Lawmakers in Olympia may soon force the state’s weed regulator to loosen penalties on pot farmers and retailers, metaphorically forcing the Liquor and Cannabis Board (LCB) to take a huge bong hit and chill out. After years of Washington’s weed industry complaining that they face a punitive enforcement climate, the state Legislature is now close to passing a proposed law that would dramatically reform the state’s pot regulatory enforcement rules. Full Story
Category Archives: Marijuana retail business
Banks urge Congress to fully Open the Marijuana Market to Banking
Bank officials and others urged Congress on Wednesday to fully open the doors of the U.S. banking system to the legal marijuana industry, a change that supporters say would reduce crime risks and resolve a litany of challenges for cannabis companies, from paying taxes to getting a loan. Full Story
Microsoft is the First Big Company to Service the Marijuana Industry
As state after state has legalized marijuana in one way or another, big names in corporate America have stayed away entirely. Marijuana, after all, is still illegal, according to the federal government.
But Microsoft is breaking the corporate taboo on pot this week by announcing a partnership to begin offering software that tracks marijuana plants from “seed to sale,” as the pot industry puts it.
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Without notice, the King County Council imposed an emergency four-month moratorium on I-502 marijuana businesses in unincorporated King County areas
The Metropolitan King County Council imposed an emergency, four-month moratorium on legal marijuana businesses in unincorporated areas. It gave no public notice in advance of the action but must hold a hearing within 60 days.
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Board to close marijuana retail license application window March 31, 2016
The Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (WSLCB) will stop accepting marijuana retail license applications March 31, 2016 at 5:00 p.m. The WSLCB began processing retail applications on Oct. 12, 2015 to accommodate additional demand and provide additional access points before the medical and recreational marketplace are merged on July 1, 2016.
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The first government entity in Washington to own a retail marijuana store
Of all the steps taken since Washington legalized marijuana, North Bonneville’s might be boldest.
The town of about 1,000 in Skamania County, which sits on the Columbia River about 40 miles northeast of Portland, is becoming the first government in the nation, and perhaps the world, to own a recreational marijuana store.
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2014 – 99 of 334 stores licensed and $64M in sales
After a rocky start and supply troubles, the recreational marijuana industry is slowly gaining ground in Washington state. With the new year upon us, here are some numbers that help put things in context. In Seattle, just eight retail marijuana stores have been licensed by the Liquor Control Board; seven are open
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Seattle marijuana stocks, big business
So many ephemeral public companies are now promoting that dream that the Securities and Exchange Commission this spring temporarily suspended trading in a handful of those stocks, warning about “the potential for fraud in microcap companies that claim their operations relate to the marijuana industry.”
One of the companies thus slapped down, GrowLife, has moved its headquarters from Southern California to Seattle. It announced the shift in a regulatory filing coinciding with the recent start of legalized recreational-pot sales here.
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Marijuana shortage predicted by growers
For the Cooper family, growers in Wenatchee, that means “meeting with them, looking at their locations, getting a general feel for their type of management style,” said Eric Cooper, the 56-year-old part owner of Monkey Grass Farms. “Are they more businesslike, or are they more, ‘Let’s go out back and let’s smoke a joint?’” There’s an urgency to the relationship-building. Stores can’t open with nothing to put on their shelves, and they are competing for what could be a squeezed supply.
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