Weed workers across the country are unionizing, and California just made it easier for them. On Friday, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a requirement that all cannabis stores enter into so-called “labor peace agreements” as soon as they have 20 or more employees. California is now one of two states — New York is the other […]
California Marijuana
Most Californians want marijuana stores in their communities, new poll shows
Three years after California voters legalized the sale of recreational marijuana, 68% say it has been a “good thing” and, although the vast majority of cities have outlawed pot shops, most voters want their municipalities to permit the stores, according to a UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll conducted for the Los Angeles Times. […]
These California politicians once helped regulate legal marijuana. Now they’re working for the industry
As California’s attorney general from 1999 to 2007, Bill Lockyer was on the inside as the state wrestled with a developing marijuana industry. But these days he’s watching the transformation from the outside, as co-founder of a licensed pot distributor in Lynwood. Lockyer, whose four-decade public career included a stint as the powerful leader of […]
California’s cannabis black market has eclipsed its legal one
Although marijuana has been legal in California for nearly two years, black market weed is still a booming business in the state. Illegal sellers outnumber legal and regulated businesses almost 3-to-1, according to a startling analysis of California cannabis sellers released this month. Some critics blame the website Weedmaps for letting thousands of rogue stores […]
California has the biggest legal marijuana market in the world, despite black market
California is on track to post a record $3.1 billion in licensed cannabis sales this year, solidifying its status as the largest legal marijuana market in the world, according to a study released Thursday by financial analysts who advise the industry. Legal sales are up significantly from an approximate $2.5 billion in 2018, the first […]
Marijuana industry wants L.A. to crack down on illegal pot shops
The legal marijuana industry urged Los Angeles City Hall on Monday to get tougher with illegal shops that are gouging their businesses in open sight. Illegal pot shops are widespread throughout Los Angeles and typically look like the real thing. And they’re thriving — they sell cheaper products than their legal rivals because they don’t […]
How Legal Weed Is Killing America’s Most Famous Marijuana Farmers
On a sunny day in the spring, Thomas Mulder walked through his greenhouse, down a narrow path between two long, knee-high, wooden planters. In a few weeks, the greenhouse would be full of marijuana plants a foot or two high—indica-sativa hybrid strain Sour G, or White Tahoe Cookies with its characteristic golden hairs around the […]
Merlot versus marijuana: California’s Wine Country feuds over measure to grow pot
The Napa Valley has become synonymous with wine, as grapevines cover the flatlands and creep up the hillsides. Now some entrepreneurs hope a new crop will take root: marijuana. Last week, a group called the Napa Valley Cannabis Association submitted what they believe are enough signatures to put the question of cannabis cultivation on the […]
Some California cities would be forced to allow marijuana sales under bill to triple pot shops in state
Escalating a feud with cities over marijuana, state lawmakers are pushing to require municipalities to lift bans on cannabis stores if voters there supported Proposition 64, the 2016 initiative that legalized sale of the drug for recreational use in California. A bill moving through the Legislature would require those cities to permit at least one […]
$350,000 in cash? California marijuana taxes still make growers – and tax collectors – nervous
On tax days, it’s not hard to spot marijuana growers waiting to exhale in downtown Eureka. They haul cash in grocery bags and boxes, making their way to a state office where they can pay their taxes. One grower “holds his breath as he walks into the building,” said Terra Carver, executive director of the […]
Illegal marijuana growers poison forests—these people fight back
Deep inside Northern California’s Shasta-Trinity National Forest, wildlife ecologist Mourad Gabriel is dressed in camouflage, waiting for the raid. He’s accompanied by more than a dozen armed officers with the U.S. Forest Service, local sheriff’s office, and other agencies on a hot August afternoon. Their plan: to seize and dismantle a nearby illegal marijuana grow site, hundreds […]
Los Angeles Set to Reduce or Expunge 50,000 Marijuana Convictions
Nearly 50,000 people who have been convicted of marijuana-related offenses will have their convictions erased or reduced, according to a statement on Monday from the district attorney of Los Angeles County. In partnership with Code for America, a nonprofit tech organization, Los Angeles County will identify decades-old court cases that it would otherwise have been unable […]
Tribes at odds with Calif. officials over the right to sell marijuana
The legalization of recreational marijuana in California left Native Americans out in the cold. Proposition 64, which voters approved in 2016, lets local governments decide whether to allow cannabis dispensaries to operate within their jurisdictions. But it made no provisions for tribes. As far as the state is concerned, tribes can do whatever they want […]
SF district attorney to wipe out 9,000-plus pot cases going back to 1975
San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón announced Monday that his office will wipe out more than 9,000 marijuana-related convictions in an unprecedented step following California’s cannabis legalization more than two years ago. Gascón last year teamed up with Code for America — a nonprofit focused on using open-source technology to improve government — to find […]
California’s retail marijuana industry is struggling. Will tax breaks and banks help?
Unfriendly banks, high taxes and black-market competitors are some of the obstacles that licensed cannabis companies say hold them back as they try to cultivate a new industry in California. Some California lawmakers want to give them a hand, and they’re considering a set of bills that would in ways great and small fine tune […]
Now you can get cannabis delivered to you anywhere in California, even in cities that ban pot
Until now, companies trying to deliver weed to doorsteps around the state – the companies trying to follow the letter of the law, anyway – have faced a daunting patchwork of local regulations. Buying cannabis is legal in California, but cities and counties can still choose to regulate or ban the trade as they please. […]
California collecting far less than expected in marijuana taxes
Deep in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s new budget is a figure that says a lot about California’s shaky legal marijuana market: The state is expecting a lot less cash from cannabis taxes. The Democrat’s proposed spending plan, released Thursday, projects the state will bank $355 million in marijuana excise taxes by the end of June. That’s […]
Now for the Hard Part: Getting Californians to Buy Legal Weed
A billion dollars of tax revenue, the taming of the black market, the convenience of retail cannabis stores throughout the state — these were some of the promises made by proponents of marijuana legalization in California. One year after the start of recreational sales, they are still just promises. California’s experiment in legalization is mired […]
