Tag Archives: MerryJane.com

Last week, Horizons ETF Management launched the first medical marijuana exchange-traded fund ever to be approved by stock market regulators. The Medical Marijuana Life Sciences ETF is an investment fund that tracks companies involved with medical marijuana bioengineering, while avoiding any companies that are connected to recreational use.

The fund has seen immediate popularity, with an average daily trading volume of over a million shares. In the first four sessions since its launch, the fund rose a total of 17.8% in value, and has now amassed over $28 million in assets.

Colorado legislators have been busy passing new laws to control the growing marijuana black market in their state. When Colorado legalized recreational weed in 2012, they allowed each individual to grow up to 99 cannabis plants, or to assist someone else in growing them, a freedom that some have exploited to grow extra pot for the black market.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau first revealed his desire to bring down the scourge of marijuana prohibition in the northern nation nearly a year ago.

While cannabis has been proven to be medically beneficial in a number of ways, the most recent advantage to emerge is in the looming fight against prescription pill abuse. There have been a handful of studies that show marijuana is a viable treatment for opioid addicts, so much so that it's even convinced the most conservative states to spearhead medical reform. 

Recent findings also show that cannabis has value by replacing other highly addictive prescription pills such as popular benzodiazepine tranquilizers. Canabo Medical Inc., the largest owner of medical marijuana referral clinics in Canada, has partnered with external medical

Payment processing companies like PayPal, Square, and Stripe have been purging marijuana-related companies since the beginning of the year. The purge seems to be in response to Attorney General Jeff Sessions' most recent threat of cracking down on the legal marijuana industry. Canna-biz startups ranging from vape pen manufacturers to marijuana business software companies are now forced to scramble to find new methods of handling their payments.

Boston-based startup Ardent, manufacturer of a federally legal decarboxylator used to make marijuana edibles, was bounced from at least seven different payment processors.

Oregon’s recreational cannabis system has had an enormous impact on the local economy. While lawmakers valiantly attempt to shield their booming market from federal law enforcement, there are some things that just can’t be protected against so long as marijuana remains classified as a Schedule 1 drug.

One of those disadvantages is trouble securing loans from financial institutions. Since cannabis remains illegal under federal law, marijuana-related businesses have been shunned from most federally-regulated banks and credit unions.

Last week, America had all eyes glued on the FBI’s probe into Donald Trump’s increasingly sketchy ties with the Russian government. But a slew of new controversy has flooded the administration since, from the Republicans’ decision to go "nuclear" in order to confirm Supreme Justice Neil Gorsuch, to the frightening possibility of a new war in the Middle East. There’s been an increasing amount hypocrisy brewing in both the White House and Senate, creating an air of uncertainty across the country.

If you’ve ever walked into a CVS or Rite Aid and wished that you could add a gram or two of ganja to your munchies and carpet cleaner purchase, you’re not alone. You also might want to consider packing your bags and moving to Uruguay.

Jeff Sessions is at it again.  The Attorney General with a hard-on for the War on Drugs set up the “Department's Task Force on Crime Reduction and Public Safety (the Task Force)” at the end of last month, and now thanks to a memo from Sessions to 94 US Attorneys, we know that the task force will make recommendations to Sessions and the Trump administration about how to deal with violent crime and marijuana policy. 

The memo, sent Wednesday reads:

“The Violent Crime Reduction Strategy

Three years ago, FBI Director James Comey revealed that the popularity of marijuana was making it more difficult for the agency to recruit hackers for its cyber crime division because many supremely qualified applicants are habitual marijuana users.

“I have to hire a great workforce to compete with those cyber criminals, and some of those kids want to smoke weed on the way to the interview,” Comey said in 2014.

Although some believed this problem signaled a forthcoming change to the FBI’s no tolerance pot policy, a recent article from the Associated Press shows that while more relaxed