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Marijuana Weekly News Roundup

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On December 3, Med-X Inc. filed a Form 1-A: Tier 2 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to issue 25 million shares of common stock at $0.60 per share. Med-X researches and develops commercial medicinal applications of Cannabis through compound identification and extraction of Cannabidiol (CBD) and other compounds.

In addition, the company recently launched a website, marijuanatimes.org, and also supplies an EPA registered, non-toxic, all natural and organic pesticide and the only product on the market approved by the Department of Agriculture in Colorado for use on cannabis cultivation

The common stock is being offered through a crowdfunding platform, StartEngine, where investors may place an order to reserve shares for purchase when the company issues them. The minimum reservation is 700 shares ($420).

Here are other important news stories for the week.

Native American Tribes Approve Plan to Grow and Sell Marijuana in Oregon

Members of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs have approved a plan to build a facility to grow marijuana on their reservation in central Oregon and to sell it at tribe-owned stores outside the reservation.

The tribes are among the first in the country to enter the marijuana-growing business, a year after a Department of Justice policy indicated tribes could grow and sell marijuana under the same guidelines as states that opt to legalize.

Tribal officials said more than 80 percent of tribal voters favored the proposal in the referendum, which was held Thursday.

Warm Springs’s plan is to build a 36,000-square-foot greenhouse to grow and process the cannabis. Officials expect the project will create more than 80 jobs. Annual net revenue from the three proposed tribe-owned retail shops would top $26 million, the officials estimated.

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Read more at The New York Times.

Legal Weed Having Little Effect on Teen Marijuana Use, Federal Data Shows

Federal data released this week found there was no change in monthly marijuana use in nearly every U.S. state compared to last year. The only significant changes were in Rhode Island, Ohio and Hawaii, where monthly marijuana use fell year over year.

The latest state-level data, which asks participants if they used marijuana in the past month, is particularly useful, as it covers the first year of legal recreational marijuana in Colorado and Washington. While the rate of monthly teen marijuana use did tick upward in those states, the change wasn’t statistically significant, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), which released the data.

In Colorado, 12.6 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds used marijuana monthly in the combined years 2013 and 2014, up slightly from 11.2 percent in 2012-2013.  (SAMHSA combines years for state-level estimates to increase the sample size.) Similarly, in Washington, the monthly teen marijuana use rate was 10.1 percent in 2013-2014, compared with 9.8 percent in 2012-2013.

Proponents and opponents of marijuana legalization gave different interpretations of the changing teen use rates.

Read more at The Washington Post.
Marijuana Reform 2015: Delaware Decriminalizes Small Amounts of Pot and Paraphenalia

Legislation that makes Delaware the latest state in the country to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana went into effect just after midnight Friday,  downgrading a possession charge for people carrying up to an ounce of pot if they are 21 years of age or older from a criminal misdemeanor to a civil violation, according to theNational Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. Under the former rules, having pot on your person could result in up to six months of jail time.

People who are 18 to 21 years of age can still face criminal charges if they have been caught with pot two or more times. Conveniently for people who don’t just possess marijuana, possessing marijuana paraphernalia has also been dropped from a criminal violation to a civil violation, punishable by a $100 fine.

Read more at International Business Times.

Congress Quietly Ends Federal Government’s Ban on Medical Marijuana

Tucked deep inside the 1,603-page federal spending measure is a provision that effectively ends the federal government’s prohibition on medical marijuana and signals a major shift in drug policy.

The bill’s passage over the weekend marks the first time Congress has approved nationally significant legislation backed by legalization advocates. It brings almost to a close two decades of tension between the states and Washington over medical use of marijuana.

Under the provision, states where medical pot is legal would no longer need to worry about federal drug agents raiding retail operations. Agents would be prohibited from doing so.

Read more at the Los Angeles Times.

The Big Banks Are Starting to Look Hard at Marijuana

Earlier this month Bank of America Merrill Lynch put out a research report on the marijuana industry’s prospects. Touted as the first such assessment by a major financial institution, the report is a milestone in a fast-growing sector that is hungry for mainstream recognition and the money that comes with it. But a close reading of the report makes clear that marijuana has a long way to go before it resembles a normal American industry.

Twenty-three states currently allow some form of legal marijuana and voters in four states and Washington, D.C., have voted to allow recreational use. Next election day, California and between five and 10 other states are likely to vote on recreational legalization.

In 2014, legal marijuana was the fastest growing industry in the country, grossing $2.7 billion and all signs indicate that it will notch strong growth again this year. The report suggests that it could reach $35 billion by 2020. For comparison, the U.S. pet industry does about $60 billion a year in sales.

But legal marijuana it is not yet a major American industry; only a small fraction of the growers, manufacturers, and sellers have a presence in more than one state.

Read more at The Atlantic.

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