Search Results: medical-marijuana-states (3)

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​Even as protesters decrying how out of touch bankers are with everyday Americans are occupying Wall Street, home of America’s banking industry, many financial institutions in states where medical marijuana is legal are refusing to do business with cannabis dispensaries.

Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have legalized medicinal marijuana, but possession or sale of cannabis for any use is still illegal under federal law. It is this disconnect that is giving rise to an unwillingness on the part of many banks to do business with the marijuana collectives.
The banks fear that federal regulators will target them, reports Kathryn Glass at Fox Business, because the federal government says that banks which do business with dispensaries are supporting activities that are illegal under federal law.

Graphic: Medical Marijuana States

​The idea of legalizing marijuana is going to be studied by lawmakers in Indiana.

The General Assembly’s criminal law and sentencing policy study committee plans to examine all the different angles of the marijuana issue, including legalization, reports WHAS 11.
The Hoosier legislators will also take a look at decriminalizing pot, or creating a medical marijuana program in the state.
Among the lawmakers who support the study is Republican Rep. Tom Knollman, who is battling multiple sclerosis. Knollman told lawmakers during this legislatige session that he wished he could legally try cannabis to help relieve his pain.
Knollman said at the time that although he’s among the most conservative of state legislators, he hopes he can be a law-abiding citizen and “use one of God’s plants.”

Graphic: Maine.gov
Safe Harbor Maine is expected to open early next year in Biddeford, becoming New England’s first medical marijuana dispensary.

​Until two weeks ago, it appeared that Rhode Island would open New England’s first marijuana dispensary. Now it looks as if Maine will be doing the honors.

One of the two will be the first state in New England to open a compassion center to sell cannabis to patients registered in state-authorized programs.

“It appears our neighbor to the north will beat Rhode Island to the punch,” concedes W. Zachary Malinowski of The Providence Journal.
A spokesman for the Maine Health Department said the first of eight dispensaries across the state should open for business soon after January 1, 2011. Licenses have been awarded over the past two months to operate dispensaries in each of the state’s eight public health districts, according to the Health Department’s Division of Licensing and Regulatory Services.
Safe Harbor Maine Inc., a nonprofit organization, hopes to be the first to open early next year in Biddeford, Maine, not far from the New Hampshire state line. The business will probably serve fewer than 100 patients in the first year, according to Glenn Peterson, Safe Harbor’s CEO.