The State
Boulder County board passes cannabis ordinance
Saying that Colorado voters and the state legislature have spoken on the compassionate use of marijuana, the Boulder County Board of Commissioners has passed an ordinance governing the medical cannabis industry in the county.
The new regulations set up a framework of requirements and fee schedules that cannabis providers, growers and vendors would have to satisfy to obtain permits to operate. The lengthy list covers everything from where dispensaries would be allowed to open in unincorporated Boulder to the size and placement of street signage. The regulations would be in addition to state licensing requirements already in place.
Commissioners stressed that the rules would not take effect until after someone is appointed to oversee cannabis-related license applications.
Some medical marijuana vendors have spoken out against the ordinance, saying the fees requirements are too high, according to press reports. Vendors would have to pay $3,000 for a two-year license to operate, followed by $2,000 for each year after.
Last Colorado bank servicing cannabis industry bails
First one Colorado bank informed medical cannabis vendors in the state that their business was no longer welcome. Then, another followed, and then another.
Now, the sole remaining bank in all of the Rocky Mountain State has notified its customers in the medical marijuana industry to take their business elsewhere. Colorado Springs State Bank notified its cannabis clients that they had until the end of September to close their accounts, news reports said.
The move came four months after U.S. Attorney John Walsh very publicly told Colorado legislators that to provide financial services to the medical cannabis industry was to risk federal criminal charges such as money laundering.
According to several news articles, vendors in the industry are now considering setting up their own credit union to handle such transactions as check deposits and ATM and credit card purchases.
Boulder council passes major ordinance changes
Boulder city officials have adopted a series of changes to its medical marijuana ordinance that prohibits advertising to recreational users and minors and eliminates appeals for dispensary applicants denied permits.
The city council drafted the revisions in September. One of the new rules provides the city’s licensing clerk to decide whether cannabis ads are “inconsistent with the medicinal use of marijuana.” Vendors found in violation of the rule change could find their licenses to operate revoked as they come up for renewal.
Another change wipes away an administrative appeals process for vendors whose applications for a business license were denied. Vendors will now be required to shut down immediately once their applications are rejected, and will have no avenue for appealing the decisions.
THE NATION
President’s new petition website ends up a magnet for 420 cause
The Obama administration’s newly launched website has attracted a whole lot of attention from the legalization camp. The website (wwws.whitehouse.gov) allows visitors to submit petitions, to which the White House has promised to review and issue an official response to those with more than 5,000 signatures in 20 days. At press time, there were 67 petitions submitted. One particular petition called for the legalization and regulation of marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol. In order to receive a response, the petition would have to receive 5,000 signatures by Oct. 22; it currently has over 36,000 having only been posted for about one week, and is the top signed petition on the site. Three other cannabis-related petitions fall in the top ten most signed, all with over 10,000 signatures. In a grueling Q&A segment the president did on YouTube back in January, 198 of the top 200 questions (as voted on by users) concerned marijuana legalization. The new site also received other petitions focused on issues pertaining to animal cruelty, the Patriot Act and more.
Cannabis sales illegal, Michigan court rules
In a decision bound to hamper access to medical marijuana in Michigan, an appellate court has ruled the state’s compassionate-use law does not permit “patient-to-patient” sales of cannabis and that cities can shut down shops that engage in such transactions.
The 2008 law that established Michigan’s medical cannabis program makes no mention of how qualified patients—now estimated to number nearly 100,000—might obtain their medicine other than growing it themselves. Scores of cannabis dispensaries and collectives have for years operated in that legal gray zone, including Mount Pleasant’s Compassionate Apothecary—the collective at the heart of the court ruling.
Mount Pleasant officials had ordered the collective—which allows its 345 members to sell medical cannabis to one another for a 20-percent cut—to shut down, declaring it a public nuisance. The collective challenged that decision in court, setting in motion a series of rulings that led to the appellate verdict.
The operators of Compassionate Apothecary and several other Michigan outlets have already announced they will shut down in the wake of the decision. It is not yet clear how the ruling will affect dispensaries operating in cities with established laws regulating pot shops.
THE WORLD
Got fat? Try dieting with THC
French researchers have reported a remarkable—even counterintuitive—finding that cannabis use can lead to lower body weight.
The finding, published in the August issue of American Journal of Epidemiology, showed that people who smoked marijuana at least three times a week weighed as much as a third less than people who smoked no cannabis at all. The connection remained strong even after adjusting for age, gender and other health factors, news reports said.
Researchers from Louis Mourier Hospital in Paris analyzed survey data from two groups of Americans, totaling some 52,000 participants. Data revealed that 22 percent of the nonsmokers in the first group were obese, compared to just 14 percent of the cannabis smokers. In the second group, 25 percent of the nonsmokers weighed in as obese, against 17 percent of the cannabis smokers.
In their report, the researchers expressed great surprise at the findings, as it is popularly believed cannabis use goes hand-in-hand with unhealthful snacking or even binge eating.
