StaffWith just a few days until the big vote on whether California legalizes recreational marijuana, we present some of our latest articles exploring all things green in the Golden State.
Here's the Week in Weed:
Chris Van Hook, Clean Green founder and agricultural lawyer, closely examines crops.; Credit: Courtesy Clean Green Certified
Pesticides in Marijuana Pose a Growing Problem for Cannabis Consumers
A Berkeley laboratory recently found that 84 percent of medical marijuana samples contained large amounts of pesticides. Many growers throughout California have turned away from pesticides in recent years, but regulations governing their use remain murky as the state grapples with how to handle a burgeoning marijuana market.
Read the L.A. Weekly article here.
Credit: Illustration by Darrick Rainey
Will Marijuana Legalization Benefit People of Color?
Medical marijuana legalization, which was launched in California in 1996 under voter-approved Proposition 215, hasn't exactly diversified the pot business, even as it made many dispensary owners into millionaires.
Read the L.A. Weekly article here.
A discount for this fine product could be headed your way.; Credit: Gustavo Turner/L.A. Weekly
You Could Wake Up to a Big Pot Discount the Day After Legalization. Or Not
If you legalize recreational marijuana at the polls Nov. 8, you'll be in for a pretty nice discount at the cash register of your local dispensary starting the very next morning.
That, at least, was the gist of a statement circulated this week by state tax official Jerome E. Horton. He says medical marijuana buyers with state pot IDs would immediately get a 5.5 percent sales tax break, and that this would cost taxpayers $49.5 million in 2017.
Read the L.A. Weekly article here.
Weed, interrupted.; Credit: LASD
Cookies Seized as Part of $6.7 Million Pot Bust
The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department's Marijuana Dispensary Task Force served a search warrant on a cultivation and production facility and came up with more than $6.7 million worth of product.
Deputies started looking into the operation at a strip mall near a Canyon Country Costco after receiving a tip about alleged illegal drug activity, said Juanita Navarro-Suarez of the Sheriff's Department. She says they found 2,484 plants, 200 pounds of dried buds and 50 pounds of pot edibles, “such as cookies.” The edibles and buds alone are worth a half-million dollars, cops said.
Read the L.A. Weekly article here.
The University of California at San Diego’s Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research is conducting a two-year study on the effects of driving while stoned.; Credit: Courtesy Dr. Tom Marcotte
New Study Examines Medical Marijuana's Effects on Drivers
Recently AAA announced its opposition to legalizing cannabis in both California and Maine, which is also voting on recreational pot this year. The Auto Club says weed-related traffic deaths are up in Washington after the state legalized cannabis in 2012. The club goes on to cite “marijuana’s effects on driving,” including difficulty paying attention, slower reaction times, slower decision-making and reduced coordination. “Research results are mixed,” AAA admits, “but some studies have found that using marijuana as much as doubled a driver’s risk of crashing.”
Driving under the influence will remain illegal even if Proposition 64 passes.
Read the L.A. Weekly article here.
Credit: L.A. Weekly
L.A. Weed Businesses Want Your Vote to Save Them From Outlaw Status
A local initiative that would save city pot shops from extinction has pretty much qualified for the March ballot.
The United Cannabis Business Alliance's (UCBA) Los Angeles Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act has enough endorsements from registered voters to qualify it for the ballot, the City Clerk's office says. Backers turned in 103,903 signatures when only 61,487 were needed, the office said in a statement. Computer sampling determined that there were 110 percent or more of required endorsements on the petition.
Read the L.A. Weekly article here.
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