Policy

Wisconsin Rep Looks to Legalize Adult-Use Cannabis

Democratic Representative Melissa Sargent introduced a new bill this week that would put Wisconsin alongside Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington as a state that has legalized adult-use marijuana. The bill would include a 25% excise tax on the drug that would help boost the state’s budget by pulling in an estimated $177 million over two […]

Texas House Committee Discusses Several Marijuana Bills

The Texas House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence took a look at several different approaches to reforming the state’s marijuana laws this week. With the session drawing to a close, it’s unlikely that other hearings are likely to be heard and it seems even less likely that the Legislature will pass any big changes to the state’s […]

California Legalization Groups Unite for 2016

The Americans for Policy Reform (“AFPR”) – the group behind the Marijuana Control, Legalization and Revenue Act of 2016 (“MCLR”) – recently announced a collaboration with the cannabis freedom lawyers behind the California Artisan Cannabis Initiative, constitutional and criminal defense attorneys Omar Figueroa and Health L. Burke for the legalization of cannabis in the State […]

Rand Paul Represents Move in Right Direction for Legalization

Rand Paul may not be quite as Libertarian as his father, Ron Paul, when it comes to the legalization of marijuana (the latter called for the full decriminalization of marijuana back in 2012), but his stance on the drug is a bit more liberal than many other presidential candidates in the 2016 race. Sen. Paul […]

Federal Government Renews Contract to Buy Medical Marijuana

The federal government may still classify marijuana as a Schedule I Controlled Substance with no medical value, alongside drugs like heroin, LSD, and ecstasy, but it recently renewed a $68.8 million contract with the University of Mississippi to grow and analyze the drug, according to Time. As the sole producer of federally legal marijuana since […]

Reefer Refund: Colorado May Give Back Cannabis Tax Revenue

Colorado may have raked in millions of dollars worth of tax revenue from the sale of medical and recreational marijuana, but a strict anti-spending provision in the state’s constitution may force it to hand that money back to the public. The so-called Taxpayer Bill of Rights was approved back in 1992 and requires the government […]

Minnesota NORML Campaigns to Stop Marijuana Arrests

Minnesota NORML, the Minnesota affiliate of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (“NORML”), recently announced that it would hold a press conference on Monday, April 6, 2015 at 12:00PM to 1:00PM at the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis to launch their campaign, Make Cannabis the Lowest Level Enforcement Priority (“LLEP”). In […]

Colorado Officials Defend Marijuana Laws in Supreme Court Brief

Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman argued that the Supreme Court should reject a landmark lawsuit filed by Nebraska and Oklahoma over marijuana legalization earlier this week. In the brief submitted in response to the lawsuit, Ms. Coffman wrote that the two states “filed this case in an attempt to reach across their borders and selectively […]

55% of California Voters Support Legalization

California is set to become a key battleground state ahead of the 2016 Presidential Election season, when it could become the most populous state in the union to legalize adult-use marijuana. According to a state-wide PPIC poll released last week, 55% of likely California voters believe that “the use of marijuana should be legal”, suggesting […]

Marijuana Legalization Could Boost Job Growth

The legalization of marijuana in many states and potentially on a federal level over the coming years could have significant implications when it comes to employment. According to a 2003 study in the American Journal of Sociology, a criminal record reduces the likelihood of a job callback by half, even in states where fair hiring […]

Colorado Cannabis Engineered to Get Users Higher

Colorado’s cannabis is two to three times as potent as illegal pot, according to laboratory tests released to the public for the first time. While illegal marijuana had THC levels that were typically below 10%, the legal version of the drug had THC levels that averaged 18.7% with some strains containing 30% or more. CBD […]

New Poll Shows 61% of Americans in Favor of Legalization

More than 70% of voters support reducing penalties for the possession of small amount of marijuana from jail time to a fine, while over 60% of voters support allowing state regulated sales of marijuana cross the country, according to a new poll released by Beyond the Beltway. These findings point to an ongoing turn in […]

Self Defeating: California’s Race to Legalize Cannabis in 2016

California has long been a hotbed for the cannabis legalization movement, given its liberal demographic and status as the largest state in the union. Despite the growing support for legalization, the growing number of ballot initiatives could derail the movement as a whole – as already happened back in 2010. As of mid-March, there are […]

Senators Introduce Historic Bill to Legalize Medical Marijuana

A bipartisan group of senators introduced an expansive bill on Tuesday that would legalize medical marijuana across the country. Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ), Rand Paul (R-KY), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) introduced the Compassionate Access, Research Expansion, and Respect States Act (“CARERS”) that would end federal actions against state-legal medical marijuana programs and open up opportunities […]

General Social Survey Finds Broad Cannabis Support

Many popular survey groups have indicated that the majority of Americans support the legalization of marijuana, but the General Social Survey may be the ultimate sign that public opinion has begun to change in a dramatic way. The national survey issued every two years is widely considered to be the gold standard for public opinion […]

California Eyes Legalization of Cannabis in 2016

California’s voters may have shot down Proposition 19 by a 3.5% margin in a 2010 statewide ballot, but activist groups in the largest U.S. state aren’t deterred in planning their legalization push for 2016. The cannabis legalization movement has gained a lot of ground since 2010, with Colorado, Washington State, Oregon, Alaska, and Washington DC […]

Majority of Young Republicans Support Legalization

The opposition to the legalization of medical and recreational marijuana is an interesting demographic. In general, Democrats tend to support legalization given their liberal stance, while Republicans tend to oppose legalization given their conservative stance. The problem is that some Republicans identify as laissez-faire capitalists, which means they believe in a limited government that shouldn’t […]

Missouri Senator Moves to Legalize Cannabis in 2016

Missouri may be a highly conservative state where marijuana legalization seems unlikely, but Senator Maria Chappelle-Nadal (D-University City) thinks otherwise. Sen. Chappelle-Nadal introduced legislation this week to legalize the medical and recreational use of marijuana. The legislation is based on Colorado’s model, which tracks every aspect of production and taxes at the point of sale, […]

Viridian Capital Releases New Cannabis Industry Analysis

Publicly traded cannabis stocks gained 38.4% in 2014 and are likely to attract more institutional funding moving into 2015, according to a new report by Viridian Capital & Research, titled Cannabis Stocks: 2014 Review and 2015 Outlook. The top performing sub-sectors of the cannabis industry in 2014 included consulting services (+496.4%), biotechnology (+120.8%), and infused […]

Two New Bills Look to Federally Legalize Cannabis

Adult-use cannabis has been legalized in Colorado and Oregon, but Democratic Representatives in both states would like to take things a step further. Reps. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon and Jared Polis of Colorado introduced two separate bills in the House of Representatives to legalize adult-use cannabis across the entire United States. While these bills may […]

Vermont Looks to Legalize Recreational Marijuana

Vermont could soon become the first state to legalize recreational marijuana through the state legislature via a bill submitted earlier this week. Senate Bill 95 would legalize the possession of marijuana for adults over the age of 21 and permit the personal cultivation of up to nine plants. In addition to personal growing, the regulations […]

Washington DC’s Initiative 71 Goes Live Next Week

Washington DC has been a battleground state for the cannabis legalization movement given its proximity to federal governing bodies. While the legalization of commercial marijuana production has been blocked by Congress, voter-approved Initiative 71 will permit adults over the age of 21 to possess up to two ounces, share up to an ounce with others, […]

Snoop Dogg Looks to Raise $25m to Fund Cannabis Startups

Snoop Dogg may be well known for his love of marijuana, but he may be soon looking to do a lot more than just rap about it. According to TechCrunch, the iconic musician is seeking to raise $25 million to invest in cannabis-related startups. The move comes as the cannabis industry has been gaining steam […]

Obama’s $4 Trillion Budget Would Fund DC Cannabis

President Obama’s new $4 trillion budget proposal includes fine print that would open the doors to the legalization of cannabis in Washington DC. Despite the passage of adult-use initiatives last year by the majority of voters, the legalization of cannabis in the nation’s capital has remained uncertain given that Congress controls funding for the district […]

Health Canada’s MMPR Struggles to Find Solid Ground

Health Canada’s Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulations (“MMPR”) was designed to simplify the process of growing and selling medical marijuana within the country. Unlike the old Medical Marijuana Access Regulations (“MMAR”) that it replaced, the MMPR program sought to license private and public corporations to grow and distribute medical marijuana in a much more cost-effective […]

Attorney General Nominee Opposes Marijuana Legalization

U.S. Attorney General Nominee Loretta Lynch voiced her opposition to the legalization of cannabis on the day of her confirmation hearing, which comes in stark contrast to the Obama Administration that has been generally supportive of the efforts. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) asked if she supports legalization and Lynch responded “No I do not.” When […]

18 States Could Legalize Cannabis by 2020

A new report predicts that 18 U.S. states will legalize recreational marijuana by 2020, which represents a significant increase from the four states that have currently legalized adult-use marijuana or are considering doing so. The ArcView Research report – due out in February – based the predictions on a number of factors, including the number […]

Native American Tribes Weigh Cannabis Opportunities

Several Native American tribes across the country are reportedly debating the legalization of cannabis, after the U.S. Department of Justice gave them a green light in December. While no tribes have taken action on the subject yet, several of them are looking to their options given the potentially lucrative business opportunities and their unique legal […]

Cannabis Industry is Fastest Growing in the U.S.

The U.S. legal marijuana industry is the fastest growing industry in the United States, according to a new report by ArcView Research. After surveying hundreds of medical and adult-use marijuana retailers throughout the U.S., the research group found that the industry grew 74% to $2.7 billion in 2014. These growth rates make it the fastest […]

President Obama Sees Expanding Cannabis Legalization

President Obama expects more U.S. states to experiment with the legalization of medical and adult-use marijuana, according to a recent interview conducted by a handful of YouTube personalities, which further solidifies the administration’s opinions on the subject. “What you’re seeing now is Colorado, Washington through state referenda, they’re experimenting with legal marijuana,” Obama said in […]