Marijuana supporters, industry reps and advocates gathered at two election-night watch parties in Denver on November 8.
Employees of five cannabis companies and their guests met up at the WeWork building on 17th and Platte streets, where tracking data for all nine states with marijuana measures on the ballot was displayed on a large screen at the front of the room; meanwhile, election results in the presidential race were playing on a television next to the projector screen.
A margin of 7,600 votes determined whether the retail marijuana market in Pueblo County would survive this election.
Question 200 appeared on the county ballot after opposition groups campaigned against the legal marijuana industry. If passed, 200 would have eliminated the cultivation of recreational marijuana, ended retail sales, closed existing cannabis businesses and left the 1,300 people working in the industry unemployed.
Among other things, they are preparing safety guides for “trimmigrants”
Here’s your daily round-up of pot-news, excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek.
Reveal follows up on its investigation of sex abuse of trimmigrants in California’s Emerald Triangle, with an update on how communities in the region have responded.
Massachusetts became the first state on the east coast to legalize REC, despite opposition from the state’s most prominent politicians, both Democrats and Republicans. Dispensaries could open as soon as January 2018.
All four states voting on MED approved it. In Florida, voters legalized MED with 71% in favor. In Arkansas, a MED initiative has a comfortable lead with most precincts reporting. North Dakota’s MED initiative passed with about 64% of the vote and Montana’s Initiative to expand MED access also passed comfortably.
Each of the MED states also voted for Donald Trump, who is now president-elect.
It looks like the proposed REC business bans in Pueblo, the Colorado industry’s secondary hub, failed. I wrote about the situation for the L.A. Times.
There were numerous local votes in Oregon on the industry’s status in communities. See the results here.
The Eureka Times-Standard explains your rights in California post Proposition 64. Public consumption will not be allowed except in licensed businesses, which will open in 2018 at the earliest.
Stocks in private prison companies jumped following Donald Trump’s victory. Racial disparities in criminal enforcement remain a concern.
The Nation profiles Bill Montgomery (R), the anti-pot Phoenix prosecutor who won re-election.
An odor problem has earned a Boulder grow $14,000 in fines.
The NFL Player’s Association said it would explore MED as a pain management tool. The league isn’t budging, for now.
Playboy calls legalization one of the election’s “ silver linings.”
Colorado Harvest Company and O.pen vape were among the major donors to Levitt Pavilion amphitheater, a new venue for free concerts in Denver.
Marijuana dominated at the ballot box this year. Voters in nine states voted on marijuana legalization measures yesterday: five on proposals to legalize recreational marijuana, and four on medical marijuana measures. While Arizona voters chose not to legalize recreational marijuana, California, Massachusetts and Nevada all passed recreational legalization measures (Maine is too close to call). And all of the states with an option to approve medical marijuana took it: Medical marijuana is now also legal in Arkansas, Florida, Montana and North Dakota — which means that more than half the country has approved MMJ.
There’s a wrong way to do everything.
Here’s your daily round-up of pot-news, excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek.
In Slate, scholar Mark A.R. Kleiman writes that “ We’re legalizing weed wrong:”
“Legalization is not only necessary but virtually inevitable, even at the federal level. But I also believe that, by and large, our approach to legalization contains some consequential flaws and that the necessity of such laws doesn’t mean we should rush out and grab the first legalization proposal we’re offered…
“Regulate cannabis like alcohol” is an ugly policy. Our current alcohol laws fail spectacularly to control the harm alcohol does to drinkers and the harm drinkers do to others; an estimated 90,000 Americans die each year of their own drinking or someone else’s. Why repeat that mistake when we legalize another potentially habit-forming intoxicant? What we want is the sort of “grudging toleration” the law now extends to tobacco;
Minnesota doctor Ilo Leppik wants the state to expand MED rules to include dogs. Dr. Leppik believes it may be helpful in treating dogs with epilepsy.
About 20% of Americans naturally feel less anxious due to a gene mutation that causes higher levels of anandamide, an endocannabinoid that occurs naturally in the body.
Scientific American says the “ definition of stoned driving” and a breathalyzer to test for it remain out of scientists’ reach.
Vice asks why some people choose to “ self-medicate with illegal drugs.”
Idaho mom Kelsey Gooding has lost custody of her children and plead not guilty to misdemeanor injury of a child after giving her daughter a cannabis smoothie in an effort to control her seizures.
The Cannabist has a deep dive on the adjustment to legalization in San Diego.
Ballot initiatives aren’t possible in Europe so activists have to appeal to politicians.
This year’s mega conference in Las Vegas promises to be a festive affair. Perhaps the most festive event in any blue state.
Being labeled “organic” doesn’t necessarily mean a product isorganic, and sustainable growers in the cannabis industry have long struggled to find ways to differentiate themselves from those who co-opt that term. Now L’Eagle has become the first dispensary to receive the Certifiably Green Denver certification from the city.
One of the last true mom-and-pop dispensaries in the city, L’Eagle is run by Amy Andrle and her husband, John, who have always worked to ensure that their product is environmentally sustainable. From avoiding harmful sprays on the flower to implementing best practices from agricultural science, L’Eagle has fought to keep its product green since the dispensary began in 2010.
“High noon” is what the operators of Herbal Outfitters called their grand opening at midday October 29 in Valdez, Alaska. The historic event made Herbal Outfitters the first retail marijuana store to open in Alaska since residents voted to legalize recreational use two years ago.
When you hear the name Valdez, you might picture Juan Valdez and his horse showing up uninvited first thing in the morning with a steaming cup of Colombian coffee. Or you might remember the name from the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, caused by an alcohol-saturated captain sleeping one off as his third mate ran the Exxon Valdez oil tanker into a reef. But if you’ve ever been to Valdez, Alaska, you know that it’s a small port town located in south central Alaska, surrounded by snowcapped mountains, with a population of a little over 4,000 people and now the state’s first marijuana store.
It would be the first in the country.
Here’s your daily round-up of pot-news, excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek.
Denver’s social use initiative is in the lead with some ballots still uncounted. If approved it would be allow bars and other businesses to apply for on-site pot consumption permits.
After Election Day, there are now eight more Senators and 68 more members of the House representing REC states, and six more Senators and 33 more members representing MED states. Marijuana.com predicts that it will be harder for them to reject cannabis reform legislation out of hand.
Massachusetts treasurer Deb Goldberg says she may need an extension of the October 2017 deadline to begin accepting license applications. Additional tweaks on taxes, edibles and DUI are anticipated.
How Florida’s MED program will work remains hazy.
Marijuana Business Daily calls it an $8 billion-night based on the combined annual sales projected in the newly legal states. Vox explains the votes. The New York Times has a round-up.
Rob Sands, CEO of Constellation Brands, whose portfolio includes Svedka Vodka and Robert Mondavi wine, said the company is interested in going green. “There are going to be alcoholic beverages that will also contain cannabis.”
The New York Stock Exchange accepted cannabis real estate investment trust (REIT) Innovative Industrial Properties’ listing. It will be the first cannabis REIT to trade on the exchange. It’s ticker will be IIPR.
Canadian producer Aphria announced a C$35M raise, the largest by a public company to date. Legal Canadian growers have raised more than C$313M in the last 13 months.
The New York Times profiles Denver-based Dixie Brands as it builds a national presence. (For more on interstate trade, see my April story in The Washington Post.)
WIRED tells us to “Get ready for the Budweiser of bud.”
Adrian Sedlin, CEO of California grower CannDescent, told Fortune that leaving California companies without bank accounts is “ not a tenable position.”
LAWeekly finds some psyched local cannabis executives. The San Jose Mercury News talks to some pumped-up Investors.
In late August, the Denver Responsible Use Initiative, a proposal intended to create venues for the social consumption of cannabis in the Mile High City, fell short of qualifying for the November ballot. Afterward, attorney Judd Golden of Denver NORML, which backed the measure, told us the organization had not yet decided whether it would support a rival initiative, the Neighborhood Supported Cannabis Consumption Pilot Program, should its ballot petition pass muster.
Shortly thereafter, the pilot program achieved ballot qualification — and the campaign for what is now known as Initiative 300 is in full swing on the eve of election day. But Denver NORML isn’t part of the Yes on 300 campaign’s final push.
In an interview with Westword published yesterday, Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey, who wrote a letter of support for an anti-marijuana legalization measure up for vote in California next week, said he believes legal pot has contributed to a crime increase in Colorado, including more homicides. But he acknowledged that data to prove it is hard to come by.
He’s right about that. However, an analysis of homicides in Denver circa 2016 provides more information. Our look at the 44 homicides that have taken place in the city so far this year (including a shocking twelve last month) shows four with a marijuana connection — one death fewer than the number of people killed by Denver police officers this year to date.