Number of Financial Institutions Willing to Handle Pot Money Rise SALEM, Ore. (AP) - In a once-empty office in Oregon's Department of Revenue headquarters, officials have created a mini-fortress. Recently hired workers sit behind bulletproof glass at a window inaccessible to the public. Police officers brought out of retirement roam the building with handguns on their hips. Security cameras monitor the hallways. The changes, paid for with a $3.5 million budget and prompted by the state's newly legal marijuana industry, are similar to those that Colorado and Washington made for accepting huge cash payments of pot taxes from businesses historically blocked from banking. [continues 763 words]
Law Brings Job and Education Concerns Amid ongoing legal battles over Arizona's new medical-marijuana law, school districts face several conundrums. Can school employees be medical-marijuana cardholders, as state law allows, even though school districts receive federal funding and federal law considers marijuana illegal? How do districts determine if an employee is under the influence of marijuana, which state law prohibits? And, should the new law affect how schools teach drug prevention to students? Dawn McKinley, a parent in the Deer Valley Unified School District, said it does not bother her that some teachers may have medical-marijuana cards. [continues 881 words]
