Reason.com: “Attorney General Jeff Sessions is reportedly planning to let federal prosecutors aggressively enforce federal anti-marijuana laws in states where pot has been legalized. What gives the federal government the authority to target legal state pot? The answer is not the Constitution. This federal power grab is the product of two awful Supreme Court precedents.”
Phoenix New Times: Attorney General Jeff Sessions is rescinding the federal policies that kept prosecutors from interfering with legal marijuana in states across the U.S. Now, those prosecutors can use their discretion to enforce federal marijuana law, even in states where pot is legal for recreational or medical purposes — like Arizona. In a release, the Justice Department called the move “a return to the rule of law” that allows federal prosecutors to take local control of how they go after drug offenses.”
Associated Press: “Attorney General Jeff Sessions is rescinding the Obama-era policy that had paved the way for legalized marijuana to flourish in states across the country, two people with knowledge of the decision told The Associated Press. Sessions will instead let federal prosecutors where pot is legal decide how aggressively to enforce federal marijuana law, the people said.”
Weed News: “Congress is currently in the middle of a tax overhaul push. To be upfront and clear, I do not support the tax proposal. I think that the math is clear that it will overwhelmingly benefit the richest of rich people, and at the expense of the rest of Americans. The United States House of Representatives has already passed their version of a tax bill, and the Senate is looking like it’s getting closer to a vote of its version of a tax bill with every passing minute. There is one silver lining in the tax bill that is worth supporting, even if you are like me and you don’t support the overall tax plan. Colorado Senator Cory Gardner has introduced an amendment that alleviates the 280E tax penalty in the federal tax code.”
Washington Post: “Deep in the Columbia River Gorge, a short drive from the Bridge of the Gods, the nation’s only government-run marijuana shop was running low on weed. The store had been open for just a few days. . . . Someone cracked a joke about this being a typical government operation, always running late. . . . This government store, bearing the cozy name Cannabis Corner, sells dozens of strains of marijuana and in several different forms, from pungent buds to infused cookies and coffee. . . . And it does it all at the direction of the North Bonneville Public Development Authority, making the local government uniquely dependent on this once-illicit drug.”
NBC News: “Weed history is being made in Seattle: the first vending machines to dispense marijuana flower buds debuted Tuesday. The machines, called ZaZZZ, are being placed in medical pot dispensaries, which helps to verify customer’s age and identity since medical marijuana cards are required to enter the centers, said Greg Patrick, a spokesman for the maker of ZaZZZ, American Green. Though vending machines appeared for the first time in Colorado last year, those sold only edibles, or cannabis-infused foods, and not the plant’s flower buds that are so often associated with smoking pot.”
Associated Press: “Washington’s legal marijuana market opened last summer to a dearth of weed. Some stores periodically closed because they didn’t have pot to sell. Prices were through the roof. Six months later, the equation has flipped, bringing serious growing pains to the new industry. A big harvest of sun-grown marijuana from eastern Washington last fall flooded the market. Prices are starting to come down in the state’s licensed pot shops, but due to the glut, growers are — surprisingly — struggling to sell their marijuana.”
Yahoo News: “A year into the nation’s experiment with legal, taxed marijuana sales, Washington and Colorado find themselves wrestling not with the federal interference many feared, but with competition from medical marijuana or even outright black market sales. In Washington, the black market has exploded since voters legalized marijuana in 2012, with scores of legally dubious medical dispensaries opening and some pot delivery services brazenly advertising that they sell outside the legal system.”
Seattle Times: “Cooking with pot faces two big problems: It’s hard to control how high people get when they eat marijuana, and it really doesn’t taste that good. Recreational marijuana is both illegal and controversial in most of the country, and its relationship to food does not rise much above a joke about brownies or a stoner chef’s late-night pork-belly poutine. But cooking with cannabis is emerging as a legitimate and very lucrative culinary pursuit.”
USA Today: “With two states now allowing recreational marijuana sales, curious minds want to know: Whose pot is better? Washington joined Colorado on Tuesday in allowing marijuana sales, and retailers in Washington braced for long lines and high demand. The same happened when Colorado legalized recreational sales Jan. 1, and tens of thousands of buyers got the chance to pick from a wide variety of strains, from Blue Dream to AK-47 and Facewreck.”
USA Today: “Smoke ’em if you’ve got ’em: Washington state this week joins an exclusive club as residents and tourists alike get their first chance to buy recreational marijuana. The second state to legalize recreational pot — Colorado allowed sales starting Jan. 1 — Washington joins a fast-growing market that’s already generating tens of millions of dollars in taxes with no signs of slowing down.”