myway.com: “The District of Columbia defied threats from Congress and moved forward Thursday with legalizing possession of marijuana after a voter-approved initiative. Despite last-minute maneuvers by Republican leaders in Congress and threats that city leaders could face prison time, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said the city was implementing marijuana legalization as approved by voters. The new law took effect at 12:01 a.m.”
Associated Press: “a federal lawsuit is being filed on behalf of two Colorado citizens by a Washington D.C.-based group to shut down the state’s $800-million-a-year marijuana industry early Thursday, Feb. 19, 2015, in Denver. The lawsuit is being sponsored by a group called the Safe Streets Alliance, which is based in the nation’s capital and opposes marijuana legalization. . . . The owners of a mountain hotel and a southern Colorado horse farm argue in a pair of lawsuits filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Denver that the 2012 marijuana-legalization measure has hurt their property and that the marijuana industry is stinky and attracts unsavory visitors.”
Washington Post: “The District of Columbia could soon earn a new nickname: the Wild West of marijuana. In 10 days, a voter-approved initiative to legalize marijuana will take effect, D.C. officials say. Residents and visitors old enough to drink a beer will be able to possess enough pot to roll 100 joints. They will be able to carry it, share it, smoke it and grow it. But it’s entirely unclear how anyone will obtain it. Unlike the four states where voters have approved recreational pot use, the District government has been barred from establishing rules governing how marijuana will be sold. It was prohibited from doing so by Congress, which has jurisdiction over the city.”
Above the Law: “In addition to their many other challenges, cannabis businesses must also contend with punitive federal tax rules. In 1982, Congress enacted Section 280E of the Tax Code as a way to punish drug traffickers. . . . . IRC 280E negatively impacts just about all marijuana businesses.”
NBC News: “Weed history is being made in Seattle: the first vending machines to dispense marijuana flower buds debuted Tuesday. The machines, called ZaZZZ, are being placed in medical pot dispensaries, which helps to verify customer’s age and identity since medical marijuana cards are required to enter the centers, said Greg Patrick, a spokesman for the maker of ZaZZZ, American Green. Though vending machines appeared for the first time in Colorado last year, those sold only edibles, or cannabis-infused foods, and not the plant’s flower buds that are so often associated with smoking pot.”