While Senate Republicans have said that federal district court judge Merrick Garland, President Obama’s nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court, will not get an up or down vote on his appointment, that has not squelched comments on some of Garland’s positions. One sector that is guardedly optimistic about Garland is the marijuana industry.

Ironically, perhaps, that dab of optimism is based on a 2012 case in which Garland voted with the majority that the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) did, indeed, have the authority to maintain marijuana’s rating as a Schedule I drug. Garland, who has often sided with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), used a similar argument in the case involving loosening the restrictions on medical marijuana.

The DEA argued that there was not a scientific consensus on the medical benefits of marijuana and that the drug should continue to be classified as dangerous. At the hearing, Garland asked, “Don’t we have to defer to their judgment … We’re not scientists. They are.”

For the cannabis industry that indicates a willingness on Garland’s part to listen to what scientists have to say on the subject. Marijuana Business Daily cites Terra Tech CEO Derek Peterson: “It’ll be nice to have a voice that relies on the science rather than unfounded preconceived notions based on reefer-madness and propaganda.”

Here are excerpts from other recent cannabis-related news stories.

Oregon Collects $3.48 Million in Revenue from First Month of Taxed Recreational Marijuana Sales
Oregon collected $3.48 million in taxes from recreational marijuana sales in January, far outpacing estimates and offering the first look at how much pot is moving through the state’s newly regulated retail market.

The answer: a lot.

Oregon dispensaries sold at least $14 million worth of recreational marijuana in January alone. That figure doesn’t take into account medical marijuana sales, which remain untaxed.

The collections for a single month exceed state economists’ projections for the entire year. Officials expected between $2 million to $3 million after the state paid for the costs associated with regulation.

Read more at The Oregonian.

Marijuana Initiative Tops Campaign Fundraising in 2015
About $9.7 million poured into state-level political campaigns in 2015, but a ballot measure aimed at legalizing marijuana use for adults accounted for almost $1.1 million of that figure, out-raising every other campaign committee during the non-election year.

Almost half of the contributions going to the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol — roughly $414,000 — came from the Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project, a nationally-focused marijuana law reform organization. Several local medical marijuana dispensaries account for another large portion of the campaign’s funds. Another committee called Arizonans for Responsible Legalization, which also helped push the measure in mid-2015, raised about $183,000, and transferred a portion to the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, bringing the total contributions going toward the measure to nearly $1.2 million.

The pro-pot warchest amassed by the initiative’s backers signals what will likely be a highly publicized issue as the November election nears.

The state requires 150,642 signatures for a ballot initiative, but the campaign plans to overshoot that number by about 50 percent, the committee’s spokesman Barrett Marson said. So far the group has gathered about 180,000 signatures.

Read more at Prescott [Arizona] eNews.

Marijuana Leading Cause of ‘Almost All’ Mass Murders, Says Anti-Pot Advocate Roger Morgan
Californians will likely be asked to legalize marijuana in November, and that’s just not OK with an anti-pot advocate who claims cannabis has been the leading cause of almost every mass murder.

Roger Morgan runs the website StopPot2016, and instead of pushing to legalize cannabis, he’s promoting his own Safe and Drug-Free Community Act, which aims to heavily regulate the state’s medical marijuana community, according to ReasonTV.

Morgan is leading the state’s anti-pot coalition in hopes of stamping out the use of marijuana, what he calls a gateway drug, in opposition of the expected ballot measure to legalize pot. Morgan is pushing his own anti-drug bill.

The bill would ban private marijuana dispensaries in California, which Morgan describes as legal drug dealers, and turn medical cannabis over to the state, which would grow pot plants in one central location, reports ReasonTV. That would make it easier for the state to control the quality and quantity produced for public use.

Read more at Inquisitr.

Medical Marijuana Dispensaries in Oregon Are Denied Extracts Until Licensing Takes Place
To be honest, I’ve been pretty pleased at how things seemed to be going as far as setting up the recreational marijuana industry in Oregon. I absolutely loved the fact that they are allowing adults 21 and over to purchase through medical dispensaries until retail shops are licensed – their “early access program” of sorts is a good way to ease into things, I think.

There have been a lot of changes – particular laws being passed here and there over the last couple months, which have started to give a sturdy structure to the state’s new marijuana industry. However, the most recently passed law says that only licensed facilities can produce marijuana concentrates (defined as being made with heat).

A warning was sent out to medical marijuana dispensary owners telling them that selling concentrates that were produced by an unlicensed facility could be a considered a felony. The law is actually to reduce the number of people attempting to make and distribute concentrates on the black market – but since there are currently no licensed producers, all things having to do with concentrates are coming to a standstill.

Shops have permission to sell out the last of their inventory, but they are discouraged from purchasing any more until after licenses have been awarded. The main reason this is a problem is because the licensing process has not even begun yet in Oregon for the medicinal end of things ran by Oregon Health Authority (OHA), or the recreational end – which will eventually be controlled by the Oregon Liquor Control Commission.

Read more at The Marijuana Times.

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