If Seattle really wants to cripple the downtown marijuana black market, the city has to figure out a way to open a marijuana store either in Pike Place Market or very nearby. That’s where the tourists are; that’s who’s mostly buying off the streets in that area.

A Lakeland company behind Colorado’s tracking system for marijuana plants has accused a competitor of deceptive business practices.

Lawyers for Franwell say BioTrackTHC, based in Ft. Lauderdale, lies in publicity material and lies about Franwell in the media and communications to state regulators.

The purpose, according to documents filed by Franwell in federal court May 11, is to interfere with the Lakeland company’s $1.5 million Colorado contract and to sway officials to choose BioTrack for a competitive contract in Jamaica.

In Miller/Coors Sings the Blues over Craft Beer Lawsuit, All About Advertising Law discusses a recent deceptive advertising lawsuit against Miller/Coors. The lawsuit alleges Miller/Coors seeks to mislead the public into believing that its Blue Moon beer is a “craft” beer, in part through its intentional omission of the Miller/Coors name from product labels. The article discusses how the “alcohol industry has been a prime target” for such lawsuits, noting cases against Tito’s Handmade Vodka, Maker’s Mark, Jim Beam and Templeton Rye.

Take a journey through time in the US from the 1600s when hemp production was encouraged through to the 1930s when the Federal Bureau of Narcotics was created, and the ensuing period of Reefer Madness, up until 1996 and legalized medical marijuana in California.

Texas marijuana reform activists are busy balancing a small victory with the passage of a limited medical marijuana bill with major shortcomings in the law, which allows the use of Cannabidiol oils for the treatment of seizures.

First off, the law doesn't allow the use of whole-plant marijuana. Cannabidiol oil, or CBD oil, is a derivative of marijuana that doesn't cause euphoria. Medical marijuana proponents say whole-plant marijuana treats a wide array of illnesses and ailments and that the plant is more effective as a whole.

But there's another problem — a legal problem.

Home-brewing could soon take on a more dangerous twist: Scientists have engineered brewer's yeast to synthesize opioids such as codeine and morphine from a common sugar, an international team reported on Monday.

"It is going to be possible to 'home-brew' opiates in the near future," Christopher Voight of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who was not involved in the research, told reporters.

The process described in Nature Chemical Biology is inefficient, requiring 300 liters of genetically engineered yeast to produce a single 30 milligram dose of morphine.

But with improvements that are well within reach, that dose could be obtained from "a glass of yeast culture grown with sugar on a windowsill," Voight said.

The Interview

“Where do you see yourself in five years?” Cue blank stare and mild internal panic. This is possibly the most cliché question to be asked in a modern day job interview, but a question nevertheless, that I have not once been able to answer honestly as a young professional seeking to be in the cannabis industry.

A new business accelerator is helping startups find their way in the new legal pot market. Canopy, a Boulder-based incubator for pot entrepreneurs, is the first of its kind. As Barry Petersen reports, even the business of marijuana can use a boost from some seed money.

Weed-on-demand: Things are always great on demand. Humans have an insatiable appetite for efficiency. They want things, and they want them now. It's the reason Netflix has done so well. You want to watch a movie, great. In fact you can watch as many as you like - or as many as the ones we have on offer, for a reasonable monthly subscription fee. Ideal. 

In 2005 the music industry was busy talking about the idea of consuming media like water. Or to put it simply, paying for music like you would pay your gas or electricity bills. As if music or media was a household utility.

A Chicago company announced Monday it has withdrawn the first lawsuit against the state challenging the way officials dispensed medical marijuana business licenses.

PM Rx LLC said in a statement it has agreed to dismiss all its claims against the state and a rival company, Cresco Labs. Cresco had won a permit to grow medical marijuana in a state police district that covers Ford, Iroquois and Kankakee counties, but PM Rx challenged the way the Department of Agriculture issued permits.