It seems that whenever a new recreational cannabis market rolls out, reports of exaggerated lines, product shortages, and store closures never seem to be far behind.

Residents in small towns hate the smell of marijuana, so they’re calling upon the Nasal Rangers to save them.

States with legal marijuana states struggle with illegal weed. This may seem paradoxical—how can something be illicit if it’s legal and regulated by the state?—but many longtime cannabis consumers want to avoid high taxes and fees associated with legal marijuana. That’s why they still buy weed from black market: it’s cheaper and there’s little to no consequence if a cop finds them in possession of marijuana. Last year, the Associated Press reported that 80% of all California marijuana deals still occur “under the table.”

Cannabis vape sales tumbled 26 per cent in the two months following the health crisis that has killed dozens and sickened thousands, according to new industry research.

Legal sales peaked at a combined US$160 million in August in the states of California, Colorado, Oregon, Nevada and Arizona, according to a report from BDS Analytics and Arcview Market Research.

As reports of vaping illnesses grew and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention disclosed the first deaths related to the practice, sales slumped to US$126 million in September and US$119 million in October. This was significant for the legal cannabis market as a whole, where vapes accounted for approximately 25 per cent of total sales in the first three quarters of 2019.

The effort to get banking access for legal cannabis businesses seems to have lost the wind in its sails for a moment, and while we wait for a new breeze in Congress, a wave of crime is targeting the legal cannabis industry’s fat stacks of cash.

Passengers in the state of California will soon be banned from smoking cannabis in any moving vehicle, although drinking alcohol is still A-OK.

Although passengers in standard moving vehicles like cars, trucks and vans were already prohibited from toking at the wheel, there were exceptions for vehicles like taxis, limos, campers, residential vehicles, pedicabs and party buses.

But now legislators have opted to put an end to the exemption for passengers of the aforementioned vehicles, despite its legal status in the state having rendered it a popular party drug for Californians.

Would you be willing to pony up for pot potency?

Analysts in California’s beleaguered cannabis industry have proposed making consumers do just that by getting rid of the state’s bizarre patchwork tax system and replacing it with one tied to the strength of the strain.

Made by California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office, the proposal would wipe out the current taxation system, including a 15 percent levy that all consumers pay at the counter, and replace it with a tiered system.

After having avoided an increase in state taxes on legal marijuana, California officials changed course Thursday and announced MJ excise and cultivation taxes will go up effective Jan. 1.

High state and local tax rates have been an industry problem that have made legal businesses less competitive with the illicit market: Unlicensed retailers can lure customers with lower prices, since rogue shops don’t pay any taxes.