Progressive chair donates $209K to Prop. 19 effort

 Advocates, Legalization, Marijuana News
Oct 172010
 

Peter B. Lewis, a retired insurance company executive, has donated $209,005 to the campaign to pass Proposition 19, the marijuana legalization measure on California’s Nov. 2 ballot. The contributions — to the main campaign committee as well as an independent one — make Lewis the biggest contributor to the effort after Richard Lee, the Oakland medical marijuana entrepreneur who sponsored the measure and has spent more than $1.5 million. “I’m supporting the campaign because I support common-sense reform of the nation’s drug laws,” Lewis said Saturday in a statement. “I admire the effort, energy and [...]

L.A. Times report: Market shifts to indoor-grown cannabis

 Marijuana News, Medical marijuana
Oct 152010
 

Reporting from Arcata — About the time the wholesale price of pot hit $4,000 a pound, Tony Sasso bought a bulldozer and an excavator and dug a massive hole on his ranch in eastern Mendocino County. Then he bought four metal shipping containers and buried them in the hole, Sam Quinones reports in the Los Angeles Times. Inside the containers, Sasso installed 32 1,000-watt lights, a ventilation system and plumbing – all of it powered by a 60-kilowatt generator. His subterranean plantation produced 60 pounds of pot every 56 days, the time it took to [...]

Panel: Marketing is key to growing cannabusinesses

 Bud's Blog, Business, Featured Content, Marijuana News
Sep 302010
 
Panel: Marketing is key to growing cannabusinesses

While Prop. 19 was on the minds of many at the International Cannabis and Hemp Expo, the panel presentations were focused on issues unique to cannabusiness. Among the best was “Branding Cannabis: An Industry Talk.” You’ll want to hear what these experts say about the importance of branding, social media, packaging and building relationships with other growing businesses. Also, take notice of how they name-drop their own brands frequently as they talk. Good stuff, and easy to put into practice at a chamber mixer, farmer’s market or Facebook page. To see other INTCHE panel presentations [...]

Bud’s Blog: Edibles take spotlight at Cannabis Expo

 Bud's Blog, Business, Marijuana News, Medical marijuana, Video
Sep 242010
 
Bud’s Blog: Edibles take spotlight at Cannabis Expo

So I’m at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, watching folks set up for the International Cannabis and Hemp Expo. There are large areas indoors and outdoors for Prop. 215 patients (bring current recommendation and California ID) to sample all sorts of cannabis products, but the new focus on edibles is readily apparent. And that’s a good thing, folks, because oral ingestion is better for you than smoking. To see videos of INTCHE panel presentations and excerpts from the Prop. 19 debate, go to the INTCHE 2010 playlist on my YouTube channel. Before you go, [...]

Tax board takes a pass on Prop. 19 revenue estimate

 Business, Government, Legalization, Marijuana News
Sep 242010
 

The state Board of Equalization, which last year famously declared that legalizing marijuana could generate $1.4 billion in new tax revenues for California state coffers, has an updated analysis out for Proposition 19, the November ballot measure to legalize marijuana for recreational use. This time, the BOE says it is clueless on what legal weed can bring in, Peter Hecht reports in “Weed Wars.” Officials also said it may take them months – or years – to implement potentially needed systems for collecting new marijuana taxes that may result from Proposition 19. In its previous [...]

Chronicle columnist: Politics lag behind pot culture

 Business, Dispensaries, Legalization, Media, Opinion
Sep 202010
 

When it comes to legalizing pot, there’s no stemming the inevitable. Whatever happens this November with California’s Proposition 19, which essentially would decriminalize the drug, marijuana will end up being legit. Whether you like it or not. Jerry Brown and Barack Obama are against it – improbably, given their histories. Financier George Soros and Men’s Wearhouse thread peddler George Zimmer are for it. Libertarians, a colleague reminded me, “are just Republicans who smoke pot.” But politics often are irrelevant when cultural tectonic plates are shifting, writes San Francisco Chronicle columnist Phil Bronstein. Walk into the [...]

Oakland pot workers join Teamsters union

 Advocates, Business, Marijuana News, Medical marijuana
Sep 202010
 

OAKLAND — As organized labor faces declining membership, one of the country’s most storied unions is looking to a new growth industry: marijuana. The Teamsters added nearly 40 new members earlier this month by organizing the country’s first group of unionized marijuana growers. Such an arrangement is likely only possible in California, which has the nation’s loosest medical marijuana laws. But it’s still unclear how the Teamsters will safeguard the rights of members who do work that’s considered a federal crime, the Associated Press reports in the Sacramento Bee. “I didn’t have this planned out [...]

Landlord-tenant conflicts arise from marijuana grows

 Business, Medical marijuana
Sep 052010
 

SANTA CRUZ — Jon Castaline, a middle-aged disabled handyman, was looking for a place to store his tools and his medicinal marijuana plants. The rental units Jill Escher oversees on Beach Hill were perfect. While the one-car garage below a motel-turned-apartment complex didn’t have electricity or water, Castaline was allowed to install one power outlet so he could put up a light and do his handyman work in the storage area. For $145 a month, it was hard to beat. But two weeks into the month-to-month rental agreement, Escher learned from other tenants that Castaline [...]

Large-scale marijuana facility proposed in Chico

 Business, Marijuana News, Medical marijuana
Aug 292010
 
Large-scale marijuana facility proposed in Chico

CHICO — In this economy, it may be good news to some that an enterprising venture is interested in one of Chico’s largest vacant buildings. But others are concerned over the proposal for 1100 Marauder St. — a 600,000-square-foot indoor hydroponic medical marijuana grow that would be the largest in the nation. The building at the Chico Municipal Airport Industrial Park, once occupied by clothing distributor Koret, is being eyed by Plant Properties Management, LLC. The Los Angeles-based company has hopes of creating a business model in Chico unparalleled in the medical marijuana industry, Toni [...]

Marijuana law at forefront at Know Your Rights Expo

 Advocates, Business, Legalization, Marijuana Law, Medical marijuana
Aug 272010
 

ANAHEIM – An activist group working to legalize pot in California will host the county’s first large medical-marijuana expo Saturday, featuring hemp products, speeches from attorneys and a former judge and live reggae music. Organizers of the Know Your Rights Expo expect up to 20,000 people from across Southern California to attend the conference – across the street from Disneyland Resort – at the city-owned Anaheim Convention Center. Legal experts are scheduled to talk about the status of the state’s medical-marijuana laws and Prop. 19, a November ballot measure that would regulate and tax the [...]

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