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In Legal States, Marijuana Regulators Target Home Cultivation

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Two cannabis plants being grown for personal use. (Wikimedia Commons)

Kevin Mahmalji | January 18, 2017

Since its founding, NORML has advocated that statewide legalization efforts – whether through a ballot initiative or using the legislative process – should ideally include provisions that permit and protect the act of home cultivation by marijuana consumers. This advocacy has resulted in more than 16 states now allowing home cultivation, including in six of the eight voter-initiated measures passed in…

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Massachusetts Lawmakers Want to Reduce Plant Limit, Raise Marijuana Taxes

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Scott Gacek | January 11, 2017

BOSTON, MA — Lawmakers in Massachusetts are considering big changes for a voter-approved law that legalizes marijuana in the Bay State, including an increase in tax on retail marijuana sales and a reduction in plant limits on personal home grows.

Following decades of inaction on similar bills in the state legislature, voters in Massachusetts approved Question 4 in November, legalizing marijuana for adults.

Some provisions in the new law took effect in December, including personal…

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Kentucky: Industrial Hemp has Growing Market Potential

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Kentucky: Industrial Hemp has Growing Market Potential

FRANKFORT, KY — More than half of Kentucky’s industrial hemp crop this year can be traced to nineteen counties, 58 farmers and one company in Winchester.

With 23,000 pounds of imported hemp seed destined for 2,466 acres, Atalo Holdings is a superpower in hemp production and processing in Kentucky. Governor’s Office of Agricultural Policy (GOAP) Executive Director Warren Beeler told the Tobacco Settlement Agreement Fund Oversight Committee today that the company’s hemp contracts this year cover over half the 4,500 acres planted…

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ASA Urges California Cities and Counties to License Cannabis Cultivation

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The California Local Access Project provides resources and training for medical marijuana advocates

SACRAMENTO, CA — A national medical marijuana advocacy organization published a memo and model ordinance on Monday for California cities and counties recommending that they regulate the cultivation of medical marijuana instead of banning it.

The memo and model ordinance are part of project by Americans for Safe Access (ASA) to support patients and advocates fighting bans on cultivation and pushing for local licensing and regulation of medical…

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Final 3 Defendants in Kettle Falls Five Medical Marijuana Case Get Federal Prison

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Patient Advocates Call On President Obama to Pardon All Defendants and Fully End Federal Prosecution of Medical Cannabis Patients

SPOKANE, WA — Kettle Falls Five medical marijuana defendants Rhonda Firestack-Harvey and Michelle Gregg on Friday were sentenced to one year and a day in federal prison in connection to federal cannabis cultivation charges. Fellow defendant Rolland Gregg received a sentence of 33 months.

All three were released pending appeal.

In March, the trio was acquitted of all crimes they were initially charged with, except for the “lesser included” charge of cannabis cultivation. The defendants were arrested in August of 2012 after the Drug Enforcement Administration seized cannabis plants on their property, which had been grown for medical purposes.

They were…

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CA: Santa Cruz County Repeals Medical Marijuana Cultivation Ban – Daily Chronic

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SANTA CRUZ, CA — On Wednesday at the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors meeting, a historic event in medical marijuana history took place. The County Board of Supervisors voted 4 to 1 to repeal ordinance 5201, the ban on cannabis cultivation, and approved appointments to a thirteen member Cannabis Cultivation Choices Committee.

This is a result of the recent successful referendum spearheaded by Responsible Cultivation Santa Cruz, with the help of Cannabis Advocates Alliance, which overturned the cannabis cultivation ban with over 11,000 signatures.

The new thirteen member panel of the Cannabis Cultivation Choices Committee will work together until December 23, 2015, to create a policy framework for regulating medical cannabis in Santa Cruz County.

Supervisors Leopold and Friend…

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California: Medical Marijuana Patients Fight Fresno County

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FRESNO, CA — Fresno County uses an unconstitutional ordinance to uproot medical marijuana patients’ legal plants and fine them $1,000 per plant without judicial process, patients claim in court.

One plaintiff, who has muscular dystrophy and is on disability, faces a fine of $87,000 and sheriff’s deputies took all of his plants.

The county is using the ordinance as a cash cow, having imposed $2 million in fines already, with another $8 million in the works, according to the June 19 complaint in Superior Court.

Dwayne Alvares, Richard Hickingbottom and John Doe seek writ of mandate and an injunction against Fresno County and Sheriff Margaret Mims. They say the county’s enforcement of its medical marijuana ordinance violates equal protection and due process rights under the state…

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Portland NORML to Teach How to Grow First Legal Marijuana Garden, Help Adults Get First Legal Seeds and Starts

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Organization Takes Advantage of New Law Allowing Adults to Freely Share Cannabis Plants and Usable Marijuana with Each Other Starting July 1

PORTLAND, OR – The Portland Chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) is preparing adults for the beginning of legal marijuana in Oregon by providing instructions on finding the materials needed to grow cannabis.

On Saturday, June 27 at Noon, Portland NORML will hold its regularly-scheduled free Public Meeting at the Tony Starlight Showroom at 1120 SE Madison St in Portland. Dru West, expert cannabis horticulturalist and author of the best-selling “Secrets of the West Coast Masters”, will present a class on starting one’s first legal four-plant cannabis garden.

Portland NORML Executive Director Russ…

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Vintage Cannabis Curing: Patience Pays Off

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When seasoned vintners store their wine in underground cellars or control their storage facility to match similar conditions, they’re doing so for scientific reasons, but there’s also good profit in being patient. At Cannador, we thought we’d explore this phenomena with cannabis and the results were strikingly similar.

While the process of fermenting alcohol is much different than curing bud, some very basic biological principles can be applied to the long-term storage of cannabis that will yield incredible tastes and smells in a process we like to call vintage cannabis curing.

It’s recommended by many connoisseurs to cure your buds for at least 4-8 weeks, although some prefer even longer. We spoke with renowned grower and aficionado Michelle Reefer (@missradreefer) about her…

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Kentucky’s 2015 Hemp Crop to Exceed 1,700 Acres; Up from 33 Acres in 2014

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LEXINGTON, KY — Kentucky’s hemp crop is expected to exceed 1,700 acres in 2015, up from just a 33 acres last year, state agriculture officials said this week.

At a news conference Tuesday, state Agriculture Commissioner James Comer announced that 121 participants have been selected to grow hemp in Kentucky this year, including seven universities across the state. There are 36 groups and projects that will grow 1,742 acres this year, Cormer said.

Despite numerous delays caused by the Drug Enforcement Administration last spring, a little over 33 acres of hemp was grown in Kentucky last year, the first legal hemp harvest in the state in decades.

Last year’s successful harvest has attracted two dozen licensed hemp cultivation processors, who are investing in Kentucky, says…

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Oregon Adopts Rules Allowing Industrial Hemp Crops

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PORTLAND, OR — Oregon farmers could plant the state’s first industrial hemp crop this spring, a full year before businesses expect to start growing marijuana for recreational use, a state official said on Tuesday.

Farmers can grow the hemp in exchange for a $1,500 licensing fee and testing to confirm their crop does not possess enough intoxicating chemicals to get people high, said Agriculture Department manager Ron Pence.

But would-be growers of industrial hemp face a host of complications, including cannabis being illegal at the federal level even as prosecutors have cautiously allowed state experiments to go forward. So far, no one has applied for a license, Pence added.

“It’s not clear if there’s an adequate seed supply,” Pence said, noting that federal regulations made…

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Legalization in Washington: Marijuana Shortage Turns Into Pot Glut

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SEATTLE, WA — Washington’s legal marijuana market opened last summer to a dearth of weed. Some stores periodically closed because they didn’t have pot to sell. Prices were through the roof.

Six months later, the equation has flipped, bringing serious growing pains to the new industry.

A big harvest of sun-grown marijuana from eastern Washington last fall flooded the market. Prices are starting to come down in the state’s licensed pot shops, but due to the glut, growers are – surprisingly – struggling to sell their marijuana. Some are already worried about going belly-up, finding it tougher than expected to make a living in legal weed.

“It’s an economic nightmare,” says Andrew Seitz, general manager at Dutch Brothers Farms in Seattle.

State data show that licensed growers…

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