Browsing: Cannabusiness

As we move into our fifth year of retail marijuana sales, it’s virtually impossible to ignore the boom in dispensaries around Colorado. Although certain “dry” areas don’t allow marijuana sales — Amendment 64 gave municipalities the right to choose which types of pot businesses to allow, or whether to ban them altogether within their jurisdictions — much of the state signed on for the green rush and hasn’t looked back.

The list of licensed recreational pot shops in Colorado was less than four pages long when sales began on January 1, 2014, according to the Marijuana Enforcement Division; today it runs nearly thirteen pages. Recreational cultivations have seen even larger growth, with that list of licensees going from five pages to nineteen.

Colorado cannabis sales saw a small but noticeable drop in November 2017, according to the Colorado Department of Revenue. It was the third straight month of decreasing cannabis revenue.

Medical and recreational cannabis combined for $119,567,777 in sales in November, according to DOR data, a 6.3 percent drop month-over-month from October’s revenue and almost 12 percent less than September’s take However, November’s numbers still represented a rise of almost 9.5 percent from the same month in 2016.

My 420 Tours is a state leader in the cannabis tourism industry, attracting more than 1,000 visitors each month. When I visited its base of operations, nestled in a renovated loading dock just south of Elyria-Swansea, the only signs that it was a cannabis company were a pop-up display for an edibles brand and some CBD-infused cold-brew coffee — but I was only there for what was to come.

The company is known for pot-centric tours and classes ranging from infused cooking to sushi- and joint-rolling, but I signed in for the Budz and Sudz tour. The Budz and Sudz journey is one of the company’s most popular offerings, taking people to a cannabis cultivation facility, dispensaries and a brewery via a large party van every Thursday and Friday afternoon. One more thing: The party van is hotboxed with pot smoke virtually the entire time.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s announcement about rescinding the Cole memo, an Obama-era Department of Justice document that provided some legal protections for businesses operating in states that allow and regulate cannabis sales, has shaken the marijuana industry in Colorado and beyond. But Justin Strekal, political director for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), isn’t surprised by this action. As we noted last July, Strekal believes an op-ed from the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation enumerating eleven ways the administration of President Donald Trump can kill legal cannabis is being used by Sessions and company as a crackdown guideline, and junking Cole is fifth on the list

United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a memo rescinding the Cole Memorandum and other federal pot protections dating back to 2009 on January 4. Colorado’s elected officials — from Governor John Hickenlooper to Mayor Michael Hancock to the entire congressional delegation — were quick to condemn the move and vow to fight any attempt to prosecute law-abiding businesses in this state. But in the meantime, how does the Sessions memo affect you?

While flavors of hard candy, vanilla, sweet cream and milk chocolate aren’t as prevalent in cannabis as the taste of soil or citrus, I prefer the sweeter strains, especially when they’re grown right. Recent experiences with Cookies and Cream, Frankenberry and Hazelnut Cream had me hungry for something sugary during my holiday break, and a trip to Lightshade presented me with a sweet opportunity in Mother’s Milk.

Retail cannabis industries across the country are reeling after United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a memo rescinding the Cole Memorandum, a 2013 policy that offered protection from federal prosecution for the cultivation, distribution and possession of pot in states where it is legal. In Colorado, the first state to authorize the legal sale of retail cannabis, the response has been quick…and, in many cases, furious

1 22 23 24 25 26 35