DEA's big marijuana shift could be a lifeline for California's troubled pot industry

[quaint]

LATimes

If the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration reclassified marijuana as a less dangerous drug, it wouldn’t eliminate the conflicts between the feds and states such as California that have legalized many uses of the substance.

But it would bring one significant shift that could give California’s licensed pot companies a badly needed boost: a lighter tax burden.

But if marijuana is reclassified as a Schedule III drug, “players in that industry for the first time will be able to take standard tax deductions that other businesses take,” said Paul Armentano, deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, also known as NORML, which advocates for cannabis consumer.

"The payments industry only processes legal products, and reclassification does not make cannabis legal,” said Scott Talbot, executive vice president of the Electronic Transactions Assn. “Reclassification moves the needle but doesn’t cross the goal line to making cannabis legal and thus acceptable to banks and the credit and debit card industry.”

Little by little

[brewens]

1. If the weed industry is in any kind of trouble, it sure as shit isn't my fault! LOL I'm doing all I can but

I'm only one stoner dude.

[quaint]

2. Me, too, doing all I can.

And I'm just one very old hippie chick.

[ZonkerHarris]

7. we are the real heroes here. Obviously. puff puff pass

[quaint]

8. 'ere

[stopdiggin]

3. so the real take away here is - - not really.

the legal industry's major problem is, and will continue to be - an enormous illegal culture, burdened by zero oversight, regulation (or taxes). (in fact - a lot of it is grown on land not even owned by the 'grower'

[quaint]

4. Legalization to allow normal banking is actually needed but this will really lower taxes on dispensaries.

Hopefully, it will make legal cannabis more affordable for consumers.
At my age, I have no contact with blackmarket pot.

[stopdiggin]

5. I'll grant that part of the argument

and hold back on my commentary on the intersection of 'legal dispensaries' - and blackmarket product.
Peace.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

[quaint]

6. This is only my third year of not growing my own

Water pricing forced me to the dispensaries. There is no doubt in my mind that a good proportion of legal cannabis has illegal origins. Pot laundering.