Legal

By Mike Davis and James Nash In a New Jersey where recreational marijuana is legal, cannabis could quickly overtake cranberries as the state’s No. 1 cash crop, the centerpiece of a new billion-dollar industry employing thousands. From Jersey City to Atlantic City, residents and tourists — from New York, Pennsylvania …

By Sonia Moghe and Susannah Cullinane New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has told top brass at the city’s police department to stop arresting people who are caught smoking marijuana in public, according to a City Hall aide. Currently, smoking in public can lead to arrest, while possession of …

By Noelle Crombie Federal prosecutors will target the illicit marijuana market, organized crime, outlaw grows and operations that “pose a substantial risk of violence” under new guidelines for cannabis enforcement in Oregon made public Friday. Billy Williams, the U.S. attorney for Oregon, issued the guidelines in response to U.S. Attorney …

By Dara Kam Cathy Jordan credits pot with helping her defeat the odds in the battle against Lou Gehrig’s disease she’s waged for more than 30 years. And although she can now legally obtain the cannabis treatment she’s relied on for decades, Jordan is prohibited from what she and her …

By Martin Kaste On a big-sky plateau on the eastern slope of the Cascades, a 10-acre parcel of land has been trashed by illicit pot farmers. Abandoned equipment rusts and jugs of chemicals molder. Marijuana legalization wasn’t supposed to look like this. Five years into its experiment with legal, regulated …

By Sean Williams The marijuana industry is growing by leaps and bounds in North America. Cannabis research firm ArcView, in partnership with BDS Analytics, found that legal pot sales soared 33% in 2017 to $9.7 billion. A decade from now, ArcView sees North American sales topping an estimated $47 billion. …

By Bailey Rahn When it comes to intellectual property, it appears that the Force is with George Lucas and his formidable legal team. While browsing Leafly, you might be wondering what happened to the widely-cherished Skywalker indica or the heavyweight hybrid Ewok. Unfortunately, they recently went up in smoke in …

By Alicia Wallace A federal appeals court this week dealt a blow to makers of CBD-rich cannabis extracts who were trying to stop the Drug Enforcement Administration from considering their products as dangerous drugs. A panel of judges for the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals shot down the hemp …

By Peter Maguire For decades, Thailand was one of America’s most resolute allies in the war on drugs. After zero tolerance policies left the Kingdom with the highest rate of incarceration in Asia and a methamphetamine (ya ba) epidemic that not even the most draconian measures could stop, Justice Minister …

By Trevor Hughes Seattle prosecutors are seeking to abolish more than 540 convictions against people caught carrying small amounts of pot in the city. A municipal judge is reviewing the convictions with an eye toward clearing offenders’ criminal records, which advocates say have limited their job and housing opportunities. The 542 …