Colorado proposes to build affordable housing with legal marijuana tax revenues

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Colorado’s Governor recently proposed transfering revenues raised from taxing legal marijuana sales toward funding affordable housing programs. (Courtesy Wikimedia Images / X-Weinzar)
 
A new initiative by Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper seeks to divert $16.3 million in tax revenue generated from the state’s legal marijuana trade toward creating permanently affordable housing units for homeless individuals in the state.
The Denver Post reports that the Governor’s plan would allocate $12.3 million in legal marijuana tax revenues to build 1,200 affordable housing units for chronically homeless individuals as well as 300 additional units for periodically homeless individuals over the next five years. Hickenlooper also proposes taking $4 million in funds to construct 354 assisted housing units that will be paired with behavioral health services facilities over the same time frame. The Governor’s budget proposal also features $2 million worth of incentives to generate 250 affordable housing units for senior citizens and individuals fighting displacement.
The Denver Post also reports that Colorado has seen a six-percent increase in homelessness this year, bringing the state’s unhoused population to 10,000, according to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. Meanwhile, the state’s total supply of year-round beds allocated to serve this population numbers less than 7,000.
 
Full Article: 
https://archpaper.com/2016/12/colorado-affordable-housing-marijuana-revenues/
 

Legalizing Marijuana Has Reduced Opioid Overdoses by 25%


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Full Article: 
http://www.teenvogue.com/story/legalizing-marijuana-has-reduced-opioid-overdoses-by-25-percent

Tomorrow: Up to 10 Ounces of Cannabis for Massachusetts Residents

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PHOTO BY BRETT LEVIN
 
Key portions of Massachusetts’ voter-approved recreational marijuana law were cleared to go into effect after the Governor’s Council on Wednesday certified the results of the Nov. 8 ballot question — though not without some contentious moments.
It will become legal on Thursday for adults 21 and over to possess up to 1 ounce of pot outside their homes and up to 10 ounces of the drug inside their homes. Adults will also be allowed to cultivate as many as a dozen marijuana plants in their homes.
 
Full Article: 
https://cannabisnow.com/tomorrow-10-ounces-cannabis-ma-residents/
 

Mexico Senate Votes 98 to 7 to Legalize Medical Cannabis

By Agence French-Presse
mexico senate
 

Mexico’s Senate voted overwhelmingly in favor of legalizing medical marijuana on Tuesday after a national debate on narcotics policy in a country mired in brutal drug violence.

mexico senateIn a major policy shift, President Enrique Pena Nieto proposed legalizing medical marijuana in April after his government organized forums to discuss changes to the laws.
Senators voted 98-7 for the legislation, moving Mexico closer to joining several US states and other nations in Latin America in allowing cannabis for medical uses.
The bill — which now moves to the chamber of deputies — falls short of demands among some lawmakers and civil groups who argue that a wider legalization of marijuana use can help the country reduce drug-related violence.
But proponents said it is a major step that will address Mexicans’ need of an alternative medical treatment.
The bill authorizes the health ministry to design regulations for the use, import and production of pharmaceutical products made from cannabis or marijuana, including tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the plant’s main psychoactive ingredient.
 
Full Article: 
http://thejointblog.com/mexico-senate-votes-98-7-legalize-medical-cannabis/

Chinese Tourists, Businesspeople Load up on Pot During Trips to North Korea

The Rason Special Economic Zone in North Korea's North Hamgyong province is shown in an undated photo from an investment brochure.

Photo courtesy of Yonhap News
Chinese who visit North Korea on sightseeing or business trips are purchasing marijuana in large quantities in the Rason Special Economic Zone and selling it for a tidy profit back home where it is illegal, sources inside North Korea said.
Because marijuana cultivation is legal in North Korea, selling yeoksam, as it is called in the isolated country, has become an easy way to earn money, they said.
“People in Rason buy the large quantities of buds of yeoksam from residents and pay 30 yuan (U.S. $4.30) per kilogram (2.2 lbs.), and then sell them for 500 yuan (U.S. $72) per kilogram to Chinese people,” a source from North Hamgyong province told RFA’s Korean Service.

 
Full Article: 
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/chinese-tourists-businesspeople-load-up-on-pot-during-trips-to-north-korea-12072016161219.html

Participants sought for 2017 industrial hemp pilot program

Nick Nelson, Agweek
Stunted by heavy rainfall, an industrial hemp crop grows at the Langdon (N.D.) Research Extension Center on Tuesday, August 9, 2016. (Nick Nelson/Agweek)
 

Participants are being sought for the second year of North Dakota Department of Agriculture’s industrial hemp pilot program.
“Industrial hemp may only be grown in North Dakota through the North Dakota Department of Agriculture’s pilot program or by institutions of higher education,” North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring said. “We are currently seeking applicants wishing to participate in the department’s pilot program for the purposes of agricultural or academic research.”
 

Full Article: 
http://www.agweek.com/crops/4178319-participants-sought-2017-industrial-hemp-pilot-program

Irish toddler back home after medical cannabis becomes legal

By Lynne Kelleher
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Two-year-old Tristan Cahalane flew home at the weekend from a year of treatment for his severe epilepsy in the U.S. after making history by becoming the first person to be legally allowed medical cannabis in Ireland.

The little Cork boy suffers from a rare, severe form of epilepsy called Dravet Syndrome, which left him coping daily with up to 20 seizures, which could last more than an hour and resulted in him being regularly hospitalised.
He was on nine medications from the age of five months, but now he is down to just two prescription medications and a special strain of cannabis oil medicine which have left him virtually seizure-free.

Full Article: 
http://www.sundayworld.com/news/irish-toddler-back-home-after-medical-cannabis-becomes-legal

Eddy Lepp free after long prison term

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Heidi Grossman and Eddy Lepp
 
Free after eight years of federal imprisonment, one of the nation’s most celebrated cannabis convicts is coming home to California on Wednesday afternoon, released from a Colorado prison into a profoundly changed world.
Charles “Eddy” Lepp, a frail but outspoken 64-year-old Vietnam vet and ordained “Rastafarian” minister, was convicted in 2007 in federal court for doing something that the state now calls legal: growing marijuana.
Supporters revere him as a “Pot POW” in the war against drugs, a hero who paid dearly in the fight for rights that many now enjoy.
“He’s free!” cheered supporters, who welcomed him with hugs and cheers in a motor home outside the gates of Florence Correctional Institution. He was then served a hot breakfast of eggs, toast and a pile of fragrant bacon, washed down by a Dr. Pepper soda.
 
Full Article: 
http://www.mercurynews.com/2016/12/07/cannabis-convict-eddy-lepp-free-after-long-prison-term/

Ottawa takes steps to deregulate hemp farming

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Canadian hemp growers and hemp seed processors have asked the federal government for years to simplify and remove regulations for hemp production.   |  File photo
Canadian hemp growers and hemp seed processors have asked the federal government for years to simplify and remove regulations for hemp production. | File photo
 
The federal government is easing regulations for testing and cultivation of industrial hemp.
Health Canada, in a Notice to Industry document, said it was eliminating testing for THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, in most varieties of hemp.
As well, growers will no longer have to identify fields for planting of hemp, prior to spring seeding.

In federal government language, the change is an exemption to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
 
Full Article: 
http://www.producer.com/2016/12/ottawa-takes-steps-to-deregulate-hemp-farming-2/