federal

The Trump administration on Thursday will free federal prosecutors to more aggressively enforce marijuana laws, effectively threatening to undermine the legalization movement that has spread to six states, most recently California. The Justice Department is expected to rescind an Obama-era...

A steadily growing number of banks are willing to open accounts for marijuana businesses, according to new federal data. Even as a string of conflicting signals from the Trump administration surrounds the debate about legalization with uncertainty, the number of depository institutions that...

2017 was the year the other shoe didn't drop on the nation's marijuana industry. Under President Obama, the federal government grudgingly accepted the states' gradual liberalization of their marijuana policies. While marijuana remained illegal under federal law, an increasing number of states...

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has signed on to the Marijuana Justice Act, first proposed by Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) in August of this year. "I'm proud to join forces with Senator Booker to fight this administration's attempts to shift our country into reverse when it comes to federal marijuana...

California legalizes marijuana for recreational use Monday, but that won't stop federal agents from seizing the drug – even in tiny amounts – on busy freeways and backcountry highways. Marijuana possession still will be prohibited at eight Border Patrol checkpoints in California, a reminder...

The renewed battle over marijuana prohibition in the United States is a fight the federal government appears set to lose, much as it could not sustain the 13-year prohibition against alcohol. Cannabis has been legitimized for medical or recreational use in almost 30 states and the District...

A pair of central Massachusetts men hailed by High Times magazine as some of "New England's Patriot Pot Growers" were arrested for their large-scale home grow operations and are facing federal drug charges. The homes of Peter Molle, a 35-year-old from Holland, and Eric Vallee, a 38-year-old...

Until firestorms overtook the North Bay in October, cannabis had been the business story of 2017. Voters legalized adult-use cannabis in November 2016 and opened the door to new businesses that had the sanction of the state, though not the federal government. Cannabis already had a foothold in...

U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, is cosponsoring a bill to decriminalize marijuana across the nation and penalize states with high arrest and incarceration rates for pot-related crimes. The Marijuana Justice Act of 2017, first introduced in August by Sen. Cory Booker, D-New Jersey, would remove...

California has a possible solution to the problem of banks being unwilling to handle money from the state's multibillion-dollar legal marijuana industry, one that officials say would be the first system of its kind in the nation. Talks are underway between the state, banks and federal...

Liberal voters and cannabis advocates can be loud and proud in Hawaii. Even conservatives in the Aloha State don't match the profile of mainland conservatives. Many are pro-gay rights, believe in climate change and even support cannabis legalization. Perhaps that's in-part what made the...

Provincial laws that bar people from growing their own marijuana will certainly be challenged in the courts, and the challenges have a "a decent chance" of success, legal experts say. The federal cannabis legalization bill, now in the Senate, allows individuals up to four cannabis plants, so...

The marijuana industry has taken a couple of hits in Washington this month. First, an amendment that would have stripped a part of the tax code that places extra financial burden on cannabis businesses was pulled at the last minute from the GOP tax plan approved by the U.S. Senate. Also...

We've noticed some debate in Hawaii and elsewhere over whether medical marijuana users may be allowed to own firearms. In short, the answer is unclear – and Ohio, with its budding medical marijuana law, is no different. On the federal level, marijuana remains an illegal Schedule-I narcotic...

California is one the latest states to legalize recreational marijuana. With Proposition 64 going into full effect on Jan. 1, 2018, we could be one step closer to new federal regulations, which would make investment opportunities in the marijuana industry more accessible to everyone...

Canada's provinces will be getting the lion's share of the lucrative taxation revenues from legal cannabis. The provinces have agreed in principle to a two-year tax sharing agreement that gives them a 75% cut of those eventual revenues. Canada's governing Liberals are planning to...

A cloud is looming over Ohio and every other state with a medical marijuana system. A little-known federal budget amendment that protects growers, processors, sellers and the professionals who work with them might expire this year at the behest of the Trump administration. Now known as the...

California voters decided last year that the sale of recreational marijuana should be made legal, beginning on Jan. 1, 2018. But Proposition 64 left many of the details to local governments and state regulators. So the last several months have been a race against the calendar, as officials have...

A series of deadly wildfires devastated California wineries, farms and small businesses in recent months. Many of these farms and businesses will be able to start rebuilding quickly, thanks, in part to insurance payouts and easy-to-access businesses loans. The same thing cannot be said of many...

Last week, Attorney General Jeff Sessions signaled a potential change in federal marijuana policy, saying at a press conference that the Department of Justice was working "very hard right now" to develop "a rational policy" toward marijuana. Currently, marijuana remains illegal under the...