Cannabist Show: He’s a journalist turned pot-PR pro; He’s a comedian and cannabis cooking show judge

Featured guests: Los Angeles-based comedian Allen Strickland Williams and Grasslands founder Ricardo Baca.

LOTS TO TALK ABOUT

•  Leaving a legacy business to start anew in the marijuana industry.

•  Comedy in the cannabis age, and the pros and cons of performing while high — to a high audience.

•  Crafting the creative process with cannabis: How artists find inspiration.

TOP MARIJUANA NEWS

Florida Health Dept. bans sale of whole-flower vaporizer cup: Florida’s Department of Health has ordered a Quincy-based dispensary to quit selling a medical cannabis product that could potentially be broken down and made into pot that can be smoked. Trulieve began selling its first whole-flower cannabis product meant for vaping last week at five retail dispensaries and through home delivery. The buds in the Entourage Multi Indica vaporizer cup, however, could also be used in joints, pipes or bongs. –Report by The Associated Press’ Joe Reedy

NASCAR nixes weed company logo from driver’s car: Carl Long was forced to strip the logo of a Colorado-based marijuana vaping company from his car after NASCAR said it violated rules governing sponsorship and paint schemes. The logo for Colorado-based Veedverks was plastered on Long’s green and yellow No. 66 for tech inspection, but a NASCAR spokesman said it was never vetted and approved. And when officials learned of the hood logo, they had crew members remove it before the car went to the track. –Report by The Associated Press

Philly mayor continues to advocate legal weed, calling for sales at state liquor stores: Philadelphia mayor Jim Kenney says recreational marijuana use should be legal in Pennsylvania and says the best place for it to be sold is state-run liquor stores. He tells WHYY’s “Radio Times” Pennsylvania has the “perfect system to set up the legal recreational use” of marijuana through its controlled state stores. He adds it would allow the state to “capture all the income that is going to the underground.” –Report by The Associated Press

Iowa considers sourcing medical marijuana from Minnesota despite fed interstate transport ban: Top state lawmakers are trying to work out a system allowing Iowa residents to start buying medical marijuana oils and pills in Minnesota, a novel arrangement that could raise issues with the federal government. Iowa could join more than two dozen states with medical marijuana programs under a bill awaiting Gov. Terry Branstad’s signature. That legislation would expand a limited 2014 law, allowing more patients to buy the low-dose medication from in-state dispensaries by December 2018. But in the meantime, Iowa residents could look to Minnesota. –Report by The Associated Press’ Kyle Potter and Linley Sanders

QUICK HIT

Federal bills from Colorado legislators seek to shield state marijuana laws, open banking: Colorado federal lawmakers this week amplified efforts to protect state-enacted marijuana laws and cannabis businesses.

Reps. Diana DeGette and Mike Coffman on Thursday introduced the Respect States’ and Citizens’ Rights Act of 2017, which would add a provision to the Controlled Substances Act that would prevent federal preemption of state law. A day earlier, Colorado’s two senators threw their support behind banking legislation for the marijuana industry.

DeGette, a Democrat, and Coffman, a Republican, said in interviews Thursday that they resurrected their legislation — it previously was introduced in 2012, 2013 and 2015 — because of the saber-rattling that’s coming from the new administration around drugs, crime and marijuana enforcement. –Report by The Cannabist’s Alicia Wallace

POT QUIZ

Test your current-events knowledge about pop stars quitting cannabis, a requested court injunction on Maryland’s marijuana industry, what’s up with the International Church of Cannabis and more.