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Amid questions about whether marijuana ads make kids more likely to use pot, the National Association of Cannabis Businesses has created proposed labeling and marketing guidelines. The deadline for feedback on this “National Advertising Standard,” on view below, is today, June 8. But an expert from Colorado, where sponsoring highways is among the only promotional platforms open to marijuana businesses, worries that some of the limits it puts in place are overly severe.

“There’s a very fine line to walk,” says Taylor West, senior communications director at COHNNABIS, a cannabis marketing agency. “You want to demonstrate that you are very committed to responsible practices, but you also need to be careful not to be almost punitive to the industry in an attempt to demonstrate that responsibility.”

St. Louis decriminalized up to 35 grams of pot last summer, and the effects so far have kept cannabis users from paying huge fines and (most importantly) out of jail, according to arrests statistics pulled by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Since the law was passed, 127 people have been charged with possession under 35 grams. Fifty-seven cases haven’t reached the courts yet, but those that have are seeing suspended sentences that will be tossed out upon completion of community service or (in some cases) drug education classes. Only one person has pleaded guilty and been fined.

St. Louis.

The St. Louis Board of Aldermen has officially passed a local marijuana reform bill that aims to save police resources and reduce punishments for the most minor possession offenses.
“This is a good, practical move for the city of St. Louis to alleviate police and prosecutorial resources on minor drug offenses,” Alderman Shane Cohn, the bill’s sponsor, tells Daily RFT. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to continue this dialogue into the future.” Sam Levin at the (St. Louis) Riverfront Times has more.

KCRA
Alarm company ADT refuses to service medical marijuana patients who legally grow their own cannabis

A Sacramento, California AIDS patient who grows medical marijuana said his home alarm company of three years dropped him after a repairman saw cannabis plants inside his house.

“I still want to call the governor,” said the homeowner, Jay, who wanted to remain anonymous. “If this company doesn’t want to recognize our state laws, they maybe we shouldn’t license them [in California],” reports Richard Sharp at KCRA.

Cannabis Sativa

The headlines in the mainstream press read “Outdoor Marijuana Cultivation Ban,” but the Emerald Growers Association (EGA) and California NORML both endorsed Sacramento’s personal use medical cannabis cultivation ordinance, which follows a statewide trend in outlawing the outdoor cultivation of medical marijuana. What’s up?

After almost an hour of testimony, the Sacramento City Council on Tuesday night followed through on a vote last month which signaled its intent to join other cities around California in placing tighter restrictions around cannabis cultivation, reports Ryan Lillis at The Sacramento Bee. The council voted 6-2 to enact the ordinance.
But all of the Emerald Growers Association’s policy goals were reportedly achieved, as follows:

Federal Actions Contradict Obama Administration’s Claims That It Is Not Targeting State Law-Compliant Businesses
The operator of Sacramento’s first permitted medical marijuana dispensary, which was raided by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), will speak out at a rally on Wednesday at 1:30 pm in front of the federal building along with other patients and supporters.
Last week, the union-run El Camino Wellness Center was forcibly shut down, after having served thousands of Sacramento patients since 2008. Though no charges have been filed against the dispensary operators, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has seized the facility’s bank accounts.

CBS Denver
Med Stop, which was approved by the City of Denver, is 161 feet diagonally across the street from a school.

​Colorado has been mercifully spared — so far — from the federal crackdown on medical marijuana. Some have speculated its highly regulated system of handling distribution through state-licensed dispensaries has protected the state. That theory may now need some adjustment. Federal authorities plan to crack down on the medicinal cannabis business in Colorado on a large scale for the first time.

The action — which also flies in the face of theories postulating that since Colorado’s medical marijuana law is a constitutional amendment, it has protected the state from the feds — will begin with warning letters which will go to dispensaries and grow facilities near schools, reports Rick Sallinger at CBS4.
So far, it’s not clear when the crackdown will begin in earnest.

Photo: Green House Collective
Services such as Green House Collective deliver marijuana to California patients

​Hundreds of medical marijuana delivery services are circumventing bans on storefront pot dispensaries in California, bringing cannabis directly to people’s homes and offices across the state.

The delivery of marijuana through these services shows how quickly California’s pot industry is moving out of the shadows and into uncharted legal territory, report Gary Cohn and Michael Montgomery at California Watch.
The “mobile dispensaries” advertise a wide range of strains, edibles and related products in newspapers and on the Internet. One service even delivers organic vegetables along with medical marijuana, as part of a “farm-direct” service.