SACRAMENTO — A death related to the use of e-cigarettes was confirmed in Tulare County on Monday. On the same day, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced California will spend $20 million on a public awareness campaign about the dangers of vaping nicotine and cannabis products and step up efforts to halt the sale...
Fresno Considers Ambitious Downtown Project. Neighbor Not So Sure.
Developer Terance Frazier's long-envisioned downtown Fresno entertainment and housing venture will be presented to the city's planning commission for approval Wednesday (Sept. 18). Listen to this article: The H Street Development is slated to include restaurants, bars, and other entertainment venues, such as a music stage and a bowling...
Program to Erase Old Pot Charges Aids 58 California Counties
SACRAMENTO — Every California county prosecutor can now use new technology to erase or reduce an estimated 220,000 old marijuana convictions after voters broadly legalized the drug in 2016. Code for America, a San Francisco-based nonprofit tech organization, announced Thursday it is making its computer algorithms available for free to...
'This Ain't Your Mother's Marijuana," Surgeon General Says
WASHINGTON — Federal health officials issued a national warning Thursday against marijuana use by adolescents and pregnant women, as more states legalize the increasingly potent drug for medicinal and recreational use. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Surgeon General Jerome Adams made the announcement, with Azar calling marijuana "a dangerous drug." Officials said President Donald Trump...
How Much Pot in That Brownie? Chocolate Can Throw off Tests
How much marijuana is really in that pot brownie? Chocolate can throw off potency tests so labels aren't always accurate, and now scientists are trying to figure out why. In states where marijuana is legal, pot comes in cookies, mints, gummies, protein bars — even pretzels. These commercial products are...
How Much Pot in That Brownie? Chocolate Can Throw off Tests
How much marijuana is really in that pot brownie? Chocolate can throw off potency tests so labels aren't always accurate, and now scientists are trying to figure out why. In states where marijuana is legal, pot comes in cookies, mints, gummies, protein bars — even pretzels. These commercial products are...
Weedmaps to Stop Advertising Unlicensed Pot Businesses
LOS ANGELES — The major online pot shop directory and cannabis marketplace Weedmaps announced Wednesday that it will no longer allow black-market businesses to advertise on its site, a decision that could boost California's efforts to rein in its vast illegal market. State regulators and licensed businesses had been pressuring...
Hidden in Plain Sight: California Illegal Pot Market Booming
LOS ANGELES — California's struggling legal cannabis industry is expected to grow this year to $3.1 billion, but it remains outmatched by a thriving illegal market ripe with bargains, a report concluded Thursday. Consumers are spending roughly $3 in the state's underground pot economy for every $1 in the legal...
Let’s Be Blunt: Cannabis Consumers Need Protection
California boasts the strongest “lemon laws” in the country. Another law helps Californians make decisions about avoiding chemicals that could cause cancer or birth defects. A third law requires manufacturers of cleaning products to disclose ingredients. Now the California Legislature should get serious about protecting cannabis consumers from potentially serious public...
California's Legal Marijuana Watchdogs Are Stressed Out
The agency overseeing California's legal marijuana market has been overmatched by the job and is struggling to hire sufficient staff and set an overall strategy for the nation's largest cannabis economy, an audit found. About two-thirds of the 219 staff positions authorized for the Bureau of Cannabis Control remain unfilled,...