Medical Marijuana

A spokesman for the Maine Health Department said the first of eight dispensaries across the state should open for business soon after January 1. Over the past two months, the Health Department’s Division of Licensing and Regulatory Services has awarded licenses to operate dispensaries in each of the state’s eight public health districts.

A Colorado medical marijuana grower trying a first-in-the-nation drug defense based on Obama administration memos about medical marijuana saw his case take a serious blow Wednesday when a federal judge felled the effort. Christopher Bartkowicz wanted to argue he shouldn't face federal marijuana cultivation charges because he started his basement medical marijuana growing business after seeing memos from Department of Justice officials indicating the U.S. government wouldn't pursue medical marijuana cases in states that allow it. But U.S. District Judge Philip A. Brimmer sided with federal prosecutors who argued the memos aren't the same as making medical marijuana legal under federal law.

More than a dozen companies are setting up shop in Arizona hoping to get into the business of selling medical marijuana. The Arizona law requires that the dispensaries be set up as non-profit corporations. But that isn't deterring would-be medical marijuana sellers who hope to snare one of 120 licenses.

The Boulder, Colorado city manager extended the deadline for existing medical marijuana businesses to apply for an operating license, citing massive confusion about the city's rules. If the deadline had not been extended, the majority of the city's dispensaries and growing operations would be operating illegally, though owners may not have known it.

At some point next year, medical marijuana will finally be available to qualifying patients in the District. The problem? It might be too expensive for anyone to grow it or sell it, much less for anyone to actually afford to buy it.

The state of Michigan says there's a backlog of applications by people seeking to use medical marijuana.

A proposed 45-day moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries in unincorporated Orange County failed by one vote today. The county ordinance, which would have immediately banned new dispensaries and existing dispensaries without the proper permits, needed to be approved by 4/5ths of the board of supervisors. Supervisors John Moorlach and Shawn Nelson voted against the emergency ordinance, arguing there wasn’t an emergency to warrant immediate adoption of the freeze on dispensaries.