MMJ Business Daily

Former Police Chief to Lead CO Marijuana Enforcement

A former police chief and U.S. Marine Corps Reserves colonel who served in combat positions in Iraq and Kosovo has been tapped to lead Colorado’s Marijuana Enforcement Division, the Denver Post reported.

Jim Burack, who also spent 12 years as the police chief of Milliken, Colorado, takes the job after serving in the Marijuana Enforcement Division for about two years, most recently as its chief of investigations.

Burack fills the shoes of Lewis Koski, who left the MED about two months ago to become deputy senior director for the Colorado Department of Revenue’s enforcement branch, the Post reported.

The

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Former Police Chief to Lead CO Marijuana Enforcement is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

After Year of Setbacks, Future of Cannabis Banking More Uncertain Than Ever

By Omar Sacirbey

The past year wasn’t a particularly good one for the cannabis industry in one key area: banking.

Several financial institutions that openly served marijuana businesses – or had planned to – pulled back in the first half of 2015, citing the high cost of compliance. The industry then suffered a major setback in January of this year, when a court essentially ruled against a cannabis-focused credit union that was seeking to access the nation’s banking system.

Now, the industry is stuck in limbo, wondering whether banking relief will ever come.

As it stands now, many banks worry that

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After Year of Setbacks, Future of Cannabis Banking More Uncertain Than Ever is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

USDA Reverses Position on Organic Hemp Certification

Industrial hemp farmers seeking organic certification for their crops should put their efforts on hold, as the U.S. Department of Agriculture has backtracked on an earlier decision to allow such certifications.

CBDRx, an industrial hemp farm in northern Colorado, recently became the first company of its kind to obtain the USDA’s coveted organic certification label.

The development was greeted as a major breakthrough for the cannabis industry because it boosted the industry’s legitimacy and promised to give individual hemp businesses another marketing tool. CBDRx requested and received the USDA certification after being audited by a Nebraska-based certifier.

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USDA Reverses Position on Organic Hemp Certification is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Scores of Oregon Dispensaries Have’t Registered to Pay Taxes

Medical marijuana dispensaries in Oregon that sell recreational cannabis must pay their first tax installment soon, but as of last week almost a quarter of them had not yet ­registered with the state’s tax department.

As of January, dispensaries selling recreational cannabis must pay a 25% tax on rec sales, with the first payment due by Feb. 29.

Despite the threat of late-payment penalties, 75 of the 320 dispensaries with approval to sell rec – or 23.4% – do not have accounts with the Oregon Department of Revenue, according to the Register-Guard newspaper.

Of the 245 stores that have registered,

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Scores of Oregon Dispensaries Have’t Registered to Pay Taxes is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Chart of the Week: Time From MMJ Legalization, Regulation to Industry’s Launch in New Markets

By Becky Olson

Some of the newest states to join the medical cannabis industry have gotten their programs up and running fairly quickly, an encouraging sign for cannabis entrepreneurs going forward.

Others took an excruciatingly long time though – indicating that delays are still a very real part of the industry.

Over the past year, six states have welcomed the opening of the first licensed dispensaries: Delaware, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York and Nevada.

The timeframe between legalization and the start of MMJ sales was fairly short in two of them.

The first dispensaries in Minnesota opened 13 months after the state

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Chart of the Week: Time From MMJ Legalization, Regulation to Industry’s Launch in New Markets is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Report: Marijuana Legalization Battering Black Market in Colorado

Marijuana legalization is “crushing” the black market in Colorado, but the same hasn’t been true so far in Washington State, according to research cited in the Economist.

Annual legal cannabis sales in Colorado account for about 70% – or 90 tons – of all marijuana sales in the state, according to officials there, the magazine reported. Most of the rest is attributable to people who grow marijuana legally at home but then sell it illegally, creating what the Economist calls a “gray market.”

By contrast, only about 30% of marijuana sales stores in Washington were made in the legal

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Report: Marijuana Legalization Battering Black Market in Colorado is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Detroit Dispensaries Being Raided?

The Detroit Police Department apparently doesn’t want to wait for area dispensaries to be licensed: it’s apparently been raiding a bunch of them anyway.

“More than a dozen” dispensaries have been raided by local cops within the last two weeks, according to the Compassion Chronicles, despite the fact that the city is planning on licensing local businesses beginning on March 1.

No names of raided dispensaries have been released, but multiple attorneys representing the businesses have cried foul, arguing that the cops should have waited for the licensing period the city set down.

However, Detroit Corporation Counsel

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Detroit Dispensaries Being Raided? is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Week in Review: Pesticide Crackdown in WA, Rule Change in MA & Legalization Details in OH

By John Schroyer and Omar Sacirbey

Washington State begins cracking down on pesticides, Massachusetts raises its medical cannabis purchase limit, and the group behind an emerging MMJ ballot measure in Ohio unveils an overview of its plan.

Here’s a closer look at several notable developments in the marijuana industry over the past week.

Chemical Warfare?

Is the recent pesticide crackdown by the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB) just the beginning? Will more growers face fines and possibly even product recalls if they continue to use prohibited chemicals?

The consensus response: It’s hard to say.

But North

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Week in Review: Pesticide Crackdown in WA, Rule Change in MA & Legalization Details in OH is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Colorado Debates Organic Labels for Marijuana

Colorado lawmakers, worried that some marijuana cultivators may be labeling their products as organic when they don’t qualify as such, will on Friday consider a bill to establish state organic certification guidelines, according to the Associated Press.

The federal government already regulates organic labeling, but that doesn’t mean much for cannabis, which of course remains illegal at the national level.

The bill, sponsored by Democratic Rep. Jonathan Singer, doesn’t specify what cultivators would need to do to become organically certified, nor does it offer guidance on what kind of pesticides or other materials could be used by growers

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Colorado Debates Organic Labels for Marijuana is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Washington Edibles Maker Expanding to Colorado

For a while now, the trend has been that Colorado-based edibles companies have been expanding into other states. Now, a Washington State-based one is expanding into Colorado for a change.
Db3, which produces the Zoots line of edibles, announced this we…