Featured guests: Tradiv director of government affairs Jonathan Teeters and Cannabist account executive Shuang Han.
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LOTS TO TALK ABOUT
• The War on Drugs disproportionately affected minorities for decades. Now, many of these minorities are shut out from working in the legal marijuana industry. How did we find ourselves here?
• Every 25 seconds someone gets handcuffed for drug possession, according to the ACLU, most of them in communities of color or economically depressed communities. Why are we still seeing these trends?
• The big, complicated business of cannabis advertising.
TOP MARIJUANA NEWS
A casino magnate’s spending millions against pot. Who else is donating on both sides of legalization campaigns? With five states voting on marijuana legalization next month, this is a pivotal year for marijuana policy no matter which way the contests turn out. Businesses, interest groups and individuals have spent roughly $40 million dollars so far this year to support or oppose the measures on the November ballots, according to a Washington Post analysis of campaign finance records from the five states and Ballotpedia. –Report by The Washington Post’s Christopher Ingraham
Supporters of California’s Proposition 64 raised 15 times more money than opponents: High-profile Republicans and Democrats, health professionals and educators, law enforcement and religious leaders continue to come down on both sides of the controversial issue. Take a look at who’s supporting Prop. 64, who’s fighting it and some of the key reasons they’re giving for their positions. –Report The Orange County Register’s Brooke Edwards Staggs
QUICK HIT
How Colorado became the planet’s top mentor in legalizing and regulating cannabis: Since Jan. 1, 2014, Colorado has served as a laboratory of democracy. Colorado’s government was the first on Earth to allow legal sales of marijuana to adults for recreational use, and plenty of eyes from outside its borders have closely observed this experiment unfold. “The world is watching,” said Ashley Kilroy, Denver’s executive director of marijuana policy, “and we in Denver are going to get it right.” And the world is visiting. –Report by The Cannabist’s Alicia Wallace
POT QUIZ
Test your current-events knowledge on Denver’s social cannabis use measure (a.k.a. Initiative 300), an automotive retailer just saying “no,” a former big-city mayor getting busted for pot possession and more.
