Aug 23, 2013 | MMJ News
By Chris Roberts
at SFWeekly.com
Medical marijuana dispensaries don’t cause crime, studies have shown. In fact, they may prevent it. So why is the federal Justice Department doing everything it can to make pot clubs ideal robbery targets?
Last year, the feds told credit card companies to stop doing business with California’s legal medical cannabis dispensaries. This was after they’d given the same directive to banks. And now that medical marijuana retailers are cash-only — and need a means to deliver large amounts of cash to entities like the state Board of Equalization — the feds have made them unsafe.
The DEA has informed security and armored car companies — a necessity in a cash-only business — to stop working with cannabis dispensaries or face penalties of money laundering and other charges, cannabis industry representatives announced yesterday.
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Aug 2, 2013 | MMJ News
By Wendy Kaufman
At NPR.org
A couple of guys with serious investment banking experience are moving into the marijuana business. They’ve launched the first multimillion-dollar private equity fund devoted entirely to what they like to call the “cannabis space.”
It started when Brendan Kennedy was working at the Silicon Valley Bank and learned of an entrepreneur who wanted to sell software for marijuana dispensaries. The idea piqued Kennedy’s interest. A few days later, a radio show about legalizing pot piqued it even more.
There’s an opportunity here, he thought, and picked up the phone and called his Yale business school buddy, Michael Blue. He told Blue he thought his friend needed to quit his job and come start a company in the cannabis industry.
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Jul 31, 2013 | MMJ News
By David Downs
At East Bay Express
Last week, the California Democratic Party took the historic step of endorsing statewide regulations for medical cannabis. Such regulations, however, are not going to happen this year, experts say. But this summer, a separate bill, SB 439, could represent yet another baby step toward regulation, thereby exemplifying the Golden State’s painful, decades-long evolution of medical cannabis law.
Authored by State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, SB 439 builds on past law and court rulings by explicitly legalizing cash sales of medical cannabis at dispensaries. The bill also would clear up a persistent legal gray area that allows police in places like Los Angeles and San Diego to imprison citizens for the same activities — dispensary sales — that are fully permitted in Oakland, Berkeley, Richmond, and other cities that regulate dispensaries.
SB 439 would also further clarify the rules of the road for California dispensaries that had been spelled out previously by then-Attorney General Jerry Brown in 2008. But Brown’s “Guidelines for the Security and Non-Diversion of Marijuana Grown for Medical Use” are just that — guidelines — and do not have the force of law. Dispensaries don’t always to follow them, and those that do can still be imprisoned by anti-marijuana cops and prosecutors.
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Jul 23, 2013 | MMJ News
By David Downs
At East Bay Express
SoCal activist Lanny Swerdlow recently notified us that the California Democratic Party passed two historic resolutions on the issue of marijuana at its Executive Board meeting in Costa Mesa on Sunday, July 21.
“The first resolution called on President Obama to (1) respect the voters of Colorado and Washington and to not allow any federal interference in the enactment of their marijuana legalization initiatives, (2) end the federal raids on patients and providers in medical marijuana states and (3) appoint a commission to look into the reform of our nation’s marijuana laws.
“The 2nd resolution calls on our state legislature to enact statewide guidelines for medical marijuana distribution that respects the rights of local municipalities to regulate and license but will also provide marijuana ‘to all patients in all areas of California, rural as well as urban.’
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Jul 11, 2013 | MMJ News
By Chris Roberts
At SF Weekly
At the heart of most matters is a simple thing: money. Cash — and infinite sums of it — is the sinews of war, Cicero told us, and a scan of the technocapitalism headlines — acquisitions, fundings, and otherwise a list of zeroes punctuated by commas are tech news’ daily bread — shows that it’s the dollar that drives the Bay Area.
So, too, with the drug war reform movement. Call it the end of prohibition, call it legalization — you’re not calling it anything without the piles of money needed to run campaigns. Cozying up to capital may be a sign of how much the cannabis movement has matured and gone mainstream, or it could just be reality.
And today’s reality is that Silicon Valley and its youthful entrepreneurs have money to burn. Thus, when the next California marijuana legalization measure is before voters in 2016 (despite passionate efforts, there will be no legalization next year, barring a miracle) it will be brought to you by Silicon Valley capital — and specifically, capital connected to a certain social network. (more…)
Jun 13, 2013 | MMJ News
Purps (60% Sativa, 40% Indica) This medical marijuana strain is commonly prescribed to fight depression. The high percentage of sativa provides patients with a refreshing, alert high.
