Browsing: Dispensaries

WBAL
Marijuana critic William Breathes at work

​A Denver man gets paid to smoke cannabis and write about it as one of the first professional medical marijuana critics in the country.

Denver’s Westword alternative newspaper has hired the man, who goes by the name “William Breathes,” to review marijuana dispensaries and the quality of the cannabis they sell, reports WBAL TV.
“He has his journalism degree,” said a Westword editor. “He was a good writer, and he could punctuate and he could spell, which was very different than a lot of people who applied for the job.”
Breathes said he has been smoking marijuana for 15 years to ease chronic stomach pains. Now he smokes pot to pay the mortgage.

Graphic: NotionsCapital

​According to political leaders in the District of Columbia, it will be months before D.C. begins allowing the sale of medical marijuana from licensed dispensaries, even though the law authorizing up to eight of the pot shops took effect Tuesday after the Democratic-controlled Congress declined to intervene.

The delay is caused by a lack of detail about how the city will operate the program, which includes a very cool, first-in-the-nation provision requiring dispensaries to price their marijuana on a sliding scale so the city’s poorest patients can get their medicinal cannabis for free, reports Tim Craig at The Washington Post.
​Council member David A. Catania, chairman of the Health Committee, said he doesn’t expect the first dispensaries to open until early next year, and that would be a best-case scenario.
“I know people are eager for this to go forward, but I think we have to do this judiciously and slowly and carefully,” Catania said.

Photo: Opposing Views

​The District of Columbia’s medical marijuana law cleared a mandatory 30-day Congressional review period Monday night, after Congress declined to take action against a D.C. Council bill that allows the District to license between five and eight medical marijuana dispensaries, D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton said Tuesday.

The District joins 14 other states across the U.S. in having effective medical marijuana laws.

Photo: NorthJersey.com

​Scarlet Knights or Yellow Frights? Rutgers University has fearfully turned down a request from New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to grow medical marijuana as part of the state’s new medicinal cannabis program.

The university said that, if it were to grow the herb, which is illegal for any purpose under federal law, it could lose out on millions of dollars of government funding, reports Richard Perez-Pena of The New York Times.

Photo: MusicbizFormation
“$14,000? What $14,000? Oh yeah, THAT $14,000. OK, just say he was money laundering, threaten him with the DEA, and we’ll keep the cash.”

​Here’s a scenario which, unfortunately, could become all too familiar in the near future. A pot-phobic local police department, still angry and in denial over the legalization of medical marijuana, steals — I mean, “seizes” — cash from a dispensary owner, accuses him of “money laundering,” and threatens to call in federal agents if the owner squawks.

Sound unlikely? Guess again. And welcome to Colorado Springs, Colorado.
A medical marijuana dispensary owner said he intends to sue the Colorado Springs Police Department over what he said was the illegal seizure of $14,000.

Photo: Ask Bury

​The Oakland City Council voted Tuesday to license up to four large marijuana farms in industrial areas to supply the city’s four medical cannabis dispensaries, a groundbreaking decision that could result in the mass commercialization of a formerly illicit crop.

The 5-2 vote came after two hours of heated debate between growers who argued the proposal could destroy their livelihoods, and businessmen who said it could turn Oakland into the Silicon Valley of marijuana, reports John Hoeffel at the Los Angeles Times.

Photo: The Sacramento Bee
Medical marijuana entrepreneur Stephen Gasparas operates a Redding warehouse where he grows medical marijuana for patients.

​Redding won’t be joining a growing group of California cities looking to fix budget deficits by taxing medical marijuana.

A City Council majority on Tuesday evening strongly rejected the idea of taxing the city’s 19 medical cannabis dispensaries, reports Scott Mobley at The Redding Record Searchlight.
“There are people who abuse it (medical marijuana), and people who don’t, and that is the people (this tax) would impact,” said council member Dick Dickerson, who, along with Mary Stegall, strongly opposed the concept of taxing medicinal cannabis.

Photo: James Stacy
Federal medical marijuana defendant James Stacy leads a protest: “I tried to help people and now I face life in prison, even though I did not break the law.”

​Medical marijuana advocates are expressing outrage that former San Diego County dispensary operator James Stacy is facing federal marijuana prosecution.

After Stacy opened a medical pot shop called “Movement In Action” in Vista, he was charged with federal counts of illegally manufacturing and distributing marijuana after undercover buys made by a San Diego County sheriff’s detective and resulting raids by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents at his home and business, reports Peter Hecht of The Sacramento Bee.

Graphic: Medical Marijuana Blog

​The City Council of Portland, Maine has unanimously agreed to include a medical marijuana dispensary in the city’s business zoning ordinance.

Three companies have been selected by the state Department of Health to dispense cannabis  to authorized patients in Maine. The state-licensed dispensaries will be in six locations around the state, including downtown Portland, reports Amanda Hill at WLBZ2.
The state of Maine has agreed to allow Northeast Patients Group to open dispensaries in Portland, Thomaston, Augusta or Waterville, and Hermon.
The group is looking at a number of locations in Portland, now that the zoning ordinance allows it to open a dispensary within the business 2, 3, and 7 zones of the city.
One key location under discussion is the former location of a Key Bank on the corner of Congress and St. John Streets, but one concern is that it’s too tight an area to accommodate a lot of traffic.

Photo: BusinessBroker.net
Maine’s new voter-approved medical marijuana dispensaries are expected to make cannabis more accessible to disabled and ill patients — but making it reasonably priced may be another matter.

​Concerns about affordability are arising as the state’s state-licensed dispensary operators have set their prices high, in what they claim is an effort to prevent resale on the streets.

The newly licensed dispensaries in Maine have revealed they plan to sell their cannabis for $300 to $400 an ounce, comparable to California dispensary prices, reports John Richardson at The Portland Press Herald.
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