cali Marijuana

Will Cali Say Yes to Retail Marijuana this November?

The decision on whether or not to legalize marijuana in the state of California is right around the corner. In reports going out by the Associated Press, those who live in California will make this decision in November. Alex Padilla is the California Secretary of State. Tuesday Alex announced that the supporters of marijuana legalization in the state of California had gathered more than the sufficient amounts of required signatures. This means that this November the question or not to legalize marijuana will make the ballot and voters will have the chance to show their support for retail marijuana.
Basically, California is looking to legalize the retail marijuana market much in the way that Colorado has. The initiative that is going to make the November ballot will ask voters if they believed individuals aged 21 and up should have the ability to purchase cannabis and cannabis-infused products through licensed retail dispensaries. Another question that is on this initiative is whether or not people will be allowed to grow marijuana for personal recreational consumption in the amount of 6 plants.
Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom and the co-founder of Napster Sean Parker are in support of this initiative. For obvious reasons, this initiative would stand to strengthen the state of California in a multitude of ways. Adding as much as an estimated 1 billion dollars or more per year to the state’s revenue would without a doubt help the state of California. Also by decreasing the cost of Public Safety by not wasting valuable and precious resources on attacking harmless and innocent cannabis consumers the state would be able to do things that Colorado has done such as lower the violent crime rate, the fatality rate in auto accidents and teenage consumption of cannabis to name a few.
image credit: bigstock

weedr

You Would Have Thought They Were Giving Away Free Weed in Calaveras County

Calaveras County California was founded in 1850 and has a population of roughly 45,000 citizens. It takes up an estimated 1,037 square miles of land that sits atop of the San Andreas fault line in California. Angels Camp is on one side and Tamarac on the other. Lines at the local County Office in Calaveras County are enormous as the six-week deadline to file your paperwork to grow cannabis approaches.
Hundreds of citizens scrambled to the county building to register as legal marijuana growers. One clerk described the scene as a crowded DMV or restaurant. Marijuana growers who have been growing underground and facing potential charges are happy to apply for legal growing permits that cost between $200 for personal medical grows all the way up to $5,000 if you were looking for a full-on commercial marijuana grow op.
The energy in the crowd was a positive one. Many people were talking about the Green Rush. The Green Rush, of course, is the term people are using when they are referring to the cannabis industry as being much like the Gold Rush of the late eighteen hundreds. By the time the end of the day had rolled around the Calaveras County Office officials had a book that was 20 pages with 25 names front and back on each page signed in and ready for appointments with the county. Now Calaveras County will have a better idea on how much marijuana is being grown. The process of getting your registration packet was not an easy one as you had to have the local water department, tax agencies, and land assessors all sign off on a registration before you can bring your packet to the county building.
image credit: calaverasenterprise

Banking Must Be Made Available to Cannabis Businesses

Marijuana legalization is taking place across the United States of America on both a medicinal as well as a recreational level. There are 25 states with legal medical marijuana access and four states with legal retail or recreational marijuana access according to a recent article in the Seattle Times. Congress has a moral and legal obligation to the safety of the people to ease regulations on banking for marijuana businesses.
Banks are losing out on incredible amounts of money because of federal marijuana prohibition. While states choose to adopt medical marijuana and or retail marijuana laws this means that people are caught in the crosshairs. While the state tells you-you can pay taxes and successfully and legally run a marijuana business the federal government tells you any of the money that you made from that is not allowed to be put into a bank account.
This means that cannabis business owners end up having large amounts of cash either on them or stashed at various locations. This makes them a prime target for criminal gangs such as the police department or other hoodlums criminals. For this very reason, Congress must do something to ease Federal Banking regulations on the Cannabis industry for the safety of the people or they are not doing their job and must step down from office and be replaced by individuals who will follow the constitutional law in the United States of America.
In the past two weeks, we have seen two different events occur that most likely would have never happened if dispensaries didn’t have to hold large sums of cash on hand. One of these events in Aurora Colorado resulted in a veteran Marine, father of 3 and security guard being fatally shot. We must make changes so that these legal businesses can operate without this unnecessary security concern.
image credit: The New York Times

marijuana plant

This Man Was Never a Criminal Until He Got Caught Growing a Plant

More people around the world are being arrested for cannabis every day. While places such as the United States, Canada, Uruguay, and others have legal access to marijuana there are still places where people are being arrested and serving considerable amounts of their life behind bars because of cannabis. Even in the United States of America where over half the country has legal access to medical marijuana individuals are still arrested on a daily basis for simple possession. Some people are arrested for growing these plants and end up serving lengthy sentences behind bars.
The United States is not the only place that feels the wrath of prohibition. A waiter from Poland was arrested for growing an estimated 120 marijuana plants using a sophisticated setup that would allow for multiple commercial grows. Police arrested 30-year-old Robert Knopek. He will be serving the next two-and-a-half years of his life behind bars for having a hundred and twelve female plants and 9 seedlings in his possession. The estimated street value of these plants was between £44,500 and £96,000.
Robert will now serve time in prison with a multitude of violent criminals. Until this arrest Robert had had no criminal background. He had never been in any kind of trouble but now he’ll face the next 30 months of his life in a prison cell all because he grew a harmless plant. Marijuana has 0 deaths link to it directly ever in recorded history and harms no one. In fact, it saves lives.
This arrest is just one of many that happen every day that result in someone’s life being ruined over a plant. It is the time that marijuana was decriminalized around the globe so that people have safe, legal access to a natural medication that they can grow in their own homes.
image credit: royalqueenseeds

cannabis wr

They Found How Much Cannabis Hidden Where?

4.3 million euros of cannabis was discovered inside of a container of frozen meat from France. Authorities uncovered an estimated 215 kilograms of cured ready to sale cannabis. There are many different ways that individuals will smuggle cannabis into countries. The best way to eliminate drug trafficking and smuggling of marijuana altogether is to legalize marijuana. There have been zero deaths ever recorded in history directly linked to marijuana. It is, in fact, a valuable medication for a multitude of conditions.
Currently, countries around the world are re-evaluating their marijuana laws realizing that the war on drugs or the attempted eradication of marijuana was a feeble mistake started by the United States federal government. Many of these countries are no longer supporting these lies as it makes them look extremely foolish. United States politicians do not care who suffers as long as they are making money. Other countries are starting to realize that marijuana prohibition was a campaign built on lies.
However, it makes me wonder how authorities put a price on cannabis like this. On average anyone buying marijuana in any kind of bulk rate can get a pound of top-quality cannabis for $2,200. This is actually a very high price if you are buying say 215 kilograms or 473 pounds of pot at one time. At $2,200 a pound, 215 kilograms of marijuana would only come up to 1.27 million euros, not 4 million euros like what was reported. Apparently, a pound of marijuana in France goes for $6,000 roughly according to reports issued by media outlets such as the Irish Times.
It is crazy the things that people do to smuggle cannabis into a country but this is nothing new. People have had to come up with some pretty crazy ways to conceal cannabis due to the draconian prohibition that has plagued many parts of the world for almost a century now.
Image Source: Revenue

falt marijuana

Over £1.5 Million Worth of Cannabis Found Growing in a Flat in Wirral

In Wallasey, a small quiet town in a metropolitan Borough called Wirral, located along the northeastern corner of the Wirral Peninsula, a cannabis farm worth an estimated £1.6 million was discovered. This quaint town has an estimated population close to 60,000 people. While on routine monitoring of the community authorities uncovered what they call a substantial factory. A two-story flat was home to more than 400 growing cannabis plants.
In fact, officers were said to have recovered 415 plants at the Rake Lane property located in Wallasey. The sad side beyond the loss of medicine to the people is the misinformed authorities who continue to lead a failed War on Drugs started by the United States Federal Administration. You would think that in today’s world people would have the intelligence level to develop opinions of their own and that countries would not be willing to support campaigns based on lies. Chief Inspector Paul Sutcliffe made some valid points and some very misinformed ones as well. “Cannabis cultivation by criminal gangs can cause serious harm in our communities.” This is a statement that holds truth. Nobody wants gangs of any sort in their community.
With marijuana legalization in place in the state of Colorado, for example, violent crime has seen a significant reduction along with prescription drug abuse, teenage marijuana consumption, and fatal accidents. When you legalize cannabis it seems as if the criminal element once associated with it, is removed.
Now Chief Inspector Paul Sutcliffe made a good point there, but really showed a considerable amount of misinformation by saying “Our communities can help us stop these groups, who are only interested in making money, from turning houses and flats into potential deathtraps.”
Cannabis is in no way deadly. The only negative side to cannabis operations is when individuals do not properly set up the lighting system and monitoring equipment. In legal environments, cannabis operations are not only safe but they also help produce much-needed clean oxygen amongst other attributes. The marijuana plants seized from the Rake Lane location were being grown in a sea of green method. This method requires attention to detail and the setup was very professional not putting anyone in danger such as was stated the Chief Inspector. The investigation into this matter is ongoing and no arrests have been made at this time.
image credit: liverpoolecho.co.uk

Smoking marijuana teen

Marijuana is So Uncool Even the Kids in Colorado Don’t Seem to Be Interested

Teen marijuana consumption is dropping dramatically in states that have legalized marijuana. Colorado is a shining star example when it comes to studying the effects of marijuana legalization on teenagers. As it has been so elegantly put, Colorado teenagers are stubbornly refusing to smoke more marijuana. It is as if they are protesting saying I don’t want anything to do with that stuff because all the old people are doing it.
States that have legalized marijuana are getting more than benefits and just tax dollars they are getting benefits of having happier, healthier, more productive citizens. Teenagers that used to run off to smoke a joint because it was cool are no longer doing this. Recreational cannabis consumption just must not seem as cool when it is understood by your elders and accepted as some might say. Those who live in Colorado, however, would say that it is because of education programs that are funded with cannabis tax dollar revenue.
Through the tax dollars that Colorado received from cannabis sales it does more than just fund schools with the necessary tools and equipment our children need in order to succeed in their education, they also have excellent early prevention and deterrent advertising. Basically, cannabis legalization is breaking the stereotypes across the board. Colorado is a go to state for statistics. Prescription drug overdoses are down, accident fatalities on the roads are down, teenage marijuana consumption is down, tax revenue for the state is at an all-time high, job growth is at an all-time high, and the list goes on.
One of the biggest questions that prohibitionists have against legalization is “what about the kids?” Well, the answer is clear. The kids are doing just fine, in fact they are doing even better because their schools are fully funded, they have options for scholarships, they are receiving accurate information pertaining to cannabis, and they are choosing not to utilize it as adolescents!
image credit: bigstockphoto.com

Marijuana business

Zoning Battles for Recreational Marijuana Businesses in Oregon

Oregon voted to legalize recreational marijuana almost two years ago. However, the market is just now coming into focus. There are hundreds of dispensaries across the state that have opened their doors and there has already been millions of dollars in tax revenue generated from the hundreds of millions of dollars in recreational cannabis sales thus far.  Unfortunately, there is a battle still being faced by many business professionals looking to open extraction facilities, testing labs and other non-dispensary entities. The battle being faced is one of zoning laws.
Just last year in Jeff Smith and Cassie Heckencamp spent almost $1,000,000 to purchase 19 acres just east of Walterville Oregon. Their plan was to open a 5,00 square foot indoor recreational marijuana grow and to eventually purchase the adjacent 16-acre field for a 40,000 square foot outdoor grow. Unfortunately, less than two week later this land was zoned as rural residential by the Lane County Board of Commissioners. This means that any commercial recreational marijuana cultivation on lands outside of the city were banned making Jeff and Cassie’s business plan impossible.
Meanwhile in Cottage Grove Oregon, Paul Hampshire and Rub McConnell are facing backlash from the community after they acquired an empty lot next to Bohemia Park with intentions to open a Co2 Extraction facility. While they will not be selling any products on site and have stated they will be screening the property from view with the use of wooden fence and new foliage, the community is repulsed by the thought of there being a recreational marijuana business so close to a park that often has children playing in it. This has Cottage Grove contemplating the idea of adding restrictive buffer zones around schools and parks that would ban recreational marijuana businesses from operating in the area.
If you have plans to open a recreational marijuana business in the state of Oregon, I highly suggest you do your research before making any land purchases to insure that you will be able to move forward with your business plan successfully as zoning regulations/restrictions are still very vague at this time.
image credit: bigstockphoto.com

marijuana 2

The First Cannabis Church of Logic and Reason- Inaugural Services this Sunday

For many people, cannabis consumption is a very spiritual activity. In fact, cannabis has been part of religious festivities and practices for centuries. The First Cannabis Church of Logic and Reason in Michigan has announced that they will be holding their first-ever service this Sunday from 1 to 3 p.m. The service will be held at 918 Southland Avenue in Lansing Michigan.
The inaugural service will be led by a 34-year-old ordained minister by the name of Jeremy Hall, who is also a registered medical marijuana patient in the state of Michigan. During the service constituents will pass around a roach collection jar for medical marijuana patients in need. There will also be a potluck picnic before the service. They have asked that anyone who is attending to please bring a dish, drink, or dessert whether it is medicated or not to pass around and share with others.
The inaugural service is expected to have a turnout of at least 40 individuals and will be held inside of the Lansing Herbal Farmers Market. The First Cannabis Church of Logic and Reason plans to hold weekly services at the same location for the foreseeable future. Jeremy Hall the ordained minister that will be leading the services stated that what he is hoping to accomplish in the long run is to “provide a place where people can be spiritual but can also feel safe to take any of their medication.’
Michigan voted in 2008 to allow for the use of medical marijuana for some illnesses. The city of Lansing has been selected for service due to lenient cannabis laws that allow for anyone over the age of 21 to consume and possess up to one ounce of cannabis on private property. Due to this fact, there should be no legal issues for anyone in attendance this Sunday or moving forward.
image credit: obnoxioustelevision.com