MMJ Business Daily

Colombia Legalizes Medical Cannabis Sales

Welcome to the club, Colombia.

On Tuesday, the South American nation’s president put his signature on a decree that formally legalizes the cultivation and sale of medical cannabis.

Although MMJ has technically been legal in the country since 1986, the new law will establish a regulatory structure for the cultivation and distribution of medical marijuana – in effect creating an industry around the drug.

The move could lead to hundreds of millions of dollars in medical cannabis sales, as the nation could see up to 400,000 patients register for the program, according to the Associated Press.

Under the regulations, would-be

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Colombia Legalizes Medical Cannabis Sales is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Oregon Tribal Coalition Approves Marijuana Venture

More Native American tribes are getting into cannabis.

Members of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs in Oregon overwhelmingly voted last week to build a giant cultivation facility that would sell product through three tribal-owned stores in Portland and other locations off the reservation, the Associated Press reported.

The confederation plans to build a 36,000-square-foot cannabis cultivation greenhouse. The three stores would generate more than $26 million in annual sales, while the project would create more than 80 jobs, officials estimated.

The tribes said they would take measures to make sure testing and other regulations meet state standards. Sales are

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Oregon Tribal Coalition Approves Marijuana Venture is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

MMJ Startup Strikes Deals With Maryland University, Hospital

A medical marijuana cultivation startup is partnering with a university and a hospital in Maryland with the hope that it will win one of the 15 grower licenses under the state’s medical cannabis program.

Wellness Farms announced this week that it inked an agreement with the University of Maryland Eastern Shore to create a program for medical marijuana research, and also plans to work with McCready Health, which runs the only hospital in rural Somerset County, according to Delmarvanow. That’s where the grow center hopes to open, and the new partnerships could give the company a leg up.

But

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MMJ Startup Strikes Deals With Maryland University, Hospital is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Chart of the Week: Huge Deluge of Marijuana Business Conferences in 2015

By Becky Olson

The number of national and regional cannabis business conferences has mushroomed in the past two years, growing from a single event in 2013 to over 30 such gatherings in 2015 alone, according to research by Marijuana Business Daily.

The increase reflects the rapid emergence of a legitimate industry rising from the shadows, though there are signs that a shakeout in the cannabis conference scene could be on tap.

Cannabis “lifestyle” and consumer-focused events focused squarely on patients or general marijuana users have been around for decades and until recently were essentially the only official gatherings related to the

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Chart of the Week: Huge Deluge of Marijuana Business Conferences in 2015 is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Oklahoma Will Pursue Colorado Rec Lawsuit

Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt doesn’t care that the Obama administration thinks the U.S. Supreme Court should keep mum on Colorado’s recreational marijuana law. He wants the justices to rule on the matter.

Pruitt and his Nebraska counterpart filed a lawsuit a year ago alleging that Colorado’s rec law does direct harm to both their states by increasing the illegal flow of cannabis through their borders. The two asked the high court to nullify the law. Pruitt’s office said on Monday that he plans to file written arguments with the nation’s high court in

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Oklahoma Will Pursue Colorado Rec Lawsuit is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Cannabis Edibles Debut in Illinois

Medical marijuana dispensaries in Illinois now have a new product to offer their patients: edibles.

Ataraxia, a cultivator in the small town of Albion, recently delivered cannabis chocolates to two dispensaries, which started selling the infused products on Saturday, according to the Associated Press.

The square-inch chocolates contain 10 milligrams of THC and cost $7 to $9 each.

Other cultivation sites will deliver edibles starting in January or February, the AP reported.

Under the state’s pilot MMJ program, edible products must be produced by cultivators already licensed by the state. Illinois also requires warnings on the products so that consumers

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Cannabis Edibles Debut in Illinois is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Maryland Announces Updated Licensing Timeline

Maryland’s medical cannabis commission announced on Monday that it would wait until this coming summer to reveal the initial license winners of both growers and processors, and delay awarding dispensary licenses even longer, the commission said in a press release.

That will set the program implementation back at least six months, as license winners had initially been expected to be named in January.

The commission indicated earlier this month that the licensing process would be stalled due to the immense number of applications received, which came in at 1,081 applications total for dispensary, cultivation and processing

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Maryland Announces Updated Licensing Timeline is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Court Sides With IRS Against Colorado MMJ Business

A Colorado cannabis business has fallen short in an attempt to set a precedent for federal tax relief for the marijuana industry.

The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday rejected a request by Total Health Concepts – a now-defunct Denver dispensary – that it overturn a U.S. Tax Court ruling that said it must give the IRS information about its marijuana-related sales in seeking business deductions for the 2009, 2010, and 2011 tax years.

The court said it could not intervene in the dispute between Total Health and the IRS because the court rarely gets involved

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Court Sides With IRS Against Colorado MMJ Business is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Cannabis Software Firm MJ Freeway Raises $8M for Expansion

By John Schroyer

Colorado-based MJ Freeway, one of the most prominent cannabis-related software companies in the nation, announced this morning that it has completed an $8 million round of fundraising.

The figure could be a record-setter in terms of capital raised by a software firm focused on the marijuana industry.

Co-founders Amy Poinsett and Jessica Billingsley told Marijuana Business Daily that a number of investors participated in the round, including San Francisco-based Tao Capital Partners and longtime investor Roger McNamee.

McNamee said in a statement that the company is “positioned to be the leading software platform in cannabis.”

MJ Freeway

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Cannabis Software Firm MJ Freeway Raises $8M for Expansion is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs

Florida, Massachusetts MJ Initiatives Move Closer to Ballot

A pair of cannabis reform initiatives each got one big step closer to being on their states’ respective ballots for 2016 this week, in both Florida and Massachusetts.

United for Care, the Florida campaign that nearly succeeded in legalizing medical marijuana in 2014, got its 2016 ballot measure cleared by the state Supreme Court on Thursday. But the state still has to validate roughly 280,000 more signatures to make sure the initiative qualifies, according to the Miami Herald. The campaign needs a total of 683,149 valid signatures to make the ballot, but United for Care says it

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Florida, Massachusetts MJ Initiatives Move Closer to Ballot is a post from: Marijuana Business Daily: Financial, Legal & Cannabusiness news for cannabis entrepreneurs