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U.S. NEWS Friday 28 december 2018
Legal marijuana industry toasts banner year

From Front software for marijuana re- “Attitudes have been rap-
tailers and businesses. idly evolving and chang-
By GILLIAN FLACCUS Curren’s firm is one of many ing. I know that my at-
Associated Press that blossomed as the in- titude toward it has also
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The dustry grew. He started changed,” said Nebraska
last year was a 12-month the company in 2014 with state Sen. Adam Morfeld,
champagne toast for the two friends. Now, he has 85 a Democrat. “Seeing the
legal marijuana industry as employees, and the com- medical benefits and see-
the global market explod- pany’s software processes ing other states implement
ed and cannabis pushed $2.5 billion in sales transac- it ... has convinced me that
its way further into the fi- tions a year for more than it’s not the dangerous drug
nancial and cultural main- 1,000 U.S. retail stores and it’s made out to be.”
stream. dispensaries. With all its success, the U.S.
Liberal California became Green Bits raised $17 mil- marijuana industry contin-
the largest legal U.S. mar- lion in April, pulling in mon- ues to be undercut by a
ketplace, conservative ey from investment firms In this July 12, 2018, file photo head grower Mark Vlahos, of robust black market and
Utah and Oklahoma em- including Snoop Dogg’s Milford, Mass., tends to cannabis plants, at Sira Naturals medical federal law that treats mar-
braced medical marijua- Casa Verde Capital. Cur- marijuana cultivation facility, in Milford, Mass. ijuana as a controlled sub-
na, and the U.S. East Coast ren hopes to expand inter- Associated Press stance like heroin. Financial
got its first commercial pot nationally by 2020. in November in Massachu- braska shares a border with institutions are skittish about
shops. Canada ushered “A lot of the problem is setts. Colorado, one of the first cannabis businesses, even
in broad legalization, and keeping up with growth,” State lawmakers in Ne- two states to legalize rec- in U.S. states where they are
Mexico’s Supreme Court he said. braska just formed a cam- reational marijuana, and legal, and investors until re-
set the stage for that coun- Legal marijuana was a paign committee to put a Iowa, which recently start- cently have been reluctant
try to follow. $10.4 billion industry in the medical cannabis initia- ed a limited medical mari- to put their money behind
U.S. drug regulators ap- U.S. in 2018 with a quarter- tive to voters in 2020. Ne- juana program. pot.q
proved the first marijuana- million jobs devoted just to
based pharmaceutical to the handling of marijuana
treat kids with a form of epi- plants, said Beau Whitney,
lepsy, and billions of invest- vice president and senior
ment dollars poured into economist at New Frontier
cannabis companies. Even Data, a leading cannabis
main street brands like Co- market research and data
ca-Cola said they are con- analysis firm. There are
sidering joining the party. “I many other jobs that don’t
have been working on this involve direct work with the
for decades, and this was plants, but they are harder
the year that the move- to quantify, Whitney said.
ment crested ,” said U.S. Investors poured $10 bil-
Rep. Earl Blumenauer, an lion into cannabis in North
Oregon Democrat working America in 2018, twice
to overturn the federal ban what was invested in the
on pot. “It’s clear that this is last three years combined,
all coming to a head.” he said, and the combined
With buzz building across North American market is
the globe, the momentum expected to reach more
will continue into 2019. than $16 billion in 2019.
Luxembourg is poised to Increasingly, U.S. lawmak-
become the first European ers see that success and
country to legalize rec- want it for their states.
reational marijuana, and Nearly two-thirds of U.S.
South Africa is moving in states now have legalized
that direction. Israel’s Par- some form of medical mar-
liament approved a law ijuana.
allowing exports of medi- Voters in November made
cal marijuana. Thailand Michigan the 10th state
legalized medicinal use — and first in the Midwest
of marijuana, and other — to legalize recreational
Southeastern Asian coun- marijuana. Governors in
tries may follow South Ko- New York and New Jersey
rea’s lead in legalizing can- are pushing for a similar
nabidiol, or CBD. It’s a non- law in their states next year,
psychoactive compound and momentum for broad
found in marijuana and legalization is building in
hemp plants and used for Pennsylvania and Illinois.
treatment of certain medi- “Let’s legalize the adult use
cal problems. of recreational marijuana
“It’s not just the U.S. now. once and for all,” New York
It’s spreading,” said Ben Gov. Andrew Cuomo said
Curren, CEO of Green Bits, last week.
a San Jose, California, The East Coast’s first recre-
company that develops ational pot shops opened