Morgan Hill Council Considers Commercial Pot Ordinance
In November, Morgan Hill residents voted overwhelmingly to tax cannabis if it were to be allowed in the city. The 79 percent approval rate gave the council reason to pursue the idea of allowing...
View ArticleOp-Ed: San Jose Took Away My Medical Cannabis Patient Rights
I am no longer a medical marijuana patient. Yes, it’s official. My medical cannabis card expired last week. I’ve been a patient for over 15 years and could pay $40 to renew it for another year, but...
View ArticleSan Jose Considers Launching Cannabis Equity Program
San Jose is home to 16 legal cannabis shops—a small number considering the city’s size. But even smaller are the demographics of the dispensary owners. None of those 16 are helmed by ethnic minorities....
View ArticleUnions Woo Silicon Valley’s Weed Workers as Pot Industry Grows
Can unions organize cannabis industry workers, some stoned, some sober, others undocumented and still others with college degrees? It’s tricky. The upsides: a unionized industry could help improve...
View ArticleAs Congress Weighs Weed-Friendly Banking, California Eyes Crypto-Payments for...
It’s been a rollercoaster ride for California dispensaries as they’ve navigated numerous changes since legalization went into effect. But one thing that hasn’t changed is the cash-only status of most...
View ArticlePending State Bill Would Preempt Local Cannabis Bans
As state Sen. Scott Weiner works to preempt local zoning laws to ease the way for more housing construction, Assemblyman Phil Ting—a fellow Bay Area Democrat—is trying to do something similar for the...
View ArticleSJSU Students Urge Santa Clara County DA to Clear Pot Records
In one of his final acts before leaving office, Former Gov. Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 1793, which directed the California Department of Justice to review all cannabis-related convictions to see...
View ArticleSan Jose Considers Whether to Back Public Banking Bill AB 857
San Jose’s elected leaders are debating whether to endorse a state bill that would give Californians an alternative to mega-banks like Wells Fargo and Citibank—companies increasingly under scrutiny...
View ArticleCanna Cycle Aims to Reduce Waste in the World of Weed
Not-so-green cannabis industry packaging waste is taking its toll on the environment. When JJ Kaplan was a supervisor for the Bay Area–based cannabis collective SPARC, he saw a lot of trash headed for...
View ArticleJay-Z Team Up with San Jose-Based Caliva Dispensary
Hip-hop’s first billionaire is making his way into the local cannabis industry. Shawn Carter, better known as Jay-Z—rapper, producer, businessman, philanthropist and husband to Queen Bey—announced last...
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Smoke Signals: Legal Weed’s Gold Rush Days May End in a Bust
The Dutch tulip crash of February 1637 was an economic awakening that colorfully illustrated the risks of euphoric over-investment. When bulb prices for some varieties reached more than 10 times a...
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As Panic Buying Ensues, Dispensaries Try to Get Straight Answers in New...
When seven county health departments teamed up on March 16 to unveil California’s first shelter-in-place restrictions, their orders listed the industries exempted from closure as “essential...
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Cannabis and Chicanery: No, Weed Does Not Cure Covid-19
To a degree perhaps not before seen in modern history, the Covid-19 pandemic is revealing a lot of people and institutions for what they really are, good and bad. Cold, hard reality has a way of doing...
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Small, Little-Known Companies Sell CBD as Cure-All, Prompting Federal...
While the Trump Administration has deregulated right and left—for instance, allowing polluters to go hog wild—the U.S. Food and Drug Administration isn’t effing around when it comes to cracking down on...
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Santa Clara County to Clear Thousands of Pot Convictions
Instead of going through the tedious process of filing a petition, thousands of people in Santa Clara County will get their marijuana convictions expunged automatically. The move—announced today by the...
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Governments Wrestle with ‘Medical’ vs. ‘Recreational’ Pot
Is cannabis really an “essential” business? The food business obviously is. But the legal cannabis industry didn’t exist a few years ago, while gathering and making food—contrary to the popular cliché...
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Chronic Town: Don’t Let a Good Crisis Go to Waste
Major political and social changes often seem impossible until they happen. The Supreme Court’s 2015 ruling recognizing gay marriage surprised most observers, including those who had been working...
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Chronic Town: Refreshing Candor Among (Some) Pot Execs
High Times, the magazine that has chronicled the world of cannabis for nearly a half century, is as good a symbol as any for the incursion on the pot business by money-driven weedbros. After several...
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Chronic Town: Will Covid Pandemic Sap Weed-Biz Hype?
There’s been lots of chatter, including in this space, over what the cannabis industry might look like after the COVID-19 pandemic has passed. Most of the time, the attention is focused on how business...
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Tight Security Wards Off Would-Be Thieves From San Jose Cannabis Dispensaries
Sometimes it pays to abide by the rules, however strict. Just ask Elemental Wellness CEO Joe LoMonaco and Silicon Valley Cannabis Alliance Sean Kali-Rai, who represents seven marijuana dispensaries in...
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