Month: March 2014

Cannabis Advocates Seek Natural Product Industry Expertise

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by Sandy Almendarez, Natural Products INSIDER

While the botanical has been popular in the United States for centuries, January 2014 saw a bump in cannabis discussion with New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announcing that the state will be the 22nd state to offer medical marijuana to select patients. Plus, Colorado’s Amendment 64 was implemented allowing adults (21 years and older) to grow, possess and use marijuana. At the end of February, business was clearly booming in Colorado. Gov. John W. Hickenlooper revamped his budget based on taxes the state has already collected from marijuana sales. He estimated the state’s marijuana industry could produce close to USD $134 million in taxes and fees for the State in the next fiscal year. The estimate proposed to voters when the initiative was on the ballot in 2013 was $70 million.

And The New York Times reported in Washington, where retail sales of marijuana will begin in June, budget forecasters estimated marijuana could bring the state nearly $190 million in taxes for the four years beginning in mid 2015.

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Seattle Medical Marijuana Dispensary is First in Washington State to Achieve National Certification

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Seattle, WA — The first medical marijuana dispensary in Washington State was certified today under a recently launched nationwide program that verifies the quality and reliability of products sold at licensed medical marijuana businesses. Today’s certificate awarded to Dockside Co-op of Seattle is based on the Patient Focused Certification (PFC) program, a project of Americans for Safe Access (ASA) and the only nonprofit, third-party certification for the medical marijuana industry based on new quality standards issued by the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) and the American Herbal Pharmacopeia (AHP).

“In the face of failure by state legislators to develop sensible dispensary regulations in Washington State, the Patient Focused Certification program encourages the industry to adhere to important safety and quality standards,” said Maria Moses, Co-founder and Director at Dockside Co-op, which has been located in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle for more than 3 years. “This program gives the industry a baseline to affirm what we’re doing right and to improve upon the service we provide to patients.”

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