are some environments, by regulation or because of the environmental conditions, you would not be able to,” he said, noting that very cold or very hot climates would prohibit the growing of all but a few strains of marijuana. But in cases where state or municipal laws prohibit outdoor growing, the report suggests that growers begin advocating for less restrictive regulations.
However, there are certain other appeals to indoor growing, such as easier pest management, that may deter some growers from moving outdoors, even if the option is available. And it’s also important to note that outdoor cultivation, while certainly less energy-intensive, comes with its own set of environmental concerns. The large amounts of pesticides typically used to protect outdoor marijuana farms is among the biggest of these.
Fortunately, it’s possible to make indoor cultivation more energy efficient, the new report says. Installing more energy efficient lighting is one of the biggest steps. According to the report, growers have traditionally tended to rely on high intensity discharge lamps for their lighting. The report lists several more efficient alternatives, including specially designed LED lights and induction lights, which use magnets to transmit electricity.
“Over the past decade or so, great strides have been made in the lighting technologies or solutions provided by the LED companies,” Kagia said. “To date, they have still not been able to surpass the cost performance threshold offered by existing lights, but we are getting there, and we think this innovation that is happening around the lighting sector is one of the ways that this industry will be able to decouple itself from this extremely high energy use.”
The report also recommends that growers conduct energy audits and install smart meters to keep better track of where they are expending the most energy. And finally, Mills also noted that a major challenge for improving efficiency in the future will be for policymakers to get involved in the issue and “exercise foresight” when developing regulations that will affect the industry’s energy use. Addressing grow facilities in building energy codes, for example, and coming up with carbon-neutral building designs specifically for grow facilities is one forward-thinking goal he suggested.
“There is no reason that this industry should be exempt from the kinds of energy efficiency requirements or voluntary energy information and incentive programs that are otherwise so widespread,” he said by email. “Given the construction booms that have followed legalization in some states, it’s incumbent on policymakers to put energy plans in place beforehand.”
Source: The surprisingly huge energy footprint of the booming marijuana industry – The Washington Post
The thought of my Nana receiving a group text telling her to show up to at a McDonalds parking lot to pick up her medications is absurd. Apparently, this is what is happening in New Mexico which is reminiscent of issues in the Arizona Medical Marijuana Program in its early “caregiver model” days. Hopefully, dispensaries like Pecos Valley Pharmaceuticals, opening soon in Southeast New Mexico, will give patients a closer option to access medication safely.
Westward reported in November on one Colorado Pot Attorney’s efforts to resolve this:
Jason Flores-Williams is a Denver-based attorney.
But he’s taken on the cause of medical marijuana patients in New Mexico — particularly those who live in rural areas without easy access to MMJ.
In recent weeks, he’s filed two court documents, including one today, that take up their cause, including a complaint that says the current system forces patients outside metropolitan areas to wait for MMJ drop-offs at McDonald’s or Walmart branches. In his view, this situation not only violates privacy rights when it comes to their medical care but also makes them susceptible to becoming crime victims.
“Imagine a group of patients, many of them elderly or on respirators, all having to sit at a McDonald’s while they wait for their medical marijuana to be delivered,” Flores-Williams says. “It’s like having to score heroin in Times Square.
“Everyone knows who they are and why they’re there,” he continues. “And because this is a cash-only business, it’s setting up these people to be jacked. It’s not if something violent happens. It’s when.”
Flores-Williams traces many of the issues related to MMJ access in less populated portions of New Mexico to the administration of Governor Susana Martinez, who, he says, “has gone on record as saying she doesn’t want the program.”
Under the system, he goes on, the New Mexico Department of Health “is tasked to regulate medical marijuana programming for licensed, card-holding patients. But they’ve done this in a way that violates equal protection. Most dispensaries have only been approved in Albuquerque and Santa Fe, and regional and poor areas have been left out in the cold, even though tons of veterans, elderly cancer patients and mine workers live there and really need this stuff.
“The only way they can get it is to have it delivered from a licensed dispensary in one of the bigger cities — and under privacy and HIPAA laws, it should really be delivered to their homes. But what’s happening is that these delivery drivers are sending out group texts to all the patients in Raton, New Mexico, or Grants, New Mexico or places like these and saying, ‘Okay, I’m coming in on Saturday. Everybody go to the McDonald’s between two and six p.m.”
As a result, Flores-Williams contends that various McDonald’s branches, as well as affiliates of Walmart and TravelCenters of America, both of which are mentioned in the lawsuit, have become de facto drug distribution centers in violation of federal law, and likely without the knowledge of the companies themselves — although Flores-Williams has sent a letter to each of the firms informing them about what’s going on.
Additionally, Flores-Williams has filed a a petition for what’s known as a writ of mandamus. The filing asks the New Mexico Supreme Court to mandate the approval of a medical marijuana provider in the western part of New Mexico, where the nearest dispensary is often many miles away.
The writ is “based on equal protection in the most basic sense,” Flores-Williams says. “The law is supposed to treat us all the same, whether we live in the city or in a rural part of the state. But if you’re a medical marijuana patient, you basically have no access to the medication. That makes you dependent on these deliveries, which violate all kinds of laws. Patients are being forced to go to public places in this new black market to buy their marijuana.”
Could the lawsuit endanger the medical marijuana program as a whole? Flores-Williams is hoping language in the complaint prevents such a possibility.
“In the section where we ask for injunctive relief, there’s a preemptive strike. We specifically say, ‘Please, court, don’t let the Martinez administration use this as a reason to shut down the entire program’ — and that’s something they might try to do. The quickest analogy is to the voting rights act. The government came in and said everyone had an equal right to vote, but some places in the South made it impossible to vote — and then they said, ‘Things are so bad that we’re going to dump the whole program and not follow the law.’ And we don’t want to see that happen here.”
Click Here to see a KOB-TV report about November’s writ filing, followed by the aforementioned documents.
Source: MMJ Suit: New Mexico System Makes Rural Patients Pick Up Pot at McDonald’s | Westword
