Regulation of Montana's booming medical marijuana industry teetered on the brink of collapse amid intense bargaining Wednesday by lawmakers seeking a bipartisan compromise.
By a vote of 105-29, the Maryland House of Delegates passed HB 291 today, a bill that would create an 18-member panel to advise the legislature on the best way to create a medical marijuana program in 2012.
Los Angeles city officials have widened their campaign against illegal medical marijuana dispensaries, warning an additional 60 stores that they must shut down immediately.
California's second largest city is considering regulating its more than 80 medical marijuana clinics caught in a legal cloud that some say has left the dispensaries vulnerable to raids and arrests.
When federal agents led a raid on medical marijuana businesses in Montana last week, questions were raised as to whether these businesses were raided because they were suspected of selling out of the proverbial back door to people without medical marijuana permits–or whether they were raided simply for being medical marijuana businesses.
On Thursday, The American Independent reported on an IRS action that could send shockwaves through the medical marijuana industry — even destroy it completely.
Federal regulators ignited a firestorm of controversy recently when they ordered banks located in the North Coast area of California to spy on transactions of customers who are suspected of making money in the marijuana business.
Most registered voters in Montana prefer stricter regulations concerning medical marijuana rather than repealing the 2004 voter-approved initiative that made medicinal marijuana use legal, according to a poll by the Lee Enterprises Capitol Bureau that was released Sunday.