SACRAMENTO — California could become the first state with its own prescription drug label under a proposal that Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled Thursday in a bid to lower prices by increasing competition in the generic market. Newsom wants the nation's most populous state, home to nearly 40 million people, to...
California Boosts Pot Taxes, Shocking Unsteady Industry
LOS ANGELES — California is increasing business tax rates on legal marijuana, a move that stunned struggling companies that have been pleading with the state to do just the opposite. Hefty marijuana taxes that can approach 50 percent in some communities have been blamed for pushing shoppers into California’s tax-free...
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...
Dispute Over Rules Riles California’s Legal Pot Market
LOS ANGELES — California has finalized its rules governing the nation's largest legal marijuana market, a milestone coming more than a year after the state broadly legalized cannabis sales for adults. But a dispute over home deliveries into communities that ban pot sales could end up in court. And the...
Physicians Criticize State Lawsuits Over Pelvic Mesh
SEATTLE — Doctors who specialize in female pelvic medicine say lawsuits by four states, including Washington and California, over products used to treat pelvic floor disorders and incontinence might scare patients away from the best treatment options — or maybe even push the products off the market. Sixty-three Washington surgeons signed...
With OK from Congress, US Hemp Market Set to Boom
PORTLAND, Ore. — Hemp is about to get the nod from the federal government that marijuana, its cannabis plant cousin, craves. A provision of the farm bill that received final approval in Congress on Wednesday removes hemp from the list of federally controlled substances and treats the low-THC version of...
It's High Times for Soaring Marijuana Stocks on Wall Street
NEW YORK — Reefer Madness has gripped Wall Street. Investors are craving marijuana stocks as Canada prepares to legalize pot next month, leading to giant gains for Canada-based companies listed on U.S. exchanges. Some experts are concerned that the ending will be a buzzkill. Billions of dollars have poured into...