Marijuana entrepreneursroutinely are turned down for bank loans or deposit accountsand have struggled to attract financing from private investors.

But thanks largely to recreational pot’s new legal status in Colorado and Washington and more states approving medical marijuana, checkbooks are opening and investment partnerships are being signed.

Colorado business owners areat the hub of a new national networkthat matches venture capitalists with budding marijuana entrepreneurs.

Colorado marijuana firms at hub of new investment network – The Denver Post.

It is reasonable now to question how much longer it will be before we see injection use of THC — especially as marijuana is legalized.

Older readers will remember the parody PSA on Saturday Night Live around 1976 where Chevy Chase rolls up a doobie, takes off his belt, ties off his arm, and repeatedly stabs the joint at his veins, as Dan Aykroyd intones “Why do you think they call it dope?”

Read more at the Huffington Post.

The two chambers sent to Gov. John Hickenlooper House Bill 1318, sponsored by Rep. Jonathan Singer, D-Longmont, and Sen. Cheri Jahn, D-Wheat Ridge, which asks voters to approve a 15 percent excise tax and a separate 10 percent special sales tax this November. Cannabis will also be subject to a 2.9 percent statewide sales tax and any local taxes that might be imposed.

The governor is also expected to sign House Bill 1317, sponsored by Rep. Dan Pabon, D-Denver, and Jahn and Sen. Randy Baumgardner, R-Cowdrey, as well as Senate Bill 283, sponsored by Jahn and Baumgardner, and Rep. Jenise May, D-Aurora, which together would pioneer rules and regulations for the new industry.

But before passing the historic measures, there was one last dramatic moment — as has been the case throughout the entire long, strange trip that is cannabis regulation. A bipartisan group of senators attempted a last-ditch effort to offer voters a chance to repeal the retail portion of Amendment 64, which voters passed in November to legalize recreational marijuana.

Read more at the Colorado Statesman.

One shop owner tells Bloomberg he’s got to carry a bag holding thousands of dollars in cash to the state’s revenue department in order to remit sales tax payments.

“It highlights the awkward situation we’ve been placed in,” he explains. “We are paying taxes, but despite our best efforts to be good citizens, we’re still paying in cash.”

Since the business can’t open a bank account, it has to operate on a purely cash basis, making it a target for robbery — and just a huge pain in the butt for people keeping the books.

Making matters more complicated, some state and local agencies won’t accept cash payments for required taxes and licensing fees.

Read more at Consumerist.

On the final day of session, the state legislature approved several measures – the most significant being House Bill 1317 – that establish business requirements and set up a framework for this emerging industry. It represents the culmination of months of hard work, long days that turned into longer nights and plenty of back-and-forth as lawmakers and key stakeholders hammered out regulatory proposals. The bills now head to Gov. John Hickenlooper, who has indicated he will sign them. The Colorado Department of Revenue will then work on developing detailed rules by July 1 that fit the overall framework established by lawmakers.

Read the 20 most important business-related aspects of the new regulations for entrepreneurs who hope to enter the adult-use market at Medical Marijuana Business Daily.

But lawmakers arrived at the historic moment more with trepidation than with enthusiasm about the future in a state where anyone over 21 will soon be able to buy marijuana in special retail stores.

“This is a true game-changer for our state,” Sen. Mark Scheffel, R-Parker, said in raising concerns about the impact of marijuana legalization on kids. “And so I think it is important that we do our best to implement the right regulatory environment and fund it.”

Read more at the Denver Post.

Backers of Amendment 64 released a memo today prepared by Ed Ramey of Heizer Paul Grueskin LLP which states in no uncertain terms that the proposed repeal of A64 would be invalid under the state constitution:

[T]he submission of the second component of the proposed amendment — the constitutional repeal of the entirety of Colo. Const. art. XVII, sec. 16 [Amendment 64] — would be unconstitutional and invalid under Colo. Const. art. XIX, sec. 2 [regarding the submission by the General Assembly of proposed amendments to the Colorado Constitution].”
The repeal effort stems from the fact that Colorado voters would be asked to weigh in on two additional 15 percent tax proposals — state lawmakers are currently debating the regulatory structure of the recreational marijuana industry in Colorado as well as the tax rates that will be used to support it in House Bills 1317 (regulatory framework) and 1318 (taxes) which seeks a 15 percent excise tax as well as a 15 percent special sales tax.

via Amendment 64 Repeal Unconstitutional, Top Election Law Firm Says Of Colorados Recreational Marijuana Law.

via States Can Legalize Marijuana (Though Federal Laws Stand), Says Congressional Research Service – Hit & Run : Reason.com.

“All stakeholders share an interest in creating efficient and effective regulations that provide for the responsible development of the new marijuana laws,” said the four-page order signed on Dec. 10. “As such, there is a need to create a task force through which we can coordinate and create a regulatory structure that promotes the health and safety of the people of Colorado.”

It was a hell of a historic mission, and it didn’t wrap up until task force members sent their report to a legislative committee in March. Among other items, the group recommended the “adult-use marijuana industry be required to have common ownership from seed to sale,” meaning retail-store owners would also grow most of their own product, as with medical marijuana; that purchases by out-of-state residents be allowed, but that state residency be mandatory for store owners; and that the only products sold in the stores be of a cannabis nature, i.e., no feeding the munchies with regular popcorn. (You can read the full report at tinyurl.com/taskforce64.)

Via phone at different times over the past couple of weeks, we’ve spoken with a number of task force members, including Christian Sederberg, with the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol; Colorado Counties, Inc.’s Eric Bergman; the Colorado Municipal League’s Kevin Bommer; Ron Kammerzell, the acting executive-director of the state Department of Revenue’s enforcement division; University of Denver law professor Sam Kamin; Meg Sanders of Gaia Plant-Based Medicine; and Craig Small, the secretary of Colorado’s chapter of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. Here’s how they remember their service.

via Talking shop with members of the governors marijuana task force | ReLeaf | Colorado Springs Independent.

In November, Colorado and Washington legalized marijuana use, and since then multiple states have begun to look at decriminalization and legalization efforts with momentum that the movement has never seen before. 

While the movement to reform drug policy is comprised of thousands of activists and donors, several individuals have been leading the fight to pass new laws and ballot initiatives that legalize pot. 

We spoke to several people in the reform movement, and these five individuals came up as some of the most influential in the marijuana reform movement: 

via Five People Who Are Bringing Legal Marijuana To America – Business Insider.