Brightly lit and bustling, Harborside Health Center serves as something of a model for the medical marijuana industry - even as California's freewheeling approach to cannabis is seen as an example of how not to do things. As dozens of customers at Harborside pick their products, chatty budtenders talk knowledgeably about the selection, which includes cannabis for smoking, eating and vaporizing. Business is booming: Between this store in Oakland and another location in San Jose, Harborside's sales total $35 million a year. Sales are so strong that Harborside offers free yoga, tai chi and acupuncture to its customers, who must have a doctor's permission to enter the store. [continues 970 words]
Dispensaries Say Local Officials Wary of New Business. As pot shops start to sprout in Florida, cities are struggling with how - or whether - to regulate the state's new marijuana industry. This week, the state's first medical-marijuana dispensary, operated by Trulieve, opened its doors to customers in Tallahassee. Health officials Wednesday gave the go-ahead to a second group, Surterra, to start distributing its cannabis products. Both marijuana operators have permission to deliver products statewide, and Surterra plans to open a dispensary next month in Tampa. [continues 555 words]
To a child on the prowl for sweets, that brownie, cookie or bear-shaped candy left on the kitchen counter is just asking to be gobbled up. But in states that have legalized marijuana for recreational use, notably Colorado, that child may end up with more than a sugar high. A study published Monday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics says that in Colorado the rates of marijuana exposure in young children, many of them toddlers, have increased 150 percent since 2014, when recreational marijuana products, like sweets, went on the market legally. [continues 225 words]
Lawmakers Mostly Agree That Congress Needs to Take Steps. The official confirmation of Prince's death by opioid overdose is likely to reverberate in Washington, where lawmakers are still trying to hammer out a deal on legislation attempting to stem a national crisis in abuse of those drugs. "No one is immune," Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, said in a statement. Portman is one of the main authors of the Senate legislation. "The heroin and prescription drug epidemic is devastating families and communities all over the country, and we need to get this bill to the president's desk as quickly as possible," he said. [continues 520 words]
Proponents Cite Benefits to Many Ill Floridians, Thousands of Added Jobs, Millions in Tax Revenue. Entrepreneurs in the budding cannabis industry are salivating at the prospect that Florida might legalize medical marijuana. Pot proponents say hundreds of thousands of Floridians with cancer and other ailments would benefit from medical marijuana - and they see the potential for a billion-dollar industry that could create thousands of jobs and generate millions in tax revenue. "I look at this as one of the big job savers, job creators, tax getters," said Orlando attorney John Morgan, who's bankrolling a November ballot initiative to legalize pot for medical use. "Technology is taking jobs away every day. This business here is going to replace jobs and income like never before." [continues 795 words]
Drugs, Booze, Food, Gambling All Lead to Changes in Brains. He was 40 years old, a father of three and an Orlando house painter, clean and sober for eight years. One night last summer, he climbed into his truck, stuck a needle in his arm and injected himself with what would be his final dose of heroin. "The paramedics worked on him for a long time. And when they declared him dead, he was still clutching his last bag of the drug in his fist," says Pastor Spence Pfleiderer. "That's the power of addiction." [continues 1178 words]
Attorney John Morgan Confident in Voter Turnout. John Morgan, the deep-pocketed attorney bankrolling the effort to legalize medical marijuana in Florida, predicts November's election will produce the victory that eluded him two years ago. Morgan spent more than $4 million on Amendment 2, the measure that won support from 57.6 percent of voters in November 2014. It needed 60 percent to pass. "I didn't really realize how hard 60 percent was going to be," Morgan said Tuesday during a speech at the Marijuana Business Conference in Kissimmee. "It is hard - it's a landslide." [continues 295 words]
Concertgoers Indulge in Marijuana in Violation of City Law. WEST PALM BEACH - After 7:30 p.m. Friday night, you could smell it. There was no escaping the odor, which permeated the night sky like smoke bellowing from a chimney. The stench of marijuana was as prevalent and as synonymous with SunFest as the downtown traffic jams. While the crowd can easily tell you what was being smoked, it - like law enforcement - cannot tell you specifically who was smoking it. As one vendor, who requested to remain anonymous, remarked, "It is impossible to pinpoint where it is happening at." [continues 586 words]
Feds Don't Allow Banks to Handle Marijuana Money. DENVER - Tim Cullen's marijuana business brought in millions of dollars last year, but he's had a hard time finding a bank to take the money. He's cycled through 14 checking accounts in six years. Recently, he said, a bank closed all his personal accounts, including college savings for his 3-year-old daughter. Federal law prohibits banks and credit unions from taking marijuana money. So in Colorado, everyone involved with the state's legal cannabis industry has a banking problem. Businesses can't get loans, customers have to pay in cash, and state tax collectors are processing bags of bills. [continues 1455 words]
TALLAHASSEE - A measure allowing terminally ill patients to use fullstrength marijuana in the last year of their lives is now before Gov. Rick Scott. Following emotional testimony Monday, the state Senate approved the legislation (CS/HB 307) on a 28-11 vote. It cleared the House 99-16 last week. Scott, though, has been described as "iffy" on the measure by lawmakers close to the issue. The bill would allow marijuana to be included as an experimental drug under a state law which allows doctors to order not fully approved medication for patients expected to die within a year. [continues 488 words]
Bill Lets Terminal Patients Use Full-Strength Marijuana. TALLAHASSEE - Nearly two years after passing a law to allow limited types of medical marijuana, the Florida House on Thursday approved a more far-reaching plan that would let terminally ill patients have access to full-strength pot. The plan (HB 307 and HB 1313) also would revamp the 2014 law, which has been bogged down in legal challenges over the selection of nurseries to get potentially lucrative contracts. Many House members pointed during a debate Thursday to how medical marijuana could help suffering patients. [continues 434 words]
In 35 states and Washington, D.C., you soon will be able to go into a Walgreens and get naloxone, the heroin overdose antidote, without a prescription. But not in Florida, where heroin is hitting with deadly impact. CVS is another major pharmacy that is increasing its supplies of naloxone, often sold as the prescription drug Narcan. CVS, too, will be selling it widely in 35 states. In 14 of those states, including New York, California, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, the chain will be providing it to patients without an individual prescription. Not Florida. Heroin deaths have soared in this state: from 48 in 2010 to 447 in 2014. And our area is arguably the epidemic's epicenter. A startling seven people have died of suspected heroin overdoses this month in West Palm Beach, bringing the total to 11 deaths since December, police reported Wednesday. At this time last year, there were none. [continues 434 words]
Stockbroker Who Smokes Pot for Pain Relief Says Latest Referendum Not Enough. Irvin Rosenfeld believes the latest attempt to legalize medical marijuana in Florida will pass. But he doesn't believe it does enough. He wants everyone to be able to grow their own pot. Not for partying. For medicine. The Boca Raton stockbroker knows all about it. He turns 63 on Friday. For a third of his life, he's smoked up to 10 joints a day for which he doesn't pay. Your taxes do. [continues 980 words]
This is in regard to your Feb. 7 editorial ("As government drags its feet, voters move on medical pot") regarding the acceptance of the medical marijuana initiative on the November ballot. As a 75-year-old Californian who recently moved to Florida, I take no prescription drugs. Medically legal cannabis for chronic pain, insomnia and post-traumatic stress disorder has changed my life. It's shocking to see the Florida media featuring misleading images and inaccurate representations of what legalization will mean to Floridians. [continues 72 words]
After utterly failing to bring relief even to children with severe epilepsy through a non-narcotic form of marijuana, Florida officials fully deserve the wrath of voters who are on the way to taking matters into their own hands - with a constitutional amendment that would make marijuana available for a wide range of debilitating medical conditions. The medical marijuana amendment has gained enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot. It is sponsored by the same folks who fell just short with a similar amendment in 2014. Then, the measure got 58 percent of the vote. This time - in a higher-turnout, presidential election year - the chances of gaining the needed 60 percent seem in the bag. [continues 478 words]
I applaud Sheriff Ric Bradshaw on his response to recent actions taken by the Palm Beach County Commission pertaining to marijuana laws. Our Florida Legislature enacts laws. Our police officers are trained and sworn to enforce those laws. City and county commissions who are enacting civil penalties for marijuana possession are attempting to divert the energies of "law enforcement" to serve as revenue-enhancement agents enforcing civil penalties. Creating ordinances that cater to the pleasures of constituents indirectly supports many poor people forced to grow marijuana in lieu of food crops, the cartel, the street dealer and the families affected by the end result. Don't vilify the police. The responsibility to prosecute or not rests with the State Attorney's Office. Sentencing, civil fines and nonadjudication are the responsibility of the judge and not the cop. MARTIN J. JACOBSON, PORT ST. LUCIE [end]
Just when it seemed Florida might finally be getting off the state's dizzying medical marijuana merry-go-round, new variables promise further delay of the legal, non-euphoric marijuana the Legislature promised two years ago. The 2016 session just became legislators' last chance to deliver compassion for children with intractable epilepsy, and people with advanced cancer and similar debilitating conditions. The priority on this issue should be to clear the regulatory haze and implement the 2014 law - given voters' near-certain approval of a much less desirable constitutional amendment that would legalize euphoric marijuana for medical use. [continues 519 words]
Authorities say they have arrested a deputy for her alleged role in a marijuanaselling business following a month-long investigation. St. Lucie County sheriff 's deputies said an anonymous tipster told them deputy Heather Tucker, 27, was involved in drug activity. Authorities searched the apartment she was staying at with her boyfriend and another couple Friday and said they found felony amounts of marijuana, packaging materials and other items typically associated with the sale and distribution of marijuana. Tucker was charged with marijuana possession of more than 20 grams, marijuana possession with intent to sell and possessing drug equipment. [continues 56 words]
Staff Researches Idea for a Much-Reduced Penalty for Small Amounts. WEST PALM BEACH - Palm Beach County is considering making possession of a small amount of marijuana a civil infraction - the equivalent of a traffic ticket - rather than a criminal offense. But a number of issues need to be worked out in order for this approach to receive broad-based support or at least acceptance from law enforcement and the criminal justice system stakeholders," Assistant County Administrator Jon Van Arnam wrote in a memo Aug. 14. [continues 426 words]
We've all seen videos of Third World "police" in combat gear putting down demonstrations by physically assaulting protesters, turning heavy equipment and tear gas on them, or shooting into crowds. That's what makes the recent events in Baltimore all the more disturbing. This time the "peace officers" in military combat gear, brandishing military-grade weapons and perched on armored military vehicles, were ours. No one knows what the Baltimore protests will look like in the coming days, though the criminal charges filed against six police officers in the homicide of Freddie Gray may have a calming effect. But the recent violence there and elsewhere has brought long-overdue attention to an important national development that had all but been ignored: the militarization of our police. [continues 541 words]
