Dark times expected with Attorney General pick ... Some dispensaries selling recreational cannabis ahead of 2018 ... LED lighting helps sustainable growers ... Emerald Cup, and more.
LEGISLATION
Prop. 64 = short sentences // SFGate
“Much of the debate over Proposition 64 centered on how it would allow adults to use marijuana, while creating taxed retail stores and turning a shadowy industry into a free-market competition. But the core motivation behind legalization was the growing view that punishing people for pot does more harm than good, especially since those arrested have disproportionately been people of color.
Cannabis industry opposes Attorney General pick // L.A. Times
“ ‘We are very concerned, because Sen. [Jeff] Sessions has a strong record of opposition to marijuana reform,’ ”said Bill Piper, a senior director of the Drug Policy Alliance, a national legalization group that supported California’s Proposition 64, which legalizes recreational use of marijuana.”
Obama: Treat marijuana as a public health issue // SacBee.com
“ ‘I am not somebody who believes that legalization is a panacea,’ ” the outgoing President told Rolling Stone. “ ‘But I do believe that treating this as a public-health issue, the same way we do with cigarettes or alcohol, is the much smarter way to deal with it.’ ”
BUSINESS
Some dispensaries can’t wait another year to sell recreational cannabis // Californiaweedblog
Recreational marijuana is legal now, but it’s not legal to sell it until January 2018. That’s not stopping some Los Angeles area medical dispensaries, though.
LED lighting makes grow houses more sustainable // NYT
Cannabis growers in Washington are experimenting with LED lighting, in partnership with the area’s electric company.
HEALTH
The insurance industry examines legal cannabis // Insurance Journal
“The legalization of marijuana may have removed the stigma from it being used only for treating serious diseases, potentially opening the floodgates for injured workers who may now see it as an option.” [Editor’s note: Haven’t they encountered this already in other legal recreational cannabis states?]
EVENT
Emerald Cup rolls into Santa Rosa next weekend // Evenbright
The Emerald Cup’s “reputation is firmly solidified as the largest, most respected, organic, outdoor, medicinal cannabis competition in the world.” The event takes place at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa on December 10 and 11.
HISTORY
California’s war on marijuana, year by year // L.A. Times
Have a look at this timeline of “the Golden State's history with cannabis, which stretches back more than a century to the Poison Act of 1907.”
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