Category: Industry News

OLYMPIA — The state Department of Health on Friday debuted its new medical marijuana database to give patients the ability to buy marijuana without tax, in larger doses and quantities, and to grow plants at their residence. Eligible patients can now take an authorization form to an endorsed retailer to receive a “recognition” card that unlocks those benefits.
The database is part of sweeping changes made by the Legislature last year to align the recreational and medical markets. Now medical marijuana can be sold inside recreational retail stores for those stores who have a medical endorsement. The law largely did away with the “collective gardens” that provided medical marijuana in the past.
The state Liquor and Cannabis Board provides a map of retailers with the endorsement, as well as a plethora of other data, at www.lcb.wa.gov/marj/dashboard.

Merging medical marijuana into the recreational pot industry in Washington state is making for a rough transition.
“It’s not as smooth as one would hope, but nothing about being a trailblazer is easy. It’s all about adaptability,” said Danielle Rosellison, co-owner of Trail Blazin’ Productions, a marijuana grower in Bellingham.
Medical marijuana businesses face some big challenges. Users are leery of being entered into a state database, and patients are balking at high costs that now include a 37 percent excise tax. Also, labs are not yet in place to fully test medical marijuana, and some consider state Department of Health requirements for medical-grade cannabis to be onerous.
Rosellison is part of The Cannabis Alliance, an effort to organize the medical marijuana industry so it has a united voice locally and statewide.
“All hope is not lost. We will get there,” she said. “Medical’s standards in Washington will be raised and patients’ needs will be met. It’s just not going to be t..

SPANAWAY — Pierce County sheriff’s deputies have shut down an unlicensed marijuana dispensary that stayed open past a state deadline to close.
The News Tribune reports that Green Organics was doing business within sight of the sheriff’s Parkland Spanaway detachment headquarters, though a new state law required all pot shops to obtain a license or close by July 1.
Deputies arrested the shop’s 33-year-old owner Wednesday for investigation of illegally selling marijuana. They also seized marijuana products and paraphernalia.
Sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said the raid could be just the first of several on pot shops that continue to operate without a license in the county. Pierce County mailed notification letters last fall to the owners of medical marijuana stores informing them of the state deadline, which was part of a new state law merging Washington’s recreational and medical marijuana markets.

WASHINGTON — When President Richard Nixon signed the Controlled Substances Act in 1970, the federal government put marijuana in the category of the nation’s most dangerous drugs, along with LSD, heroin and mescaline.
In legal parlance, pot is a Schedule 1 drug, with a high potential for abuse and no medical purpose.
Forty-six years later, the law might soon change, as the Obama administration prepares to make what could be its biggest decision yet on marijuana.
Suspense is mounting after the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration missed its self-imposed June 30 deadline to decide whether to reschedule the drug and recognize its potential therapeutic value. Twenty-six states already have legalized its medical use.
For Christine Gregoire, the former Democratic governor of Washington, a decision has been a long time coming.
In 2011, she and Republican Lincoln Chafee, who was then the governor of Rhode Island, filed a 106-page petition with the DEA, arguing that the categorization of ma..

NOVATO, Calif. — A former pro football star and an advocate for athlete marijuana use have teamed up to open a gym in San Francisco that they say will be one of the first in the world to allow members to smoke pot while working out.
Former running back Ricky Williams, who played for the Saints, Dolphins and Ravens, and Jim McAlpine, a snowboard company executive, said Power Plant Fitness also will offer edibles and topical gels for those who don’t like smoking the plant. They say using pot while exercising can help them focus or relax.
Members of the gym, which is set to open this year, will need a medical marijuana prescription to join, but that could change if California voters legalize recreational pot in November.
“I personally use it for focus. It’s not about getting high. It’s about keeping my mind engaged in the activity I’m in,” said McAlpine, who organizes the 420 games, athletic events aiming to stop the stigma against pot use.
Carla Lowe, founder of Citizens Against Lega..

Patients fill significantly fewer prescriptions for conditions such as nausea and pain in states where medical marijuana is available, researchers reported Wednesday in one of the first studies to examine how medical cannabis might be affecting approved treatments.
Prescriptions for all drugs that treat pain combined, from cortisone to OxyContin, were nearly 6 percent lower in states with medical marijuana programs. Anxiety medication was 5 percent lower.
The result was a drop of more than $165 million in health care spending in states that had medical marijuana programs running in 2013, according to the analysis of national Medicare data. The savings would equal 0.5 percent of the entire Medicare program’s drug budget if medicinal cannabis was available in every state, the authors projected.
For years, lawmakers in state after state have approved medical marijuana programs after pleas from desperate patients. The debates centered largely on the limited evidence of benefit and conce..

JUNEAU, Alaska — Alaska regulators were applauded Thursday as they approved the first licenses for legal marijuana growing and testing facilities — another milestone for the fledgling industry.
Priority was being given to growing and testing operations to ensure that retail stores will have legal product to sell. The first retail licenses are expected to be issued later this year.
Thirty applications were on the agenda Thursday at a meeting of the Marijuana Control Board in Anchorage. Two were for testing facilities. The rest were for grow operations.
The first application approved came from CannTest LLC of Anchorage, a marijuana testing facility. The action was greeted by applause and cheers.
“That’s history right there, folks,” board member Brandon Emmett said.
Businesses that were granted licenses still need to clear national background checks and, in some cases, complete local requirements.
Mark Malagodi, CEO of CannTest, said it felt good. “It’s just the first hurdle,” he sa..