Article by Ricardo Baca, The Cannabist In the first 10 months of 2016, Colorado marijuana shops reached a significant milestone they had barely missed in all of 2015: $1 billion in legal, regulated cannabis sales. Recreational and medical cannabis shops in America’s first 420-legal state have sold nearly $1.1 billion of marijuana and related products in 2016, according to the ...

Article by Michael Render (Killer Mike) and Erik Nielson, Rolling Stone Legal marijuana has become big business. Thanks to recent ballot initiatives, 28 states and the District of Columbia now permit medical marijuana use, and eight of those have passed measures legalizing it recreationally – a number that is expected to grow in the near future. As a result, we ...

Article by Leslie Anderson, Boston Globe Cannabis seems to be on everyone’s agenda as Massachusetts waits for the ballot measure legalizing recreational marijuana to take effect this week. With medical marijuana already legal, Somerville residents will learn about a proposed dispensary in Davis Square at a community meeting Monday. Sage Cannabis wants to open it in the basement of a ...

Article by Brooke Edwards Staggs, The Press Enterprise Many medical marijuana patients were worried that a ballot measure legalizing cannabis for recreational use in California would make the price of their medicine go up. Instead, for some, pot got cheaper – though maybe not for long. The state Board of Equalization recently sent notice that anyone who has both a ...

Article by TG Branfalt Jr., Ganjapreneur Zkittles, a flower strain from Humboldt County growers The Dookie Brothers, took home the top prize at this year’s Emerald Cup, according to the Emerald Report. The strain was described as “Skittles from the vending machine at a high school football game,” with a sweet tropical flavor and smell. The event was only the ...

Article by TG Branfalt Jr., Ganjapreneur Top lawmakers in Arkansas have appointed the five-member Medical Marijuana Commission ahead of their first meeting today, NPR station KUAR reports. The commission will facilitate the licensing and regulation of cultivation sites and dispensaries under the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment. Dr. Ronda Henry-Tillman, a University of Arkansas Medical Sciences Department of Surgery professor and ...

Article by Edward Dodge, Merryjane.com Longtime cannabis activist Edward Forchion, a.k.a. NJ Weedman, has had a terrible 2016. His Trenton, N.J. restaurant, The Joint, and cannabis sanctuary, the Liberty Bell Temple, are nearing failure after being repeatedly harassed by the police who succeeded in scaring away customers. A year ago, Forchion thought he was in a great place. The Joint ...

Article by CBS News Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos used the Nobel podium in Norway on Saturday to reiterate his call to “rethink” the war on drugs, “where Colombia has been the country that has paid the highest cost in deaths and sacrifices.” “It makes no sense to imprison a peasant who grows marijuana, when nowadays, for example, its cultivation ...

Article by Tom Angell, Marijuana.com The nation’s largest military veterans organization is pushing President-elect Donald Trump to reschedule marijuana after he takes office early next year. Top officials from the American Legion, which passed a resolution endorsing the reclassification of cannabis under federal law earlier this year, sat down with Trump’s transition team last week to discuss key priorities for the ...

Article by Miranda Green, Decode DC Two members of Congress from both sides of the political aisle are joining forces to create the Cannabis Caucus. Reps. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., and Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., are creating a caucus in hopes of improving the odds to passing federal marijuana reform bills. “There needs to be more strategy between us, those of us ...