24 Mar Top Stories From The Edge – Week of March 20th

A Weekly Roundup of Stories We Found Interesting – From The Profound To The Profane

Fine Dining and High Style Merchandising
Don’t get me wrong, I am into good food and all, but “cannabis flowers paired with sips of a crisp Russian River chardonnay”, and “marijuana wrapped in gold foil for $700 an ounce”. They are all about cannabis for the top 1 percent. I guess smoking a doobie in your snowy backyard won’t make it in the New York Times.

My Life Selling Weed
A lovely personal story from a fine writer on living with depression, and working at a pot shop where she meets people with a similar affliction. The piece carries a sense of melancholy and doesn’t have the expected uplifting ending.

Strict Regulations Snuff the Lives Out of Detroit’s Medical Marijuana Centers
New zoning rules and regulations allow the city to shut down marijuana shops failing to seek compliance with ordinances or dispensing medical marijuana in unapproved zones. 136 shops have closed down, with more to come.

Decontaminate Soil with Cannabis
Farmers in Tranato, Italy are growing weeds to pull toxins off their field that have found their way into the food chain. The process is known as Phytoremediation, and it has been used in the mother of all polluted sites – Chernobyl.

Legalizing Weed: Uruguay, A Case Study
Uruguay legalized marijuana in December 2013. The government regulated everything from pricing to retail outlets. After 3 years of experimentation, these policies created some odd market dynamics, where citizens still prefer buying marijuana through the black market.

Get A Bookkeeper
According to a published report, thirteen California marijuana dispensaries owe more than $12 million in unpaid state taxes. Remember, this has been traditionally an underground cash based industry. Bookkeeping is just not one of their skill sets.

Spicer Spoke, and Sank Cruise Trip
Someone got a bright idea of chartering a cruise liner for a marijuana cruise trip. The entrepreneur lined up enough investors to finance a $7.5 million venture. When Spicer spoke of “greater enforcement” of the marijuana industry without elaboration, the entire enterprise fell apart.

Nevil Schoenmakers: From Fugitive to Biotech Adviser
Here is a life worth living. This is a must read for anyone who does not know the legendary cannabis breeder. And for anyone who are familiar with Schoenmakers’ colorful life, you will still find his recent success at Stem Cell United inspiring.

Stephen Colbert on Sessions and Weed
We will end this week news summary with Colbert. However infuriating Sessions’ comment was, it’s always good to go into the weekend with a smile.