MMJ Business Daily

Obama Won’t Act on Marijuana Reform

President Barack Obama likely won’t take any unilateral action on marijuana reform this year, despite hopes from many advocates that he would attempt to reschedule cannabis or issue an executive order on banking or the tax code to help the industry.

“There are some in the Democratic Party who have urged the president to take this kind of action,” White House press secretary John Earnest said on Friday, according to the Washington Post. “The president’s response was, ‘If you feel so strongly about it, and you believe there is so much public support for what it is that you’re

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Obama Won’t Act on Marijuana Reform is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Oregon Marijuana Store to Open Cannabis Drive-Thru

An Oregon cannabis store that just opened across the street from a hospital also plans to ad a drive-up window.

Green Life Oregon opened in January, according to its website, across from Curry General Hospital in Gold Beach, Oregon. It wants to open the drive-up on April 20, 2016.

Manager Jeremy Paulson told the Curry Coastal Pilot that the location is no coincidence, saying the shop wants to offer patients alternative treatments to typical pharmaceutical medicines. The store apparently sells both medical and recreational cannabis.

Although a cannabis shop with a drive-up window may sound like a novel idea, the concept

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Oregon Marijuana Store to Open Cannabis Drive-Thru is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Chart of the Week: State Rankings for Medical Marijuana Patients Per Capita

By Becky Olson

The number of medical marijuana patients in any given state depends on myriad factors.

But certain variables are more influential than others, and analyzing them can help entrepreneurs evaluate the size and potential of a specific market.

Take the qualifying conditions list, for example. Illinois by far has the longest list of specific conditions, yet it has one of the lowest MMJ patient densities per capita at less than one per 1,000 adults. By comparison, Colorado has one of the shortest conditions lists, yet it has the second highest density per capita at 26 patients per 1,000

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Chart of the Week: State Rankings for Medical Marijuana Patients Per Capita is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Illinois Again Shoots Down MMJ Condition List Expansion

For the second time in a row – and for the exact same reason – Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner’s administration has rejected a recommendation to expand the state’s qualifying condition list for medical marijuana businesses.

The announcement was made Friday afternoon in a press release from the Department of Public Health, in which the agency’s director, Dr. Nirav Shah, revealed the decision. The reason, according to the Chicago Tribune, is the same as last fall, when Shah shot down an attempt to add 11 new conditions to the list: the state hasn’t had time to evaluate

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Illinois Again Shoots Down MMJ Condition List Expansion is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Seattle Dispensaries Sue WA Oversight Board

Unhappy with how the new state licensing process is going, seven Seattle medical marijuana dispensaries have filed suit against the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board, alleging that the board has broken several of its own – and the state’s – rules in recent months.

The suit, filed Friday in Superior Court in Thurston County, alleges that the board used “dubious methodology” to decide that Seattle will receive a handful of new licenses, instead of considering all 48 dispensaries that the city considers to be “in good standing” via a merit-based process.

The seven plaintiffs, the

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Seattle Dispensaries Sue WA Oversight Board is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Giant Vape Lounge Opens in Canada

A 6,000-square-foot Canadian vape lounge for medical marijuana users has opened in Windsor, Ontario, and its first week of business has averaged 110 customers a day, according to its owners.
Higher Limits earns its money through a $5 charge to enter th…

Week in Review: Relief in CA, MMJ Gains in Two States & Major Expansion in the Works

By John Schroyer

California moves to slow the pace of medical marijuana bans, MMJ makes big gains in Ohio and Florida, and a cannabis company announces what could be the most ambitious expansion plan in the industry to date.

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

Ending the California Screamin’

Lawmakers in California created an unexpected uproar in medical cannabis circles late last year when they passed regulations on the state’s MMJ industry.

Not because of the main rules themselves, but because of a particular provision that set a March 1, 2016,

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Week in Review: Relief in CA, MMJ Gains in Two States & Major Expansion in the Works is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Puerto Rico Adopts MMJ Business Regulations

The U.S. island territory of Puerto Rico has made good on its governor’s executive order from last year to legalize medical cannabis.

On Thursday, the Puerto Rican Health Department announced it had promulgated rules for the upcoming industry, according to the Associated Press.

Though details were sparse on Thursday afternoon, the AP reported that the island had followed the lead of Minnesota and New York in prohibiting smokeable MMJ but allowing for “pills, creams, patches and oral drops.” A licensing system will be set up by the end of the year, but it’s unclear how many

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Puerto Rico Adopts MMJ Business Regulations is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Michigan Dispensary Operators Charged Criminally

Five men who were arrested last summer when a medical cannabis dispensary was raided by local police have now been formally charged, and could each face more than a decade in prison.

When Advance Medical Care in Shelby Township was raided last July, it wasn’t immediately clear if criminal charges would be pressed. Now they have been, with all five facing multiple counts of delivery of marijuana, possession with intent to deliver, and conspiracy. If convicted, each of the defendants could be sentenced to four years per charge, according to MLive.com.

The incident again underscores how

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Michigan Dispensary Operators Charged Criminally is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Report: Canadian Marijuana Sales Could Hit $7 Billion

An economist at a major Canadian investment bank is estimating in a new report that Canada’s marijuana market could surpass $7 billion annually – about $10 billion Canadian – if legalization proceeds there.

CIBC World Markets economist Avery Shenfeld based the figure on marijuana sales figures on Colorado and Canadian marijuana consumption estimates.

But that figure would be reached “only if all the underground sales are effectively curtailed,” the report said.

Shenfeld also estimated that half of the sales would go to provincial and federal taxes. Shenfeld arrived at the tax revenue estimate based on the province of

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Report: Canadian Marijuana Sales Could Hit $7 Billion is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs