By COLTON LOCHHEAD

 
Venus Heard’s wedding gown sparkled in the green-hued lights as she walked down the aisle of the Downtown Las Vegas wedding chapel.
Her groom-to-be, Jon Rothberg, stood under the white wedding arch in a black and green tuxedo. Wedding officiant Tiffany White stood beside him in a contrasting robe of (almost) all white. But the ceremony was not a traditional Las Vegas hitching.
“We are gathered here today at the Cannabis Chapel” White started, “to witness the jointing….”
“Ahem … the joining, of Jon and Venus.”
The wedding’s theme?
Marijuana. Every aspect of the ceremony from start to finish had some splash of cannabis.
 
Full Article: 
http://www.reviewjournal.com/news/pot-news/cannabis-chapel-the-perfect-site-couple-s-las-vegas-weed-ing
 
 

Melia Robinson
George Zimmer is lending his iconic, gravelly voice to the marijuana legalization movement. therichest.org
 
George Zimmer has a penchant for speaking his mind.
The 68-year-old serial entrepreneur was fired from Men’s Wearhouse, the company he founded 40 years earlier, in 2013 over differences with the company’s board.
“You know, one of the very small reasons — and I say small — would be that I tended to be kind of a renegade or somebody who said what he thought,” Zimmer told Business Insider about his firing. “That made the board of directors increasingly uncomfortable.”
Zimmer has since launched a tuxedo rental company, Generation Tux,and is channeling his candor into marijuana activism.
 
Full Article: 
http://www.businessinsider.com/mens-wearhouse-george-zimmer-marijuana-activist-2017-2

by Brian Bahouth

 
Moana Nursery has been an anchor business on Moana Lane in Reno since 1967.  Experts at 3 Reno area stores provide deep, regional cultivation knowledge, and customers can select from a wide range of decorative and edible plants suited for northern Nevada’s high desert environment, bird feeders … wind chimes … lawn art, and before this week the nursery’s Saturday seminar series had titles like “The Art and Science of Woody Plant Pruning for Beginner to Seasoned Gardeners,” or “Desert Tortoise Adoption and Basic Care,” but this week the company’s iconic sign announced a seminar titled, “Cannabis Q&A.”
Lisa Braginton is a certified nursery professional and a Plant Doctor at Moana Nursery.
“There was a lot of conversation internally when legal marijuana passed last November,” Braginton said.  “We were trying to decide the best ways to go about getting some knowledge for ourselves and being able to offer some knowledge out into the community about this rather broad subject of marijuana growing, use, legislation, potential impacts to employers, concerns in the community, so we knew we couldn’t cover each and every one of those topics individually, so we thought we’d begin with some opening statements and facts, and then an open forum with questions and answers.”
 
Full Article: 
http://www.marijuanapublicmedia.org/cannabis-goes-mainstream-reno/

BY HAYLEY FOX

Oliver Griffin

The domestic use of medical marijuana was legalised last year (AFP/Getty)
 
In the Andean hills of Antioquia, Colombia, greenhouses covered with white tarpaulin sheets dot the countryside. For now they are all used for growing flowers — but the soil here is being prepared for a more contentious crop. “The medical marijuana industry can become bigger than coffee, bigger than flowers,” said a smiling Patricio Stocker, chief executive of PharmaCielo, the first company licensed to roll out production of medical marijuana in Colombia. “Our aim is to help the most [troubled] regions in the country.” Last year, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos reformed antiquated drug laws and legalised domestic use of medical marijuana. The overhaul included permission for the commercial cultivation, processing and exportation of cannabis — as long as it is used for medicinal purposes.
Full Article: 
https://inews.co.uk/essentials/news/world/colombias-medical-marijuana-industry-become-bigger-coffee-flower-business/

BY FRED GRIMM

A close-up of a flowering marijuana plant in the production room of Modern Health Concepts’ greenhouse on Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2017. C.M. Guerrero Miami Herald
 
Never mind heart-rending testimony from the dying, diseased and debilitated, who crowded into five public hearings across Florida this week to beg the state medical marijuana rule-makers to honor the voters’ intent.
Never mind pleas from would-be cannabis farmers and entrepreneurs, who pleaded with state officials to loosen the exclusive, lucrative and utterly inefficient control held by Florida’s medical-pot cartels.
Never mind that Amendment 2, approved by voters in November, demanded that in addition to treating 10 enumerated medical conditions with pot, physicians should also be allowed to prescribe cannabis if they “believe the medical use of marijuana would likely outweigh the potential health risks.”

by EVIANA HARTMAN, Vogue

By JILL SHERIDAN

Photo: Jill Sheridan/IPB News

A crowd of cannabis supporters gathered at the Indiana Statehouse Thursday for a town hall meeting.
Around 100 people attended in support of legislation that would allow for medicinal cannabis. Rep. Sue Errington (D-Muncie) has introduced cannabis legislation for the past five years.
“And up until this year I’ve been a pretty lonely person in the House,” Errington says.
This session there are 11 proposals that deal with cannabis or hemp, including a Senate bill that would create a registry to allow patients with epilepsy to use hemp oil.
 
Full Article: 
https://indianapublicmedia.org/news/town-hall-meeting-supports-11-bills-cannabis-hemp-113977/

TOM ZOELLNER

Fans gather around Jack Herer’s bus on a tour in the 90’s. (Courtesy of Jeannie Herer)
 
If you visited Los Angeles’ Venice Beach boardwalk in the 1980s, you were likely to encounter a bearded, corpulent man peddling a wild conspiracy theory. With his disheveled clothes and slobbery workingman’s diction, he often looked like he spent the night in a dumpster. He offered a story as compelling as the Ancient Mariner’s, a tale of history, conspiracy, greed, and deceit. A cabal of plastic manufacturers and power-hungry bureaucrats, he claimed, had suppressed one of the most industrially useful and medically beneficial plants the world has ever known: cannabis. Everything you think you know about marijuana, he’d tell passersby, is wrong.
The man’s named was Jack Herer. At the time, he was in his late fifties and had just published a book that laid out his evidence. Actually, “published” is a strong word. The Emperor Wears No Clothes was cheaply bound by a vanity press, which meant that no reputable publisher would touch it.

Thirty years later, the old Venice Beach conspiracy peddler has become an American legend. His book, now in its 12th printing, has sold more than 700,000 copies, making it one of the most unlikely bestsellers of the past half century.
 
Full Article: 
https://www.leafly.com/news/politics/searching-jack-herer-emperor-american-cannabis

Sarah Hollenbeck, WTSP

 
Wednesday and Thursday are the last days you’ll be able to tell state leaders how you feel about medical marijuana.
Do you want to see more dispensaries? Fewer? Should more people get access to treatment or should it be restricted?
The Health Department hosted a packed 2-hour public meeting from 9am to 11am Wednesday at their Tampa Laboratory at 3602 Spectrum Boulevard. The meeting was so full that there wasn’t even enough room for people to stand.
Health Department leaders are traveling across the state to get public opinion before rolling out new rules for medical marijuana growers and dispensaries.
 
Full Article: 
http://www.wtsp.com/news/local/last-chance-to-weigh-in-on-medical-marijuana-rules/403513919