Jun 2, 2016 | California Marijuana Laws, Marijuana Legalization, Proposed MMJ Law Changes
California’s Adult Use of Marijuana Act (AUMA) sounded like a good idea when it arrived. The bill aims to skip right over existing medical marijuana legislation and take a blanket approach to social and medicinal use. To refresh your memory, AUMA’s backers want to:
– Allow adults aged over 21 to possess up to an ounce of marijuana, and
– Cultivate up to six plants on their own properties for personal use
In return, California would, if the bill passed, tax sales at an additional rate of 15% and stand to benefit from a potential $1 billion annual windfall. This is in strong contrast to NORML’s position on medical marijuana. NORML wants the medicine treated as prescription medication, where a physician (and not a lawmaker) decides on the quantity allowed. We have two more problems arising from what AUMA wants to do.
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May 19, 2016 | California Marijuana Laws, Proposed MMJ Law Changes
If Chuck Rosenberg, acting administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has time to read Mary Howitt’s little masterpiece, he should know that persistence pays off especially when the other party drops their guard. The medical marijuana impasse has gone on too long for many. Those in favor demand more material for research, while the law enforcement agency will not release its grip.
The legal way to loosen the logjam is to reclassify marijuana down from Schedule 1 to Schedule 2. Elizabeth Warren and other Democratic senators are calling for this to happen with increasing fervor. All eyes are on the DEA who promised a decision ‘in the first half of 2016’. It is another matter whether they will alter their position that the plant is among ‘the most dangerous class of substances’.
Were Warren and her supporters to succeed in a downgrade to Schedule 2, this might extend the sole right of the University of Mississippi to cultivate marijuana for research. The cliffhanger needs seeing in the context of the broader conversation. Perhaps Mr. Rosenberg will take opinion from the 58% of Americans who spoke for marijuana use to be legal late last year.
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Apr 16, 2016 | Marijuana Legalization, Proposed MMJ Law Changes
The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws NORML has been striving since 1970 to ‘move public opinion sufficiently to legalize the responsible use of marijuana by adults, and to serve as an advocate for consumers to assure they have access to high quality marijuana that is safe, convenient and affordable.’
It has come down hard on two proposals under consideration by California legislators regarding taxing commercial medical marijuana. Briefly, these suggestions are:
– SB 987 – by Sen. McGuire (Healdsburg) seeking to apply a 15% excise tax ON TOP of the prevailing sales tax of 7.5% and more, PLUS local business levies where these apply
– AB 2243 – submitted by Asm. Wood (Headsburg) wanting to impose a cultivation tax of $9.25 PER OUNCE on medical marijuana flowers, $2.75 PER OUNCE on leaves, and $1.25 ON EACH immature plant sold to licensed distributors in the state.
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Apr 2, 2016 | Marijuana Legalization
There is much more in fact, as amply demonstrated in the MMJ Business Factbook 2016 that’s now available. Since California first took tentative steps to decriminalize medical marihuana in 1992, twenty-two more states have joined the campaign – and you can smoke your pot for pleasure in Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington with good money coming from it too.
U.S. Cannabis Retail Sales Estimates
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Mar 20, 2016 | Marijuana Legalization, MMJ News
As the medical marijuana industry emerges from the shadows, new entrants are learning a new lingo and methods that previously cloaked activities from the unconverted. Nowadays pretty much everyone know that ‘bud’ refers to marijuana flowers. As growers became more sophisticated, they adopted the tomato-growing habit of nipping out the tender side buds to produce one larger, more potent one. With dispensary operations becoming more prevalent the bar tenders of marijuana, or ‘bud tenders’ play an important role, particularly for the novice clients/patients.
Nowadays you are likely to encounter an intelligent bud tender across the counter in a marijuana dispensary, not a stoned punk as stereotypes might have some imagine. These are among the most favored positions in the industry. This is especially true for a young generation keen to polish their marijuana knowledge at places like the Oaksterdam University in Oakland, CA, that punts itself as America’s first and premier cannabis college.
Bud tender positions are popular because they are one of few roles where it’s possible to meet and greet medical marijuana customers directly, and exchange hot tips (of the intellectual kind) for enhancing the experience. As in the case of some fast food restaurants, the habit developed of putting out tipping jars for happy customers to fill. This also opened up the possibility in law enforcement minds that some sales could end up as ‘tips’ thereby avoiding sales tax, and they banned the practice.
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Mar 14, 2016 | California Marijuana Laws, Collective Operations, Proposed MMJ Law Changes
California (and the rest of the U.S.) seems to have a prevailing reticence to allow anybody to turn an honest profit out of medical marijuana. You can grow your herb and share it with your friends in one or other non-profit arrangement if agreed to by your state. Under the not-for profit model “profits” are not allowed. With new legislation in play, traditional for-profit entities will be allowed to operate MMJ businesses. So what about existing not-for-profits (mutual benefit corporation) that want to transition to a for profit business? Hilary Bricken wrote an explanation for Above the Law concerning how we got into this mess. This set us to thinking about where to go from here.
As states like California realize that by collecting sales tax on MMJ they are de facto recognizing it as a business, the question arises how to migrate a not-for-profit interest to a full-blown company that will sell for a good return once the floodgates open, and the anti-medical marijuana brigade shuts up shop. The problem is you cannot sell something unless you own it.
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Mar 5, 2016 | Marijuana Legalization, MMJ News
HelloMD is the medical marijuana equivalent of the ‘find a handyman sites’ that used to proliferate the Internet. For a fee, it connects patients to medical marijuana service providers, while providing a host of related free information to ensure user retention. HelloMD published a survey aimed at dispelling the impression that medical cannabis patients are little more that potheads, and it thinks it proved the point.
The Core Finding of the Medical Marijuana Patient Survey
The report states under its conclusions that, “… the prevailing perception of a medical marijuana patient is a masquerading recreational user (a stoner)” is unfounded. “78% of those using cannabis for health and wellness are above the age of 25 … these people are highly educated working professionals. Many are parents. They could be your friends, your colleagues, or your neighbors.
“All of them have legitimate health issues … our research and analysis show a much larger portion be genuinely seeking an alternative to traditional medication for improved health and wellness”. Here’s a key table lifted from the report that is of intense interest to those either trading in, or thinking of entering the lucrative medical marijuana market.
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Feb 21, 2016 | California Marijuana Laws, Marijuana Legalization, Proposed MMJ Law Changes
Walking into the Sacramento board of equalization(BOE) tax agency on quarterly sales tax day, one might think they were selling medical marijuana themselves. If we went into the back office and saw the overflowing safe and wads of banknotes on the desks, our suspicions could increase, although we would still not be correct.
One of the stranger twists in the tale of medical marijuana in the States, is people wanting to pay their sales tax are unable to do so by direct deposit, EFT, or any other traditional banking method. This is because cannabis is still illegal in any form from a federal viewpoint, and the nation’s banks are wary of being mixed up in a Federal Reserve bust.
This leaves licensed medical marijuana dispensaries – along with growers, distributors and other marijuana-related businesses only one choice. This is to do everything by cash. However, this is not ideal for the Sacramento tax collection agency that was designed to receive checks and electronic payments.
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Feb 14, 2016 | California Marijuana Laws, Marijuana Legalization, Proposed MMJ Law Changes
Federal approval of medical marijuana would be on the 2016 schedule were it not for the nature of the product. With 22 states out of 50, plus Washington DC having made it legal – and Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington State approving initiatives – simple math would appear to have the day. So why is medical marijuana not on Obama’s agenda for his twilight 2016 session? The man seems personally positive about it.
The potential medical benefits could finally tip the scales, with notable success for stubborn conditions like Alzheimer’s, Epilepsy, Parkinson’s, Type 2 Diabetes, and some types of Cancer responding well in clinical trials. If medical science cannot crack these tough nuts, then why, oh why can’t millions of chronically or terminally ill people have it? Especially since a recent CBS poll found 84% of respondents in favor of medical marijuana useage.
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Jan 28, 2016 | Marijuana Legalization, MMJ News
There has been huge growth in the American cannabis industry since 2012, when it dawned on business that the government was going to legalize medicinal use sooner than later. Start-up costs began at less than $5,000 for home growers to over a $1 million for top line extraction equipment. Since then, average time to profit has been little short of phenomenal.
How the Cannabis Industry is Faring
Compared to other start-ups, marijuana is doing better than most, especially given the controversial nature of the product.
– 3% are facing ‘significant losses’
– 15% are ‘losing some money’
– 28% are at breakeven point
– 38% are ‘modestly profitable
– 16% report say they are ‘very profitable’
Where there is profit it comes fast, with 62% claiming success within 12 months, and only 6% taking more than 3 years. Compare that with dot com technology, where some of the biggest names are still bleeding money. Some day you could rue not casting your net, while the fish were running in such numbers.
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