2016 Goes To Pot: Colorado Cannabis Sales Top $1 Billion & Oregon Sales Defy Expectations

The tax revenue from sales of legal cannabis in Colorado is expected to exceed the sales tax collected on cannabis in 2014 and 2015 combined.

Kit O'Connell
By Kit O'Connell
Farmworkers transport newly-harvested marijuana plants, at Los Suenos Farms, America's largest legal open air marijuana farm, in Avondale, southern Colorado, Oct. 4, 2016. (AP/Brennan Linsley, File)

DENVER --- Legal cannabis is booming, and with Colorado netting $1 billion in legal, regulated sales in the first 10 months of 2016, the industry’s growth isn’t showing any signs of slowing. Sales of both recreational and medical cannabis hit $1.1 billion by October, according to analysis of sales data from the Colorado Department of Revenue. A

Read Full Article

New Study Suggests Cannabis Could Help Ease The Opioid Epidemic

‘I like to say that instead of cannabis being a gateway drug into harder drugs, I think that we might see cannabis being used as a gateway drug out of our current opioid epidemic,’ a cannabis industry consultant with a background in law enforcement tells MintPress News.

Kit O'Connell
By Kit O'Connell
A marijuana bud is seen at a medical marijuana facility in Unity, Maine. A new study suggests that cannabis could help ease the deadly opioid epidemic in the United States. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)

AUSTIN, Texas --- A new study suggests that cannabis could help ease the deadly opioid epidemic in the United States. Participants reported “a notable decrease in their use of conventional pharmaceutical agents,” including a 42-percent drop in the use of opiates, according to the pilot study published in Frontiers in Pharmacology on Oct.

Read Full Article

Major Gains For Cannabis On Election Day Make Full Legalization Almost Inevitable

‘It’s likely now a question of when, and not if, the rest of the country will follow suit,’ according to an analysis published after legalization made major gains in voting booths around the country on Election Day.

Kit O'Connell
By Kit O'Connell
A marijuana joint is rolled Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2016, in San Francisco. Prop 64 legalizing marijuana for recreational use passed in California. The number of Americans living in states with recreational marijuana more than tripled after at least three states voted to fully legalize the drug.

AUSTIN, Texas --- Election results poured in on Tuesday night, turning states not just red or blue, but also green in eight states where voters came out in support of ballot initiatives to legalize medicinal or recreational cannabis. While the presidential election revealed a starkly divided electorate and partisan political landscape, voters

Read Full Article

WATCH: Cops Rob Every Penny from Family, Including Children For Legal Med. Marijuana Dispensary

San Diego, CA — James Slatic took every precaution possible to ensure his California medical marijuana business was in full compliance with local, state, and federal laws — and that appropriate taxes and fees, hundreds of thousands each year, were always paid on time. But despite conducting business professionally and legally, nearly 30 heavily armed […]

Claire Bernish
By Claire Bernish

San Diego, CA — James Slatic took every precaution possible to ensure his California medical marijuana business was in full compliance with local, state, and federal laws — and that appropriate taxes and fees, hundreds of thousands each year, were always paid on time. But despite conducting business professionally and legally, nearly 30 heavily

Read Full Article

Federal Court Bans Govt From Prosecuting Medical Marijuana Users And Growers

The Ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals’ three-judge panel has ruled that the Department of Justice (DOJ) cannot spend budget money to prosecute people who grow, sell or use medical marijuana — if they comply with state law.

Matt Agorist
By Matt Agorist
A bag of medical marijuana

Last week, the tyrannical DEA doubled down on their asinine and immoral decision to classify marijuana as having no medical value — promising to continue to kidnap, cage, and kill people for possessing it. However, in a major victory, and a well-deserved slap to the face of the DEA, a federal appeals court just ruled that prosecuting medical

Read Full Article

DEA Proves Loyalty To Big Pharma, Maintains Cannabis Has ‘No Medicinal Value’

“The DEA’s decision is strictly a political one. There is nothing scientific about willful ignorance.”

Jay Syrmopoulos
By Jay Syrmopoulos
Former U.S. Marine Sgt. Ryan Begin smokes medical marijuana at his home in Belfast, Maine. Begin had endured 35 surgeries after having his right elbow blown off by a roadside bomb in 2004. He is a proponent of legalizing pot for recreational use and allowing individual citizens the right to grow six plants. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Washington, D.C. – The federal government has once again revealed itself as nothing more than puppets to the big pharma industry. On Thursday, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) moved to deny any changes to marijuana under its federal drug schedule, keeping the drug in the most restrictive category for U.S. law enforcement purposes. For

Read Full Article