After months of negotiations and debate followed by the measure stalling for weeks Oregon House legislators finally passed a bill that will regulate the state’s legal marijuana retail program days before recreational use of the drug was due to become legal on July 1st. The measure will create new regulations for both medical and recreational marijuana and includes a compromise that will allow local jurisdictions to opt out of legalizing marijuana businesses in their cities or counties if their voters did originally approve Measure 91, which was the cause of the measure stalling for weeks before legislators could come to an agreement.
On Thursday (6/18) Delaware became the 20th state in the union to decriminalize possession of minimal amounts of marijuana. The law will begin to take effect in 6 months, making the possession of small amounts of marijuana legal just in time for the holiday season. The bill that would eventually bring with it the decriminalization of marijuana was initially introduced in the Delaware House of Representatives on January 29th before being signed into law this past Thursday.
$44 million is a lot of money, but in this case it may have rolled up short of expectations. Clearly marijuana makes money, but it’s not magic potion to alleviate a state’s budget difficulties either. Nor does legalizing it eliminate the presence of a black market for marijuana sales free of taxes and regulations. Colorado’s year end report, released back in February, detailed these lessons and revealed that the state earned approximately $44 million in new sales and excise taxes from its legalization of recreational marijuana back in 2012. When you factor in additional fees and pre-existing taxes from medical marijuana (which has been legal in Colorado since 2000) and Colorado generated roughly $76 million in revenue from marijuana in 2014.
New York has a plethora of options for anyone looking to spice up their night with some delicious desserts, but there’s no better place to get your fixin’ for sweet southern desserts than Doc D’s Southern Desserts in Brooklyn. According to its Facebook page Doc D’s mission is a simple one, to make, “to make your taste buds smile,” and boy do they accomplish that goal in spades.
A vaping craze has swept across the country in recent years leading to an upswell in vapers and increasing sales on vape products across the board. This craze seemingly culminated with vape being named the 2014 Oxford English Dictionary Word of the Year. Much like the vaping craze that has already swept the nation we are now seeing the idea of instituting a tax on vape products (similar to the tax seen on tobacco products) sweep through local and state governments across the nation.