MJ News For 08/24/16

[7greeneyes]

I'm beginning to get back in the swing of things. After losing my job of 17 years and having to go on dialysis, my life has been hectic.

Been perusing LED's looking for the best bloom led system equivalent to the footprint and lumen output of my 1000kw hps hid. Any suggestions on model or make of a decent light?

I'm looking to get back into growing after yet another hiatus and want to run my bloom room cooler, thus the led's. Gotta a lot of flavors to pop and want to get back to it.

And now the news :rofl:

Keeper frosty --7GE :ccc:




url: http://www.calgarysun.com/2016/08/2...nsion-the-size-of-10-canadian-football-fields

(Canada) Aurora Cannabis, a licensed Alberta marijuana grower, plans expansion the size of 10 Canadian football fields​

Imagine a marijuana grow-op in a greenhouse the size of ten Canadian football fields.

That’s what Vancouver-based Aurora Cannabis Inc. is aiming to build in central Alberta, a 600,000-sq.-ft. facility with the capacity to produce up to an estimated 70,000 kg. of cannabis once it begins production, expected by the summer of 2018.

It could become the country’s largest producer, though Ontario-based Aphria Inc. recently bought a swath of land capable of holding a million sq.-ft. of production space, for $6.5 million.

Aurora, currently Alberta’s only licensed producer of medical marijuana, already operates a sprawling 55,200 sq.-ft. facility in Cremona, northwest of Calgary.

But Aurora estimates demand for medical pot alone is growing by 10% each month. The market for licensed buds is only expected to blossom under Ottawa’s plans to legalize recreational use, with legislation expected next spring.

“We’re inventing a new industry in real time,” said Cam Battley, the company’s senior vice-president.

Aurora said Tuesday it had finished the design, engineering and tender process for the first of three construction phases. Once fully built, the massive automated greenhouse will employ machines to irrigate, monitor, harvest and package the crops.

“It’s going to be a hybrid greenhouse that will have four-season growing, with extremely high technology and highly automated,” Battley said.

“This will give us the ability to produce massive amounts of cannabis for medical purposes and, ultimately once legislation has been implemented by the federal government, to serve the consumer market as well.”

Health Canada has estimated revenues from medical marijuana would hit $1.3 billion with 450,000 patients by 2024, though an analyst at Dundee Capital Markets is far more bullish.

Based on licensed marijuana markets in the United States, Dundee analyst Daniel Pearlstein estimates Canada’s medical market will be worth $2 billion to $3 billion in the same time frame with 800,000 projected patients.

Pearlstein forecasts Canadian revenues from recreational sales would reach $3 billion to $5 billion by 2024, should the Liberal government move ahead with its legalization agenda.

Aurora has not yet received approvals from Mountainview County for its expansion project, which has already attracted some local opposition.

Area residents are worried about the impact on traffic and storm water drainage, among other issues, according to Reeve Bruce Beattie, who believes medical pot production brings economic benefits.

“We’re looking at a province with a heavy reliance on one industry, and we’re seeing the results of that,” Beattie said.

“We need to look for alternative economic activity.”

Aurora’s existing facility is among 34 licensed medical marijuana growers in Canada, with most of them based in Ontario and British Columbia. After launching sales in early January, it had attracted 6,500 patients within seven months.

The facility can currently produce upwards of 7,000 kg. of medical pot a year.

Aurora estimates the maximum output of its proposed facility would weigh as much as five city buses.

 

[7greeneyes]

url: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/trial-of-...-with-middleaged-pothead-dads-20160823-gqzjna

(Australia) Trial of cannabis withdrawal :rofl: spray Sativex popular with middle-aged pothead dads​

New father Tristin Jones*, 35, has smoked marijuana for so long that it was the only way he felt normal.

Mr Jones, who has smoked weed every day for 17 years, had promised to quit at every major milestone in his life, including when he turned 30 and after his son was born 18 months ago. But he couldn't. And he didn't.

Mr Jones was also worried about being caught by police during random drug testing, or about having a car accident with cannabis still in his system.

He mostly wanted to be drug free to enjoy the highs and lows of raising a child.

"When my child grows up, I would want him to be proud of who I am, not thinking that I am a pothead. And I want to be emotionally and mentally available," he told Fairfax Media.

After taking part in a Sydney University trial of a cannabis-based spray called Sativex that controls withdrawal symptoms, he has been off marijuana for five weeks, and is surprised to find he is functioning normally without it.

It is the first community-based trial of Sativex - a drug currently approved for treatment of multiple sclerosis - for heavy cannabis users.

Admissions to hospitals for cannabis abuse disorders have risen, yet there is no effective drug treatment for cannabis withdrawal.

Far from the usual suspects of young users, the biggest group signing up for the trial are long-term users such as Mr Jones, very often well-educated, employed full-time and in their 30s and 40s.

Cannabis dependence contributes to a range of cognitive, psychiatric, cardiovascular and respiratory disorders.

The study's lead investigator Nick Lintzeris, an addiction specialist from the University of Sydney, said a common perception was that most people seeking treatment for cannabis dependence were young, unemployed and often involved in other illegal activities, who are seeking treatment only after contact with police or courts.

Yet a growing group of users are older, often male, sometimes with young families.

"About 40 per cent of the people in the study have been involved in long-term relationships and cite their family as being the main driver behind their decision to stop using cannabis," Professor Lintzeris said.

Many enrolled in the trial based on concerns for their family - especially children - and their health, jobs and potential legal ramifications of drug testing.

So far, 17 of the 20 users to sign up have been men.

The randomised controlled trial will provide treatment to a total of 140 cannabis-dependent users over a 14-week period at four sites in NSW, including Sydney and Newcastle.

Sativex works to control withdrawal symptoms in much the same way as nicotine patches for smokers and methadone for heroine addicts. The spray contains extracts from cannabis sativa plants grown under controlled conditions. These extracts don't have intoxicating effects and research shows they have powerful anti-anxiety, antidepressant and antipsychotic properties.

An earlier inpatient trial of Sativex over seven days for cannabis smokers was effective while the participants were in hospital, but 70 per cent relapsed when they were back in the community.

Other treatments for cannabis dependence, including cognitive behavioural therapy, have had similar relapse rates.

In the trial, half of the participants will receive Sativex in decreasing doses while the other half will receive a placebo. Both groups receive counselling, regular case management and medical reviews over the course of the trial. Participants will be followed up 12 weeks after the medication phase to assess the trial's longer-term impact.

Both Mr Jones and another trial participant, Michael Smith, 43, who has also been smoking for 17 years, said they had gone past the stage of smoking marijuana for the high. Instead, they had used it to calm their thoughts, and help them to sleep.

"It wasn't a party drug," said Mr Smith* who lives in Sydney's eastern suburbs. "It was being able to sleep well at night, and relax in a stressful situation."

Mr Jones said he was "addicted to the psychological state of being numb".

Not only did it block out the negative thoughts, it also numbed his response to the positive side of life, such as his son, he said.

When he tried to quit by himself earlier this year, it was disastrous.

"I was quite unable to carry on normal everyday affairs; I really couldn't focus on anything else," he said.

He was so depressed and difficult that his partner had joked she preferred him when he was stoned and not so volatile and angry.

Mr Jones believes he is on Sativex because it worked nearly immediately.

 

[7greeneyes]

url: http://kalw.org/post/cannabis-patients-don-t-necessarily-want-get-high#stream/0

Cannabis patients don’t necessarily want to get high​

Kelly Quirke, community engagement coordinator for Harborside Health Center, a medical marijuana dispensary in Oakland, finds it ironic that so many people he deals with in their 60s and 70s are adamant about not getting high on cannabis.

After all, he says, “These are the people who started smoking it as a large demographic group in the United States.”

Harborside is one of the largest medical marijuana dispensaries in the country. And despite reluctance from many elderly patients, people age 55 and up are a fast-growing component of customers in this field.

There was less known about cannabis (medical dispensaries uniformly prefer this term over marijuana) 50 years ago than there is today. Growers and consumers have traditionally valued a compound in the plant known as THC.

As Quirke tells a tour from the Rossmoor senior community near Walnut Creek, “That’s the one that makes you high. The second most prevalent in the plant is CBD — cannabidiol. That’s the non-psychoactive one that has a lot of healing properties.”

Harborside conducts educational tours and classes for older people focusing on those healing properties. Some are not initially open to the idea. When Wendy Robertson, a participant in today’s tour, first heard about the Rossmoor Medical Marijuana Education & Support Club, her reaction was less than kind.

“I was thinking, ‘Oh you guys are just a bunch of potheads, belonging to this group.’”

She now says, “It’s nothing of the sort. How judgmental, and how critical is that of me, when I don’t even know what’s going on? There’s a medical component to this.”

Robertson discovered the benefits of medical cannabis first-hand, or more accurately “first-back,” on a road trip with her husband in Washington State. They saw a cannabis dispensary and decided to pop in to see what it was like.

“Usually that’s when your back gets messed up, sitting in the car eight hours a day,” she says. So she decided to buy a vial of cannabis extract oil that was recommended by a “budtender” at the store.

“I was a little nervous,” she admits. “So I rubbed some on my lower back. And I think it was maybe 15 - 20 minutes [later] — it was a noticeable improvement. I could tell that my back was feeling better. And I remember thinking, ‘God, this is so wild’.”

Not wild because she was getting high — that wasn’t happening. It was wild because it was working so well.

According to the online Marijuana Business Daily, the majority of medical cannabis patients report using it for pain relief, ranging from arthritis to migraines. CBD oil has received widespread attention as a successful treatment for childhood epilepsy.

Harborside's Quirke says he finds that though seniors are “the people who can use these medicines more than almost any other demographic of the population, [they] don’t know very much about it.”

And what they do know is negative, an attitude groups like The Rossmoor Medical Marijuana Education & Support Club and Harborside Health Center’s free monthly senior support group are working to change.

 

[7greeneyes]

url: https://www.merryjane.com/news/Die-Antwoord-Launch-Cannabis-Line-Zef-Zol

Die Antwoord to Launch Their Own Cannabis Product Line “Zef Zol”​

If there’s one thing that can be said about Die Antwoord with certainty, it’s that core members Ninja and Yolandi Visser move to the beat of their own drum. Using their unique sound and abrasive attitude, the South African rave-rap duo has spread the ‘zef’ movement throughout the world, which is an African counterculture focused on representing your true self through music, clothing, and thoughts, essentially not caring what others think of you or your style.

Currently, Die Antwoord is on the brink of releasing their forthcoming album Mount Ninji and Da Nice Time Kid, and recently released the single “Banana Brain”, a wickedly rave-y single that highlights all the parts that make up their outspokenly strange style. All the while, the hip-hop duo has also been working to bring the ‘zef’ movement into the cannabis industry, and have just announced a new line of weed products called ‘Zef Zol’.

The duo collaborated with the Northern California-based medical cannabis product supplier Natural Cannabis to create a cannabis product line that features vapes, vape refills, chocolates, lip balms, and more. The announcement of their new Zef Zol weed products seems to have been intentionally paired with their latest single “We Have Candy” (as they now, technically, do have their own weed candy).

Those of you lucky enough to be living in a cannabis-friendly state can find these Zef Zol goodies at a cannabis shop soon, while their album Mount Ninji and Da Nice Time Kid will be released on September 16.

 

[7greeneyes]

url: http://www.pcworld.com/article/3110...-how-it-is-fueling-the-cannabis-industry.html

High technology: How tech innovation is fueling the budding cannabis industry​

The cannabis industry is growing up, and it would be tough to imagine more convincing proof than Microsoft’s recent announcement that it’s getting involved.

Though the software giant will stay very much in the background—its role will focus primarily on providing Azure cloud services for a compliance-focused software push—the move is still widely viewed as a telling sign.

“Having them come out and say, ‘we’re willing to have our name in the same sentence as the word cannabis,’ adds to the legitimacy of our industry,” said Kyle Sherman, cofounder and CEO of software maker Flowhub.

Stigma is a longstanding problem for those trying to run a legitimate business in the cannabis industry, thanks largely to the fact that marijuana remains illegal in the U.S. federal government’s eyes. Twenty-five states have already passed laws that allow for some degree of medical or legal use, but that can be cold comfort for entrepreneurs unable to get a bank account because of lingering concern.

Yet there’s no doubt of the profit potential. Legal cannabis sales brought in $5.4 billion in 2015, and $6.7 billion are expected this year, according to a February report. By 2020, the forecast is $21.8 billion.

Startups are now jumping in to help make that happen, and technology is playing a central role.

Historically, technology has been used minimally in the production and sale of cannabis, largely because of legal concerns.

“It has been not just minimal but actively avoided,” said Mike Bologna, founder and CEO of Green Lion Partners, a business strategy firm focused on the regulated cannabis industry.

Bologna predicts that technology’s growth in the industry will eventually outpace the growth of the industry itself, and over the past year he’s started to see signs that things are picking up.

Today, there are not only a raft of agricultural and security technologies used on the growing end, but also tools ranging from dispensary robots to APIs to help sell cannabis in a way that’s convenient, transparent, and compliant with regulations.

Flowhub, for instance, offers a seed-to-sale tracking platform for growers and retailers, with a particular focus on compliance. Founded in 2015, the Denver-based startup offers a mobile device for scanning RFID plant tags, a point-of-sale (POS) system for dispensaries, and a cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that’s accessible via web or iOS. It currently serves customers in Colorado, Alaska, and Oregon.

Essentially, the goal is to track every plant, product and person associated with the production and sale of marijuana and maintain legal compliance.

Flowhub’s POS system reports to states’ compliance tracking systems automatically using application programming interfaces (APIs), replacing what used to be a laborious manual process. The company has also opened up its platform’s APIs to other entrepreneurs, giving them a way to write apps that use Flowhub data, such as for loyalty programs.

“Our goal as a company is to legalize cannabis responsibly in North America and eventually the globe through technology,” Sherman said. “Regulators need to see that it’s better to keep cannabis off the black market by making it traceable. We want to show the world this can be done responsibly.”

La Conte’s Clone Bar and Dispensary in Denver saves countless hours by using Flowhub to maintain compliance with Colorado regulations.

“Before Flowhub we had to manually upload data to the state every night,” said Zach Howell, supply chain manager for the store. “That meant taking screenshots of spreadsheets and cutting and pasting. It was a lot of work.”

Today, all sales data for the day can be uploaded automatically into the state’s database in a single step. The system also gives La Conte’s a live, real-time view of its inventory.

Upon entering the dispensary, customers have their ID scanned both for their date of birth and for their state of residency. That process checks them into La Conte’s system, so that when they’re ready to make a purchase, there’s no uncertainty about what they can buy.

In Colorado, out-of-state residents are not allowed to buy more than an ounce of marijuana, for instance. It used to be up to employees to quickly figure out what combination of products—flowers, edibles, and so on—adds up to that much. Now Flowhub’s system does it automatically.

“If we know your ID is from out of state, it locks the transaction if you go over an ounce,” Howell said. “They’ve basically put the regulations into a system that forces users to play by the rules.”

Howell, meanwhile, can tap into Flowhub’s system and handle any problems remotely. “If I’m on a plane and a manager calls to say we’re out of something but have it in back stock, I can move it into their inventory for them to sell.”

The technology is enabling many of the same processes and capabilities that have long been standard in other parts of the retail world but adapted with an industry-specific twist. As the cannabis industry grows and matures, that trend promises to continue.

“When I first started in this industry, it was a bunch of people who knew how to grow weed but had no business sense whatsoever,” Howell said. “Today the big companies out there are starting to get accountants and HR departments. The companies that are surviving are saying, ‘we need a CEO, we need a business model, we need a plan. We need technologies to streamline our processes and make sure we’re compliant.’”

Those are important steps because eventually, cannabis will become a commodity, said Green Lion’s Bologna. When that happens, success will favor those tapping efficiency-boosting best practices and tools already commonplace in the rest of the business world.

“A lot of people like to put us in our own bucket, but we are starting to use all the standard tools,” Bologna said.

That’s definitely the case at GreenRush, an e-commerce platform for medical marijuana delivery. GreenRush partners with local U.S. dispensaries and delivery services and helps them acquire customers through its online platform.

“We’re like the GrubHub of the medical marijuana industry,” said Paul Warshaw, GreenRush’s founder and CEO.

Customers who land on the site can browse dispensaries and products; with a verified medical marijuana card, they can order products for delivery by a dispensary near them. California-based shoppers who don’t have a medical marijuana card can even consult with a doctor via GreenRush’s telemedicine platform and get approved for one on the spot.

Though much of GreenRush’s technology was built in-house, the company has tapped a number of common tools to propel its business. A partnership with Salesforce, for instance, helps with sales management and customer support.

“We’re a sales organization,” Warshaw explained. “Everything starts with outreach to the dispensaries.”

The company has also integrated with DocuSign for its membership agreements, MailChimp for email marketing, and Slack for communication with dispensary partners.

“It’s great that people are building technologies specifically for cannabis, but there are awesome platforms already out there that can help make your business so much more efficient and transparent,” Warshaw said.

As the industry matures, that kind of fine-tuning may become an imperative.

Owing in part to the high prices set during the industry’s black-market days, more than 80 percent of the businesses that get started in the legal cannabis industry break even within a year, said Leslie Bocskor, founder and president of Electrum Partners, an advisory firm focused on the industry.

Such rapid profitability is “unheard of,” Bocskor said.

It also poses what may be one of the industry’s biggest challenges in the days ahead.

“High margins can cover up a lot of mistakes,” Bocskor said. “Businesses can’t get comfortable—they need to start using best practices regardless of their profitability, and technology is a big part of that.”

Banking remains another obstacle for many in the industry, as financial services firms remain skittish about serving cannabis-based businesses.

“The average cannabis business can’t bank like a normal one would,” GreenRush’s Warshaw said. “Not everybody wants to work with you.”

There can even be issues for cannabis companies trying to advertise on sites like Google or Facebook, or to make apps available online. “Things you wouldn’t think of are challenges that we have to overcome,” Warshaw said.

Looking ahead, the effort and funds now being poured into the cannabis industry could create jobs and tax revenue and fuel innovation for years to come.

“It’s no longer some guy in a warehouse where they roast coffee to cover up the smell,” Electrum’s Bocskor said. “All this money is driving innovation that will affect agriculture around the globe.”

Said Howell, “We’re not just growing weed to sell weed anymore—it’s a business.”

 

[7greeneyes]

URL: http://www.dailyprogress.com/juneau...cle_6e8bf157-0611-59b6-8db4-84f114ff44e5.html

(Alaska) Juneau's first cannabis farm passes state inspection​

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Juneau's first state-certified commercial cannabis farm is up and running with plans to start selling their products as soon as October.

The Juneau Empire reports (http://bit.ly/2bMQzQ7 ) that Rainforest Farms received their final inspection and was certified to begin full-scale production on Friday. Brothers James and Giono Barrett, who run the grow operation, have already filled the site with nearly 300 cannabis plants.

Gionno Barrett says the growing process takes about three and a half months, and that they won't begin selling marijuana until mid-October at the earliest.

The Barretts are growing 55 types of cannabis and plan to offer as many as 30 at a time when their store opens.

That state Marijuana Control Board is expected to approve the first licenses for stores to begin selling marijuana next month.

___

Information from: Juneau (Alaska) Empire, http://www.juneauempire.com

 

[7greeneyes]

url: http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/23/health/medical-marijuana-doctor-knowledge/

Doctors face medical marijuana knowledge gap​

Medical marijuana has been legal in Maine for almost 20 years. But Farmington physician Jean Antonucci says she continues to feel unprepared when counseling sick patients about whether the drug could benefit them.

Will it help my glaucoma? Or my chronic pain? My chemotherapy's making me nauseous, and nothing's helped. Is cannabis the solution? Patients hope Antonucci, 62, can answer those questions. But she said she is still "completely in the dark."

Antonucci doesn't know whether marijuana is the right way to treat an ailment, what amount is an appropriate dose, or whether a patient should smoke it, eat it, rub it through an oil or vaporize it. Like most doctors, she was never trained to have these discussions. And, because the topic still is not usually covered in medical school, seasoned doctors, as well as younger ones, often consider themselves ill-equipped.

Even though she tries to keep up with the scientific literature, Antonucci said, "it's very difficult to support patients but not know what you're saying."

As the number of states allowing medical marijuana grows -- the total has reached 25 plus the District of Columbia -- some are working to address this knowledge gap with physician training programs. States are beginning to require doctors to take continuing medical education courses that detail how marijuana interacts with the nervous system and other medications, as well as its side effects.

Though laws vary, they have common themes. They usually set up a process by which states establish marijuana dispensaries, where patients with qualifying medical conditions can obtain the drug. The conditions are specified on a state-approved list. And the role of doctors is often to certify that patients have one of those ailments. But many say that, without knowing cannabis' health effects, even writing a certification makes them uncomfortable.

"We just don't know what we don't know. And that's a concern," said Wanda Filer, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians and a practicing doctor in Pennsylvania.

This medical uncertainty is complicated by confusion over how to navigate often contradictory laws. While states generally involve physicians in the process by which patients obtain marijuana, national drug policies have traditionally had a chilling effect on these conversations.

The Federation of State Medical Boards has tried to add clarity. In an Aug. 9 JAMA editorial, leaders noted that federal law technically prohibits prescribing marijuana, and tasks states that allow it for medical use to "implement strong and effective ... enforcement systems to address any threat those laws could pose to public safety, public health, and other interests." If state regulation is deemed insufficient, the federal government can step in.

That's why many doctors say they feel caught in the middle, not completely sure of where the line is now drawn between legal medical practice and what could get them in trouble.

In New York (PDF), which legalized marijuana for medicinal purposes in 2014, the state health department rolled out a certification program last October. (The state's medical marijuana program itself launched in January 2016.) The course, which lasts about four hours and costs $249, is part of a larger physician registration process. So far, the state estimates 656 physicians have completed the required steps. Other states have contacted New York's Department of Health to learn how the training works.

Pennsylvania and Ohio are also developing similar programs. Meanwhile in Massachusetts, doctors who wish to participate in the state medical marijuana program are required to take courses approved by the American Medical Association. Maryland doesn't require training but encourages it through its Medical Cannabis Commission website, a policy also followed in some other states.

Physicians appear to welcome such direction. A 2013 study in Colorado (PDF), for instance, found more than 80 percent of family doctors thought physicians needed medical training before recommending marijuana.

But some advocates worry that doctors may find these requirements onerous and opt out, which would in turn thwart patients' access to the now-legal therapy, said Ellen Smith, a board member of the U.S. Pain Foundation, which favors expanded access to medical cannabis.

Education is essential, given the complexity of how marijuana interacts with the body and how little physicians know, said Stephen Corn, an associate professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine at Harvard Medical School. Corn also co-founded The Answer Page, a medical information website that provides educational content to the New York program, as well as a similar Florida initiative. The company, one of a few groups to offer teachings on medical marijuana, is also bidding to supply information for the Pennsylvania program, Corn said.

"You need a multi-hour course to learn where the medical cannabis works within the body," Corn said. "As a patient, would you want a doctor blindly recommending something without knowing how it's going to interact with your other medications? What to expect from it? What not to expect?"

But many say the science is too weak to answer these questions.

One reason: the federal Drug Enforcement Agency classifies marijuana as a schedule I drug, the same level as heroin. This classification makes it more difficult for researchers to gain access to the drug and to gain approval for human subjects to participate in studies. The White House rejected a petition this past week to reclassify the drug in a less strict category, though federal authorities say they will start letting more facilities grow marijuana for the purpose of research. (Currently, only the University of Mississippi can produce it, which advocates say limits study.)

From a medical standpoint, the lack of information is troubling, Filer said.

"Typically, when we're going to prescribe something, you've got data that shows safety and efficacy," she said. With marijuana, the body of research doesn't match what many doctors are used to for prescription drugs.

Still, Corn said, doctors appear pleased with the state training sessions. More than 80 percent of New York doctors who have taken his course said they changed their practice in response to what they learned.

But even now, whenever Corn speaks with doctors about medical marijuana, people ask him how they can learn more about the drug's medical properties and about legal risks. Those two concerns, he said, likely reduce the number of doctors comfortable with and willing to discuss marijuana's place in medicine, even if it's allowed in their states.

Though others say this circumstance is starting to ease, doctors like Jean Antonucci in Maine continue to struggle to figure out how marijuana can fit into safe and compassionate medicine. "You just try and be careful — and learn as much as you can about a patient, and try to do no harm," she said.

 

[7greeneyes]

url: http://time.com/4462831/oregon-marijuana-weed-pot-tax-revenue/

Oregon’s Legal Marijuana Raised More Than $25 Million In Tax Revenue This Year​

The Oregon Liquor Control Commission previously predicted just $18.4 million would be collected in two years

According to Oregon’s Department of Revenue, the state has collected more than $25 million in taxes on marijuana in 2016 so far.

As KGW reports, the total revenue from January 1 to July 31 this year is far more than the $18.4 million the Oregon Liquor Control Commission anticipated for the two-year period starting in July 2015.

A statement on the Department of Revenue website explains that medical marijuana dispensaries started collecting a 25% tax on their recreational marijuana sales in January, which spokeswoman Joy Krawczyk told KGW has contributed to the high amount of tax, the revenue of which will pay for police, addiction programs and schools in the state.

In January alone, the state collected $3.48 million in taxes.

In 2014, Colorado brought in $76 million in tax revenue from legal cannabis sales when the state became one of just two (along with Washington) to legalize recreational marijuana for adults 21 or older. Figures from the state’s Department of Revenue in 2015 showed that it outpaced revenue from alcohol taxes in the fiscal year ending on June 30.

By July 8 this year, Washington state’s treasury had taken in more than $250 million in excise tax since marijuana legalization began in July 2014.

 

[7greeneyes]

url: http://wreg.com/2016/08/23/decriminalization-of-marijuana-ordinance-passes-city-council-committee/

(Tennessee) Decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana :clap: ordinance passes city council committee​

The Memphis City Council has voted to pass an ordinance that will reduce the severity of carrying a small amount of marijuana.

Fifty bucks. That's how much people could end up paying if caught or distributing less than an ounce of weed.

There would also be the possibility of community service as a penalty and nothing would go on the person's record.

The fine is not too cheap but WREG's Troy Washington was told it’s designed to keep young people from having to pay for their mistakes later in life.

Inside the City Council meeting there were mixed emotions over the new ordinance.

"The one thing that we can do is take away and reduce the penalty as far as putting black eyes on people’s life," said Berlin Boyd, the sponsor of the ordinance.

Sinsous Hobbs said she supports the ordinance since she’s watched family member’s lives ruined over minor drug possession mistakes made early in life.

“I don’t support you giving them so much time for a little amount of marijuana. I don’t think that is fair."

Through the ordinance those caught with half an ounce of marijuana or less would pay a ticket and forgo jail time.

Joe Brown and Janice Fullilove voted against the proposal in the Public Safety & Homeland Security Committee.

Worth Morgan abstained, saying more time is needed to gather information.

Those who voted to support the ordinance were Edmund Ford, Jr., Jamita Swearengen, Berlin Boyd, Phillip Spinosa and Martavius Jones.

The ordinance must still go before the full council three times before it can be voted on.

Both the heads of the police and fire department spoke out against the ordinance.

Police Director Rallings said he will never support the ordinance.

He said the city shouldn’t rush into something that could have negative consequences.

"We are trying to jump on a bandwagon and I’m not sure what music is being played."

Council woman Janice Fullilove doesn’t believe modifications should be made to allow the carrying of the illegal drug.

“Stop driving and having weed in your car then you won’t get arrested," she said.

It’s a discussion that is far from over, but for now the marijuana ordinance moves forward despite the rebuttal.

There was a lot of talk about the ordinance helping to free up officers so they could attend to more serious matters, but according to police the ordinance won’t help in that regard because officers would still have to test, tag and weigh marijuana from all stops no matter the amount.

We were also told that if the person is given additional state charges those charges supersede the city ordinance.

Right now, if you are caught with a half ounce of marijuana, it's a misdemeanor with up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine.