Massachusetts Senate passes sweeping pot reform bill
The Massachusetts Senate passed a sweeping cannabis bill that aims to clarify some terms of a ballot initiative first passed by voters in 2016, while promoting equity in the industry.
Mark Matthews
Recent posts by Mark Matthews
Police suspect weed businesses hit by same group of burglars
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GORHAM, Maine (AP) — The robbery of an estimated $59,000 worth of weed products from a Maine marijuana business in October is just one of a string of weed-related burglaries in New England that police suspect are being organized by the same group.
Mike Tyson credits marijuana for improved mental health, introduces line of products in Boston
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“It’s put me in a frame of mind where I can be at peace with myself, my family, my dear friends,” Tyson told the Herald.
Free marijuana grow tour, cannabis pairing dinners and more stoner fun in Denver
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Did you know Denver’s Seed & Smith offers a grow tour? It’s like a brewery tour, but for weed.
Massachusetts post office manager seized cocaine to sell it himself, sentenced to prison
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One package from Puerto Rico, which Herron had told a supervisor at the post office that he suspected had a “brick of cocaine” in it, according to a postal inspector affidavit, had 271 grams of cocaine in it which Herron sold to a drug dealer for $4,000.
Golden Gloves final sold out for Mike Tyson visit
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LOWELL — The news landed like a thunderous Mike Tyson right hook. Tyson, the youngest heavyweight champion in boxing history, is coming to Lowell.
Ticker: Pot taxes outpace booze in Massachusetts; Weber Grills apologizes for ill-timed meatloaf recipe
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Excise taxes for marijuana sold for adult recreational use exceeded alcohol excise taxes for the first time in Massachusetts, reflecting growing marijuana sales that reached $2.54 billion, according to the Cannabis Control Commission.
Editorial: Keep stoned drivers off the road
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Massachusetts is still riding the fiscal high of legalized marijuana, and Monday’s thumbs-up in the Joint Committee on Cannabis Policy to new legislation shows the Legislature is in no hurry to tap the brakes.
Battenfeld: Maura Healey’s move to the left predictable but clashes with reality
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Attorney General Maura Healey’s completely predictable move to the left is designed to ward off her liberal Democratic challengers but it clashes with reality and may come with a cost in a general election.
Pot cafes could soon be coming to Massachusetts
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“The intent of the initiative that was passed by voters was to allow these, dependent upon the vote of the people of a community,” said Jim Borghesani, spokesperson for the 2016 ballot question to bring recreational marijuana to Massachusetts, and a consultant for the cannabis industry.
Pot cook gets burned: Man seriously injured in Pittsfield hash explosion
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While this is the first such explosion in Pittsfield, local fire Chief Thomas Sammons said he worries about them becoming more common since cannabis was legalized and more people may want to experiment with oil extraction through the means of dangerous flammable liquids and gasses.
Colorado marijuana company to expand into Africa through Tanzanian medical clinics
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A Colorado marijuana company with global ambitions aims to expand into Tanzania, with the goal of eventually breaking into the European market.
Breckenridge Distillery sold to Canadian cannabis company
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Canadian-based cannabis company Tilray purchased the Breckenridge Distillery at the end of 2021.
Colorado sets record with $2.22 billion in marijuana sales last year
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Colorado’s marijuana industry can celebrate 2021 as a record-breaking year with over $2.22 billion in sales. The new milestone follows a trend that’s grown since marijuana sales started in January 2014.
Colorado marijuana companies take a hit from global supply-chain issues
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Colorado’s marijuana companies aren’t immune to the supply chain disruptions testing industries worldwide, with some feeling the squeeze on packaging, nutrients and more.
Colorado offers cannabis entrepreneurs free business education through a new program
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Colorado’s cannabis entrepreneurs can look forward to a new technical assistance program aimed at providing education on business development within the industry.
Denver businesses seek hospitality licenses to let patrons smoke weed
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A Cap Hill mansion-turned-B&B, an existing private club in RiNo and a new addition to South Broadway’s “Green Mile” are the first three businesses to apply for a marijuana hospitality license from the city of Denver.
Colorado’s cannabis industry makes modest gains in minority ownership
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Almost 17% of regulated marijuana business owners in Colorado identify as minorities, according to new data by the Colorado Marijuana Enforcement Division, but one Black entrepreneur contests that there’s much more work to be done.
Police, driving groups back Baker bill to crack down on drugged driving
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With substances like marijuana increasingly playing a role in impaired driving crashes, a string of law enforcement officials and their allies on Tuesday urged lawmakers to expand the tools available to rein in drugged motorists.
Boston pot dealer sentenced for illegal distribution, falsifying taxes
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A 36-year-old Boston man will do time for illegal marijuana dealing and falsifying his taxes after failing to pay more than $150,000 in income taxes.
Stay high-drated: Cannabis compounds can blunt COVID-19 infection, researchers find
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New research showing cannabis compounds could blunt the virus that causes COVID-19 can really toke one’s breath away.
Roy: Time to enforce drugged-driving laws
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In 2016, Massachusetts became the first state east of the Mississippi River to legalize adult-use cannabis. Five years later, we have fallen asleep at the wheel when it comes to updating the state’s ineffective OUI laws against drugged driving.
Drinkable weed: The newest trend in craft brews
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DENVER — Inside a small garage near Golden is another potential budding American success story.
Can certified ‘Ganjiers’ do for cannabis what sommeliers do for wine? Program aims to find out
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“We’re creating an entirely new class of cannabis professional. Something that doesn’t exist in the industry today, to be a voice for true quality.” Derek Gilman
Three in four California cannabis companies aren’t licensed; $100 million might help
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“I don’t see any reason why we wouldn’t have our annuals by now. We’ve filled out all the forms. We’ve done everything.
Yes, there are ‘marijuana mortgages’ for California borrowers
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At least one lender has opened the door to buying, refinancing and pulling cash out if your income comes from the marijuana industry
3 ways to infuse cannabis into your favorite Thanksgiving recipes
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Elevating your dishes means something different when you incorporate this very special ingredient on Thanksgiving.
Editorial: A stoned driver is an impaired driver
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Stoned driving legislation has been a steady companion of sports betting bills on the Massachusetts Legislature’s back burner, where the flame is barely lit.
Medical marijuana laws in Colorado will be more strict starting Jan. 1. Here’s how.
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Colorado will impose stricter rules for the purchase of medical marijuana starting Jan. 1 following several months of deliberation over how to execute a new state law meant largely to limit young people’s access to and abuse of high-potency THC products.
Charlie Baker again pushes stoned driving bill with drugged driving causalities on the rise
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Gov. Charlie Baker, frustrated by lawmakers’ inaction more than five years after the legalization of recreational pot, is making a second attempt to cut down on stoned driving.
Bills filed in state House, Senate would legalize medical marijuana insurance coverage
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Medical marijuana, used to treat everything from chronic pain to Parkinson’s Disease to PTSD, is still not covered by medical insurance, a cost some say is prohibitively expensive to patients who rely on the drug.
Boston pot warehouse proposal slammed by religious, civic leaders
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A group of religious and civic leaders plans to voice their opposition next week to a proposed marijuana warehouse and courier service in Grove Hall, a neighborhood made up predominantly of people of color.
Marie St. Fleur and former prosecutor sue pot company, claiming nonpayment of wages
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A Boston-area pot company that with much aplomb hired former state Rep. Marie St. Fleur and onetime Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Amy McNamee to run its operation apparently has had a spectacular falling out with the pair, who are now suing on allegations that the weed investors didn’t pay them.
Budding business: Weed jobs success story in tight labor market
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Some businesses have trimmed their hours, changed the way they serve customers, or hiked wages and sweetened benefits to entice applicants as the pandemic-influenced job market reshapes itself.
Colorado dispensary offering 1-cent joint deal to voters until Election Day
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Go light up the ballot box then head to Native Roots to get this fire deal.
Boston Marathon bombing survivor on hope, pain and pot
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Thousands of spectators will line Boylston Street in Boston on Monday for the running of the Boston Marathon, just like I did on a sunny afternoon in 2013.
Massachusetts farmers ‘sidelined’ at Worcester dispensary’s farmer’s market say industry equity programs need work
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Farmers who say they have been boxed out of the lucrative cannabis industry due to the high costs of entry were confronted by police as they protested a so-called “Cannabis Farmers Market” event at a Worcester dispensary over the weekend.
Broomfield pauses lottery for marijuana licenses after outcry over application process
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Broomfield has suspended a lottery it was scheduled to hold this month to award three retail marijuana licenses after the county received “considerable feedback” about who was applying and whether they were playing by the rules.
Illegal marijuana farms in Orange County show how toxic danger is spread through national forests
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“It’s a huge public health risk,” says an official dedicated to the environmental cleanup of illicit marijuana operations throughout the state.
Justin Bieber-branded bud comes to Bay State
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If you’ve ever heard Justin Bieber’s song “PEACHES,” you know he gets his peaches out in Georgia, and his weed from California.
Battle for Broomfield’s three marijuana retail licenses spurs accusations, lawsuit
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Twenty six applicants are jostling for one of three spots in a city that until now has banned all cannabis sales.
Aurora reverses itself on pot hospitality measure when second vote comes up short
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Aurora appeared to extinguish the idea this week of being among the first cities in Colorado to allow people to smoke weed in lounges, tasting rooms and buses.
Woman pleads guilty to role in pot delivery business
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BOSTON (AP) — A Massachusetts woman who worked for an unlicensed marijuana delivery company that had millions of dollars in revenue has pleaded guilty, federal prosecutors said Monday.
A month after California created a Department of Cannabis, reforms and challenges take shape
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Director Nicole Elliott and industry stakeholders discuss what’s changed, and what still needs to change, in the biggest legal cannabis market in the world.
Marijuana tourism is evolving in Aurora and Denver with legal tour buses, lounges
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Aurora is eyeing the next — and perhaps final — frontier in the world of legal cannabis in Colorado, giving initial approval this week for smoking lounges, tasting rooms and tour buses.
This weed vape pen may be the only one you’ll ever want, but not the only one you’ll ever need
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The Dart is a low maintenance vape pen that meets high expectations.
As more licenses to grow cannabis are added, illegal growing has also risen in California
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More than 1.11 million illegal plants were seized in 2020.
Method Man brings cannabis line to Colorado just in time for Wu-Tang’s Red Rocks show
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Method Man partnered with a Boulder-based grow to brings Coloradans three strains of flower: Sweet Grease, Free MAC, and Orange Cookie Kush.
Keef Brands launches a cannabinoid-infused water lineup
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In 2010, Erik Knutson set out to create drinkable cannabis, beginning with an early concoction of “Keef Cola.” His official taste-tester?
Oklahoma is the new “Wild West of weed” — and Colorado marijuana entrepreneurs are helping fuel the green rush
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The Sooner State, as deeply red as the American political palette will go, has almost overnight become the hottest place in the country to grow marijuana.
